First and foremost, welcome to FABO. Bunch of great people here and lots of help to be had.
...20 years later I'm hopefully going to get another Mopar, but it seems like I may have been priced out of the market. Oh the regrets I have!
I felt the same way for a long time. The two best things I can tell you are be patient and keep your nose to the ground. Because...
There are still deals to be had and I hope you find one !
This is absolutely correct. I keep finding them myself and
can't say no. If I had a wife, she'd kill me... I'm up to six cars and negotiating #7.
I doubt there's any affordable B or E bodies. Non-numbers matching is fine.
Two weeks ago I bought a 1971 Challenger, 318/3-speed AC car. The underhood AC system is 100% complete and the car is
solid. It needs a lot but it's all there, including intact frame rails, T-bar crossmember, and
trunk extensions (!). What's the going rate for solid V8/manual-trans 1970-'71 E-bodies these days? Probably more than the $2,500 I paid.
Patience. Nose to the ground. They're out there.
The good thing is I can fix anything and have a lift! But I don't do body work so that would also factor into what I would be forced to spend right up front (a car with no floors would not work for me, lol).
You don't need to be able to do
bodywork, per se. I'm nobody's tin man, but my '74 Challenger (not the '71) needed a roof due to Gulf-shore livin' with a vinyl top. I'd never attempted anything like that in my life. I changed it anyway, plus part of one quarter panel at the roof seam and the rear deck filler in my garage. Then I shipped it off to the body man, because the car will be black. Black's too touchy for me to attempt it on my first overall. Anyhow, I've since done full-length floor pans and a frame rail on my '69 Valiant. If replacements are available, I no longer fear The Rust Demon.
Panel replacement isn't difficult (a roof is probably the hardest) if you take your time and are careful. You can leave the filling, sanding, primer and paint to a pro if you prefer. I did.
The '74 factory roof, into which some idiot cut holes to remove rust:
Removed:
And, after structural repairs and a bunch of behind-the-scenes surface prep, the new roof installed:
If you're curious about how I did this completely by myself (nobody to help lift the panel), I used ratchet straps hanging from a light fixture and the garage-door rails to raise and lower the roof panel for test fitting (something I did 14 times):
