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I've been a Charger fanatic since 1976, when I first fell in love with a triple black 440 '74 SE. Of course, my father wouldn't let me buy it because of the insurance rates, so I would up with my uncle's '74 Monte Carlo.
Within a year, I bought a '69 Charger with a rod knock for $75. I put a junk yard 383 in it, spent a month realizing that with absolutely NO auto experience at all, anyone could put humpty dumpty together again if they just put forth the effort. Nothing was quite as exciting as turning that key to start her up the first time. If only I had remembered to put the needle valve in the carburetor... I didn't know gas could shoot that high...
Along came another '69, this one an R/T 440, which lost a tie rod end at 60 mph. THAT was a religious experience! I still have a scar on my upper lip from trying to take a bite out of the steering wheel on that car. ( We should all live with a reminder of our past Chargers emblazoned on our face! )
Next was a '73 which was my first attempt at a custom paint job. Did you know that with a 318, a separate washer reservoir in the trunk along with a hose through the wheel wells onto the tires, and a quart of bleach, you too could fill the drive-thru at the local Burger King with enough white smoke to summon the local police department?
Number 4: I saw an ad for a 70 R/T SE 440 Pistol grip 4 speed, for $400. How could I pass that up? Unfortunately, it had been hit ever so slightly in the right fender, bending the lower control arm. Ah, no hill for a climber! It probably wasn't a good idea to rent a tow bar and hitch and pull the Charger for 15 miles strapped to the bumper of a '77 Monte Carlo. The bent control arm made it very difficult to pull because the front wheels were pointing two different directions. I made it about 8 miles before one of the front tires on the Charger blew out, causing the Monte Carlo to turn sideways... Couldn't pay the rent and sold it to one of my buddies. He fixed it and made a wrong year General Lee out of it.
Number 5: 74 SE 400 auto, white bench seat. I finally had the year and style I had wanted so bad, and realized it wasn't what I wanted. Next...
#'s 6 & 7: Another $400 Charger, this time it was a Ziebarted 71 6 cylinder, auto, manual steering, manual brakes, no a/c, rubber flooring, absolutely perfect strippo except it was tapped in the front end kinking the hood , fenders and bumper. Also had a hole drilled in the driver's side A pillar. It turned out to have been the Oak Park, Illinois fire chief's car. A 74 parts car ( back end ripped open by a snow plow) donated the perfect front end, and this bad boy became my favorite, with a six pack scoop, I painted it bright blue with gold R/T stripes, and mounted 426 Hemi emblems on the hood. It was a hoot to drive around in, but a bear to park.
That one got me on the right track, and #8 was a 71 SE 383 Pistol grip 4 speed, which wouldn't run for squat. A 440 out of a "73 New Yorker went in. I duplicated the last one, except this time it was white with the gold R/T stripes and 440 six pack emblems. Still, it wasn't the real thing...
Number 9 was a mercy purchase... A '73 SE 400 auto with a snorkel scoop was sitting behind someone's garage, rusting and just screaming "save me, save me"... I tried to duplicate the look of the last one, but it looked stupid on a louvered window SE.
Number 10 was a 70 318 auto, which wouldn't start and the brake pedal just fell to the floor. I replaced all the wheel cylinders, replaced the points, ( some brain surgeon had put in a dual point distributor ) got her up and running, and promptly lost a tie tie rod end for the second time in my life. Fortunately, I was just coming to a stop and "snap". Amazing how 2 mph versus 60 mph will keep the facial scars to a minumum. I ordered up the door scoops and R/T emblems and made a Plum Crazy clone, but I was afraid to take it out. It was straight and darned near perfect.
That's 10 Chargers between the years of 1978 and 1993, but none of them were "The Car". They were all (except the '69 R/T) wannabe's, not quite the real thing.... Cars to be played with, yet they didn't require the proper respect...
My thought process has changed over the last 10 years, and I realized that there was one particular model that just stood out from all the rest, and 2 colors that would work. Having already had a Plum Crazy car, that narrowed it down to one car, one color, and the search was on. This website had a lot to do with my search, because I really wanted a sunroof car. The production numbers of that option made a realist out of me, because I didn't want to wait the rest of my life to find one of the 9 cars built.
I searched a number of different sites without much luck, then stumbled upon probably the greatest site ever created, Ebay. Within 2 days, I was on my way to Altoona Iowa with a cashier's check in hand and a trailer hanging on the back of my truck to pick up my 1971 Superbee, 383 numbers matching, automatic, FJ6, Green Go, the exact car I thought I would never find. The wheels and tires were wrong, but most everything else matched the build sheet and fender tag. Two days later, I found the right rally wheels with Goodyear Polyglas F70's, and I started to think that this was becoming too easy. The car ran a little rough at idle, and I wound up replacing the carb, the fuel pump, distributor, plugs, wires, etc. The exhaust tips were missing, but for a measly $320... I also installed R/T taillights, 'cause I think they look better. The originals will sit in the attic until ???
I tried to find the previous owners of the car, and sent off a letter to the DMV in Iowa, only to be told that the car came into Iowa in 1989 from Minnesota. Another letter went to Minnesota, which came back with info on the car, but by law they couldn't disclose the name of the owner. The cool part is that they sent me the computer printout with all the info on it, but the owner's name had been blacked out with a magic marker. I thought I had hit a brick wall until I realized that the zip code was still readable. When I checked the zip code, it was for a town called Waltham Minnesota, population 300. Suddenly, I was thinking this might not be as tough as I first thought. As I held the printout up to the light at a certain angle, I could make out Matthew Virgil ---pe. Checking classmates.com, I found the only high school in that town with the only 5 letter last name ending in "pe". and now the search was on to find the current address.
Within about 2 hours, I was on the phone with the second owner of the car, who couldn't believe that the car still existed! I've sent him some pix of the car, and he's a little envious that it looks so good. He also knows the original owner, who lives in Pine Island Minnesota, and gave me the name of the dealership which delivered the car new, and believe it or not, the dealer still is in business. It came from Adamson Motors in Richmond, Minnesota.
I've sent the build sheet off to Galen Govier for decoding, and will update when he sends the results. So far:
- E65 383 Magnum (VIN # still there)
- D32 727 Trans
- D53 3.23 axle
- D91 Sure-grip
- TX9 Black int
- FJ6 Green Go
- V1X Vinyl Roof
- V21 Bulge Hood
- J45 Hood pins
- N42 Bright exhaust tips
- S77 Power steering
- V6X Accent tape stripes
- W21 Rallye wheels
- T87 F70 tires
- Built August 10,1970 at St. Louis
Of course, when I was recently looking for a new truck for my business, there was only one that would do... That thing got a Hemi? Sweet! (345 horsepower, 10.2 miles per gallon! Double Ouch!) The 'Bee sits in storage until the snow melts, and I have it on my desktop thinking of warmer days...
Bill
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