Guest Captain Pants April 3, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 3, 2003 Any fans of muscle cars perusing this board? I'm talking real muscle... 1966-74 (more like 72, but some cars up through 74 can still be considered muscle). I personally own a 73 Charger, which barely passes as a muscle car, but it still does, I swear!!! Anyway, have any of you owned these testaments to a bygone era? What make, model, year, engine size? Any of you with dreams of restoring one, or currently in the process? Personally, I love the Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth family....... MOPAR, baby! Nothing is sweeter than a 1971 convertible 426 Hemi 'Cuda....... mmmmmmmmmmmm............. Also, I love Chargers. A 68 Charger with a nice 440 engine would be nice 440 = buildable to near 800 HP on pump gas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TeKNiK April 3, 2003 Share Guest TeKNiK Guests April 3, 2003 Would a 1969 corvette with a 454 Big block in it be consdered a muscle car? . Please let the car nub know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Pants April 3, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 3, 2003 'Vette's are more sporty...... but yes. Yes it would I'm a sucker for big blocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief April 3, 2003 Share Chief Member April 3, 2003 Muscle cars are coollll. I personally like the Charger/Challenger duo quite a bit. And I'm glad someone started this thread because...everybody knows what goes under the driver's seat of a black Challenger! Yes, a custom .45 like this beauty Les Baer makes: While in the passenger seat belongs: Yes, a hottie like this beauty. Unless of course you're living the hard knock life like: Yes, like the D.O.C. Then you might prefer: Yes, then you might prefer hydraulics over horsepower. But the closest I've ever been to owning was a 1985 IROC z28 with a tweaked out engine that would smoke the 300hp vettes in a straight line pretty easy and consistently. Chief glad I ran this one by goot first! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TeKNiK April 3, 2003 Share Guest TeKNiK Guests April 3, 2003 'Vette's are more sporty...... but yes. Yes it would I'm a sucker for big blocks COOL! I love the 69 vette. I just wish my step dad would let me drive it.. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Pants April 3, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 3, 2003 What WAS that thing with all the green paint and horrible, horrible gold? It looks like a fox-body 'Stang, but I, sadly, can't tell under all that horrible exterior D: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest -={DKC}=-Tiger April 4, 2003 Share Guest -={DKC}=-Tiger Guests April 4, 2003 now now now not all 65-72 cars are power you gotta look at the 85-87 regal grand nationals for real stock power ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Pants April 4, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 4, 2003 Yes, the Grand Nation series certainly had power, but they are not even close to muscle cars My old boss had a Buick GNX... was trying to sell it last I heard. *shruggle* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gOOters April 4, 2003 Share gOOters Member April 4, 2003 The BGN was such an oddity. No doubt it was fast though. Actually it is kinda a collector car now. One time I watched Leno and Tim Allen have a burn out contest in a parking lot. Allen brought one of his mustangs, Leno brought a red Grand National...I think Leno won? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yErMoTH3r April 5, 2003 Share yErMoTH3r GC Founder April 5, 2003 if yer talkin lo lo's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer April 5, 2003 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member April 5, 2003 Been there and done that, I like to think of that era as the "Charger Saga." When I bought it: What I did to it: Getting there: First time it had been fired up in a year: Won alot of shows with it: Lotta sheet metal there to keep polished: Gotta wash the engine too: The conversation went something like this, which went over months, and my best friends dad runs a professional restoration shop (Mr. 55 - specializing in 55-6-7 Chevys and all muscle cars). He charged me a total of $4500 for the paint, bodywork, materials, and space - which was a huge bargain by about a factor of 3 (this was in 1992-3): August 1992 MR55: Nice car! Want that rust around the rear window fixed? Me: Yeah, and thanks, I just spent $2000 on the motor. MR55: Well, that rust hole means the trunk is shot, oh, and gotta pull the rear window and vinyl top off to do the fix. MR55: Hey, lookie, the roof has other holes in it! MR55: Pull the interior, we're gonna be welding, don't wanna burn it up. MR55: Should we just paint the whole thing since it's half apart? Me: Okay. MR55: Well, we started sanding and it already has 6 coats of paint, you really want 7?! Me: Okay, I'll spend 2 months stripping the paint to bare metal. MR55: Still gonna paint it gold? Me: Ummm, let's go with Charger red, a 1969 option. MR55: Want a red car and a gold engine compartment? Me: Grrrrrr, I'll pull the engine. Me: I'll have the tranny and rear axle rebuilt while the car is getting stripped, it's only money. December 1992 MR55: Now that you've been here 5pm to 10pm every weekday since August (Mr. 55 works 14 hour days 6 days, and sometimes a "half" 8 hour 7th day a week), weekends as much as I am here for - how are you doing? Me: Your shop is friggin cold! MR55: That's why we wear 2 shirts, sweaters, long johns, and fingerless gloves! March 1993 MR55: Paint is done, now the fun part! (I saw it as it was being painted and from then on it ceased to be a endless task.) Me: I fear reinstalling the wiring harness from hell. I marked all the connectors months ago, but some of the tape tags fell off! MR55: If you bust your arse you might bet finished by August, a bunch of us are going to Reno for Hot August Nights! Me: ugh, I will be lucky to finish by then? MR55: Yeah, this is fun! Me: You work to much. Many long days ensued. My diet consisted of greasy food from the convenience store across the road. The UPS guy came in the shop and took a personal interest in the Charger since he had delivered half of it. The suspension went on first, then brakes, wiring, engine & accessories, transmission, dash, steering, headliner, carpet, seats, grille, glass, chrome, doors, bumpers. It missed Hot August Nights 1993 by about 2 weeks. And good thing, because about 300 miles into the rebuild the torque converter blew. More money. I went on to show it and take a few top awards, and usually one from it's class. There are two kind of guys that approach you at a car show when you have a car like this. The first is "Heyyyy! My buddy had one of these! Got drunk and wrapped it around a telephone pole! Totalled it." Secondly the "Awwwww, that brings back the memories! Sold it and 1) bought a house; 2) got married and had kids." I ended up being one of the 'bought a house' guys. I never felt like I needed the heartburn from adding up the reciepts (I had a big box of them), but I figure you could say the following (1992-3 prices): $3500 car - 1969 Dodge Charger, 383 hi-perf motor, auto trans, leather int, power windows, PS, PB, air conditioning, tic-tock-tach, 8 track. Broadcast sheet in (in rear seat springs) indentified it as a Dealer Demonstrator Car, the one they put in the window. $4500 paint, bodywork, shop expenses $2000 motor $1000 trans/rear axle $3000 interior $1000 misc engine area $1000 brakes $2000 suspension (still handled like a 4200lb car!) And about 2500 hours of my time. Wouldn't trade the memories for anything though! Oh, and I had a '72 Cuda (original 340/auto) with a bad arse 383/4spd. And a '70 Barracuda. Sold them before I put a dime into them. Well, after the Charger was done I was burnt out on resto's and about outta money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Pants April 5, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 5, 2003 Homer, you are my new hero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL April 5, 2003 Share dwEEziL Member April 5, 2003 Did you ever sell it? I am kind of curious what you got for her besides the fun experience of actually doing it your self (I know very little about cars but would like to restore an old mustang sometime in my life). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer April 5, 2003 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member April 5, 2003 Well, I bought the Charger at the height of the muscle car craze in the early '92 and sold it in late 1995 after the bubble had burst. I got $11,000 for it. I did alot with the car in 3.5 years, but never quite bonded with it fully. That sound odd? Well, before the car went into the shop I wasn't able to drive it a whole lot since the motor smoked a little (which I knew when I bought it) and a motor mount was broken. After the motor was built I was able to put about 500 miles on it before it went into the body shop. I think this was the fatal mistake. I should have put several thousand on it at least. I had really wanted a 4 speed car too, and they just were not to be found when I bought mine. Later, as I became a part of the muscle car community a fellow Charger guy let me drive his cherry 1970/4spd/3.91 Dana axle/bias ply tire Charger in exchange for him driving mine. It was a fun afternoon, he learned what maxing out the suspension on a Charger does and I learned that I should have bought a 4 speed car no matter what. With the bias ply tires you could point the car anywhere on the road under full throttle with full confidence. The radials on mine stuck better, but only until they broke loose, then it meant some quick work. When it got out of the shop there were endless small things to do on it, and frankly I never got to most of them. Detail the dash guages, pull off the front grille and totally detail it, chase down a few electrical things like one of the rear power windows wouldn't lower, replace the 650cfm carb with a 750cfm, etc., etc. Gas prices were going up and I was getting tired of putting 20 gallons of premium in it every 100 miles. Yes, the fuel mileage was that bad. I babied it once on a 70 mile freeway cruise at about 60mph and got an amazing 13mpg. Around town was 4-6mpg. I also had made a comittment to drive the Charger in any and all conditions, even went out in the snow once. Made it about 6 blocks before I turned around, even the idle had too much torque. All this meant alot of upkeep on the car, and you don't just spray, sud up, and rinse a show car, it will go downhill very fast. You wash it inclucing the wheel wells, undercarriage, and engine compartment. Then chamois (shammy to you n00bs) it, wipe out the door jambs, every little nook and cranny in the engine compartment. Then you get out the polish, I used 3M Finesse-It, which is like a buffing compound so you are essentially giving the car a hand cut and buff which takes years instead of hours. (Cut and buff is to eliminate any "orange peel" to the paint, of which my car had none out of the spray booth, but it gives it a smooth finish to the paint. Alot of proffessional painters thought my car had been cut and buffed and wouldn't believe me that it wasn't.) Polishing a large car like the Charger takes a good 2 hours of sweating, plus another hour in the engine compartment. Do the carptes, glass, rub in some leather conditioner on the seats, do the tires. You can see that this would get tiring, driving the car near daily and showing it. I sold it to a high school auto shop teacher that had one in his twenties, and he sounded like the right kind of guy to take care of it and fix all those things I never go to. Advice: DO NOT BUY A CAR WITH ANY RUST. I know you've heard this a million times if you've been looking. It's true, and unless you are loaded, like $20,000+ budget, and it's a very rare car just don't even consider a car with rust. RUST = MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN. Instead find a well taken care of original, a decent older restoration, of one with a nice body but blown engine. An engine is much cheaper and easier to put in. Or check out car shows and ads for cars advertised as "$15,000 in reciepts, must sell. $8,000 OBO." In all likelyhood the owner can't front the $2-3000 to finish the car, has another project car, is getting married, baby, house, etc. and you can get it with most of the work done and already paid ofr by someone else. Consider a $5,000-$15,000 car if you are serious. Trying to find that $1000 beater in a barn with some rust, some stoner's car that is missing a bunch of stuff, or the daily driver on it's last legs will end up costing you way more to restore. And it will take alot of time to finish. Restoring a car takes alot of space. I pity anyone trying to restore a car in a 2 car garage. I had a huge shop with air tools, plenty of space, experienced guys to ask questions of and it was still a huge job. I'd follow my own advice if I was doing it again, and enjoy the car rather than thinking that I'll be able to drive it one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief April 5, 2003 Share Chief Member April 5, 2003 Homer,Apr 5 2003, 02:42 PM] Consider a $5,000-$15,000 car if you are serious. Actually, I'm considering leaving my special lady friend for Homer. You win. That car is beautiful up there. Chief Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yErMoTH3r April 5, 2003 Share yErMoTH3r GC Founder April 5, 2003 ill double team him with u cheif. excellet work! a true artist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubblegum Bandit April 6, 2003 Share Bubblegum Bandit Member April 6, 2003 Ok, to tie this one in with another forum....what was the black car Vin Diesel drove in the Fast and Furious. The one his dad used to race. That was a bad donkey toy. Homer....that car was freakin beautiful when you got done....love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Pants April 6, 2003 Share Guest Captain Pants Guests April 6, 2003 The Fast and the Furious car was a 70 Charger. It looked nice, but the blower was just glued on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gOOters April 6, 2003 Share gOOters Member April 6, 2003 Nice Homey...quite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SiLvEr BuLLeT April 6, 2003 Share Guest SiLvEr BuLLeT Guests April 6, 2003 i have a muscle car.... o wait thats just a model Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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