General Description
Bought out of a barn in 1988 for $1000 from the first owner. Drove it home and started making it road worthy. After a small investment I was able to enjoy it and fall in love.
I started researching in 1989 about the VIN and where it was built ( not as easy as it is today ). I found the car was numbers matching and original for the most part. It was built in Sept 1970 ( Two months older than me ) in Hamtramk and was in the "special" price class. None of this meant much to me at the time but it was neat info. I was able to decode the vin and find out all of the options and then I tucked all of that away and kept on working on it.
Eventually got a cheap paint job and some FAT pro trac 50's and the race was on. Times were in the mid to high 13's ( 13.6 to 13.8 ) most of the time and in a small town that put the ol challenger near the top of the heap. About a year later, in the middle of a 1/4 mile street pass a very loud squeal reared its ugly head. I shut it down as quickly as I could and had it towed home. Spun rod bearing. So I decided it was a great excuse to "beef her up" some. Went and found a builder and got a loan ( at 18 years of age ) and had it rebuilt bigger stronger and faster LOL. Punched, balanced, cam etc etc etc and 11:1 compression I had myself a little hot rod. Drove and raced for a while and went into the Marines. Kept racing until things started breaking and I couldn't afford to fix em anymore. So the car started sitting for periods waiting on money. Then I got married then kids....you know. Got out of the Corps and stared making better money in 1999 and I started tearing into my girl in late 2000. However I Lost my job in 2001 and had to stop and pack everything back into the car. in 2002 I had 3 kids and was making $27500/yr ( YEOW!!! ). So there isn't money for the Challenger again and this is where the real damage began. The challenger had to sit outside for the next 11 years. Well as I moved up things got better and in 2013 it's time to start again!!
And here we are trying to wrap things up in the next couple months. Can wait to drive her again....
I started researching in 1989 about the VIN and where it was built ( not as easy as it is today ). I found the car was numbers matching and original for the most part. It was built in Sept 1970 ( Two months older than me ) in Hamtramk and was in the "special" price class. None of this meant much to me at the time but it was neat info. I was able to decode the vin and find out all of the options and then I tucked all of that away and kept on working on it.
Eventually got a cheap paint job and some FAT pro trac 50's and the race was on. Times were in the mid to high 13's ( 13.6 to 13.8 ) most of the time and in a small town that put the ol challenger near the top of the heap. About a year later, in the middle of a 1/4 mile street pass a very loud squeal reared its ugly head. I shut it down as quickly as I could and had it towed home. Spun rod bearing. So I decided it was a great excuse to "beef her up" some. Went and found a builder and got a loan ( at 18 years of age ) and had it rebuilt bigger stronger and faster LOL. Punched, balanced, cam etc etc etc and 11:1 compression I had myself a little hot rod. Drove and raced for a while and went into the Marines. Kept racing until things started breaking and I couldn't afford to fix em anymore. So the car started sitting for periods waiting on money. Then I got married then kids....you know. Got out of the Corps and stared making better money in 1999 and I started tearing into my girl in late 2000. However I Lost my job in 2001 and had to stop and pack everything back into the car. in 2002 I had 3 kids and was making $27500/yr ( YEOW!!! ). So there isn't money for the Challenger again and this is where the real damage began. The challenger had to sit outside for the next 11 years. Well as I moved up things got better and in 2013 it's time to start again!!
And here we are trying to wrap things up in the next couple months. Can wait to drive her again....
