Do I have a 340 Rallye Challenger??

[JollyB]

Hello! New to the forum. My son and I picked up a 73 Challenger a few weeks ago. I am not new to them by any means however this one was pretty much a shell with random parts in it. Two dashes, neither original to the car. Vin sticker in door jamb all but gone so no VIN. It was a bill of sale only deal, no title. I have the rad support and cowl vin section but of course that’s not complete.

It has a 7/8” front sway bar. 13/16 rear sway bar. Straps for dual exhaust. Has power bulge hood and both fenders have the holes for the fender gills but I’m not 100% positive these are original to the car. No fender tags so no A57 verification. 2:76 gear ratio tag. I did a little paint archeology on the hood and got what looks like “”Magnum, but again, not sure it’s original. What was left of the grill that wasn’t sun faded was black and not argent. Where there is blue on the car, it seems to be matching. Any tips or opinions/input would be appreciated. Thank you!

Brandon J

 

[moparleo]

Is there more information coming ? Not a trick question?
You have nothing to identify the car, no vin. just some loose 1972+parts and you are seriously looking for some type of validation?
Just hoping you didn't pay much for the parts.
Without the original Vin, there will never be any type of verifiable lineage.
Just some 72 up Challenger parts.
Good thing is that even if it was a 73, you had the vin and title it would not have any real collectibility because no originality left other than being a 1973 E-body. The least desirable year.
But the parts will have some value and you don't have to worry about doing something that will hurt any value to the car.
You will never track down any real information without the original vin.
Choices? Use any salvageable parts that are needed for another project you may have, Build a Race car that will never see the street so registration will never be an issue, Sell it before you dig a giant $$$ hole trying to build a complete car with registration problems that will not attract many potential buyers, Due to lack of any original documentation or history. worse than a Salvage title vehicle.
Or you may not care about these things and have time and money to burn on something that you have always wanted to build from scratch.
Everyone has their own motivations to do things.
Myself ? Take it to a local car show/ swap on a trailer like ictured and sell t as is for parts and keep looking for something with more to it as a starting point.
Garages across the country have items like these that have been on someones list of things to do someday and 20 years goes by and the enthusiasm is gone and they just want to get some room back in their garage.
Just one of probably many meaningless opinions out there.
Good luck with what ever happens. Just try to be smart. Even it was a fully documented " Rallye" car, which in reality was only a Post R/T trim package name getting you basically a black painted tail panel and fake front fender vents. no collectible value really unless a fully optioned, survivor condition car in a desirable color.
In the condition shown would cost probably 0ver 50-80K to "restore" and have a resale value of a quarter of that, no real, docummented VIN.
My advice to someone else who hadn't made the plunge on a similar " project car" is to always buy the type of car you like, in the best possible condition you can afford.
Even if you bought these Parts for $1K or less, it would not be financially practical to get the parts into a restored, usable condition because of reproduction part availability and lack of any perceived original value of the parts shown.
Now if this was a 1970-71 Challenger, the story would be different as at least some 70-71 parts were one year only production so do have some rarity.

 

[moparleo]

SOLD - 1972 Challenger Rallye 340 Slap Stik project. Real H code car $10,000
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/1973-74-dodge-challenger-rallye/

 

[JollyB]

Is there more information coming ? Not a trick question?
You have nothing to identify the car, no vin. just some loose 1972+parts and you are seriously looking for some type of validation?
Just hoping you didn't pay much for the parts.
Without the original Vin, there will never be any type of verifiable lineage.
Just some 72 up Challenger parts.
Good thing is that even if it was a 73, you had the vin and title it would not have any real collectibility because no originality left other than being a 1973 E-body. The least desirable year.
But the parts will have some value and you don't have to worry about doing something that will hurt any value to the car.
You will never track down any real information without the original vin.
Choices? Use any salvageable parts that are needed for another project you may have, Build a Race car that will never see the street so registration will never be an issue, Sell it before you dig a giant $$$ hole trying to build a complete car with registration problems that will not attract many potential buyers, Due to lack of any original documentation or history. worse than a Salvage title vehicle.
Or you may not care about these things and have time and money to burn on something that you have always wanted to build from scratch.
Everyone has their own motivations to do things.
Myself ? Take it to a local car show/ swap on a trailer like ictured and sell t as is for parts and keep looking for something with more to it as a starting point.
Garages across the country have items like these that have been on someones list of things to do someday and 20 years goes by and the enthusiasm is gone and they just want to get some room back in their garage.
Just one of probably many meaningless opinions out there.
Good luck with what ever happens. Just try to be smart. Even it was a fully documented " Rallye" car, which in reality was only a Post R/T trim package name getting you basically a black painted tail panel and fake front fender vents. no collectible value really unless a fully optioned, survivor condition car in a desirable color.
In the condition shown would cost probably 0ver 50-80K to "restore" and have a resale value of a quarter of that, no real, docummented VIN.
My advice to someone else who hadn't made the plunge on a similar " project car" is to always buy the type of car you like, in the best possible condition you can afford.
Even if you bought these Parts for $1K or less, it would not be financially practical to get the parts into a restored, usable condition because of reproduction part availability and lack of any perceived original value of the parts shown.
Now if this was a 1970-71 Challenger, the story would be different as at least some 70-71 parts were one year only production so do have some rarity.

Thanks for the .02. We didn’t pay much at all for it. I’m going to try to track down the information going backwards through purchasers, but thought I’d ask to satisfy my own curiosity in the meantime if there was enough original features to extrapolate an educated guess. Our plan is to just have fun with it and put a decent driver back on the road. Thanks again!

Brandon J

 

[DetMatt1]

If Leo didn’t make the point clear enough, don’t actually start working on the car before it has a legitimate vin attached to it.

 

[Challenger RTA]

What you have is on the radiator core support and cowl. Take a look vin number should be there.

 

[JollyB]

What you have is on the radiator core support and cowl. Take a look vin number should be there.View attachment 153944View attachment 153945View attachment 153946

Yes, have that. I just scraped the rattle can spray off the driver side door sticker and there’s a full vin there but the sequence numbers don’t match the cowl. So clearly not the original door.