Wanting to start an E body project next year and don't know which route to take; I have no welding skills and limited body work experience. Goal is to have a 70 Challenger with some Cuda trim (grille, valance and gills). I would like to start with a decent car, but most of them were treated worse than cabs or rentals back in the day, so that's going to be a large obstacle. Considering my lack of skill I'm thinking of starting with a Dynacorn shell and going from there. Either way I'm potentially looking at close to $17,000 as a starting point, including any metal work the original may need. I see several for sale well within my budget, but probably need tons of rust or collision repair. Mechanical and interior details are already ironed out. I understand any year E can be transformed into a 70, and would consider that option; the later cars look rather ungainly to me. Probably looking at a 225 or 318 automatic with some miles.
Not knowing is why I'm here; if anyone has a resource for finding good project cars within a couple of hundred miles of Pensacola/Ft Walton beach area that would be a start. All in, I have about a $40,000 budget regardless of which way I go, so no crazy big displacement race hemi's or exotic mechanicals; looking at building a resto-mod driver that I can wrench on with a small box of SAE tools. I can do some body work, including paint, so that's handled; don't care if the panels are laser straight (can't be worse than factory fit and finish).
Should have bought 20 years ago; could have gotten my pick of 72-74 rust free original drivers for under $2,000 all day long.
Not knowing is why I'm here; if anyone has a resource for finding good project cars within a couple of hundred miles of Pensacola/Ft Walton beach area that would be a start. All in, I have about a $40,000 budget regardless of which way I go, so no crazy big displacement race hemi's or exotic mechanicals; looking at building a resto-mod driver that I can wrench on with a small box of SAE tools. I can do some body work, including paint, so that's handled; don't care if the panels are laser straight (can't be worse than factory fit and finish).
Should have bought 20 years ago; could have gotten my pick of 72-74 rust free original drivers for under $2,000 all day long.
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