Welcome to the site from Michigan!
What's the plan for your Challenger?
Hi Moparlee, Actually I am not certain of my longer-term plans. The car is fully numbers matching (so far) and I have pics to show that.
The changes made to the car that I am able to identify so far are; the rear-end has been switched out for a 9-1/4". I thought that a little odd, but then realized that at one time there was a trailer hitch on the car! The connector to plug in a trailer lives above the tail lights on the drivers side (you can see it in the pic of the rear of the car)! The seats had been changed to the ones with the cloth inlays - although both front buckets are in pretty rough shape. The car was repainted and the color changed from FY4 Light Gold Metallic to Plum Crazy after some body work on the passenger side quarter. Oh, and a tach was installed on top of the dash (hmm.. wonder what that was needed for??).
Since the paint is already in "just ok" to poor shape, I scraped a small area on each panel of the car and the only one that does NOT have the original FY4 color under the purple is the passenger quarter!!
The engine is a 318 LA, that appears to have had a problem with the intake lifter on hole #8. It is collapsed. The prior owner took most of the engine apart and it sat that way for many years (unfortunately) so the engine is frozen and many of the removed parts are missing (intake, carb, 1 valve cover, rad hoses, radiator, alternator, etc., etc., etc.). I was lucky enough to find replacement parts for most of the missing pieces from a guy in Wisconsin. The parts are The trans is the original A904, but appears to be in ok shape. For now I plan on doing a rebuild on that and keep it, however I am really questioning whether I should swap both the engine and trans with something like a 383 and 4-speed. My 69 charger had a pistol-grip 4-speed that I got out of a 70 Cuda way back when, and I loved it!
I really like the original color, so I may take it back to FY4.
No matter what, short-term I want to get it technically sound (brakes, suspension, drive line, check all electrical, and fix a couple holes in the floor), then drive the heck out of it while I figure out all the rest!
However, before I can get there, I have another project I have to finish and sell this spring so I can put that money into the Challenger.