Your first mopar...?

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My first Mopar?? We need to go back to about '83 and I wanted a "classic" "muscle car"/ I had already (stumbuled on to) picked up a rust free 68 442 in Ks from a college kid that brought it with him from Ca. BUT it just did not do it. Why? Don't know. $1000. The wife was PISSED!!!!!!!! Then a little later, I was at KC Mo and dumbed up on a Mopar show put on by local club! I was hooked!!!!!!!! Back then, old cars were advertised in the KC Star (actually newspaper) and I lived an hour out in the sticks. Then right her was an ad for a 71 Charger Rt. ON MY WAY!!! $1500. I go and look, Gold, Rallyes, console auto, the 440had been pulled and sold and replaced with a good running 400 It needed NOTHING and drove great!!!!!! Did I mention $1500. But that $1500 back then is like what $6000 today. A bargain today!!!
Then I mess up and let Mopar guys tellm e a I needed 70 E body!!!!!!!!!! :poke: :thumbsup: :rofl: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead: :BangHead:
 
No pics survived. 1981 I bought a 73 blue Charger with white vinyl top and white bucket seat interior with console. 400 / 727/ 3.23 surefrip 8.75 rear end. That car survived 2 years of me. No small feat. I would love to recreate it if I could afford it.
Closest internet pic I could find.
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First Car.....1971 Charger. Bought it at 15 for $150 to have a car when I got my licence. Put it in my dad's name to get it on the road and use it with my beginner's permit. Pic shows the maiden voyage.......Broke a torsion bar :BangHead: Should have known this was an Omen for future things to come...........My mother got T-Boned by a '72 satellite totalling the car. Thankfully no one was hurt.

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Bought this 1972 scrapper next......Too rotten to fix then. LOL, would have been a keeper today at $4500:rofl:

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Then came my avatar car........Mishmash of 1971 and 1972 Demons. Dad bought them for me for $100 because he felt bad about the Charger......16 years old now. Dad would tow me with a chain to some logging roads and let me drive it around before it was on the road.

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Avatar finished.......After flipping parts and trading stuff......$200 into the car all in!
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All this in a year...Pretty good accomplishment for a kid of 16. $200 all in..........Hell, I paid more than that for a radio delete plate for my current project (but it has the right part# WTF). Sadly, mother nature claimed this one. Used it as a daily driver for 10 years.....Salty winters and all! Got hauled off for scrap by my sisters hubby......My Nephew saved the wheels before it went.

Current project.......Should be ready for assembly in the spring.
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Pic shows the maiden voyage.......Broke a torsion bar

I still can't believe we are all still here after using those bumper jacks!!!

Nice work for $200, even back then!! Slots are still my favorite wheels on a Duster or Dart Sport.
 
First MOPAR back in 1987 i was 18 and bought a 69-1/2 440+6 Roadrunner. Paid $3200 sold the car in 2000 wish i still had it. Will have to dig up some pics. Good time cruising town and going to to drag strip on the weekends with my brother. He still has his 70 GTX 440 that he bought at the same time.
 
First MOPAR back in 1987 i was 18 and bought a 69-1/2 440+6 Roadrunner. Paid $3200 sold the car in 2000 wish i still had it. Will have to dig up some pics. Good time cruising town and going to to drag strip on the weekends with my brother. He still has his 70 GTX 440 that he bought at the same time.
Nice..!
A friend of mine has a B5 70 GTX 440 4spd Dana 60. He's owned since 87.. Very low mileage car as he hardly ever has driven it.
Yes, post pix when you can..!
 
First Mopar / first car was a 70 RoadRunner. Purchased in late 75 - like November - from the original owner, it had ~42k on it, was stone stock with whitewalls and studded M&S on the back...
Only photo I have scanned is after owning it for about a year or 18 months.
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My first Mopar was a 1974 Charger SE. 318 with a 904. I bought it from a guy that I worked with for $700 If I remember right. Had it for about a year after I graduated and was on my way home from the drag strip and a old lady pulled out in front of me and totaled both cars. Her car went flying across the street and up against a telephone pole. I was in the middle of the road with a Charger about 4 feet shorter. Luckily no one was hurt.

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Mine is the brown one on the right and my best friend in high school is the orange one.
 
My first Mopar was a 1974 Charger SE. 318 with a 904. I bought it from a guy that I worked with for $700 If I remember right. Had it for about a year after I graduated and was on my way home from the drag strip and a old lady pulled out in front of me and totaled both cars. Her car went flying across the street and up against a telephone pole. I was in the middle of the road with a Charger about 4 feet shorter. Luckily no one was hurt.

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Mine is the brown one on the right and my best friend in high school is the orange one.

That's pretty amazing there were no injuries! (Except your Charger fatality :()
 
My first Mopar was a 1974 Challenger, The car was extremely rough, I traded a four-wheeler for it, it sat in the yard for a year or two before I realized (at the time) it was too far gone, I was 14 years old at the time. If I could go back in time I would tell myself to keep it because now looking back, I would have no issue getting it back on the road. i have since built many cars, and now have another Challenger to build, this time around its a B5 1970 SE, score!
 
Bought car (1974 duster) in October of 1980 for 2 thousand dollars and drove it down over next couple of years. Sat for next 15 and have been restoring it ever since. Still got the matching numbers 360 and auto, Picture is from Majestics in Regina last spring.

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This Duster 360 looks EXACTLY like the one I used to own. Red, white stripes, white bucket seat interior & 4 speed. What a good runner.
 
This Duster 360 looks EXACTLY like the one I used to own. Red, white stripes, white bucket seat interior & 4 speed. What a good runner.
niceolddart- Still have my Duster 360. Bought it in 1984 for 500 bucks. No stripes B-5 blue with black buckets. They are really great cars.
 
1970 Coronet 4 door, FE5 with black interior that I bought in 1983 at age 11. Paid a whopping 20 dollars for it with no transmission and the 318 laying in the trunk. Plan was to get it together for when I turned 16. Discovered that it had frame rot issues and decided to part it out rather than take a loss. And that started a habit that has hung with me for almost 41 years, buying, selling, parting, fixing. Probably over 300 Mopars have come and gone since then.
 
I bought my first car in May 1968. I was a senior in High School. I saved up for it from working in a grocery store for 2 years. I paid $600 for a 64 Plymouth Savoy 2 door post. It was an Ex Highway patrol car with 383, Automatic, PS, PB and AC. No pictures. This started and fueled my Mopar passion.
 
I bought a new 1969 fastback barracuda 340,4 speed,sure grip on 10/25/68. It was by far the best car that I ever owned. I have a lot of nice cars both before and after. I won a lot of races with the barracuda. The only car that ever beat me was a 70 mach 1 Mustang with a 428 and 430 rear end. He was in the high 12s and my best was high 13s. I sold it in 1975 for $500. It had a 318 with the 340 manifold and 4 barrel carb. Later I traded the 340 for a 66 chevy wood truck that broke in half the first time I used it. another big mistake.
 
Not 100% sure, but it looks like a Clay Smith Cams decal. Wish I still had one! Beautiful car and a great story. That garage looks full of very nice toys!
It is a Clay Smith Cams "Mr. Horsepower" decal. The Thrush decal was inspired by the Clay Smith version, which dates back at least to the fifties or even earlier, the company having its origins in the thirties.

Mr. Horsepower - Wikipedia.
 
My first Mopar was a 66 coronet 500 with a 318 poly. I bought my senior year year in 1982 in Lake Preston, South Dakota. I moved to San Marcos, Texas where I painted it yellow before selling it to fund my next car, a '70 Dart with a 318. I had that for a couple of years when I bought my first '67 Barracuda shell from a buddy for $150.00. Sold the dart to help fund the Barracuda build which eventually got a 340/727 combo and candy tangerine Kosmoski paint. I sold that Barracuda in May of '95 after a divorce and instantly regretted it! That guy flipped it shortly before going to prison for 20 years. I'd love to find out what ever happened to it. I still have the VIN # info and may do some digging. It wasn't until 2013 when I finally couldn't take it any longer and found another '67 Barracuda to buy which I spent 5-6 years building and will probably never part with! that car brought me to FABO where I have made several great friends over the years. I've been absent here for a while because life got really busy but I'm in the process of some upgrades on my car now and plan to start a new thread soon to cover those upgrades which include a Gear vendors overdrive. Right now, I have the entire drivetrain pulled back out for those upgrades & maintenance and I'm sure I'll have questions. I've been back lately and doing lots of a research here again. What a great place this is!
Cheers,
-Doug

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And here's the Barracuda That I bought in 2013 as it arrived on a transport truck from Rockingham, NC where it spent many years as a drag car.
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First fire-up off the transport truck!
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I did a full rotisserie job on this one.
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And here is in 2023.
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And here is it now for the upgrades. What was I thinking!
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