your Mopar's story
In 2012 I had become sick and tired of a 2004 Pontiac Vibe I had been driving and the CV axles kept falling out of the transaxle - long story. So I let it sit in the driveway, along with a 95 accord, which drove just fine. Then I had to take the Accord to get it smogged (California) and it failed due to a gas cap not sealing, and one of the 02 sensors was bad. $100 later I could finally pay $60 to get it smogged and register it for $150 more dollars after that.
Then I realized I don't have to put up with this anymore, and scoured Craigslist simply by typing in years... 1975 and back and seeing what popped up. I went and looked at tons of cars and none of them really had that feel that they were something I want. Then I finally found a car in a Craigslist ad somewhere 20 minutes away but noticed the pictures of it were all taken about 2 blocks away from my house. I asked the guy to meet me in Martinez where I work on the Jolten Joe (Joe Dimaggio's boat) project and he called me and told me he was in the big parking lot by the marina. I walked over there, and I had literally 300-400 feet to walk while I was staring at this car thinking I wanted to leave with that car no matter what.
He didn't come down on the price, so I handed him $2,500 and he got a ride home from his wife after I test drove the car. I did not care how much it cost, I just knew I wanted THAT car
- a 1968 Dodge Dart 4 door with a slant 6.
There was spray paint on the wheels and tires, one side of the car had red wheels, the other had gray and he brought it DIRTY. yes he was trying to sell a dirty car, and I bought it. The interior had some weird bucket seats with red/white/blue pattern and the rest of the interior was forest green with torn up carpet and ripped everything.
The car is well loved and it brings out all my creative ideas, and I put them all to work. I learned to sew because of this car - to do the upholstery... so many ideas, and you can just put them all together. That's what I like about it.
I also wanted my kids to grow up with a "family car" kind of thing, where you have memories about doing stuff in it. No one really has good stories about taking the old Civic out to the lake - you know what I mean?
Now of course, it's turbocharged, still has a slant 6, and looks a little different. And March 18th the Wednesday Night Drags are starting up at Sonoma Raceway and I am almost ready with the car to run it. Just need an external battery cutoff and a new battery box...
I wanted my fiancee' to have something fun to drive since she's scared of driving my car, so I bought her a '74 4 door Dart off a member of this site and she's driven it every day all over the place and has never been a real car freak. Then we were sitting in a drive-thru behind a 60s rattlecan primer camaro with a weird sounding cam lope for quite a while and she turns to me and asks "Do you think his car is faster than mine?"
-It's starting.
In 2012 I had become sick and tired of a 2004 Pontiac Vibe I had been driving and the CV axles kept falling out of the transaxle - long story. So I let it sit in the driveway, along with a 95 accord, which drove just fine. Then I had to take the Accord to get it smogged (California) and it failed due to a gas cap not sealing, and one of the 02 sensors was bad. $100 later I could finally pay $60 to get it smogged and register it for $150 more dollars after that.
Then I realized I don't have to put up with this anymore, and scoured Craigslist simply by typing in years... 1975 and back and seeing what popped up. I went and looked at tons of cars and none of them really had that feel that they were something I want. Then I finally found a car in a Craigslist ad somewhere 20 minutes away but noticed the pictures of it were all taken about 2 blocks away from my house. I asked the guy to meet me in Martinez where I work on the Jolten Joe (Joe Dimaggio's boat) project and he called me and told me he was in the big parking lot by the marina. I walked over there, and I had literally 300-400 feet to walk while I was staring at this car thinking I wanted to leave with that car no matter what.
He didn't come down on the price, so I handed him $2,500 and he got a ride home from his wife after I test drove the car. I did not care how much it cost, I just knew I wanted THAT car
- a 1968 Dodge Dart 4 door with a slant 6.
There was spray paint on the wheels and tires, one side of the car had red wheels, the other had gray and he brought it DIRTY. yes he was trying to sell a dirty car, and I bought it. The interior had some weird bucket seats with red/white/blue pattern and the rest of the interior was forest green with torn up carpet and ripped everything.
The car is well loved and it brings out all my creative ideas, and I put them all to work. I learned to sew because of this car - to do the upholstery... so many ideas, and you can just put them all together. That's what I like about it.
I also wanted my kids to grow up with a "family car" kind of thing, where you have memories about doing stuff in it. No one really has good stories about taking the old Civic out to the lake - you know what I mean?
Now of course, it's turbocharged, still has a slant 6, and looks a little different. And March 18th the Wednesday Night Drags are starting up at Sonoma Raceway and I am almost ready with the car to run it. Just need an external battery cutoff and a new battery box...
I wanted my fiancee' to have something fun to drive since she's scared of driving my car, so I bought her a '74 4 door Dart off a member of this site and she's driven it every day all over the place and has never been a real car freak. Then we were sitting in a drive-thru behind a 60s rattlecan primer camaro with a weird sounding cam lope for quite a while and she turns to me and asks "Do you think his car is faster than mine?"
-It's starting.
