MechArm1
Well-Known Member
Hello, I'm Danny, I've just recently joined a couple Mopar forums. That's really something I never thought I would do. I've basically been a "Chevy guy" most of my adult life. But, so I don't get the boot before the moderators finish reading my post let me explain.
when I was young my dads first real street/strip car was a 62 Plymouth savoy with a 413(edit i wrote 383 at first, but it was actailly a 413) and a four speed. Cool car, wish I had a picture of that one.
Then a couple years later he bought a 63 Plymouth Fury race car, and he partnered up with his buddy who used his 440 motor in the car and they won a division 6 championship with the car. I really cant remember the year, I was still fairly young.
During the time he and his buddy were racing that car, he bought a 63 Dodge Polara, another very sweet ride. So he had both bitchen cars at the same time This one was more of a streetable car that he took to the drags as often as possible.
So the mold had been set, I was born into the Mopar scene. This is where the "old Mopar fan" part of the story started.
So fast forward 8 or 9 years to when I'm old enough to drive and have my first car. I ended up with with a 67 El Camino That my dad got from a friend for almost nothing. That had a 283 and a 4 speed in it. Yeah buddy 17 and a half years old and I'm chirping second gear all around town! life is good.
So after a lot of learning to mess with Chevy motors, and now the Elco has a pretty nice 327 and a turbo 350 trans, I'm kinda liking this hole Chevy thing even though I'm suppose to be Bleeding Mopar blood.
Now my best bud in the world picks up a 70 Cuda with a 340 and beats up on my little Elco with a 327, That's cool, I can dig it, remember I still have some Mopar flowing through my veins. But now its on!
I need a new platform and a bigger motor! So Enter a 69 Nova with a 400 SB that was putting out serious power. This car was very cool and crazy fast. I had to mess around a bit with making it street driveable and ended up putting in a milder motor after a while, but still got the upper hand on the Cuda. Mission accomplished for now.
I got out of the street racing and hot rods for just a couple years. And I had some money ready to spend, and I was wanting to get back into the car thing again. I'd been looking around, and going to the Pomona antique car show and swap meet here in southern California. if your from here you know what I'm talking about.
So this is where I had EVERY intention on getting myself one of a two choices of cars. a 63 dodge or 63 Plymouth just like dads old race cars. I was leaning more towards the Plymouth, I just like that style a little more.
And crap! there it was a 62 Nova pro street just sitting there as beautiful as could be! I couldn't take my eyes off of it. every detail of the car was done. and it was fully streetable. it just looked full on race. I had to have it! Sorry dad, I know how much he was looking forward to seeing his boy in a Mopar.
Picture after I smashed it a little and fixed the front end still had some primer.
now fast forward again I drove the crap out of this car all over town, and raced it almost every Thursday night at the local 1/8 mile track at Irwindale. and even cashed it early on and had to put it back together. great fun great car.
Sold the pro street Nova. And had another nova project, ended up selling that before I ever even got started on it.
So here is were the "old Mopar fan" becomes "new again" I've had the 70 Cuda that I mentioned earlier in the post that my best bud bought, and had sitting around for years end up in my garage, so i can get busy doing some work on it for him so we can bring it back to life.
After tearing into it pretty good when it first got here, it sorta fell to the way side and just became a statue in my garage for almost a couple years.
I guess my buddy was feeling a little bad or something that his car had been stored here for so long, and Id put some time working on the car. And that I had to get rid of my last Nova project unexpectedly to help out my brother that really needed some funds in a hurry, that he showed up one day out of the blue and handed me a set of keys to an all original low mileage 70 Dodge Dart swinger with a 318 in it!
Holy crap I was blown away and didn't even know what to say. It was crazy. The car runs, has AC, power steering, front disc brakes a V8 and is super straight. I pulled the side molding off the car the very first thing, and broke out the welder to fill the holes. A guy came up and fixed up the spots where I welded up the holes already.
I got really big plans and a really small budget, but the up side is that the Cuda that's here in my garage is getting the 440 treatment to it, so guess who gets the very nice pretty stout 340 that came out of it, yep its me!
So there it is, that's what brings an "old Mopar fan" back around full circle.
If you actually read this entire book thanks for making to the end, And I'll be lurking around here for a long time to come, as this will be a never ending project.
Oh yeah this is how i hope it comes out when its done. Only I want it to be white
when I was young my dads first real street/strip car was a 62 Plymouth savoy with a 413(edit i wrote 383 at first, but it was actailly a 413) and a four speed. Cool car, wish I had a picture of that one.
Then a couple years later he bought a 63 Plymouth Fury race car, and he partnered up with his buddy who used his 440 motor in the car and they won a division 6 championship with the car. I really cant remember the year, I was still fairly young.
During the time he and his buddy were racing that car, he bought a 63 Dodge Polara, another very sweet ride. So he had both bitchen cars at the same time This one was more of a streetable car that he took to the drags as often as possible.
So the mold had been set, I was born into the Mopar scene. This is where the "old Mopar fan" part of the story started.
So fast forward 8 or 9 years to when I'm old enough to drive and have my first car. I ended up with with a 67 El Camino That my dad got from a friend for almost nothing. That had a 283 and a 4 speed in it. Yeah buddy 17 and a half years old and I'm chirping second gear all around town! life is good.
So after a lot of learning to mess with Chevy motors, and now the Elco has a pretty nice 327 and a turbo 350 trans, I'm kinda liking this hole Chevy thing even though I'm suppose to be Bleeding Mopar blood.
Now my best bud in the world picks up a 70 Cuda with a 340 and beats up on my little Elco with a 327, That's cool, I can dig it, remember I still have some Mopar flowing through my veins. But now its on!
I need a new platform and a bigger motor! So Enter a 69 Nova with a 400 SB that was putting out serious power. This car was very cool and crazy fast. I had to mess around a bit with making it street driveable and ended up putting in a milder motor after a while, but still got the upper hand on the Cuda. Mission accomplished for now.
I got out of the street racing and hot rods for just a couple years. And I had some money ready to spend, and I was wanting to get back into the car thing again. I'd been looking around, and going to the Pomona antique car show and swap meet here in southern California. if your from here you know what I'm talking about.
So this is where I had EVERY intention on getting myself one of a two choices of cars. a 63 dodge or 63 Plymouth just like dads old race cars. I was leaning more towards the Plymouth, I just like that style a little more.
And crap! there it was a 62 Nova pro street just sitting there as beautiful as could be! I couldn't take my eyes off of it. every detail of the car was done. and it was fully streetable. it just looked full on race. I had to have it! Sorry dad, I know how much he was looking forward to seeing his boy in a Mopar.
Picture after I smashed it a little and fixed the front end still had some primer.
now fast forward again I drove the crap out of this car all over town, and raced it almost every Thursday night at the local 1/8 mile track at Irwindale. and even cashed it early on and had to put it back together. great fun great car.
Sold the pro street Nova. And had another nova project, ended up selling that before I ever even got started on it.
So here is were the "old Mopar fan" becomes "new again" I've had the 70 Cuda that I mentioned earlier in the post that my best bud bought, and had sitting around for years end up in my garage, so i can get busy doing some work on it for him so we can bring it back to life.
After tearing into it pretty good when it first got here, it sorta fell to the way side and just became a statue in my garage for almost a couple years.
I guess my buddy was feeling a little bad or something that his car had been stored here for so long, and Id put some time working on the car. And that I had to get rid of my last Nova project unexpectedly to help out my brother that really needed some funds in a hurry, that he showed up one day out of the blue and handed me a set of keys to an all original low mileage 70 Dodge Dart swinger with a 318 in it!
Holy crap I was blown away and didn't even know what to say. It was crazy. The car runs, has AC, power steering, front disc brakes a V8 and is super straight. I pulled the side molding off the car the very first thing, and broke out the welder to fill the holes. A guy came up and fixed up the spots where I welded up the holes already.
I got really big plans and a really small budget, but the up side is that the Cuda that's here in my garage is getting the 440 treatment to it, so guess who gets the very nice pretty stout 340 that came out of it, yep its me!
So there it is, that's what brings an "old Mopar fan" back around full circle.
If you actually read this entire book thanks for making to the end, And I'll be lurking around here for a long time to come, as this will be a never ending project.
Oh yeah this is how i hope it comes out when its done. Only I want it to be white
