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My 67 Arizona Salvage yard find

vman01

Well-Known Member
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Aug 6, 2018
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Location
Lake County, IL.
I located this rust-free sheet metal specimen in Arizona back in the 90s on the internet. Internet is nothing like it is today for search options for car parts. Seller sent me the hard copy pictures below by standard mail along with pictures of 3 other 67 chargers he had for sale at the salvage yard. Bought this one for $500 with the intention of parting it out and keeping the sheet metal for spares. It arrived on the top rack of a car hauler the seller arranged for shipping to me that he knew was heading my way and needed to fill a spot. $400 for shipping to Chicago area was reasonable for the times.

Seller was supposed to make it a roller. The hauler called the evening before arriving to confirm address and informed me I would need rims and tires. I was fortunate I had some and worked at a place with a large forklift to pull the car off the top rack. Once I looked it over, I had to make a decision on moving forward with this one.

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wow it looks solid how are the floors?
 
Hate to part out a good body. Not a lot of 67 were made. Bring her back to life and let us know what you need.
 
As far as I know they're not Making ANY 67 anything any more
 
wow it looks solid how are the floors?
The floors & trunk were rust free like the rest of the car. The Arizona sun cooked what was left of the interior so only the drivers seat and a rear cushion came in the car. There were some dings and a good size dent in the trunk pan where it looked like it may have come down on a lose tire. I purchased the car with no title just a bill of sale but ended up finding an ignition key and AZ title for a charger in the ash tray when I did my snake, scorpion and black widow inspection. Unfortunately, they did not go to this car.
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Hate to part out a good body. Not a lot of 67 were made. Bring her back to life and let us know what you need.
Previous picture of 1/4 panels and doors was some late night misguided humor maybe but your statement is 100%. We had to shove some wood blocks between the axl and frame to get clearance for the rear tires to get it on the trailer for the ride from work to the house. A few small dents can be seen on the rear quarter in the picture above the wheel and above the bumper which were typical on the car and better than expected for a salvage yard car.
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The interior raped by the AZ sun and pillaged of most meager items would save me the time to dismantle them. Do I really want to spend the time on a quest to find good donor parts I'm thinking as I dig deeper.
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Looking in the engine bay the wiring and components look to be all there with the exception of the motor and transmission which I knew prior to purchasing. I just expected the salvage yard junkies would have pillaged this area as well.

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The car sat as in my garage just as the previous pictures show for some time. I was still looking for parts to get an idea of what was available and cost to put this car back together. I had a good friend John that used to rib me about the car just setting there taking up good space. We rode motorcycles, hit the gym and bars together often. Well John passed unexpectedly one winter with his bike torn down to go big bore and 6spd apart for R&R. I ended up assembling it for his widow and that gave me the kick in the azz to get going on the charger again. Starting with disassembly, body prep and some Mar-hyde primer. If you can look past the motorcycle you can see some progress is being made at that point. 
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I big ticket item to get this car back on the road was finding a reasonable motor and transmission. I can be frugal at times and part of the fun for me is to find a deal and keep the build cost low.

I wasn’t aware of it previously, but a fellow worker had a 70s New Yorker with a 440. He had the motor and trans rebuilt 2 years earlier but the winters here were eating away at it and he ended up pulling them and scraping the body. I picked the engine and trans up cheap from where they were taking up space in his garage. It then sat covered on some rags in the covered porch of my shop for at least 1 winter where a feral cat found it a suitable location to have her kittens. I didn't mind a mouser keeping a watchful eye on things and she hung around a few years after that. Had no issues with my porch furniture either

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The engine compartment was in pretty good shape. I had to change out the power connection on the bulkhead that was fried and stripped down the engine compartment for sand blasting and paint. The brake power booster was also cooked but I didn't find that out till much later. I changed out the heads on the motor to up the compression. Added a cam, intake, new carb and dressed it up a little before squeezing it in. Transmission got a deep oil pan and the headers were a tight fit so I ended up using some stock exhaust manifolds I located. I provided a before and after picture below.
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At some point and a big kicker to restoring this car to running condition was locating an interior along with the rear window that as many know they just weren’t that common to find.

I was fortunate or maybe it was just persistence that paid off for me. I found an ad in Hemmings if I remember correctly from a man parting out a 67 charger. The man who possibly could be a current member here at the time owned a red 66 charger that was in great condition. He lived out toward Detroit and he purchased another charger to get some of the pristine pieces he wanted for his car and then stripped it and was now selling many of the parts. I made the drive out and the parted-out car was no longer at his home but he had most of the interior and other pieces I needed along with new legendary seat covers for a 67 charger. The rear window was still in the car and as part of the deal he agreed to retrieve it for me and I picked it up the following weekend. I located some additional parts about 20 minutes from the house to complete my list from a young charger owner in Grayslake, IL. He had just completed painting his Charger white and had miscellaneous parts he did not need that I purchased as a lot being the fugal hoarder I am.

With most of the parts I needed now I purchased the rest of the painting supplies. At the time a gallon of the gold was almost $500 if I recall correctly the shop said red and gold were the most expensive colors. I shot the car in my garage with mediocre lighting. All in all I am happy with the way the paint turned out when I pulled the tape and masking off to reveal the finish. It is amazing how much sand I still had inside the car from the blasting I did but everything cleaned up well. At this point I was past the I hate body prep, painting was complete, and I was looking forward to assembly.

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At some point and a big kicker to restoring this car to running condition was locating an interior along with the rear window that as many know they just weren’t that common to find.

I was fortunate or maybe it was just persistence that paid off for me as I found an ad in Hemmings if I remember correctly for a man parting out a 67 charger. The man who possibly could be a current member here at that time owned a red 66 charger that was in great condition. He lived out toward Detroit and he purchased another charger to get some of the pristine pieces he wanted for his car like the grill medallion and then stripped it and was now selling many of the parts. I made the drive out and the parted-out car was no longer at his home but he had most of the interior panels, gauges and console including other pieces I needed along with new legendary seat covers for a 67 charger. The rear window unfortunately was still in the car and as part of the deal he agreed to retrieve it for me and I picked it up the following weekend. This lot of parts included many extra items like a steering column, dash and AC parts for example that I already had so it was a pretty extensive package of parts I could not turn down and for me the price was right.

I located some additional parts about 20 minutes from the house to complete my needs list from a young charger owner in Grayslake, IL. He had just completed painting his Charger white and had miscellaneous parts he did not need that I purchased. Carpet came from an e bay seller and I ended up using black die, some hot water and my paint sprayer to recolor the headliner. The steering wheels I have need some refurb so I ended up using a wheel that had hung on the wall for a few years to get things going.

Front and rear glass were broken out sometime before I purchased the car. I removed the windshield seals to paint the car and being cheap I attempted to remove the broken glass remaining in the seals at some point. It didn’t take long to figure out that was more trouble than it was worth and I ordered the new seals from the bay as well. Used a local auto glass outfit to order a front windshield and was lucky one of the glass installers took the order and offered his services to come by so the 2 of us installed front and rear glass one evening no problem.
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Man I have always loved these interiors. Nothing like fold down buckets and a flip down panel to the trunk to get things done at the drive-in.

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Purchased a hog ring kit and some stuffing for installing the Legendary seat covers
 
D, thanks for the positive comment and to all those who have provided comments or a thumbs up previously they are much appreciated.

I assembled the grill, trim and bumpers which were all in nice shape with the exception of a few pieces of trim that needed some massaging. The rear taillight assemble was pretty much all there as well with just the right-side cracked Lense which I was able to steal from my other car. I remember purchasing 1 or 2 of these lense assemblies from Year One way back and I'm amazed at the price there getting for them now.

I still have to mount trim for the wheel wells and the lower long strips below the doors but I had the essentials, brake lights, turn signals and headlights. I remember just wanting to get it out of the garage and out for a drive. The lumpy idle of the motor moved me out past the driveway to the street where I goosed it a bit to leave my mark. It was a short drive but satisfying. The front end needs some alignment, dash lights, gas gauge and tach will all need work along with the headlight motors but I knew most of this before I took the ride.
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