How many Mopars did you buy for 250 bucks in the mid 70's?

Even got a couple that were running and driving!!
Got a 69 Fury II 4 door with a 383 in it. Had fun with that one

1970 Challenger A66 that was running on 6. Was a complete car with luggage rack and factory rear window louvers. It needed a lot of work to put it back on the street though.

Mustang Fastback with a pretty sick 289.....but fixed it up with a good 289 and put a 4 speed in it.

69 Dodge pickup LWB with 318. Kept that for several years. Like the Fury, didn't do anything to it.

Got a few others but they were in the 400 dollar range. Thing is, 200 bucks in 75 is a few bucks over 1000 now a days but sure can't find very many cars these days (of any kind) for that and it be half way safe to drive even if it did run......

Bought my first car, 1947 Plymouth Business Coupe, cost me $200.00. Charged the battery and drove if home, flat head 6 with 3 on the tree. Drove it for over 3 years and traded it in on a 65 Polara.

Late 70s Early 80s
72SE Charger with a blown rear end 150.00
1970 Charger B3 with locked up 383 250.00
1970 Charger B5 not running, parts car. 250ish
1969 TX9 GTX not running (had water in the fuel) 350ish sold a few weeks later for 3500.00 after cleaning it up a bit.
Had others, don't remember.
My Current 72SE 2500.00 for a basket case POS and 1200.00 in DMV Fees in 2016.

Summer of 1977
Bought a 1969 Roadrunner. 383 auto.
$150 and drove it home.

Thats was the 1st mopar for me.
Within the next 5 years or so . Bought many more.
But the major players were ....
1969 A12 roadrunner body and slightly damaged hood. ...i think i paid $400 ???
1969 roadrunner hemi 4 spd . Complete but apart $3500 WITH the Hemi.
1970 roadrunner body only hemi 4spd $1500
1969 charger Daytona project $1500.
Then bought an nos nose cone for $800
Then an Nos wing $450.


ALL of them long gone now obviously.

Bought a blown motor 69 RR for $10. Perfect front clip, a fresh air package, and a big P differential. Pulled those parts and sold what was left for $10.

I bought a 72 Challenger for $150 to take what I wanted for my Cuda. It was a rust bucket with over 150,000 miles on it. Bought it late 80's.

I remember buying a 69 Charger parts car for50 bucks in the late 80's & I made several hundred off of it. That same car would be worth thousands today.

I traded a well used Ford 289 engine for a running 1970 Challenger Convertible, then a little later I spotted a 1970 Barracuda Convertible in the Free ads shopper and bought it for $2300 from a car lot on Upper Market St in San Francisco,…. Beautiful Bobs used cars. I bought this 62 Savoy from a tweaker recently for $500. I paid $800 for the Cuda 383 4 speed ( pictured at Baylands Raceway aka Fremont)and bought a 70 Barracuda for $150 for the truck deck and gave the car away.

It hurts to think about it.

Bought a 69 340 Dart for $400.
Bought a 71 ragtop Challenger with a 318 for $800.
Wish I'd kept them both.

1979 My grandparents next door neighbor was a professor at FSU finishing his tenure and sold my dad his 66 Plymouth Barracuda formula S 273 Commando and his wife's 62 Plymouth Valiant 4 dr 225 Super six for $500.
I was 16 and guess which car I got to drive to school ? p.s it had 4 doors
In 1981 my buddy got his 3rd DUI and lost his license for 10 years so I bought his 63 Plymouth Belvedere 4dr 318 poly
for $500 and raised my kids in that car. I still have it but it needs restoring which my kids want me to do.

Cheap Mopars bought late 1970's through the 1980's
'67 Coronet 4-door - 318 engine, $175
'67 Coronet 2-door - 318 engine, $200
'68 D250 3/4 ton truck - Blown up 383, but with a Dana 60, $300
'68 Polara 4-door - 318 engine, $50 (Ran, had a shorted alternator and blown fuse link.)
'73 W100 Sno-Fighter - 318 engine (really beat body), $1000 (more than 250.)
'71 Charger - 383 engine Multi-color body panels and plenty of dents, $550

Around 1990 bought my '69 Coronet R/T Hardtop (Project car, needs lots of work) for $600
Found a '69 Coronet /6 car for parts (already partly stripped) for $100, but sold it when I moved houses.
Found a pretty nice '69 Coroner 500 model, 318 engine that was supposed to be a parts car for the R/T, $800. It is way to nice to tear apart for parts, so drove it a few years before tearing into it to fix the minor body issues, and swap in a 360/518. Project on the back burner until I get the '69 R/T Convetible back running again.
The '69 R/T Convert and the '73 Jensen Interceptor costs were way more expensive, but reasonable $20K when I bought the convertible and 17,500 when I bought the Jensen.

'Non-Mopars bought in the 1980's
'73 Audi 100 ls - 4cyl, $300
'68 Pontiac LeMans - 350 engine, $150
'80's (don't recall exact year) Chevy 1/2 ton truck given to me by an Uncle. Straight 6 with bad rod knock.

Summer of '80 I bought a complete, non-running F3 '69 RR for $175. N96, V21, 4-speed car. One of those "young GI never came back from Nam" stories unfortunately. It had been sitting up for a few years and I guess that I caught the owner's father at a time that he was finally ready to see it go.

About a year later I bought an engine-less '67 Formula S Barracuda for $300. Car was perfect except for a small blemish in the passenger fender. PO was going to do a 340 conversion but lost interest. I ended up trading that car for a nice '73 340 Duster and a set of TRW .030" over 13.4 to 1 340 pistons. Those were the days...

My first Mopar was a 66 Valiant $16. My second Mopar was a free 67 Dart Hardtop Slant with a 3.23 suregrip rear.
After that the price went up. 70 340 3 speed Duster for $800. That was in 1974.

I bought my 68 hemi Charger, minus engine & transmission, in 1978 for $800.00. Everyone thought I was crazy because a halfway decent 440 Charger R/T could be bought for around $1,100.00 - $1,500.00.

Paid $500 for my 66 Satellite to bad the hemi block was cracked. Was going to pay $800 but told the guy I had to check the engine since it was on the ground uncovered. Still can feel the sick feeling when turned head bolts on number 5 and 8 cylinders.

I didn't get many for $250,
(I did get a 65 Ford Galaxie 500 for $150)
but my 1st 68 Charger R/T was $350,
in 1974 I was 15
from a neighbor lady after she got divorced'
she needed $$ & I wanted the car
sort of shitty trans, needed bands adj. & new fluid, filter etc
easy fix, I had that car for a long time,
several different engine trans combos...
I sold it to my cousin & he totaled it, in a couple of weeks...

I had 5 68-70 Charger R/Ts at one time, 2 were parts cars
I used to complete the other 3
those 2
would be worth more/better shape (that I got for $500-$1500)
then many, I see POS basket cases, RIP-OFFS
listed today for $30k-$40k-$50k
crazy ****
I'd had 13 gen 2 Chargers all R/Ts until about mid 1990's

I had 11 RRs over that same period, I'm no #13 now

I had even more 67-77 Power Wagons,
a few 77-78 Ramchargers & Traildusters too
got them cheap
Had a lot of older Jeeps too

Bought a lot at an auction thought I was bidding on
one 49 Willys/Kaiser military surplus Jeep, $1500 closed bid
I won the bid & it was for 3 complete Jeeps, 2) 47's & a 49
all L-head (flathead) 4 bangers, the 2) 47's were ruff
all were no miles, stored since new, 2 of them stored outside
new underside but looked ruff as hell on the surface...
I sold the 2) 47s & made one perfect 49 & still had $$ left over
did a gear swap, it had 5.38:1 (so it could go over 55),
I put in 4.30:1 swapped out suspension & rear front axles Dana 35 & 44 etc.
& later an engine swap, 289 Ford K code 4bbl, with a custom pan
& T14 OD 3 speed trans/Spicer transfer-case,
had that Jeep for 25 years...
The flatheads & steep gears were barely driveable on the road,
great out on the farm or hunting, would climb anything & go anywhere
but not good out on the hwy...

I bought a lot of cars during that time many were MoPars
they were cheap, didn't get much respect
I didn't care, more for me...
A bunch of 68-70 RR's & Chargers, a few Darts, Dusters & Demons
a couple of A-body Barracudas too
no E-bodies back then,
they were a tad bit harder to find for cheap
B-bodies, they were dirt cheap, mostly just old used cars...
They seemed to find me...
I had a couple of cars, that people called me & asked me
if I wanted to buy them or come over, just come & get them out
most ran too, I rarely bought something that didn't run

$500-$1500 WAS NOT UNCOMMON

Mostly all Concord, Clayton, Port Chicago, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek
& a few in Antioch or Pittsburg, even out in Brentwood & Oakley areas
all in the (Ca.) SF East Bay, a few in Sacramento/surrounding area too

I bought equally if not more the same amount of
Camaros & Trans Ams or Firebirds,
a few GTOs & a couple of early 442s
a couple of Buick GSs
they weren't collector cars then, just old used cars
many would have been hauled off to the wrecking yard/junkyards

edited;
The pay was far less than too, put it in perspective
$1.65 an hr my 1st job too, grease monkey at a Shell station
I loved it, probably 250+ hrs after taxes to get the $$$
But, took me all summer+ overtime,
just to earn $350 to by my 1st Charger
1977 $6.15 hr IBEW Union, apprentice, PG&E
thought I was in tall cotton... before going to school

@ a $10+ min wage today, would be $2500

$600 for a 69 GTX with a bad engine. 18 Spline and a Dana. Gutted it because it was turquoise and cut it up for scrap.

1967 Satellite, vinyl bucket seats, console, door panels had this Western design and 727, 838 4-barrel. It had every option you could imagine for 65 bucks in 1975. I drove it home, most of the way! 1969 green Road Runner, 383, 3 speed on the floor, no option, period. Ran great, looked good at about 30 feet for 400 bucks in 1974.
1969 green Dart 340, 4 speed, factory 391 gears, no other options. Bought in 1976 for 350 bucks. Didn't run, turned out the distributor was bad, body straight and clean except a rust hole in the drivers quarter the size of your fist. All of us have these great stories. It was a great time and we didn't know it or we'd still have them and many, many more!!

Cranky said:

Even got a couple that were running and driving!!
Got a 69 Fury II 4 door with a 383 in it. Had fun with that one

1970 Challenger A66 that was running on 6. Was a complete car with luggage rack and factory rear window louvers. It needed a lot of work to put it back on the street though.

Mustang Fastback with a pretty sick 289.....but fixed it up with a good 289 and put a 4 speed in it.

69 Dodge pickup LWB with 318. Kept that for several years. Like the Fury, didn't do anything to it.

Got a few others but they were in the 400 dollar range. Thing is, 200 bucks in 75 is a few bucks over 1000 now a days but sure can't find very many cars these days (of any kind) for that and it be half way safe to drive even if it did run......

Click to expand...

Mid 80s 500 was norm for mopar had a 1970 Charger 500 loved it and sold it never again.