Pat@greasemonkeyscientist
Member
hey everyone,
tl;dr/spoiler - (if there are actually some young'uns here that know what that means) - I'm new and I'm happy to be here and finally owning actually my favorite MOPAR.
I'm a LONG time lurker - A-bodies, B-bodies, C-bodies, you name it, I've been around these forums.
When I was a kid, I bought a 1969 Chevy El Camino instead of a 73 Plymouth Duster, because of my Dad, a former 1969 Charger R/T owner told me "Chevy is easier and cheaper to work on than a Mopar."
he was right. That was back in 2000, only 16 year ago, barely. I served in the USCoast Guard, built and tuned my car, made a 7.0 liter before it was cool (dart block, AFR heads, Comp cams solid roller) and SCREAMED down the quarter in the low 11s, all after adamantly believing the "old farts" were wrong and I could "daily drive" that Elky still.
I was totally wrong. She became an incredibly high maintenance, well, "lady of the streets" and I don't own her any longer.
I actually was a "car guy" with no "real" car, for 7 LONG years. I owned a 79 400 T/A during that time, but I had her for about 6 months, and sold her after some work, for a tidy profit I couldn't pass up at the time.
I owned a nice, "older" truck, a 96 GMC 3500 4x4, with 454, and it drove me absolutely nuts. At the time I passed her on, she had only 65,000 miles or so. But she was getting old, she was an SLT, and everything electronic from the fuel pump sending units, to the aftermarket alarm to the power windows were starting to go. All of a sudden, the weekly valve lash adjustments and de-tuning of the HEI distributor to run on unleaded premium seemed, well, simpler.
I decided after always following Hot Rod Magazine, learning about the joys and pitfalls of "Automotive Youtube" and the awesome likes of Mike Musto's "Big Muscle," and of course Finnegan and Freiburger's EPIC show "Roadkill" I wanted a MOPAR. I needed a MOPAR.
So, I found all these forums with the help of my "google-fu."
I still can't believe I'm writing this. I swore I'd not register and apply until after I owned a classic MOPAR, any classic MOPAR... and here I am.
basically, I'm still in shock. I got the car, literally, given in an easy trade from my POS truck, this past MARCH!! and I'm still in shock.
see, I grew up wearing out VHS tapes of Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi and John Landis' movie, "The Blues Brothers." My dad, who foolishly traded in his 3 year old 69 R/T Charger 383/4spd for a freaking F-250 (still swears it was a great deal/idea, I still call him an idjit), was a nice car. Yeah, a year older was the "bad guy" in "Bullit" and if it was classic Hemi Orange instead of Charger Red, she'd have been a "General" I've actually always liked the car, but I'm actually more a fan of earlier Chargers/Coronets, and the later ones that no one seemed to care one iota about when I was a kid. I always loved the big bulging hood and sloped quarters of the 70s ones, and adored the almost "undertaker" look of a menacing black early Charger.
But back to the "Blues Brothers" and their "POS Dodge." I honestly thought I'd own a Fury or a Monaco. I don't mind the big bruisers, they're comfy. I'm not here to "go fast" anymore, I've been there and done that, and hated the high stall torque converter to get there. They're also so much cheaper than anything 1966-1975 of any other body.
yet, in the back of my mind, I dreamed about a B-body four door cop car. Being an old cop car, she'd have that "Blues Brothers" feel for me, just enough. Sam & Dave playing on the 8-track would be killer, and she'd have a nice MOPAR rumble that makes all the other cars at the show jealous and their owners envious. PLUS, she'd be a B-body. "Big" if not "Monsterous" by today's 2+2 ponies and the uber rare import RWDs. But seriously a track width and wheelbase dreams are made of, and a super lightweight chassis and curb weight. There's a reason NASCAR was ruled for quite a while by MOPAR til the other two got pissed enough to red-tape them into obscurity. Let alone other tracks.
I never thought I'd get one though.
The apartment complex I'm living in, had to re-pave the parking lot. My family and I were going out of town that week, for the whole week. I had to get rid of my truck. Long story short, I literally gave that truck away, hoping for "Good greasemonkey karma."
The guy I offered her to? Offered me back a "yeah, I have a 70s Dodge. It's a Cordoba (yeah, seriously, he said that)." And showed me pictures.
Turns out the poor thing probably spent half her life in a mud pit from seasonal monsoons. Textbook old Arizona car, she has minimal rust, but everything rubber is gone. Including it turns out the water pump gasket on the new water pump when I started replacing belts.
But she RUNS!
right now, I want to "Roadkill" the waterpump gasket, just to replace the belts and get her to the car wash to clean all the years of crud and mud off of her, after the obligatory check of the compression ratio, new plugs, and making sure the brakes work well enough. Then it's a carb rebuild and new water pump and ignition (cheap easy stuff for reliability), and she's at a fairly alright spot, for now.
I'm worried about interior trim pieces and headliner and such that have wasted away in the Arizona sun, and Lord only knows what's in the trunk or why she definitely looks like she was stolen/broken into.
but the title is clean, the background came back all good. AND turns out she was a genuine Colorado Cop Car...
again, let's just say I'm still in the "recovering phase" and in a bit of shock still.
here's my album of some pics of the car:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107989279@N03/albums/72157671910128065
and some pretty pictures of the local area, mainly Kingman, but I live in Mohave County, soon to be outside city limits and enjoy the tri-state area as a whole:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107989279@N03/albums/72157671019870151
thanks for having me here, and I can't wait to see what happens
tl;dr/spoiler - (if there are actually some young'uns here that know what that means) - I'm new and I'm happy to be here and finally owning actually my favorite MOPAR.
I'm a LONG time lurker - A-bodies, B-bodies, C-bodies, you name it, I've been around these forums.
When I was a kid, I bought a 1969 Chevy El Camino instead of a 73 Plymouth Duster, because of my Dad, a former 1969 Charger R/T owner told me "Chevy is easier and cheaper to work on than a Mopar."
he was right. That was back in 2000, only 16 year ago, barely. I served in the USCoast Guard, built and tuned my car, made a 7.0 liter before it was cool (dart block, AFR heads, Comp cams solid roller) and SCREAMED down the quarter in the low 11s, all after adamantly believing the "old farts" were wrong and I could "daily drive" that Elky still.
I was totally wrong. She became an incredibly high maintenance, well, "lady of the streets" and I don't own her any longer.
I actually was a "car guy" with no "real" car, for 7 LONG years. I owned a 79 400 T/A during that time, but I had her for about 6 months, and sold her after some work, for a tidy profit I couldn't pass up at the time.
I owned a nice, "older" truck, a 96 GMC 3500 4x4, with 454, and it drove me absolutely nuts. At the time I passed her on, she had only 65,000 miles or so. But she was getting old, she was an SLT, and everything electronic from the fuel pump sending units, to the aftermarket alarm to the power windows were starting to go. All of a sudden, the weekly valve lash adjustments and de-tuning of the HEI distributor to run on unleaded premium seemed, well, simpler.
I decided after always following Hot Rod Magazine, learning about the joys and pitfalls of "Automotive Youtube" and the awesome likes of Mike Musto's "Big Muscle," and of course Finnegan and Freiburger's EPIC show "Roadkill" I wanted a MOPAR. I needed a MOPAR.
So, I found all these forums with the help of my "google-fu."
I still can't believe I'm writing this. I swore I'd not register and apply until after I owned a classic MOPAR, any classic MOPAR... and here I am.
basically, I'm still in shock. I got the car, literally, given in an easy trade from my POS truck, this past MARCH!! and I'm still in shock.
see, I grew up wearing out VHS tapes of Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi and John Landis' movie, "The Blues Brothers." My dad, who foolishly traded in his 3 year old 69 R/T Charger 383/4spd for a freaking F-250 (still swears it was a great deal/idea, I still call him an idjit), was a nice car. Yeah, a year older was the "bad guy" in "Bullit" and if it was classic Hemi Orange instead of Charger Red, she'd have been a "General" I've actually always liked the car, but I'm actually more a fan of earlier Chargers/Coronets, and the later ones that no one seemed to care one iota about when I was a kid. I always loved the big bulging hood and sloped quarters of the 70s ones, and adored the almost "undertaker" look of a menacing black early Charger.
But back to the "Blues Brothers" and their "POS Dodge." I honestly thought I'd own a Fury or a Monaco. I don't mind the big bruisers, they're comfy. I'm not here to "go fast" anymore, I've been there and done that, and hated the high stall torque converter to get there. They're also so much cheaper than anything 1966-1975 of any other body.
yet, in the back of my mind, I dreamed about a B-body four door cop car. Being an old cop car, she'd have that "Blues Brothers" feel for me, just enough. Sam & Dave playing on the 8-track would be killer, and she'd have a nice MOPAR rumble that makes all the other cars at the show jealous and their owners envious. PLUS, she'd be a B-body. "Big" if not "Monsterous" by today's 2+2 ponies and the uber rare import RWDs. But seriously a track width and wheelbase dreams are made of, and a super lightweight chassis and curb weight. There's a reason NASCAR was ruled for quite a while by MOPAR til the other two got pissed enough to red-tape them into obscurity. Let alone other tracks.
I never thought I'd get one though.
The apartment complex I'm living in, had to re-pave the parking lot. My family and I were going out of town that week, for the whole week. I had to get rid of my truck. Long story short, I literally gave that truck away, hoping for "Good greasemonkey karma."
The guy I offered her to? Offered me back a "yeah, I have a 70s Dodge. It's a Cordoba (yeah, seriously, he said that)." And showed me pictures.
Turns out the poor thing probably spent half her life in a mud pit from seasonal monsoons. Textbook old Arizona car, she has minimal rust, but everything rubber is gone. Including it turns out the water pump gasket on the new water pump when I started replacing belts.
But she RUNS!
right now, I want to "Roadkill" the waterpump gasket, just to replace the belts and get her to the car wash to clean all the years of crud and mud off of her, after the obligatory check of the compression ratio, new plugs, and making sure the brakes work well enough. Then it's a carb rebuild and new water pump and ignition (cheap easy stuff for reliability), and she's at a fairly alright spot, for now.
I'm worried about interior trim pieces and headliner and such that have wasted away in the Arizona sun, and Lord only knows what's in the trunk or why she definitely looks like she was stolen/broken into.
but the title is clean, the background came back all good. AND turns out she was a genuine Colorado Cop Car...
again, let's just say I'm still in the "recovering phase" and in a bit of shock still.
here's my album of some pics of the car:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107989279@N03/albums/72157671910128065
and some pretty pictures of the local area, mainly Kingman, but I live in Mohave County, soon to be outside city limits and enjoy the tri-state area as a whole:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107989279@N03/albums/72157671019870151
thanks for having me here, and I can't wait to see what happens
aboard!
