Seeking advice for my 1969 Charger Project plans!

[Ex_Birdgunner]

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/mopar...hat-kind-of-value-price-increase-can-I-expect

Good Day Everyone,

Before I get to what advice I am looking for a little background is provided in the link above to another one of my topics concerning my plans to do a project car. Long story short things have changed that will allow me to get the car I want in about 2 years from now instead of 12 years when I retire from the Air Force.

The 1969 Charger has long been my dream car and while my attached post mentions that I would consider a 1970/71 Challenger I am doing my best to keep my eyes on the prize and go for the Charger. My original plan for the Charger project was to find any decent Charger (Base, SE or RT) and build it like one that I would have ordered if I bought it new in 1969. That would have been an RT/SE HEMI Orange with Tan Interior, Big Block Engine and 4 Speed Transmission. I'm even considering painting it a more modern colour of Toxic Orange.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet Mark Worman and Royal Yokum from Graveyard Carz and I mentioned to Mr. Worman of my desire to restore a 1969 Charger. He was kind enough to offer me one piece of advice that has be wondering what to do. He told me to put a little more money into the project when I go to purchase the car and get an RT because at the end of the day any other Charger will be a Non-RT or even just a 318 car. But what if I found a big block SE car that wasn't an RT. Should I still hold out for the RT? I mean unless I find an original 1969 Charger that has everything on my list should I not worry about getting an RT?

Now you must understand that I did not have the time to get into details of what I wanted to do with the project so maybe Mr. Worman was speaking merely from the perspective of an OEM restoration, which he prides himself over on the show. The below CL ad is an example of the closest original Charger that I could find which meets most of my criteria and if I was able to get it I would restore it to factory.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/4576622053.html

unfortunately I am about 1 1/2 to 2 years out from getting something like that so in the meantime I am watching the prices and building up my knowledge base.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any advice is appreciated.

Denis

 

[Car Nut]

There's a lot of rust on that one, I wonder what the frame rails, floor and trunk look like. In my opinion, the least rusted cars would of lived their lives in Ut., Co., Az. and Tx. He's asking $5,800 too much.

 

[747mopar]

Haha, that was my same 2 cars that I really wanted and ended up with a 69 Charger. Well it depends on whether you want an investment and are willing to keep it stock or if you want to customize the car? I wanted a 318 car when I started looking because I knew I wanted to make it my own and didn't want to worry about ruining the value of an R/T. I will say after building one your further ahead to pay a fair amount more to get a better starting point than to get it cheap and have to replace everything.

 

[Ex_Birdgunner]

There's a lot of rust on that one, I wonder what the frame rails, floor and trunk look like. In my opinion, the least rusted cars would of lived their lives in Ut., Co., Az. and Tx. He's asking $5,800 too much.

I agree that it looks quite rusty. I considered contacting the seller for more pics of the underside but since I can't purchase right now I decided to wait. I still hope that it gets saved though even if it has a lot of rust.

Haha, that was my same 2 cars that I really wanted and ended up with a 69 Charger. Well it depends on whether you want an investment and are willing to keep it stock or if you want to customize the car? I wanted a 318 car when I started looking because I knew I wanted to make it my own and didn't want to worry about ruining the value of an R/T. I will say after building one your further ahead to pay a fair amount more to get a better starting point than to get it cheap and have to replace everything.

I see your point about not ruining the value of an R/T so I might look more at the non-R/T option unless I found one that is HEMI Orange. The goal is to get this for my 40th Birthday in 2.5 years so I have time to raise the money to ensure I get something at a good starting point.

 

[Xp29h]

I would think there will be many opinions on the base, se, or r/t models and which way to go, either buying a rough one and make it your own or spend a little more and get more to begin with. IMO, I've bought cars from very rough, $300 bucks on up to my latest. Although it tougher to spend more up front, I really believe that your better off. You can still make it your own while enjoying the vehicle while you do so. IMO, you'll spend a lot more to restore the basket case. Good luck!

Sounds like you're plan is a good one to watch and learn until you're in a good spot to purchase! I looked for over 3 years!

 

[Richard Cranium]

You can't go wrong by starting off with a solid body, especially a real R/T. Of course you will have to pay more for it, but in the long run, it will cost you less. You always get what you pay for. Keep in mind that you will be dumping some serious bucks into this, especially if you are paying others to do the job for you. Trust mne when I say that is not out of the realm of possiblity that you could dump 50 large into a restoration and if it's only a 318 or 383 2barrel car, when it comes time to sell, it may only be worth 35 or less depending on the amount of customization. That's because anyone who is willing to spend big bucks wants the real McCoy. You don't see R/T clones going for much more than that and most of them are hacked together rust buckets.

Case in point.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Dodge-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That car had a BIN price of about 100 large a couple months ago!



My advise would to get a R/T & paint it a stock color. If you deviate from stock mechanicals, just make sure that the non-stock items are bolt-ons. In other words, keep the body all stock in appearance. Of course, if money is no object & future resale doesn't matter, then do whatever you want.

 

[Budnicks]

Like others have said, If you can afford it, I'd highly suggest you get a car "in much better condition to start with", with far less rust & countless hours searching, cutting, grinding, pounding, sanding filling, welding, painting, shipping & restoring or finding expensive & sometimes of the more expensive &/or hard to find parts...


A car 1969 Charger with all the parts will be a "minimum of probably $15k" for a good candidate, most any decent 2nd gen 68-70 Chargers less than that, you will spend a bunch more $$$, just to get it to the same level of the $15k-$20k level of running/driving cars & actual complete drivers, that already out there...

Find something almost finished, that someone bailed on if you can, if the money's right, you'll be far ahead of the game, not waste as much time searching for & replacing every panel or frame or wheel housing, because of rust/rot...

I do all my own work on all my own cars & I couldn't build a full on car, that I would want, for what you can usually buy one, that's close to what you want, already almost finished & just add your touches for probably far less $$$$$ & especially more time enjoying it, in the long run...

good luck, have fun, you've got 2.5 years to save $$$ for a better starting point

 

[Ex_Birdgunner]

I would think there will be many opinions on the base, se, or r/t models and which way to go, either buying a rough one and make it your own or spend a little more and get more to begin with. IMO, I've bought cars from very rough, $300 bucks on up to my latest. Although it tougher to spend more up front, I really believe that your better off. You can still make it your own while enjoying the vehicle while you do so. IMO, you'll spend a lot more to restore the basket case. Good luck!

Sounds like you're plan is a good one to watch and learn until you're in a good spot to purchase! I looked for over 3 years!

You can't go wrong by starting off with a solid body, especially a real R/T. Of course you will have to pay more for it, but in the long run, it will cost you less. You always get what you pay for. Keep in mind that you will be dumping some serious bucks into this, especially if you are paying others to do the job for you. Trust mne when I say that is not out of the realm of possiblity that you could dump 50 large into a restoration and if it's only a 318 or 383 2barrel car, when it comes time to sell, it may only be worth 35 or less depending on the amount of customization. That's because anyone who is willing to spend big bucks wants the real McCoy. You don't see R/T clones going for much more than that and most of them are hacked together rust buckets.

Case in point.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Dodge-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That car had a BIN price of about 100 large a couple months ago!



My advise would to get a R/T & paint it a stock color. If you deviate from stock mechanicals, just make sure that the non-stock items are bolt-ons. In other words, keep the body all stock in appearance. Of course, if money is no object & future resale doesn't matter, then do whatever you want.

Like others have said, If you can afford it, I'd highly suggest you get a car "in much better condition to start with", with far less rust & countless hours searching, cutting, grinding, pounding, sanding filling, welding, painting, shipping & restoring or finding expensive & sometimes of the more expensive &/or hard to find parts...


A car 1969 Charger with all the parts will be a "minimum of probably $15k" for a good candidate, most any decent 2nd gen 68-70 Chargers less than that, you will spend a bunch more $$$, just to get it to the same level of the $15k-$20k level of running/driving cars & actual complete drivers, that already out there...

Find something almost finished, that someone bailed on if you can, if the money's right, you'll be far ahead of the game, not waste as much time searching for & replacing every panel or frame or wheel housing, because of rust/rot...

I do all my own work on all my own cars & I couldn't build a full on car, that I would want, for what you can usually buy one, that's close to what you want, already almost finished & just add your touches for probably far less $$$$$ & especially more time enjoying it, in the long run...

good luck, have fun, you've got 2.5 years to save $$$ for a better starting point

Thanks guys for all the feedback. I did know from some others locally that spending more in the beginning for a solid body will save me more for the restoration. I just never considered the question of getting a true R/T versus a base model until Mr. Worman gave that as his advice.

Would I be better off getting any R/T even if I build and paint it my own colour, either HEMI Orange or Toxic Orange? Or would this route "ruin the value" since I didn't paint it back to it's original colour?

No matter what though, I will spend the next while watching the awesome restorations here at FBBO to learn and gain more insight for when I am ready to get my car. You guys are all very talented and knowledgeable about these cars and I thank you again for your advise.

Denis

 

[Propwash]

What are you basing your buying an R/T vs. a non-R/T off of? Just resale? Sentimental? From what I've seen of Charger "Project cars", the R/T's are marked up about 40-50% vs. a non-R/T.

If you're going for resale, and R/T would be the way to go. Either way you swing it, it's gonna cost about relatively the same to restore one or the other (unless a HEMI car), and like RC mentioned...it can be a boat load....real quick! If you're just building the car for you and resale is not the first thing on your radar, or having a true R/T isn't a factor, you'd save a few bucks on the front-end, but would lose some on the back-end.

 

[Ex_Birdgunner]

What are you basing your buying an R/T vs. a non-R/T off of? Just resale? Sentimental? From what I've seen of Charger "Project cars", the R/T's are marked up about 40-50% vs. a non-R/T.

If you're going for resale, and R/T would be the way to go. Either way you swing it, it's gonna cost about relatively the same to restore one or the other (unless a HEMI car), and like RC mentioned...it can be a boat load....real quick! If you're just building the car for you and resale is not the first thing on your radar, or having a true R/T isn't a factor, you'd save a few bucks on the front-end, but would lose some on the back-end.

I was initinally not concerned at all with getting a true R/T to start with, just the best overall car to lower the potential cost of the restoration. The only way I was not going to build it my way was if I found a numbers matching big block car, whatever the trim level. For me the project was not an investment for resale but something to do for me. Right now my plan is to save up between $8000-$10000 for the initial purchase, hopefully for a driver, and work on it over time to what I have in my mind. In the meantime I am researching as much as I can and building up my tool box.

So far I have a couple of books and manuals in my library and I just won this one on eBay. http://www.amazon.com/Charger-Runne...8&qid=1407556860&sr=1-3&keywords=1969+charger

I plan to add more literature to my library on the 1969 Charger. Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Denis