when does it become a restoration???

[teddy1500]

I have a 73 charger se, It has spent about 13 years parked in a junkyard, so far I have replaced everything that needs electricity, new brakes (including booster and master cylender) I took it for a ride last night, and now I understand why it spent 13 years in a junkyard, its junk...... the trans is bad, so I am jacking it up to pull the trans and put a good(???) one in.
Al I originally set out to do was make this car "driveable", now I am wondering just how far from "restoring" this car. I am working in the driveway, I don't have a garage, but now a simple project seems to be spiroling out of control, should I back up, strip the car, and do this right? later on, I intend to do a color change, and I'll need to pull the engine then, but, I was hopeing to put a few miles on it untill then.... what should I do?

[dwc43]

If your going to change the color then it's not a restoration at all. You'll be modding a rare car and making it's value drop more than double what it's worth restored to original condition. Since the '73 SE is the one everyone wants and the hardest to find, I would restore it to stock condition as soon as possible. I'd also find a garage to put it in cause you can't restore one oustide. Just have a local tranny shop put a full TCI rebuild kit in it and it will be good to go. www.tciauto.com

[viper11]

those chargers will never be worth big bucks so go ahead and change the colour
if you restore it you will never get all your money back out of it so make a choice
1 make it drivable and drive it till it dies, then pull the motor, give it a quick paint job and go
2 strip it, spend alot of time and money restoring it, then drive it (only on dry days when the temparature is above 71.2 degrees) , wondering why you didn't change the colour
3 make it driveable, send it for a quick paintjob (your new colour choice), get it on the road and enjoy it, without having to worry about date coded radiator hoses (no offence to all you purists)
4 sell it
5 strip it, dissasemble it, then leave it sitting for 13 more years in pieces then sell it
i would pick 1 and 3 but i own a 74 and i dont like em stock

mine is the one at the bottom
just for a comparison (every panel is modified)
jason

[Killer_Mopar]

Im with viper 11 and his #3 choice. You have to remember its YOUR car so if you want the color to be different than dont let SOMEONE else's opinion get to you. Its not like your car is a 440-6 or Hemi car....is it??? I had many people tell me that I should keep my car F8 green with rallye wheels.....but I wanted a Go-mango car with cragars and since its MY car, im going with the Go-mango (it might loose value, but I doubt it). Now for you car, put that trans in and tie up all loose ends, then drive it around and save money for that eventual paint job and whatever else you plan on doing. Its better to enjoy the car now so you know what has to be fixed and what you want out of it later.

[dusterbd]

i had the same question a while ago. my father put it like this:
"Boy, the way i see it, you got two choices. one: do it right, the first time, make it exactly how you want it, and then youre done. Two: do it like youve been doing it. halfway do it, drive it a lot, halfway do it again, and never get where you wanna go."
needless to say, when he told me that, i took the second opinion, because it was just too much fun to drive. i later went on with a full tilt "resto". thats been over a year ago since i started, and its slowly getting towards completion. emphasis on the slowly.
ive done the no garage, no money thing. it sucks. but it is feasable, if you want to do it. paint the parts that you can get in the shed in the shed. have the paint and body done somewhere, because between the wife, kids and work, the car rusts too quick. store the parts at friends houses. it takes longer, but it is doable, especially if youre patient.
also, restoration is a term thrown around way too loosley. a rebuild, with a better suspension, big motor, comfortable seats, etc, isnt a restoration. not enough paint drips and too many creature comforts and modern materials. a full resto is tedious, and in my mind, way too overrated for a driver. if its rare, like a six pack or hemi car, or a 1 of 12 plum crazy purple, green interior sunroof AC 3 on the floor car or something, then yeah, maybe. but its all about what you want from your mopar. if its yours, and youre going to keep it, putting your hard earned time, mony, and sweat into it, build it however you want. you can tell the other naysayers to go straight to....the ford dealer? anyway, do what you want. you are the owner, after all.
hope ive helped.
michael

[dusterbd]

oh, and teddy, im now in ablemarle if you need a hand, lemme know.

[dwc43]

[QUOTE=viper11]those chargers will never be worth big bucks so go ahead and change the colour
if you restore it you will never get all your money back out of it so make a choice


That's bull. I have about 6 of these things right now. The worst one of the lot I would not take less than 10 grand for. The '73 is the rarest and most valued of the '71 to '74 Chargers and as a Rallye or SE that makes it worth even more. The '73 is the one I missing from my collection at the moment. Hard to find an original due to thinking such as yours or hot rodders. Once all the real cars are parted out and rodded then that's it. You know, they don't make them anymore?

[Killer_Mopar]

Rare? Lol theres a shitload of them in OH. Matter of fact, there was one for sale 2 blocks away from me and it was an SE. They cant be that rare and in demand or else the prices would reflect it. Either way, rare or not, its HIS car so he can restore it, hotrod it, or EVEN rice it out because its not my car so I dont care.

[dwc43]

O.k. here's a plain jane 318 car for 14,800 buy it now price with only a 5100 bid on it. That's more than worth it if it's an original car. Like I said, pretty rare cars in original conditions.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6199

[Killer_Mopar]

I like the cars myself modded or not. I done understand why they dont bring in a lot of money.....guess they made too many of them compared to e-bodies, roadrunners, superbees, and whatnot. On a side note.....you have 6 of these things??? where the hell do you keep these massive beasts??? Thats just too many....

[dwc43]

At moms, my brothers and the back of the shop and one in a storage building ... LOL!! I have to have some space for my race cars too !! I got way too many of these things ... LOL!!

[teddy1500]

well, I am glad to get everyones opinion, I thought that the 73 had a high production, but the bottom line is that its a triple green se from lynch road with a 318/904 and a 2.76 in an 8 1/4, it has air, and if I hadn't bought it when I did, it would have been crushed by now, I know this, I was just out to were I got, they had the last of the mopars flat and stacked on top of a flatbed (3 4 door C bodies, and 4 dusters)
I am going to modify this car, eventualy I'll put a 360 in, and yes, the green sucks, Legendary has a NOS charge for the seat covers, unable to find a cobra grain top in green, and I like B7 blue better
I am working in the driveway, allways have, oh, I've had a garage, they are nice, but it seems to become a jail, I put the barracuda in the garage, and it simply vanished, untill the ex wife had draged away (she won it in the settlement, sold it for junk, she is very spiteful) but until now, I have never had a car with this many problems, but Its getting jacked up this week, hope to get the spare trans in by next week.

[George G. Leverette]

The 73 Charger is not listed in the Dodge and Plymouth Muscle Car Red Book. The car on E-bay is not a restoration with: an eddy carb topped off with an after market air cleaner, Chrome valve covers, MSD ignition, red spark plug wires, speakers in the kick panel, extra guages tacked on, dress up pedal kit and with that $5,000.00 paint job, after market radiator, tires and work done on the engine they could have over $14,000.00 in the project. What is the logic of keeping it original the brown grocery getter is certainly not even close to the eye popping Yellow monster machine. Its certainly refreshing to see the Mopar community move away from the numbers matching game and take the improvements of modern technology for improved performance and safety. If its you car do what you wanna do.

[JoeGrapes]

Well Teddy, this is an interesting discussion. I went through the same thing. About 5 years ago I bought a '70 Cuda that came with about half of a '74 Cuda in parts. I was just going to do a quick paint job, rebuild the motor and then re-live my high school days,lol When I went to my first car show I looked at all the nice cars and then looked at mine and it hit me. I wanted a nice car too. So I spent a year and went the restoration route on every nut and bolt on the car myself in my garage.The car turned out great and I have a wall in the garage full of First Place Awards to show for my work. But your right, the cars back then weren't built vary good, don't handle that well and my wife's '96 Z28 is just as fast and rides so much better. I was bored and need more power so I scraped the whole restoration numbers matching thing and started to modify it. I must have done everything twice but I like the car much better and it hasen't hurt me at all in the shows. I also drive the all the time. And about the money, my buddy is always worried about whether he is going to get his money back. I'm not. To me it's like a vacation. When you go on a cruise you don't get your money back do you? I know there must be a moral to this story so it's your car and have to do what makes you feel good. If you do that you won't be disapointed in the end.

[TrashedCharger]

My best friend has a 1973 Dodge Charger SE that has never seen a paint job, the body is rust and dent free, the paint is a bit chalky, the vinyl top is uncracked and shiney, has 94,000 original miles and the interior is beautiful...

He bought the car for $2,800 on ebay in the summer of 2002... the 318 spun a rod bearing and he put in a '73 360 and did it up like a stock 360 4 barrel would have come.

F.Y.I. ... The 1973 Dodge Charger Special Edition was THE highest selling '73 Model for Dodge.

I can go get one with a 1971 440 four barrel, rebuilt 727, 8 3/4 3.23 suregrip, power buldge hood, 15x7 rallye wheels and a perfect black interior that runs 15.6's for $1300 from another friend of mine.

I love these cars, but I just thought you should know the sales history on these cars. I have researched it quite a bit, knowing as many people that I do that have one of them.

P.S. all '73 Charger SE's came with the wire hubcaps whitewall tires, a vinyl top and vinyl top color matched double side pinstripes, an SE hood with the wreath ornament and contour down the center of the hood, the fixed SE quarter windows, all SE badges, air conditioning, power steering, power disc brakes, brocade bench seats and shoulder belts standard.

You could have them with a factory tow package that came with harder rear springs and a chrome factory rear tow hitch (which my friends car has)

If any of you are having a hard time finding '73 SE parts, I have grilles, fenders, badges, etc. and know where lots of these things are.

[TrashedCharger]

P.S. My first car was (and still is) my 1968 Dodge Charger that I worked for 3 years on minimum wage for and looked 5 years for before I could find one that I could afford in 1997.

I wanted to drive it before I restored it, but not even having a permit, my mom was using it without my approval as her daily driver and the same week that I had my driving test she spun it in the intersection of Colfax and Wadsworth and it got nailed by a thrift store donation truck (2 ton isuzu).

I told her not to smoke in it and i pulled a cartons worth of cigarette butts out of the car along with 2 30gal. trash bags full of food trash. The interior had new everything when I bought it. She told me that when I got my own car that I could keep it however I wanted and to stop telling her not to eat, drink soda and smoke in HER car...

I restore cars for a living now and my mother has not spent an hour more in any of my Mopars.

If you have another car, stop working against the grain, pull the engine and trans, paint the engine bay, put the drivetrain back together, prime it, paint it and clean the rest of it up as you put it back together...

It's not worth trying to drive unrestored/refinished...