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1968 Dodge Charger: Worth Saving?

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This charger listed here on eBay is believed to have it’s original 383 cid V8 engine. The seller provided lots of detailed pictures in the auction and boy is this Mopar rusty. If it was restored to condition one, it might be worth as much as $50,000, but I don’t believe it could be restored for $34,000 plus the $16,000 asking price, do you? Could you do enough (rust repair, body work, paint, interior, engine etc.) to keep the costs down? Also, is anyone else curious/worried about the screws on the ID plate? What can one do with a car like this? I would hope something besides parting it out, but perhaps not.

Comments

  1. Avatar MH

    Could be fixed yes. But I would rather buy a running driving decent one for 15K. Not for me.

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    • Avatar james burton

      you’re not ging to buy a decent running big block air charger for 16 grand. i don’t care were you live or smoking

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  2. Avatar grant

    The seller would do better to sell whatever he’s smoking….

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    • Avatar Woodie Man

      that was good +1

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  3. Avatar Chuck

    At best this is a parts car. Way too far gone to restore.

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    • Avatar Mark

      Parts car for sure! Rear frame needs to be replaced WOW!!!

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  4. Avatar Ed P

    Sure, this one can be saved, but it is a money pit. Keep shopping, there are better Chargers out there. What is not rusted?

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  5. Avatar bonneville 64

    Ed P the glass is not rusted! Looking at the pictures, the car could be saved, if you had Bill Gates money. the kindest thing a buyer could do is soda blast the entire car to assess is anything is salvageable in the body panels. There appears to have been a skim coat of filler at one time and most is cracking out. Most of the interior is reusable along with the engine, trans, and differential. My personal opinion is about a $2K parts car.

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  6. Avatar Doug Towsley

    Currently ZERO bids at $10k, the BIN is high, but perhaps the seller is too. Not sure the going rate for these but any vintage mopar is worth bank, The rear subframe is pretty bad, and the cancer is advanced, but its not a unsolvable problem,. There are plenty of guys who are good at rust/cancer surgery and welding who can turn this around. So, sooner or later this will find a home,. its not that bad a project. people just get automatically turned off on a project with visuals such as surface rust. The deeper cancer is a problem, but most of what you are seeing is just surface rust and will clean up. The patch panels, and other parts are out there. No guts no glory

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  7. Avatar David

    The frame is rotten, it’s a 383, auto on the colum. Parts car, and you better want rusty parts.

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  8. Avatar james burton

    you idiots this is a big block factory air car. you all act like there is 2 or 3 on every block. save your money up and take it to amd and 2 months you’ve got a perfict new car. my buddy ownes a boddy shop and he gets them alot ruffer than this one that people payed about the same amount of money but there small block no air cars

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  9. Avatar Woodie Man

    We Idiots think one hot grandma had this car built. A slushbox on the column? Airconditioning? What you see is one tenth of the rust that there is. This is among the lamer of Chargers,”big block” or not.

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  10. Avatar The Walrus

    Even the book value detailed in the BF post is a little high… this isn’t even a $40k car, let alone $50k. It’s not an R/T (which could be a 50K car). It’s a standard, low option, Charger. I’ll list the book values from August ’15 OCPG below.

    Even so, all ’68 Chargers are restorable. There are enough aftermarket parts available, and they are by far the most desirable muscle car. Sure there are specific models (like Shelby Mustangs) that are generally more desirable, but the Chargers have an enormous level of desirability regardless of trim level, even among those loyal to other brands. Because all of them are restorable, there is basically no such thing as a “parts car” ’68 Charger, even if many are sitting around and effectively being used in that way. This means, there are no true #6’s. But there are plenty of #5’s. And this sad sack is somewhere in between. It would be foolish to drop a penny more than $4K on this hulk.

    Oh, and the screws on the fender tag are how they are. The screws are body color, as they should be. What’s concerning is that the plate isn’t body color. The pics make it hard to determine whether its the correct plate, as part of the vin is replicated there. I can see the first several letters are correct for a Charger, but the rest is illegible, so you’d have to see it in person to know. It would be strange to swap in that one though, as it’s not a particularly ‘full’ plate.

    1968 Charger
    2d HT 6- 1,480 5- 4,440 4- 7,400 3- 16,650 2- 25,900 1- 37,000
    1968 Charger R/T
    2d HT 6- 1,840 5- 5,520 4- 9,200 3- 20,700 2- 32,200 1- 46,000

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  11. Avatar jd

    I’v cut up and scraped cleaner east Coast Mopars~AAR, 340 4sp cuda’s~Super Bee’s and sadly a couple of Chargers~ Like to save them all~sometimes~you can’t~Had a chance to buy a 70 Road Runner~rusted uni-body~said It was to far gone~700 buck~decided “No Sale~Rusty truck and Torc Bar supports~Damn it~that would have been a Drive it home Saver~ Clean~body/Interior/motor~~~well cared for~

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  12. Avatar Bernardo

    It’s interesting to see that in the US, this can be even considered lost, to be parted… I’m from brazil, and down here since this cars are really rare, any mopar lover would consider this restoration a piece of cake…. I’ve restored more than a couple of cars that were in a lot worse condition than this charger… People would call me insane, but since they’re not abundant here, it would take a lot more rust and rot to scare some folks around here… Please, someone, restore this dodge…. Even if its ends up costing more than its worth… Give it time and it will make up to the investment…

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  13. Avatar Doug Towsley

    I agree Bernardo,,,I traveled all over and lived in a number of countries when i was in the military. So many people would just simply start cutting patch pieces and replacing the rot with good metal. I saw some really skilled craftsman. Here in the US, so many collectors just want to polish the chrome, maybe spray a little paint and anything more is inconceivable, thus impossible, and in a weird twist, want to destroy what they cant fix. Strange concept.
    It always makes me think of that line with Dirty Harry,,”A mans got to know his limitations” If you dont have the skills, let someone who does do the job. Why so many people feel like they have to scrap something I dont understand.

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  14. Avatar BigBlock

    SAVE IT ! SAVE IT !

    I bought one for $18,000 not much better than this one…$22,000 later its all restored and a total of $42,000 its a restored ,showroom beauty !!!! I didn’t do the work either !!

    440 Magnum (orig 383 2bbl car) 727,3.23 sure grip,f-8 green/black bucket seat,front disks,ps,pb,pw.I drive it daily almost and it ran a 12.33 it the 1/4 @ 117 mph with 235/60/14’s on the rear and 225/70/14 front..Slicks its a 11 second car,but its a reliable beast..440 isn’t really done wild,Mopar cam,heads done (best machinist buddy around)

    I also saved a 72 Charger Rallye 400 4bbl,727 3.23 gears..paid $7000 it was solid but interior was gone,none..and $16,000 later,so for total of $23,000 I had a reliable classic Mopar for the price of a new Civic..It also had a bigger cam,higher compression 10:1 just over 400 hp and 560 torque I am a torque guy,and mid 12’s on street tires…and I drove it 70,000 miles in 4 years only 1 small wiring issue..

    Like 0
  15. Avatar Rick C

    Part it out, or some of you big spenders here start bidding.

    Like 0
  16. Avatar Perry

    This one was a lot worse than that. But then again it’s worth a lot more now. Little rust is nothing to be afraid of.

    Like 0

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