383 V8 Project: 1968 Dodge Charger

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The Dodge Charger was created in 1966 as a mid-size pony car given Ford’s recent success with its new Mustang. Sales didn’t take off until the 1968 model year when all of Chrysler’s B-bodied intermediates got redesigned. Suddenly, the Charger was quite popular, jumping from nearly 16,000 units to more than 92,000 in a single flip of the calendar. This ’68 Charger is going to keep someone busy restoring it, and we’re not sure that it’s complete but does come with some new sheet metal. Located in St. Louis, Missouri, this Dodge is offered here on craigslist for $19,000 (OBO) and the seller says you’ll get more car at that price than others out there. Thanks for the tip, Gunter Kramer!

In its second generation, the Charger moved away from the original fastback design to something of a notchback with an integrated front bumper, a lower hood-line, and the famous “flying buttress” rear window. Hidden headlights were still a Charger trademark, with the former electric rotating assemblies having been replaced by simpler, vacuum-operated covers. This is speculation, but the Charger’s sudden surge in demand may have been helped by the car’s prominent role in the 1968 Steve McQueen movie, Bullitt, where a Charger R/T participated in one of celluloid’s greatest car chase scenes ever. Another case in point is the spike in sales for the Pontiac Trans Am after Smokey and the Bandit.

We don’t know a lot about this ’68 Charger as the seller chooses to focus on the fender or cowl tag. True it’s a WP29 Charger, but it’s not the more desirable R/T model but it did leave the factory with a 383 cubic inch V8 with a 4-barrel carburetor. The engine compartment looks kind of lonely now with things like the master brake cylinder and the air cleaner nowhere in sight. Not exactly “all there.”

The seller acknowledges that the car has rust issues, pointing to the rear frame rails but there are no photos provided of that end of the automobile. Boxes show two new rear quarter panels and a floor pan, so those must be areas that need attention, as well. The Charger Red (?) paint has given up the ghost, there are no remnants of the car’s vinyl roof that were installed on 75% of Chargers sold that year, and the driver’s side fender and bumper are bent.

An entire new interior may be in order as what we can see has fallen prey to Mother Nature because all the photos show the car outside with the windows down. Perhaps this Dodge is a great start for a restoration as the seller says, but I’d be inclined to ask him the million questions he doesn’t want to get before spending this kind of money.

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Comments

  1. Bluetec320 Bluetec320

    Just’a good ol’ boys
    Never meanin’ no harm.
    Beats all you never saw
    Been in trouble with the law
    Since the day they was born

    Staightnin’ the curves
    Flatnin the hills
    Someday the mountain might get ’em
    But the law never will

    Makin’ their way
    The only way they know how
    That’s just a little bit more
    Than the law will allow.

    Like 13
  2. Charge 👍👀

    Must be electric conversion as no carburetor on engine 😉

    I feel the need .. the need for OHMs 😉

    It does look less rusty than many mopars for sale at Covidocity expanded pricing 👍

    Like 4
    • shelbyGT500Member

      You don’t need carburator when you have a “Zero Emission Vehicle”.LOL

      Like 4
    • Robert

      Looks like a pile of scrap iron to me.

      Like 2
      • Gary

        You don’t know much, do you?

        Like 2
    • Gary

      There is a carb on the engine

      Like 0
  3. Chasbro

    I just can’t understand why anyone would leave a car, even indoors, stored for years with the windows down, unless they are missing, then decades later try to get big money for it.

    Like 16
  4. Rw

    Change do you know the difference between a Carb and a Air cleaner, also them Duke boys didn’t need no windows.

    Like 6
  5. DON

    I dont think this car was “charger red” , it sure looks this was originally gold. Its rough to say the least , but its almost 55 years old and there’s still a demand for this body style ! .

    Like 4
    • RC Graham

      Were it originally gold, then that red interior would not only make it SPECTACULAR, but one of the rarest combos out there.

      Like 4
      • DON

        well the roof is gold, the firewall was gold as were the inner fenders and the floor looks like it may still be gold. Interiors can be changed, but it could have been a gold with red interior car

        Like 2
  6. Troy

    What rust is hiding under that vinyl top looks like a fun project

    Like 0
  7. steve

    EVIDENTLY, MOPAR owners of the 60’s and 70″s didn’t think like FORD owner’s of the 40’s & 50″s……FORD owners garaged, shedded, covered the old FORDS so they wouldn’t ROT to the ground and some now have expensive old FORDS that are ready to ride. MOPAR owners just put their vehicles out in the yard until they become RUST BUCKETS…….

    Like 1
    • bone

      Do you only look at Mopar finds ? There are plenty of rotted away Fords and Chevies listed here every day, as well as Mopars. Like every car make ,some were taken care of , some were wrecked, others just driven into the ground and left to rot. Just because you see Rusted out Chargers listed here doesn’t mean they all were

      Like 4
  8. DON

    well the roof is gold, the firewall was gold as were the inner fenders and the floor looks like it may still be gold. Interiors can be changed, but it could have been a gold with red interior car

    Like 1
    • RC Graham

      Wow. If original, it would have to be pretty rusty before this would not be worth restoring.

      Like 2

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