Even though the Dodge Challenger was sort of a late entry into the popular pony car market, buyers seemed to instantly fall in love with it as just shy of 80,000 managed to find homes during the inaugural model year in 1970. But of that total, fewer than 4,000 were droptops, making this 1970 Dodge Challenger Convertible here on eBay a bit of a rarity. It’s a fairly basic E-Body and a small block car, but the level of originality here is impressive plus it’s only been driven a total of 56k miles. This one’s another offering from FNK Classic Cars in Walkersville, Maryland, and cruising around their website it looks like these are primarily Chevy guys, so it’s pretty cool to see that they’ve taken an interest in this Mopar. So far, 7 bids have taken the price up to $27,900, although that’s still short of the reserve.
The story goes that the Challenger was parked in 1994 and stayed idle until 2020 when a friend of one of the FNK owners bought the car and got it going again. An informative YouTube Video is included where we get to spend about 20 minutes with the Dodge, and some good news is the 318 seems to be running OK and things under the hood appear to be mostly unmolested. A new alternator has been added along with a new fuel pump and gas tank, which brings up the question that’s always debatable as to whether or not preserving the factory powerplant is a better choice than replacing it with something beefier. My two cents is keeping the li’l 318 and retaining as much originality here as possible.
The sellers call the car an unrestored example and mention that there’s very little rust present outside, with just a couple of corroded areas on the body that the next owner may want to address. One is the typical lower quarter panel spots which seem to be more prevalent on the driver’s side here, but a more unusual area is the front fender on the passenger side which appears to have quite a bit of rust on top in the front. Not that this is an unheard-of spot for rust to appear, but it seems like an area that would be more prone to corrosion on an E-Body that has lots of rust all the way around. In any event, a replacement factory panel in good condition will be included in the sale.
Things inside appear to be in overall decent shape and mostly complete, with at least one crack in the dash but the instruments are looking surprisingly good. The trunk pan is said to need patching, but down below is stated as solid, with the floors claimed to be perfect. The sellers also provided a few photos from underneath and the frame appears to be in fine shape, plus it’s kind of refreshing to see a Challenger with just a single exhaust pipe, which seems to be another piece of evidence of how little this one has been tampered with over the years. I’d be tempted to just give this Challenger a good tune-up and carburetor rebuild and drive it around town like it is for a while, but would also understand if the next owner decides to give it a full restoration sooner rather than later. What would you do?
Clean. I would freshen up and drive for now,While i build a nice 440 to drop in . I would retain the 318 and freshen that up as well keep in the garage. set of tires and stock mags and enjoy.
What would I do? I’d spend the same amount of money, or maybe even less, on that beautiful 68 F100 Ranger previously listed. No brainer.
Amen!
A relative had a convertible in the 80’s in the same color combo but his had a rare combo of a white interior and 6 cyl.
Fun car to cruise around in.
When I was in high school looking for a car, I ran across a ’70 Challenger that looked just like this one. It wasn’t a hot rod like this one though; it was equipped with that leanin’ tower of power, the 225 straight six.
And it had one more odd feature — a factory cassette tape recorder. Not a tape player, but a tape recorder. For making dictation, I guess. It was the ultimate secretary’s car.
The challenger you recall was a 1971. That was the year they offered the console (or floor) mounted cassette player with a microphone for dictation. The only tape player option in 1970 was an 8-track.
There’s a project car in my area that’s for sale. It’s all complete and original but needs a full restoration. It’s a convertible, Plum Crazy with white interior and the original 318. I think that color combo is awesome.
where is it tom?
pictures?
asking price?
number?
I’m interested. Can you provide a price? Location? How best to take this offline?
DonC you get on eBay and bid like everyone else.
Oddly, unlike the other pony cars, many of these had the optional body side molding – like this one.
Personally, I’d refresh the body/interior/top/318 as needed, add a dual exhaust w/ OEM valance and tips, a set of Magnums and maybe source an R/T hood. Then I’d happily cruise around, smiling from ear to ear, LOL!! GLWTA!! :-)
Definitely a cool cruiser! Like Moparman said just freshen it up and add a dual exhaust and go cruise with the top down! Maybe add a set of Rallye wheels or Road Wheels but those hubcaps have some character to them. Will have the V8 soundtrack and get halfway decent mileage!
318 is receptive to the usual improvements. The 340 is based on the 318 block. I would keep the block (matching numbers you know) and build what I want for today’s needs.
needs trunk pan desparately… owner sent me photos when i requested/// why not post them in the ad vs just saying some issues… guess it is sweat rust!
Yep, typically rust for this body type. My ’73 Barracuda had the same rear quarter and upper fender rust through by 1980.
If one side has it, you can bet the other side does as well.
I’m with Moparman on this one. With everything being cloned into R/Ts it’s refreshing and rare to a surviving non modded base model. As I get on in years I regretting having converted my convertible Challenger to a 4 speed but I don’t have enough regret to undo it.
By the way, I wasn’t talking about bidding on this one. I replied to TomP that he has a project car in his area. I can’t bid on that without his help.
That seems a very low price so far for what I am guessing is a numbers matching car in that lovely blue and oh so original and low mileage. And a ragtop to boot.
Wondering where Mike Brady is from The Brady Bunch he drove one just like this beautiful Challenger.
Barracuda
Being a Mopar drag racer I do not see the value of a rag top, but for a driver I’d just restore to original and drive it.