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Big Money B-Body: 1969 Dodge HEMI Charger!

The iconic appearance of the 1969 Dodge Charger in various TV shows and movies over the years have done nothing but increase the value of these cars as those who grew up with the shows and movies begin to find the flexible income necessary to own one. Because they have become one of the most iconic American muscle cars, just about any old model of 1968-1970 Charger is valuable. Subsequently, the desirably optioned cars that are more valuable to begin with can really fetch a hefty price! With only 74,000 miles since new, this Charger 500 is certainly something of a unicorn and can be found here on eBay in Florida with bidding already at $78,078 and reserve not met. 

The big money in this car lies under the hood in the form of a 426 Chrysler Hemi. This engine is numbers matching original to the car as is everything else. This Charger is an older restoration that still shows very well, and nothing is said about the engine other than it is original and runs nice and quietly. With such low mileage on the car, it is very unlikely that this engine has seen a full rebuild however it is entirely possible that during the restoration it was freshened up to look nice and match the rest of the car. Hooked up to a 4-speed manual transmission, this 426 powered Charger is made of the same stuff as dreams!

One of only 27 1969 Charger 500s built with the 426 Hemi and 4-speed manual, the green on green color combination could easily make this a one of a kind car. The seller does not state whether or not the interior has been recovered, but it is hard to believe that these seats have stayed this nice over the course of almost 49 years and 74,000 miles. Restored or not, the interior is in excellent condition with a very original appearance and lots of green!

Though the person driving the Charger in this rolling shot is likely the current owner, it isn’t hard to picture yourself sitting in his place! All of the original sheet metal, structural or otherwise is still in place and in good condition which is quite a rarity on B-body Chrysler products. This car is a valuable collector’s item given the drivetrain and cosmetic condition and will likely be kept and sold as such for many years to come.

Comments

  1. Avatar Josh_T

    I found myself clapping and bouncing up and down at my desk as I read this…

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    • Avatar john dump

      Waaaaay overpriced

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      • Avatar Rick

        Repeat yourself ten years from now.

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      • Avatar Rick

        Repeat yourself ten years from now.

        I sold my first ground up restored hemi SuperBee in 1992 for $45k. My last unrestored original So.Cal 70 RT/SE Hemi Charger in 2012 for $75k

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  2. Avatar P

    What’s up with the headlights?

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    • Avatar Brad

      The headlights are flush mounted (from the Coronet I believe) and the rear window is also a flush mount. The original Charger 500 was the car that proceeded the Daytona Charger as both were built for NASCAR. Very rare car! With the Hemi and 4 speed and you’ve got an easy 6 figure car.

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      • Avatar glen

        I believe it preceeded the Daytona. To me, these are priceless!

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      • Avatar Srt8

        I love the ’69 500’s with the one off rear window and flush mounted grill. Unfortunately they did not continue this practice for the ’70 500’s.

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    • Avatar Mitch

      It’s a Charger 500. They came with the flush grille & flush with the body rear window. They are even more rare than a Super Bird. They only built so many to be able to run them in NASCAR.

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      • Avatar James

        I believe they were supposed to build 500 in order to run them in NASCAR, but the actual total is somewhere between 392 and 403 I believe. Dodge sent these to Creative Industries to have the flush grille, rear window plug and chrome A pillars installed. I’ve been told that the earliest ones were actually 68 bodies. One of the rarest Mopars around.

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  3. Avatar Jeffro

    If Kermit the Frog owned a muscle car, it would be this. That’s alot of green. Beautiful car. Perfect options, but alot of green.

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  4. Avatar John M.

    Bidding has already reached $80 grand and the auction won’t end for another week.

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  5. Avatar Scot Douglas

    Beautiful.

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  6. Avatar JW

    Love it but stupid money, this is exactly why the working class is being moved out of the musclecar market.

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    • Avatar boxdin

      Problem is “investing” in a car has become acceptable. Guys are putting their 401k in cars or other vehicles that can be insured for a value. Plus they drive it occasionally. Other factors too but the market is maturing.

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      • Avatar SSPBill

        You’re describing a bubble. Like any other it will have to burst. $80k is way out of my reach now. If I stay upright long enough maybe I will be lucky enough to see this beauty again at a price I can afford!

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  7. Avatar R.hernandez

    Andrew as I was reading your write up.
    I was praying as I was scrolling down that you wouldn’t show an empty engine bay.
    And saying….unfortunately the original drive train is long gone.
    But you didn’t…its there it’s all There!
    I’m tearing up as I write this.
    Awesome car!

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    • Avatar Andrew Tanner Member

      That got an audible laugh out of me! I understand, too often we see these rare and valuable cars with the original drivetrain missing. It was exciting for me to see that this car is intact!

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  8. Avatar redwagon

    I don’t know a whole lot about homologation (it’s that even a word?) cars, esp Mopars. I would have mistaken this for just another Chrysler product with a hemi and a 4sp.

    Reading the original window sticker I see it was sold to a local (to me) Duluth, MN dealer. Cannot believe that car started in Minnesota long or that it was driven in winter — at all. Way too nice.

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    • Avatar Billy

      Sure wouldn’t be driving it in Duluth this week, for sure, esp. near Canal Park. Don’t you wish we had ran into this car for sale, say about, 1980? (Okay, me, not we) Sure wouldn’t have any trouble getting up those hills. Of course, people in Duluth are so darn inconsiderate at stop lights on those hills when they come up behind you, usually less than a foot or two. Those of us who drive sticks, think twice about using them in that great city. People like that should be tossed off the Enger Tower!

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    • Avatar Ron

      Homologation is a way for race sanctioning organizations preventing auto manufacturers from building unique “race only” cars or parts to compete in a class that was considered “stock”, like NASCAR used to be.

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    • Avatar gbvette62

      Homologate or homologation is derived from a Greek word which I think meant something like “agreed” or “to agree”?

      As Ron said, automakers are usually required to build a certain number of a particular model, engine, etc, to race in stock or production classes. FIA endurance racing and SCCA use to require 50 or 100 to be built, NASCAR required 500. Automakers actually had to provide “homologation papers” to a sanctioning body, to prove that they had built the required number of cars.

      Of course, sometimes an enterprising car company or company engineer(s), would submit fake or bogus papers, to get a car into competition. Sometimes it was a matter of putting the papers in early, before all the cars were built. Other times it was completely fraudulent, like in 68, when some Pontiac engineers submitted papers to the SCCA, claiming that Canadian Firebirds were available with Z/28 302’s, so they could race Firebirds in the Trans-Am Series.

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      • Avatar Rocco

        “some Pontiac engineers submitted papers to the SCCA, claiming that Canadian Firebirds were available with Z/28 302’s, so they could race Firebirds in the Trans-Am Series.”

        I never heard that, but sounds reasonable, since there were 283 Chevy eng. in some Pont. in Canada. Pretty cool scenario. But, since you made a point about it, it must not have happened. Cool story.

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      • Avatar ccrvtt

        The story goes that legendary racer Jerry Titus found a Z/28 Camaro privateer and converted it to look like a Firebird. He was fairly successful with it. The justification for homologation approval was that Pontiac used some Chevy engines in their Canadian products. All perfectly legitimate…

        See Enzo Ferrari and the 39, er 100, GTOs.

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      • Avatar John C Cargill

        The Firebirds that did get into SCCA were destroked, 400s. As for homologation, GTO stands for Grand Turismo Omologato.

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  9. Avatar Fred W.

    This car is amazing. Makes me glad I’m not into late 60’s Mopars as my garage would be empty due to lofty pricing.

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  10. Avatar Mike

    Low miles??? Back then 50K was midway and 75 was needing motor rebuilt. You’re basing you low mileage on today’s cars, not cars from that era. This is high mileage car from back then.

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    • Avatar Roman Macias

      Low mileage for how many years it’s been alive. Divide the mileage by 48 years and you get whatever your calculator says.

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    • Avatar Andrew Tanner Member

      While I don’t doubt what you’re saying, at 48 years old with 74,000 miles it is low mileage for its age.

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  11. Avatar ccrvtt

    This car could have 174,000 miles and still be worth a ton. It’s in great condition, refurbished or otherwise, and it’s a truly iconic car – just say “Hemi 4-speed”. Even the casual Mopar observer of a certain age will know what it is.

    And it is spectacular.

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    • Avatar Jeffro

      Funny, but when you say “Hemi and four speed”, gearheads ears always perk up. Regardless of their respective brand loyalty.

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  12. Avatar 68 custom

    a 69 Charger 500 with a 4 speed and Hemi is a rare and desirable car, I bet the reserve is in excess of 100k. cool car wonder if the engines ever been apart with the fairly high mileage? when did pistol grip shifters become an option?

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    • Avatar Steve R

      They started using the pistol grip in 1970.

      Steve R

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      • Avatar Rocco

        @ Steve,
        Are you sure about that? I remember getting to sit in the drivers seat of a 426 wedge car in my high school days, ’65-’66 time frame. I’m 99 & 44/100% sure it had a pistol grip shifter. Could I be wrong?

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      • Avatar JimZ

        Rocco, a few friends had mopars back then and I think it was late 69-70 that the pistol grip handles came from the factory and they hit big. I also remember in very old JC Whitney catalogs metal handles being sold, possibly Cal Custom or another company producing them. After I move and get past the last surgeries(great couple of yrs!) I’ll be unpacking my automotive library and I’ll try to find and post a picture. Chrysler may not have had the idea but they may as well have. Maybe some other old fart lol will remember seeing a similar item in the back of an old car magazine.

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  13. Avatar Lounge

    $80K is a chump bid for this car. Pre 70’s hemi four-speed in likely a 1 of 1 color combo in this condition – please – it’ll go closer to a quarter mil than $80k.

    Like 0
  14. Avatar Oil Slick

    I think it’s UGLY. Green is such an ugly color on these cars and is not flattering. That interior is drab and ugly to. Hemi is cool but that’s about all it has going for it in my book.

    Like 0
    • Avatar LAB3

      It really hides the lines of the car, it’s too bad a color change would hurt the value so much.

      Like 0
      • Avatar John C Cargill

        Unfortunately, those ugly shades of green were fashionable even in home furnishings in that era.

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    • Avatar Rick W Ball

      Oh-No! And it’s gotta salvage, too!

      Funny… When I sold my ’70 RTSE Hemi Charger back in 2012 for $75K, I first offered it to all the local SoCal/L.A. Mopar crowd. Everyone who came to look at it tried to nickel and dime it down as low as $40K. Eventually I got fed up and offered it on CL and within 3 days a fellow from Finland flew in, inspected the car and within 2 hours bought it for 75k. Did not flinch and had it paid in cash and in a shipping container within a week.

      Jump ahead a couple years and rumors still fly at every West Coast Chrysler Performance West Spring Fling about how the last rust-free original Hemi(1 of 9 built, 1 of only four surviving and of only 5 automatics), from out of Southern California, was snatched right out from under everyone by… another one of those “damn foreigners”.

      Like a bar of gold being passed up because its got scratches on it. Or better put; “Nothing’s more expensive than a cheap Mercedes” – Alfred Hitchcock.

      Like 0
      • Avatar boxdin

        I had tried to sell a 72 charger disc brake front end on CL for years until some CA guys called, we met when they took a cruise around the west;
        They picked up a nice body in Mont for a few hundred, some other parts in Utah, my front end and got back to CA w a complete car for a fraction of the CA price. Nice road trip too,

        Like 0
  15. Avatar Lounge

    The only tragedy here is that it’s on ebay.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Rick W Ball

      The tragedy is he couldn’t sell it locally

      Like 0
  16. Avatar Gunner

    My absolute dream car right here. Number one. Being that it is a Hemi 4-Speed car is just a bonus. Beautiful lines, and from an opinionated gearheads perspective, a work of rolling art.

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  17. Avatar rough diamond

    Absolutely stunning! Must wipe the drool off of my keyboard protector now.

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  18. Avatar lawyer George

    Gads! I hate green. I didn’t like the grille headlight treatment and still don’t. I had a ’74 which for some reason they choose the ugly green interior this one has. I hated it so much that I sold it to friend a few months later and he ran the wheels off of it for 15 years and sold it to his daughter’s boyfriend. To purify myself I bought a new white.white&white Chrysler Cordoba.which brought me recovery.

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    • Avatar Rick W Ball

      Damn! Exactly! I said the same thing about a Picasso I passed up back in ’71.

      Pssst…! A little secret… I really just couldn’t afford it. Even back then.

      Like 0
  19. Avatar JimZ

    In the 70’s when street racing(yeah and I loved it) whenever a Hemi showed up and uncorked the headers you could feel the vibration in your body. Only the guys with the biggest stones would challenge them. Unlike what’s on tv these days we used the same cars daily then put slicks on Friday n Saturday nites and loaded the gas tank with Sunoco 260 or a can of Moroso additive. It was fun, I’m glad I’m alive but no racing anymore unless I’m at the track. Its still like a drug hearing a nice big engine n open headers! This car will probably be destined to a collection and never be used again properly.

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    • Avatar Rick W Ball

      Hah! Yep! After slippin on the cheaters used to head down the hill into Torrance, to Hot Rod City on Sepulveda, and fill up on 110 jet blue. Can still smell it…

      Like 0
  20. Avatar Grumpy

    Beautiful car! I would sure like to take it for a spin and get those twin 4bbl’s open.
    Interesting that the sale’s invoice say’s stripe delete. There is a stripe on the trunk in the picture’s.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Rocco

      When the car was probably repainted years ago, they probably put the stripe on then. Just guessing.

      Like 0
    • Avatar Rick W Ball

      Dealers would often add anything trying to sell these bank-breakers sitting for months languishing on their lots.

      Like 0
  21. Avatar JimmyJ

    Don’t mind the green exterior but would rather tan or black guts other than that 500 with hemi 4 speed…..
    Drop the mic!

    Like 0
  22. Avatar Rustytech Member

    If this is a numbers matching car, this is a steal! Easily a 6 figure car.

    Like 0
  23. Avatar ROTAG999

    Seller has a 70 Challenger 340 6pack with low miles also !

    Like 0
  24. HoA Rube Goldberg Member

    All you whiners and complainers,,,,you had your chance ( if you are over 60, that is)dated 1969, may I call your attention to the right column, 3rd up from the bottom,,,
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GSQVCYo9lGU/U1CKQy25hzI/AAAAAAAAAeg/t0ewjcp28-k/s1600/69Charger500Hemi69.png.jpg

    Like 0
  25. Avatar IanF

    Not sure how folks are complaining about the price. These have been deep six-figure cars for many years, long out of the range of the average person.

    It’s the prices of “regular” Chargers that have gone stupid in the last few years. Pretty much anything with a VIN plate has a min $10k asking price. Rust. Missing most parts. No drive train. None of that matters…

    It makes me wonder why Dynacorn offers the Challenger re-pop but not the Charger yet…

    Like 0
  26. Avatar Utes

    Yet nary a shot of that iconic flush-mounted rear window glass?! How is that possible?!

    Like 0
  27. Avatar leiniedude Member

    Winning bid:US $125,000.00
    [ 87 bids ]

    Like 0

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