While a rebuilt paint job and a fresh engine rebuild might be warning signs to some, if they’re done well, the car’s buyer is certainly money ahead. The new owner of this 1968 Dodge Polara will be the lucky beneficiary of a lot of expensive work if that’s the case. Painted “to match the original color,” which appears to be “Pale Blue Metallic,” this nice example of Dodge’s big C-Body can be found on Hemmings.com in Lakeside, Arizona, with an asking price of $16,500 or best offer. Thanks to Barn Finds reader PRA4SNW for the link.

As I mentioned, the seller of this Polara also says that the engine was recently rebuilt; the car was taken on a recent “two-hour trip,” and it “cruises at freeway-plus speeds without any issues.” The engine itself is a 383, and based on the two-barrel carburetor and manifold pictured in the car’s trunk, it was originally the 290-horsepower regular-fuel unit. Although the advertisement doesn’t mention it, the 383 appears to have been pumped up with an aluminum intake manifold and most likely an Edelbrock four-barrel based on the fuel line routing. The air conditioner was recently recharged with R12 and blows cold, but it does have a leak in the system (the owner suspects it’s an O-ring).

The interior appears to be mostly original with the exception of the driver’s side seat bottom; the material’s color matches but obviously the pattern doesn’t, so most likely an upholsterer sewed in the closest thing they could find. There are some cracks in the dash pad, which doesn’t come as a surprise if this car is an Arizona original.

Once everything is cleared out of the trunk, the sheetmetal doesn’t show any serious signs of rust, but there aren’t any undercarriage pictures shown in the ad.

Although the paint is new, the seller says that the vinyl top is in excellent original condition, and I’ll argue that a ’68 Polara Hardtop is the kind of car that looks better with a contrasting vinyl top to break up all those relatively flat body panels.

The rear view of the Polara is perhaps the best, with those wide taillights and round side-marker lights highlighting what is really a fairly clean design. A 1968 Polara is a little off the beaten path as far as collector cars are concerned, so you can get a pretty nice one (like this car) for a reasonable price. With deft styling by Mr. Elwood Engel and associates, and nearly bulletproof Chrysler big-block power (and Torqueflite drive), it’s as the seller says—the epitome of cool.