Don’t be fooled by the baked and battered appearance or the amateur rust repairs, because below the surface, this 1972 Dodge Dart Demon is a very solid car that could be restored to become something pretty special. With its original 340ci V8 lurking under the hood, it should be capable of producing enough power to satisfy most people. Located in Miami, Florida, it has been listed for sale here on eBay. With bidding now sitting at $6,100, the reserve on the Demon has been met. That means that someone is about to score themselves a pretty nice project car.

The Demon wears its original Diamond Black paint, but it has become quite battered over the past 48-years. There is some rust visible in a few spots around the vehicle, and I’m particularly taken by the repair that has been performed on the driver’s side rear quarter. If you Google the term “quality repair,” there’s a good chance you won’t find this photo in the search results. Both quarter panels have some significant rust, while I think that there might be a small spot appearing in the passenger side rocker. That is about it for external rust. When we take a look under the vehicle, the news seems to be quite good. There is rust in the rear edge of the trunk pan, but the majority of it looks okay. The floors appear to be rock solid, suggesting that any rust repairs aren’t going to be a killer with this car. The front panels and grille that appear to be missing are actually present. They’re just not attached to the car. The glass all looks good, and the original Rally wheels are also all present.

Opening the hood of the Demon reveals a 340ci V8 motor, a 3-speed TorqueFlite transmission, power steering, and power brakes. This is a numbers-matching car, and the original Fender Tag is still in place. The car doesn’t currently run, having last fired a shot in anger about 2-years-ago. However, the engine does turn freely, so the new owner might not need to do a lot of work to get the 340 back up and running once again. With the engine producing 240hp, the Demon wasn’t the most powerful car on the block back in 1972. However, with an overall weight of a relatively paltry 3,208lbs, what it had was a pretty respectable power-to-weight ratio. That meant that it was more than capable of producing a 15.4-second ¼ mile ET, which wasn’t too shabby. It could even wind its way to a top speed of 121mph, so this Demon was no slouch.

Black-on-black cars are always an attractive proposition, and that is what we get with the Demon. At first glance, it looks a bit ordinary inside the car, but when you dig a little deeper, things really aren’t that bad. The cover on the driver’s seat will require replacement, while a new carpet set is also going to have to find its way onto the shopping list. Beyond that, I suspect that a lot of the interior would respond well to some cleaning. The dash and cap are in good condition, the console looks respectable, the passenger seat is free of rips or tears, and while we can’t see either, the rear seat and headliner are also said to be in top condition. There is an aftermarket A/C unit mounted under the dash, but given the fact that there is no sign of a compressor under the hood, whether this stays or goes would be a choice that the buyer would need to make. One little bonus is the fact that the original radio, complete with rear speaker control, remains mounted in the dash.

The Demon 340 probably wasn’t the sales success that Dodge had hoped for because, in 1972, a mere 8,773 drove off the showroom floor. That year also marked the final for the “Demon” badge, as external pressures saw the name dropped for the 1973 model year. While it is possible today to find examples for around the $14,000 mark, more often than not, these won’t be completely original. A really good one will push up to around $25,000. I did find one really nicely restored example that sold recently. It was also finished in Diamond Black, and its specifications were identical to this car. It sold for $35,000. With those sorts of figures in mind, this is a Demon that could prove to be a bit of an angel once it’s restored.