Hot, Hot, Hot! How else can you label a second-gen Dodge Charger? It’s hard to imagine another car, muscle version or standard, from those golden years of 1964 to 1972 that has more draw. R/T, SE, 500, or standard coupe, it doesn’t matter, everyone seems to want a piece of Charger action. Stupid prices? Yep, happens all the time but it is what it is until the market decides it’s not. With that in mind, let’s check out a standard ’69 Dodge Charger hardtop, located in Hampton, New Hampshire, and available here on eBay for a current bid of $17,000, twenty-two bids tendered so far.
This Charger is a work in progress. The seller, who is the third owner, states that he chased this car for years but now he doesn’t have time to finish it. He further adds, “Very solid car, floors, trunk, quarters, doors good”. That said, it’s obviously a bit rough and Bondo seems to be its friend. The seller also mentions that it, “has some plastic in it”. There’s no word around the missing trim, ie. bumpers, taillights, etc. Admittedly, the body does look well aligned but if you review the images, you may walk away with the belief that there is more than just some plastic in it.
The underside apparently had trouble at one time and the platform rails have been repaired. Whether or not it has been done properly and causes no issue with things like the torsion bar operation is hard to say. It would be helpful for one of our readers who has some Mopar structural repair experience to weigh in on this matter.
Under the hood is a 230 gross HP, 318 CI V8 engine coupled to a TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission. The seller claims that it runs and “yard” drives. Apparently the brakes aren’t up to snuff and this Charger needs tires too. The mileage is listed as 10K miles so that’s at least 110K so the “LA” engine, known for durability, may still have a bit of life in it if it has been properly maintained. From what can be seen, the motor appears to be stock.
The interior is dusty but reasonable. The image provided of the white bucket seats shows non-split or worn, bright white, vinyl upholstery that’s in need of a good cleaning. The door cards are fair too though they are starting to wrinkle. There is one glimpse of the headliner and while it looks like it’s holding, the inside sail panels are pretty rumpled. All in all, the interior gets a pass.
The dash and instrument panel are all together and the gauges are clear (other than the dust) and legible. Of note is the tick-tach-tock (update: it’s not!) as well as the existence of the original radio.
OK, it’s a collectible Charger and a good start for a project. It’s always nice to find a standard model that hasn’t been mish-mashed into a cheesy looking pseudo hot-rod. Do enough digging however and you may find more metalwork needed than originally anticipated. And then there’s the price…go, go, go. What do you think, good project & good price; bad project & good price; good project & bad price or bad project & bad price?
Correction: That is NOT the Tic-Toc-Tach, it is only the clock.The tach will have RPM X 100 at the bottom, and the bottom sweep will be marked from 0-80 with the last half being colored red. Obviously, the seller’s idea of “very sound” and mine are different. There’s no telling what the bondo is hiding, but I suspect that there is more than a little rust; as evidenced by the crude repairs. The bottom of the rear window looks suspect as do the tail light openings; there are no pictures of the trunk floor. However, compared to some of more rusted recent finds, this one looks pretty good.
That is correct. Not a tic toc tach.The inner numbers are the hour, the outer numbers are the minutes. I’ve seen a lot of people try to pass these off as such, and have done so successfully, and made big money off of them because of this.
Buyers would be pretty disappointed when they try and hook up the ‘tach’ portion and see that their idle is set at 4:30 in the afternoon, or was is 11:09,” I forget what the guy at the swap meet told me but he said it was a legit tic toc tach”….fail👎
Jamie:
That’s my bad, I thought it was a tick-toc-tach but Moparman set things straight with his included image.
Thx,
JO
Not your fault Jim, it was stated in the ad as such. Simple to miss, you’d have to really look at the tach to recognize it.
But guys, he said it was a tick-tack-tock! Maybe he’s right! LOL
Smh.
I think it’s just a tic toc tic toc.
Like most car enthusiast I like 68-70 chargers but they are expensive to restore. I call this one smart seller. Sell when interest seems to be high and save a bunch of money.
Dofus seller says, “no tire kickers-serious inquires only.” Give me a break! Yes-we’ve seen worse but It’s a non running 318 that needs tires and brakes plus who knows how much body work. Yet, apparently someone is willing to pay $17k for it.
I can’t kick that high anyway!
How can it be a non running when it says in the ad “The car yard drives”? Whose the Dofus?
Wholly booger welds! A novice was given a mig welder and told to figure it out….they didn’t figure it out. I’m willing to bet that there’s a lot of patch work on this thing.
I can think of a lot of cars from ’64 to ’72 that have more “draw”.
But maybe that’s just me?
Yeah, so can I. SS396 Chevelle, all GTO’s, mach 1 cobra jet Mustangs,, Charger RT’s definitely come to mind but not more so. It’s a movie thing, Chargers were used by villains in movies and TV shows more than any other “fast” car I can think of.
A movie thing? No mention of The General Lee? The main reason 69 Chargers are so popular.
Before that even, right from the start with the bold black stalking ’68 RT in Bullit, off the top of my head dirty Mary crazy Larry, Cannonball, several Chips episodes, TJHooker, the Duke boys Confederate flag shine runner, several made for tv movies, there’s more I just can’t think of them. Always on the wrong side of the law, usually with a shot down in flames demise. There’s a definite race car look to these, the ‘bad guy driver’ image has been there for decades, way before the General Lee. Stay healthy!
Yes, these Chargers have a strong draw. Therefore, there is a lot of interest in saving them. The current bid seems absurd for a base model with questionable sheet-metal. I’m glad it will be saved, but if I had that kind of money to spend on a vintage vehicle, I’d find one that is solid and drivable.
The workmanship on this car is not anything I would want!! The bondo is to thick the welding is sub par and I would rip all of his work apart anyway!! $17K for a 318 with a column shift???? No thanks!!!
yupper,, a RUST BELT BUCKET of a lot of RUST worms hiding ,,,,,, but some one will have fun rebuilding…..
What a travesty! Really? Didn’t meet the reserve at $17k! He probably didn’t pay a third of that when he bought it from the previous owner. Apparently, he’s apparently even more stupid than he is greedy.
It’s sad to say that people will buy into the unknown.
This guy has a lift. Umm.
Bad welds, A bunch of Bondo.
I would call this guy a flipper.
These guys have taken are hobby and passion for classic cars and made #@$& show out of it.