Decoding the tag for this 1969 Dodge Charger reveals that it is a “White Hat Special.” This seasonal promotional package brought a few optional items together on the Charger, including a vinyl top. This particular Charger’s glory days are well behind it, and it will need a lot of restoration work to return it to its best. However, it is a complete car, so take a look and see if it is one that you would be willing to take on. Located in Lenexa, Kansas, you will find the Charger listed for sale here on eBay. Bidding has now reached $8,850, but the reserve hasn’t been met.
The “White Hat Special” brought together a number of optional extras at a reduced price, and this included some additional external chrome, a vinyl top, deluxe wheel trims, and whitewall tires. This Charger is now missing a few of these items, but what it has is rust in abundance. All of the floors will need to be replaced, along with the quarter panels and the ends of both rear rails. The torsion bar cross-member is also beyond help, and it will need to be replaced. When it was new, this Charger was finished in F6 Bright Green Poly with a white vinyl top and would have looked pretty special. Even though the pack was called the White Hat Special, it was also possible to specify the car with a black vinyl top, if that was more to your personal taste.
There will be plenty of restoration work required inside the Charger because time has not been kind to the car. The interior would originally have been finished in predominantly white vinyl, and while some of these items are still present, they have deteriorated quite badly. The original wheel is still present, as is the center console and Rally gauges, but even these are looking pretty poor. I honestly believe that whoever takes on this car will need to be prepared to start from scratch inside the car.
This is not a numbers-matching car, but there is a 383ci V8 and automatic transmission fitted to the car. The engine does turn freely, but you don’t have to be Einstein to know that it doesn’t run. I really hate to see an intake left open like this one, because it allows all manner of nasty things to find their way into the engine. On the plus side, the car is fitted with factory air conditioning and power brakes.
As a restoration project, this one is a monster. It would be hard to know where to start, and the person who does decide to take it on would be a braver person than I am. Could that person be you, or do you think that it is beyond help?
Not as bad as the earlier alleged Scat Pak Coronet ( probably full of some kind of Scat) but when the seller announces “never been molested” they’re also saying “has been completely ignored for several decades and we didn’t care”.
But the car has been molested. There is a vinyl top and a carburetor missing.
I would say that was molested if not downright F’ed.
I can’t see it, 15k in metal work alone. These muscle cars were all prized because they were hot rods. By 73, all the fun was mostly over (unleaded fuel, much lower compression ratio, mild cams, smog devices). This continued for many years but the world has changed. There are many new cars that can be driven by your mother, that are 5 second cars to 60 mph and get 25mpg on the highway. The justification for the prices on early 70’s muscle cars is long gone in my view.
Couldn’t agree more. My daily driver is faster and far better handling then this rusty relic. My generation is dying off too, not enough younger people who care, and if they do, can they afford it? This would be a different story if the price was only ten percent of what is the asking. Keep trying to get big bucks for what should have been crushed decades ago, but the party is almost over. Do not get caught with your pants down on one of these. I would run from any car like this. If you have the cash, buy a well restored one, that MIGHT retain some of its purchase price, plus cheaper in the long run, but even then, once the Boomers are pushing up daisies, the market for these will be so small you will need an electron microscope to find it.
To a point I agree, dirtyharry, but some cars just work like a time machine for the enjoyment factor as we stay busy building them, transitioning us to remember 40 years younger (and generally 40 pounds lighter!). The problem comes in where we want to build and enjoy something that can give a feeling of accomplishment when it’s finished but the entry price is being driven up by con artists/online thieves.
Yep, ya spoke the truth and then some. The hobby of old that helped us connect with our kids and friends, that kept us sane, that kept many of us out of trouble; that hobby is gone and who do we have to blame for that? Hint, it is the same people who are to blame for so much that has gone wrong in this country, use your imagination.
I’ll go ahead and say it:make it a General Lee!It already has the wheels.
I looked at cars like this in better shape in the 1980s for $500 and thought that was too much money. I guess I am showing my age. Better to spend more and get a good one than a rust bucket like this.
‘And we got it all right here in America -the home of the Chrysler 440 Cubic inch engine’
The Blues Brothers
9k for the honor of having to spend two or three times that to resurrect “A mighty Charger” I
Love these old Chargers, but the money is ridiculous. I’m not in the business of telling others what’s right or wrong to do with their money, but as a car guy I wish we could stop the bleeding. I’d rather spend 9k on the Olds Calais Pace car. I’d probably enjoy it more also.
Baky, that is exactly what we need to do. Stop buying this crap. If we all ignore this stuff then maybe the rich boys will get bored and go play somewhere else.
Agreed! I’m thinking though it’s as much the lazy ignoranus rich boys as it is the trailer park trash that know where some old iron is at, drag it out when no one’s looking, are too lazy to even clean it thinking it adds to the authenticity of a forgotten muscle car then tell you in the ad “no title-bill of sale is with my second cousin BillyBobs sister-in-laws upstairs neighbors stepbrother, who we haven’t seen since he got outta Leavenworth”..
Having completeted two frame off restorations where the finished product lost me money, I can definitely say the cost to restore is definitely not worth it, but my question to you is, what would you sell it for if it was yours ?
That’s a good question and one I can’t answer, Rich-I’ve never bought a car in this condition nor considered letting one rot away like this example..
If I had a barn, field or swamp full of 2nd gen Chargers, I’d sell them for as much as some one would give me, wouldn’t you? Redistribute some of that wealth down. Stick it to the Man by selling him overvalued junque!
Take your cash, buy a cheap Crown Vic and put 69 sheet metal on it. Viola! A 69 Charger and enough scratch left over to cruise to the burger joint AND the bank.
I like your style Pack, but the fact is, there is a lot of money out there right now and folks are willing to drop unreal amounts of it on these things. They look great at car shows, but I’d hate to see a door dent in my $50k muscle car. For my tastes I’d have more fun in something not worth as much that i could put a coat of wax on, but not be afraid of rain or other people coming near it. I’ve already been there and done that.
Yes, that is the direction the hobby needs to get back to. When the big money boys started olaying they spoiled all the fun, because they could.
After what I have see Graveyard Carz restore, nothing is beyond restoration but not being numbers matching, it may not be worth pumping money into.
Graveyard Cars builds museum quality restorations. You could drive them anywhere but after spending all that money you’d be afraid to!
Not at all. If you watch the show you would know that a lot of people who have them restored there intend to drive the crap out of them.
Ended at $9100, not enough to meet reserve.
Maybe it ending at $9100 will open the eyes of the owner to let it go at a more reasonable price!! I think the understanding that a buyer will be upside down on a restoration might be enough for maybe some people to realize that it’s not worth the 25K there setting there reserve at!!
I worked for “Doge Country”, a Dodge dealer in Augusta Ga in the late 60’s. It was in the time of the GREAT WHITE HAT SAlE !! The SLOGAN was, “We are THE GOOD GUYS WE WEAR WHITE HATS”!! What a great time to grow up!! I was fresh back from the service and loving it!! The best memory I have (because it has been over 50 years) is a guy coming in and ordering a new R/T with the 440 4bbl. He came back in after getting his 440 R/T and demanding his 426 Hemi BACK because he said it would RUN CIRCLES around the 440 he just got !! Had to call POLICE to stop A deal GONE BAD !! HAHAHA
Remember Siple’s Chicken House ?
That is so begging to be painted orange with 01 on the doors
Hell No Dave77!!!
Also, the vinyl top came in black, white, tan or green for the Charger, and the White Hat Special was available on the Polara, Dart and Coronet as well as the Charger….