Sometimes things work out

[06Daytona]

I got bored today so I decided to hit Home Depot and just wander around and look at stuff. In the parking lot there was a guy with a 66 dart with a huge puddle of oil under it. It turns out that the thermostat stuck and the engine overheated and something went through the block. The guy was almost in tears while he was telling me that he'd been working on the car for the last 5 years and it was his dads first car bought brand new in San Juan. He was showing me pictures on his phone with him building floor pans from scratch and learning to weld just so he could do all the work himself. He even bought a bunch of old fenders and hoods so he could learn how to do patch panels and paint. It took him most of the five years he was working on the car to find a wide block 318 that was usable and complete so he didn't have to hunt down parts for it. I told him about the cars that I have and mentioned that my Challenger had a 1966 wide block 318 when I got it and it was just taking up space and an engine stand in my garage. He offered me 1500 bucks and picked it up as soon as he got the dart home and grabbed his truck. I don't know if I got a good price for the engine or not, and I really don't care. It will get his car back on the road and I made a new friend.

[MEK-Dangerous]

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure you saved the day for that guy and his Dart.   

[1 Wild R/T]

I have no idea about prices in P/R but around here you's be lucky to get $500...

[Cuda Cody]

Very cool story and sounds like you both are very happy. 

[Morty426]

I have no idea about prices in P/R but around here you's be lucky to get $500...

You think that much?  I think you'd have a hard time giving it away around here

[blown motor]

Fantastic story. Some things are just meant to be.

[06Daytona]

Parts in PR are really hard to come by for Mopars. I found a 440 a few years ago for the Challenger and I've been looking for another one since then. Regular 318s are hard to find but not impossible and a bare block 340 is going for about 2000. In the 80s PR did a big house cleaning of wrecking yards and got rid of everything worth anything. I saw the empty shell of a 72 Challenger sell for about 15,000 and it still needed some bodywork. I thought about opening a Roseville Caribbean edition kind of thing, but there aren't enough Mopars here to make a go of it. Jeeps, VWs, Ferds and Chevelles are pretty popular and there are quite a few old Darts but there's probably only 10-15 e bodies here. Shipping parts here is really expensive so most people just do patch jobs for body work and use whatever else they can scrounge from people. I bought a Shaker hood and some other panels from a guy who wanted to become an AMD distributor down here so he bought about 100,000 bucks worth of parts from them. His Mopar stuff had been sitting for about 2 years when I bought it but the Ford and Chevy stuff moved pretty well.

[Morty426]

Shipping prices have gone crazy. 

I just shipped two brackets in a box 4"x4"x2" from CA to IL - $13

I saw out in my shop I have a luggage rack that got shipped from one coast to the other coast - box is like 48"x24"x3" - got it maybe 10-15 years ago - shipping was $15.16

Can't imagine shipping to PR

[anlauto]

I'm still wondering how he's going to stuff a 318 wide block in a 66 Dart

[RUNCHARGER]

Yeah: It was a Poly 318? The A-body Darts just had the LA 273 and then the LA 318's around here. Good for both of you though. We call the Poly 318's wide block here, although it is not the block itself that is wide.

[Chryco Psycho]

Sounds like he had already figured out how to get a Poly 318 in there as that is what had failed so really it is just a simple replacement