What? Who? Why? or How? Got you turned onto Mopars?

[Cuda_mark]

I grew up in a strictly Chevy family. My father had new Chevelle SS's in '66, '67 and 68. When I was in college (mid 90's), he bought a 67 SS that he and I worked on.

Then, my best friend introduced me to a local guy that had been hoarding Mopar stuff since the 80's. He's a guy that does restoration work near me. We would hang out at his shop on weeknighhts and I got introduced to all of the weird colored "Mopars". I started asking questions like "Really, they made a pink car from the factory??? Really?" and "You mean there is supposed to be overspray on these restored cars???" and "What's this engine over here with the spark plug wires in the wrong place?".

I was hooked after that. I bought a Challenger and my father somehow forgave me. He has since passed and I still own that 67 SS along with my 70 Barracuda vert.

[72 Challenger]

My Story begins with a blue duster owned by my Dad's Cousin in Struthers Ohio. It was in the garage my whole life. Never once did I see it run or exist outside that garage. I was really young but we used to visit my family every couple of years and I would always anticipate going to see the car. It was covered in dust, but it was perfect. I would "sneak" (I am pretty sure no one cared I was going into the garage) into the garage just to take a peak. Undo the hood pins. Peer inside.

After my grandmother was too old to travel there comfortably I have never been back. My parents have contact with them over facebook and the rumour is that the car is being restored back to it's factory white and is no longer in the same garage.

When I was 23 I finally landed my first big boy job out of college and saved up furiously to buy a Duster.  At a buddy's cottage one day in the middle of nowhere I saw a purple 1974 Challenger for sale. I didn't think I would ever have e-body money but I contacted the guy anyways and ended up buying the car. I have really loved my time with E-bodies and last year I sold the purple 74 and bought a fully restored Y1 1972 340 Challenger. I intended to keep it but the heart wants what the heart wants. I plan on selling her and looking for what I have wanted for ages, a 1970 Duster 340 4 speed.

Hopefully I can still hang around e-bodies.org!

[one bad fish]

My Dad was a Ford guy. I was born in 60 and the first car I remember him having new is a 1966 Ford Fairlane GT with a 3 spd on the floor and a 390 under the hood. I remember driving out west to Calgary pulling a tent trailer with my family in the summer of 1967. Every Chevelle or what ever that tried to pass us, my old man would throw that Ford into second gear and rock on it. I remember me and my sister being up in the back window waving at the people behind us as they tried to pass over and over and wondering when the wheels were going to spin right off that darn tent trailer - they must have been 10 inch rims! It kept weaving back and forth and I could see the speedo needle bouncing off the 120mph mark! My old man is crazy and still is at 83 today!

I grew up in a small town...population 800! In that town was 2 1971 Demons and one 1970 FM3 Hemi Cuda and a 68 SS Nova 396 car. One day, one of the older guys bought a white 1974 cuda with a 360 4 speed...I fell in love with that car and was mesmerized by the pistol grip shifter. That did it for me and have been a Cuda and Challenger lover ever since. Mopar has by far the best cars and I love them all!

[Topcat]

I was fascinated with cars by the age of 5. My uncle bought my cousin & I Tot Rods which we would meander throughout  the neighborhoods unattended. (try that today) 

In 72' I had a huge Hot Wheel collection.
2 of my favorite one's were the Snake & Mongoose funny cars. Then one late afternoon in March 72' was a fateful day. Mom and my step Dad rolled up in a 71' Barracuda. I was  instantly hooked on the look of  the grille.

In 75' my friend who was a rich family, his parents bought him a 67' Mustang. I was totally envious on wanting a car to cruise around in. Another friend had  a C body Polara which we cruised around all the time in.

In 78' my folks gave me the Barracuda. Then in 79' I joined the Army.  They asked me if I wanted to sell it but that was a firm NO!
I drove the car to Ft. Campbell, KY. This is when I began working on it.

By 83' I was ETS'd from the Army. I had re built a 340 and a 727 A/T and drove it back through a snow storm on bald back tires. I hit the snow storm in Amarillo, TX. and almost ate it twice. 

Mopars were fully engrained into me by then. Friends and I would go to cruises all over. Some of the best ones I remember in the  middle 80's were Power In the Pines, and early Spring Fling. That was where I saw the Coca Cola Cuda. When I saw that car, I had to have one myself. So I began the transformation of mine into a Cuda.

My car went thru alot. At one time it sat in a field, just a bare shell on a roller dolly for 3 years. But I never let it go. It's been a long journey.

[Chryco Psycho]

I have a different story .
I came to like Mopar on my own , just genetically programmed from birth & born with a wrench in my hand  .
Yes my dad had a 4 door Valiant in the 60s & moved to a Polara in 69 , but he didn't know or care about cars at all he just looked for a reliable 4 door sedans to get around in .
I had no family , no uncles or cousins or even friends around me , I was alone , zero peer pressure  .
As a kid I started with Matchbox & Corgi & I had a Chrysler 300 convertable I loved , I started to build models of anything that interested me , lots of race cars , moved into Hot Wheels in 68 & graduated into AFX slot cars . Around the time I could afford a remote control car a real car was the same $$ , I remember in 69 I had a cool social studies teacher who allowed us to do an essay on any subject that interested us , so mine was all about drag racing , 2500 hp Hemis ,  Garlitz , Prudhomme , I was obsessed by 9yo ! I was also following Petty & Baker & of course Mark Donohue also !
In high school everyone was into Chev even the shop teacher , but there were 2 guys , Lyle  that had a yellow 340 4spd Duster & Mark with a B5 340 Demon , but as I said I really had no friends & didn't hang around with them as I was not "cool".
My first car was a 68 Javelin SST 343 which I bought @ 15 , Great car!  I needed a truck for winter & bought a 64 stepside GMC from a friend , what a piece of crap , broke down just driving around the block , could not wait to unload it , but it would not sell , no one wanted it , I ended up trading it for a 68 340S 4spd Cuda with a wounded 340 , I fixed the 340 & Wow it was fast & fun & reliable !. Before I traded the truck there was a JS23U0B Vanishing Point white no vinyl roof 4 spd pistol parked near my friends house that I drove by & drooled over  , one day it had a for sale sign on it , I left my truck in the middle of the road ran to the door & made a deal of $1100 & drove it home that day ! I kept the car for 2 years & drove the wheels off it . 2 years later I was offered more then 3x what I had paid & made the mistake of selling it , it broke my heart watching it drive away , the $$ meant nothing to me I wanted my car back & he would not resell it back . I spent the next year looking for the right replacement which is the Challenger I have now which I bought almost 40 years ago , where did that time go ? I have been offered serious $$ numerous times but I never forget the last time I regrettably sold . So buy the time I was 18 I had the 68 340 S , the 70 R/T & a 78 Power Wagon .
Ever since all I have bought is Mopars with Manual trans , I have owned over 100 now some were parts cars , most were drivers at some point , I have had a string of 14 Dodge Rams , the last 4 were Cummins , 6 Chargers in a row , numerous other Challengers & Cudas as well as Dusters Darts 300s T&C , Newports etc .
When you are onto a good thing why Change ?
Cars have Nothing to do with $$ I just have a passion for the cars & $ has nothing to do with it other than trying to find enough $$ to buy the next awesome Mopar  If I had $$ I would be like Tim Welborn owning all kinds of cool Mopars .

[Timbbuc2]

Very cool stories,
My dad was always a Chevy guy, 55 4 door, 64 Impala(which was my first car 275k miles) and then one day he was out at the car lot looking for a new car, I remember being at the Dodge dealership in 1970 and seeing all of the bright colors and a funny looking thing sticking out of the hood( Shaker), crush can steering column. And as boys would do I would get brochures of all the cars, I still have one of the Cuda to this day. Well just my luck my dad bought a 71 Caprice, that was one weak POS. I remember a friend of mine that ran a local pool hall had a Road Runner with a bad motor, one of the local kids had a GTX that he wrap around a tree, so the pool hall owner bought it and put the motor 440 into his RR, I remember watching him go down the road and getting into the gas and it would brake traction,One bad car. And on my way to my great Aunts house in Stuart Va, one guy had a Super Bird, blue with a white top.
Then many years ago I moved to Alabama, my wife would drive by the Sublime green Cuda sitting on the side of the road and she loved it ,but it was not for sale. So when I had a chance( Kids grown) I found the car I bought and so I can blame it on her LOL . 70 Challenger FC7. My daughter said dad why is it purple, I told her that was the original color, SO that changed everything, then she said " oh thats cool"

[Skid Row]

 Life long Mopar fan/owner, Born 1959 in the same little town a few blocks away from Mr.4 Speed the great Ronnie Sox. First car ride was
in a 57 Coronet. Once rode from North Carolina to Ohio with our family of 7 kids and had the best seat of us all,(On the speaker shelf)
Growing up all through my early grade school years (Pulling for Petty's Plymouth and anybody driving a Dodge. Dad always drove /6 Darts and Mom
drove B block Furys, Sure was nice dateing in High School years driving Mom's car. A 4 year tour in the US Marines in the 70's I should have bought a
high value muscle Mopar but with a 4wd craze at the time bought a Ramcharger instead. I always figured I'd just build a big block A body some day.
Fast forward to 1986, I'm installing a new phone system at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. when I spot a 73 Challenger for sale.
I stop and look it over because I didn't recall ever seeing that many Challengers (or Cudas) especially for sale. Well..this one is pretty rough.

The Car; Somebody really liked the color burgandy, Body color, Vinyl top, Houndstooth seats, Burgandy. After reading the "G" code in the VIN
I'm ready to leave when some late teen kid walks up saying it's his fiance's car and he's helping her sell it. Well..now I know who's the one who
trashed it. Front end bent up on the right side, Header panel cracked in a half dozen places, and what looks like a pole shaped dent on the rear
quarter. I almost made it back to my car when he says "It's got a 340 in it" What!..Well now it's time to show off my limited knowlage of Mopars!
OK, Pop the hood I tell him, Look this is a 318 car,If this was a 340 it would have an X right..here..wow and on the front of the block it would
say..Wow! I realize this is a like new 69 340 complete with AVS carb, I asked him  where did this car come from? He said his fiance's dad and uncle
put it together for her.I guess at the time I thought I'd keep the motor and tranny, Part out the rest and have a good start on project A body
when I talked him down from$1.200 to a even grand.

Reality; It really didn't take long that I convinced myself to "Just fix up" that old Challenger. I fell in love with the "E" body. Parts I soon
realized are kinda hard to find, Few reproduction parts were even being made in the early 90's But I still collected what I could find and afford.

The Build; I've had several "Starts & Stops" in the 30+ years of owning this car, Two houses, Four moves, One and only lovely wife, And a fine son.
Please understand my car is one of the oldest builds,( Old Parts & Old Tech) that ever graced the pages of this wonderful web site.
  I had stumbled accross a 440 at a good buy and while picking up parts at Herb McCandless's shop in the 1990's I met a machinist there who
guided me through the build that is still awaiting install. His name (Ken Lazzeri) 
   

[blown motor]

When I was in my late teens there was an assortment of cars among the group of kids in our area. A couple Cougars, a couple GTOs, a LeMans GT37, a Mustang, etc. It was a lot of fun carrying on and doing things you shouldn't. One guy had a red 73 Cuda and I loved that car. Well, life rolled along, marriage, family, etc and in 2012 my wife and I went to Myrtle Beach when she was off school for March Break. She's a complete beach person and I'm not so one day I went to a place called The Wheels of Yesteryear I think it was. A bit of this and that but 75% Mopar! Challengers, Chargers, Road Runners, GTXs, Cudas, a Superbird, they were all there and a lot of models had one of every year. That rekindled my love of muscle cars. I came home and put a post on an agricultural talk forum that I was looking for a muscle car and I'd like a 70 or 71 Cuda. I wasn't really serious but I just thought I would see what was out there. You have to keep in mind I was not into the car scene at all really my whole life except for a few years when I was younger and I really had little idea of the whole classic/muscle/collector car universe. Well, this dairy farmer in Wisconsin replied that he had a 74 Challenger for sale and he put up a picture of it. I fell in love with it and had it home within three weeks. If it wasn't for the picture I likely would have passed on it but I guess it was meant to be. Now I'm absolutely in love the hobby and the best part is the great people I've met along the way, especially the e-bodies.org family.

[RzeroB]

I grew up in a town where the main employer was a General Motors Chevrolet assembly plant. Everyone talked Chevy's and drove Chevy's - except for my Dad who liked VW Beetles. Being a chip of the old block(head) I liked VW's too, and I aspired to own a Karmann Ghia as I thought they were the coolest VW's going.

Things changed one day in the early '70's riding the bus home from middle school. I was sitting in the last row gazing out the windows when I noticed this car coming up fast behind the bus. It was low and wide resplendent in bright green and looked totally bad-ass. I said to nobody in particular "wow! check that car out! what is it?" Someone behind me said "that's a Cuda you idiot!" To which I stammered "a Cuda? wow!!". It sat behind the bus for a few minutes patiently waiting for an opportunity to pass, and when it was clear it went roaring on by and I was changed forever! Being that I didn't even know what a Cuda was at the time, I can't remember if it was a '70 or a '71, but the green was rich and beautiful so it had to be Sassy-Grass-Green, and it had a a black vinyl top and a Go-Wing on the back - it was absolutely stunning and left a lasting impression on me.

[DodgeGuy]

As I mentioned in my introductory thread, my first car was a 1975 Dodge Charger.  Honestly, I didn't search it out, it just fell into my lap as my Grandpa basically took it over from a tenant at one of his rentals who IIRC stiffed him on rent.  He fixed the car up to make it drivable and then gave it to my Mom. (my Grandpa was a former auto mechanic, he at one time owned his own gas station/garage, and after selling that he taught auto-mechanics at the local HS until he retired in the mid-80's, he's pretty much where I got all my mechanical knowledge/ability/instinct).

In any event, I bought it from her for $75 (lol, yeah, that's right...my Mom and Dad felt I should pay something for it just on principle, and that's what I had in my savings account at the time) and absolutely loved it.

I continually worked on fixing it up, better stereo, loud exhaust with a "glass pack", put on some original Chrysler Rally rims off my Uncle's scrapped mid-70's Plymouth Fury....and then the unthinkable.  I let a girl drive it (I was a teenager, and you know what I was going for) and she totalled it.   

In any event, that was at the beginning of my HS senior year, and I ended up buying a mid-70's Ford Pinto for a driver that year....

Right before I graduated, a buddy of mine heard about a "cool car". It was a 1973 Dodge Charger that was just sitting by a field.  In any event, I bought that car, and from there moved on to a 1973 Dodge Challenger (and also owned a few Darts and Dusters in that time).  I had to sell all of it due to a young and growing family.

Fast forward 20+ years, and a friend of my Dad's who owns collector cars let me drive his 1972 Chevy Chevelle SS in our town's local Memorial Day parade, and I INSTANTLY knew I had to get back into the classic muscle cars!  (he also owns a 1957 Chevy, a 1972 Chevy Nova SS Clone, and a 1967 Dodge Charger 440). 

In any event, it took me a few years from that, but I finally decided to pull the trigger again with my Wife's blessing, and found our current '74 Challenger Rallye.

[bentpshrods]

   My dad got me into cars. He was a big chevy fan. So when he said I could get a car when I turned 16 I was looking for a 56 Chevy Belaire. Ended up with a 1965 impala SS as my first car. White on white with a 327, A/T, ET slotted mags and hijacker air shocks.  A casual friend  from junior high thru high school was the local gear head.  He had a 1968 Coronet 500 with a 440 in it that was pretty cool.  He sold it and went to California and brought back a yellow 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A, with rear window louvers on it. When I saw that T/A and went for my first ride in it, I really started looking at mopars for the first time. A few months later I was delivering a refrigerator out in the rural area around Boise and drove past a field with a cuda sitting in the weeds. It had a small pole leaning against the hood with a for sale sign on it. I hit the brakes so hard I about dumped the fridge to get a look at it.  On the way back I stopped and knocked on the door. A kid my age (20 at the time) answered and had the car for sale. This was on a Friday night.  I ended up giving him $20.00 to hold the car for me and I would be back the following Monday.  Then I had to convince my dad to cosign a loan for me. I begged and pleaded, made prommices I probably couldn't keep ect.  He said you don't want to buy no stupid plymouth. He finally relented and we went to the bank and he got me a loan for $1,500.00. Went back out to get the car and convinced the guy to take $1,200.00 for it. Put a battery in it and drove it home.  This was in 1977 and have had the car every since then.   I was so worried that the car would be gone by Monday  but it turns out the kid had had the car sitting there for a couple of months and had only one person look at it and passed. Almost couldn't give it away back then. 

[lulurocks(Ken)]

My father was a diehard mopar guy his whole life , his first car was a 68 barracuda  which he turned into a race car.   Sold that to buy a 70 cuda that he and his friend raced for a few years.

We always had mopars , some of my best memories were driving around in my mom satellite  sebring when i was a kid.   Me and my dad built my first car togeather 72 dodge dart.  And we continue to build mopars today.  We just finished my 73 challenger last year  and now we are building a 1995 jeep for my wife .   Were almost done with that and now hes hounding me for the next car .....

Me and my dad are mopar blood thru and thru .  Good times !

Here is my dads car back in the day when he ran the circuit:

[YellowThumper]

Cool thread and stories.
So here is mine. Growing up I had exactly zero family that gave a crap about cars.
Thru the 60s our family cars were Pontiac wagons. From there they moved up to Ramblers. That was thru the 70s. Late 70s the moved up again to Pintos. First hs car (late 70s) was a 69 Rambler. Drove it hard and the thing never quit. Traded with my mother for a 72 Pinto. Always have been mechanical and worked on them all the time. Year or so owning it a local hs girl fresh with new license plowed into it almost ripping front end off. Promptly bought a 71 to replace it. Oh and cut the roof off. Pic attached. This one was sideswiped and totaled by someone running a red light. No not me. But it was actually on the same street and less than a mile from first one. Bought that back for drivetrain. Bought a shell of a Pinto wagon for next to nothing. Put them together and sold it for small profit. All this time messing with these Pintos I was hanging out with friends that had 340 and 360 Darts and Dusters. The Mopar bug was formed. These would stomp most others in races. Soon after a Challenger came up for sale by a friend of my brother. Soon to be mine. 1983 and $1,200.00 dollars later it was mine. And still is. Started as 74 318 w/3 spd stick. Power nothing.  Now 360 4spd pistol grip. Pb, ps,

[RUNCHARGER]

Ok: I have to admit that convt. PInto gets my attention.

[340challconvert]

I was a high school senior in 69-70 and would pass by a Dodge dealer on the bus every morning. I wondered what the bright yellow, orange and purple cars were? There was this odd Dodge with a huge wing on the back in orange, had to stop in and check the cars out. Saw this beautiful white Challenger RT SE with this cool looking console in the ceiling.  That orange Daytona sat there the whole school year. It finally disappeared in the late summer of 1970  Then I Saw Vanishing Point when it was in the theaters.
That resulted in owning a number of Challengers and Cuda's and never looked back.
First Challenger was 70 yellow RT 383 automatic was in rough shape already and was only 3 years old. Bought it for $1000 with money I got by selling my comic book collection ( those comics are worth a fortune today!)
2nd Challenger was a big upgrade; 70'RT 440 automatic B7 blue w a factory shaker hood and Dana.
I wish I still had that one! Never could get the carbs set up right.
Owned other Challengers after that and even a Gran Coupe convertible in vitamin c orange  with a 383-2. Bought it just to sell it.
You could buy some great cars in those days for under a grand. The gas shortages help depress prices and people were just dumping these cars.

SE la vie as the French say".  I should someday make a list.

Only kept one since 1979; my 70 A66 Challenger vert which I am now finally working on (stored from 1984 till 2015)