Greetings all!
New member embarking on a search for the old man's 74' Challenger. The car was sold in Roseville, CA in 1991 by my stepfather for a down payment on a house. I've made a good life for myself thanks to his sacrifices so I'm looking to find it in hopes of possibly getting it back to him. I'm working on posting some pics, maybe starting a different thread, i'll have to go over the rules here.
In the meantime, i'm very interested in learning all I can about these cars and from the members here. I'm admittedly biased and consider myself an "A-Body guy", but i've always had a place for Challengers.
Cheers!
:welcome: to the site :cheers:
Welcome from Panama :wave:
:welcome: Good luck with your quest!!! do you have A VIN # or license plate#? :fingerscrossed:
Welcome from Colorado, good luck on finding your car
:welcome:
Welcome aboard from Atlanta!
:wave: Welcome from the Niagara Penninsula :canada:
:welcome: from Sylmar, CA
I also wish I could find my old car. Best of luck finding yours.
:welcome: good luck with your search , I've seen a few good outcomes with searches like yours!
Welcome from Buffalo, NY :wave: Good luck on your search.
Hi, Welcome. I'm just down the road from Roseville, living in Sacramento.
Good luck on your search. I found this site from Hemmings that has a few ideas about finding the car. More specific, finding the VIN, incase you don't have it. Maybe it will be useful to you or someone else looking for their old car
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2014/04/10/how-can-i-find-my-old-car/
Tom
Welcome from West Michigan! Good luck on your search!
Here's another welcome to the site from Ontario, :canada: and good luck with your quest! :bigthumb:
Welcome to the forum.
:needphotos:
I would recommend you go to the upcoming Capital City Mopars car show.
A lead could come up there trying to find it.
:welcome: from B.C. Canada
Welcome from B.C. Canada.
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and support!!!
QuoteGood luck on your search. I found this site from Hemmings that has a few ideas about finding the car. More specific, finding the VIN, incase you don't have it. Maybe it will be useful to you or someone else looking for their old car
Thank you for the link, i'll check it out. Unlike finding my old Dart from high school (which I'm still looking for), I at least have a plate number (CA 915LSR). I'm learning however that if it's no longer an active plate, it's hardly useful. I still have another box I need to go through in search of any documentation.
QuoteI would recommend you go to the upcoming Capital City Mopars car show. A lead could come up there trying to find it.
I'm no longer in the Sacramento area but my folks are still in the foothills. I'm out in Utah currently but am looking around the entire west, once I recover the VIN I'll open it up nationally. I'll definitely try to get some pictures up, all I have are scanned prints of old, yellowish, cheap photos from the 70's. I'll see if maybe one of our imaging guys at work can make the most of it.
I should specify the intent here is this would be a 'nice to have'. I'm by no means pouring over with emotion on a life-quest search. It's a lot of fun though to think about actually finding it. If it's found in someone's garage under a cover with no intent to sell, that would be fantastic in that it's being taken care of. I think we all can agree that we want what's best for the car. If it's been totaled or something I would be pretty bummed out, but I'd just build a different one and nobody would know! I'll update as I can, until then I look forward to educating myself and these works of art. :cheers:
I'm pretty computer/forum savvy but apparently not capable of posting pictures! I'll try to upload tomorrow. I did talk to my Dad and I told him to head out to the cap city Mopar show this weekend, I think i'm stoking a fire that had kind of dwindled out.
Welcome from New Jersey
Good luck on your search for your Dad's car!
Thanks for the welcome!
No luck on tracking down the VIN, which would obviously make life incredibly easier. Until then, searching using all the standard applications.
Can't post pictures for some reason, always errors out, very frustrating.
Try uploading one photo at a time. Is your internet provider slow? You shouldnt have to resize the photos on this site.
I have 50mbs Comcast, and have only ever tried to upload one photo. In the Attach section, I click "browse", select my file, post and submit, then get a white screen...every time and from multiple computers with multiple files. I've always only attempted one photo at a time, so I give up.
If the photo is super large it can error out. The forum should resize the photo, but it does have its limitations. Email it to me and I will resize it and post it. codyreich@comcast.net
:inlove: Here's the photo! :1place:
Thank you so much for posting! Not sure what the hangup was on my end?
Anyhow this would have closely resembled the configuration it was sold in, the good Lord only knows what it looks like now. The white vinyl top was removed and the whole car was repainted that blue (not sure what the OE code is). Still looking for the VIN, hopefully she's still out there somewhere being loved on otherwise I'd love to get her home. Thanks again Cody!
Welcome from Michigan! Glad you signed up! :wave:
:welcome: From Krazyfornia :bigthumb: great idea hope you find it. If not will you do a tribute car for him?
Thanks for the welcome!
QuoteIf not will you do a tribute car for him?
I would like to think so, time will tell. I honestly fell like they don't go far, if it's been sitting under a tree in the foothills for 20 years it will be in pretty rough shape. Nothing like the Midwestern folks are up against but it would still be a good workout to get it road worthy. We'll see, i'm optimistic and have nothing but time.
I would be lying though if I hadn't thought about a "tribute" Hellcat. I would like to find his car...and still do the Hellcat, just for the matching set :D
Awesome that you would do this for the old man :twothumbsup: Sounds like you may be attempting this on the sly however the resources you need may be in your parents house. If there is someone who could look for old invoices, tag receipts, insurance papers etc. your task perhaps would be easier.
A few years ago after not being able to locate anything to prove ownership to register my car after being off the road for 20+years I went to my current insurance agent and ask if they had any documents...sure enough a hand written application from the mid 80's was still in their files. And just a couple of weeks ago my mom handed me several pictures & documents she had ran across that she wanted me to have. Among them was the bill of sale of my Challenger from 43-years ago.... GOOD LUCK in your Quest :cheers:
Well my Mole on the inside payed off, eureka! Thank God for parents that have boxes in their closet from the 70's! Time to keep my eyes open and enjoy the search.
VIN: JH23G4B179623
So if you found this car and it was in poor condition would you take on a restoration or would it make more sense to purchase a different unit that was already done?
That's a great question, and in all honesty it would truly depend. A very nice driving "tribute" could be had in the $20-$30k range that would serve me quite well. However if the EXACT car is found it would have to be in nearly unrecoverable shape. If it's found with rotted trunk, floors, quarters, roof, and not a straight piece on it, I would probably pass but be thankful for the closure. At the end of the day I want a driver, and it would be "nice" to have had his. I won't however take on an additional $30k in expense for the sake of nostalgic accuracy :D
One in the condition you describe $30K would not even touch it....
I don't know you or your dad... My Dad pined for his '63 Dart GT to the end...I never found anything close to it. I guess depending on the situation you might be well served to find something similar ready to rock... :alan2cents:
QuoteOne in the condition you describe $30K would not even touch it
I'm probably not understanding you correctly, for a 74' Challenger $30k wouldn't grab a nice driver? I see them all day right in that range, now obviously you start moving backwards and they escalate quickly. I've built a car and a truck in the past, I know it's ridiculously expensive "doing everything yourself." Just after body/paint/and interior you're pushing $30k. What I meant was, even for the exact car, I'm likely not going to be interested in picking it up for $10-$15k, putting $30k into it, to have a nearly $50k base model 1974 Challenger. I'm his son, but also a business man ;)
Everything changes if actually presented with the choice, maybe I'll have that discussion with myself if that time ever comes. If it were just to be a tribute (which in all probability it will be), i'm good with $30k.
sorry I'm referring to restoring a rough condition car as you had described "If it's found with rotted trunk, floors, quarters, roof, and not a straight piece on it," " I won't however take on an additional $30k in expense for the sake of nostalgic accuracy"
Indeed a nicely done 72-74 can be had for 30K or less. I'm a business man as well and tend to approach most things from a cost/benefit standpoint.. I checked with a restoration shop and just to prep & paint my car they said 12K-minimum... Mine needs virtually nothing so I'm going to do it myself now that I'm retired ....
QuoteI won't however take on an additional $30k
Good catch, yes I meant in addition to whatever the purchase cost was etc.
QuoteI checked with a restoration shop and just to prep & paint my car they said 12K-minimum
That's rather sobering, but good to know! I'll factor that as well with any potential cost that may arise. I've got some inquiries in to local shops around here, i'm sure they will be in the same ballpark. It's just money though, right!? :-)
Quote from: CA Expat on June 24, 2018, 01:15:28 PM
QuoteI won't however take on an additional $30k
Good catch, yes I meant in addition to whatever the purchase cost was etc.
QuoteI checked with a restoration shop and just to prep & paint my car they said 12K-minimum
That's rather sobering, but good to know! I'll factor that as well with any potential cost that may arise. I've got some inquiries in to local shops around here, i'm sure they will be in the same ballpark. It's just money though, right!? :-)
Did i mention I'm a tightwad? Honestly I would was prepared to pay the restoration shop up to $6K LOL.. My parents were born during the Depression in the rural south so everything to do with this Hobby seems ridiculously expensive. Yea there's MACO's $499 special & plenty of body shops that will bondo & brush on a coat of paint for $3-4K. Restoration shops make em more or less perfect which takes many man hours..... I've got plenty of those ahead of me if my health holds up... Plus I'm the consummate DIY Guy.
I can definitely agree with you on that. Especially the Maaco paint jobs. I had an old 93' Dodge diesel with the notorious paint peel. I got it painted at Maaco because I thought 'hey, it's a truck'. The advertised "$499" quickly escalates from there to around $2000. With "options" such as, 'Oh, you want us to prep it? That's, another $500. You want a base coat AND a clear? That's $1000" and so on. Anyway, it's worth doing right the first time. Buy once, cry once/buy cheap buy twice kind of thing.
I'm very conservative with my spending despite being a generation behind you. Many of my peers are financing trucks for the same price as my mortgage etc. Toy haulers with more square footage than my house with a 160 month loan being towed by a $900 per month truck is not a sound financial practice in your 30's. These are interesting times to say the least!
Back to the car however, i'm going to play with some of the VIN check websites and see what kind of info comes up. Not expecting anything but you never know.
I can't find a VIN check site that can handle the pre-17 Digit VINs, does anybody know of one?
Only thing I can suggest is if you know someone or know someone who knows someone on the inside of the system...... I've heard of this working before...
That's most likely the best approach, and my little small town probably wouldn't mind running a VIN for me. Honestly I would just like to rule out that it was wrecked, scrapped, sent on a slow boat to China etc. Or even worse than that, somebody did a "resto mod" and she's sitting on 24's with an SBC :barf:
Welcome to the site.
I don't recall seeing a dark blue 74 in Roseville but it's a big town.
If the plate is dead there is no way to trace the car most likely. They CA DMV will no longer search by VIN
Thanks for the welcome Morty! Yes, Roseville is a big town, much larger obviously since I left. I include a daily search as part of my morning ritual; one day she might show up, I just hope she hasn't been severely neglected. It is disappointing that there isn't a true VIN checking service, however I obviously understand why. It would be nice if you could run a VIN check just to see IF and WHERE a vehicle may still be on the road, doesn't have to release any proprietary information etc. At any rate, I've got my eye out.
Problem is that CA drops the information from the system after 7 years of no activity.
Your best bet is searching with Google and trolling Craigslist. Not a lot of 74s made.
Best of luck and if I come across any I'll let you know.
Well, I figure about 5 years is long enough for a thread bump. Still looking for the old man's 74' Challenger, would love to see if she survived. As mentioned earlier it was sold around 1990 in Roseville, CA; VIN# JH23G4B179623, would've looked looked somewhat like she looked below, but who knows now. Thanks!