E-Bodies.org Cuda Challenger Forum

and St. Louis during the Winter when the boat rental biz is really slow...  :wave:  I've been a gearhead all my life, growing up in the 70s and have gone through (and wishing I had most of them back) around 120 classic cars.  At one point I dug up as many pictures as possible and put around half of them up on a web page.  You can see them at http://adventureboatrentals.com/jstewart/vehicles.htm (http://adventureboatrentals.com/jstewart/vehicles.htm).  2 of those on that page are a '70 'Cuda with a fantastic history and a '72 Challenger 440 (originally 318).  Towards the bottom of the page you'll see where my username came from.   8)

I've been mostly a Chevy guy for all my life, but I really didn't have the brand loyalty that my parents had.  I like everything that's cool.  I decided on a top-5 collection of cars that will be fun to own (and keep this time), with nothing being so rare that I would be scared to take it outside and waste the tires.  Some I've previously owned, and some were slightly off from what I really wanted (like the '72 Challenger instead of a '70 or 71 e-body, and the '72 Mach 1 instead of a '69 or 70).  Currently I have a '70 Nova SS that's getting paint sometime in the next week or so after replacing a lot of metal.  It's the gray one at the end of the car page, going back to silver.

My wonderful wife tolerates my hobbies/obsessions like guitars and cars, and is fine with boats since we're both boaters.  Her one request is that I only have one car project at a time.  That meant the Nova should be done before I get something else. Well, it didn't quite work out that way...   :ebay:

During my relentless saved searches on ebay and craigslist, I come across a Plum Crazy Purple 70 Challenger on eBay.  Funny thing, I was about 25 miles from this car 4 days before I saw it during a trip back to Nebraska.  Put a couple bids on it during the last few minutes, and tried to time the last one down to the last second.  Computer/Internet lag caused me to get outbid.  I had been e-mailing the seller with questions and replied one last time that if the deal fell through, to give me a call.

Almost 2 weeks later I get the call, saying the buyer backed out.  I borrow a car-hauler that weekend and bring it home, the car stuffed with parts and the truck bed with extra sheet metal for almost another car.  No real surprises, as it was mostly as described.  It's an original FC7 Plum Crazy Purple car without a vinyl top (Yay!) and a white interior.  Should be a stunning combo when done. I added up what all the extra parts that he bought cost, and came up to $7455 without shipping.  :unbelievable:  Plus he paid $10K for the car 3 years ago.  I'm way happy with the deal!

It'll be at least this Winter before I can start on it, but wanted to introduce myself and my car right away.  I've been on this and the C-C site for a couple weeks soaking up as much knowledge as I can.  You guys are incredible.  :worship:

Quote from: Cuda Cody on April 04, 2017, 08:34:00 AM
Lets see some more photos of your guitars!   :please:  I wish I knew how to play.  I love the look and feel of guitars and have a few on my wall, but could not play to save my life.

Welcome.   :iagree:  more pics and maybe a video would be cool!  I have no musical talent at all, but after a few beverages I'm a great dancer!   :drinkingbud:

Nice Gibson!   Love it!  Welcome to the site!   Funny I too have guitars mounted on my walls in the man cave!  Cars, boats and guitars!   Awesome!   :D

I've been reading through a bunch of threads and one referenced the A66 thread on Moparts.  Wow, 23 pages of info.  Seems I have an A66 car!  Here is the fender tag, along with the decode.  What do you guys think?  Did I get an unexpected bonus? 

 :woohoo:  Oh ya!  A66 340's are super cool!  @6bblgt (https://forum.e-bodies.org/mlist/6bblgt_211)  Dan the numbers Man can tell you a lot about them / your fender tag.  Did you find a build sheet?

Quote from: Titan912s on April 04, 2017, 10:34:40 AM
I've been reading through a bunch of threads and one referenced the A66 thread on Moparts.  Wow, 23 pages of info.  Seems I have an A66 car!  Here is the fender tag, along with the decode.  What do you guys think?  Did I get an unexpected bonus?

 :wave:  Welcome! Nice rides!  :bradsthumb:
Lake of the Ozarks looks really beautiful! I googled it to see where it was then clicked on pictures . Wow looks like my kind of place! Boat party town!  :D

Yesterday I looked at the casting # of the engine and found 2780930-340-2, so that puts it in the 68~73 category.  The seller's eBay description said it might be a '71 340.  So far so good.  Was working around the shop today and curiosity got me to do a little detective work on the engine.  I scratched off the paint on the driver's side pad and found FW340P31820516.  Looking this up at home tonight, I see it's it's a 1970 Windsor-built 340, needing premium fuel and built on April 14th, 1970.  My car was built on April 23rd.  Could it really be I have the original engine in there???   :lookatthat:  I can hardly contain myself.  If we weren't going through a major thunderstorm at night I'd drive over to the shop right now to check the serial #.   :burnout:

On another note, check out the picture.  The 5 is stamped upside down.  :looney:  Has anyone seen anything like this before?  I looked up the date to see if it was maybe on a Friday or Monday, maybe resulting in careless operation, but it turns out that April 14th, 1970 was a Tuesday, the same day the oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 exploded.  The whole country was distracted.  I remember it well.

Oh my!  That is exciting to think it might be the matching numbers block.  I would not be able to contain myself and would not be able to sleep until I knew for sure.  It's looking good.   :twothumbsup:

Not sure if this helps you at all, but thought I would share just in case:
http://www.e-bodies.org/buying-your-first-e-body/vin-numbers/

Please let us know what you find!!!   :fingerscrossed:

 :fingerscrossed: COME ON 142302

I believe the '70 A66 Challengers are among the best values out there (340'cudas bring a premium & 340 Challengers are forgotten)  ::)

also, I think Dodge was caught asleep at the wheel - apparently blindsided by Plymouth offering the 340 in the new e-body - about 6-weeks of production before the first 340 Challenger arrived.

All 340 4bbl Challengers are A66 package cars & all A66 package cars are 340 4bbl

a couple of corrections to the decode & it appears the 4X green 383 4-spd R/T recently for sale out of Utah & Arizona was ordered from the same dealership - any ideas where your car originated?

Welcome! Beautiful toys.... hope to see more pics along the way. I had a 1967 12 string Baldwin a few years back. Now I just have a Fender strat.

 :twothumbsup:  Welcome aboard, we joined the same day.

Quote from: 6bblgt on April 05, 2017, 01:03:38 AM
:fingerscrossed: COME ON 142302

I believe the '70 A66 Challengers are among the best values out there (340'cudas bring a premium & 340 Challengers are forgotten)  ::)

All 340 4bbl Challengers are A66 package cars & all A66 package cars are 340 4bbl

a couple of corrections to the decode & it appears the 4X green 383 4-spd R/T recently for sale out of Utah & Arizona was ordered from the same dealership - any ideas where your car originated?

Thanks for the corrections on the decode.  Don't remember exactly which decoder I used for this originally.  I knew Dual/Duel was spelled wrong, but hey, maybe the factory coded it that way.  The remote mirror is great, since that's what's in the box.  I don't know which dealership it came from.  I have the address and phone number of the third owner back, but nobody answers the phone.  Time for a letter to Minnesota, and then hopefully I can get more history.

Since I have the V5X Black Protective Moldings (gone now), does that mean there were no graphics/stripes originally on the car?  What would have come on it if no V5X?  White Bumblebee?

Yes, the 1970 340 (A66) Challengers came STANDARD with a painted bumblebee stripe.  It was available in many colors, WHITE would look great!

the A05 "protection group" included, body-side mouldings (replaced any STANDARD stripes), front & rear bumper guards w/rubber cushion, door edge mouldings

Went to the shop this morning and looked at all the numbers.  It's not numbers-matching with 142302.   :('  But hey, it's still the correct engine and it has a 727 trans.  Engine turned out to be 0B374298 and the trans is PK4058328   6242   16-something.   

Engine 374298 is way past car 142302, but the scheduled build date is 9 days ahead of the car.  Numbers geeks, feel free to chime in here.  I'd also like to know a little more about the trans.

the transmission is a 1979 model year unit ***** Day 6242 is Wednesday, August 30, 1978

the 340 is from a Duster = VS29H0B374298 scheduled early June (new VIN to me, I "know nothing" about the car)

dates are close because LA built around 60,000 cars (~300/day) VS. Hamtramck's 350,000 cars (~1,750/day)

Hi guys;

It's been a couple years since I posted, and as with a lot of restorations, life and distractions get in the way.  My Nova, which sat in body shop jail for 22 months finally got out.  It looks fabulous now, and I'm close to getting going with the LS swap on it.  The Challenger was supposed to be next in line. My wife has wanted a Thelma and Louise T-bird for a long time, so I secretly bought one 1.5 years ago, and put it in the body shop (only 6 months this time).  I surprised her with it on her birthday last weekend.  The Challenger was supposed to be next in line...  Then, a miracle happened.  I had a '69 Camaro RS convertible during the 80s and 90s, and lost it in the divorce from the 1st wife.  I've been looking for it for almost 20 years, and finally found it in Wisconsin.  The best part is that he'll sell it to me.  It's mostly disassembled, so this will be a long, but worthwhile project for me.  That puts the Challenger to the back of the line... again.  I'm afraid it'll be 5~7 years before I get to it, plus I need the money to help re-purchase the Camaro.  I hate to sell this, but reality sets in.

I have enough body panels to practically build another Challenger.  2 hoods, 2 sets of fenders and doors, 3 trunk lids, quarters, trunk and floor pans, valence panels and a complete new white interior, still in boxes.  I looked up all the extra parts and the total came to $7455 alone.  I have e-mails and pictures from the 3rd owner back in the 80s.  Look up the car in the For Sale section of the forum.  Thanks for reading.