I helped restore my first Mopar 1973 Challenger. My neighbor asked me if I wanted to learn how to restore my car so I said yes and it was quite an experience. After he took the entire car apart I started scrubbing and taking the paint down to the metal. It took quite awhile. My brother put all the nuts, bolts, screws in zip lock bags and labeled them. The garage was not dust free so I had an idea that the paint job would not look good. When my neighbor prepped the car all the rust was not removed properly. I found this out when I started taking the car to car shows. I asked my brother why there was rust coming through already. He explained to me that the car wasn't sanded properly and wasn't prepped
correctly either. My brother used to work in a paint store and knew a lot about paints for cars, trucks, etc. He used to mix the paint, etc. I spent about maybe 3 total days working on my car scrubbing, cleaning removing old paint, etc. I was working long hours at work at the time so I usually helped on the weekends. The car was painted Hemi Orange and had a white vinyl cover. When he did my cover it had wrinkles in it so it never looked right. The panels for the doors were shot and he tried to paint them but they looked so so. I didn't have a lot of money to spend on it. I paid him $10,000 to do the work on my car. I had new carpeting installed throughout the car looked real good. I got a license plate HEMI OJ. My car had a 340 engine and was pure stock. I got the license plate because of the color of the car. When I went to car shows I had a sign stating the license plate HEMI OJ was the color of the paint not the engine size. It didn't matter as someone would always ask what engine size it was. I had all the info on the registration sheet. Then one day we went to Sears Point and I decided I wanted to race my car. So I checked in and raced once and I loved it. I raced a total of 4 times that day. Not for the money just the fun. I also took the car to Sacramento raceway and raced up there. I liked the race track much better at Sears Point. I raced two years in a row for fun. Finally I blew a piston and had no way to work. So I had to buy a car for work. I didn't have the money to repair the car so I sold it to a guy and told him not to race the car as it needed to be repaired. He didn't listen and took it out after some minor repairs and damaged it more and then wanted his money back. I told him I was honest with him when I sold it to him and told him what was wrong with the car. His dad ended up getting repaired and I never heard anymore about the car again. The moral of this story is don't drive the car to work and race the same car.

Would I ever race a car again yes!

 

Nice to see your back,what a cool way to get into cars.all my friends where moter heads but i never really paid to much attention,iI have always enjoyed driveing differant cars but when they break i have to take it to the shop.when i was younger ,we used to road race,usualy after dark with a few beers,girlfriends rideing shot gun good old days Cutlass , nova ,grand torrino ,never did get to drive a 73 challenger.I did hear of a place in NH. that is a closed coarse road race track ,all welcome ,pay a fee and they will time you.i might try come spring. cant wait to try out new challenger.

 

Hey Nancy glad to hear from you! My first love was a 73 Challenger 340 that I owned for 17 yrs. Great car! Good to see you had more sense than most of us and took it to an actual race track to find out what it was capable of! Thanks for coming back to share you're enthusiasm for Dodge. It's the one thing everybody here has in common!

 

My cousin currently has a 73 Challenger Rallye, running a '68 340 with a six pack setup on it. I've driven it- it will scream and embarass a lot of big blocks, especially with it's 3:91 gears!

 

I had a 73 RT.Mine had a 70 340 with a purplestick cam. That was one of my best driveing cars. I also had the 79 Aspen RT. Dont laugh, it had a 318 that me and my dad built. Many a time it made the trip from Camp LeJuene NC to Alabama.

 

I agree...

Nice to swee you back, Nancy...

 

Nice to hear such good comments on '73 Challengers. I have one, a 340, 4spd (pistol grip) and triple white. The later year Challengers generally get scoffed at compared to the 70, 71 version, but I find mine a blast and unique.

Now, I just need that new one to park beside it!