My dad is the origonal owner of this 1973 Challenger Rallye. The title is still in his name even though I have, more or less, taken it over from him. Some of my first memories as a child are riding with my dad in this car. He used to steer the car with only one finger in the holes in the steering wheel. I remember thinking that was the coolest thing in the world. It has been a dream of mine to restore this car for as long as I can remember. It's been a part of my family for a long time and I'd just like to thank my dad for never getting rid of it.

This picture was taken outside my grandmothers house when the car was new. When the car is done, I'd like to take another picture of it in the exact same spot...just 40 years later.

This is the only other old picture I have been able to find so far. It was taken in July of 1975. This is my uncle Al washing the car for my dad. As it turns out, Al washed the car right before my parents got married. My dad said that later that night, Al snuck into the garage and "decorated" the car for the wedding. I'm still trying to find out if a picture of that exists.

The car was bought new at Thein Motors in Clarence Iowa. The build date of the car is September 27, 1972 and my dad probably took delivery in October.

He said that when the car arrived, there were a couple problems. One of the turn signal light lenses was broken and my dad didn't order the car with the side stripes. He liked the look of them but didn't want to pay extra for them. The dealership changed out the broken lense and took some money off the top for the stripes.

The car has all the heavy duty components of the Rallye pakage including 8 3/4 rear with rear swaybar, rallye hood, and rallye dash. Dad bought the car for daily transportation so fuel milliage was an issue. That's why he went with the 318/904 instead of the 340. Hindsite is 20/20 however. Dad said that he put over 30,000 miles on the car within the first year. The car was parked sometime in the mid 80's and spent the next ten years in one corner of the garage with the hood open. Right now the car shows 96,000 miles.

In the mid 90's the car was worked on a little just to get it running again. The starter was rebuilt, new brakes were installed, the exhaust was replaced and new tires were mounted. The leaf springs were very tired so a local mechanic added a leaf on each side to get the back end up. He also rebuilt the carb and found a hole in the float. Dad always said that he had to put the shifter in neutral at stop lights or the car would die. I drove the car for a short time and put about 3000 miles on it before it's first trip to the body shop.

I still have the owners manual and found a build sheet under the back seat during disasembly. I also found an "electrical" card as well. I'm not exactly sure what that is for. Maybe someone here knows. It wasn't until years later that I discovered that the build sheet was the wrong one. The sheet I have is for a 340 Cuda. Same color with black stripes and 4-speed.

Once it was on the road again, I wanted to take some pictures of it. My dad and I drove the car to the lumber yard that my dad managed and took a few pics.

One more

In 1996 I was a senior in High School. I wanted to get some estimates on getting the car worked on. I went to some local body shops expecting them to be exited and willing to work on the car. That just tells you how young and nieve I really was. I was basically laughed at and told that the car was junk at one shop. The others were nicer about it but the answer was still the same. It would take a lot more work than they wanted to get involved in.

That led me to an autobody shop I had driven past for years. I stopped in and talked to the owner. (I won't mention his name) He was interested in the work and came to look at the car. We agreed to have him install quarter panels and trunk extensions. He was also supposed to fix some rust in the trunk and in the frame by the shackels.

He thought he might have the car for three months or so but it turned out to be close to two years. Part way throught the work I found out that he was a hack. He wouldn't let me even see the car. He told me that it was in storage in another town. It took my father calling the county Sherrif to get him to let us see the car. When we finally picked up the car my dad and I didn't even look the car over. We just paid what we owed and hauled the car home.

This is what I saw when I got home.

It looked good from a distance but when you got closer you could see what he had done.

The old quarters were cut off a couple inches from the top and the new skins were slapped on the side of the old ones. There were places were the bondo was an inch thick. Rust holes were just bondoed over and he didn't even fix the rusted rocker panels before he put the quarter skins on. Pieces of metal were slapped onto the side of the frame by the rear shackel and tacked on as well as over the rust holes in the trunk.

I purchased a used rear valence that had the dual exhaust cut outs on it. It had been in an accident and was bent but I got it for like $75 and thought it could be fixed. When I looked at the car, the valence hadn't been fixed at all. It had been welded onto the quarter skins and the seams had been filled with bondo. It would all have to be re-done.

Here is what the rear valence looked like.

Here is how the quarter skin was installed. There was a good 1/4" of bondo over this seam.

Here is the piece of metal that was slapped over the hole in the trunk. You can see grinder marks that are all the way through the trunk floor. That was also bondoed over. He didn't even weld the spare tire jack brackets back on the floor.

Here are some more pics of the bad patch panels and the rust that was bondoed over.

This is the drivers side. These rust holes were just filled with bondo.

This is the metal that was welded onto the frame by the shackels.

This is the passengers side. You can see how bad the quarter skin was installed. This was also full of bondo.

It's too bad he messed up the trunk floor by putting those patches in. The only rust was right above the shackles and could have been fixed by someone that knew what they were doing. Now the whole floor needs to be replaced.

This is how nice the trunk looks except for the bad patch work.

Sorry you had so much trouble with the initial repairs. I'm sure it will be nice when it is done this time around. What a great piece of family history you have. Cars usually don't stay in the same family as long as yours has so I know it's special to you. Can't wait to see the progress you make on it.

Best of luck. Joe

Wow, all the re-work you have to do is a shame.

The car does have a great history though I really like the idea of the "before and after" picture in front of your grandmas house.

The main reason I wanted to show those pictures was so other people can learn from my mistakes.

I was all exited about getting the car worked on that I didn't do any homework about the shop. If I would have checked around, I would have found out what he was really like and would have kept my car as far away from him as possible.

None of the parts stores in town would sell to him because he owed them a lot of money. Shortly after getting the car back I heard that he was in jail on Federal gun charges.

I could tell some good stories about that guy but I don't want to dwell on that situation too long.

I got the car back in early 1998. Shortly after that I pulled the engine/trans and started the disassembly process.

The engine compartment was pretty rough looking. The inner fenders were rusted through underneith the battery and the origonal battery tray was long gone.

I have some good pictures of all the rusted areas after the car was sand blasted that I'll share later. This is what the engine compartment looked like with the engine out.

WOW! Thanks for sharing, Darren! How long ago was this guy arrested. I think he may be loose and doing biz in Omaha I feel your pain tho. Partly why I'm doing my bodywork myself. The other reason is that I'm broke and cheap LOL. Mines a '74 but similar condition minus the shoddy attempt at repairs. Also 318/904. All original except the aftermarket AC. (Just Another Challenger thread). Are you keeping your power train stock? Well, Good luck on your project. I'll be watching