My approach into the Mopar hobby was different then most. To put things in perspective, I graduated high school in 1974. I was a teenager during the performance era. My 1st job was at the local auto repair gas station (that was where most people got their cars fixed back then, and the place I worked at was one of the best in town. Our HS had a really good auto shop class. Our town also had a local 1/2 mile dirt track. I had a goal to be a race car driver (dirt track) and a dirt track car owner. I grew up around dirt track racing, by the time I was just in HS, I was already pretty well acquainted with race cars, and high performance. My life and experiences at the gas station taught me that those Mopar cars and trucks held up very well. I didn't get to play with cars much while I was living at home, both parents didn't think cars were a very dignified profession.

As soon as I got out of their house, 4 buddies and I built our first dirt track car My buddy drove (he had the most money in it) and I was the main mechanic because of my experience. Our 1st dirt track was was a 69 Road Runner I bought for $150 from a guy at a corner gas station. Old performance cars were cheap in 1974. After that 1st year, the race car became mine as the other guys didn't want to spend money on it. I soon discovered that buying performance cars and parting them out could fund my dirt track racing. There were a lot of high (and low) performance Mopar cars and trucks that passed through my hands. I discovered early that I was not a race car driver, but I could build a decent car for little money, and i started putting brand new drivers in my car. I ran a Mopar in the hobby class at our local track for 20+ years. While I was running the dirt trach car, several of those cars bought for parts, or to resell hung around for a while.

Restoration wasn't my game at all, I pictured that as a total waste of money. Buy them cheap, make them fast, sell them and move on was my game. After the dirt track thing ended, I turned to the streets for a few years, but by then street racing wasn't very highly thought of (for good reasons). Then I turned to old Mopars. A 35 Dodge 2 door sedan was my 1st, there have been many since.

Pictures or it didn't happen.
Pic 1 the 1st dirt track car.
Pic 2 The 35
pic 3 my favorite Performance Mopar
Pic 4 My current 2 old rides, the car is street driven, the truck is the last one.