My '71 Charger R/T
#2486592
04/22/18 10:53 PM
04/22/18 10:53 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I'm doing this post over again with pictures direct since photobucket screwed everything up and tried to extort money out of people by holding their pictures hostage. Here goes.....
The story of this Charger begins back in about July, 2001 when my son was about to turn 11. We had built some model cars in previous years that were getting him into the whole car thing. One of the models was a '71 Charger that we replicated to look like one of my old teenage days cars. Well, that July I decided we should look for a real car to build as a Father/son project. I looked in the Mopar collectors guide and saw a '71 Charger R/T,Very well opted! $4900. I called the gentleman only to find out that "the car had sold about a month ago" Dang! So not seeing any more interesting '71 Chargers in that section, I went back to the Super Bees. There I found a red '71 383 4 speed bench seat Bee. "That sounds interesting" so I began to dial the number, "this number looks familiar!" It was the same guy that I just called with the R/T. I explained that I assumed in the previous conversation, that it was the only car he had for sale but obviously not! " He said "the Bee had sold about a week ago" I asked if he had anything else. he said sure I've got all sorts of cars, and listed off a bunch of special interest cars (which I scratched down on a piece of paper,) but nothing more in the '71 charger department. "could I get any pictures of the cars?" His reply was "no, They are packed so tight in storage that the corner of a fender is probably the best I could get" I found out he was located in Oklahoma, So I asked if it would be possible to come see any of the cars if I were down that way. He said "sure, but call first. I'm always out looking for other cars, so make sure I'm here before coming". Well, I tucked that piece of paper in the collector guide and continued my search for a suitable project. In about mid October, my brother offered me a '68 GTX body that was rust free at the time. The '68 wasn't my favorite and I wanted to be sure I would be passionate enough about the car to stick with it. I thought if I could make it an open air car that would give it the pizzaz to hold the interest. I found a GTX convertible down in Michigan that looked to be a good donor candidate. I talked with the owner, Questioned him about the tops of the wheel tubs where the roof mechanism attaches and other convertible pieces I would be needing. He assured me it was all good. We settled on a price and off I went for the 12 hour drive to pick it up. When I got there, What I was looking at was an original 1968 GTX convertible that was so clapped out and rusty. Someone had hung quarters on it at one time but there was nothing to attach the bottoms of the panels to so they were flapping in the breeze. The crossmember was rusted at the torsion bar mounts. The tops of the wheel tubs were as soft and puffed up with rust as could be! But it did have a running 440 in it (that blew oil out of every orifice so bad the bottom of the hood was literally dripping oil). I told him he had grossly misrepresented the car and "would he be negotiable on the price?" I'm sure he figured "This guy just drove 12 hours dragging a trailer, He's not going back empty!" He stuck to his guns and wouldn't budge on price. After much consternation, I told him "Nope! can't do it" I went home empty. Wondering the whole 12 hours back, if I'd done the right thing. Well, The next morning when I returned home, My son was anxious to see our new "project". When I told him it didn't work out, he was devastated! I tried to console him and tell him "it just wasn't the car for us. But we'll find one." He wasn't buying that! So, I turned to Ebay to convince him there was stuff out there. When I did. There I see this rough but pretty complete '71 Charger R/T! It had one bid of $1500 and a "Buy it now" with no price. I contacted the owner, got his phone number and called to inquire. He said he was an Oldsmobile guy, He was selling it "because winter is coming and the wife wants her van in the garage, something has to go and it isn't going to be the Hurst olds!" I asked about the "buy it now" Why it didn't have a price? he didn't know. I said the buy it now shouldn't go away until reserve is met. He said "Oh! thats why! I didn't have a reserve." I asked if he would be willing to divulge what the buy it now was? he said $3500. I said "OH! I'LL PAY THAT RIGHT NOW!!" He said he didn't want to do anything dishonest as he does a lot with eBay. I wasn't asking him to do anything dishonest. I was just willing to pay his asking price. We talked a while longer and I explained how I owned a B5 Charger in high school. The whole father/son thing and how my son was devastated with the GTX not coming through. He was a little quiet for a moment, then said "I'll tell you what. You cut me a check for $2500 and it's yours." SOLD!!!! I said. I had just told him I'd pay the $3500 he was asking!! But he gave it to me for the $2500, I couldn't believe my ears! I was so excited! A few days later after working half of my 12 hour shift at work, I headed out around midnight for Carmel Indiana (another 12 hour drive). I was so pumped about getting the car, I hadn't slept in 38 hours and didn't even feel tired! Once I got the car settled in the garage. I started to look for what I would and could get for it. While lying in bed one evening, I was thumbing through the Mopar collector guide to see what was available. That piece of paper, that I had scratched down the guy's name in Oklahoma on and the cars he had, fell out of the magazine. My wife asked what it was. I told her how this guy in Oklahoma had all these cars. How I had called on the R/T but it was sold and then the Super Bee that was also sold. I told her "but the car I really was interested in was the R/T" and as I started to reread the listing for the R/T that I had read about 3 and a half months before, It started to sound very familiar............ "This sounds like my car!" I hopped out of bed, went to the filing cabinet and lo an behold! Here's that same guys name on the title! After all this. I had bought the very car that I first inquired about. Paid nearly half of the price it was listed for in Oklahoma and only had to travel to Indiana instead of Oklahoma! Sometimes things are just meant to be!
eBay pictures...
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/20/18 08:25 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2486690
04/23/18 02:39 AM
04/23/18 02:39 AM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I'll roll this back a ways and say when I got it I tried to turn the motor with a breaker bar but found that it was frozen up. I pulled the distributor and looked inside. I saw oil right up to the top! I thought, "oh, somebody filled it with oil or tranny fluid in a attempt to soak it to free it up." When I pulled the drain plug on the oil pan, 5 gallons of water poured out (literally 5 gallons!) and then a little dribble of some oil came drooling out at the end. What I thought was a motor full of oil to free it was really a motor full of water with a few quarts of oil floating on top of it. Having had the hood stolen off the car many years ago, who knows how long it rained down the carburetor? The motor was torn down and I found one cylinder was cracked. Being that it is the numbers matching motor, I brought it to my local machine shop and asked what they could do? He told me he could sleeve it. So I had them do the machine work to block, crank , rods and heads. We're a couple years into this project now and my son is thirteen. I had quit my job as a papermaker and bought an auto repair business with my brother. Our shop did police tows and happened to tow an '86 Chrysler Laser XT. It was a cool looking car to my son (I liked it too.) No one claimed the car, so we pursued a title on it. After we owned it, we started to look into putting it back on the road and found it was pretty rusty under the plastic cladding. My son found another Laser XT that used to belong to one of our employees (employee set him on to it.) bought that for $150 and then proceeded to get two more'89 Daytonas from a friend of my oldest brother. One of the Daytonas was a rust free Iowa car so we took a little detour from the charger and built an '86 Laser out of an '89 Daytona.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2490725
05/02/18 01:05 AM
05/02/18 01:05 AM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I purchased New Legendary door panels and stretched them onto the old frames. With limited room for all the parts accumulating, I had to temporarily install the door panels and seats in the car to keep them from getting damaged in my mess! (temporarily, as can be seen by the crooked window switches and release handle.)
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/02/18 01:08 AM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2495513
05/13/18 01:57 PM
05/13/18 01:57 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
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It looks great! Keep those pictures coming.
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2495552
05/13/18 03:03 PM
05/13/18 03:03 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I needed the decals for the hood and doors. This is a "V68" car so the over the cowl and down the side stripe is deleted so I didn't need those. My brother has a vinyl cutter, so I asked him if he could make the hood black out. He said he could if he could get the dimensions. I have a spare Ramcharger hood from an FC7 car. I traced the black out off that hood and here are the decals he made for me from that. I had to warm up the garage a bit to float them on. That was a little nerve wracking! Those things are a lot bigger when you start to try laying them out! Even with another set of hands helping.
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/13/18 03:08 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2495555
05/13/18 03:21 PM
05/13/18 03:21 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I bought the door scallop decals from Phoenix graphics since I didn't have templates for my brother to copy from. (they were only $16) I would have had way more labor into them than that, had I tried to make my own.
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/13/18 03:21 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: steve70]
#2495577
05/13/18 04:08 PM
05/13/18 04:08 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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It looks great! Keep those pictures coming. Thank you steve70! I didn't think anyone was looking. I see by your signature, you have a '71 Mr. Norm Charger? I'd love to see some pictures of that if you care to share. (no matter what condition!)
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: gtx6970]
#2497913
05/19/18 05:05 PM
05/19/18 05:05 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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Ddue, That is a NICE looking car. And optioned to the hilt is only better.
Thank you gtx! Yes, the car is well optioned! Sunroof, hideaways, six pack and spoilers are about the only things he didn't check off. I'd say in it's day, the car had a pretty hefty price tag! Add to that the dealer installed vinyl roof.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2499577
05/23/18 05:42 PM
05/23/18 05:42 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,224 JERSEY
RJS
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Ddue, That is a NICE looking car. And optioned to the hilt is only better.
Thank you gtx! Yes, the car is well optioned! Sunroof, hideaways, six pack and spoilers are about the only things he didn't check off. I'd say in it's day, the car had a pretty hefty price tag! Add to that the dealer installed vinyl roof. First off that is one Beautiful Charger!!!! I have to ask who did your window sticker? It has the automatic trans. included which I've never seen on a window sticker. I have a soft spot for these cars myself and own a 71 Super Bee. Ron
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: Matt M]
#2499715
05/23/18 10:52 PM
05/23/18 10:52 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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I will have to admit I am not a big fan of the 71 Dodge's, but Bro that is one good looking car. You did a nice job with the car. Great color combo
Keep the photos coming.
Matt Thank you Matt! I kept the color combo original "as ordered" Some don't like the white with the blue and prefer black. But I'm partial to the blue and white because I had a blue and white Charger back in my school days, so this was the perfect car for me! I've attached an old photo of my school days car. (I later installed Louvered R/T/500 tail lights not on at time of this picture.)
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: ogopogo]
#2499720
05/23/18 10:57 PM
05/23/18 10:57 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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Nice work and what a gorgeous classy looking charger ! Thank you ogopogo! It certainly gets the looks and compliments a lot! Those are my biggest and best trophies, when others give me a thumbs up or shout "nice car" across a parking lot or gas station driveway! It makes it all worth it when others enjoy it too.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: CDN72SE]
#2499724
05/23/18 11:01 PM
05/23/18 11:01 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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Congrats on the headliner install, need to tackle that myself one day. Thank you CDN72SE! I've been following your build. I'm so glad to see you got it out of that other shop(with all your parts) and are on the road to reassembly. The amount of time and detail you are putting into it are going to make my car look like a beater!
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: RJS]
#2499734
05/23/18 11:21 PM
05/23/18 11:21 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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Ddue, That is a NICE looking car. And optioned to the hilt is only better.
Thank you gtx! Yes, the car is well optioned! Sunroof, hideaways, six pack and spoilers are about the only things he didn't check off. I'd say in it's day, the car had a pretty hefty price tag! Add to that the dealer installed vinyl roof. First off that is one Beautiful Charger!!!! I have to ask who did your window sticker? It has the automatic trans. included which I've never seen on a window sticker. I have a soft spot for these cars myself and own a 71 Super Bee. Ron Thank you also Ron! I read a lot of your threads and posts and feel somewhat akin to you in your views and admire your Plymouth but am not sure I've seen your Bee. I had the "Monroney label" done by Dave Walden (ECS) I have to say, he is a very, very nice and meticulous man! He is obsessed with getting things perfect. There was an error with a font made on the first set he made for me. (someone on one of the forums pointed it out to me.) I asked Dave about it. He apologized that he had let an employee send it out without first proofing it himself, and sent out corrected ones. He is a GREAT guy to deal with! I know some take issue with him, but my experience with him found him to actually be a very humble man that is driven to perfection! That impressed me! The "Torqueflite transmission" is listed under the "standard equipment" category. I suppose that IS incorrect, isn't it? It should be under the options since a manual trans. was "standard". I never noticed that! Thank you!
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/23/18 11:40 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: larry4406]
#2500850
05/26/18 11:41 PM
05/26/18 11:41 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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Actually........ I would like to find a trailer hitch! if anybody knows of one, I would like to buy one. The holes are already there on the bumper. I filled them with another set of bolts but I could put one on in a few minutes. That would get the comments!
Last edited by 71 Charger R/T; 05/26/18 11:42 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2501048
05/27/18 05:28 PM
05/27/18 05:28 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
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steve70
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Auto is standard on a 71 R/T. Here's my window sticker
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2501241
05/28/18 08:50 AM
05/28/18 08:50 AM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
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Cool beans Steve! Thank you for that! I have been looking around and see others like that too. (on google images) but most are pre-'71. I'm gonna go with it the way it is unless someone can show me definitively that it's incorrect. What is the SPD of your car?
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2501326
05/28/18 02:30 PM
05/28/18 02:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
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Mark, what is the SPD of your car?
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: steve70]
#2501407
05/28/18 06:54 PM
05/28/18 06:54 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 6,224 JERSEY
RJS
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Mark, what is the SPD of your car? Mark's looks like C16 Dec. 16 70 71 Charger looks like 129 jan. 29 71 Ron
Last edited by RJS; 05/28/18 09:14 PM.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2501433
05/28/18 08:06 PM
05/28/18 08:06 PM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
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Thanks Ron, I forgot it was on the window sticker. I've heard the actual build date is on the bottom left of the window sticker which would be Oct 2nd for mine and Dec 8th for Marks. Is that true?
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: steve70]
#2501463
05/28/18 09:12 PM
05/28/18 09:12 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
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RJS
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Thanks Ron, I forgot it was on the window sticker. I've heard the actual build date is on the bottom left of the window sticker which would be Oct 2nd for mine and Dec 8th for Marks. Is that true? Hmmm that little tidbit I wasn't aware of (as my cousin used to say "my brain just got a wrinkle"). Hopefully someone much smarter than me chimes in. Ron
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: RJS]
#2501599
05/29/18 08:44 AM
05/29/18 08:44 AM
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 892 MA
steve70
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Thanks Ron, I forgot it was on the window sticker. I've heard the actual build date is on the bottom left of the window sticker which would be Oct 2nd for mine and Dec 8th for Marks. Is that true? Hmmm that little tidbit I wasn't aware of (as my cousin used to say "my brain just got a wrinkle"). Hopefully someone much smarter than me chimes in. Ron I heard that's the date the car was actually completed and the window sticker was applied. The OP's window sticker has an SPD of 1/29 but it looks like it left the plant on 1/22. From my own research that date is usually within 1-3 weeks of the SPD.
1970 Challenger T/A 4 speed
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2510056
06/18/18 05:02 PM
06/18/18 05:02 PM
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,810 Sobieski Wi
bee1971
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You had this at Mopars in the Park ?
Talked to you some on that Friday
Beautiful Beautiful Car
1971 Dodge Charger Superbee 2011 Ram Sport 1500 Quad Cab Deep Water Blue Loaded Siberian Huskies
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T (re-run)
[Re: 71 Charger R/T]
#2510419
06/19/18 03:50 PM
06/19/18 03:50 PM
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Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 428 Oakville, Ontario, Canada
CDN72SE
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Congrats on the headliner install, need to tackle that myself one day. Thank you CDN72SE! I've been following your build. I'm so glad to see you got it out of that other shop(with all your parts) and are on the road to reassembly. The amount of time and detail you are putting into it are going to make my car look like a beater! Thank you, much appreciated, I spent quite a lot of time drooling over your car waiting for mine. Yours is what I aspire to own, you definitely do not have a beater there.
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Re: My '71 Charger R/T
[Re: bee1971]
#2513038
06/25/18 02:38 PM
06/25/18 02:38 PM
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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 488 Chilly Northern, Minn.
71 Charger R/T
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OP
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Joined: Jul 2006
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You had this at Mopars in the Park ?
Talked to you some on that Friday
Beautiful Beautiful Car Yes, Had it M.I.P. Thank you! Refresh my memory. Which one were you? I talked with so many people, Only one identified himself as from the forum. He had his white '73 Rallye in the winners tent. (all the way from up in Canada)
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