I just turned 69 last week and am still at it .. I still race the 68 Dart I bought 41 years ago almost every weekend.. and still have the 92 D150 standard cab / short bed I bought new back in 1992 as a matter of fact I just took the cover off it in my garage to get it ready for the first cruise night of the year tomorrow evening I also bracket race it on occasion. My " retirement present " was a 21 Ram 1500 4x4 Hemi quad cab to tow the Dart with , I was forced into retirement back in 2020 so I consider myself " semi retired " as I still work part time / on call as a driver / equipment operator for an excavating / landscaping company to fund my Mopar hobby. I think the hobby is doing ok , I go to Chryslers at Carlisle almost every year and the place is always packed and well attended. I go to cruise nights a few times a month and they are always well attended with some nice Mopars also. A close friend of mine works part time for a shop that does work on mainly old Vettes , 55 - 57 Chevies, Chevelles , Camaros, Mustangs , old pickups etc. doing anything from EFI conversions , o/d trans conversions etc. to just regular maintenance and they keep very busy .

I was 12 years old and reading in Popular Mechanics that Plymouth had just won 1-2-3 at the 1964 Daytona 500 with something called a "maximum performance hemispherical combustion chamber Hemi engine". That was the bug that bit me and 58 years later I'm still in the fold.

I'm 54 now and for most of my life I was always into musclecars. And I gravitated to mopars because of how cool they looked and the fact that they were rare to see in the area I lived in. I still have my first car which is a 79 Camaro that I was able to buy because it had a straight six. My dad thought I would kill myself with a v8 as all I talked about was musclecars and he wasn't a car guy.

That car evolved quickly to a 350, 427 and then a 509. That ran 10.70's but still was nice and streetable back in the mid 90's Take that dad.

Anyway the car that really make an impression on me as a teen was the 67 Coronet. It was my dream car and to make a long story short, I was able to build my vision over the course of the early 2000's with a lot of help from the guys on Moparts.

I met my wife in 98 and lucky me she was into cars and really liked 68 chargers. So finally in 2007 we had the means to buy one that I built into a nice cruising mild mannered beast with the help of Jeff Patterson who built of very strong 406 small block that could overcome the 2.94 gears, a/c, etc... and get that car into the high 12's.

I picked up a few other vehicles to add to the collection also such as a 79 Cherokee Chief and a 64 Buick Riviera that I use as a daily driver in the summer.

When I got the Riviera in 2014 I was really looking for a solid but rough around the edges jetson's car (bubble top, finned car from the forward look era of mopars specifically the 59 dodge coronet, or one of the other makes from that space age era.) I couldn't fine one so I settled with the Riviera because it kind of had the look and because you never see them.

Fast forward to 2020, we lost the charger to a distracted driver and I really decided that I had to have a 59 Dodge. Now in my 50's I found I really loved the space age styling of these cars plus the fact the I really didn't know much about them.

I joined the groups and forums and learned all I could about them all the while searching for one of these 59's, resigning myself to having to settle for one of the rare basket cases that would come up once in awhile.

Shockingly a 59 dodge challenger came up on facebook marketplace. It really was a all black one owner top of the line 59 Custom Royal Lancer and it was only 75 miles from me. I'm thinking the only reason I got it was because it was named wrong although they did build 59 Dodge Coronet challangers in silver that were stripped down and called Spring Specials.

This car checked all the boxes for me except for not having a/c. Over the past year I've been fixing it's flaws and enjoying all the attention it gets at the shows and on the drives. It's an amazing car and is now my favorite (am I getting old) out of all my other cars. I find that I am mostly bored of muscle cars after mostly being into them all my life. (I never saw myself thinking like this) It's all about the space age styling of the late 50's, early sixtys now.

It's got a 361, push button torqueflite, swivel bucket seats, mirrormatic mirror that automatically adjusts, and other cool futuristic features.

Anyway, I'm now wondering which car I have has go to make room for another one.

68Sport Fury -

I hear you on the 5 cars...i have three currently and would like to add a fourth. That's not counting my girlfriend's daily driver Honda...C-bodies are really cool and great cruisers. Get that gas tank!

SomeCarGuy -

I like both of them! The brown and green cars are more appealing to me in my old age. Maybe its because there are so many red, yellow, black, etc. beautiful cars that they really stand out. Green on green is really cool! I might be a little biased since my first Coronet was green on green...I also love the non rally dash with the swept needle. Do you have any other pictures of your cars?

Dart4Forte -

Remember when you gave me the 383 hood ornament for my 67 Belvedere II? Thanks again.

Old_moparz -

The market on those new challengers is pretty good right now...you could probably slide into a nice R/T or SRT for a reasonable amount. I'm kind of in the same boat, i have never been able to smartly afford the 'dream car' so I thought I'd build it. At the end of the day...get what makes you happy. That's what I'm thinking.


6pkbee -

Have you ever had a hemi? I have not.

Rapom -

That is a SWEET 67! wow. I love the old 59 headlights, it looks so mean. I feel like you've got a good problem with all those really nice cars. This one has always been in the back of my mind as one of the coolest cars I/ve ever seen. I love the space age interior...thats the only part of the 68-70 cars that is lacking is the 'cockpit' look.

I have a '67 Hemi GTX project that I hope to drive before I run out of shopping days!

Yeah, that's a 61 Plymouth Fury. Looks like it's from another world. Love the interior. That's a beauty. That dash was also used in the Dodge's and Desotos in 1960. Just last month I installed a new dash pad and added led lights to give it more of an electrolumence look that the Astrodome dashes of the 1960-62 Chrysler's had.

Here you go. The white car was most fun car I’ve ever had. It was so dialed in. I’m working my way through the gold car. It’s a lot better after some basic work to make it…work. Some really silly mistakes were made.

Great pics and stories.

I can't believe I forgot this story lol. When I took Auto in high school there were a bunch of hard cover reference books in a room and I loved looking through them. Some went pretty far back. I found one with a picture of a complete 1970 340 and at the bottom of pic in small print it said something about pic being provided by Chrysler Corporation. Anyway I looked around, tore the picture out of the book and folded it around the picture and carried it in my wallet all through high school. I bet if I look through a box of papers in spare bedroom I'd find it.

rapom -

That radio/dash lighting looks like an atomic reactor glow…so cool. Those are LED? I need something similar for my cars!

somecarguy -

So the brown 4-speed interior was in the white car and the black auto interior is the GTX? That’s a SWEET looking car.

You got it. The white car was fully and I mean fully changed to white from t5. You wouldn’t known it unless you saw the tag. I was lucky I love the white and it was a no sell on eBay. I saved the number and about 6 mo the later I had the cash for what was the opening bid it never got. Guy was stunned I had saved the number and gladly sold an unloved white car without a fee.

Ironically I had a list of cars I wanted this time, a 69 GTX wasn’t one of them. It fell from the sky and I quickly decided to go for it. It was everything I didn’t want, and doesn’t have things I did. You just never know.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9MGSX7K?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Yes they are led. Here is a link to the lights. They should fit your car.

I installed this Dakota digital dash in my friend’s 68 Sport Satellite. You can completely customize the panel colors and even the needle colors. Unfortunately this is not a cheap dash, but I can tell you that it was the first time I was happy about how a sophisticated aftermarket dash installed and worked as designed.

There are lcd screens that you can program and switch to depending on your tastes.
Very cool.
These pictures where snap shots from a video. Sorry about the poor quality.

I finished the restoration of this one recently and am putting on some test miles. The first time I ran across it was around 1980 and ended up with it a little over three years ago. I hope to continue with being involved in the hobby for several more years, as I do still enjoy it.

That’s a real eye catcher👍

My family goes back to owning a desoto,60s chrysler newport,66 coronet,70 polara,73 monaco with a 440 man it seemed fast,77 360 fury while in highschool.Freinds had a dusters and demons,one of the many times while working on the duster we drained the break fluid in budwiesr beer bottles while drinking the same beer not thinking I took a swig of the beer sitting on my friends lawn and it was full of break fluid! Some how I swallowed it and was ok,but a started really enjoying martinis

SomeCarGuy -

I like the GTX...a gentleman's hotrod. I feel like the GTX is generally kind of underrated.

rapom -

I just ordered a set of those lights. Thanks! The digital dash is pretty cool.

BiggE -

That is a great looking Cuda....my favorite year.

rdrnr6970 -

I generally try to avoid drinking brake fluid...I may have had a similar experience with a dip spitter in college...YUCK!

Ohhhh man that's horrible,sorry to hear that,makes brake fluid sound refreshing!

Ive owned nothing but Mopar since my senior year of high school.
A friend of mine in high school drove a limelight Superbird his senior year and I was hooked from that point on.
I bought a blue 1969 Roadrunner, 383 column auto, the summer of 1977 and gave a whopping $150 for it and drove it home.


Over the years Ive had A LOT of others including 2 hemi cars, one Daytona ( project ) 2 1969 GTX convertibles and so much more

Currently own two 1966 Satellites , 1 hemi and 1 383 ( soon to be for sale ) And am looking at a 1966 Belvedere convertible to make for the 2nd keeper once the 383 cars sells.

At 63 and retirement right around the corner Im good with the 2 as keepers.

The key for me is my 2 daughters both love the old cars. Both want one of their own. Hopefully Before mine becomes theirs.
If not,,,,. Mine will be passed to them when that time comes and I feel like they will be in very good hands.

basically exactly like so, Only a 1969

First muscle car I ever got a ride in was when I was 16. A friend in High School had a '70 Hemi Orange Super Bee 383 pistol grip 4 speed. Not the fastest car on the planet for sure but in the 80's and coming out of slant sixes and 318's wow was I impressed!

Gordon Wellman, where are you today???

I have had so many cars so far . . . first Mopar that really stuck was the Chrysler 300, had a couple 69's then (3) 70 300Hursts, and "made" (1) 70 300Hurst convertible (hence A12rag - A12 was code in 70 for the 300Hurst) . . . My 74 Duster360 was with me for over 30years, drove it over 100k miles ! Basically this "hobby" for me, started out as just me keeping the damn thing on the road - couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to fix things. Learned from dad, along the way - thanks Dad !! . . . Then it morphed into having some "nicer cars" that I could take to carshows - LONG LONG drive away from home, like Vegas, or Spring Fling in Van Nuys, or Seattle & Spokane Mopar shows, Carlisle, etc . . . funny thing, along the way, meeting all the great people I call friends now ! Nice to be able to visit with them, even without the car(s) . . . .

Who knows what future holds, and whole idea is to enjoy ! The people, friends, adventures (man love just having a trip with no set points, but enjoy the journey along the way), and of course the cars . . . .

Just my 2cents

Cheers,

Mark