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Suburban Challenger mystery


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This is is an abandoned Challenger that is resting in a ravine behind a friend's housing tract. You can see it from his backyard, but you can't see it from the road at the top of the ravine.

We hiked down and shot some pics. To my surprise I still had a vin tag on the door. I found out that it is a 73 Challenger that was built in LA. It came with a 383. 4BBL.

How it got in the ravine, I would love to know.

Any sleuths out there?

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post-3265-0-15741800-1413477038_thumb.jp

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Was saying that it may have been used as a parts car then abandoned and the VIN switched to a cleaner but more common base model Challenger

Some of the Mopar boards keep track of VINs from known wrecks beyond repair and the occasional VIN plate/fender tag/and title that shows up for sale- on more than one occasion a nicely "restored" car later comes up for sale with that VIN

The VIN in the photo is for a Challenger R/T originally equipped with a high performance 383- the standard engine for the R/T model

"JS" designates R/T, "JH" would be a base model, "23" a hardtop ("29" would be an SE), "N" for 1970 the 383 4 barrel, "0" the model year, 1970, and "E" the assembly plant

The VIN number and scheduled build date were assigned to each vehicle in advance but the door sticker was applied at the end of the assembly line and accurate in determining when a particular vehicle was built.

Normal model year changeover was usually around early July with the plant shutting down for a couple weeks for the switch before actual regular production so a September built Challenger would be a fairly early example

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Looks like FF4 Light Green Metallic originally with the brighter green being a later repaint and almost completely peeled off

An original door sticker is the most accurate way to tell the actual build date- the label was printed and attached as the car was being completed in the factory- the scheduled build date as found on the fender tag can often be off quite a bit depending on vehicle and the VIN/ sequence number was assigned before the car was actually started to be built- the cars coming off the line wouldn't necessarily be built in the same order as the numbers assigned

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Just ran the VIN JS23N0E102388 through the NICB database and it's not coming up stolen; if you had the license number and last five digits of the VIN you could run it through the CA DMV database, that would give a lot more info re salvage/junk, last registered, etc. (I just found that the low-mileage garage find '78 Subaru 4x4 wagon my boss just got has $619 in back fees... :( )

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if you had the license number and last five digits of the VIN you could run it through the CA DMV database, that would give a lot more info re salvage/junk, last registered, etc.

Did the Cali DMV update its database ? Last time I checked , their V.I.N. check only recognised the 1981 & up V.I.N.'s , not the thirteen-charater ID's .

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It will give info as long as you have the last five of the VIN and the license number - and the county and zip code - I just did it the other day for that Subaru:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/renewalForm.do

If there's a license plate or an old registration with a license number somewhere in that wreck you're good.

Edited by ChrisBcritter
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