Skydime Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 It looks kind of sad with the bumper off and the slightly arched grill- almost like it's crying. Charlie Larkin That's what I was gonna say. Poor thing is sitting in the cold snow waiting for someone to take it home and take care of it.
Skydime Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 If anyone comes across a 1973 Duster whose VIN is VL29G3B375353 (yes , I still recall its VIN some 22 years later !) or a blue / gold Calif plate number 726 HYH , please get a hold of me . John, have you tried running it through the DMV?
Greg Cullinan Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Get the car, and put some cool white scallops on top of the black paint, then paint roof a metallic color with heavy flake. Trim rings ans small caps or a smoothie wheel cover with white walls. Yup ?. Like your thinking.
JTalmage Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 I bought (or should I say "received" ) a '74 Plymouth Scamp for free after my dad's friend bought it thinking it had a motor bigger than a 318 in it for his '70 Valiant Duster, and so since it didnt, he said he would give it to me or it was going to scrap. I felt sorry for the car, and accepted. Parents were none too happy,but I was in love w/ the little thing. It was ugly as all getout, and had pretty much no floorpans, but a few trips to the junkyard wielded some old galvanized sheet metal used for indoor heating unit bodies, and I pop-riveted them in place, and sealed it all w/ undercoating, got the motor running good, and had decent used tires on it as well. Car had magnum 500's on it too! Was a white car w/ green interior and a green vinyl top which I peeled off because it was shredded. Put a lot of work in to this car and tried to drive it but the k member was wore completely out, and the wheels would camber WAY out at the bottom even after new ball joints and other steering parts. So it was a lawn ornament for a while, until I could try and find a k member... which I learned were small block specific or slant 6 specific... and wouldnt interchange (There were like 3 or 4 darts/dusters/scamps in a local yard, but all slant 6's) So I waited and waited and waited. Never found what I needed, and I didnt know how to weld back then either. So, time went by, and I bought an '89 Mustang GT for $500 that was blown up off a buddy of mine, because he was going to scrap it as well, and I put a motor in it and drove it for 6mo. before totaling it in the snow (only car I could drive unfortunately) so I parted out the GT, and sold the body of it, and sold the whole Scamp to a friend of mine who resold the Scamp and scrapped my GT. Fast forward about 6 or 7 years, I see my Scamp going down the highway while on my way to work and its painted flat black now, had dual exhaust, and sounded pretty good! I was soo glad to see it was still alive. Years after I sold the Scamp I saw that they now make tubular K members for old Mopars... wish I woulda never sold it now. Oh well. I'm having more fun w/ Fords and Mustangs... and my Lincoln Mark Viii
1972coronet Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 John, have you tried running it through the DMV? Calif DMV doesn't 'recognise' 13-character VIN's (1980 & earlier) . Thanks for the idea , none-the-less .
Tom Geiger Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 When Jesse mentioned "free" that reminded me of a bunch of stories. Here's a good one... One Saturday I was out running errands and came home to find a '74 Dodge Dart Brougham in my driveway. I immediately noticed it had no interior, otherwise just had 100,000 on it, V8 and AC car, and no other real issues. Keys in the ignition, and a title from someone I didn't know in the glove box. Later that weekend I found out it was a gift from a car club buddy who was getting divorced and needed to get everything off the property quickly. He had bought it to put the interior in his Dart. He was the guy who made me realize I was much better off with my wife not being interested in cars and my hobbies. His wife was always by his side at car shows, and was into cars too. I used to be jealous of that relationship, until she found herself a boyfriend and booted him out. And the divorce was tough. She took his Dart convertible, and fought him for everything down to the last socket! Anyway, I had this Dart with no interior but a good running 318. I searched locally for a replacement interior with no luck at all. But I did own a 1978 Dodge van with a blown 318. I had a brother in law who was a mechanic who I asked to do the transplant for pay. He declined saying it was too much work and he couldn't be bothered. Then someone came along who bought my van the way it was. Same bro-in-law was working at a local garage and asked me if they could buy the 318 for a customer's car for $300. I figured that was probably the best use, and wanted it out of my driveway. So they towed it down to their shop. A few days later I realized I left some stuff in the trunk, and went down to the shop to witness same idiot putting my 318 into a DODGE VAN! Man, I was ticked. And shortly thereafter I got a call from my car club buddies soon to be ex-wife... she had this Dart interior in her garage that she wanted gone now! Too late!
ChrisBcritter Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Calif DMV doesn't 'recognise' 13-character VIN's (1980 & earlier) . Thanks for the idea , none-the-less . John, I just used a little trick: I ran 726 HYH through the CA DMV personalized plate generator, and it didn't reject the number. Doesn't look good...
Skydime Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 I'm not super familiar with C.A.R.B. and all the other things associated with getting a car legalized in CA. But I do know that there are a ton of pre 1980 cars on the road. Granted, a lot of them are customized. Nonetheless, they are there. If CA doesn't recognize 13 number VINs, then I would imagine there is a process of upgrading the VIN or reregistering with a recognizable format. If they do so, I would imagine there would be some kind of record or department that does this and maybe that could help you track the car down. I don't wanna give you any ideas of false hope. I'm just saying someone somewhere should have incite on this. Best of luck finding it either way. You never know, you just may roll up on it at the car wash one day.
Sam I Am Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 I think every car I have owned has been because I felt sorry for it and could see what its potential could be....darned vision anyway. lol Currently have dragged home two '71 Dusters, a 65 and 66 mustang, a 65 Impala four door hard top, a 1972 BMW Bavaria, a 1942 Ford GPW, still need to drag home a 63.5 Falcon hardtop, and am going to look at a 62 Falcon sometime next week.
ToyLvr Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Watch out for rust at the points where the body bolts to the frame. Even if the rest of the body looks good, these old Mopars had a tendency to rust under there. I rescued several Corvairs in a similar situation like you found this car. They looked so sad; sometimes they would follow me home like a lost puppy. If you can get this car *really* cheap, then you can have sone fun with it and at least chalk it up as a "learning experience". However, if it requires much of an initial investment, you could find that you've bought a money pit....
DonW Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Yeah, I bought a semi-space-framed BMW 2002 rally car from a guy near Belfast in the early '80s - the whole thing was a total adventure including driving down the Falls Road in the vendor's MGA (scary!), then being stopped by the army outside the city for a 'routine check', rifle barrel horribly close to my left ear... but a lovely country nonetheless. The car was a complete wreck but had two 45DCOE Webers and LSD and looked totally fantastic with huge fibreglass wheelarch extensions like the old factory racers. It had apparently won the Circuit of Ireland rally in 1973. I never did get it going. it was pretty much rotten throughout but it did lead me to meet some racers in the UK and got me into the sport and I ended up bartering the salvageable bits for work on my first racer. No regrets then. You have to follow your heart or else be forever wondering 'what if?' Hope this helps you make your mind up, I know what I'd do if I had the cash and space. But I'd get that heater sorted! -Don.
bryan_m Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 chuck, i love the avatar..........mr.tsoukolos(however you spell his name) really, really, really needs to comb his hair! LOL cheers bryan
mademan Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 I grabbed this hurtin` unit from a scrap yard for $250.00 just so it wouldn't get squished. done a bunch of work and it now sports a 450hp built 383 stroker w/ stage 2 t350/3000stall, posi w/4.10s. Sidepipes, N50-15s on supertricks. No current pics as its in storage for winter, but I just couldn't let it get crushed.
mnwildpunk Posted January 29, 2014 Posted January 29, 2014 My advitar is one that looked sad ran and drove but the body was dinged on every panel. Got it for 400 bucks it was a blast to drive and next the you know it has a 392 and four speed pearl white paint and new interior and now I have more fun
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