The 1973 Dodge Charger has been his dream car for ages. Of course, he would have preferred a 1968 or a 1969. His wife, who doesn't know much about cars, knew he liked Chargers and wanted to surprise him. So, she got him one. She bought it sight unseen and had it delivered to their town.
Now that it is in his yard, he can see it in all its glory disaster. The third-generation Charger is painted blue over a tan interior. Whoever painted the car oversprayed every inch of it to make sure it was sufficiently intense and covered all body panels properly.
"They must have been blind," says the new owner of the Dodge. There is rubber around the chrome bumper at the rear, fitted in there to partially cover a gap. He plans to get rid of it.
The cabin is in terrible shape. The steering wheel comes off like in a race car, but you don't know for sure if you can put it back into its place. The central tunnel features a cutout. Someone put a part from another car in there to cover a huge hole in the floor.
Dodge did redesign the Charger for the 1973 model year, but rubber was not part of the plan. The car did, however, come with restyled headlights, grille, and new quarter windows. But the good news is that the body panels have little to no rust. However, a screwdriver is the key for the trunk.
Photo: Muddy Rascals | YouTube
The wife paid $3,000 at an auction to surprise her husband with this 51-year-old Charger. And she surprised him, all right! Surprises keep coming, culminating with the moment he pops the hood. He was expecting a 318-cubic-inch V8 but finds really bad news in the engine bay instead: there is a whole out of nothing in there.
"You don't need a motor when you've got family," he jokes. He will have to find one to get this car back on the road. There is still a long way to go.
He notices that the hood used to be red, and the rest of the body must have been tan when the Dodge rolled off the production line back in 1973. But that was long ago, and this Charger is a project that will take a lot of time and money.
No husbands were harmed in the making of this video. With or without the motor under the hood, the family's cat is happy about the Dodge and uses it as a sunbed.
1973 Dodge Chargers sell for an average price of $28,345, as reported by classic.com. The finest examples, which are in mint condition and have very low mileage, can go well above the $50,000 mark. However, none of those has an empty space under the hood and a hole in the floor.
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