Unexpected reunion (of sorts).

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
Today I called the place that has the parts what go on the cars.

The fella on the phone was friendly enough. After I gave him my order and shipping/card information he said, "Obviously you've got more than one car." I confirmed, so he inquired as to the contents of my stable. I ran down the list for him.
"Is that Challenger gonna be black with yellow stripes?" he asked.
"Uh... yeah... ? How do you know that?"
"Didn't you used to have a '73 340/4-speed car that was black with yellow stripes? You sold it to some asshole for like, a giant jar full of quarters?"
"I did, and I did."
"I'm that asshole."


We were pretty good friends in the middle-to-late '80s, and I sold him that car in January of 1989. He gave me $225 or $250 cash down; I don't recall for sure. The rest of the $500 price was to be paid in two installments, but after repeatedly bugging him I'd only gotten one payment of $50. After further pestering, he finally said he'd give me his "quarter jar", which was an enormous (probably 6-gallon) wine-type jug, almost 3/4 full with loose change (I wish it was truly just quarters). It was heavy enough that he helped me carry it out to my car, which sagged when we put it in the trunk. There was nearly $800 in that jar. :dance: Needless to say, the gals at the bank were just overjoyed to see me. :D

I haven't seen nor heard from this dude since '02 or '03 (at the Iola, WI show), but we were a decade-plus out of touch even then. Without knowing it, I've been buying parts from him online for several years.

Just thought it was a cool story to pass along.
 
One might hope, but no. In fact, since I ended up making somewhere near double the initial selling price for the car, I'm kind of worried that he's got my CC info. :D
 
It's hard to say. Mike bought the car solely for the 4-speed, but yanked the engine and 4.10SG axle center section. He took it for a few blasts on M35 in front of his house before he did so, and told me he couldn't believe how quick that car was for not only a small-block, but a '73 no less. He said it was quicker than his '69 Charger R/T-SE, also a 4-speed car. Regardless, the engine was supposedly sold to a guy with an early Barracuda with 4.56 or 4.88 gears. That thing was apparently the stoplight king of Marinette/Menominee for some time. The guy to whom Mike sold the rest of the car, Bill (not you, that's his name as well :D ), had really only bought the car for the dash and pad, a Rallye assembly which was almost perfect. His plan was to yank that and some other bits and scrap it, but he told me he developed a soft spot for the old girl. It was a real-deal 340/stick non-Rallye, after all. Though he bought the car later in '89 from Mike, it was still sitting at his Mom's in '95 or '96. The seats and doors were gone, but the dash was still in it. I went back there once while I was home from Atlanta, but I couldn't locate Bill and whomever lived in his Mom's old place at the time had no idea who he was nor anything about the car. I wasn't in any kind of position at the time to do anything with it should I find it, plus I was short of time, so I really didn't pursue it very hard. It was but a curiosity for me then.

The car might have survived, and Bill may well have even kept it due to his admitted affection for it. Though the trunk was mostly gone and there was no LH rail behind the axle kickup, the floors, rockers, and entire front structure of the car were rock solid well into the '90s. The entire front clip was still on the car, sans the Rallye hood--which Bill probably swiped as a backup for his '71. The decklid was absolutely rot-free. Had the sheetmetal available now been around back then, it would've been repairable. Not easily, but well worth doing. Mind you, the day I sold that car it only had around 77,600 miles on it. I'd bought it the previous June--7 months to the day--with a tick over 69,000 on the clock, and I was the second owner.

Stretch and I are thinking about a road trip Saturday to see if we can't discover the Challenger's fate. I've got an idea of where Bill lives, though that's a bit of a shot in the dark. Still, it can't take long asking around a small town--parts stores, junkyards, auto shops--about the Mopar guys named "Bill _______" before one develops a couple of solid leads.

And before anyone asks, the answer is yes. If the car exists and can be had for what I feel is a reasonable number, I will buy it and I will fix it. That leaves me in a bit of a spot as to what course to take with my current Challenger--I won't sell it--since I'll have no need of matching black/yellow 340/4-speed Challengers, and much of what I've got for the '74 would obviously have to go right onto the actual '73 to which it was going to be an homage. It also throws into doubt the ultimate fates of both the wagon and Valiant.

But that's not a problem I expect to have. I'm about 80% sure that my '73 has been soup cans for a couple of decades. :(
 
Holy sheeit! I bet it's rusting under a tarp in the driveway or backyard... Or soup cans like you said. :(
 
We're pretty sure we found the place, but no one was home and no signs of the car. I'm still betting on soup cans, but it would be nice to know for sure.
 
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