rmchrgr
Member
Hello gang. My name is Greg, I'm from Stamford, CT. Some of you might recognize me from FABO, FBBO or Moparts. At this point I've been in the hobby for decades. I have owned several varieties of Chrysler products over the years - many A's, a few B's, a couple D-series trucks and now finally an E body. The E body scene seems like a whole new world coming from the other platforms. I have a decent handle on things but I'll have questions for sure.
In any event, I bought my '72 Challenger in August of 2023. It's nothing special - originally a base 318/automatic car with A/C in triple green. (I love F3 green!) A previous owner had put a small block stroker in it (394") that was supposedly capable of propelling the car into the mid-11s. Has a fancy rallye hood too. It's got a 3.91 gear and a RVMB 727. It is/was a hot street machine that looks mostly stock.
Fun fact - I was very close to buying this car in 2018 but for whatever reason just didn't pull the trigger. I ended up buying a '68 Coronet 440 (1 of 934 big blocks) instead. It was clean but not all that great to drive. I went through it and made a lot of changes to it to increase the fun factor. I rewired the entire car, converted it from a column shift auto/bench seat to a 4-speed with bucket seats and installed a Holley Sniper EFI system. I put some nice suspension parts in it too and then drove it a bunch, almost as a daily driver. My heart was never into it though and when I saw the Challenger was back up for sale, I sold the Coronet to go after the E body.
I won't get into it too much but I ended up on the short end of the stick with this Challenger. Full disclosure - I paid way too much for the car. It's my own fault because I rolled the dice and bought it sight unseen out of Florida. I've had pretty good luck buying cars like that in the past but it didn't work out this time. I thought I knew it from my previous interest (definitey knew more about it than the guy I bought it from) but didn't realize that it had been through some real idiots after it sold back in 2018. Live and learn.
After the transporter dropped it off, I drove it briefly but it clearly was not running right. Some quick checks eventually led to finding severe internal engine damage. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single valve spring was broken. I'm not even sure how that happens. The heads were trashed and the #2 piston had broken the top ring land completely off. I don't know how it even ran since it had no compression. The motor had some really nice parts in it too and the block was even converted to a 4 bolt main. Whoever bought it after I inquired about it in 2018 just hammered it and never lifted a finger to maintain it. Only thing I can think of is that building the engine to that level is probably what saved it from completely destroying itself.
The seller I eventually bought the car from was a real DB and wouldn't refund me anything even though it was obvious the motor had been trashed the entire time they had it. I messaged him about it 2 days after I got the car home so it wasn't like I waited a month. Ultimately, I came to learn he had no interest in making things right. I wasn't looking for a full refund but just some money back to rebuild the engine - he wouldn't budge. I eventually took him to small claims court but lost because I signed an as-is agreement - more salt in the wound. The judge even said it was obvious the guy was a scumbag but signing the as-is agreement was not something she could get around. Again, my fault for not looking at the car in person.
I will admit that going down to look at it in person likely wouldn't have mattered since I'm pretty certain I would have bought it anyway - I was that in love with it. Maybe I could have gotten it for a lower price if I was standing there in person but hindsight is 20/20. I was determined to buy this particular car and nothing was going to stand in my way. Not sure why I am so drawn to it as I'm not a huge fan of the '72-up models but sometimes love is blind.
Because of the blown up small block my intention of driving the car as-is was obviously out the window and it's been sitting since. Recently I got tired of looking at it sitting there and decided to start working on it. I have some pretty big plans for it so I'll start a build thread and get into the details there. Good money after bad - woohoo!
I know everyone wants to see the goods so here's the triple pickle in all it's green glory. I really do love this thing, warts and all.
See everyone on the board.
- Greg
In any event, I bought my '72 Challenger in August of 2023. It's nothing special - originally a base 318/automatic car with A/C in triple green. (I love F3 green!) A previous owner had put a small block stroker in it (394") that was supposedly capable of propelling the car into the mid-11s. Has a fancy rallye hood too. It's got a 3.91 gear and a RVMB 727. It is/was a hot street machine that looks mostly stock.
Fun fact - I was very close to buying this car in 2018 but for whatever reason just didn't pull the trigger. I ended up buying a '68 Coronet 440 (1 of 934 big blocks) instead. It was clean but not all that great to drive. I went through it and made a lot of changes to it to increase the fun factor. I rewired the entire car, converted it from a column shift auto/bench seat to a 4-speed with bucket seats and installed a Holley Sniper EFI system. I put some nice suspension parts in it too and then drove it a bunch, almost as a daily driver. My heart was never into it though and when I saw the Challenger was back up for sale, I sold the Coronet to go after the E body.
I won't get into it too much but I ended up on the short end of the stick with this Challenger. Full disclosure - I paid way too much for the car. It's my own fault because I rolled the dice and bought it sight unseen out of Florida. I've had pretty good luck buying cars like that in the past but it didn't work out this time. I thought I knew it from my previous interest (definitey knew more about it than the guy I bought it from) but didn't realize that it had been through some real idiots after it sold back in 2018. Live and learn.
After the transporter dropped it off, I drove it briefly but it clearly was not running right. Some quick checks eventually led to finding severe internal engine damage. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single valve spring was broken. I'm not even sure how that happens. The heads were trashed and the #2 piston had broken the top ring land completely off. I don't know how it even ran since it had no compression. The motor had some really nice parts in it too and the block was even converted to a 4 bolt main. Whoever bought it after I inquired about it in 2018 just hammered it and never lifted a finger to maintain it. Only thing I can think of is that building the engine to that level is probably what saved it from completely destroying itself.
The seller I eventually bought the car from was a real DB and wouldn't refund me anything even though it was obvious the motor had been trashed the entire time they had it. I messaged him about it 2 days after I got the car home so it wasn't like I waited a month. Ultimately, I came to learn he had no interest in making things right. I wasn't looking for a full refund but just some money back to rebuild the engine - he wouldn't budge. I eventually took him to small claims court but lost because I signed an as-is agreement - more salt in the wound. The judge even said it was obvious the guy was a scumbag but signing the as-is agreement was not something she could get around. Again, my fault for not looking at the car in person.
I will admit that going down to look at it in person likely wouldn't have mattered since I'm pretty certain I would have bought it anyway - I was that in love with it. Maybe I could have gotten it for a lower price if I was standing there in person but hindsight is 20/20. I was determined to buy this particular car and nothing was going to stand in my way. Not sure why I am so drawn to it as I'm not a huge fan of the '72-up models but sometimes love is blind.
Because of the blown up small block my intention of driving the car as-is was obviously out the window and it's been sitting since. Recently I got tired of looking at it sitting there and decided to start working on it. I have some pretty big plans for it so I'll start a build thread and get into the details there. Good money after bad - woohoo!
I know everyone wants to see the goods so here's the triple pickle in all it's green glory. I really do love this thing, warts and all.
See everyone on the board.
- Greg
