Telling stories about why at the age of 51 I decided to take on my first car restoration project, somehow got put on the sidelines. Not only have I done a lackluster job sharing progress (other than Facebook and Instagram) on this blog, I entirely put the project on hold the last few months, using excuses like work, funds, my son and partner Max in the project leaving for college, and not having enough time as reasons to just tuck the car in the corner of the garage and put a specila order custom cover on it. If you have not been following me on social media, a lot of progress has indeed been made since our first blog post. The details on that progress will be discussed in a separate dedicated blog. The condensed update here is thatwe decided to give the car a 100% full “frame down rotisserie restoration”. That means we fully disassembled it at home, had the frame acid dipped to remove all paint and rust, then had a professional shop, Jonesy Automotive perform the metal work from rust damage, body work and paint. They were able to get the car ready for reassembly in ‘warp speed’ time of less than 3 months, and after getting enough suspension on it to make her “rollable” she was returned to us at the beginning of August. After some brief excitement upon her return, she was quickly covered and somewhat forgotten about until just recently. Until I send out a full description of the disassembly stage and getting her back to color in a separate post, here is a quick summary on her journey through much of the metal/body/paint stage here on YouTube 

As my schedule shifted back to having more time and the bank account somewhat recovered from the body/paint tab, I knew it was time to focus on starting the long journey of reassembly here sometime soon….Poop or get off the pot so to say!  My hesitations on this project are mostly fueled by intimidation of the unknown. As a “restoration rookie” I’m always scared I will do the wrong thing, buy the wrong parts, or damage the beautiful new paint job. The thought of putting a car completely back together, mostly with new or restored parts consisting of hundreds of nuts, bolts, fasteners, and wiring is daunting for someone with a very limited automotive background. I needed a kick in the pants to get me fired up. I have been hesitant on moving forward on this project through every stage, but we got to this point, and just needed that extra call to action to dive in head first again. That nudge just happened to come recently, and it came in the form of a YouTube video that came through my feed (yes, they have their algorithms pegged on me!) on the story and myth of a legendary 1970 Dodge Challenger called the “Black Ghost”. This story resonated with me and had me inspired to write this piece, and pull the cover off today and get back to work. Please do watch the 40 minute documentary…it has 1.6 million views since it was published Dec 17th, so it must be legit! It has a personal story peppered with a little history, it’s about much more than a car and can even strengthin your faith in humanity…it might even produce a tear!

So why would a story on a 70 Dodge E-Body Challenger get me so fired up when we own a 69 Plymouth  A-Body Barracuda? Lets just say it brought back some memories of my first car that would have had extremely significant sentimental value today….not to mention street value! Through very tragic circumstances similar to the Godfrey family. I inherited my Mother, Susan Fischer’s 1970 Dodge Challenger 383 big block (non RT/TA) when she passed away in 1984 of Ovarian Cancer and I was only 16 years old. Now her car was not a very rare key model like the Black Ghost, and not at all legendry, but it had it’s own story none the less!

My Dad bought it for her slightly used in 1971 or 72. She loved the style and way it drove over all other cars they were shopping for. Since my Dad already owned a 1969 Dodge Charger and also fell for the model, they went searching for the car. Even then, that car wasn’t easy to find as it just didn’t have the production numbers of it’s GM and Ford competition. So when they found a yellow one with the options my Mom liked on a dealer lot, they grabbed it for $2,000, about half what they were going for new back then. I remember my Mom loving that car, and we took it on summer family road trips all over the Western United states. It had a very modest size back seat as a two door, but as an only child it seemed to suffice for our needs, so I got to see America from the quarter window of a speedy yellow muscle car. My Mom ordered a custom license plate for it, spelling out her nickname for the car, “DYNOSOR”, as even back then, she considered the car a dying breed as the 1979 Oil Crisis hit and there was a shift towards smaller, more economical cars. She took me a lot of places in that car, and when she passed, I  had planned at first to keep that car forever. I remember in High School, Dinosaur was the only Challenger in a sea of Mustangs, Camaros and Chevelles, and I was challenged to a drag race at almost every signal as everyone wanted to bag the lone formatable Mopar at Agoura High!  I was burning up the car my Mom babied for so many years! I put a 4 barrel on it, headers and exhaust to better compete, and she was getting faster, but it still needed lower gears in the rear end.  I decided in 1987 after getting my first real job to get its body work done from the years of minor bumps and bruises, (including a dent from when my Dad ran our cousins tractor at their Oregon ranch into the fender while giiving me a joy ride in the bucket (don’t judge, safety wasnt as big of a considertion back then….oh ya, and Mom was not happy!)

This next part is not made up;  As I had it in front of the body shop that had done the body work after dropping my Dad’s Honda Accord off….that I inadvertently backed into a pole at the mall(yeah, he was pissed!). I was sitting there on a bench in front of the body shop as my Dad was checking in the Honda, just staring at my car on the street, thinking if I was going to keep it the stock Banana Yellow or do something different. Just that moment, I heard screeching and looked up the street to see a brand new IROC Camaro hard on the throttle fish-tailing out of control after hitting a wet apron…it torpedoed right into the rear of my Challenger as I witnessed in shock roughly 30 feet away. The driver never let off the gas until the impact. Luckily the driver was okay, but both the cars were deemed totaled. Back then, my car did not have the value it would today, but because of its sentimental value and its coolness, we ordered it to be repaired. It sustained a bent frame and axle, along with severe body damage. The guy who owned the Camero gave a blank check right on the spot for both cars to be restored.The car was revived and back on the road, but she was never the same car. She popped in corners, would not track right, and just seemed like the jolt caused a series of other things to go wrong. Not sure if it was second rate work from a body shop that got paid up front or it was just a hit to the car so hard it could never fully come back from….she just wasn’t ever right again! So I gave up on the Dynosor, and sold it to simplify my life, then proceeded buying a plain ole’ Ford Ranger just to get to work reliably and use for camping.

 About 3 or 4 years later in around 1991, I started really missing that car and looked to make amends for selling my Mom’s car. I found one in the PennySaver (you So Cal natives might remember that publication). It was almost identical to my Moms, same 383 2 barrel  with 727 tranny and vinyl roof, this time a bone stock Special Edition, white with black interior…paid $1300 for it! I was pretty immersed in work at the time, so just drove it some, but did zero work to it. I didn’t know it at the time but that car also gained significant sentimental value, as I took my now wife of 25 years, Katina, out on our first date in 1992 to Ventura Harbor in that car. Sometime soon thereafter, I burned up the transmission in it. Again, as life was busy, and not having a lot of room to own multiple cars as a renter, I decided to sell it, thinking I made out great selling it for the same $1300 with a fried transmission. I can’t even find a picture of that car, not even sure I took one?  Fast forward to today, I can see I really let a gem get away with that second Challenger, and still regret selling it to this day…I guess hindsight is 20/20! Now in my early 50’s, guess I got a mild case of some sort of mid-life crisis and decided to once again pursue a replacement project car with my teenage son Max. The now heavily sought after 70 Challenger seemed out of our reach, and instead were able to land a slightly different and not as iconic(yet) Gen 2 1969 Plymouth Barracuda 340 Formula S. That project is now another story of it’s own now. We have put it on the sidelines lately, but using stories like the Black Ghost as motivation for me to get back on it, as I now see that getting it back on the street will be the path to redeeming myself for letting two 70 Challengers get away…this here Fish will be the one that didn’t get away!…the sentimental value I seek has now  been transferred to this car. You here us call the car Bonnie, as that is in reference to the original owner of this car. It will be brought back to life in honor of more than just my Mom!….details on that to follow soon with two stories I owe, one the history of the Barracuda and the second on the journey in detail Bonnie has taken so far.

Happy New Year!