Chrysler Charger: pre-restoration pictures

Looking back at the photos it's hard to believe just how bad the rust was.  Of course it was obvious that my Charger had rust, but it was only when the car was taken back to bare metal that the full extent of the problem was revealed.  And the problem was extensive!  I did not do the work myself - lacking both the skills and the equipment - but I managed to find a body shop that was happy to undertake the project for a price.  It is inevitable that a car built in 1976 will eventually start to rust, and given that I had already had the engine rebuilt, I felt an obligation to also rescue the bodywork from the sorry state it was in.  Was it worth it?  Yes and no.  Financially, no.  The sheer amount of time required to restore the bodywork to original condition (which included the fabrication of new metal panels) meant that the labour cost was very high.  On the other hand, the end result was stunning, with the Charger looking the best it had for many, many years.  There is no doubt that restoring the Charger's bodywork was the most expensive part of the project, and given the choice it may have been wiser (and certainly cheaper) to buy a different Charger without the rust issues.  But this was my Charger, my dream car that had served me well for many years.  I even displayed it at Chrysler car shows in the early days, when it was still in pristine condition.  Actually I have some photos of the early days, but I'll save them for a future post...

Hey Charger! :)

The title won't mean much unless you are (a) older than me or (b) an Aussie muscle-car nut. Hey Charger was of course the catchy advertising slogan for the Australian-built and designed Chrysler Charger of the 1970s. The beautiful looking example in these photos - a 1976 VK Charger 770 -  belonged to me.  The Charger was my daily driver for around 8 years, and I loved every minute of owning it.  Well... that's not quite true, I didn't love spending the bucket-loads of cash to restore the car.  But you gotta blow a lot of money restoring an old classic car at least once in your life, right?  And you aren't doing it right if you don't lose a bundle when it comes time to sell the car :)

For those tech-minded readers out there, my Charger had a 4.3 litre '265' straight-six engine, a 4 speed manual gearbox, extractors and a nice sports exhaust.  It went well and sounded amazing!  More about the Charger, including restoration pictures, later...