On Mother’s Day, 1999 I was browsing through the Free Press Classifieds when I noticed that there was a 1967 Charger for sale for $4,200 or best offer. I told my wife that I was stepping out for a little while to get a present (being Mother’s Day, she naturally thought it was for her).

When I arrived at the owner’s place out in St. Vital, I saw, sitting on the front lawn, a forlorn, tired looking car in red primer with the bumpers and all of the trim removed. I was going to keep on driving, but I figured since I had already came all this way from North Kildonan that I might as well have a look, even just for old time’s sake seeing as I used to own 2 ’66 Chargers 30 years ago (a daily driver with a 318 and a weekend cruiser with a 383).

I walked around the car and saw that the body was fairly straight with some minor rust but what really impressed me was the interior. The front seats were reupholstered and the carpet was new and the rest was all original and in good shape, including the rear bucket seats which only had minor cracking along the stitching. All the glass was also in good condition.

Just then, the owner came out and asked if I wanted to hear it run. He indicated that it had been sitting for a couple of years and that he had to sell it because he needed the room and the money seeing as he was also redoing a ’64 and a ’68 Chevy. After about 10 minutes we finally got it to run and I test-drove it up and down the lawn. He indicated that he had most of the chrome and trim parts and bumpers stored in the garage. I offered him $2,500 for the car and he accepted.

The next day, I had the car towed directly to Classic Auto Body and told my buddy, Gary Balzer, the owner, to use her as a filler as I didn’t have to drive the car this year. Gary’s boys proceeded to strip it down to bare metal to see what I really had. They peeled off the primer, a coat of maroon paint and the original Chrysler Bright Red paint along with some old body filler. They then welded in new metal where required, added filler, block sanded and by late October, 1999, she came out of the shop with a new coat of Chrysler Bright Red enamel.

In the mean time, I had bought two parts cars from Norm at Mid Canada Suspension, a complete 1967 with a 318 and a 1966 with no engine (both with factory air!!). I then took off all the needed chrome and trim parts, bumpers and the entire front including grille, headlight/motors, turn signal assemblies, support rails, all mounting brackets and hardware. I had the best front and rear bumpers re-chromed at Northstar Plating and proceeded to install them along with all chrome and trim and the entire front grille, headlight/motors etc. This was all done just in time to store the car for winter.

In April of 2000, she was pulled out of storage and sent to Moneta Auto Service for a new front end, steering box, brakes, brake booster and electrical repairs. Then it was off to Minute Muffler on Henderson Highway where Albert installed new dual exhaust. The final touch was a set of B.F. Goodrich 205/70/R14 Radial TA’s from Columbia Tire, which were installed on a set of Magnum 500’s that I also picked up over the winter.

My wife and I took the Charger on her maiden voyage to Joe’s 20th Annual Mopar Gathering in Oslo, Minnesota in May and managed to get 23 mpg on the highway with the old girl (the car, not my wife). We got there and back with no breakdowns, but we used a litre of oil each way, so something wasn’t right. A compression check showed that one cylinder was down to 60 lbs. She also had a bit of a miss to her. Rather than tear the old stove down, a fresh 383 was installed by Martin Teerhuis of Oakbank Service Centre (another MMA Member) in July. Now she could really lite ‘em up.

During this time, I was cleaning out my basement and came across a box of old 8-track tapes that I had with my original ’66 Charger. I thought it would be great to groove to the same old tunes as back then! So I went to Value Village and bought an under-the-dash 8-track player for $2.96 (taxes in!), installed it in the Charger and it worked like a charm (and nobody will steal it!).

Finally, I had Wayne Mitchell of A.M.A. Glass & Trim reupholster the rear bucket seats with OEM fabric purchased from SMS Auto Fabrics in Portland, Oregon.