Posted on 05/25/2023 7:44:27 AM PDT by Red Badger
When it comes to barn finds, nothing's more satisfying than seeing a classic that's been sitting for decades come back to life with proper cleaning. But it gets even better when the vehicle in question is a rare muscle car. Say a 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A.
Video at link......................
1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find1970 Dodge Challenger T/A barn find
If it looks familiar, it's because I've already introduced you to this Mopar. It happened earlier in May 2023 when Tom Cotter, Hagerty's barn find prospector, found it sitting in a warehouse. It had been parked in the same spot for about 26 years but hadn't been driven since 1984. That's right; this rare and valuable Challenger sat almost untouched for 39 years.
But despite not getting a sip of gasoline in almost four decades, the 340-cubic-inch (5.6-liter) V8 engine under the hood agreed to fire up and run for a short while. A couple of weeks have passed since then, and Tom returned to show us how he managed to fix the drivetrain and put the Challenger T/A back on the road.
Fortunately enough, the muscle car was in surprisingly good condition after so much time in storage. While almost 40 years of sitting can damage a vehicle, this Challenger got very lucky and soldiered on without major rust issues or a locked-up powerplant. Granted, it also got a lot more attention than the average barn find, which can make a massive difference, but it's still amazing that it emerged out of the warehouse still in one piece.
As for the 340 V8 "Six Pack," it needed a lot of work to bounce back. Tom had to fix a vacuum leak and pull out the carburetors and the intake manifold for much-needed repairs. He also replaced a gasket and fitted the car with a new fuel pump and fuel tank. But I think it was a far easier mission than a complete engine rebuild. And seeing such a cool muscle car being returned to public roads is priceless.
Speaking of which, this Challenger T/A is not only rare by production numbers. It's also a rare gem in terms of originality. Because while Dodge built more than 2,000 T/As in 1970, very few of them made it to 2023 with all the sheet metal and internals still intact. Not to mention still wearing the factory finish. Yup, this Mopar is one of those unrestored and unmolested survivors. The kind that crosses the auction block for six-figure sums.
A one-year-only version, the T/A was launched in 1970 as a homologation special, enabling Dodge to race the Challenger in the SCCA Trans Am series. While the race-spec car had a 303-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) V8, the production model arrived with a "Six Pack" version of the regular 340 V8. It was rated at 290 horsepower. The Challenger T/A also came with extras like a low-restriction exhaust with side-exiting pipes, a larger air scoop, a fiberglass hood, and a heavy-duty suspension system.
Dodge built 2,399 units of the T/A in 1970. Although the company planned a similar model for 1971, the revised T/A was canceled following Dodge's withdrawal from the series.
THANKS!....................
I got them at school lunch. For an extra .25 per week you got your pick on candy during afternoon recess. Snickers, Milky Way, Jolly Rancher, and others I can’t remember. After school it was a beeline across the street to the convenience store for more sugary goodness!!! Elementary school had its privileges!!
They washed it with a power washer? That’s nuts.
The only think I would touch that car with is something softer than a baby’s but.
It’s wonder the paint didn’t fly off in sheets!.................
What a sickening thought.
That car is a part of America past worth keeping. Reminds me of the song about riding with Private Malone.
Funny thing about 1970, youth truly does think it is invincible and lives mostly in the moment. I was a very sober minded young man but never gave much thought to the draft or going to Nam even as I watched the older guys go and not come back home. Six years earlier, in ‘64, I was just a Cub Scout. Sure, the war sobered me but the draft and even war’s end were just about non-events to me. I was never on campus though when the protests were ongoing. Maybe that is why it didn’t register so much. I was busy hauling hay in the summer, working at the pharmacy, working on my truck and racing to Tastee Freeze at lunch.
Unlike so many others just a little older than me I just missed it by a few years. Timing is everything.
There are a couple of guys younger than me down the side county road who look like 5 miles of board road and claimed to me they are Vietnam Vets. I enjoyed not pulling any punches in telling both of them they are liars and should hang their heads in shame.
My truck cost me $2,825 as a loaded ‘72 Cheyenne Super. Still have the truck.
Being a person of half-Asian ancestry, the Vietnam War was very personal to me. It was not a good time to be a lone Asian in a school full of kids who had fathers, brothers, and uncles in Vietnam.
I can’t tell you how many times I was called names like gook, Jap, Chink and every other epithet they could cull off the TV. Told to go back where I came from, but I already was.
I figured when I joined the Marines after HS, all that BS would stop, but it didn’t.
It was still alive an dwell in the marine Corps.
I even got crap from officers that were just as racist as their kids were........................
Sorry to hear you had to put up with that crap. My dad told similar stories, except he was a three year old boy arriving in the Bronx via Ellis Island in 1927. Germans weren’t very welcome just nine years after WW I ended. Dad learned how to be a good street fighter before they moved to the NY suburbs a few years later.
Children and a lot of people are just ignorant. Add cruel and you have a problem.
the Bronx ....... learned how to be a good street fighter .....
If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere............
When I was in the Marines, I had several buddies from NYC.
They could practically tell you what street you lived on from the sound of your voice.
They taught me some, just enough to tell what borough somebody was from.
I love to surprise people by asking them what street they lived on and get the borough correct.
My mother-in-law’s boyfriend is a retired cop from the Bronx, and later Miami PD.
The first thing I said to him when I met him was what street in the Bronx he came from. He was used to people asking what part of NY but not what street!
I did the same thing with a cashier at our local Salvation Army store. She was shocked when I asked her as well.............
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