My Old 440+6 Cuda Ragtop sold again at Mecum

[Crush]

Where or how did you raise the cash to buy them? Multiple jobs?

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by Crush

Where or how did you raise the cash to buy them? Multiple jobs?

Back then I would restore a car and then sell it to buy the next and built up the money from there. Just like the TV show Wheel Dealer Dream cars.

It started with this wrecked 1971 Cuda I found in a junkyard in Denver back in 1981. I traded a running 1972 Vega for it. The Vega had been abandoned in front of our rented house by a disgruntled neighber when he moved away, as a final F.U. to us for being annoying teenagers who all happened to be attending Denver Auto and Diesel College at the same time and had the gall to rent a house next to them. After a month in front of our driveway I called the cops and they actually had the brilliant idea to file a report of an abandoned vehicle with the county and then after 2 weeks I could apply for an abandoned vehicle title. I did just that and pulled a door lock cylinder, had a key made and it started right up! I got it registered, drove it over the winter and then traded it to a guy I knew, who knew the owner of the wrecking yard where the cuda was. He arranged the straight-across trade. I pulled the cuda out of the yard, threw in an old battery and poured some gas down the carb. The thing started right up!...and then burst into flames when the the float bowl gaskets turned to dust and the gas drained onto the hot engine. No biggy. Fire went out and I towed it home.

Anyway, the 71 was an original drivetrain, 1971 Cuda 383 auto convertible in Curious Yellow. From the paperwork left inside it, it had been towed from outside the Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado years before. It was registered to a Harlan Rowley who I presume was a service member stationed there. It had a Lowry AFB sticker on the bumper. (I later did some research and learned that Mr. Rowley passed in the early 2000's).

I dragged it back to Connecticut when I graduated. I restored it and got it in a few magazines and then sold it to Richard Ehrenberg, who was the tech editor of Mopar Action Magazine back in the day. Then I found the 71 440+6 4 speed ragtop and bought that with the sales proceeds and kept moving up til I had the yellow hemicuda ragtop. After selling that car to Otis Chandler in 1987 I decided to get into Dodge Charger hemis and found my red 1970 R/T-SE 4 speed, then the 71 orange and white hemi sunroof car and then a yellow 1969 hemi Daytona. Probably left out a few cars in there but that's basically the gist of it.

[Xplantdad]

Awesome post, Steve!

[njsteve]

Thx. Oh and I forgot to mention besides the 1972 Vega they abandoned in our yard, they also abandoned a 6-foot tall Cannibis Sativa in an ornate planter, on our backyard kitchen step. I'm suprised they didn't call the cops after they planted the evidence, just out of spite. One of my housemates promptly disposed of it. It took him several days from what I recall, since we didn't see him in class for about a week.