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(Tommy)>> You're watching Powernation!
[ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Welcome to Powernation Builds. We have got a real Cinderella story on our hands for you today with an abandoned Mopar. The real question is, will she make it to the ball? We'll find out, here's Detroit Muscle. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> In a very deliberate search we found it in Walker County Alabama. We wanted a car that wasn't a complete rust bucket, that had some good bones to work with, and was available at a good price.
(Tommy)>> We gave it a good once over front to back, in and out, underneath, looking for the obvious signs of damage. This Mopar was checking the right boxes. Then we started up that big block. Now before the test drive here's Mecum Auctions' lead t-v commentator John Kraman on what to look for on your barn find.
(Marc)>> Woo!
(John)>> Well one thing we've learned about the term barn find is there's a lot of different ways to describe that. It can be a vehicle that is derelict and in poor condition that was put away and forgotten, or on the other end it could be a really nice original car in good condition that was put away. So when you find one of these cars you kind of have to decide what's gonna be the strategy. Do I want to keep the car original? Is the car good enough if I want to bring it up to some level of quality, or do I want to go and do I want to modify the car? So there's no real hard answer but we do know one thing for sure, and that is barn finds right now are a very popular part of the collector car world. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> We loaded up our new find and headed home. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Now with our Mopar back in the shop it was time to make a plan. What were we going to do with this car? Originally the thought of going to auction had not come to us yet, but with a car this old there was a lot to do.
(Tommy)>> Engine, body, suspension, brakes, interior, what wheels, what tires, what paint color? Decisions, decisions, and little did we know where the engine choice would lead us.
(Marc)>> First the old 440 engine and tranny came out. Then body work. Tommy started with a six inch sanding disc on the grinder and took off quite a bit of filler material from our Mopar. The reason why Tommy's sanding all this filler off is so we can see what's underneath.
(Tommy)>> After quite a bit of archeology here this old car needs a skin put on it. The amount of filler hanging off the side of this car, you could say, would be a little bit excessive and a pretty good indication of that is this mountain of dust here in the floor, and all of that came off of just one side. Now after getting it all stripped down we noticed that this car has had a couple of primitive repairs done to it, and down here on the bottom wherever they welded it in they warped the heck out of the panel and then took a hammer and beat it all in trying to make it better. Well this is the perfect example of what I've said in the past. It may be buggered up and look broken but it ain't plum broken until you can't fix it no more.
(Marc)>> Now comes the pain staking task of cutting metal with a cut off wheel. Then the body saw. The more we dig the more we find to repair, and that's the way it goes with a 50-year-old car. [ saw buzzing ]
(Marc)>> Now it's time to put those pieces back together. [ Music ] Welding... [ welder crackling ]
(Marc)>> ...then more grinding.
(Tommy)>> The interior was stripped bare. [ Music ] We also stripped off some major components like the front bumper, fenders, and doors. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Floor panels had to be cut out. [ torch hissing ] [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Then the new panels welded back in. [ welder crackling ]
(Tommy)>> All the old suspension came off. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Then the moment of truth in any build, sand blasting. Blast from the Past in Lebanon, Tennessee, took care of that. [ spray gun hissing ]
(Marc)>> So now begins the most beloved stage of any build, all that sanding and filler spreading that everybody loves to do so much. The big plan right now is too rough in the shape of the panels in preparation for the car's first coat of filler primer.
(Tommy)>> Next came the high build polyester primer, which allows us to block the panel smoother and easier than we could with filler alone. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Now that gets block sanded, re-applied, sanded again, reapply, sand yet again, you get the idea. This process from blaster to ready for color actually took nearly 1,000 man hours.
(Katie)>> Coming up, this abandoned car still has some serious hurdles to cross. Plus, some big upgrades ahead!
(Tommy)>> We're using a one-three tip on our gun with approximately 15 pounds of pressure. I'm spraying it at about a 50 percent overlap to make sure we get full coverage. [ Music ] Now when spraying the clear coat we're using a different gun but it's basically got the same setup on it. Since the car is getting sprayed pure black we can do it on the rotisserie while it's completely disassembled. If this was a metal flake or a pearl paint job we'd have to shoot the car with all the body panels installed.
(Marc)>> After some polishing from our friends at Sonax... [ polisher buzzing ]
(Marc)>> ...Mark Coats, a Mopar restoration specialist, came in to give us a hand with the vinyl top since neither of us had ever done one before. It's a risky move to pick a vinyl top because not everyone likes them, but we think it's the right choice. We were about to start reassembling the car with stock suspension on it, a 440 six pack ready to get dropped in. Then our buddy John Kramen stopped by and threw a stick in our spoke, the engine choice.
(John)>> Recently Mopar has released the Hellcrate engine. It's 707 horsepower in a box. I wonder if that would work in there.
(Tommy)>> Yeah you know we did talk about putting one of them late model Hemis in that car early on. After some phone calls to Chrysler we were able to take delivery of a 707 horsepower Hellcrate engine. Everything was about to change. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> And it was at this point that we decided our end goal was Mecum Auctions. [ engine revving ]
(John)>> When we first saw the Dodge Hellcat Challenger in 2015 with 707 horsepower the modern era performance car world changed. The big question at that time was will this engine be retrofitable to the vintage cars, and initially the word was gonna be a little bit difficult due to some of the software issues with that engine. Might be kinda hard to retrofit that, but the reality is a few years later now companies have come on board to be able to plug and play. Let this engine be installed in a vintage body, typically a Mopar body, and with the right software and hardware to make it all work. I think it's gonna be a very popular engine upgrade and I think the Mopar enthusiasts are gonna get on board with that, and it's gonna be very sought after. [ grinder buzzing ]
(Marc)>> With that much horsepower you need the supporting components to get all that power to the ground. The engine choice pushed us from restoration to resto mod, and we couldn't ignore the modern conveniences like these aftermarket parts provide. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> And one great source for us was Riley Motorsports, which provided us all the new front and rear suspension components including K-member, control arms, and coil overs.
(Marc)>> The bad news, not all of this fits perfectly into our 50 year old chassis. The tunnel is just too small. The automatic and manual transmissions that came in these cars from the factory are a lot smaller than that Magnum that we're putting in here. The tunnel needs to be opened up, and also this floor brace is way too small. The arch here is too tight. There's no way we're gonna get that transmission in there. So we're gonna have to do some cutting.
(Tommy)>> We're gonna start by measuring the length that we want to remove, marking where we want to make our cuts. We'll drill a few holes so that we'll have a place to start our cuts. Because our car is already painted we're going to use a body saw instead of a torch or plasma cutter. We don't want to make a bunch of sparks, which could damage our fresh paint. We're cutting around the floor brace, but we'll get to that in a minute. With that thing all braced up now it's time to slice this little floor brace out of the way. [ saw buzzing ]
(Tommy)>> I'll cut it out using a reciprocating saw making sure to cut along the edge of our previous cuts. Look at that, nice and sturdy. That's right, we had to cut the firewall, transmission tunnel, and floor bracing. That's because we picked this massive six speed gear box to handle the amount of horsepower the Hellcrate makes. Plus it has the benefit of low gear ratios for quick acceleration as well as two overdrives for highway cruising.
(Marc)>> Next we installed the triangulated four link suspension in the rear, which is gonna help it handle a whole lot better than the factory leaf spring style suspension that was originally on the car. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> Marc if you would let the car down. What we're looking for is this bar here parallel or close to the ground. Keep going, keep going... [ Music ] ...keep going. [ Music ] Alright! [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Of course we needed stronger axles and better stopping power. [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Ahead there's still plenty to do on Project Hard Charger and get ready because she's gonna turn some heads.
(Marc)>> As you've seen in this build recap there were a lot of times we turned to specialists to help us get certain tasks done. A big one was making a modern engine work in a 50 year old car. We sent our car and engine to Arrington Performance in Brighton, Michigan.
(Mike)>> Great car. When you build a Hellcat, when you do a Hellcat swap into anything, they're a lot more complicated than most people would believe. So you need to try and prepare everything up front to get it before you start putting it in. You can see guys doing the fuel system now. Darrell over here is doing the dashboard and getting wiring put in it. Trying to get all the components ready to load into the car. When Mopar designed the Hellcat everybody was shocked that they came out with 700 horsepower. People really don't understand what it takes to make 700 horsepower in a daily driver dependable car that you can drive across the country, and they did a lot of unique things in the design of that. When you do a Hellcat swap you can either ignore all of those things and give up a lot of that dependability, a lot of drivability, and frankly take a lot of risks with some of the things or you can incorporate those things, take advantage of what the o-e developed.
(Marc)>> All that modern power and technology is great but your typical Hellcat swap classic Mopar owner wants all the modern luxuries as well. It can be tricky to integrate all of those creature comforts but the crew at Arrington has found several solutions to make things like air conditioning possible, and they're gonna install some on ours. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> And just a few short weeks later our Charger came home as a running and driving partially finished Mopar.
(Marc)>> And those guys knocked it out of the park. Think about it. This thing is a 707 horsepower Hellcrate from Mopar, and to make that thing work in daily driven applications the way they do in the factory Hellcats, well there's a lot of components that go into that, and getting all of those to work, well that's kind of difficult. Not only that but you have to make it look factory, and that's exactly what they've done. That's their specialty. Mike and the guys at Arrington know what they're doing and they killed it on this project. They've got everything hooked up from the factory wiring harnesses, cooling, plumbing, electrical, and it's all hooked up and ready to go. You could say this thing's ready to light the fires and shred the tires, as you can see by what we just did in the parking lot.
(Tommy)>> And speaking of tires you guys had to have noticed that this thing's got some new kicks up under it. We went with some beefy 20's here in the rear and some slightly smaller 18's up front. To doll up our Charger we went to Schott Performance Wheels for a set of their Accelerators with optional tri-bar spinners. They're made from forged billet aluminum and they're available in sizes ranging from 17 all the way up to 24's.
(John)>> Resto mods, taking vintage cars and updating them with modern components. It could be engines, could be suspensions, transmissions, braking systems. That continues to just really keep these vintage cars on the map, and we're in favor of it because it's keeping the spirit of these old cars alive. A lot of people say it's kind of like the street rod era of 20 years ago that the cars of the 1950's and the 1960's are kind of now the modern street rods, and more and more companies are coming on board making components available to upgrade these cars more and more all the time. So I think that this trend of having a vintage car modern upgrades that's drivable on a daily basis is gonna appeal to younger enthusiasts, which it has been so far, but yet the old school guys, they're on board with it as well. These are cool. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> With our car back it was time for the final frantic push. All those last minute details, like exhaust. [ Music ] Our good friend Richard Waitis from Magnaflow fabbed us up a custom one off stainless steel three inch exhaust system, and it sound fantastic. [ engine starting and revving ]
(Tommy)>> One of the most iconic and recognizable features of this car is the headlight and grill assembly. Now it looks like a '69 Dodge Charger. On to the interior.
(Marc)>> Chris Slee from Kiwi Classics and Customs helped us by getting the headliner installed, and you can see we're going with red. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> Gil Vigil from Speed and Design laid down some custom carpet. This is the way the carpet should have looked from the factory in '69.
(Marc)>> M&M interiors upholstered all of our seats and upper door panels with high end Douglas leather, but they stitched it like factory upholstery. So at a glance it looks like the factory vinyl.
(Tommy)>> But only when you look closer can you tell it's high end leather, and then all the other interior goodies go in. And here she is, done. Smoking hot! [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Up next, it's show time, and guys what a show it's gonna be!
(Tommy)>> Welcome back to The Road to Mecum. We're here in Dallas, and our Charger's just about ready to hit the block. Marc's up there with the guys in the booth.
(Scott)>> Marc Christ good to see you, and we're gonna see that car coming across the block here in just a little bit at no reserve.
(Tommy)>> And I'm gonna be walking around the floor, and I have to say I'm about as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
(Scott)>> Alright here comes the '69 Charger resto mod, and this build kind of took a little bit different turn than you had originally thought it might right?
(Marc)>> So yeah, so like I said, we made a list of everything we wanted but what we didn't have that one detail of which engine was gonna be under the hood. We actually planned on doing a full restoration on this car and we ended up finally going with the 707 horsepower Hellcrate, and I think it was the right choice.
(Scott)>> I'd say that was a good call, huh John?
(John)>> Well I have to confess guys I was lucky enough to go down on the set and stage at the shop and meet with these guys, and look at the project in its early stages, and we had discussions about. They asked me what do you think would be a good direction to go, and I just threw out there never thinking in a million years that it would ever happen but it certainly did. The Hellcrate engine, 707 horsepower, contemporary Hemi engine, six speed manual transmission, full resto mod treatment. Hang on to your hat Marc my friend we're at $160,000 dollars!
(Tommy)>> Still climbing.
(Marc)>> I don't know what to say. That's more than I anticipated. So I love it.
(Scott)>> You guys checked all the right boxes. JK and I looked at this car. This is the first time I really had seen it this week and the wheel package is on the money. The interior treatment, the vinyl top everything. We're over $200,000 dollars!
(Marc)>> I can't believe it. [ auctioneer chanting ]
(Auctioneer)>> $210,000 if anybody wants to do that. What do you want to do back there Travis? [ auctioneer chanting ] ( )>> You're gonna get it bud.
(John)>> Big congratulations Marc. You and Tommy knocked it out of the ballpark. The quality, the selection, the stance, everything. There's your partner Tommy right there. Man did it pay off, $200,000 dollars my friend!
(Marc)>> He looks happy, I'm happy, I don't know what to say.
(Scott)>> I think you might call that speechless.
(Marc)>> It's hard to put into words just how amazing that moment was, but as we look at the winner, Thomas Patterson, signing for the Charger it's gratifying to see all that hard work and using all the best parts paid off big time. And that gavel price says it all. Tommy caught up with the new owner.
(Tommy)>> Well guys I'm here with Thomas, the high bidder on our car. I have to ask you a couple of questions. What made you really want this thing?
(Thomas)>> The car looks brand new, and that Hellcat motor in it was awesome. I mean it's a beautiful put together car.
(Tommy)>> Another question would be what's your plans for this thing?
(Thomas)>> I'm gonna drive it. I mean really? I mean who would not want to drive that car?
(Marc)>> Well we did it. The car's complete and we sent it across the block no reserve and it paid off big time, $200,000 dollars. I can't believe it. That yellow sticker never looked so good.
(Tommy)>> I know man but y'all know what that means now? Well we've got a little bit of money in our pocket, still got some time. So it's time for us to go find us another project. What do you think?
(Marc)>> Yeah I've got my eye something. Come here I want to show you.
(Katie)>> Project Hard Charger is a perfect rags to riches story with an epic final chapter. Congratulations to all who had a hand in it. Remember you can catch all of our other great projects right here on Powernation Builds!
Show Full Transcript
[ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Welcome to Powernation Builds. We have got a real Cinderella story on our hands for you today with an abandoned Mopar. The real question is, will she make it to the ball? We'll find out, here's Detroit Muscle. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> In a very deliberate search we found it in Walker County Alabama. We wanted a car that wasn't a complete rust bucket, that had some good bones to work with, and was available at a good price.
(Tommy)>> We gave it a good once over front to back, in and out, underneath, looking for the obvious signs of damage. This Mopar was checking the right boxes. Then we started up that big block. Now before the test drive here's Mecum Auctions' lead t-v commentator John Kraman on what to look for on your barn find.
(Marc)>> Woo!
(John)>> Well one thing we've learned about the term barn find is there's a lot of different ways to describe that. It can be a vehicle that is derelict and in poor condition that was put away and forgotten, or on the other end it could be a really nice original car in good condition that was put away. So when you find one of these cars you kind of have to decide what's gonna be the strategy. Do I want to keep the car original? Is the car good enough if I want to bring it up to some level of quality, or do I want to go and do I want to modify the car? So there's no real hard answer but we do know one thing for sure, and that is barn finds right now are a very popular part of the collector car world. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> We loaded up our new find and headed home. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Now with our Mopar back in the shop it was time to make a plan. What were we going to do with this car? Originally the thought of going to auction had not come to us yet, but with a car this old there was a lot to do.
(Tommy)>> Engine, body, suspension, brakes, interior, what wheels, what tires, what paint color? Decisions, decisions, and little did we know where the engine choice would lead us.
(Marc)>> First the old 440 engine and tranny came out. Then body work. Tommy started with a six inch sanding disc on the grinder and took off quite a bit of filler material from our Mopar. The reason why Tommy's sanding all this filler off is so we can see what's underneath.
(Tommy)>> After quite a bit of archeology here this old car needs a skin put on it. The amount of filler hanging off the side of this car, you could say, would be a little bit excessive and a pretty good indication of that is this mountain of dust here in the floor, and all of that came off of just one side. Now after getting it all stripped down we noticed that this car has had a couple of primitive repairs done to it, and down here on the bottom wherever they welded it in they warped the heck out of the panel and then took a hammer and beat it all in trying to make it better. Well this is the perfect example of what I've said in the past. It may be buggered up and look broken but it ain't plum broken until you can't fix it no more.
(Marc)>> Now comes the pain staking task of cutting metal with a cut off wheel. Then the body saw. The more we dig the more we find to repair, and that's the way it goes with a 50-year-old car. [ saw buzzing ]
(Marc)>> Now it's time to put those pieces back together. [ Music ] Welding... [ welder crackling ]
(Marc)>> ...then more grinding.
(Tommy)>> The interior was stripped bare. [ Music ] We also stripped off some major components like the front bumper, fenders, and doors. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Floor panels had to be cut out. [ torch hissing ] [ saw buzzing ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Then the new panels welded back in. [ welder crackling ]
(Tommy)>> All the old suspension came off. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Then the moment of truth in any build, sand blasting. Blast from the Past in Lebanon, Tennessee, took care of that. [ spray gun hissing ]
(Marc)>> So now begins the most beloved stage of any build, all that sanding and filler spreading that everybody loves to do so much. The big plan right now is too rough in the shape of the panels in preparation for the car's first coat of filler primer.
(Tommy)>> Next came the high build polyester primer, which allows us to block the panel smoother and easier than we could with filler alone. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Now that gets block sanded, re-applied, sanded again, reapply, sand yet again, you get the idea. This process from blaster to ready for color actually took nearly 1,000 man hours.
(Katie)>> Coming up, this abandoned car still has some serious hurdles to cross. Plus, some big upgrades ahead!
(Tommy)>> We're using a one-three tip on our gun with approximately 15 pounds of pressure. I'm spraying it at about a 50 percent overlap to make sure we get full coverage. [ Music ] Now when spraying the clear coat we're using a different gun but it's basically got the same setup on it. Since the car is getting sprayed pure black we can do it on the rotisserie while it's completely disassembled. If this was a metal flake or a pearl paint job we'd have to shoot the car with all the body panels installed.
(Marc)>> After some polishing from our friends at Sonax... [ polisher buzzing ]
(Marc)>> ...Mark Coats, a Mopar restoration specialist, came in to give us a hand with the vinyl top since neither of us had ever done one before. It's a risky move to pick a vinyl top because not everyone likes them, but we think it's the right choice. We were about to start reassembling the car with stock suspension on it, a 440 six pack ready to get dropped in. Then our buddy John Kramen stopped by and threw a stick in our spoke, the engine choice.
(John)>> Recently Mopar has released the Hellcrate engine. It's 707 horsepower in a box. I wonder if that would work in there.
(Tommy)>> Yeah you know we did talk about putting one of them late model Hemis in that car early on. After some phone calls to Chrysler we were able to take delivery of a 707 horsepower Hellcrate engine. Everything was about to change. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> And it was at this point that we decided our end goal was Mecum Auctions. [ engine revving ]
(John)>> When we first saw the Dodge Hellcat Challenger in 2015 with 707 horsepower the modern era performance car world changed. The big question at that time was will this engine be retrofitable to the vintage cars, and initially the word was gonna be a little bit difficult due to some of the software issues with that engine. Might be kinda hard to retrofit that, but the reality is a few years later now companies have come on board to be able to plug and play. Let this engine be installed in a vintage body, typically a Mopar body, and with the right software and hardware to make it all work. I think it's gonna be a very popular engine upgrade and I think the Mopar enthusiasts are gonna get on board with that, and it's gonna be very sought after. [ grinder buzzing ]
(Marc)>> With that much horsepower you need the supporting components to get all that power to the ground. The engine choice pushed us from restoration to resto mod, and we couldn't ignore the modern conveniences like these aftermarket parts provide. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> And one great source for us was Riley Motorsports, which provided us all the new front and rear suspension components including K-member, control arms, and coil overs.
(Marc)>> The bad news, not all of this fits perfectly into our 50 year old chassis. The tunnel is just too small. The automatic and manual transmissions that came in these cars from the factory are a lot smaller than that Magnum that we're putting in here. The tunnel needs to be opened up, and also this floor brace is way too small. The arch here is too tight. There's no way we're gonna get that transmission in there. So we're gonna have to do some cutting.
(Tommy)>> We're gonna start by measuring the length that we want to remove, marking where we want to make our cuts. We'll drill a few holes so that we'll have a place to start our cuts. Because our car is already painted we're going to use a body saw instead of a torch or plasma cutter. We don't want to make a bunch of sparks, which could damage our fresh paint. We're cutting around the floor brace, but we'll get to that in a minute. With that thing all braced up now it's time to slice this little floor brace out of the way. [ saw buzzing ]
(Tommy)>> I'll cut it out using a reciprocating saw making sure to cut along the edge of our previous cuts. Look at that, nice and sturdy. That's right, we had to cut the firewall, transmission tunnel, and floor bracing. That's because we picked this massive six speed gear box to handle the amount of horsepower the Hellcrate makes. Plus it has the benefit of low gear ratios for quick acceleration as well as two overdrives for highway cruising.
(Marc)>> Next we installed the triangulated four link suspension in the rear, which is gonna help it handle a whole lot better than the factory leaf spring style suspension that was originally on the car. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> Marc if you would let the car down. What we're looking for is this bar here parallel or close to the ground. Keep going, keep going... [ Music ] ...keep going. [ Music ] Alright! [ Music ]
(Marc)>> Of course we needed stronger axles and better stopping power. [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Ahead there's still plenty to do on Project Hard Charger and get ready because she's gonna turn some heads.
(Marc)>> As you've seen in this build recap there were a lot of times we turned to specialists to help us get certain tasks done. A big one was making a modern engine work in a 50 year old car. We sent our car and engine to Arrington Performance in Brighton, Michigan.
(Mike)>> Great car. When you build a Hellcat, when you do a Hellcat swap into anything, they're a lot more complicated than most people would believe. So you need to try and prepare everything up front to get it before you start putting it in. You can see guys doing the fuel system now. Darrell over here is doing the dashboard and getting wiring put in it. Trying to get all the components ready to load into the car. When Mopar designed the Hellcat everybody was shocked that they came out with 700 horsepower. People really don't understand what it takes to make 700 horsepower in a daily driver dependable car that you can drive across the country, and they did a lot of unique things in the design of that. When you do a Hellcat swap you can either ignore all of those things and give up a lot of that dependability, a lot of drivability, and frankly take a lot of risks with some of the things or you can incorporate those things, take advantage of what the o-e developed.
(Marc)>> All that modern power and technology is great but your typical Hellcat swap classic Mopar owner wants all the modern luxuries as well. It can be tricky to integrate all of those creature comforts but the crew at Arrington has found several solutions to make things like air conditioning possible, and they're gonna install some on ours. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> And just a few short weeks later our Charger came home as a running and driving partially finished Mopar.
(Marc)>> And those guys knocked it out of the park. Think about it. This thing is a 707 horsepower Hellcrate from Mopar, and to make that thing work in daily driven applications the way they do in the factory Hellcats, well there's a lot of components that go into that, and getting all of those to work, well that's kind of difficult. Not only that but you have to make it look factory, and that's exactly what they've done. That's their specialty. Mike and the guys at Arrington know what they're doing and they killed it on this project. They've got everything hooked up from the factory wiring harnesses, cooling, plumbing, electrical, and it's all hooked up and ready to go. You could say this thing's ready to light the fires and shred the tires, as you can see by what we just did in the parking lot.
(Tommy)>> And speaking of tires you guys had to have noticed that this thing's got some new kicks up under it. We went with some beefy 20's here in the rear and some slightly smaller 18's up front. To doll up our Charger we went to Schott Performance Wheels for a set of their Accelerators with optional tri-bar spinners. They're made from forged billet aluminum and they're available in sizes ranging from 17 all the way up to 24's.
(John)>> Resto mods, taking vintage cars and updating them with modern components. It could be engines, could be suspensions, transmissions, braking systems. That continues to just really keep these vintage cars on the map, and we're in favor of it because it's keeping the spirit of these old cars alive. A lot of people say it's kind of like the street rod era of 20 years ago that the cars of the 1950's and the 1960's are kind of now the modern street rods, and more and more companies are coming on board making components available to upgrade these cars more and more all the time. So I think that this trend of having a vintage car modern upgrades that's drivable on a daily basis is gonna appeal to younger enthusiasts, which it has been so far, but yet the old school guys, they're on board with it as well. These are cool. [ Music ]
(Marc)>> With our car back it was time for the final frantic push. All those last minute details, like exhaust. [ Music ] Our good friend Richard Waitis from Magnaflow fabbed us up a custom one off stainless steel three inch exhaust system, and it sound fantastic. [ engine starting and revving ]
(Tommy)>> One of the most iconic and recognizable features of this car is the headlight and grill assembly. Now it looks like a '69 Dodge Charger. On to the interior.
(Marc)>> Chris Slee from Kiwi Classics and Customs helped us by getting the headliner installed, and you can see we're going with red. [ Music ]
(Tommy)>> Gil Vigil from Speed and Design laid down some custom carpet. This is the way the carpet should have looked from the factory in '69.
(Marc)>> M&M interiors upholstered all of our seats and upper door panels with high end Douglas leather, but they stitched it like factory upholstery. So at a glance it looks like the factory vinyl.
(Tommy)>> But only when you look closer can you tell it's high end leather, and then all the other interior goodies go in. And here she is, done. Smoking hot! [ Music ]
(Katie)>> Up next, it's show time, and guys what a show it's gonna be!
(Tommy)>> Welcome back to The Road to Mecum. We're here in Dallas, and our Charger's just about ready to hit the block. Marc's up there with the guys in the booth.
(Scott)>> Marc Christ good to see you, and we're gonna see that car coming across the block here in just a little bit at no reserve.
(Tommy)>> And I'm gonna be walking around the floor, and I have to say I'm about as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
(Scott)>> Alright here comes the '69 Charger resto mod, and this build kind of took a little bit different turn than you had originally thought it might right?
(Marc)>> So yeah, so like I said, we made a list of everything we wanted but what we didn't have that one detail of which engine was gonna be under the hood. We actually planned on doing a full restoration on this car and we ended up finally going with the 707 horsepower Hellcrate, and I think it was the right choice.
(Scott)>> I'd say that was a good call, huh John?
(John)>> Well I have to confess guys I was lucky enough to go down on the set and stage at the shop and meet with these guys, and look at the project in its early stages, and we had discussions about. They asked me what do you think would be a good direction to go, and I just threw out there never thinking in a million years that it would ever happen but it certainly did. The Hellcrate engine, 707 horsepower, contemporary Hemi engine, six speed manual transmission, full resto mod treatment. Hang on to your hat Marc my friend we're at $160,000 dollars!
(Tommy)>> Still climbing.
(Marc)>> I don't know what to say. That's more than I anticipated. So I love it.
(Scott)>> You guys checked all the right boxes. JK and I looked at this car. This is the first time I really had seen it this week and the wheel package is on the money. The interior treatment, the vinyl top everything. We're over $200,000 dollars!
(Marc)>> I can't believe it. [ auctioneer chanting ]
(Auctioneer)>> $210,000 if anybody wants to do that. What do you want to do back there Travis? [ auctioneer chanting ] ( )>> You're gonna get it bud.
(John)>> Big congratulations Marc. You and Tommy knocked it out of the ballpark. The quality, the selection, the stance, everything. There's your partner Tommy right there. Man did it pay off, $200,000 dollars my friend!
(Marc)>> He looks happy, I'm happy, I don't know what to say.
(Scott)>> I think you might call that speechless.
(Marc)>> It's hard to put into words just how amazing that moment was, but as we look at the winner, Thomas Patterson, signing for the Charger it's gratifying to see all that hard work and using all the best parts paid off big time. And that gavel price says it all. Tommy caught up with the new owner.
(Tommy)>> Well guys I'm here with Thomas, the high bidder on our car. I have to ask you a couple of questions. What made you really want this thing?
(Thomas)>> The car looks brand new, and that Hellcat motor in it was awesome. I mean it's a beautiful put together car.
(Tommy)>> Another question would be what's your plans for this thing?
(Thomas)>> I'm gonna drive it. I mean really? I mean who would not want to drive that car?
(Marc)>> Well we did it. The car's complete and we sent it across the block no reserve and it paid off big time, $200,000 dollars. I can't believe it. That yellow sticker never looked so good.
(Tommy)>> I know man but y'all know what that means now? Well we've got a little bit of money in our pocket, still got some time. So it's time for us to go find us another project. What do you think?
(Marc)>> Yeah I've got my eye something. Come here I want to show you.
(Katie)>> Project Hard Charger is a perfect rags to riches story with an epic final chapter. Congratulations to all who had a hand in it. Remember you can catch all of our other great projects right here on Powernation Builds!
