) whose rhetoric even hints at a perceived right to take matters into their own hand as self-appointed guardians of the Mopar faith and perform some kind of 'intervention' to ‘rescue’ a vehicle before it falls even further into a state of disrepair. These cars are automatically deemed to be ‘rotting away’, or being hoarded by some selfish SOB ‘ who just won’t get with the program and sell’, further elevating the overall level of frothiness. This self-righteous indignation becomes even more entertaining when 2 posts later, the discussion then turns to how plans for said original vehicle (once liberated) might include wheel tubs / 360 V8 or in the case of a tidy 318 Satellite Sebring, a 440 Roadrunner replica (but just badges and paint, still w/ column shift auto and 318 2-BBL). Worst case, plans for the car might include immediately flipping onto Fleabay, or breaking for spares. Yah, that’s concern alright, but after all by this time it has become ‘your’ car and you are free to do what you want with it, right? Right.This is great fuel for stories and embellishments - everyone seems to know of some old guy w/ a pristine matching numbers '71 GTX or disassembled '71 Hemi Roadrunner that he (selfishly) just won’t sell, or a mint one owner ’66 GTX tucked away in an unknown barn since ’68 when some mother’s son did not come back from Vietnam (such silly sentimental attachment indeed) and a general mood of indignation that these cars are being unfairly hoarded and deprived from a loving enthusiast’s enjoyment and denying their birthright as ‘true enthusiasts’ (OK, I am going a bit overboard here, but you get the picture). The bitter irony is, of course, that many of these ‘true enthusiasts’ also expect to liberate said 'treasures' for pennies on the $, like it is still the 1980s.
I don’t really blame the owners. I don’t really blame the hunters. Nobody likes to see something going to waste, but you can only speculate on the real reasons these cars are where they are and in the condition they are in and how they got there in the first place. I am one of these owners myself and I would be curious to know how many times these same owners have been approached by ‘enthusiasts’ and non-enthusiasts alike looking to do them a ‘favor’ by taking these ‘treasures’ off their hands. I have been in the same position w / my ’72 Plymouth SSP. The first 20 times I was polite, which was not always the case with those doing the asking – they ranged from general affability to downright patronizing and even aggressive. After that, I became a little less friendly with each enquiry. One time a guy pulled up to me, rolled down his window, sized me and the car up and shouted ‘I’ll take it off your hands for $2000’, like it was a done deal and he was doing me this huge favour. My reply of ‘Err, no, you won’t’ , obviously did not sit well and he got all pissy, uttered a couple of insults under his breath (like I had obviously been wasting his time) and drove off. Or the time some guy asked me if it was a 318 as he was looking for a 318 Plymouth and I told him 1/ that's nice, but it was not for sale and 2/ no, it was a 400 and he snorted ’Liar, that car didn’t come w/ a 400’. WTF is wrong w/ people. Many posts may go on to comment about how cars are spotted around backs of houses / sheds, but owners are not contactable etc., or are unfriendly to treasure hunters knocking on their doors. Hardly surprising really, if you know the plan is to pick their cars up for pennies on the $. It does matter how you engage someone - people may not necessarily know a great deal about their cars, but they sure as hell can tell if / when they are being talked down to.
As far the sentimental attachment is concerned, it plays a big role and we should all be thankful that it does, as this is why you have survivors in the first place (the second reason is apathy). Sure, they may not be all pristine, daily drivers or in the condition approved by our self-appointed guardians (see above), but I can gay-ron-tee that the cars which had zero sentimental attachment have long since been turned into beer cans in years gone by and are gone for good. Besides, why the double standard? If you have a car and you want to paint it pink and bolt a whale-tail to it, there is a never ending chorus of ‘it’s you car, do what you want with itâ€, no matter how dubious or questionable the taste or practicality of these mods (and rightly so). But there is double standard when it comes to stored cars. Sure, we may not like it, but ultimately the car belongs to the owner and he / she gets to do what he / she wants with, including letting it settle until there is no longer any car left to fix.
Unless you are flush w/ cash (which, let’s face it, if you on this board driving 30-plus year old Mopars in various states of repair, is a pretty good indication you are not), most people have to plan and build according to their means. Some people have mad skillz (heh, I just wanted to write that) and access to equipment / time, and their build progresses at a very healthy pace. Others have to take the longer term approach and / or have to farm out piece-meal according to their means, which can add years to the project. You just don’t know what the plan is and to take a position that ‘you should sell it for others to enjoy’ is in many ways as selfish as the perceived hoarding of said cars. Unless you know the circumstances, you don’t really know what the motivation is. Granted, there will always be those who take on more than they can handle, but like it or not, similar rules apply. It remains their car.
I am just getting around to completing my SSP after 20 years. That’s right, 20 *****ing years. Did I want / expect it to take 20 years? No, of course not, but life has a habit of getting in the way and changing your plans. Back in in ‘92~’93 with a very young family and unstable work situation, it would have been totally irresponsible to spend time / money (neither of which I had) needed to make it the car I wanted it to be. I had 2 options - either sell it, or bide my time and wait. I chose to wait. I came close to selling a couple of times, but more out of necessity – at one point in ’96 I was down to our very last $2000 and w/ the rego / docs in the glove-box, she was ready to go to the first buyer who made a decent offer. But circumstances changed (luckily), the car was garaged, was not really costing me anything and, most importantly, Mrs. Satellite asked the question “if you sell it, will you really be able to find another one like it?†Year after year, we would go back at Xmas to visit family. The garage was a welcome sanctuary from the kitchen, where Mrs. Satellite and my sister-in-law could be heard trading insults good-naturedly (well, semi-good naturedly, anyway) on their respective cooking skills. I would make my way out to the garage, determined this year to let common sense prevail, weigh up what needed to be done, how much it would cost to complete and whether it wasn’t time to pull the pin and let her go. And each year without fail I have pulled off the dust cover, popped the hood to look over the 400-4BBL (now correct Chrysler blue w/ bright orange dual-snorkel aircleaner), stepped back to admire those beautiful B-body lines and sharp chrome Magnum 500s, opened the door, slipped into the familiar driving seat, placed my hands on the Tuff wheel and Slap-Stik T-bar….. and fallen in love all over again. There then followed the ritual of planning (i.e. dreaming) of the work that needed doing, getting the car running, pulling the car out and listening for the slight misfire due to a burnt valve on number 8 (something the full engine rebuild was going to take care of), but nevertheless pleased at the Zeigeist I had managed to keep all these years, w/ the still crisply folded (though now somewhat out-of-date) AAA maps of our 1991/ 1992 cross-country road trips (New Mexico / Arizona / Nevada etc.). in the glove box. I even found our missing tape (hah) of The Rolling Stones ‘Goatshead Soup’ still in the deck. The Aviation School '91/92 Parking permit from Tempe, Arizona is still crisp and clear on the windshield.
So what would have happened if I had not been so ‘selfish’ and sold it to someone else to ‘enjoy’? With the buyer having no particular attachment to the car, I am guessing the following would have happened, especially in the mid-90s – 1/ it would have been flipped / sold on, 2/ it would have been cloned (badly) into a ’72 Road Runner (as even real RRs were not fetching great money at the time) or 3/ (most likely) it would have been parted out for the 400-4BBL / Rallye Dash or made into a ‘drag’ car etc. I decided to keep it as even back then survivor cars were already starting to disappear. During our (2) cross country trips in ‘91/’92, you saw a handful of these cars on the road. Now you see none.
My ’72 Satellite has had all the major mechanical work done, has a pumped (factory correct) engine (30% power increase / full transmission rebuild / full suspension / rebuild / engine bay / undercarriage detailing / factory air / hi-perf cooling system, but all designed to appear factory. The V8 burble and crackle through the factory twin system is like a ****ing symphony. It goes in for full-interior this May and on to finish up the bodywork in 2012. I am going to try to drive it to Chryslers at Carlisle if I can get the time off work and will then for all intents and purposes, consider it complete. As many SSP owners will attest, so many of these cars have now been scrapped / wrecked / cloned to RR / GTX that it is rare to see an actual genuine ’72 SSP. Getting to share it w/ others will be the best part of all and knowing the last 20 years of it history is an added bonus (sentimentality included). But without that sentimentality, isn’t it really 'just a car'?
Ian B.
