The other treasure was revealed one day during another bicycle ride. Also located near Colorado Boulevard, as cool as the 273 four barrel Dart GT is, this one’s a real heavy hitter: a real-deal 1969 Dodge Charger R/T. This one sits on a small house lot that has a psychic / palm reader sign hanging out front. The Charger usually sits behind a high wooden gate and I’d ridden by the location dozens of times without catching the scent. Then one day the gate was open and I saw the unmistakable gaping maw of a 1968 Charger grill. It’s funny how the mind slows down at times like this. A second wave of information – contained within the first – registered an R/T emblem.
I hammered the hand brakes and rolled to a stop. A look around the lot revealed few signs of life. I guess the palm reading business is a little soft of late. A nondescript Japanese econobox in the parking lot was sitting on a flat tire and the layer of dust on both the poopbox and the Charger revealed a certain element of neglect – and opportunity. Again, I wasn’t about to touch anything but I slowly entered the lot and walked my bike up to the derelict Charger.
I could see through the grill into the empty engine bay…no motor. The dangling transmission cooler lines snuffed my hopes it was a 4-speed Dana car and the clunky power steering box and brake booster also point toward a luxury liner rather than the stripped 4-gear street thrasher I was hoping would materialize. But was it a Hemi? I looked around to see if anybody was around and was perfectly ready and willing to engage them in a conversation about the car and ask for permission for a closer look – and a selling price.
But again, the vacant building, accumulated dust and open gate had the distressed feel of an abandoned property. Somebody else’s to be sure, but I had to know more! In situations like this I always put both hands in my pockets and keep them there. I also maintain at least two feet between myself and the car. Nothing gets touched as I let my eyeballs do the walking. There was no skid plate on the bottom of the K-member so the Hemi possibility was fading. Just to make sure, I scanned the VIN through the windshield. As I did this I noted where a previous visitor – with the same idea in mind – had wiped a finger across the glass for a better view of the numbers. No dice on the Hemi-specific J-code, but the L-code in the fifth place verified 440 Magnum status. So too did the rest of the XS29 VIN sequence. But the real odd thing was the number 9 appearing to the right of the L engine code. Despite the 1968 grille, this thing was a 1969 Charger R/T with a 1968 grille swap, so don’t let the picture fool you.
A slow walk to the rear of the car confirmed the presence of the long tail lamps used in 1969 – versus the four round lamps used in 1968. And yes, there was a small R/T emblem between the tail lamps. Another interesting detail was the lack of a bumble bee stripe. In its place, each quarter panel of this stripe-delete Charger wore a larger die cast metal R/T emblem. The paint was medium green metallic and looked to be mostly original. Inside, the console and Torqueflite shift unit were intact though the seats were loose and tattered.
Though the body was quite solid with a few small rust bubbles sprouting in the usual lower body locations, the big bummer was the fact I could see daylight looking up through portions of the roof skin. Yep, this was a former vinyl roof car with the typical rusty roof syndrome. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but not a lot of fun to fix.
After stuffing my eyes full of data on the car, I exited the yard and continued on my bike ride. All the while I schemed ways to contact the car owner for a little testing of the waters. Maybe I could score the thing for under three-grand. In that mode I could lay another $1,500 on it to ship it to Massachusetts. There I’d dig in on a restoration. But do I really need another project car? No. Plus, the fact this thing is a luxo-rig with power steering, an automatic and power brakes (at least it has the burly 11-inch drums all around) was a turn off. If it was a black four-speed with zero gingerbread, I’d have had a real hard time walking away. Make that a ’68 with the above characteristics and I’d be on a serious mission to acquire.
So there they are. A legitimate ’65 Dart GT 273-four barrel and a ’69 Charger R/T 440, two diamonds in the rough waiting for somebody – not me – to rescue them. And all of this is happening right now, not ten or twenty years ago. Sorry, I can’t divulge the exact locations of either car as neither is actively listed for sale and their owners may not want the attention.
But in the spirit of those old Cutty Sark treasure hunt magazine promotions of the mid-seventies, I will say that if you travel away from downtown Pasadena to the eastern end of Colorado Blvd. and hang a right on Rosemead, you might spot the Charger on the left within a mile - if you pay close attention. Remember to look for the Psychic / Palm Reader sign. As for the Dart GT, continue east on Colorado past Rosemead and hang a right on Michillinda Blvd. going south. You’ll eventually see it on the right hand side. In either case, respect the fact they’re both other people’s property – no touching! Then again, if you’ve got the right amount of cash-green, these guys might be very happy you took the initiative to seek the sale. You never know!
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