Dan Robinson's 1966 HEMI Charger

About 2 months ago a good friend in our club (Mark Buchanan) say's "Hey Dan, have you talked to John. He knows where there is a HEMI Charger for sale." Well I hadn't talked to John but I soon did. Yea he says he looked at the car a year or so ago but he wanted a Coronet R/T so he passed on the car. Besides it was REAL dirty. OK John give me the name and number so I can see if it is still available. About 2 weeks later and after me pestering him to death he finally gets the phone number from his sister who knows the guy. He calls and finds out he still has the car. OK now I try to set a time to go see the car but due to work schedules (mine & his) I can't hook up with the guy for another week. All week I'm biting my nails just waiting for time to see the car. I take along a Mark & another friend for moral support and we away we go. Here is what we find covered up in the garage.

1966 Charger 426 HEMI 4 Speed 355 Dana 103,000 miles (1 of 250 hemi 4 speeds) Numbers matching, all there and together except starter out, original owner, he bought it new while in college, certacard, fendertag, engine ID, gobs of paperwork and a few extra parts. Interior has a tear in driver seat, and armrest is split. One fender was dented and repaired. Car was painted after dent was fixed. Looks like the only thing changed was the starter and maybe belts & hoses. He also installed a unilite distributor but still had the dual point that came on the car. The car has not been tagged since 1991 and he says not run in 4-5 years since the starter quit.

So after asking a bunch of questions and taking pictures of the fender tag etc. I ask for the price. $$$$ well it's more than the other guy tells me but still in the range for a HEMI car. Since I didn't have the $$$ in hand and I want to CHECK OUT the numbers we call it a night.

After checking out the numbers over the next couple of days (thanks to those that helped with the decode) I decide to buy the car if the engine will at least turn with a wrench on the harmonic balancer. Did I mention I had to get up the $$$ also. Had to do some fancy talking to get the funds with the condition of paying back the money after selling my 70 Superbee and other items. So now I'm ready to go back and check the engine and make a deal. I set up a time to get back there and have to wait several days. The day comes and I'm anxious to go. I wait all day and just about the time I get off work the guy calls. He has to go out of town. He won't be back until next Sunday night. (4 MORE DAYS OF WAITING)

OK So now I have to sell my car and this weekend there is a big swap meet at the ballpark. I decide to take my car and try to sell it there. Two hours after arriving at the swap meet I've got a wad CASH in my pocket and wondering what I will do if I can't or don't get the charger. See the only reason I would sell my Superbee is to get this HEMI car.

Monday the guy gets home and I've arraigned a meeting to test the engine to see if it will turn. It does after a few hard pulls. We rotate the engine 4-5 times. It got easier after the first rotation. So now we come to the haggling. He isn't budging. Finally I get him to lower his price by $500 so at least he gave a little. I pay him for the car and we arrange a time Saturday for me to pick up the car. Do you know how long it is from Monday to Saturday waiting to pick up your car. It felt like forever.

So now I've picked up my one owner HEMI car and brought it home. The time while all this was going on was tough to say the least. I just KNEW someone was going to buy the car out from under me. I found out that there were lots of other people who knew about the car but they weren't serious about getting it. Apparently he didn't actively try to sell the car or it would have been gone long ago.

Now I have to get the thing running and cleaned up a bit. It's not a new car but it can be at least presentable with lots of elbow grease. You see I intend to DRIVE it while not everyday at least as often as possible. It has a few door dings already so I won't worry about that. It's been driven 103 thousand miles so a few more won't hurt. But you know what. I'm gonna have fun with it. There are still cars like this out there. Good luck in finding yours.

Dan