General Lee or Bullitt Clone? 1968 Dodge Charger
Whenever I see a 1968 Dodge Charger project I can’t help but think of two iconic cars: The Dukes of Hazard “General Lee” (which was a ’69) and the “Bad Guys” car in the movie Bullitt. Unless you have some sort of rare Charger, a tribute car isn’t a bad direction to go with a restoration. This particular car can be found for sale here on eBay with a current bid of $12,700. Located in Denver, Colorado, this car would make a great winter project for someone. If it was your choice, what would you do with this car?
There isn’t a lot of information in the ad, but the seller says this is an original bucket seat car. You can see the carpet has been removed and the floor pan doesn’t look too bad based on the photos. The ad does say that the truck pan will need to be addressed as well as some patch panels in the floor. I don’t know if this car was stored outside for a while? It seems like the weather has gotten to it…even the interior.
The car was born with a 318 and automatic transmission. It is also is a factory A/C car and the original fender tag is in place, which is great. The seller says the engine has good compression and does not smoke although it won’t hold coolant due to a leaking freeze plug.
The seller says they do have the back glass. I’m not sure if they mean they have the original glass that was removed, or they have a replacement piece. Overall the body looks decent and you have to love the rear taillight design on these cars! So, after checking it out, what direction would you take this project?
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Comments
Neither, the General Lee is tacky and the Bullet Charger clone is overrated. Something original rather than trying to copy someone else would be more interesting.
Steve R
People are getting too many airs about these cars. They’re getting too expensive for their own good. A Charger in these years was a Coronet/Satellite with a sporty body. I would not only do it up in General Lee treatment but I would make that iconic horn as loud as the guys at the stereo shop could make it!
“General Lee” was a 69 this is the wrong year for that anyways like Steve said just restore it and make a nice car out of it !
If I was to do a clone of a movie car I’d go with the Blacked out sinister look of the one in BLADE, with those classic centerline wheels with bigs `n little’s
If you can afford the restoration, leave it be. If anyone wants the eyeball given to it, I live close by. Very close by.
If you MUST build a cheesy movie car fake, if it was a ‘69 you could do a “Dirty Larry Crazy Mary” replica, at least it would be an original idea.
General Lee? Gag🤮
I thought it was Dirty Harry Crazy Mary with Peter Fonda–Am I wrong ?
It WAS Dirty Mary Crazy Larry–co stars Susan George as Mary and Peter Fonda as Larry.
1st of all, they can take this back to whatever sinkhole they got it from, so much for your clean Colorado cars,( which I doubt it’s from) what is the attraction with this junk and 2nd, I agree, why not just a Charger? For a while, all Mopars like this were 6 figures, then it cooled down to 5 figures, and I suppose that’s what’s fueling these outrageous prices. They can have it, they were crummy cars.
The one bumper sticker on the rear bumper is from a radio station in New Jersey. That probably explains the rust.
Yes they were crummy cars, but absolutely beautiful and easy to work on and now each part is being reprod’ed at least by three different countries. I was married to a yellow one with wild 440, it had a white vinyl top and interior and I wish I never sent it to the crusher! It was the best friend i ever had.
I had a 1970, 383, 4 speed, and it did one thing well, go fast in a straight line. It handled poorly, had drum brakes, poor build quality, it was just a glorified Satellite. Pretty sure a unibody, and the flex of these big motors and banging gears took it’s toll. I remember a couple times on power shifts, a door would pop open. If one is to save a neat car from this era, I’d go with the GTO.
That scene in Bullitt where the bad guys in the Charger buckled up just before the chase began did more to get people to use seat belts than all the PSAs and laws put together.
How come nobody ever wants to do a “Death Proof” tribute car?
The Nova is the more iconic of the two movie cars.
Because hardly anyone saw the movie.
Steve R
That one looks General Lee Broken
Forget the Bullitt tribute, that would be a fully restored RT clone in black paint…missing wheel covers are optonal. Nothing more.
How about just a Charger with some day two mods and cherry bombs?
Dukes car, no, and another big no.
Please NO MORE GENERAL LEE’s! Stop RUINING MORE CHARGERS!
I agree as to “crummy”. I had a 68 R/T and while it wasn’t exactly pretty or well thought out, it was fast as hell and a hoot to drive. And I looked good in it. CO cars are fairly rust-free. This one is not.
Wow! Sold for $14,500. I didn’t think you could get a Charger like this in ANY shape for under $20k.
It’s a base 318 car rusted to hell. Personally I think $2,500 would have been generous.
Another wildly overpriced car. I would restore it because I think the design is excellent.
Fix rust. Clear the crappy paint and enjoy. Too many dumb hillbilly replicas. And while I watched Dukes back in the day, I was mad even 40 years ago they were crashing one of the best looking cars ever. I believe more than 300 1969 Chargers were destroyed by Warner Bros making that show.
General Lee jumped the shark a very long time ago. Do it as itself, not a copy of something else.
Repaint in that gold. Because it’s that cool and really flatters the design.
Black buckets
Redline tires wrapped around those stock wheel covers.
Just leave it a 318.
Totally wicked cruiser!
Paint it blue, put the stars & stripes of the roof and call it the General Grant.
Yellow with racing stripes… dirty Larry crazy Mary
Another copy cat car???? No way!! Why does anyone what something that someone else has already done!! Make it yours!! I’d paint it Red with black interior and black rims with poverty caps!! Pistol grip four or five speed with a modern hemi!! Get good performance with decent fuel economy that you could drive cross country cause it would be reliable!!!
How bout a General GRANT clone?
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/07/interesting-twist-on-dukes-charger.html
That’s awesome!!!
I’d make it a ’69 500 or Daytona.