Plum Crazy! 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T
From what we can piece together, this was an original 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T that was tagged for a restoration and the owner changed his mind after the work was started. Given that Challenger production was down in ’71, the combination of an R/T with a 383/automatic painted in the Hi-Impact color Plum Crazy can’t result in a big number of survivors today. Located in Springfield, Oregon, this unfinished project is available here on eBay where bidding has reached $27,300, but the auction winner will need to break through the reserve.
The photos provided by the seller are of the before and after nature. The “before” shows a well-faded Challenger with a straight body that only required minimal body work once the project began. Other than the rear valance and a quarter panel patch, all the sheet metal is said to be what the car was born with. The folks commissioned for the restoration took the car apart and had all its sheet metal parts chemically dipped. Then the automobile was prepped and epoxy coated.
Most of the sheet metal has been rehung and aligned, but some minor work will still be needed before the body can be finished. The car looks to be wearing a new black vinyl top when you compare some of the photos. And the work was not limited to the exterior as the passenger cabin, trunk and engine compartment have been prepped and repainted in FC7 (Plum Crazy) with a base clear coat added. The only thing that seems to be missing is the radio.
The 383 cubic inch Magnum V8 and TorqueFlite automatic are not original to the car but are period correct. The motor has been rebuilt and balanced to boot. The original carburetor was retained and redone. The transmission was put through a similar process with AAMCO and comes with a nationwide warranty. The rear axle has been detailed and the brakes completely refreshed. However, with all the work done here, the car is not yet in running and driving condition, but would be when everything is totally buttoned down.
When the car changes hands, it will go with a ton of documentation, including its broadcast sheet, warranty card, window sticker, owner’s manual and even the sales contract and original set of keys. If you don’t mind a project where much of the heavy lifting has already been done, this looks like a solid car to take across the finish line. This could easily be a mid-five figures car on day. Out of the 27,377 Challengers built in 1971, just 1,985 were the R/T model with a 383 and automatic. BTW, Plum Crazy was the second most popular color in 1971 at 10% of Challengers produced.
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Comments
I like the car after it was prepped, has a cleaner look without the vinyl top and graphics. (Mother Mopar should have kept putting R/T badges on like in 1970) Never cared for purple paint, but i understand that many do. The deep orange was nice, but I would prefer a red or blue, or even white to honor a dead fictional car delivery man. Of all the years these were made, I prefer the front and rear of the 1971s. Wouldn’t mind bidding on this one if I were a younger man.
Liked your comments. If your name is actually Curtis, you have a well known name to us old Air Force vets.
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, the name is Curtis, blame my parents. I was never in the Air Force, you were you say? SAC? Those were quite the times. Thank you for keeping the peace for us all.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the connection between the seller and their location.
Often when an owner of an “in progress“ restoration changes their mind it means they ran out of money or ran into some form of financial difficulty. This happens even in the best of times since this sort of project often stretches out for well over a year and expenses can mount quickly, especially if there are unforeseen problems.
Steve R
Graveyard Cars does not give away its talents. I wonder if they gave the owner an honest estimate. They do great work, of course, but is a restoration like that really pay off financially? Now, if you have the money and the car is for your own enjoyment, it is a well spent purchase, but if you also plan on future financial gain, might just come back and bite you. I wonder if many average people think it is a wise long term investment, and in the end, can’t even finish the job.
Why do you question if they gave them an “honest” estimate? That’s suggests you aren’t familiar with the way these business work. There is absolutely no way any restoration shop can give an estimate for a full restoration that won’t change over time, once the work begins it will always change based on what the shop encounters as they progress. To think otherwise is pure fantasy. My friends that do restoration work, will explain that to customers, it’s in the shops best interest to do so. However, there is no guarantee the customer listen and understand, even if they say they do.
I’m not sure why you worry so much about the financial viability of other people’s restoration projects, more often than not it’s for the love of the car and/or the memories it invokes, not profit.
Someone taking their car to this shop know what they are doing. Cars are scheduled years in advance, the owners of the cars he works on didn’t make a spur of the moment decision.
Steve R
Steve, I guess you are right about this, and as you say you know people in the business, you can speak with confidence. Though, I still worry that people of more modest means are doing this when they don’t have the money, thinking it as an investment. I have heard some people will turn retirement savings into this. Those laws should be changed. Wonder why this particular car is not getting finished. The fact that Graveyard is not going to buy it and finish it for a big payday speaks volumes about just how poor of a financial choice a full bore restoration is on an old Dodge.
Curtis, people have been doing stupid things with their retirement savings for a long time. I know people that “borrow” against theirs for their summer vacations, trips to the super bowl, to buy a new car or boat, even to buy crypto currency. I also know some that have use it for dental work that wasn’t covered by their insurance, home repairs and other emergencies. Even though many people make stupid decisions, if you pass a law all it either cuts off access to the money or will create a situation where some random third party makes the final decision as to how a person can use their own money, to me, that is worse than any stupid decision that person makes on their own.
As for Graveyard cars buying and finishing the car. Why should they. That’s not their business model. They are busy and have a backlog of cars and customers waiting their turn. Most shops that do spec work, do it between projects or with their down time. It’s disingenuous for outsiders to make claims such as you did, it’s like the guy buying a bleacher ticket to a game then yelling at the professional athlete on the field about how much they suck. It’s just empty talk with no basis in facts.
Steve R
From my experience, the main wild card in auto restoration is rust. How much there is becomes how much to fix it.
The second wild card is missing parts. Graveyard Carz does museum quality restoration work and I’d guess they have a source for NOS parts.
Drivetrain refurbishment is fairly straightforward. Like Curt says, this isn’t the first time they’ve passed on finishing a restoration on hopes of a big payday. Maybe they’ve watched Gas Monkey’s numerous auction fails and are risk-averse as a result. Getting your money in advance keeps the lights on.
Dave, I feel it just proves that restoration is too costly to make fiscal sense. The question is, why exactly is it costly? I have heard $100-150/hour labor rates. That seems pretty steep. Say you have a worker who makes $30 an hour. Add in insurance costs (hopefully), shop supplies, upkeep, rent, make it double to be conservative. The cost is now $60/hr. Where is the rest going? Obviously into the pocket of the smiling man who runs the whole shebang. The market will bear what the market will bear, but how much profit is enough, and how much is too much? Again, obviously as these shops are still getting customers, the market says it is willing the support the graft. Where is all that money coming from? People who have it, have every right to use it as they wish, but what about the slow thinking people of more modest means? As I discussed with Steve, are people borrowing from 401K funds? Paying too much to restore a muscle car and presently be upside down on it, doesn’t seem like a good idea unless in the future you don’t mind eating cat food. It might go up in value, but as much as the S&P 500? Will Willie Boy even be willing to part with it at 65? Steve, I DO NOT want Uncle Sam telling me what to do with my retirement, but I also understand that the taxpayers are going to be supporting some people who make poor choices today. Maybe there should be at least a little stricter guidelines for tax deferred retirement savings. Of course, no one knows the true reason this particular car is going up for sale half done, maybe someone looked at the numbers and decided to cut bait and take a smaller loss now. I hope that is what it is.
Curtis, it’s a nice trick how create your own numbers out of thin air as to how much the shop charges per hour for labor, pay their employees and calculate their overhead, assign them profit margin between 100 and 150%, then use those numbers to insinuate the owner of the shop is greedy.
My friend who runs a body shop with 10-12 employees would love to get over 10%, but won’t see that in this lifetime. My friends that are self employed doing fabrication work don’t make anywhere close to that either even though they get their insurance through their wives employers.
Steve R
Steve, I think that Curt was just guessing. My local Harley dealer, like the CDJR dealer, is now charging $100 per hour for labor.
When I was building gas turbine power plants for Siemens Westinghouse they were charging $110 per hour for my services. My pay was $19.50 per hour. My costing rate (pay plus benefits) was $45 per hour. The rest went for things like tools, calibration equipment, yearly certification of the calibration equipment, yearly certification of the equipment used to calibrate our test equipment, company vehicles, and so on.
I don’t think that anyone begrudges a place like Graveyard Carz. They do museum quality work on a daily basis. This car isn’t the first one on here where the owner’s revenue stream has encountered issues that forced them to sell prized possessions to keep the wolf away from the door. Someone will buy it and complete the work.
The other side of the coin are the cars whose owners planned to do the work themselves out of love for the car but life and/or death changed their plans.
sounds like Curt doesn’t want shops to make money judging by his description of the “smiling man who owns the whole she-bang”.
Curt, you are “worrying” about things that do not affect you or are any of your business.
Chester, or should I call you by the other user name you are currently using, Curt Lemay. Nice to see you chime in. It’s refreshing to see that at least one thing in this world hasn’t changed, that’s you and your constantly changing user names and your ever consistent complaints about successful people choosing to spend their money how they choose.
Steve R
@SteveR, Have I somehow offended you? I thought that our interchange of ideas on this post was friendly, is that not what is supposed to happen here? Perhaps you are angry at some other person of whom you suggest that I am, if that person has made you angry, I am sorry, but that person is not I.
Looks to me like this in the garage of Graveyard Cars (TV show). Oregon matches up as well.
Yep. Scroll down the eBay listing to the seller’s info. You’ll see his smiling face.
Yes, as soon as I saw Springfield, Oregon and a Mopar I thought Graveyard Carz..I think you either love or hate Mark Worman and I’m in the love camp. They seem to do fantastic work and he definitely knows his stuff..nice car
He knows his stuff because he has all of the original, factory documentation for the cars he rebuilds. I always wondered how he knew stull like “Before January 1st, 1969 this bolt was 1/2 inch. After that date it was 9/16”. Having the original factory books makes him a smart man!
Normally the only person that makes out in a restoration is the shop owner, unless it is a really valuable car like a Tucker or a Bugatti.
That’s because it’s a for profit business. It’s no different that any home remodeling, construction, auto repair shop, or any number of service industry. They provide a service for a price, it’s up to the owner of the car to do the math.
Steve R
No kidding…
Ok, nice project but one thing that bothers me when restoring a big block Mopar: 440! Put a 440 in it…!!!
Don’t bother with a 383, go full bore (or stroke actually). The 383 is a nice motor. I know, I had one. But if you’re not numbers matching, get the big boy. Torque is happiness… 😁
Love Mark or Hate him? I love his knowledge and workmanship. I’m not so keen on his antics ALL the time and his berating of his employees/kin for his own amusement. Yeah, sometimes he’s hysterical because he’s so full of himself and what’s with that ridiculous animated version of his show? Anyway, I hear him constantly say that they are years behind schedule and given his love of the camera and his silly shenanagins that could frustrate a customer who is watching his show and is in a long que and not wanting to wait forever. I would assume that his bottom line is “my way or the highway” without a whole lot of sympathy. Maybe this customer ran out of money or just ran out of patience waiting for the self-proclaimed second coming of MOPAR restorations to get his/her car finished.
After reading all these comments I need to take a nap and rest my eyes!
After reading all these comments, I need to take a nap and rest my eyes!
Sorry for the double post. The original didn’t show up until my second one posted.
Car didn’t need a restoration – maybe just a drive line freshening. Someone was looking to make some money and just perhaps get a mechanic’s lien on this once original jewel.
GYC uses a lot of superlatives to describe this car.
They are either exaggerating in order to sell the car, or this is indeed the best original condition, most documented car they have ever seen.
That is kind of hard to believe.
Made it to $35,433 but did not meet Reserve.
Mark Worman = Michael Scott
Mark Worman will NEVER be Michael Scott…what an insult to Michael Scott.