Cuda Junction Blog

The beginning.

I spotted this car, a 1968 Dart, in a field by our local U-Pull-It yard.  68 Dart, white body, phoney aluminum Centerline wheels, monster tach mounted to the bottom of the dash. Left front fender, door, bumper, were all wiped off of it.  Eyed this car for a year before beating on the door of the trailer it sat behind.  Wrong time of year to beat on the door, a bad winter here in Oregon, 2 feet of snow on the car, 3 on the ground.  I was met with a happy face at the door of the trailer.  NOTE:  70 Chevelle with 454 emblems on a real cowl hood 20 feet from the Dart.  The lady at the door says that the Dart does not belong to her, but a male friend of hers does own it.  She also says the Chevelle belongs to a neighbor and people have been shot at for looking at it uninvited.  Come to find out, the Chevelle is definately not for sale (not that I would keep a GM anyway) but the Dart was for sale if the guy’s son wanted to part with it.

The guy calls me a week later, says the kid wants $500 for the Dart.  I said I am game at this point, can I go look at it without getting shot at?  A week or so later, I checked out the Dart, only a foot of snow left on the ground, about 6 inches on the car.  Called the guy back and agreed to buy it.  In my initial up close inspection, I found that it was a real V-8 car, minus motor and trans.  It was all there (including the green interior).  A few phone calls later between me and the guy, the dad/owner, then I finally heard the real story on the car.

Dad had purchased the Dart for the son (obviously a dumb high school kid) the kid blew up the original 273 immediately.  Dad builds him a 318 to replace the 273.  The kids drives the Dart for 6 more months, graduates high school, and moves to Chico, CA for college.  While on a late night kid fest with his buddies, loses control of the car in some sort of cornering manuver and wipes off the aforementioned parts off of it.  Dad, still back in Oregon, is pissed off about it.  Dad goes and retrieves the Dart from Chico, back to Oregon, jerks the fresh 318 and auto trans out of it, and stashes the Dart at the aforementioned trailer ladies house.

More to follow…¼/p>