Carchaeology: Barn Find 69 Charger 500

[@PabloHernandez-wu3df]

I've watched all the videos of the stash and all I got to say is your one lucky man

[@Carchaeology]

Pablo Hernandez agreed. So fortunate and thankful to be the one to pull these babies out of hibernation!

[@5inthehole]

I know people who would give a left ball....

[@1967davethewave]

Excellent!! The '69 500 is my favorite Charger. I've owned 2 '68 Chargers and 2 '69 Chargers but never a 500. But I'm not that old so someday I'll be driving one down the road! I love the way you're planning on fixing it. They are only original once!!!

[@JT-SE-OHIO]

I was never a fan of green anything, but the 69 Charger was one car that looked good in dark green. This one has to be very rare with the options that it has and also since it has not been molested over the years. Nice find.

[@brucefoster3121]

It also has cruise control. Wow. That’s neat. I have a 1969 R/T SE with air and a factory sunroof but not cruise. Very cool on a Charger 500.

[@THRASHMETALFUNRIFFS]

You seen JunkerUp channel doing the Sunroof 69' Charger?

[@chuckromano859]

I think sunroof trumps cruise?ya think?

[@andrewhigdon8346]

That car is one of my favorites. Awesome.

[@midwestspeed7889]

That’s a very lucky find all high end barn finds in one yard!!

[@9ALiTY]

Had to cut up a 70 Charger 500 with my dad when I was 14 because the cops were complaining we had to many cars in the Drive Way. One of the Dummest things we did.

[@67NewEngland]

I believe the 500 got its name because NASCAR required at least 500 vehicles manufactured and made available to the public in order for the race teams to use these body features on the race track.

[@JT-un7dc]

That's why its called 500. Because 500 was built (I think). Wasn't their a ruling that at least 500 cars had to be produced to compete in NASCAR. Great find! I'll be coming for those cars if I hit the lottery. Also, that's the most unsterile lab around. 😝

[@JT-un7dc]

@gordon mathew cool story. Thanks for sharing this information.

[@MikeJBlues]

Very cool, I saw cruise control on that as well. Saw one this color in a junk yard on blocks in the late 70s, complete car, 440 4 speed, I had no idea what it was but remember like it was yesterday.

[@mannfan12]

Yeah I saw that Cruise module on the fender as well.

[@ChuckSSoul]

I agree, clean it up, preserve it, drive it, share a really rare piece of history...

[@managementhawaiianisles3235]

It's a '68 Coronet grille they used. The power windows on that car are not factory

[@Mercmad]

A rare car! A few Daytonas were down specced to become 500's so they could shift them off the show room floor. ladder bars weren't needed on those Mopars, they have a massive snubber on the diff nose which moves up against the floor under hard acceleration . i think Nick on Nicks Garage Channel has a 500 in his shop for work too. I hate it when rats get into cars, I have a VW type III which had droppings 4" deep ....

[@jtp336]

So you're saying some dealers removed Daytona front fenders, nose, hood, and rear wing, to replace with regular charger fenders, hood, and grill, then fill wing holes and blend/repaint, etc.... Doesn't it seem much more financially viable to just discount the cost of the car rather than go through all that hassel? I've heard this story of "Some Daytonas were converted to regular Chargers or Charger 500s" more than once, yet no body can ever give any proof of such instances other than hearsay. Surely if this happened, someone somewhere would have a car like that with its backstory.

[@rogergoodman8665]

I would also love to see a video of a Charger Daytona that a dealer converted back into a "regular" Charger. However, I have read extensively on this subject & as hard as it is to believe today, it did happen at dealers all over the country. Even though today, Charger Daytona's & the Plymouth Superbird's are beloved & highly sought after, when they were new they were considered almost hideous looking by the general public & even among car nuts. They also had high sticker prices which made them out of reach of the kids that actually wanted one & a lot of them languished at dealers with some not being sold until early 1972!!! In order to get a car off the lot nobody wanted, & they were stuck with, some dealers were forced to remove the nose cone, front fenders, & rear wing & "dumb them down" a bit, albeit at a tremendous loss financially. I'm 48 & I fell in love at 7 years old but my dad made fun of them when I was little when we saw one driving because of the "mile high" wing but mom loved it. She said it would be great for hanging laundry, but the real reason for the massive wing for normal cars was so the trunk lid could be fully opened. Only the NASCAR good ole boys could benefit from its downforce as it didn't start producing any until well over 100 mph. Sorry for my novel but I love those cars.

[@jtp336]

Still no proof, just hearsay, not one single car has ever surfaced with this claimed backstory. Surely if this was such a common practice "all across the country" somebody somewhere would have such a car. If you think about it logically, it just doesn't make sense. The cost to change out all the sheet metal from the firewall forward, with new parts and labor doesn't justify simply discounting the price of the car. Now what there are many confirmed stories of, are Daytonas and Superbirds getting into accidents, and instead of being repaired to original specs, they were given Regular Charger or Road Runner parts as they were more common and easier to find, and cheaper. The myth was likely perpetuated by those such cars over the years, after being sold and resold, sellers telling buyers "yeah that's how it came from the dealer, they had to convert them because nobody wanted these back then..." Meanwhile it was just a repaired wreck. Could a small handful of cars been converted at dealerships? Sure, anything's possible; but there's nothing to indicate that it was wide-spread commonplace as the myth insinuates.

[@rogergoodman8665]

@@jtp336 : I do agree, proof is proof & until someone does come forward with a documented case, it's like Bigfoot or Alien spacecraft. Until a Bigfoot strolls into town for a burger & a movie or an alien ship lands on the White House lawn we can't help being skeptical.

[@firebreathinggarage2117]

First off those aren't ladder bars, obviously neither of you have ever seen ladder bars. Those are common traction bars from the sixties and seventies. Why do I harp?

[@dh2360]

Quite a number of 1969 Charger 500 models came in F8 green body color with green interior. The one I owned was exactly the same color and options minus the power windows. I changed it to R4 red with black cloth interior.

[@duncandmcgrath6290]

Not gonna believe this but my 69 Charger 318 car was R4 black interior- I went F8 with tan

[@andrewhigdon8346]

Wait now, this guy is a restoration specialist and called slapper bars, AKA traction bars, ladder bars? A totally different part. Ladder bars are like trailing arms shaped like a triangular ladder, with the point of the triangle at the mount far forward of the axle, and the base of the triangle mounted to the rear axle. The triangulated rigidity immensely helped with traction on launch, effectively attempting to lift the rear of the car when its trying to squat, resulting in more forward progress instead of flex and squatting. The problem was that the axle didn’t want to articulate with ladder bars installed, so any kind of road transition at an angle resulted in a lot of groaning from the undercarriage, and sometimes would lift a rear wheel because of a lack of compliance. Those were $35 Lakewood traction bars. They essentially tried to do the same thing but were not tied to the chassis at the front, They would help to reduce the “wind up” of the front half of a leaf spring on launch, while also attempting to lift the rear of the car while the weight transition was trying to make the rear squat. And you could “tune” the traction bars by adjusting the gap between the snubber and the leaf spring. Good times.

[@chuckromano859]

Adjustable pinion snubber from DIRECT CONNECTION!!!,problem solved!

[@bradleysmith3121]

The Fords killed these on the racetrack. Chrysler built the Daytona and Superbird to aerodynamically overcome the 60 hp advantage the race Boss 429 had over the 426 Hemi at that time. Chrysler did not want to re-tool the Hemi and used Boeing wind tunnels to overcome the Boss power advantage. The 500 was a step to ultimately the Superbird which was the best winged car. The Charger 500 and Daytona were never as stable on the big tracks. Nice find! Glad to see it will be restored.

[@andrewhigdon8346]

Wait till a Paintless Dent Removal guy takes his tapping body hammer to THAT sheet metal. He’ll be going to school very quickly. Quick story as an indicator. I let my buddy borrow my 1968 Country Squire for about a month back in 2002. He’s like a brother to me and he did nothing wrong, but got off the shoulder on a two lane road and over corrected and hit a tree right front end at about 40mph. It did a lot of damage, and the reason I know it had to be more than 35 (the speed limit on that road) is because it was more damaged than I expected. In fact I was surprised he was t more injured by the impact. So later on when I got it home, crying over my caved in fender, and blown away at the damage, I took an Estwing framing hammer, maybe 28 oz, and and swung on the top of that fender like I was gonna punch a hole in it. On a modern car it may have. I swung with a vengeance. It left a SLIGHT dimple with the waffle pattern of the hammer face on it. Wow. They don’t make em like that anymore. Let the PDR guy start tapping on that sheet metal. Tell him to bring a hand sledge.

[@chuckromano859]

I work in "OLD CAR" resto it take heat and power!!!

[@bartschwartz7217]

I remember this car mopar nats pre 2000 with that extra front light on drivers side

[@Carchaeology]

Bart Schwartz it’s not a light, it’s a military base pass.

[@donaldcurtis9229]

I saw one bag of 92 for sale on outside of Denver Colorado and I said 7200 72 I said I'll take it he goes no 72,000 I walked away in shame

[@Roadrunnergarage]

I think that they had to make 500 of them to call it a production line car to be used in nascar. Rules of the time. Hence the 500 name. Actual production numbers may be more though. And I’m not 100 percent sure. Just something I remember reading once.

[@strokermaverick]

Gotta love, Arizona cars!

[@chargerdave2046]

The dealership's might have taken the Daytona parts off to sell the cars as 500's, but the 500 was the predecessor to the Daytona. Just to clarify. 😁

[@Carchaeology]

That would be really interesting to look into...I imagine the data tags would give info on if it ever had the nose or wing. I doubt it since it all looks like original paint, etc...but its worth investigating!

[@chargerdave2046]

@@Carchaeology Exactly, hard to believe that they were hard to sell, So the possibility of a dealership or private individual changing their Daytona into a 500 wouldn't surprise me. Still a Sweeeet score!!! I have a severely rusty 72 rallye clone that I unfortunately just blew the motor after fixing a timing chain, got to drive for 4 days.😟. Best wishes!!!

[@gregelliott8405]

I see it has cruise control too

[@joeyductz]

Amazing info. Thank you.

[@chevylandt.v]

Nice car I wish I had me one or a just a charger. If I had one I would just leave it if you paint it then someone would scratch it or try to key it.

[@chuckromano859]

Your right,had it happen to my 'Cuda

[@chevylandt.v]

@@chuckromano859 oh dang sorry to hear about that .that's kinda why my truck is faded I am afraid to paint it.

[@bagatuuri8070]

Dont know about that 69, 440rt is it really worth... maybe for some longer project, but this is so rare and decired car it really needs to get fixed and hopefully done right and orginal specs.

[@rafaelrodriguez-rm8ec]

watch nicks garage !! there restoring a 500 from california learned alot on there too!

[@sirswerve2493]

I would turn this into a daily driver. Meaning weekend fun and good old burnouts.........

[@Jim-gy5vf]

How many were used in the Dukes of Hazzard if @ all.

[@blainehouser4354]

Awesome!

[@bobcrawford5083]

again wow..a nice one could fetch $100k

[@JohnShinn1960]

👍👍

[@MiHiHemi]

Restore.

[@adrianguzman5074]

Are you going to sale one of them

[@discmotoslots]

like counting the rings of a tree the amount of rat turds tells this carcheologist that car sat for a long time unattended

[@adrianguzman5074]

It’s my dream car

[@rustycowll5735]

the wheels and tires look so puny. they must be 14in wheels.

[@mysterycomment1553]

You shouldn’t even touch this car. Just get it running.

[@jeffleblanc8850]

Is it not a 70 cause the tailights and the rectangle marker lights missing the aircleaner

[@Carchaeology]

I never said it was a 70

[@chrismc.4437]

No Jeff.

[@hemihead001]

Worst thing in the world for a Mopar is Traction Bars .

[@jamiemoffatt50]

Preserve? Restore it!!! Wtf??

[@chuckromano859]

DRIVE IT!!!!

[@cheekymonkey444]

Traction bars! Not ladder bars.

[@Carchaeology]

Duh! Not sure where my head was at on that one.

[@cheekymonkey444]

@@Carchaeology I too would be freaked out finding this car.

[@RoverWaters]

EYE CANDY

[@michaelmowrey9932]

Son of a bitch!😯❤

[@idontlikecops1]

Too far scorched for a preservation

[@Carchaeology]

gizmo I disagree!

[@onedayiwillmakesomecontent]

Paint is just paint. It doesnt look like a screen door, the body is fine... I have an old Australian Muscle Car with similar condition paint. Was off the road from 1986 until 2017. I just washed it and drive it!

[@danabogue1804]

This is the thing that REALLY pisses me off about the first collector, he would rather these VERY rare cars SIT THERE AND ROT than sell them to someone who would give them a new LIFE. Time and again you read story's about the WIFE selling they're husbands collection after the husband has passed. I see across this country all manner of equipment and cars etc. sitting in fields rusting and rotting away because these HOARDERS have a mental problem and REFUSE to sell ANYTHING!

[@Carchaeology]

Welcome to the free world. A man can do what he wants to do with his stuff. Use it, abuse it, let it sit in a field or wipe it with a diaper in a garage with marble floors. I respect the man for keeping them so long, they obviously meant a lot to him.

[@MrZdvy]

Power steering, power windows, A/C...but no power brakes...some logic people had back then.

[@mannfan12]

I know. Totally absurd. But then when you think about it, brakes were really an afterthought in those days.

[@williamdouglass7864]

According to NASCAR rules at the time they have to build 500rumor has it that the only built 460 or so and that they would winning NASCAR inspectors came out to count them they would drive them around the back so they would take the car that was in the front of the line when I got counted drive it to the back of the line to fool the inspectors

[@chrismc.4437]

So Bill, have you had a stroke? Damn man, the gibberish you post is jacked.

[@mustangmarty8491]

Too bad it's an auto, i truly believe all muscle cars or sports cars should be a stick..Just sayin..🇺🇸" MURICA "