Tolley's 1970 Charger

August 30, 2019

Mopar diecast car collection 2019 Mariposa County Fair

I had a lot of fun building this display for most of my collection. Many people told me they enjoyed it also.

I put the small 1/64 scale (Hot Wheel / Matchbox sized) cars on the back boards. I made a small "2019 Mariposa Mopar Car Show" diorama for the 1/18 scale cars I have. The staggered shelves below had a few special cars. sets etc.

I hope you enjoy it too.

December 25, 2018

Merry Mopar Christmas 2018

This year for Christmas my wife splurged and bought me a new reproduction replacement Tic-Toc-Tac for my Charger. The original clock never worked since I had owned it, and some time ago the tachometer got erratic and stopped working too. (after almost 50 years who could fault it?)

The new one fit right in, and connected just like the original. While I had the cluster out, I replaced all the instrument panel lights with new LED units I bought online.

The end result was a VAST improvement and it is SO COOL to have both the clock and tachometer working. Merry Christmas everyone!

And I must say thanks so much to my lovely wife for such an awesome gift!

October 20, 2018

2018 Mariposa car show and cruise

It was time again for our hometown cruise and car show. All brands are welcome. This year there were a bit over 130 cars at the show on Saturday Oct 20th.

Friday night is the cruise, we gather at our local auto parts store then make a couple laps through town and park for the evening talking to locals and tourists about our vehicles. It was a fun evening.

Here are a couple pictures of my Charger on display downtown.

The next day was the show itself. It was a good day, with nice weather. My wife and I were pretty busy all most all day talking to people about my Charger, my Charger diorama, and hearing stories about their cars, and projects both past and present.

Proudly flying the 70 Charger Registry colors!

This year I was pleased to win the Mopar class, there were not a lot of Mopars in our class, but the others were very nice cars also.

September 29, 2018

2018 San Joaquin Valley Mopar Show

Since I was thankfully able to get my Charger back from the body shop in time, my wife and I headed down to enter the closest all Mopar show to home for us. The San Joaquin Valley Mopar Club's Fall Finale.

There were probably 80-100 Mopars in attendance.

The class I entered was for all B-bodies. There were about 20 cars in this class. Actually nearly all of them were pretty nice cars. There were a total of three 70 Chargers including mine in addition there were several '69's, and at least one '68 which was in the 50th anniversary class.

It was a fun show, great weather, and I got to talk to quite a few folks about the 70ChargerRegistry including a couple of '70 Charger owners who did not bring their cars today.

I brought my diorama depicting the history and progression of my Charger, and it was a big hit with many who came by.

All three 70 Chargers in attendance today are visible in this photo.

And I was very happy to have won second in the B-body class. There was some serious competition this year.

June 09, 2018

Charger at the body shop

A little later than I thought, but finally an update.

Mopar Ed was very busy so it has taken longer than he planned to get a space for my car in his shop.

However Friday was the day, and I was able to get my Charger down to his shop (about 1 1/4 hours from my house).

Not sure how long it will take to get the bodywork and paint done but if it is done in the next 3 weeks I'll be really happy.

I was able to take one of my suction pullers to the worst part of the dent and it sprang back surprisingly well, but still requires attention to get the door back to being perfect. But it was less embarrassing when driving past someone who happened to be looking.

Here is "Mopar Ed" himself after having taken a look at the work he has before him.

So long for now Charger, I'll see you again soon!

Stay tuned for another update hopefully soon, - Completion!

April 15, 2018

Shopping cart vs 70 Charger

Well it has been a while since I have had anything new to post here. But sadly, now I do...

The Saturday before Easter since our kids were about to head back to college after their Spring Break at home we decided to go to the next town over for lunch. Since it was a nice day, I decided we'd head over in the Charger to make it an even more special occasion.

After lunch we stopped off at the store where I carefully chose a parking spot at the end of a row figuring that with nobody parking next to us the car would be a bit safer.

After we came out of the store I was putting a couple of things in the trunk and I heard a "THUNK" sort of noise. I also immediately heard my daughter totally losing it on somebody. I shut the trunk and came around to the passenger side where people were starting to gather. What greeted me was a pretty large dent in my passenger door.

When I got everyone calmed down (I was in shock and disbelief myself), I got the older guys information and found out that he had just helped his wife into his vehicle, loaded her walker, and when he turned around to grab his groceries, his loaded shopping cart had rolled downhill into the side of my Charger.

The dent is uglier than this picture makes it look. It is pushed in far enough that my door gap is noticeably off in the rear although it opens and shuts fine.

So far my collector car insurance company has been very helpful. The adjuster who came out a couple days after the incident to document everything at my house was very complimentary. He sees a lot of cool cars and he thought he had not encountered one as nice as mine in a long time.

I talked to "Mopar Ed" (the gentleman who painted my Charger) a week ago Friday and he will be making an opening in his schedule for me in early May after he is done with Spring Fling in Van Nuys, and Mopars at the Strip in Las Vegas.

I think the door will survive and not need replacement or an excessive amount of filler. But we'll see. I will update this blog as repairs are underway and completed.

Keep an eye on your beauties when you take them out!

October 15, 2016

Mariposa Car Show 2016

Once again it was time for my hometown car show. All makes are welcome and there were a lot of cars despite the threat of rain, which thankfully held off until later in the evening. (Thank you Lord!) I had a really good time talking to lots of other fine Mopar folks about their cars, and the many visitors who came to check out my Charger.
It was a fun show!

Here are a few photos of my charger at the show.

People continue to enjoy the diorama I made to show major stages in my Charger's journey over the years.

One of the things our Chamber of Commerce (who organizes the show) tries to do each year is to invite a celebrity of some renown in the automotive world. This year we had the chance to meet and talk to "Horny Mike" from the TV show "Counting Cars". He was a neat guy and really likes Mopars and seemed to enjoy my Charger and its back story.

Here is my wife, daughter, and myself with "Horny Mike"

Getting close to time to head home.

Nothing like the tail of a '70 Charger!

October 07, 2016

Fresno Dodge / San Joaquin Valley Mopars cruise in 2016

One of the Mopar car shows we always try to go to is the San Joaquin Valley Mopars show in Madera, CA. The club also coordinates with Fresno Dodge to have a cruise in, show and BBQ at the dealership the Friday night before the show. This sounded like fun, and we had a good experience buying our new Dodge Caravan at Fresno Dodge in July so I planned to drive the Charger down and participate.

There were at least two dozen cool Mopars that showed up and some really cool folks to talk to.

Here are some pictures from the event, these were taken by me, with my phone, so they are not up to the usual high standards set by my wife with her Nikon.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version

September 07, 2016

Our other Mopars

I have owned many Mopars in the past, including a 1965 Polara 4dr with a 383, a 1966 Polara 4dr with a 383, a 1972 D100 2wd long-bed pickup with a 318, and a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda with a 273. My very first car was the '65 Polara mentioned above. I enjoyed that car and it was tough enough to survive my learning many of my first automotive maintenance lessons on it. Since then, I have preferred and promoted classic MoPars of every stripe everywhere I've gone.

With my first car and in the early days of my Charger, I held a fairly uniform appreciation of all American-made muscle-car era automobiles. I found that many of the GM and blue-oval devotees received my praise of their vehicles but had nothing but uninformed condemnation for my own cars. I found this to be true even when their cars could not beat mine in a race. Later on, I met other Mopar owners and found many of them had had the same experiences. It is with these people that I have enjoyed the camaraderie and pride of owning Mopar vehicles over the years.

This may be the only picture I still have of my first car. My trusty 1965 Dodge Polara police car. I was almost 16 in this picture. This is the car that started my love for all things Mopar!

On this page I will feature Mopars currently in our family's fleet.

This is my wife's 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger. It has a new 360 CID engine and it runs like a top. We love this car, my wife especially. We bought it in the summer of 2006 from its original owner, a sweet little lady (really) who had kept every scrap of paperwork pertaining to the car all the way back to her original dealership purchase receipt, and who had taken the car in every six months for a checkup or whenever it needed it, whichever was oftener. Other than the new 360, a paint job and new vinyl top in 2004, this car is completely original, and it's virtually immaculate inside and out. The original 318 was great, but after 35 years of service it finally needed to be replaced or rebuilt. This car gets a great deal of well-deserved attention wherever we go in it.

In 2004, I started looking for an economical-to-drive cool-looking older Mopar for regular transportation. I am quite sure we scored a good deal on this 1969 Dodge Dart Western Special. The car is very solid, and needs only a few cosmetic finishing touches. Even in its current unrestored state, this clean, original car still gets us a lot of compliments. Powered by what I believe to be its original 225 CID slant-six, backed up by a 3-speed manual column-shifted transmission, it does very well on gas and doesn't embarrass me going up our local hills. When I restore this car for my daughter, I hope to redo the exterior of the car in its original Q5 Bright Turquoise Metallic paint, with a new vinyl top, and maybe a black tail stripe, and probably install a small block and auto transmission, or maybe I'll just leave it stock. It is still cool, and there aren't too many of these still sporting their original drive train these days.

The famous "leaning tower of power" The "Charger 225"

The interior is in great shape and is original!

The story of my 1963 D100 probably warrants its own webpage. My buddy and I completely changed the nature and purpose of this vehicle. It started out as a D100 SWB 6-cyl 4spd with manual steering, 2wd, and manual drum brakes all the way around. Over the course of 18 months, we transformed it into what you see in these pictures: a 383 2bbl, 727 auto and an MP205 divorced transfer case Dana 44 front end and 8 3/4 rear from a '74 Power wagon with 3:55 gears were initially used. Since these pictures were taken I have updated both front and rear axles. I beefed up my truck with a Dana 44 front end from an '86 W350 with Warn manual hubs, a Dana 60 rear end (also from the '86 W350) with 4:10 gears all the way around. The steering column with the automatic shifter and floor pan are from a 1969 D200. The brake booster and master cylinder assembly are also from the'86 W350. The front and rear bumpers are custom-made by my friend and myself.

The workhorse of the bunch is my '97 Dodge Ram 2500 with the awesome 5.9l Cummins. I REALLY love this truck!

In 2003, I was able to acquire this complete, running, driving 1967 Plymouth Satellite 2dr HT. It has a 318 4bbl which runs quite well. The interior has bucket seats and an automatic console shift. My son (who was seven years old at the time) is the owner of this car. It had long been my plan when my Charger was done for the two of us to begin restoration of his Satellite together.

You can see some of the major restoration progress we made on my son's '67 Satellite before he headed off for college at his Satellite restoration page here Tolley's 1967 Satellite Restoration Blog

The paperwork that came with the car indicates that this 318 should be the original engine and was overhauled a number of years ago, which could explain why it runs so well. The engine has an after-market aluminum 4bbl intake and an Edelbrock (Carter AFB) carburetor. I have a 1971 440 4bbl engine that has been reserved for my son's future power needs. Unless he continues with his plan to put a HEMI in it one day!

Here's a picture from 2007 with my son leaning against his Satellite, he is 6'4" tall now so he's changed even more than his car has!

My son is a grown man now and sought out something cool, tough, and practical for his work and daily driver use. He scored with the 1993 Dodge W250 Cummins equipped Power Wagon. It came with a utlity bed which he sold and promptly replaced with a good long bed we had at home. It has a 4" lift and 285/75R16 tires on American Racing spoke wheels. The paint is military surplus desert sand. Everything works perfectly. This thing is an awesome beast!

For nearly 20 years my barber and I had an arrangement. I worked on his '76 Power wagon whenever needed and he would cut my family's hair. Well a couple years ago he lost a battle with cancer. His widow insisted that the truck come to live with me. When my daughter wanted something cool to drive to school her first choice was the Barber's old '76 Power Wagon. We cleaned it up, did a tune up and a little maintenance together, (she got her own Craftsman tools for Christmas) and then I painted it like as my son's '93 Power Wagon using the same military surplus paint. I updated the wheels with some American Racing 16 x 6.5" units with 265/75R16's. Came out pretty cool looking and my daughter certainly loved driving the truck she calls "beast".

Posted in Family Helpers | RESTORATION | link to this page | | Comments (0)

October 24, 2015

Mariposa Car show 2015

Each year the all brands car show in my home town grows. Last year there were almost 200 cars, this year I think the number was well over that. I spoke to people who brought cars from Las Vegas, and all parts of California.

This year I again participated in the fun Friday night cruise. First we meet up at our O'Reilly Auto PArts store (used to be a NAPA store, but owned and operated by the same local folks.)

Here are a couple pictures from down town Mariposa. There were lots of folks waling around checking out the cars. Met some really nice folks. Especially some youngsters who were fascinated by classic muscle cars.

Then Saturday was the show itself.

This is a publicity photo for the show organizers with their trophy presenter for 2015.

This year I entered the Mopar category (instead of the general muscle car class like last year). I won 1st place in the Mopar class which was quite an honor. There were many very nice Mopars in attendance.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

July 15, 2015

Mopar Alley Mopar Rally 2015

One of the shows that has been an annual pre-Father's day trip for my family for many years is the Mopar Alley club's Mopar Rally. It used to be at Ohlone College near Fremont and we really liked that site. Now for the second year it is at DeAnza college in Cupertino which is OK, but we liked the old location better.

However, this year was the first time my Charger was finally ready for this large show.

I trailered my Charger to Morgan Hill where I met up with a buddy from the 70 Charger Registry, then we caravaned to the show in our Chargers.

Ready for the road.

At the Show with my diorama depicting the history of my Charger since I've owned it.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

December 25, 2014

Merry Mopar Christmas 2014

New door, and new paint on the house and garage, but the tradition continues!

My son, now 18 and nearly 6'4" tall posing next to the wreath he constructed many years ago.

Merry Christ-mas everyone!

Posted in Family Helpers | Miniatures | link to this page | | Comments (0)

October 18, 2014

Next Show - Mariposa

Today was a large (for our area) all brands car show. The show is put on by the Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce. It has been growing each year, and this year there were said to be over 250 cars in attendance.

First though yesterday night was a cruise through our town, with the parking downtown blocked off for us to park and show our cars.

The cruise started at our local NAPA store as they are a major sponsor of the show.

Here my Charger and my wife's '72 Dart Swinger are waiting at NAPA for time to cruise.

Had a fun time with the cruise and park thing tonight. Talked to a lot of people. There was a nice lady who is a regular on Overhaulin' there greeting people and taking pictures with people and their cars. Her name is Cherielynn Westrich, she is it turns out, a lifelong Mopar gal apparently and was VERY excited to get her picture taken with my Charger. Evidently she has a '68 Dart of her own - very cool!

My Charger downtown after the cruise.

Then today it was time for the show - here is my Charger in position.

There were tons of classes including a Mopar class which I knew was likely to have only a few cars (in truth there were six Mopars present including a truck out of over 250 cars!)

I chose to enter the Muscle Car class so as not to compete against my fellow Mopar owners. It worked out well as I managed to win third place in the class.

October 11, 2014

Show time! - Madera

October 11th was time for the annual Fall Finale put on by the San Joaquin Valley Mopars Club in Madera, CA

We really like this show as it is usually great weather, and it is the closest all Mopar show to where I live.

There were not quite 90 Mopars there, which is seemed to be down from the previous few years.

I had the only '70 Charger at the show, there were 1 68, two '69's, and one '73 Chargers. We were all in a general "B-Body" class. There were numerous Road Runners, and a bunch more nice cars in my class.

I did not win anything, which is OK, although I was certainly ready to stride up to the award table if my name had been called.

Here is a picture of my Charger in position.

I finally got to use my diorama for the purpose I made it for. Seemed like it was a hit with the crowd.

A long time friend of ours does a lot of automotive photography and she and the owner of a really nice all numbers matching 1970 Plymouth Superbird were at the show as well, so we positioned our cars for some fun pictures together. Click here to see her photography page.

A very nice day for my Charger's first car show!

September 20, 2014

"ON THE ROAD AGAIN!"

Cue the Willie Nelson... :)

Yep, My Charger is on the road again! Ten and a half years after I started the restoration process I am complete enough to warrant registration and insurance.

Remember, you can click on my photos if you want to see one in a larger size.

Here is the 2015 tag going on over the 1996 one. (I non-op'd my Charger in 1996 but did not start to restore it until 2004)

Here my wife and I are getting ready to head out on the maiden voyage.

This video (which I forgot we had taken on my wife's phone) is of the VERY first drive of my restored Charger on paved roads since 2004 right before I began to take my Charger apart.

After a quick trip to town, it was time for fuel and a front end alignment appointment... I was very nervous about putting fuel in, I really did not want to spill on the paint.

Here is a video of a quick burn-out in the parking lot of the building where our Church meets.

What a great day, long awaited and lots of fun, I hope to enter a couple of nearby car shows in October.

Stay tuned...

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