The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I have a Dodge challenger that I bought back in 1982 I've alawys considered it a 1971 because it has the 1971 split tail lights and front end. I drove the crap out of it when I was a teenager and parked it when the engine/transmission died. I've recently retrieved it from my parents field and am starting a rebuild of it. Badly rusted but what the heck, I love the car.

Anyway,
the VIN is JH29G0Exxxxxx, after using the vin decoder it says it was a 1970 production car and a Special Edition with a small back window.
It does have the embossed dash which I read was only the 1970 models and it does say special edition on the door panels but the rear window is the normal size, and the front and back end are 1971 pieces. it has cranks on all four windows, painted left and right mirrors with the right remote controlled, has wide moldings on the front, air conditioning variable speed wipers, a foot pump for the wiper fluid, and T handle slap stick. I can find no fender tag on the car and the drivers door has no tag on it either.

So, is it a 70 or a 71 and is it a Special Edition. Is there any chance of finding the original options for the car?

The next step is to look for the body numbers and see if they match your dash VIN. Look on the radiator support near the battery and on top of the driver's side cowl. There is a digram of them here on the site someplace, I will look for it and post it.


Back in a bit........

Barry

Here is the link;

http://challenger.mpoli.fi/forum/viewto ... hicle+body

But the images are not coming up for me.

Here is another link with photos, this shows a T/A but the numbers are in similar locations for most Challengers.

http://www.aarta.com/numbers_matching/n ... ching.html

T/Ake care,
Barry

tcosson wrote:painted left and right mirrors with the right remote controlled,

That should be the driver's mirror that is remote controlled???

So, is it a 70 or a 71 and is it a Special Edition. Is there any chance of finding the original options for the car?

Definitely a 1970 (unless the dash and door panels were replaced with 1970 parts, which is also possible).
I can think of no good reason why such a swap would have been done (before 1982, the dash was unlikely to be cracked, and from what you said, I suppose it's not a rallye dash).
Maybe the original interior color didn't please one owner and he changed the whole interior?
My guess is rather that the front clip, rear clip and rear window were replaced with the first available parts after an accident (SE rear windows, fiberglass filler and their trim are rare as hen's teeth), and that happened to come from a 71 car at the junkyard.

Look under the car for telltale signs of previous collision repairs...

Since you've had it since 1982, it is reasonably likely that you could find one or several broadcast sheets under the rear bench (stuck in the springs), behind or above the glove box, under the carpet, behind the back seat, that would tell you all you need to know about your car (or they may belong to another car).

If I remember correctly, however, there are no broadcast sheets to be found in LA cars.

Your right about the mirror that was a mistake on my part.
It was in pretty bad shape when I got it in 82. (now it is again) I had all the seats recoved except the upper portion of the rear, so the sheet probably wouldn't be there anyway even if it wasn't an l.a. car. I will check though.
I've not seen any signs of a collision, but I'm nothing near a body repair expert so I could be missing something.

Thanks for the help. I'l see if I can remove some paint and rust from the body stamp areas.

Sounds like the dash was fitted from another car. If the pink slip you have for the car matches the dash VIN there is a chance the '71 was a stolen car so be carefull.