The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I was going through some old car show photos of my car and found an old shot from a car show in Phoenix, spring of 1990. In the background you can barely see a faded, gold colored convertible Challenger.

I remember this car because the owner had documents that said it was the Original car used in the TV show "The Mod Squad". The car looked rough and unrestored. It was terribly faded but still had a gold color to it.

What was really interesting though was the fact that it had a 1970 front end (grille assembly) and a 1971 back end (tail light assembly) or vice versa, I can't remember now. My faded memory seems to remember the "board" that was in front of the car saying this car was specially built around 1970 - 71, and it was actually made with parts for both a 70 and 71.

Does anyone else have more information on this mystery car?? I'm not sure if it is still in the Phoenix area, I've watched for it but never saw it again...

John

Well, I've just done some digging, and my memory is as bad as I thought (so much for getting old and grey!). The car was actually a 1971 RT Convertible, red in color. It sure was faded and it "looks" gold in my old photo. An article I found says there were actually two 1971 convertibles and they were "modified" with 1972 parts, which is probably the headlight or tail light "switch" that I remember.

My photo doesn't do it justice, or I'd post it here. I'll search some more and see if I can find an internet photo.

Seems like Hollywood took a lot of liberties with "show" cars.... a la "Nash Bridges" bogus Hemi Cuda convertibles. So perhaps these Challengers weren't originally built this way.

John

WAIT!! Maybe I was right!! Here is a picture of one of them restored, and it IS gold colored!! Convertible, 1972....of which there was none...

http://www.challengertalk.com/forums/f1 ... ndex4.html

John

You were so quick in answering your own questions I didn't get a chance to tell you it was a 1971 convertible made to look like a '72 model because Chrysler wanted them to have their latest model in the show but the script called for a convertible.

Thanks Dave r, I've been doing research on it all day since I saw the old photo. You are right, Chrysler wanted the latest model in the series in 1972, so the 71 convertible "became" a 72! Cool! But, the real question is, I wonder where that car is now. I haven't seen it since 1990. I wonder if it is that restored car in the photo on that other site??...??

John

Mopar_Magic wrote:But, the real question is, I wonder where that car is now. I haven't seen it since 1990. I wonder if it is that restored car in the photo on that other site??...??

Both of Challenger's used on Mod Squad were for sale on eBay couple years ago. Too bad that text portions of ads weren't pasted to forum, but pics are there. http://challenger.mpoli.fi/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7335

There were more than a few 71's converted to 72's. There was a green one at the Nats a year or two ago. I also saw an old post on another site of a blue one. If you looked at the gold car in the link...you can see that it has the 70-71 side markers on it. The green one might have been from the show Manix. Now that I think about it...the Manix car might have been a Cuda. I remember reading an article on it where they bondoed over the fender "gills." There might have been a Challenger convert on the Brady Bunch too.

Hi John,

Not too long ago I read an article on the Mod Squad Challengers and you're right. They were 71's with 72 front ends on them. The gold one I saw in the article had been restored and still wore the 72 front end. I'm sure there were several of them since they always destroy them during shooting but at least one of them survived. I think the article I saw was in one of the Mopar magazines but I can't find it at the moment. If I locate it I'll let ya know.

Manix drove a Cuda convertible.

They also used one on the show Medical Center. I saw it for sale a few years ago. It was kind of an aqua color.

I also think there may have been one in the show Julia.