It is TB. John seems a very nice & genuine guy. He's obviously used to working on open cheque-book projects, but has taken our pocket money car in. We were starting to think no-one would help us with it. We've had it for 10 months now & in that time haven't found anyone who could sort the front end out.
Taz sold her beloved BMW coupe to fund this. The Charger cost us £6,000, though we didn't know it was accident damaged when we bought it -ain't Ebay a wonderful thing. We're trying to trace it's history back & discover just when the front end damage occurred. Doesn't really matter now, but we're just curious. We suspect it may actually have been driven in this state for a while.
We've spent a couple of grand on new body panels, shipped in from New Jersey, plus parts bought & bartered from various mates over here. Just this morning we've found a replacement pair of exterior door handles as we were missing one. Taz has joined the Mopar Muscle Association & the guys there have been very supportive & helpful, partly I suspect because she's the only female owner/driver in their ranks. Also because it'll be one more Mopar back on the roads where it belongs rather than on the scrapheap where it would've eventually ended up.
John at JC Restorations has quoted us something like 3 1/2 grand to sort the front end out, which is over 80 hours work for his team. Sounds a lot of money, but we can't do anything else until it's done. That should be the last major expense, (ha, ha, ha, ha, harrr!!!). Then it's down to us, with help volunteered by some of the MMA guys, to piece back together the cardboard boxes full of parts we have.
With John's straightening work, we've reached the end of Taz's BMW money, so it truly becomes a budget build, working with just our weekly wages.
Since taking it on, we've done the rounds of all the custom & restoration companies, almost all of whom told us we were mad to even think of doing it, & advising us to scrap it & buy another running car. Which just makes us more determined to prove them wrong & get it road worthy again. Yes, we could buy another Mopar for what we paid for this one & be out cruising in it this Summer, but we've seen so many now that look great on the surface but are actually not much better than ours underneath, that we'd rather get ours fixed & know we've got a good solid car that will hopefully last
another 40 years. When it's done we'll know every single nut & bolt of this beastie & will enjoy it more knowing it was our perserverance & skinned knuckles that ressurected it.
