Bigmoparjeff's collection of mostly big Mopars

[bigmoparjeff]

1979 Dodge St.Regis Police

I'm going to say I got this one in 1998. It was originally a Pennsylvania State Trooper car, then went to Halifax Regional Police Department, which is much smaller than the name sounds according to one of our members who lives there. It was in service up until it was traded for a Caprice at a local police car dealer, which is much longer than most police cars ever see. It's in decent shape, but I wouldn't call it a clean car. It has the usual aluminum bumper corrosion. I have an NOS rear, but need a front, as the one on the car is bent. I've managed to find a reasonable number of NOS parts for it, but still need one of the headlamp covers, which I'll probably never find. I wonder if the skull and crossbones sticker was on it while it was in service?

Particulars:
100K miles
360 4bbl
Sure Grip
A/C w/tint
Police stuff
Tilt wheel
Purchase price $2000

1981 Chrysler New Yorker

I bought this at a small used car dealer in Quakertown, PA back in 1997 to replace the piece of crap Merkur XR4Ti that I made the mistake of getting involved with. It was my daily driver until 1999, when I replaced it with a Chevy Suburban. It was then put away in the car barn with the rest. Like most of my cars, it's had some body damage repaired, but I think they were just scrapes on the right doors and left quarter. The interior is in really nice shape, though some of the parts are developing a sticky film. The driving experience is dampened by an annoying engine vibration that feels like some part of the drivetrain is in contact with the body, but it isn't. I installed genuine Chrysler motor and trans mounts, but that didn't help at all. I have to think the engine or torque converter has a balance problem. I found the rare, 1981 only wheels at Carlisle about five years ago. I had missed out on a set at an auction at a Local Dodge dealer that was closing down, and didn't think I would find another. They have the wrong centers, but I like it that way better.


Particulars:
100K miles
318 4bbl
Leather interior
AM/FM/CB radio
Purchase price $1000

An amazing story that goes along with this car is that shortly after buying the car I put a new Delco battery in it. Believe it or not, that battery is still working, and it hasn't had the easiest life either. I've forgotten about it in cars that were put away, and didn't track it down for a year. It's been run down to dead multiple times. The posts have been cleaned so many times that you have to put the terminals on upside down to make good contact. The sides aren't even bulging out like old batteries usually do. There's no way it would pass a load test, but it will still start a car if you don't have to crank it too long.


Well, that's it for now. The first thing that comes to mind is that I will never find the time to fix all these cars, and I know that's true. I hope to really get rolling on them in about ten years, so I'm going to need to stay healthy and live long to have a shot at getting a reasonable number done. But, as you can see, I don't have a huge amount of money wrapped up in these cars. Many of them were cars that no one else wanted at the time, so they were cheap. others were cheap because they're pretty much junk, but sometimes it's the thrill of the chase that's so fun, and it really doesn't matter if the project makes it all the way to the conclusion.

 

[Carmine]

I'm going to need to stay healthy and live long to have a shot at getting a reasonable number done.

I have those thoughts all the time!

A collection I'd be proud to own!

 

[polara71]

1971 Dodge Monaco SW

Now for Dave's favorite.

Although not quite as rare as I once thought it was, it's still a pretty special car. Ordered new by the service manager of a now-defunct local Dodge dealership, this car is loaded up with goodies, or at least it was before the previous owner stripped a bunch of them out. I believe it's only two items short of full-boat: Auto-Temp and rear A/C. Being service manager, he knew not to order the ATC, and he and his wife camped out in the back of the car, so he didn't want the rear A/C unit in the way. The car was restored back in the 1980's and the owner's son worked for 3M. I was told that they ran off a special run of the factory woodgrain and wrote it up as a "sample" for a "prospective customer". He later sold the car to a guy who drove the wheels off of it going back and forth to the west coast. It's supposed to have around 350K miles on it now. The son of the original owner ended up with it, and he took out the engine and trans to put in an A-Body (of course), along with the cruise switch, cassette player, and AM/FM radio. There was a really neat surprise in the back when I got it, an NOS fuel tank! I've got a nice pile of NOS parts and nice western chrome for it. I had to pay dearly for the final tail light assy that I needed, which I found a couple months ago on eBay.

Particulars:
350K miles
440 4bbl
Sure Grip
A/C w/tint
Power windows, locks, and seat
Tilt w/rim blow wheel
Auto Pilot
Rear window washer
50/50 split vinyl seat
AM/FM Stereo
Cassette player
Cornering lamps
Purchase price $200

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1972 Dodge Monaco 4drHT

Pretty on the topside, but scary-ugly underneath. A non-undercoat car that was kept in a damp garage or car port. This car needs a lot of help. Not really a big investment in new parts, but lots of labor to fix the rust. Not sure what will happen with this one, but I really like it and would love to save it.

Particulars:
42K miles
400 2bbl
A/C w/tint
AM radio
Purchase price $450

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Oh my !

The wagon, since ruined by aggression it would be a fun car to restify and do my way ....id have to buy those seats back from Wyatt

 

[barnfind]

Nice collection! Must be some warehouse to keep all those inside. Your yellow 70 wants to live again (its talking) too bad for all those miles, and I just love this one too.

 

[1978 NYB]

Nice fleet!

Seems like your not that far from Maryland. Maybe I'll take a tour if you're offering when it warms up this spring. Have we seen you at Carlisle before? If so....what car did you have there?

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

O.K. Bob 'n Dave. I stopped counting @ 30 'cuz I couldn't stop chuckling and I waz shakin' pretty bad. Carlisle? Hell, This dude qualifies for hiz own row AND CANOPY! If 6 or 8 of us showed up Wednesday and start movin' 'um I'll bet we could each do 2 ah day and have Jeff's whole fleet there before sundown Thursday. What ah party aye? lmfao and count me in, Jer

Nice fleet!

Seems like your not that far from Maryland. Maybe I'll take a tour if you're offering when it warms up this spring. Have we seen you at Carlisle before? If so....what car did you have there?

 

[saforwardlook]

Lots of mopar energy in your soul Jeff.

You make me feel more normal, so thank you for that escapade through the collection. Good way to start the new year.

I refuse to count mine. But Carsten has a good catalog of my cars, although it has been a few months now since I last saw him, so he is already out of date! The main difference between your collection and mine is that I focus on the fuselage cars and forward look cars, and not much else.

Enjoy!

 

[LocuMob]

Wow Jeff, that's some collection! And I love the stories to go with the cars, it's always interesting to see how they come into people's lives. As @detmatt said, a little info on the "car barn"!

 

[1978 NYB]

More like the Jay Leno garage East.

 

[mrfury68]

Very nice collection & the stories to go along with them. Every car has a story. You are doing what a lot of us wish we could do. Thanks for sharing.

 

[fc7_plumcrazy]

28 Full SIze cars are a good amount to start with.
Enjoy !

I had fun reading through it.
As Steve mentioned it feels good to see that there are some more die hard enthusisats out there

Carsten

 

[bigmoparjeff]

Thanks guys for the kind words!

I'm hoping to one day have an ongoing "Jeff's C-Body Garage" thread, where everyone is eager to check in and see good progress being made on the cars as I fix them up.

I'll do a quick story on the car barn for now, and maybe more detail some time in the future, as I have to scan photos, which is a slow process, and I'm not sure how much longer I can stay awake.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

The Car Barn:

As requested, here's a brief overview of the building and evolution of the car barn. The barn is an all steel building, measuring 100'x60'x12'. The manufacturer is escaping me now, but they are based in Atlanta. The quality of the structure was very good, but the panels were 39" wide instead of 36", which made for more work than otherwise necessary. The structure was quite easy to put up and only took two days. The siding and roof panels were difficult because of the insulation. It took a lot of force to compress the insulation enough to get the self-drilling screws to bite into the steel. I couldn't get enough force standing on a ladder, so I had to use the dump truck as a work platform, by standing up on the cab guard. The major drawback to this style of building is the complicated piers required to take the high load caused by the 25ft. spacing of the main supports. Wood poll buildings and Miracle Truss only require simple augered holes in the ground. The foundation proved to be a major project that went way over budget. The building itself was quite affordable at $23,000, of which $4000 was for the insulation. I'm sure prices have gone up quite a bit in the last 20 years. I did manage to the foundation mostly by myself, with some help from the friend who bought the gold '67 Crown Coupe. By then, I had more than enough with concrete, and called in the pros to do the slab. That was 1999, the year it got real hot the week before Memorial day, and never cooled down until Hurricane Floyd hit. My father and some friends helped to assemble the structure on Memorial day weekend, and I did the rest by myself. It was quite brutal working out in the heat on the bright concrete slab, and then up on the metal roof. The only good part was that a drought accompanied the heat and I was able to work just about every day. You can't do the roof panels in the rain, since the insulation has to be rolled out first.

The building was originally intended to be strictly storage for cars and parts, but over time that changed. I could fit in 36 C-Bodies and have a little floor space left over in the one corner. We built a 60x20 wood mezzanine in the back of the building before any cars went inside. I've been loosing parking spots ever since. In 2002 my first RTS bus arrived and I lost two spots for that. In 2005 I went into the used car business and had to turn the front, left section into shop space. Goodby three more spots. Then more equipment for the shop was purchased. Two more spots gone. Then came some pallet racks, and the loss of two more spots. I've also added two more mezzanines, one that hangs from the roof on one end, and one that sits on legs. It's quite an operation when the time comes to move things around and most of the cars have to come out. They're in quite tight, and it takes care not to damage anything. I should probably do a more detailed report some day, as I learned some expensive lessons on this project that could be helpful to anyone contemplating purchasing a building.

These photos are in an album with the plastic sheet over them, so they may not be the best quality.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

 

[bigmoparjeff]

 

[bigmoparjeff]

Back when I was doing a lot of work in the shop, I would hang up these insulation blankets in the winter to close off the work area so I only had to heat the front section of the building. Unfortunately, the roll up door is not insulated and you can really feel the cold coming off of it. I glued on some bubble insulation, which helps a bit, but it's not close to a proper, insulated door. The bus normally goes in forward, but it had already snowed a lot while it was still outside and I couldn't turn it around. The black blotch in the upper left of the second photo is the underside of a car up on the lift, close to the camera.

The shop does get a bit shallow, once the insulation is in place, but most of the time the car would be on the lift, not nosed into the center.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

 

[saforwardlook]

That brings back memories of when I built my second car storage garage back in 2013. Each of them is also a steel building and getting a permit to build them was a real challenge here in California. The city planners were not going to have any steel building in a residential neighborhood, much less two of them. But I have two houses on side by side lots and together they comprise about an acre of land. Each building is about 70' x 48', which is the largest the city ended up allowing. I would have liked larger ones, but only an act of god would have got that though. As it was, I had to give a presentation to the city council of what I was going to do with them and convince them I would fit in the neighborhood. I also had to have them appear the same as the homes up front, with siding or stucco and composition roofs. I guess the photos of some of my cars did the trick, and the guy from the planning department who had to visit the site and give his initial approval really liked an A100 pickup that I had in my yard at the time and wanted to buy it. I found him a better one to consider though. Without that little miracle, none of this would have ever happened. I like the dimensions of your building much better, but I am just grateful for what I ended up with. Here is just one photo of my second one being built.

 

[LocuMob]

That's tight! That must be fun moving all those cars around. Suddenly, I don't feel bad about the few I have to move around. I do envy your space, though.

 

[bigmoparjeff]

Actually, I really like that silver 73 Fury Jeff from New Jersey. That would be nice to see more pics of.

Sorry Doc, but you'll have to hang in till spring for those. The sun was at a bad angle when I brought it home, so I don't have any good ones, just a few from the Craigslist add. I do have some others that should be of interest to you. These two are gone (sold), but not forgotten: