In 2010, while visiting a local car shop, the shop owner told me about a guy with a bunch of cars that were going to be for sale soon. We’ve all heard various stories over the years, and some of us have even had the chance to chase these alleged cars to no avail, me being one of them.
Getting a name and number, I called the guy with all the cars and learned quickly that he was about 6-hours away, high up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. At first, this made me a little hesitant, but then I figured, “no risk, no reward.” So, a couple of weeks later I made the trip with money in my pockets and a trailer in tow.
When we eventually reached this guy’s place, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The small piece of property behind the house had 30 different model Mopars just sitting there waiting for some love. Come to find out, this guy worked in the print shop for the local Denver newspaper back in the day. He would see the classified ads for these cars way before they ever went into print. So, you guessed it, he’d buy a lot of these cars before anybody else ever had a chance.
When I eventually left that day, I had one 1969 Dodge Superbee in tow. Painted T3- Bronze with a black vinyl top and a Saddle Brown interior, it had a 383 big block, 4-speed manual transmission, and bucket seats for $3,000 dollars. I couldn’t believe it; the effort had paid off.
Hard to believe that was 14 years ago. The car is currently stripped to bare metal and I am installing a weld-in chassis-stiffening kit with sub frame connectors, a Tremec 5-speed, a stroked 440, and a Dana 60 rear end. Eventually, it will be painted back to the original color.
By Chris Ochs
