Ted writes: My brother Ed and I are Mopar nuts and both have Mopar wagons. (See Ed and Ted's '62 Plymouth wagon, The WARPIG). We used to live in Southern California and had a shop there building drag cars and some resto/modified Mopars as well.
We now are back in Michigan where we are from originally and love it, except the older 60's cars are all gone or rusted beyond help!
We were looking on ebay for wagons and spotted this odd 1964 dodge wagon (no engine) that claimed to be a 383 2bbl, 4 speed. It was on a "buy it now" for a high price of $3500.00 I think and because it was in California the shipping would have made the price too high for us.
A few months later we saw it again -- and this time the Dodge was at a "buy it now" for
the crazy low price of $750.00!
I immediately called the guy and he said the car was
documented by Galen Govier and is a true 4 speed car.
The Dodge also has NO rust anywhere.
The engine was gone but the owner had the old style 4 speed for the car, which he asked if we could trade for and he keep it. I agreed as I wanted the newer style drive shaft anyway, so he kept it. Unfortunately he lied and didn't keep his end of the deal on the transmission trade and won't answer the emails about it. He kept the transmission but I got nothing back for it? Not the way I do business and I hope one day he will make good on it.
Anyway, back to the Dodge. The Mopar has so many spares it is full to the roof. The inside has extra quarters, windows, dash, bumpers, three grills, etc., etc. I have not even had a place to put the car inside yet to see what all is packed in the wagon yet!
The reason the body is white is because that is the original color. The interior was blue. The guy on ebay said he parted a red wagon and put the sheetmetal on since it was straighter. The extra red dash etc. is in the
car.
The car was originally owned by N.A.S.A. in California and was on the Naval base. I don't have a clue why a 4 speed was ordered with a 383 2 bbl.
We have decided to run a mild 440 with the small Procharger for street use and a 4 speed transmission with a 3.09 low first gear. The wagon will have a 3.55 rear gear and 275-60-15 tires. We plan on painting the wagon its original white color.
The wagon will be a street/strip car with no cutting and no cage. We plan to keep the wagon in close enough shape to go back to all stock. The Dodge will be a nice sleeper.
Good find Ted!
Shiftin' gears in a Procharged big block 4 speed wagon sounds like fun!
