"I've always wanted one of those" Joe Hernandez told us while we were taking pictures of his black '69 Charger R/T, which you may remember from the August issue ("State of Mind"). The desired car of that particular discussion, however, wasn't his stunning black B-Body in our camera lens that afternoon. He was talking about a "Post Car"--one of Chrysler's '62-'64 intermediates of Max Wedge and Super Stock fame.
Even though the Charger's paint was barely dry, Joe was already planning his next project. When you're a kid, behavior like that usually gets labeled as "attention deficit disorder." Fortunately, as an adult, the term is "enthusiast."
"My wife and daughter really like the Charger," Joe said. Nevertheless, the Charger went on to a new home, and a '63 Dodge 330 Sedan was located by a friend in California--a straight, rust-free car showing 113,000 miles and only three owners, one of them being (jeez, why do these things always come with this cliche?) a little old lady. But we don't think she was from Pasadena.
When Joe got the car, its chrome trim was perfect, and it still carried its original paint and interior, which Joe didn't like at first. "I was going to paint it red, but they're all red or white. The longer I had the car, the more the Beige started to grow on me. So I decided to keep the car and its interior in the original colors. And Beige is such a sleeper color!" While the stock wheels were originally body color with dog dish center caps, Joe reshot them in black after having the rears enlarged to 15x8. The fronts are the stock 14x6 inchers that came on the car. Blackwall 235/70x14 front tires with 275/60x15 Drag Radials on the rear take "plain" to new levels of noticeable.
The interior was put back to stock, including keeping the original bench seat. The only deviations are three auxiliary gauges under the dash and the tach up on top. Of course there's a radio delete plate in the appropriate spot, and Joe retained the typewriter trans controls to the left of the big wheel. Since the car was originally sold in California and now resides in Florida, a heater's never been needed either.
The undercarriage of the beige beauty has been completely gone through. Fresh replacement suspension components have been installed, along with 90/10 front drag shock up front and Mopar Performance Super Stock rear leaf springs, drag shock and a pinion snubber keep the 3.91 Sure Grip-filled 83/4 housing in line. Stock drum brakes were used all around, but since these photos were taken, Joe has swapped the front drums to '73 Challenger disc brakes (manual, of course) and has filled the rear with 4.30 gears.
While the car's originality was maintained throughout the paint and interior, things are anything but gennie under the hood. The original Poly 318 was heaved in favor of a 440 block bored .060 over as the starting point of Joe's dream.
It's been filled with a steel crank and rods reconditioned by Indy Cylinder Heads, with Wiesco flat top slugs swinging off of them. Indy 440-1 aluminum heads were delivered with their full porting job and roller valve train. A Comp Cams roller with .609 lift was installed, and it's topped by an Indy single plane intake that's been completely massaged by Wilson Intake. A Demon 825 race carb topped by an S&B air cleaner feeds the need, while an MSD Pro Billet distributor and 6AL box light it. The stock radiator was replaced with a 4-core unit that's had the automatic trans cooler removed, giving the aluminum water pump and seven-blade fan an additional two inches of cooling area to work with. An external B&M trans cooler was then employed to keep the manual valve body/3800 stall J&W converter-equipped push button trans alive.
The product of the dream, however, was bittersweet. The first time off the trailer, Joe made what he calls "an easy, baby pass" with an 11.70 seconds at 117 miles per hour timeslip as the result. The track officials gave Joe a wake up call, telling him not to come back until he installs a roll cage. "I don't want to, though, because then the interior won't look right anymore. So now I have to play at the local 1/8th mile track," Joe said. The dream is also a bit of a nightmare for the local kids in their newer 5.0 Mustangs and Camaros.
"I'll go down to where the kids cruise on Saturday nights, and they don't know what to think of it. They've never seen anything like it," adding, "This car is so much more fun than the Charger. I'm able to do more with this car. It's all go and a little show, while the Charger was all show. Of course, my wife's still not talking to me."
So is this realization of the dream the signal to wake up? Not hardly. "I'm going to build a '68 Super Stock replica--it's the coolest hood scoop ever. I'll build a car just so I can have the hoodscoop on it!"
Upon reflection, Joe, maybe you could use a prescription for Ritalin.