Nick Sciortino of Tucson, Arizona, always dreamed of finding a Mopar musclecar, so one day while driving home from the doctor's office he decided to take a side road. Lucky for him, because while driving down that road, he saw a car's roof line peeking over a piece of lattice in a back yard. Nick drove around the block to see if he could make out exactly what the old car was from another angle without disturbing the neighbors. From his best viewpoint, he could see taillights and enough details to make him think the car was possibly a Plymouth.
Then a man came out of his house and asked what Nick was he was up to.
Calmly, Nick asked, "Is that car for sale?"
The gentleman said the car was his neighbor's. So Nick knocked on the neighbor's door and asked the owner if the car was for sale.
"How did you see it?" the man asked.
"I just happened to see it." he replied.
The man explained he had parked that car there for more than 20 years and not one person had ever stopped. Nick recalls the conversation went like this:
"No, it's not for sale. I bought it brand-new."
"Is there any way I can just look at it?"
"Well, I'm kind of busy right now."
At this point, the owner's wife saved the day. She jumped in and said, "Why don't you just show it to him?"
According to Nick, "We went around the corner, and my jaw dropped. It was just sitting there. I couldn't believe it. It's not like it was sitting in a shed or a barn with a car cover or a tarp over it or anything. It was just sitting there."
Nick, a long-time Mopar enthusiast, tried to read the VIN, but the windshield was too dirty. He crawled under the back of the car and noticed a Dana rearend, a good sign. The inside was covered with sheets.
Nick asked him, "So, how does it run with the automatic?"
The owner said, "this is a four-speed."
The man opened the door and moved the sheet out of the way to expose a PistolGrip. The Arizona sun had ravaged the interior, but it was complete.
The bad news was the man didn't want to sell the car. He even asked Nick if he knew how rare the car was. The owner said, "See me in six months, maybe I'll sell." Nick knew if he saw the car, someone else could too. Nick left, but after a few phone calls the owner agreed to sell Nick the car.
Nick's plan is to clean the car up, put some seat covers and a vinyl roof on it, and take it to a show as a Survivor. There's no rust. It has some dents. Everything is still on the car- the muffler clamps, the tailpipes, everything is all-original, even the date tag on the Dana is still there.
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