Written by Rich McNeely, Freshman at Ohio State U., Private Pilot

When I was in 8th grade, my father and I were cruising along one night and saw an old Dart sitting in front of this run-down home. Well, we were avid Mopar fans so we stopped. It was a green 1971 four-door Dart. It had a 225 with 57K miles. The body was fairly rough, but the interior was flawless. The dash had no cracks and the seats even still had those original clear plastic covers on them. There was this big hump on the floor right in front of the driver's seat though. The owner told us a very heavy man owned it before him and had worn out the floor board. Of course, with me being dumb and happy with the idea of getting a car, I asked what the asking price was. He was asking $400. My dad and I stepped away for a second to speak. My father told me that if I didn't buy it, he was going to. I stepped back to the man and offered him $300. He jumped at the offer and I told him that I would be back the next day. So here I was, 13 years old with my first car and none of my life savings left.

We brought the car home and I began to do little things to it, like washing it every day. That is about the only thing I could afford to do to it. Upon happening to look underneath where that hump was in the floor, I found that I could break pieces of the cross members off with my bare hand. After talking to many people, I found that this was a common problem with Darts. Since my father had basically talked me into buying the car, he decided he would make it right. So we began looking for another Dart on which I could use the parts off my current Dart to make it nice. After what seemed like an eternity, actually about 13 months, my father came home from work and told me to stop watching TV and let the dog out. I accused him of just wanting me to get up so he could sit in the recliner, but I got up anyway. I went to let the dog out, and to my surprise, there was a yellow, 1972 Swinger sitting in the driveway. I went out and looked it over. I was hoping for a 340, but the 225 was enough to make me happy. Besides, it only had 43,000 miles on it.

Since then I have done a lot of work to the car. It includes the following items NEW: carburetor, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, distributor, fuel pump, radiator, thermostat, heater core, carpet, upholstery, bumpers, grille, radio, paint, vinyl top, wheels, brakes, power steering pump, power steering gearbox, exhaust, and leafsprings.

I now have 71,000 miles on it and love the car. My ex-girlfriend became upset with me one day when I told her the truth. She asked me if it came down to her or the Dart, which would I keep? I had to tell her that she would be out the door.


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