{"id":32066,"date":"2019-12-15T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=32066"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:51","slug":"searching-for-muscle-car-clues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/heritage\/2019\/12\/searching-for-muscle-car-clues.html","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Muscle Car Clues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like archeologists combing over\na mummified tomb of a deceased pharaoh in an Egyptian pyramid, paleontologists digging\nup fossils of a long-extinct dinosaur in the Baja desert, or military scientists\nlooking for clues about the Battle of the Somme by sifting dirt from a World War I trench in France, the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Vintage Certification Team digs deep into a\nmuscle car\u2019s soul. They might be examining steel, aluminum, rubber and vinyl\non an old Dodge or Plymouth, but they\u2019re in search of the same goals \u2013 accuracy\nand authenticity. They want to unearth the hidden clues found on vintage high-performance\nMopar machines. It\u2019s sort of like a forensic investigation on a car\u2019s DNA to\nmake sure it wasn\u2019t altered during its lifetime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These vehicles might have\nbeen mass-produced on a moving assembly line with workers counting down the\nminutes until the whistle blew, but rarity and value on \u201cmiddle-class muscle\ncars\u201d has steadily increased. Who knew\nthe cars a generation ago that drove hard with no mercy in all sorts of weather would\none day equate to the value of one\u2019s 401K savings? Not all muscle cars survived\ntheir owner\u2019s inflicted abuse and the few that have are instant collector pieces.\nMany have been restored and originality wiped clean for fresh paint and\nreproduction parts. Still, investors, collectors and buyers head in droves to\nBarrett-Jackson and Mecum auctions and throw down millions of dollars to relive\ntheir youth or flip in six months hoping to pocket a nice profit. The money and\ngreed has created a somewhat seedy market of bogus cars being sold as something\nthey\u2019re really not. Think of a fake painting by Van Gogh or Renoir being\nauctioned off at Sotheby\u2019s or Christie\u2019s. The art world would be in an uproar,\nthe critics would foam at the mouth, and the dubious seller and forger would\nforever be banished to Devil’s Island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same can be said in the vintage\ncar world where every now and then, somebody tries to disguise a car and make\nit something it never was when it rolled off the line. There\u2019s always heated\ndebates among \u201cexperts\u201d and the smart cookies can spot a VIN-swapped vehicle in\na New York minute. The more \u201cprovenance\u201d a collector car has, such as its\nnumber-matching engine and transmission, the more desirable it is. Reams of\npaperwork also help to seal the deal. Remember, everyone who\u2019s a player knows\nall the collectors and constantly has their foot soldiers on the ground\npeeking in garages, warehouses and even fields looking for that\ndiamond-in-the-rough. Originality only comes once in a lifetime, but when\ndealing with 50-plus-year-old cars that have been passed around like a bad\npenny, things rarely remain unchanged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Documentation and education\nare the best tools to not only weed out the fakes, but to also educate the folks\nin the car hobby. At the recent Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals\n(MCACN)<\/a>, we had a chance to hang out with the Vintage\nCertification Team and look over their shoulders as they went about\nauthenticating a 1971 HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Dodge Challenger R\/T, a 1969 \u00bd Plymouth Road Runner\n440 Six Barrel A12 car and a 1964 HEMI Plymouth Belvedere. The three-man Mopar\nteam includes Scott Jay Smith, Frank Badalson and Dave Inglesby. In reality,\nthere are no leaders, captains or hierarchy. Each member has their unique\nskill sets in what to look for when investigating the genuine article. Between\nthe three of them, there\u2019s tons of knowledge in certifying and documenting\nvintage Challengers, Chargers, Super Bees, Road Runners, \u2018Cudas and just about\nany other Mopar muscle car built between 1962 to 1974. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes, they\u2019re 100% original; sometimes,\nthey\u2019ve had partial work done to them; sometimes, there\u2019s even deterioration,\u201d\nsaid Smith, who\u2019s been in the Mopar restoration hobby for over 30 years. \u201cThe\nMopar Vintage Certification Team looks at cars in their original state before they\u2019re\nrestored or modified. This is important as we capture vital details relevant to\nhow these cars were built and document those findings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Mopar Vintage\nCertification Team sets up certain parameters and levels in authenticating a\ncar\u2019s originality. There are five areas of a vehicle the judges look at, including\npaint\/glass, interior, engine, trunk and suspension. The highest level is\ncalled \u201cTime Capsule\u201d and a vehicle must retain 95 percent of its original\nequipment in all five judging areas. The next level is \u201cLegend\u201d and there must\nbe 85-percent originality, while \u201cHeritage\u201d meets 85-perecent originality in\nfour of the five judging areas. Beyond “Heritage” is the \u201cLegacy\u201d level that requires\nthree of the five areas to score 85-percent originality. Finally, \u201cReference\u201d\nis awarded to any car that has any five judging areas that meet 85-percent originality.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Mopar Vintage Certification Teams attend\nmany shows, but the Muscle Car and Corvette National is one of\nour favorites. We ask folks who want us to look at the cars not to touch or\neven clean them up. These efforts, big or small, could potentially destroy the\nthings we\u2019re trying to see and learn from, such as chalk marks and paint daubs\nthat are easily washed off with household cleaners and a hose. So, we ask\nowners to bring their cars as is and\ndon\u2019t do anything to them. Like I tell them, “Don\u2019t scrub away history,\u201d\ncommented Scott. \u201cWe\u2019re sort of detectives and, actually, two of our members,\nFrank Badalson and Dave Inglesby, are police detectives that have\nbeen taught by the FBI on solving cases,\u201d smiled Scott. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tools of the team\ninclude cell phone cameras, flashlights and pencil rubbings of VIN\/sequence\nnumbers found on the engine block and transmission. All three judges check each\nother\u2019s notes, and if there\u2019s disagreement, the judges will hash it out before\npresenting their findings to the vehicle owners. The Mopar Vintage\nCertification Team have to be purists as the car\u2019s history is at stake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The goal among these die-hards is to learn as much as they can from the original cars before the owner decides he wants it restored. They might be beautiful to look at and even enjoyed when completed, but they can only be original once. As the cars age, so do their owners. And even though the Mopar collector car hobby has been going strong for well over 30 years, many enthusiasts think the best has already been shown, but that\u2019s not case. Shows like MCACN are still the perfect backdrop for iconic muscle cars to get revealed upon their discovery in a barn or after its full-blown restoration. These are the many things that bring thousands of gearheads looking for a high-octane fix in the middle of November to Chicago. But even among the Mopar lovers, they all have their unique passions and interests. For those seeking to check out original, survivor muscle cars, and learn how these things were built, the MCACN event is their destination.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe word \u2018always\u2019 is a rare\nword in our hobby,\u201d exclaimed Scott. \u201cYou\u2019ll get caught eventually. There\u2019s\nmany differences and variability on these cars due to where they were assembled\nand the vendors supply parts into the plants. So, \u2018always\u2019 doesn\u2019t apply all\nthe time when documenting and restoring these cars.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott and his team of archeologists\nare on a unique mission. They\u2019re not chasing dinosaur bones, but something that\u2019s\nalso extinct: big-block, multi-carburetor muscle cars. If there\u2019s history to be\nwritten about the horsepower wars of the 1960s and early 1970s, the Mopar\nVintage Certification Team will write it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Scott says, \u201cWe\u2019re not\njudging cars, we\u2019re documenting and preserving history!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like archeologists combing over a mummified tomb of a deceased pharaoh in an Egyptian pyramid, paleontologists digging up fossils of a long-extinct dinosaur in the Baja desert, or military scientists looking for clues about the Battle of the Somme by sifting dirt from a World War I trench in France, the Mopar\u00ae Vintage Certification Team digs deep into a muscle car\u2019s soul. They might be examining steel, aluminum, rubber and vinyl on an old Dodge or Plymouth, but they\u2019re in search of the same goals \u2013 accuracy and authenticity. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":32184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2622],"tags":[2948,2949],"class_list":["post-32066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heritage","tag-dodge-classics","tag-plymouth-classics"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/feature-5.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32066"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32193,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32066\/revisions\/32193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}