He wonders why it doesn't sell

[Dr.Jass]

This Challenger has now been listed about a dozen times, never reaching reserve (and rarely topping $15-$18K).

I'm sure the guy doesn't understand why it hasn't sold. It's a 340/4-speed, has nice new paint, there are lots of pictures...

Like this one of the clearly-fake data tag:

"How do you know it's faked?"

Let's have a look:

• First of all, Plum Crazy (C7) was not available after 1971. While one could argue that you could special-order your car any color you wanted, had that been the case here the paint code would've been 999, not FC7. And even with a custom 999 color, you were not likely to get it built with a horribly-mismatched blue interior. Chrysler had rules about that kind of stuff.
• The A57 Rallye Package is not present on the data tag, though the car is clearly built as a Rallye. If the Rallye stuff was an owner addition, the data tag should show the Rallye cluster (J97), or at least the tach (N85). It shows neither.
• The SPD is 119 (January 19th) which is very close to the 122 of my old '73. Somehow, though, when compared to my old car, the sequence number is nearly 267,000 higher while the order number is about 250,000 lower than my old car. Mind you, they were built at the same plant (as were all E-bodies in '73).
• We'll give them a pass on the radio's missing FM band the data tag indicates it should have.
• Where are the L25 fender-mount turn signal indicators?
• Another option indicated yet missing is dual chrome sport mirrors (G37).

So, what else can we find in all those pretty pictures?

Well, the tail panel is body color but the taillamps are black, meaning both are wrong:

Similarly, the header panel is painted black. It would only be black on a black car, and in that case it would be gloss:

Rear bumper filler strips? Just go ahead 'n' leave 'em off. Early cars (1970-'72) didn't have 'em (note: early cars had the bumpers tucked close to the body via different brackets). The bumper or its brackets appear bent, since the leading edge of the bumper should match the contour in the quarter panel:

You're going to need to change either the leaf springs or frame rails:

Playskool's "My Furst Eksost Sistim" learning toy:
(No, the chains aren't touching it--shown in other auction photos)

Pablo Picasso's "Console on Black Carpet" cubist masterpiece:
(There's so much room for adjustment in those console brackets you almost have to try to fuck up welding them for results this bad... also, nice job on the carpet installation to the left of the console, and I had no idea the carpet went over the chrome boot bezel!

1970 upholstery (and "we quit using those in early '72" hard plastic backs) on the bucket seats with the 1973 pattern and grains on the rear bench:

"Find Your Own Goddamned"™ door-panel inserts (notice the bonus self-tappers along bottom edge of the panel!):

Trim from two different Rallye clusters framing a speedometer installed at an angle (I have no idea how they managed that one):

I think you'll agree: The rear bumper's upward bend is nicely offset by the front's downward deformation:

The dash frame and glove box door are painted purple?! No. Bad dog... go lay by your dish!

I guess he wasn't paying attention to what it's supposed to look like, clearly shown almost five whole feet away:

You can save a whopping $15 on your E-body, er, restoration by completely ignoring the frame and putting the decal right on the dash pad:

Sadly, I've seen this "trick" on other cars. Just grind a "hex" onto a hardware-store rivet and nobody will ever know it's not an original rosette-head part! Never mind that it's not semi-gloss black. Also, always be sure to drill your original rivets from the front so you scar the hell out of the VIN tag. Sure, grinding them off from the back is just as fast, but it seems so difficult:

After running out of paint, more C7 seemed just too expensive so they used GM spatter paint and black because they once saw a restored Impala that looked like that.

In 1973, the UAW's "Teach Your Kid to Weld At Work" day was a rousing success:
(Bonus points added for securing the car with a hook on an easily-torn pinchweld)

I've seen a five-year-old align magnets on a fridge better than this:

Not far south of there check out the enormous bucktooth created by not only using the wrong-year license bracket, but also installing it incorrectly to boot. Just because the holes align doesn't mean you aren't screwing it up, Timmy.

There's more, I just got tired of nitpicking.

The sad part is that to someone with Mopar fever, this initially looks like a nice car. At the bid amount reached when I started posting this (in the mid-$9000 range), you'd be nearly upside down on this car by the time you fixed everything. But how could you? Do you try to match the obviously-fake data tag? What's worse is that while I was posting, the bidding jumped to over $25,000--far in excess of this car's actual value--likely through shill bids.

Mind you, one can never make this car "right" because there's no evidence to support anything about this car except the 340 engine.

And guys like @RUSTY Cuda struggle to sell better cars for a fair price. The world gets more stupid every day.

Here's the rub: I have a fake data tag for my own Challenger, one that's so preposterous even a complete moron could figure out that it's a joke. The bottom line literally reads: E55 D21 JH23 G4B 106444. If you can't tell that the first two codes are for "340" and "4-speed" immediately followed by a legit 318 VIN, you should limit your vintage Chrysler purchases to maybe $10,000 because you're going to get burned. Regardless, there are other obvious hints on it to clue in even the most casual observer. Truth be known, that data tag makes me smile so much I probably wouldn't let it go with the car were I ever forced to sell.

 

[b-body-bob]

Given that logo on the photos, it's a dealer, and if so they know exactly what they've got and why it's hard to sell but are hoping for a sucker.

 

[b-body-bob]

On the topic of fake fender tags, I planned to have one of these stamped out for my A12, but never made it that far.

 

[restoman]

Something about the right side sheet metal looks off...
The left rear quarter, too.

 

[Dr.Jass]

On the topic of fake fender tags, I planned to have one of these stamped out for my A12, but never made it that far.

View attachment 22755

The guy that did mine--and it's very convincing--had a great sense of humor about what I was trying to accomplish. He thought my tag was hysterical, moreso after I pointed out options that weren't even available on E-bodies, then I threw in the code for "Body in White" (literally a bare shell with no VIN or options). At the top right of my tag, the last two codes are "CTD" (contnued on 2nd tag) and END (there is no second tag). There is a second tag, though. That one says "TRANS AM" because I have a complete T/A top end, hood, filter base, etc. and because I think it's funny on a '74 model.

Something about the right side sheet metal looks off...
The left rear quarter, too.

Now that I look at it, the main character line on both quarters looks too straight behind the wheelwell, and too parallel to the decklid break line. Maybe I'm imagining things, but it also looks too sharp, almost like filler sanded to a point rather than a stamped contour. It could just be weird reflections from the terrible setting and lighting.

The data tag is just laughable, if for all the wrong reasons. "I'm going to order this car now, in August, but hold off on adding it to the production schedule until at least January. When you do schedule it, make the actual production date* as late as possible... I dunno, say, June or July so I've got a balls-high sequence number!"

* No Chrysler product was ever built on the date stamped into the data tag. That's the date the car was added to the production schedule. "Scheduled Production Date" literally means "the date on which we put this VIN on the production schedule". The only place the actual production date appeared was on the bottom of the window sticker.

 

[restoman]

The guy that did mine--and it's very convincing--had a great sense of humor about what I was trying to accomplish. He thought my tag was hysterical, moreso after I pointed out options that weren't even available on E-bodies, then I threw in the code for "Body in White" (literally a bare shell with no VIN or options). At the top right of my tag, the last two codes are "CTD" (contnued on 2nd tag) and END (there is no second tag). There is a second tag, though. That one says "TRANS AM" because I have a complete T/A top end, hood, filter base, etc. and because I think it's funny on a '74 model.


Now that I look at it, the main character line on both quarters looks too straight behind the wheelwell, and too parallel to the decklid break line. Maybe I'm imagining things, but it also looks too sharp, almost like filler sanded to a point rather than a stamped contour. It could just be weird reflections from the terrible setting and lighting.

The data tag is just laughable, if for all the wrong reasons. "I'm going to order this car now, in August, but hold off on adding it to the production schedule until at least January. When you do schedule it, make the actual production date* as late as possible... I dunno, say, June or July so I've got a balls-high sequence number!"

* No Chrysler product was ever built on the date stamped into the data tag. That's the date the car was added to the production schedule. "Scheduled Production Date" literally means "the date on which we put this VIN on the production schedule". The only place the actual production date appeared was on the bottom of the window sticker.

Yup, but I was looking more at the panel alignment... it's horrific.
Fender, door and quarter... I'd be suspecting some serious work underneath the paint. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but at least try to make it look un-touched. To do otherwise, like here, suggests some serious hackery.

 

[69.5CUDA]

actualy the more you look the more body lines you see totaly out of whack..like the hood up on the driver down on the pass and back a full 1/2 inch

as much as i HATE e-bodys i will always have a little soft spot for the 73 or was it 74? chally i had for a while..with the argetn nose n tail, swapped the hood to that same hood..which is NOT easy to look over on that long nose, factory console auto white seat black gut, med? brown metalic with the chins and the side gills strangely enough with a white top...and as much as i dug over the car back in 93? it had never been wrecked or touched yes i swapped the hood, eventuialy it got painted AMC G4 plum metalic moulin rouge?..all i remember is it was a STUNNING color darker and deeper than panther pink with so much glitter and the white top made it "pop" in a good subtle way that the black tops dont..even had its wire hubcaps...it was a beautifull car and fun to "cruise" but no fun to drive hard...rode more like a caddiliac than a muscle car

 

[Dr.Jass]

It's up to $25,300, only $200 more than last Wednesday. That tells me he's trying to keep interest up while making sure his shill bidders avoid hitting the reserve.

 

[Dr.Jass]

It didn't sell, but it's once again back on eBay, now with new photos showing all the same issues. He's added multiple undercar shots with the car on a hoist, too. One of them shows the bottom of the K-member, looking for all the world like it was patched together by a blind tweaker doing the work for his next rock. They probably hope you won't notice the welding with all those bends in it.

It's kind of astounding that the third bidder rocketed the price from $6,500 to $39,000 in one fell swoop, don't you think? Generally these cars just creep up $500-$1,000 at a time. Just think, with a near-$40K buy-in and $15K or more worth of work, he'll have a $20,000 car with a fake data tag and no build sheet! I'm kidding, of course... we all know it's a shill bidder and the car won't sell, then reappear in a month or three.