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MaximRecoil

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  1. "Ugly" doesn't matter with the chassis. The chassis doesn't have a polished fit and finish even when new. You can see all the seams and welds just fine. Solid and straight is what counts with a chassis. We know the car they jumped was solid structurally, or it wouldn't have been a safe stunt car. Also, a Charger doesn't have to have a Roger Gibson-esque restoration to be valuable. A restified car (like what they jumped) is still valuable and makes a good driver. The General Lee itself on the show was always portrayed as a daily driver that was a #3 car at best. Not really. Considering the fanaticism of the guy who set the whole thing up; it doesn't surprise me that another person would be just as much of a fanatic. Hell, he got out of it cheap; he was only out one rough Charger. The other guy was out thirty-plus thousand dollars. It wouldn't exceed the value of the car to restify it to the point that they did for the jump. To do a full restoration? Well, that usually exceeds the value of most any car. People tend to do it for personal satisfaction rather than for any hopes of monetary gain. With all but the rarest and most valuable of cars excepted; trying to make money off doing full restorations (i.e. selling the car after you paid to restore it) is like selling chickens to buy chicken feed. Of course, if you are in the business of being paid to restore someone else's car; you are golden. Any 2nd generation Charger that hasn't been totalled (and especially with a solid chassis) is worth at least $1000, maybe more these days. Last time I checked with Dave Berry (our town's "Cooter") he got about $30 on average when selling a crushed car for scrap metal. That was about 10 years ago; maybe it is a bit more now.
  2. You trying to make things worse? You don't fix a bad casting decision by making the actor/actress appear even more fake than they already are. Leave well enough alone. Natural blonde is better than fake brunette (she has obviously enhanced her blonde status but she is still basically a natural blonde). Of course, the source of the problem lies in the bad casting decision in the first place. Would you cast James Earl Jones to play Rocky Balboa and then tell him to start working out and apply a lot of white makeup to his skin? (blatant exaggeration in analogy for effect only).
  3. That's true. On dirt, driving ability comes more into play more than horse power and of course, that is where the Duke characters shined. Even so; while most people remember only dirt roads in Hazzard, there were plenty of chases on pavement; especially in the Covington episodes. Even on pavement I don't recall the General Lee just leaving anyone in the dust. The same invisible elves that washed their car constantly were the same ones that could repair dents and twisted/bent/busted chassis on the fly, lol. Late 60's Mopar engines were quite underrated. It is hard to draw a comparison from the official numbers themselves. The best way to look at it would be to find some quarter mile times. In general, in stock form, a 2nd generation 440 Charger R/T was a low 14 second car. The Hemi R/T was a high 13 second car. I don't know what the Firebird that you mentioned was capable of. Either way, I already covered my bases here because I said "muscle car" and as we know, the Firebirds/Camaro's were "pony cars", not muscle cars Yeah, your Olds sounds like it was high geared. As far as Boss' Cadillac goes; definitely a highway cruiser with plenty of top end. You can work those cadillac motors over pretty good too but they are better when dropped into a light hotrod than in Boss' behemouth. I would say that a Hemi Charger with 3.23 gears or higher and a 727 Torque-Flite would still have more high end than that Cadillac though. Drop in a race Hemi and suitable cogs and you are going to push near 200 MPH if you think you can keep the rear on the pavement at that speed. It was the '69 Dodge Charger Daytona with a race Hemi (the big wing gave it enough downforce on the rear to remain stable at such speeds), duct taped for aerodynamics, that was the first NASCAR car to top 200 MPH (they did it on the Talladega Speedway). The funny thing about the street Hemi was that there wasn't much separating it from a race Hemi (i.e. it could be easily converted to "race hemi" status; Chrysler even published a parts list back in the day for people wanting to do just that). Higher compression (12.5:1 compression rather than 10.25:1 if memory serves), headers rather than exhaust manifolds and different intake manifolds were the major differences. Also, cast iron heads rather than aluminum heads were used on the street Hemi.
  4. Interesting idea. What they could do without changing the cast (i.e. Burt Reynolds would still be playing the real Jefferson Davis Hogg) but still pay homage to Sorell Booke/original Boss Hogg, would be to have an antique looking portrait on the wall of Booke-as-Hogg but have it stated that it is Thaddeus Hogg (Go West, Young Dukes).
  5. "Twin V6's"? How would that work exactly? BTW, the number of cylinders has nothing to do with how much power a motor can make. You could make a 1,000 horsepower 2 stroke 1 cylinder if you wanted to though it would rumble so violently that it would tear away from any motor mounts instantly. In general, more cylinders = a smoother running engine. Displacement is the major factor along with being able to circulate enough air through the system. More cylinders usually = more displacement but this is due to practicality, not necessity. A 500 cubic inch 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 16 cylinder could all be built if anyone wanted to and they would all have similar power potential. The most powerful internal combustion motors for cars on the planet are hopped up V8's, Hemi's usually. They are in top fuel dragsters and make over 3,000 horse and can do the 1/4 mile in about 4 seconds at over 300 MPH. As far as Cooter's truck keeping up with the General Lee; it seems to me that most everything kept up with the General Lee. I can't think of any scenes offhand where they simply floored the General and left anyone in the dust. Those emissions-era bogged down 360's in the Chrysler B-body cop cars, the random 4 door sedan "Bad Guy's Car", Jesse's 300-6 powered Ford F100's, Daisy's 304 AMC (at best) Jeep, Cooter's various "tonners". Boss Hogg's 472(?) Cadillac -- all seemed to be able to keep up with the General Lee. I would say that it was because it is hard to make an interesting chase scene if the General just leaves everyone in the dust. About Daisy's car (the 1971's in particular); that was the same car as the General Lee for all intents and purposes. The 2nd generation Chargers and the 2nd Generation Road Runners didn't share any outer body panels but they had the same chassis (B-Body) and pretty much the same drivetrain options. They both could be had with a 426 Hemi; the '71 Runner could be had with a 440 6bbl and the '69 Charger could be had with a slightly less powerful 440 4bbl. The 383 was available in both of them but only a 2 bbl version for the '69 Charger and a higher performance 4 bbl version for the '71 Road Runner. Transmission and rearend options were the same on both cars. In 1972 we hit the start of the emissions-era (and no more Hemi) and by '74 it was in full swing. So while identical drivetrains could have been optioned on the '69 Charger and the '71 Road Runner; by '74 (like Daisy's original car was; from the first few episodes); all Mopars; even, all muscle cars, were mere shadows of their former selves. No "muscle car" from '74 could touch a '69 Charger R/T.
  6. Specialty tire stores are a rarity around here and I suspect they are in most any small town. People around here buy tires from the Dexter Exxon station which is a local gas station/garage that has a couple of mechanics employed; or, they buy from Brooks Tire and Auto which is also primarily a garage (they were also a gas station until about 1982) with about 4 mechanics employed. The auto parts store in our town doesn't even sell tires. Another option is to buy used tires from local junkyards; or go to Bangor (our nearest "city") and get them from Sears or something. Not only was it not a smart move but it was completely un-Duke-like. Standard procedure for the Dukes = make a getaway. A hidden car in a limited space (The Duke Farm) is going to be found; period. So what was their plan when the inevitable would happen? Well; they certainly did have a green Charger on hand. You can see it about halfway through the episode before they paint the car; they have their trunk lid open. It is still green on the underside: So they most likely filmed the scenes showing the "repainted" green Charger before they painted that Charger in the screenshot from its original green to the General Lee uniform. The thing is though; there is nothing unusual about that. All of the Chargers they used in that show had their own original color when they acquired them that had to be painted over in order to make them into General Lee's. It was a pretty good stunt but made no sense in the context of this episode. No one was even after them. This was one of the few episodes where they weren't in trouble for anything (other than the tire payment which had been forgotten about as soon as Boss set his sights on the $250,000). And upon conclusion of the show; what good had it done them anyway? They chased the grey car and shot out the tire with an arrow while driving the green Charger. If they had left out the green Charger part of the show; it wouldn't have affected the way the story played out in the least. Novelty factor I guess; because it just doesn't fit into that episode at all. You could splice it into countless other episodes where it would have made sense; just not this one. Your last statement is true; but there are plenty of ways around it. In keeping with the Duke's established characters; they could have at least given chase in whatever vehicle they could round up on short notice; such as the old standby; Cooter's truck. The chase could have been unsuccessful for whatever reason and then they could have cut to the scene at the Duke farm where they come up with a plan. Just standing there and waiting an hour or so before even starting to do something was completely out of character; in a similar manner to the way hiding the General Lee earlier in the episode was so out of character.
  7. I have a couple of questions about this episode. Since when was Boss Hogg in the tire business? You would think that the Dukes would buy their tires from Cooter; even if Boss Hogg did take up selling tires for a day. Or; was it supposed to be implying that the Dukes got a loan from Boss to buy the tires? If so, what did they do? put up the tires that they were about to buy as collateral? That would be the only way they could be repo'd for failure to pay. It was an odd situation (even for the DoH) either way. Why did they have their car hidden under a tarp and hay when Rosco and Boss Hogg arrived? That makes it kind of hard to make a quick getaway; you know, like the kind they have to do unexpectly several time per episode. Also; why did they paint their car green, aside from the producers liking the novelty factor? Bo: "We're in a jam and y'all are taking the time to paint the General..." Luke: "Hey Bo, if the cops pick us up in this thing we're gonna have plenty of time in jail." Say what? The only "jam" I could see was that they couldn't find the grey car. Did I miss something? As far as I could tell; they hadn't even been framed for anything in this episode. Boss Hogg and company spent the entire episode chasing after the grey car/money, not the Dukes. One more thing. Is this the only time in history that someone has driven off (slowly by a drunk I might add) from Hazzard square and the Dukes aren't on their tail in seconds? No vehicle you say? What about Cooter's truck? Always worked for similar situations any other time. Instead they just stand there while a quarter million dollars drives away and don't decide to search for it until hours (?) later. Very strange episode... It was late when I watched it tonight (last time I saw it was about 25 years ago) and I'm headed to bed. I'll watch it again tomorrow to see if I missed something.
  8. At best she is right on par visually with the bimbos of the week that Bo was always hot for. She is about as generic looking as they come. If Simpson had been the original Daisy there would certainly be no difficulty in replacing her today in the movie. Just about any chick from any T&A B-movie or five and dime soap opera would work just fine. Notice all the controversy and difficulty surrounding the task of replacing Catherine Bach? There is a reason for that. Bach had genuine and unique beauty; "one in a million" as they say. She wasn't a cardboard cutout like Jessica Simpson.
  9. Interesting information. A few points: The $30,000+ wasn't for the car alone but for the whole project; which he planned for 2 years; according to the VH1 video. I realize that. A rollcage doesn't do a bit of good if you don't have something solid to tie it to. Chargers are unibody. You talk about how much bondo the car had but obviously the bondo was in trivial areas such as fenders or doors; easily replaceable parts which have little to do with structural integrity. Obviously all the structural areas of the unibody chassis were solid or it would have been a death trap. Would you trust a rollcage that is bolted to bondo? Since the car was structurally solid enough to be a safe, solid platform to mount a 'cage in then it was also a good candidate for restoration/restification. Even if it'd been used as a parts car it would have been far more useful than simply nose diving it into the ground and rolling it. This is a naked Charger: That entire structure needs to be solid if you want any hope of safety from a rollcage.
  10. Where in the blue hell did you come up with that one? Has anyone on this board stated that they wanted someone with "plastic boobs" to play Daisy? Catherine Bach certainly didn't have fake breasts. BTW; Jessica Simpson = ugly as homemade shoes. Chicks that look like her are a dime a dozen; half price on Sundays. She doesn't hold a candle to Catherine Bach in '79.
  11. You'd have to do a lot of upgrading to the car to make it right. You would be better starting off with an R/T or at the very least a 383 car. If we take "base model" literally we are talking a "three on the tree" 3 speed transmission, a 225 c.i. "Leaning Tower of Power" Slant-6, a spindly 8.25" rearend, and inadequate (for such a motor as you want) suspension (torsion bars and rear leaf springs) and brakes. Another upgrade that all original Hemi cars had was; they had the same type of chassis that was used on convertibles; even the normal hard tops. These had box shaped reinforcements in front and in the rear of the leaf springs. These were there on convertibles because they didn't have the benefit of an integral steel roof for structural integrity. They were there on Hemi cars because Chrysler was worried about the torque of the Hemi twisting the chassis. The best Charger to drop a really powerful motor into would be an original Hemi car though these are so valuable that they are pretty much out of the question. The next best thing would a 440 car. No chassis reinforcements but subframe connectors can pretty much make up for that. At least the transmission, suspension and brakes would all be up to snuff; or at least could be rebuilt (in the case of the transmission and the rearend) to be up to snuff whereas that stuff on a base model car would all have to be replaced. Since you want a manual transmission you would want the version of the A-833 4 speed that came in Hemi cars. You would also want the Dana 60 rearend (these came in Hemi cars and some 440 cars). Some 440 cars came with 8.75" rearends and those can be rebuilt to handle the motor you mention. You can get the correct R/T suspension components from Mopar Performance. It would also be good to do a disk brake upgrade to at least the front. Don't forget to upgrade your fuel sending unit to a 3/8" tube either or you won't be able to feed that big motor properly.
  12. Good site. I like this picture: I had forgotten how big those cars were. I checked and the wheelbase was 118.5" on all of the R-bodies. That's nearly as big as a C-body (shortest wheelbase on the C-bodies was 119" all the way up to 124"). No wonder they didn't do so great with a late 70's/early 80's era 360.
  13. That sounds ad hoc to me. According to the video they were trying to replicate jump #1 from the show. The even showed a side by side clip of the jump with the jump #1 from the show. Not much of a replication if you nose dive and roll the car. Besides, most of the landings on the show (including jump #1) were not flat landings; they landed at a forward angle on the nose and front wheels and the rear of the car followed to the ground. BTW; in regard to the "bondo bucket" remark; all cars have bondo in them; from the day they roll off the assembly line. A car can only be properly referred to as a "bondo bucket" when the body filler has been improperly applied; which is generally quite noticeable visually. I doubt that the bodywork on that car that they wrecked was done improperly (i.e. crumpled newspaper, sawdust or duct tape and a tub of bondo to fill gaping rotholes). When you are spending $30,000+ on a project you don't do the bodywork like you are a 16 year old backwoods hick trying to get his car to pass inspection; especially not on a unibody car that is to be used in a high flying stunt (think structural integrity/safety concerns).
  14. Here are some screenshots. In this first one you can see the cartoon Roadrunner logo and even see where it says "Road Runner" underneath it: That was the original car that they used ('73/'74) and I believe it was a car that they picked up at a local used car lot in Covington, GA. That car is pretty much all original with the factory stripe package and the factory Magnum 500 wheels + trim ring. Here are a couple more pictures showing another shot of the Roadrunner logo and a 3/4 angle shot: Here are some shots of the car that they mostly used later on. It is a '71/'72 (that particular car in the screenshot is a '71 based on the side marker lights which are sectioned into thirds; the '72's had ordinary rectangular side marker lights) that has had a replica stripe job done on it and those cheesy generic K-Mart chrome spoke wheels slapped on: As far as the cars go that they used other than the original; there is really no way to tell (that I know of) whether they were Satellites or Roadrunners. The original car from the early episodes however; was definitely a stock Roadrunner.
  15. Do you mean the car that Jesse drove in "Days of Shine and Roses"? That was a '65 Ford Mustang (not positive about the year; '64½-'67 was the year range for that body style I believe). It looks to me liked they reused that car (painted green this time) in "Hazzard Connection" as the crash derby car the Dukes were in with Enos when they lost the brakes. It had the same hubcaps anyway. Boss Hogg's "Grey Ghost Jr." in that same episode was a '68 or '69 Chevrolet Camaro. If you are referring to "Black Tilly" from the "High Octane" episode; see Jeff's post above.
  16. In the first episode Daisy's car was a '73 or '74 Roadrunner with stock/OEM Magnum 500 wheels. John Schneider specifically identifies it as a "Roadrunner" when doing the commentary on episode number 1 on the DVD. Since he is a car enthusiast himself and he was actually there; in my mind that settles whether it was a Roadrunner or a Satellite. After the first episode, more often than not, the 'Runner was a '71 or '72 with the wraparound loop bumper (I think that in at least one episode the car switches back and forth between a '71/'72 and a '73/'74 several times during the same chase scene). They also ditched the nice Magnum 500's and put a set of cheesy J.C. Whitney-style chrome spoke steel wheels on it; the kind that are available in white, black or chrome and were very popular on pickup trucks and cars alike in the 80's (you still see them today; I doubt the damnable things will ever go away).
  17. Anyone know anything about the brown mid-70's Camaro or Firebird that is seen so often as a background car just putting around Hazzard square? It is in many, many episodes but I don't think it is ever a featured car; always just a passerby car. I always figured it probably belonged to a crew member or something. Has anyone else ever noticed this car?
  18. I just came across this on a Sledge Hammer! forum while looking for information about these cars: An interesting note on the 1979-81 St Regis: apparently they were so bad as police cars (top speed 95mph without a light bar), police departments couldn't get rid of them fast enough. Most of them seemed to end up at movie studios. If you watch early 80s action shows (like the A-Team). you'll see TONS of old St. Regis'es and Plymouth Fury's get trashed. I seriously doubt there are many left out there. I did see a Plymouth version on the streets a couple years ago though..so depending on where you live you may be able to find one. I wonder how accurate that is? I know that they were ill-fated but if they had a 360 4v they couldn't have been that bad. I realize that it was in the prime of the bogged down emissions era but still...
  19. Are you all familiar with the term "Jump the Shark"? I wasn't until I came across this site, so here it is: "It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it jumping the shark." The term comes from an episode of the Happy Days when "The Fonz" literally jumped a shark on water skis...or something. Anyway, the page for the DoH where people vote and comment on when they believe the DoH "jumped the shark" is here. There are a ton of comments and it is a pretty entertaining read. Some of the comments will no doubt irritate DoH fans because of the ignorance in regard to the show that is displayed. So did the DoH "jump the shark"? If so; when?
  20. Small correction on what I typed. They actually made that R-body Dodge St. Regis twin Gran Fury for 2 years, '80 and '81; rather than just in 1980 like I was thinking before I had the discussion on the other thread with Jeff - http://mywebpages.comcast.net/Plyfury/81gf.htm Anyway, the rest of it is correct according to allpar.com and various other sources I have since checked to make sure my memory wasn't failing me, lol.
  21. LOL. That was the most obvious car switching scene I have seen on the Dukes of Hazzard; namely because the Monaco and Polara don't even share any body panels, like the difference between a Roadrunner and a Charger. The second most obvious was in the episode where Daisy's Roadrunner goes over the cliff (if I remember right), in a chase scene, the car switches back and forth between a '71 or '72 (the ones with the cool loop bumper) and a '73 or '74 (the ones with the regular bumper and boring grill). Then of course you had the scenes where the General Lee would change from a '69 to a '68 made to look like a '69; noticeable on the cars that they didn't bother to remove and fill the side marker lights/reflectors. Jesse's truck was constantly switching back and forth between a 6 foot and an 8 foot bed as well. That was one I could never figure out. Why switch the trucks? Jesse's truck was rarely used in stunts that could damage it. Come to think of it, Daisy's car was rarely damaged either, until they totalled it for good.
  22. I just watched the video. He spent upwards of $30,000 and spent two years planning the jump. He even had the original stunt driver from episode #1 that jumped Lee #1. I saw the motor mounted behind the seat. What was up with that? I think he should have stuck with what is known to work; i.e. leave the motor where it is supposed to be and load the truck with weight. That's how they did it on the show and their Lee #1 jump was actually successful. Seeing that does give you more respect for all of those successful jumps they did on the show, especially that "world record" (according to Ben Jones) jump over the ravine that is in the opening credits (from episode #13). They did that one successfully twice, once for the General and once for the cop car. They didn't plan for 2 years or spend $30K+ either. I knew it wasn't easy but damn...
  23. They made about 89,000 Chargers in '69. About 20,000 of those were R/T's (XS29) and about 69,000 were regular Chargers (XP29). That is nice info when discussing the original series, since they were a lot closer to the original production dates than we are now. Who knows how many are around these days? These ones that they destroy doing jumps or whatever are usually built for the purpose which means they started with a derelict Charger. Every time they do that it is one less Charger that can be had for cheap with the intent of restoring it yourself. It is also one less source of parts. All of this drives the prices up. A lot of people (myself included) are not interested in buying a car that someone else with unknown talent using unknown parts and unknown methods restored or refurbished; for an inflated price like what you tend to find in the trader magazines. I have mixed feelings about the new movie for that very reason. I will watch it and I have a feeling it will be quite entertaining but there goes 30 or so more Chargers down the drain. I doubt there are even 30 '69 Chargers in a 200 mile radius of where I live. Hell, there is probably less than 100 of them in my entire state.
  24. I've had just about enough of that damnable car, lol. I'm still not real pleased with the front end but I don't know what else to do with it. The rear part of the car looks better though IMO.
  25. That's some good information. This has got me wanting a clone of Sledge Hammer's St. Regis, bullet holes and all, LOL. That car he had was probably a police package car; at least it has the right wheels, tires and vented dog dish 'caps. I remember one episode of that show where his car was stolen by a local high school gang. He ended up making friends with them by the end of the episode and they returned his car to him but they fixed it up first. He looked at it and said that something wasn't right. Then he took his .44 and shot the bullet holes back in it and his partner, Dori Doreau kicked the fender to put the dent back in, LOL. You're right, especially about the idling part. A pre-emissions era 440 Magnum could actually beat a Hemi off the line; up to about 70 MPH or so. Was the '68 Satellite available with a 440? The late 60's Roadrunners weren't. They were only available with 383 or a Hemi. The GTX of the same vintage however (also a Roadrunner twin) was available with the 440 "Super Commando" (as well as a Hemi; but no 383 option), Plymouth's version of Dodge's 440 "Magnum". A '68 Satellite police package even with a 383 would have still been a screaming car, since it was the 383 Roadrunner motor (not the more mundane 2 bbl 383's that came in Chargers) though not painted and marked as such. 383 Roadrunners were pretty much the best bang for the buck back then, regardless of the manufacturer.
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