Those that know me probably think that I grind my teeth every time I put up a Dylan McCool video. It’s an educated guess, given his selection of Mopars and ability to turn them from derelict shells into running, driving and useable vehicles in a reasonable timeframe. But I don’t hold it against the man. I just had a chat with him at a car show in Tennessee, where I got to meet “Rump”, the pumpkin orange stepside Dodge pickup truck. As we caught up, the subject of another car that has been on his channel came up: the four-door Dodge Aspen that was too nice to scrap but too weird to be entertaining. Oddly enough, the Aspen was one of his better video series this year to date, but ultimately, when parked next to an E-body, the decision to let the Aspen go was pretty much a no-brainer. He gave the four-door F-body to a friend whose 1962 Plymouth got taken out by a guy who was running from the cops, so hopefully the Aspen lives a charmed life from here on out.
Now, about this Challenger. This is the car that has been parked longer than it drove, and it’s got problems. Namely, it’s got a 318 that won’t budge even with a month-long soak of Marvel Mystery Oil and a stunning lack of keys. It’s also got locked-up brakes and enough spiders to put the fear into just about anyone. This is close enough to the South that anything with eight legs should automatically be noted as “unfriendly and venomous”. And just because there was a tiny chance that the missing keys were in there, it’s time to get into the trunk the very hard way. He’s head over heels for this car, so we can’t wait to see how he brings this beauty back to life.
