I was originally a stock car racer / demolition derby driver, (I hear the boos and hisses already) and yes I killed a lot of old Mopars that I wish I would have kept now.  But I have turned over a new leaf and have found the joys of restoring old cars instead of stripping them down and killing them.  I bought my 1968 Dodge Monaco Station Wagon for $200 out of a Woodinville junk yard with the full intentions of throwing it in the ring and smashing it.  They guy in the junk yard told me the transmission was shot and the engine was going bad.  After dragging it home, I got to looking at the car in general and noticed that the body was perfectly straight, the interior was in great shape, and all the gauges and lights seemed to work.  So, just being curious I poured the black paint substance out of the transmission and replaced it with good fluid and gave the engine a tune up.  The old 383 roared to life and I ended up putting another 30,000 miles on the old work horse.  When I figured out the car was in too nice of shape to smash, I decided to put a class three hitch on the back and use it as a pull vehicle for my derby cars.  The more I drove the car, the more I liked the car.  Then I started keeping all the good stuff off of all the old cars I had and started playing with the old wagon…and the rest is history.

     I always thought I would restore a charger or a barracuda, I never thought I would restore a station wagon.  But the deeper I get into this old car, the more proud of it I become.  Finding original parts for a 1968 station wagon has proved to be damn near impossible.  Most of them have gone to Mopar heaven already and nobody makes after market parts for these old “C” bodies.  I ended up just hot rodding the old wagon with lots of parts it never had coming from the factory.  The 383 has been replaced by a 440 with a 284/484 RV cam and 9.5 compression.  I also had a 727 transmission built specifically for towing.  Behind all that is a 323 sure grip rear end.  With the all new drive train I turned the odometer back to 0000, and let me tell you, with out the right tools, NEVER do this!!  It took me three days of hair pulling, beating my head against the work bench and a whole lot of luck to get those clips back in.  I will never attempt this again myself!! (But I am glad I did it this time…LOL).  The bucket seats are out of a 1995 Toyota Celica and I have taken out the column shifter and put in a B&M floor shifter.  I had new leaf springs made for the back end and the cargo area has all been rhino lined for carrying tools and car parts.  There are many other things I have done to this car and many more I have planned, but first and foremost this IS a work vehicle and always will be.  I never intended this thing to be a show car, but I do like to make it look as good as I can.  I consider this car my “learner” vehicle. I have made many mistakes in fixing this car up, and if you look closely you will see them, but I have learned from my mistakes and when it comes time to put my 1965 Imperial on the rotisserie I will do the job right in making that car a show car.

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