READER RIDES
SLICK CHARGER AND A PILOT
Brian Johnson is a retired retail manager – ex-Woolworths – who bought this 1977 Chrysler Valiant Charger in 1992. “That means I’ve had it 25 years!” he says with a disbelieving shake of his head.
Like so many other now-valuable Aussie cars, this Charger was just another second-handy when Brian bought it… it was at that 15-year, almost-worthless point in every car’s life where it could have been bought to be run into the ground as a cheap P-plate or railway station runner… Or snapped up by an enthusiast as a bargain-priced keeper.
“At the time I was planning to retire and wanted a project – something I could do a small amount of work on,” he continues. “It was advertised in a local paper, the Maitland Mercury; I saw it one lunch-time so I rang and arranged to see it. I took my son with me so he could drive home just in case it was good enough to buy – and it was. It was advertised for $2300… I offered $1900 for it”
As Brian tells, the car was in reasonably good shape for a 15-year-old Charger with only a little work required.
“It had just been driven down from Darwin, the Top End” says Brian. “It had only been back in NSW for a week when I bought it. Even now, it still has a sticker from Katherine Radiators in the engine bay.”
However, good as it was, Brian’s car carried one horrible hangover from a previous owner: A sickly slick of yellow paint over every piece of factory shiny stuff – the trims, chrome and even the original old-school classic jelly-bean alloys.
“It was hideous!” says Brian. “There was absolutely no chrome on it anywhere – it had all been painted, as was the fashion back in the day. Thankfully, I took the bumpers and everything off and it all came off OK with paint stripper; everything was in good shape under that paint!
“The next job was to fix the shock absorbers and after that, I did the brakes,” he says. “Apart from that, I’ve done next to nothing mechanically in the 25 years I’ve owned it.”
Brain has driven the Charger for about 45,000 of the 180,000km showing on its odometer. He’s a member of the Newcastle