why are people STILL building General Lee's? [Archive]

twosaturns

07-22-2010, 06:58 AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1969-Dodge-Charger-General-Lee-Baddest-planet-/130410139696?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item1e5d0cd030

on any given day you can find dozens of these things on ebay; WHY?!? how many does the world really need to have?
I DO remember the show, and I'm of the generation who you would think would try to relive it (I'm 40) but enough is enough!
do mopar fans think the gen'ral was the pinnacle of the charger?
or do people really have no taste at all? some of these 'conversions' are really bad, and they make such a big deal over the 'correct' CB and mag wheels.
lastly, I am so surprised there are any '68-'70 chargers left at all.
sorry, rant off.

CamaroAJ

07-22-2010, 07:03 AM

the south will rise again and they want to be ready for it?

BonzoHansen

07-22-2010, 07:14 AM

bridges to jump, people to see

DocJr

07-22-2010, 07:15 AM

LONG LIVE THE GENERAL!!

....I agree with ya.:banghead:

Vegas69

07-22-2010, 07:15 AM

Waaaah

Rhino

07-22-2010, 07:27 AM

You mean the roof flag wasn't a factory option???

fletcherscustoms

07-22-2010, 07:29 AM

I thought about adding one of those decal kits to my 70 camaro!! sure to get some attention

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

406 Q-ship

07-22-2010, 07:30 AM

You mean the roof flag wasn't a factory option???

The welded doors had to be an option.......right???

Tony_SS

07-22-2010, 07:43 AM

hBlNNlSgxxE

twosaturns

07-22-2010, 07:49 AM

thanks Tony, I especially appreciate the details at the :25 and :30 marks.

Pro Stock

07-22-2010, 08:14 AM

I would prefer a David Hasselhoff drivin the "Kit" Firebird along with his Baywatch babes, or My Mother The Car, long live Jerry Van Dyke!!

Dale

DocJr

07-22-2010, 08:25 AM

Waylon Forever!

Mr.VENGEANCE

07-22-2010, 08:31 AM

just by meeting you Chad i knew you would want to do that..

ahaha

MrQuick

07-22-2010, 08:50 AM

the Lee is a huge auto icon. People just love it. With the advent of Nick at night, online TV show sites and other stations showing re-runs of classic shows that have cars as a focal point we can expect new car enthusiast building cars they idolize. Its a good thing.

At least they aren't sitting at home playing World of Warcraft all frickin day.

Havent you ever had an urge to build something to make you happy?

reminds me, I saw a re creation of the "Gamer" truck cruising down 880 last week.
Vince

-The Stig-

07-22-2010, 09:27 AM

reminds me, I saw a re creation of the "Gamer" truck cruising down 880 last week.
Vince

I thought that thing looked kinda neat... whatever car they used to record the 'sound' for it sounded healthy.

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93Polo

07-22-2010, 09:38 AM

bridges to jump, people to see
You can do that in a Black 2nd gen TA......

oestek

07-22-2010, 11:00 AM

I wonder if Wopat's knees are still screwed up from sliding over that hood.

latamud

07-22-2010, 11:09 AM

What about Kitt from Knightrider, Eleanor, Starsky and Hutch, A-Team?

twosaturns

07-22-2010, 11:12 AM

I wonder if Wopat's knees are still screwed up from sliding over that hood.
I wonder if Catherine's knees are still dirty from... oh, never mind...

Zanie

07-22-2010, 11:25 AM

People should stop ruining chargers for that.
There's plenty of Vans, though.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/07/22114871P1010019-1.jpg

Actually we need more mystery machines!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/07/scooby3mysterymachine-1.jpg
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https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/07/3900132999_f8c4a9ef3d-1.jpg

ZuperZport

07-22-2010, 11:31 AM

lastly, I am so surprised there are any '68-'70 chargers left at all.
sorry, rant off.

Here is an article regarding the General Lee that was in TV Guide back in 1982.

So sad I remember reading this when I was 12.:hammer:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/lee/hazard.html

twosaturns

07-22-2010, 12:34 PM

Here is an article regarding the General Lee that was in TV Guide back in 1982.

So sad I remember reading this when I was 12.:hammer:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/lee/hazard.html
good find. funny how that was written in '82, talking about 85,000 '69 chargers being built (and I know they used some '68 and '70's also) it's still amazing, even 28 years after that, with how many have been wrecked or rusted away that there still seem like lots of them around.

novaderrik

07-22-2010, 08:32 PM

hmm i just got an idea for a theme for my new beater Camaro...
what would be the exact opposite of the General Lee?
General Grant?
what is the opposite color as orange?
light blue?
i could paint a civil war era US flag on the hood- i can't put it on the roof because of the stupid T Tops..

Rhino

07-22-2010, 08:44 PM

novaderrik

07-22-2010, 08:54 PM

yup. that seals it. i'm gonna do it.
i'm gonna have the General Grant Camaro- the paint will be Rustoleum navy blue applied with a roller. i'm almost tempted to get a big vinyl decal done of a 36 star 1865 US flag made to put across the T Tops.. i wonder how much that would cost?

XLexusTech

07-23-2010, 03:28 AM

cause thier still kinda cool

69X22

07-23-2010, 03:40 AM

Waylon Forever!

Amen to that bro.

dadto2jays

07-23-2010, 06:53 AM

People do as people please with their $$$$ I think that sums it it all up.

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Mr.VENGEANCE

07-23-2010, 07:14 AM

oh hell no...

XLexusTech

07-23-2010, 07:25 AM

oh hell no...\

At least its not a Z28 of something down right stupid :smoke:

formula

07-23-2010, 07:40 AM

You can do that in a Black 2nd gen TA......

#2 on the "I can't believe how many people are STILL cloning that" list....

69stang

07-23-2010, 08:10 AM

I'm diggin the General Grant charger. :twothumbs

twosaturns

07-23-2010, 08:32 AM

#2 on the "I can't believe how many people are STILL cloning that" list....
but the bandit T/A is just a regular black and gold T/A, doesn't require a push bar.
but yeah, seems like everybody wants to be the bandit, satin jacket and all...
I'd rather have the late '70s version of Sally Field.

BonzoHansen

07-23-2010, 08:33 AM

Frog!

rrunner68

07-23-2010, 09:19 AM

How about a General Grant Road Runner?

What number would the car have to be?

twosaturns

07-23-2010, 09:43 AM

How about a General Grant Road Runner?

What number would the car have to be?
IIRC (and I am ashamed I remember this) Bo and Luke explained that they went w/ '01' because they started with nothing, and wound up with something.
the '01' has nothing to do w/ gen lee, so a gen Grant could just be '10'; maybe you could make a connection about unifying the nation or something, WTF cares...

rrunner68

07-23-2010, 11:26 AM

Maybe the number of unified states post war?

6'9"Witha69

07-23-2010, 11:31 AM

frog!
lol!

BonzoHansen

07-23-2010, 11:53 AM

lol!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/07/th_Car08_Bird-1.png (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v359/SIBLY/Cars/?action=view&current=Car08_Bird.png)

beep4beep

07-23-2010, 12:21 PM

Just think { be careful with that} every time someone chops up another charger to make a G L .the rest of the original or tastefully modified chargers just become more VALUABLE.

beep4beep

07-23-2010, 12:22 PM

Just think { be careful with that} every time someone chops up another charger to make a G L .the rest of the original or tastefully modified chargers just become more VALUABLE. Randy

Mathius

07-23-2010, 01:07 PM

Fear the General Lee:
2r1WasN5JFQ

Mathius

rrunner68

07-23-2010, 02:01 PM

Fear the General Lee:
2r1WasN5JFQ

Mathius

Effing sweet vid.

68Formula

07-23-2010, 02:36 PM

Here is an article regarding the General Lee that was in TV Guide back in 1982.

So sad I remember reading this when I was 12.:hammer:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/lee/hazard.html

Me too! I was so peeved when I read that, I boycotted the show. Luckily Coy and Vance came around that time, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on much.

Jim Nilsen

07-23-2010, 03:11 PM

Maybe there is something about having to have one before you push up Daisy's ?

You all know it's all about getting the girl with it !

:cheers:

Mr.VENGEANCE

07-23-2010, 03:43 PM

i would figure "general lee" was more country than that to have a voiceovers from reservoir dogs and the like..

Kenova

07-23-2010, 05:22 PM

I'd rather have the late '70s version of Sally Field.
Hell yeah! I know what I'm dreamin' about tonight!
It has been my observation that most of the General Lee owners don't know squat about Mopars, but can bore you to tears with inane trivia about the Dukes and the General.

Ken

Mingus

07-23-2010, 05:52 PM

I do kind of like Kenny Wayne Shepherds' "Xtreme Lee"

http://www.kennywayneshepherd.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=36

The 4x4 one is what they needed to run all over the dirt roads. :)

mikedc

07-24-2010, 01:55 AM

Just think { be careful with that} every time someone chops up another charger to make a G L .the rest of the original or tastefully modified chargers just become more VALUABLE.

A paintjob, some wheels, and a bolted-on pushbar? Umm, not really "chopping up" a car.

The average car buildup on this website probably undergoes a lot more irreversible chopping than the average GL replica.

--------------------------------

As for why people still build GLs -

Why do people build red Camaros? We've all seen plenty of those by now.

Lots of guys are never trying to be "trendy" with their project car in the first place, and that Red Camaro or General Lee is really just what they always wanted.

The modern General lee replicating "trend" perfectly coincided with the time when the grade-school-aged fans of the orignal show all got old enough to have some decent disposable income to afford a car project. That's not a coincidence. The fans were always there, they were just broke teenagers that the old car hobby had been brushing off before.

.

twosaturns

07-24-2010, 05:43 AM

A paintjob, some wheels, and a bolted-on pushbar? Umm, not really "chopping up" a car.

The average car buildup on this website probably undergoes a lot more irreversible chopping than the average GL replica.
As for why people still build GLs -

Why do people build red Camaros? We've all seen plenty of those by now.
Lots of guys are never trying to be "trendy" with their project car in the first place, and that Red Camaro or General Lee is really just what they always wanted.
The modern General lee replicating "trend" perfectly coincided with the time when the grade-school-aged fans of the orignal show all got old enough to have some decent disposable income to afford a car project. That's not a coincidence. The fans were always there, they were just broke teenagers that the old car hobby had been brushing off before.

.
good points, I agree. what I find funny though is how people revere the car, talking about the 'correct' CB, or the 'correct' antenna, etc. the show never really focused on the details, or even said it was a charger IIRC.
but they ARE reversable; I wonder how many people have reversed a GL conversion?

rrstroker71

07-24-2010, 03:01 PM

subtlez28

07-24-2010, 03:40 PM

Just think { be careful with that} every time someone chops up another charger to make a G L .the rest of the original or tastefully modified chargers just become more VALUABLE. Randy

My dad put away my 69 Charger in 1980. He always said whenever Dukes of Hazzard wrecked another charger he would hear "Cha-ching". I quess same goes for replicas.

I will admit I was a huge fan of the Dukes as a kid. Doing the Charger in orange and even blue (General Lee style) crossed my mind at points. Luckily those HORRIBLE new Dukes movies killed that idea!

Oh, and the General Lee trnasformer video was awesome!

novaderrik

07-24-2010, 06:20 PM

I have had several chargers and also have refused to sell them to people to make GL out of. I feel the car has run its course and the remaining Chargers [ which are a great looking car] need to be built either stock, restomod or pro touring. They have destroyed so many cars making that stupid show it is crazy. Redneck mentality. I am a true mopar guy and very much hate the general lee and what it has become.

get over yourself. once you sell a car, you have no control over what happens to it- who's to say that the "good guy" that you sell it to doesn't sell it to someone so they can paint it orange and slide across the hood while they blare the musical horn?

and how is cutting up a car to add all sort of aftermarket suspension pieces and 20" wheels somehow better than some orange paint and flag decals?

as a "true Mopar guy", you have to understand that the orange Charger that you hate so much is almost single handedly responsible for making late 60's Chargers into the collectible cars that they are today, right? until that show came along, they were just another crappy overweight used car that handled like crap and drank gas almost as fast as you could pump it in- and most of them were powered by slant 6 or 318 engines.
that show was also pretty effective at selling Jeeps and making big old Cadillac convertibles cool, too- but i don't know how many 4 door Malibus Chevy sold as a result of every bad guy on every episode driving one of them, or how many people ran out to buy a used white Ford F150 just like the one Uncle Jesse drove...

subtlez28

07-24-2010, 06:39 PM

get over yourself.
as a "true Mopar guy", you have to understand that the orange Charger that you hate so much is almost single handedly responsible for making late 60's Chargers into the collectible cars that they are today, right? until that show came along, they were just another crappy overweight used car that handled like crap and drank gas almost as fast as you could pump it in- and most of them were powered by slant 6 or 318 engines.
Not a lot of slant six chargers made. I searched it because I've never seen one. They did make them, but not many. 318s were pretty common but nearly equal amount were big block cars.
http://www.1969chargerregistry.com/stats.html

Just saying:cheers:

TonyL

07-24-2010, 08:25 PM

well this one gets my approval.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

SimplyKC

07-24-2010, 09:08 PM

duMzwHxTTP8

mikedc

07-24-2010, 11:10 PM

what I find funny though is how people revere the car, talking about the 'correct' CB, or the 'correct' antenna, etc. the show never really focused on the details, or even said it was a charger IIRC.

It's no different than chalkmark-accurate factory restorations at car shows. None of the original Detroit factories focused on how they did their inspection chalkmarks and engine bay/chassis details on the assembly lines either. And yet now I can find heaps of books & magazines devoted to documenting & reproducing those careless offhand decisions the builders made decades ago.

The GL was called a Charger a few times though. Rarely. (And the only time that the model-year of the car was mentioned, it was wrong! A junkyard operator referred to it as a "68 coupe" in the GL's backstory episode.)
Warner Bros published a few bits of official stats on the car in the early 1980s that formally recognized it as a 440/auto 1969 Charger. They didn't specify whether or not it was an original R/T. The GL backstory episode involves the Dukes swapping their own engine into the wrecked hulk of a Charger they bought, so by that logic the fictional GL could be a factory 440 R/T or not.

but they ARE reversable; I wonder how many people have reversed a GL conversion?

The last decade has seen a lot more GL replicas created than un-created, but there have been a fair number of them reversed over the years.

Many of the GLs that were purchased for the 2005 Dukes movie were actually raggedy old GL clones. Including the handful of sacrificial jump cars. (The film crew tore them all down & gave them fresh matching GL uniforms before filming started though.)

--

twosaturns

07-25-2010, 12:53 PM

duMzwHxTTP8
idiots didn't put weight in the trunk. maybe they should have read that '82 TV guide article.

showa

07-25-2010, 01:34 PM

It's spread to the UK....

mikedc

07-26-2010, 09:02 AM

idiots didn't put weight in the trunk. maybe they should have read that '82 TV guide article.

Well, actually, in that case "those idiots" were the same stunt crew from the old TV show. The clip is from 2003, I was there.

The crew didn't have enough time/control of the site to bring in some dirt and smooth out the run-up to the ramp. And then it rained just a few hours before & slicked out the ground. The car ended up bouncing too much on the final run. They would have postponed the jump if they could have. They didn't use full ballast in the trunk that time because they've had problems with the weights flying out on impact in the past. It's not a huge problem on a closed & cleared movie set. But with a live crowd (and no protective fences) that's a different story. Better a flipped car than getting a bunch of spectators killed by flying lead weights.

The car in the video actually still hit the ground right on its intended distance mark, despite the endo.

They got those problems mostly cured on several subsequent live GL jumps in recent years. The only other big flip like this one was in 2005 when they used a Charger unibody that was so rusty the that ballast ripped out of the chassis upon hitting the takeoff ramp.

.

6'9"Witha69

07-26-2010, 09:53 AM

It's spread to the UK....
After seeing the first few episodes of Top Gear this season, seeing that is 10x funnier!!!

PT Sportwagon

07-27-2010, 04:48 PM

some of these 'conversions' are really bad, and they make such a big deal over the 'correct' CB and mag wheels.

Unfortunately I have seen one detail left off most Generals including ones in the show that was on the 1st general in the premier episode. there was confederate racing flags right in front of the CB antenna

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
If it was the opposite shouldn't it be a Road runner not a charger??

People do as people please with their $$$$ I think that sums it it all up.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

Wasn't that poor thing on Ebay not too long ago

Tim

srh3trinity

07-27-2010, 05:25 PM

duMzwHxTTP8
This is why they keep building them. Because people keep wrecking them. I wonder how many Chargers have fallen victim to the show? I think a bigger crime than copying an icon of American Muscle was the movie remake that they put out a few years back.
I will echo what was said earlier about Waylon, love his music and his voiceovers on the show were an integral part of what made it so good.

mikedc

07-28-2010, 01:02 AM

How many musclecars has NASCAR and various other circle-track racing killed in the last few decades?

It's just another form of planned automotive carnage done for a profit. But nobody ever protests this one.

-----------------------------

We'll never know exact numbers on wrecked GLs. One of the main suppliers of cars for the old TV series was caught radically inflating their numbers reported to Warner Bros. (Swapping VINs, fake paperwork, reselling wrecked cars back to the studio, etc.) There are "official" numbers like 229, 309, etc, but those are the inflated stats.

My guess is very roughly, around 150 Chargers dead because of the GL. That's including all live shows & the modern movie. There are a few dozen more surviving Chargers that have served as GLs onscreen that are still basically in one piece.

There are at least twice that many GL replicas out there. At least. About 100 appeared at a single huge Dukes event a couple years ago. If even some of those replicas were restored from really bad hulks (and many of them are) . . .