THE STORY OF MY MOPAR!




I bought my ‘67 Plymouth Belvedere in December 1996 from a friend of mine name Todd Laffoon. At first I was driving a ‘78 Chrysler Cordoba with a 360 so that was my first Mopar at the time and he says to me, "you wanna buy my Plymouth from me?" Being that he just had spun a rod bearing and could not afford to fix it so I said, "yes, that would be so cool." I new very little about these Mopar’s.

So I made him payments as he was so kind to let me do that. It was funny too at the time, I was making 7.00 an hour at some reenforced thermal plastics plant operatin an extruder maching, so trying to make it with my gas guzzling Mopar was hard. I got laid off from that job waiting on a ramp position with Southwest Airlines and my Plymouth started to breakdown in various places. Concerning the motor etc. Battery went, alternator went, thermotoilet (LOL) quit working, then the brakes went on the car, and finally the transmission and power steering. So yes, it was a basket case when I got it. But the motor in it was freshly rebuilt with a 500 inch lift cam and lifters.

As time went on, I got the car going finally and around 1998 I was in a show-n-shine with about 20-25 other Mopars and I see this older man and a friend of his and they were both in the age bracket of late 50’s early 60’s. They had been walking around my car for like 20 minutes and I started to notice. So I thought I’d better go over there and see what’s up. As I can see they are sticking their heads in my car and almost wanting in it. Which isn’t really a problem for me but just struck my paradigm a little.

I ask them, like my car huh? And the older man says, yes I do. This was my car a long time ago. I was like, oh really? And he says, I bought this car brand-new in Fallon, Nevada back in 1968. I was like "no way you’re serious?" He could tell by the door panels and the difference in the texture of the front bench seat. I asked him what his name was and he told me and then all of a sudden I remembered I had a large old beat up manilla envelope in the glove box with past information on the car and who owned it. So I pull it out and sure enough, this was the guy who bought my car the very first!! He told me he drove that car across the midwest several times on business and he said when he drove off the Dodge dealer lot in 1968 he burned the tires down the main street for the car dealers that were looking on seeing this brand-new ‘67 Plymouth Belvedere go away.

He said he owned the car for 15 years and then sold it to a married couple back in 1982 in Carson City, Nv. So, one day my friend who I bought the car from Todd, hangs overhead doors for a living and one day he is hanging a door for an elderly lady in Carson City, and he sees in her backyard this Plymouth sitting there with weeds growing up the sides of the car. So she asks the lady, "are you selling that car back there at all?" And she says to him, I wish I could but my husband doesn’t want to. Sorry.

So six months goes by and it was time for my friend Todd to go service her overhead door as part of the warranty. He gets there and the Plymouth is still there, weeds around it, some snow on it, just sitting there in the elements. So he asks her again, "Ma'am do want to sell that Plmouth back there yet? So she says to my friend Todd, "stay right here I will be right back" She comes back with the keys to the Plymouth and the title and signs it over to Todd saying, "here my friend, I want it out of my backyard and my husband will have to live with it. You can take it out of here for free." The lady says, 'some- thing is wrong with the engine but not sure what it is.'

So my friend Todd gets a flatbed trailer he borrow from a friend and tows it home. Then the car sat for another 6 years as this is 1991 when he got it from her. He said the car just had no oil in it and needed a tune up really bad. So as this pans out, I am the 4th owner of this Belvedere and I have met the first and third owners and then there’s me. Never met the 2nd owners. But I am glad the Lord has blessed me with this car. I have really brought this car out of it’s painful past of neglect. The motor is strong, it rides nice, and turns heads all over. I even almost sold it 3 years ago but glad I didn’t. I will eventually clone this to a GTX. I have the original manual to the car. What a blessing it is from Jesus!!!
SCOTT