A friend and I had just picked up a cheap Holley 3310 in a nearby town, coincidentally from another Mopar guy, and decided to stop at the local hobby shop.
When we were leaving a somewhat familiar, gray primered muscle car ass caught my attention from the corner of my eye. It looked like a Mopar, so I drove by.
It was a 1970 Dodge Challenger, grey primer with black primer R/T stripes. I had a stock hood, mashed fender/valance, and rot in the driver's corner. But it was a Challenger!!
The owner sees us checking it out, and comes out to talk. He wanted a Challenger, but not a project that big. It was perfect for me, so I bought it on the spot.
I asked if it was for sale, and he said he wanted the engine out of it, which was a '68 440 Magnum. He had a replacement non-Magnum 440 for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it.
$500
I was ecstatic! Here it was, my unicorn!
Beyond all reasoning, I followed up with "Would you take some off that if we pulled the motor for you?". He took another $100 bucks off, and it was mine.
http://www.waywardgarage.com/