Hodson’s Dodge DW300 Is an Art Masterpiece!

Over the last several years, the father and son team of Derrick and Riley Hodson of Las Vegas’ Hodson Motors have become synonymous with creating functional works of art from formerly ignored and often abused classic workhorse truck foundations. Combining body parts from light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks and blending them in such a way that is easily overlooked as stock by the casual observer, the team have developed a formula that has proven hard to beat. Their latest is a 1968 Dodge W300 Crew Cab that has taken their build style and pushed it to a whole new level.

Instead of starting from scratch on this project, the Hodson’s started with a partially finished project that the former owner had already invested a considerable amount of time and effort into, creating a solid drivetrain as the foundation to build off of. Starting with a rare 1968 Dodge W200 ¾ ton Crew Cab truck, the former owner installed an early Superduty Dana 60/ Sterling 10.5 axle combo slung on the same era Superduty leaf spring suspension, utilizing custom mounts front and rear. Under the hood he installed a tried and true 5.9L 12 valve Cummins mated to an NV4500 and a divorced NP205 transfer case. It was at this point that Riley purchased the project.

History Of The Dodge Charger: A Quick Look

Many muscle cars of the 1960’s all share a very similar story. While this decade is commonly referred to as the golden era of these fast, flexing street machines, there was a literal war between the companies designing and subsequently serving these cars as hot as possible to feed the market’s insatiable need for speed. 

The Dodge Charger wasn’t the first of these cars types to emerge from the drawing board. In fact, its very existence came in hopes to steal a share of the muscle market from General Motors and Ford, which had already achieved huge success on the streets with the 1964 release of the Pontiac GTO and Ford Mustang respectively. The younger audience that was buying these cars was hopped up on adrenaline, constantly scanning the horizon looking for the next big hit. In 1966, Dodge was there to enter a new horse in the race. 

The Charger came out sprinting to catch up to the frontrunners with four different V-8 engine offerings, one of which was the much-anticipated 426 Street Hemi mill. While the Dodge Charger displayed a strong initial showing during its first year of production, a slower-selling 1967 prompted the company to act fast. What happened next was an alteration to their approach in hopes to remain a viable competitor to the industry’s leading performance models. 

Little did Dodge know the impact said changes would make for the Charger’s second-generation success. At first glance, everyone who laid eyes on the car’s fresh redesign knew right away something big was about to happen. The sleek Coke bottle shape and integrated rear spoiler made the car look fast and capable before the key was even turned. Even today, the ’68-’70 Charger (namely the ’69) remains one of the most recognizable silhouettes in automotive history, as it has been forever immortalized with its multiple big screen appearances. 

…The sleek Coke bottle shape and integrated rear spoiler made the car look fast and capable before the key was even turned…

Backing up the Charger’s aggressively updated appearance, Dodge designated four big block V-8 powertrain options available for the coupe. The mild, entry-level 145-hp 3.7L I-6 was enough to make new-to-market drivers happy, but for the more wild at heart, two big V-8 engines were lying in wait to exponentially make things far more interesting. Buyers had a hell of a decision to make when starting at the 7.0L Hemi or the 7.2L Magnum power plants, but there was surely no losing with either selection. 

The third generation of the Charger received a second package redesign that was right on par with the looks of many other vehicles of the 1970s (think overly curvy), but lacking a longer lasting appeal that the previous gen had going for it. It was during this time that the Charger tells a shared tale of woes of other performance vehicles in the industry. Increasingly rising insurance premiums and gasoline prices proved to be major threats to the muscle car species as a whole. If that lethal combo wasn’t enough to take them out, the upcoming federal emissions regulations was sure to be certain death for their kind. 

Thankfully for Dodge, the Charger was still able to eek out some semblance of an existence until the end of the 1978 model year when it was taken out of production. Before the plug was pulled on it, the Charger had somehow appeared in the personal luxury car category. For the first time in the car’s history, performance output was not placed at center stage, and to be honest, neither was its styling with regards to today’s standards. The writing was definitely on the wall for the struggling Charger. 

…Increasingly rising insurance premiums and gasoline prices proved to be major threats to the muscle car species as a whole…

After the release of a Charger R/T concept car in 1999, which received good enough reviews, there weren’t any more whispers of the sleeping giant’s name in public again until 2005 when Dodge legitimately rereleased the car as a 2006 model year. The first question on everybody’s mind was quickly answered with authority—yes, this car was worth the wait! 

Even though there was some grumbling from a small sect of Charger ultra purists, the sedan version didn’t look bad—not at all. Even those who had something to say about the car’s extra two doors remained quiet when learning about the Charger’s top-end 6.1L Hemi V-8 SRT8 model—425 ponies and 420lbs-ft of torque will do that. 

A major overhaul came in 2011 for the Charger, which notably included aggressively restyled bodywork and a 6.4L Hemi-equipped SRT model. The car continued to evolve with the introduction of the SRT Hellcat model four years later. The Charger claimed a lot of bragging rights under this badging with the inclusion of a supercharged 707hp 6.2L Hemi attached to an 8-speed paddle-shifted ZF auto transmission. Yeah, those are big numbers, especially for a five-passenger sedan.

 It’s safe to say that 56 years after its inaugural release, there’s never been a more exciting time to own a Dodge Charger. 

Building the Schwab Challenger

Like the company that gave it life, the Dodge Challenger has had a checkered history. The first generation, built from 1970 to 1974 is now regarded as an appreciating classic. The mid-term 1978 to ’83 Mitsubishi Galant Lambda for want of a Dodge badge is possibly best forgotten. However, the new generation introduced in 2008 lives up to Dodge’s original.

For many of us the Challenger that most quickly comes to mind is the Alpine White 1970 R/T 440 Magnum that appeared in the 1971 movie Vanishing Point starring Barry Newman. Newman played Vietnam Vet turned car delivery jockey Kowalski who is tasked with delivering the car from Denver, Colorado, to San Francisco in 15 hours. For the next 98 minutes, Kowalski is pursued and persecuted along the 1,250-mile route until he can’t stand in anymore and nose-dives the Challenger into a police roadblock comprising a pair of bulldozers.

The ending is a Thelma and Louise moment that leaves the average viewer contemplating life but leaves car people wondering what happened to the car. In fact, there were four, possibly five cars loaned to the production company by Chrysler. All were badly damaged during filming and all were apparently crushed at the end of production. If you’re into ‘Americana’ and car chase movies in particular, Vanishing Point directed by Richard C. Sarafian is worth the time.

Chrysler were apparently not happy about Kowalski’s use of bennies to keep awake and one has to say Vanishing Point didn’t do them much good as sales tanked from a high of 76,935 in 1970, the year it intro’d, to a mere 26,299 in 1971.  It was worse in 1972 at 22,919, up a tad to 27,930 for 1973 and a scant 11,354 for 1974. It didn’t help that new safety regulations and the Oil Crises of 1973 were forcing muscle cars off the road. Nevertheless, the movie did as much for the Challenger as Bullitt did for the Mustang and it remains one of the quintessential, genuine muscle cars.

No wonder then that banking group Charles Schwab would pick a ’73 Challenger to give away as a prize at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge at the PGA Tour stop at Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas. There’s a rationale for the prize: “Charles Schwab has been ‘challenging the status quo’ in its industry since 1973. The Colonial has ‘challenged’ some of the world’s best golfers for 73 years. Hence, the event selecting a 1973 Dodge Challenger to reward its winner.” This is the first of a four-year sponsorship of the event at Colonial for Charles Schwab. Hopefully, that means more giveaway cars of this caliber.

To build the car, Schwab turned to industry veterans Steve Strope of Pure Vision Design and Mick Jenkins of Mick’s Paint. Strope found the car in excellent condition in New York before it was taken to his shop in Simi Valley, California, where the car was stripped down to bare metal and fitted with a new Mopar 6.4L SRT-8 392 crate Hemi producing 485 hp. In back of the engine is a Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite automatic trans with Gear Vendors overdrive. Out back is an 8-3/4-inch Chrysler rear end with 3.55 gears.

[the Challenger] was stripped down to bare metal and fitted with a Mopar 6.4L SRT-8 392 crate Hemi producing 485 hp.

To make this Challenger stand out from the crowd a new 73 Magum 440 hood with twin scoops and the letters SCHWAB replacing DODGE was fitted while Kelly Cox hand-formed that beautiful polished aluminum side trim that accentuates the Aston Martin-style vents let into the front fenders. The other subtle changes include the use of early 1970-’71 bumper brackets, ’71 Challenger TA spoilers front and rear and the replacement of the stock rectangular side markers with small round units from the ’68 Dodge Charger.

Meanwhile, underneath, AlterKtion suspension components from ReillyMotorsports.com replaced the stock factory torsion bars with a coil-over system and the stock steering with rack-and-pinion. The brakes are 14-inch Baer 6s with nickel-plated 6-piston calipers while the rims are B-Forged items from BilletSpecialties.com: 18 x 8s in front and 19 x 10s in back.

After all the engineering was complete, the car was shipped out to Mick’s Paint in Pomona, California, where Mick’s team worked around the clock to meet the deadline.  Once the car had been painted in Aston Martin Glacier Blue it went on to GabesCustom.com, where the diamond-stitched white leather upholstery was jazzed up with the exact same plaid used in the signature tartan Colonial jackets. The interior includes climate control by VintageAir.com, instruments from DakotaDigital.com and a sound system from Kicker.com. 

From there it was back to Mick’s for final fit and finish before it was back to Pure Vision for final assembly. All in a total time of six months. According to Strope, “Mick’s Paint makes us look good and I’m over the moon in appreciation of his team getting it done on time.”

The car was won by professional golfer Kevin Na who immediately turned and flipped the keys to his caddy and long time friend Kenny Harms saying, “I don’t know how my caddie convinced me to give him the car, but he’s a good salesman I guess. But I’m more than happy to give it to him. He deserves it.” Kenny had been eyeing the car all weekend and the pair had a pact that if Na won Kenny got the car. Na took the remaining $1.314 million.

It remains to be seen whether a custom Challenger with the name SCHWAB instead of the name DODGE can retain its value but you can’t deny the car’s excellence. Whatever the outcome, the Dodge Challenger remains one of the high points of the muscle car era whether it’s restored, rodded or raced.

It remains to be seen whether a custom Challenger with the name SCHWAB instead of the name DODGE can retain its value but you can’t deny the car’s excellence.

’71 Dodge Dart Demon Pro Touring Restomod

As far back as their July 1989 issue—that’s 30 years—HOT ROD Magazine has been saying to its readers: “Dare To Be Different”, meaning look outside the box and don’t keep modifying the same old cars. Well, the car builders took notice and over the past three decades, builders have modified everything from AMC Gremlins to Jeep Wagoneers and to great effect.

One car that you might never think about modifying is the 1971 Dodge Dart Demon—heck, you might never have even seen or heard of a Dodge Dart Demon. The Demon came about because in 1970 sister group Chrysler-Plymouth had the Valiant Duster, a uni-body two-door coupe built on the A-body platform. With sales topping a quarter-million units, Dodge wanted a slice of the pie and got the Demon complete with small but controversial devil decals that were soon axed.

The Demon was to be called the Beaver but for obvious reasons, that name was also option delete. Basically, it was a Dodge Duster with Dart front sheet metal and a few other minor differences. Badge engineering it might have been but under the optional black hood with scoops, you could get the 5.6L 340 ci V8.

The Demon was to be called the Beaver but for obvious reasons, that name was also option delete.

The 340-equipped Demons could accelerate zero-to-60 mph in under 8 seconds. That’s not too shabby for a car almost 50 years old, but what if we took the age-old approach to performance and dropped in a bigger motor?

Incidentally, for those who don’t know, back in the day, Norm Krause, a.k.a. Mr. Norm was running Grand Spaulding Dodge on the northwest side of Chicago. By 1966, they were the largest dealer of high-performance Dodges in the country building hot rod Dodges when the factory couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver. One of Grand Spaulding’s notable efforts was the ’71 GSS Dart to which this car is a tribute.

“Just drop in a bigger motor,” was the instruction owner Bill Sefton gave to builder Mike Staveski of Restomod World in Hudson, Florida. No-need-to-be-told-twice Mike, well-known for his mad Mopar builds and the first to drop a Viper V-10 into a ’70 Challenger, dropped in a new Gen III 6.1L SRT8-derived HEMI that is a little different.

“I was so impressed, I eventually bought the company and this restomod Demon is a fitting tribute to the original ’71 GSS Dart.”Bill Sefton

It’s topped off with an Imagine Injection Six Pack system (three two-barrel throttle bodies) with a FAST Engine Management System and an original 1971 cast-aluminum GSS Tri-Power air cleaner. The rest of the drivetrain includes a Tremec five-speed manual box with a Hurst shifter and a Moser-built Dana 60 rear end.

To enable the Demon to handle like a modern car, Staveski installed a complete, fully adjustable suspension system with anodized-aluminum coilovers from AFCO Racing ably assisted with Wilwood 12.88-inch four-piston brakes. The wheel and tire combination comprises 19- and 20-inch Modern Muscle Pentastar forged split-rims and Pirelli P Zero Rosso tires: 225/40R19 in the front and 330/30R20 out back.

Like the exterior, the interior was likewise updated but not overstated. Corvette C5 bucket seats were re-upholstered in Year-One materials to afford more lateral support, power windows were fitted, as was Vintage Air air conditioning and a custom ’68 Dart instrument cluster by Red Line Graphics complete with push-button start and remote entry. Finally, a Sony stereo system was installed with a five-channel full-range/subwoofer with two 12-inch Xplod woofers installed in the trunk.

According to owner Sefton, “Mr. Norm’s was one of my regular destinations as a young man growing up in Chicago. I was so impressed, I eventually bought the company and this restomod Demon is a fitting tribute to the original ’71 GSS Dart.”

Challenging ’69 Charger

J. P. Miller’s Restoration of His 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Super Track Pack

We’re always told about stories of people who finally get their hero car and it often turns out to be so much work it gets abandoned. For J. P. Miller, he knew he had something special once this 1969 Dodge Charger R/T arrived, but it wasn’t ready for anything close to street duty when it did.

“It was a barn find out of Moscow, Idaho,” J. P. Miller began his recollection of when he first heard about this 1969 Charger. “A friend of mine and father of my Goddaughter, who also would end up doing the paintwork, found it in a ‘Penny Saver’ magazine in Spokane, Washington.”

J. P., like a lot of us, was a huge fan of the “Dukes of Hazzard” and its hero car Charger and often seen as a character itself, General Lee. His friend knew he was looking for a 1969 model to match it as J. P. wanted to build a General Lee replica. So, they contacted the owner in Idaho and that’s when the story turned into something more than just a remake of a classic cult car.

“It turned out he was basically holding a silent auction for the car,” said Miller, “so, it totally caught us off guard and basically he have people look at the car and what it was coming with, write their offer on a paper and folded it in an envelope, and then at the end of the week pull the offers out of it and award it to the highest bidder.”

…you won’t find any Bondo on this Charger…

So, Miller went with Price is Right rules and bid $10,001.01 to ensure that he at least was the highest he could predict. At the end of the week, he got a call from an Idaho number to tell him he had won and could pick up the car and all the parts that came with it.

Randy Scheurer then drove a rollback from Spokane to Moscow, Idaho and back with everything on and in it. From there, it was a ten-year process of stripping the car down and restoring it back to what you see before you. It was loaded on to a rotisserie and torn down to its bare chassis. After that, it was media blasted and acid dipped before taking it over to Doug Standerfer of Spokane Valley, Washington for the sheet metal work.

Very extensive sheet metal work as the quarter panels and taillight panel needed to be replaced but the rear window metal work and pillars were able to be repaired by Doug. However, you won’t find any Bondo on this Charger as the metal work included leading for a proper, time-proven repair.

The rear quarter panels and taillight surround all had to be remade and were some of the first stamped sheets from Auto Metal Direct (AMD) for the 1969 Charger. While brand new stamped panels aren’t too hard to find now, back in 2005 they and Year One were the only ones making them and the process was only beginning for AMD.

…these are bumps you must anticipate, and patience, as well as understanding, is required.

Their molds had yet to be tweaked from the car they created their bucks from, and the panels wouldn’t fit correctly right away due to the gauge of metal used wasn’t exactly factory original, either. When you’re this early in the game for a restoration of a car like this, these are bumps you must anticipate, and patience, as well as understanding, is required. J. P. knew the hurry-up-and-wait game would be worth it after researching the car.

In between all the restoration work, Miller decided to dig into the history of this car and found out it was an original R/T Super Track Pack with a 440-cubic-inch V8, four-speed transmission, and radio delete. Someone bought this with the intention of racing it and looking into the engine, which was blown apart from a track thrashing before being parked, it showed.

While J. P. wasn’t the only owner, he did a VIN track and contacted the third owner of the car. Needless to say, the former Air Force serviceman was blown away to know the car was not only still around but in the process of being restored back to its former glory, too. Especially in the state, he showed him at the time.

Yes, you read that correctly. The engine block was in pieces as some time in the 1980s a rod went through it. However, the entire car was numbers matching and that included that original 440 big block Mopar that would have been considered destroyed by other builders.

Miller took it to an engine shop in California that specialized “lost cause blocks.” He took a look at the block and found that, while there was a large hole in it, the webbing was intact and could be repaired. Other than a standard rebuild and putting the block back together again, the engine is factory original.

…far greater, much rarer, and a hero car to lust over in its own right.

At this point, it was now April of 2012, the metal work was done, the paint was factory matched, and the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Super Track Pack was ready for final assembly. All of the key parts were sourced from Ed Wogulis’ The Mopar Shop in Madera, California while other parts and assembly help was done by Dave La Marche of Concord, California.

The car is as original as you can get, even the wheels are a Mopar set you would find under it, but it does sit on modern Milestar StreetSteel tires with raised white lettering for that proper 1969 street car look with contemporary grip and wear.

From the work J. P. Miller did, this has been one incredible restoration job. It’s possibly one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. While he wanted a General Lee, we feel that he’s come out with something far greater, much rarer, and a hero car to lust over in its own right.

Battering Ram: Dodge RAM 2500 HD

Andrew Hoit’s Dodge Ram 2500 HD

Andrew Hoit from Chino, California shows us what a great offroad vehicle you can build if you keep it simple and do key improvements to an already capable platform. His 2016 Dodge Ram 2500 HD is actually a replacement for a similar Dodge Ram he had that was totaled when a careless driver drifted into his lane. He was impressed with how well the Dodge protected himself and his fiancé in the crash so there was no doubt what he would purchase the second time around. His reasons for choosing the Dodge for his offroad build include comfort, safety, versatility, and the Cummins 6.7 liter diesel engine!

The 6.7 liter Cummins diesel is legendary for reliability and supplies 385 horsepower and a staggering 900 foot pounds of torque. In order to take full advantage of that torque, Andrew swapped the gears in both axles to Nitro 4.32:1 ratio ring and pinion sets. All that torque is applied by a set of AEV Salta rims sized 17X8 that are wrapped with 37X12.5R17 Milestar Patagonia M/Ts. When Andrew gets out in his truck, he heads for the mountains. Like many of us, he has to travel a lot of freeway miles to get to his destination. His Milestar Patagonias are comfortable on the pavement but still aggressive enough to excel in the mud, rocks, and snow that he finds at his favorite camping spots. The 37-inch size gives him plenty of ground clearance at the differentials and provides a nice contact patch for maximum traction. A Bilstein B8 5160 Leveling Kit with Eibach Springs up front and the matching Bilstein B8 5160 application out back make room for those tires. You can begin to see a pattern here, Andrew has selected highly only the most reliable and effective components to fortify his Dodge.

Speaking of fortifications, you can’t miss the ARB Full Deluxe Modular Winch Bar Kit out front. A pair of ARB Intensity LED lights are mounted to the front to illuminate anything ahead, even in the rare case that cable needs to be pulled from the Warn Winch mounted to the ARB bumper. Further fortifications include a Cage 4X4 heavy duty skid plate. The added electronic components are integrated into the Dodge Ram by an sPod HD Touchscreen Control. He also has a Rugged Radio tied into the sPOD to communicate with the outside world.

When Andrew wants to get away from the outside world, he has an ARB Rooftop tent and canopy for protection from the elements. Andrew built the custom bed rack that holds the ARB tent himself. Raising the tent up allows the bed to hold a decked cargo system that provides tons of lockable storage space, his ARB fridge, and whatever gear, firewood, or supplies that he desires. Andrew’s capable Dodge is a well thought out, and perfectly executed 4X4 that can go anywhere with ease. Whether he’s stuck in traffic on a Southern California freeway, or relaxing in the fresh air of a pine forest, Andrew has everything he needs to be safe and comfortable no matter where he is.