Here at powerTV, we find many classic cars undergoing restoration, built into powerful beasts and built to terrorize the streets across the country, so fully-restored ’69 Chargers are not something we’re unfamiliar with. However, it is a very rare occasion that we come across a Charger with such a compelling story to go with the restoration as we found on the forum of DodgeCharger.com.

Here we found a 21-year-old young man, known only by his username “NO40JM,” restoring a Charger not only for the matter of owning a classic American muscle car, but also for the continuation of family history.

The car was built at the Michigan Hamtramck plant on August 24, 1968. It was purchased by his aunt and uncle and was driven by them until June of 1976 when the owner’s grandfather purchased the car for $200. The car was given to the owner’s mother to drive as her first car. In July of 1978, the car was stolen.

The family thought this was the last time they’d see the Charger, making speculation that the car had been taken to be used in the “Dukes of Hazard” series and then crushed. Twenty-two years later, the owner’s grandfather received a phone call from the local police saying they had found the Charger.

The police had been notified about the Charger when an unsuspecting buyer purchased the car and found that the VIN tag on the dash had been glued down rather than riveted, which was done from the factory. When police investigated, they discovered that the VIN on the dash did not match the VIN tag on the truck rail that can’t be removed.

After searching the VIN number with a police and an insurance database, police were able to determine the car was stolen and pull up a police report from 1978. The phone number that was on the report was the owner’s grandfather’s number, which had stayed the same for those 22 years.

When the car was returned to the rightful owner, it had no engine or transmission and was missing most of the interior. It was also extremely rusted. The family paid for a high school shop teacher to restore the car but money for the car ran out when the owner and her husband divorced.

After being moved around and stored in a high school auto shop for a number of years after, the current owner moved the car to his home where he had a four car garage. The car sat untouched until September of 2007 brought the death of the current owner’s grandfather- a man who told his grandson he would never finish restoring the Charger.

In January of 2008, after working on the restoration for almost four months, the current owner’s mother signed the title over to him.

All of the bodywork has been done by NO40JM. He even built a car rotisserie using two Harbor Freight engine stands make restoring the car easier. He installed US Car Tools sub-frame connectors, front and rear HEMI torque boxes from Auto Rust Technicians, HEMI leaf spring hanger reinforcement mounting plates and shackle torque plates, as well as a HEMI reinforcement pinion plate.

A used rocker panel had to be put on the car because it had been hit before. By the summer of 2010, all the bodywork was complete and the car was painted. It was painted in a booth at his old high school, the same high school where the restoration had started years earlier.

Shortly after the car was painted, the black vinyl top was laid over the red paint, which took about 12 hours to do. As far as the instruments and gauges go, they were all sandblasted and painted before new decals were put on. In addition to the odometer being turned back to zero, the instrument cluster was rechromed.

Performance Car Graphics restored the heater controls. The front seats have been replaced and reupholstered from the 1967 seats that were in the car when the current owner received the car. The rear seats were also reupholstered. The side windows have been restored and polished with the frames repainted and chrome redone.

To put the power to pavement in the Charger, a 1969 440 V8 was purchased for the car as well as a 727 transmission in 2010. In March 2011, the engine was dropped off at the machine shop.

NO40JM plans to have the engine bored out to a 493 which will create about 450 rear-wheel horsepower. Plans for a custom exhaust system include Hooker Super Competition headers, 3-inch steel Flow Masters and turn-down pipes.

We can only wait in anticipation for the next update and eventually the finished car. There is no doubt that this young man has some extreme craftsmanship and is working on his restoration project as a labor of love.

It’s a good thing that the owner’s grandfather put the fire under him to get the car restored because even the owner of the car admits that without that inspiration, the car would still be sitting untouched. What an amazing story this car and family has. The Charger is sure to be an inspiring commodity to be passed on for generations.