As enthusiasts, some of us don’t mind if a car doesn’t have a $10,000 paint job, or a monstrous big-block with astronomical horsepower to match. They don’t even have to have the latest offerings from one of the many wheel vendors or even a fancy set of floormats for us to think it’s a cool car. Sometimes, all it takes is that it’s a musclecar and that it has potential.

A quick call to any of the hundreds of performance parts stores can take the car to the next level with some simple upgrades. It all boils down to a couple of things: what do you want to do with the car, and who are you building it for? Because at the end of the day, it’s you who has to love the car enough to get back in it the next day.

That, in and of itself, is what defines the hot rodding culture: some spend thousands, while others don’t have thousands to spend. It’s been that way for decades, and it’s always a win-win situation, for the most part. But then there are the cars that get neglected, you know the ones: they sit, and they sit, and no matter what you say or do, the owner swears he’s gonna restore it – someday. Meanwhile, the elements take their toll and the car becomes one with the earth, sinking lower into the ground while nature grows all around it until it’s engulfed in never-never land.

One of our loyal readers, Stephen Mossing, sent us some pictures of a few cars on his uncles property of such cars that are sitting for an eternity, it seems. His uncle owns this ’69 Charger R/T and it’s a matching numbers car, a real survivor – for the time being. Stephen says, “He’s had it for as long as I can remember and then about 15 more years to that, he drove it up on a hill and parked it and it hasn’t moved since.”

Stephen has tried to get his uncle to sell the car, but he’s been rather unsuccessful and he says now his uncle won’t even return his calls. He would love to restore it with his father and put it back on the road, where Stephen feels it belongs, but neither he nor his dad can get his uncle to sell the car. So Stephen shared some photos with us to show us these great cars, and to share his disappointment that they just sit, rotting away.

What’s even worse, is that there are three Camaros sitting up there with the Charger, and an old Chevy van that are all sharing in the same affliction. Further proof that rust is contagious… park one car on a hill and leave it with a couple of others and before long they’ll all have the same disease.  So what would you do to convince a family member to either ante up or fold and give the keys and the title to you, so you can get the car back on the road? Let us know below the jump!