Restoration Kick Off - The Car's Story
Arguably one of the rarest Hemi Mopars in existence, this 1970 Hemi Coronet R/T is 1 of 14 built, 1 of 5 with a 4 speed, 1 of 1 with the Super track pak and is the only one shipped new to Canada. The R/T appears on the "Canadian Hemi Car Shipment List"
and showed up on the popular
Cars in Barns web site. Chris Coulson, the current owner has been able to piece together quite a bit of this rare car’s history
Built at the Detroit Lynch Road Plant, the R/T showed up at the Century Motors showroom in Winnipeg wearing one of the more popular colour combos for muscle Mopars. Plum Crazy Purple with a black interior, black vinyl top and a black bumble bee stripe.
The interior featured vinyl buckets, a wood grain wheel, rallye dash and a console from which protruded the tall pistol grip shifter. Who ever checked off the options must have had the drag strip in mind. Leading the list was the potent 426 Hemi backed
up with an 18 spline 4 speed tranny and a super trak pak 4.10 Dana rear. Ordering the Hemi automatically included the twin scoop Ramcharger fresh air package and the heavy duty suspension. The Rutherford Boys who ran Century Motors ordered the R/T for
the showroom floor and obviously knew the proper boxes to check off. They had a well deserved reputation for bringing in high performance Mopars and supporting the local drag race scene at the time.
The R/T was sold and made its way from Century Motors to Eden Manitoba (a small town north west of Winnipeg, Manitoba) in April of 1970. It was driven hard until the Hemi let go in October and was left at a Brandon Chrysler Dealership to have the Hemi replaced on warranty.
The dealership had trouble finding a Hemi and the car sat for a considerable amount of time. The owner became quite irate with the delay and abandoned the R/T and refused to make payments. Not wanting to be stuck with a used Hemi on the lot they dropped a 440 in place
of the Hemi to be sold as a 440 car. The original owner showed no further interest in the car and rumor has it that the R/T was sold to a local school teacher. I ‘m sure he wasn’t late for class very often. In the mid 80's, the car was owned by an elderly gentleman with a narrow garage.
He was having a lot of problems getting the car in the garage hence the scrapes on the side. The R/T sat packed full of junk inside the garage until one day the garage began falling over. It was pulled out and parked in the back yard. As luck would have it two friends from Selkirk spotted
it and asked if it was for sale. The older gent was glad to get rid of it and sold it on the spot for $400.00. Both worked for a scrap yard and being Chevy guys had only intended to scrap it
Shortly after buying the R/T, the two friends met up with Dennis and Rob , a couple of well know Manitoba Mopar enthusiast, and mentioned they had this purple R/T. At first they didn't want to sell and taunted Dennis that they had a Mopar to crush. Dennis came down and took a look.
Right away he spotted the R code on the VIN but didn’t let on. After some negotiation the R/T changed hands and Dennis took it away. A short while later the two Chevy guys learned that the R/T was a rare Hemi car and tried to tried to get the car back but the deal was done.
Unfortunately, the car sat outside on Henderson Hwy. (which is where the Cars in Barns pictures were taken). Dennis planned to restore the R/T one day and started to accumulate various NOS parts for the car. A fender, marker lights, bumpers and even NOS Mopar spark plugs were found and purchased. His biggest score being an NOS tailpanel. Anyone who has restored a 70 Coronet R/T or 500 knows that this piece is specific to the 1970 R/T and 500 and is very difficult to find in nice shape.
Chris is no stranger to rare mopars having owned a 440 six bbl Cuda convertible, a 71 Challenger R/T convertible, a Panther Pink Challenger T/A, a 440 powered Superbird as well as several other interesting Mopars over the years. Chris has been in contact with the original owner and has recently uncovered a family connection to the R/T. The original owner once worked for Chris' Mother-in-law's brother. From its long stint out in the elements the R/T has deteriorated in the usual places.
The trunk floor and quarters are gone and the floor is less than solid. The original Hemi is missing in action as is the under hood ramcharger duct work. A clean Arizona parts car, which will donate sheet metal and trim was part of the deal. Chris has also acquired another 70 Coronet R/T which gave up some choice parts. A date code appropriate Hemi was purchased from Daryl Klassen who was also in charge of rebuilding the Hemi. Rick Chupa is in charge of the body work and will make sure the
R/T comes out as straight as the day it left the Lynch Road Plant. The restoration has started so watch for this rare Mopar to once again to hit the road & track.
The mice which inhabited the car must have enjoyed reading the broadcast sheet as they scurried to and from their nest located right beside the sheet. Chris was able to salvage most of it.
Next Page: Disassembly 
