Cleaning This Disgusting 1970 Dodge Challenger Reveals All Kinds of Problems

It sat in a barn for 30 years, and it's seen better days.

Photo by: YouTube

By: Christopher Smith

Sep 14, 2024 at 12:00pm ET

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This 1970 Dodge Challenger was abandoned in a barn over 30 years ago.
Its original 340 cubic-inch engine was pulled to be rebuilt.
Significant rust damage was found during the detailing process.

At a glance, this 1970 Dodge Challenger just looks extremely dirty. It was parked in a Pennsylvania barn at some point in the 1990s, and it's been there ever since. Unfortunately, the owner didn't take any measures to protect the car, and the years haven't been kind. Animals haven't been kind to it, either.

This becomes apparent from the very beginning of this WD Detailing video. The crusty body of ... something is sitting amid the decades of dirt on the trunk. Remains of a cat are found as they try to winch the car from the barn. Another skeleton in the area appears to be a raccoon. And this all comes up before the car is even outside.

There's some hope, however. The owner says the Challenger was parked due to a problem with its original 340 cubic-inch engine, which was pulled a long time ago to be rebuilt. He also repainted the car with a two-tone red/black motif similar to the 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda, the Challenger's sibling of the day. With a thorough wash and some time under a high-speed polisher, this classic muscle car could be a diamond in the rough just waiting to be resurrected.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. As the layers of dirt come off, the repaint appears to be amateur at best. It looks like duct tape was used for striping, and the paint is badly weather-checked underneath the clear coat. But none of that matters because there's considerable rust all around the car. The panels around the headlights are a mess, there's rust over the fenders, and this poor old Dodge has a large hole in the driver-side fender.

Inside, things aren't any better. Mountains of mouse nests are found under the seats and in the headliner, and with the back seat removed for cleaning, huge rust holes are uncovered in the floor. The front seats are ripped, the sun visors are torn, and the headliner is literally hanging by threads.

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None of that stops the detailing crew from making the old car look as good as possible. There is a shine to the paint, the rear seat doesn't look bad from the top, and the door panels look particularly nice. But this isn't a plug-and-play project — it would require all kinds of repair work and reconditioned parts to get back on the road. In short, it needs a full restoration.

The video doesn't end with a reveal to the owner, so at this point, the Challenger's future is unknown.