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Cars

True love is orange, very fast

David Fileger was first smitten 20 years ago. Now he has a fully restored 1970 Dodge Challenger to show off on weekends.

By TRACY SMALL
Published February 25, 2005

TAMPA - When David Fileger met his first 1970 Dodge Challenger, he knew instinctively that this was his soul mate.

It would take three different 1970 Challengers, however, before he found his one true love.

The first Challenger was a fluke. Twenty years ago, Fileger bought a forest green convertible from a friend for $20 on a whim. It had seen better days. He called it a "rust bucket."

"Who can resist a cheap ragtop that looks good?" quipped Fileger, now 48.

"They only made these cars for five years. To me, it's just an awesome looking car."

During the time he owned his first Challenger, he rebuilt the engine and replaced the rear axle. The more he worked on it, the more he liked it. He wanted it to be perfect.

The desire was there, but this car needed too much work. So began his search for another 1970 Dodge Challenger.

While living in West Palm Beach, Fileger checked the newspapers regularly. Then he found one selling for $500 in Pompano Beach.

"The owner thought she wouldn't sell it for that much money," Fileger said. He marveled at the idea that her junk would be his treasure.

This 1970 Challenger was a hardtop, "hemi orange" colored automatic, which Fileger pledged to use as his "daily driver." He soon realized that a classic automobile would be better used as a "weekend warrior."

Being a lover of cars in general, Fileger often owned several of them, even as many as 12 cars at one time. His first Dodge had been a 1968 Coronet he drove in high school.

Now, his second Challenger was nice, and it looked good. It was a fine example of one of America's classic muscle cars.

But it was an automatic and a hardtop. It wasn't The One.

By now, Fileger was sold on the idea that his ideal weekend car would have to be a hemi orange colored convertible with a big block engine. It would also have a manual transmission with a pistol grip shifter, resembling a gun handle.

"I said, "Before I buy another one of these, I'll make sure I get a big block ragtop with a pistol grip four-speed,' " he said. "If you're going to have a muscle car, you might as well have a big block in the sucker. And muscle cars are nice, but there's nothing like a convertible. And you'll want to shift through the gears."

It would take some time before Fileger would find his dream car. It took another decade, in fact.

While living in Tampa, scouring newspapers and Auto Trader magazines, his luck changed. He found his heart's desire in New Port Richey.

The car was almost everything he wanted, except it was automatic. He had it changed to a four-speed at Time Machines, a custom restoration shop in Hudson.

Actually, he did quite a bit more than that. The car was in the shop for six months for a "rotisserie restoration," meaning that it was stripped down and rebuilt from the frame up.

"We took it down to the bare metal and replaced everything in it," Fileger said. "New wiring, fuel lines, brake lines, new interior, new top. They kept saying, "You've gone this far, you might as well do this other thing too . . . ' "

Everything in the car had been 30 years old.

"Now this thing should last forever."

The Challenger doesn't require much maintenance - an oil change, maybe some plugs. The odometer reads 8,000, but Fileger couldn't say how many times it has rolled.

Fileger, a senior systems analyst at University Community Hospital, lives in the Meadow Pointe subdivision in the New Tampa area.

He drives the Challenger on weekends and to car shows. He jokes about how he can hardly leave a gas station without being bombarded by admirers of the sleek, muscular, powerful classic automobile.

In the near future, Fileger does plan to take his first long road trip in six years of owning the vehicle. The destination: Pennsylvania.

"We're getting there," he said. "One mile at a time."

[Last modified February 24, 2005, 09:34:05]