I know it’s tough for most of us to accept, but folks in the old car business hear about more old-car deals than you and I do.
I mean, who’s going to hear about more old cars, an accountant or someone in the restoration business?
Tony Dagostino, who makes his living selling NOS MOPAR parts, heard from a customer about this Dodge Daytona sitting neglected in a Louisville, Kentucky, Quonset hut. TONY DAGOSTINO
So, like it or not, Tony Dagostino of Harrington, Delaware, has one leg up on the rest of us.
Dagostino owns Tony’s Mopar Parts, a supplier of NOS, used and high-quality reproduction parts for Chrysler muscle cars. It’s a business the 50-year-old has been in since he was 14.
“It was a hobby that became my business,” he said. “I bought a 1970 Road Runner when I was a kid, and I found myself in business. I still own that car today.”
A few years ago, Dagostino received a phone call from a customer about a 1969 Dodge Daytona that had been parked in a Louisville, Kentucky, Quonset hut from 1976 until 2005. The customer wanted to buy the car and flip it for a profit but wanted Dagostino to check it over first.
From a distance, both the Dodge Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird look similar; pointed nose and tall rear wing. But the Daytona is a much rarer find. Only 503 were manufactured in order to homologate the car for NASCAR. According to Dagostino, the car was designed to the very highest aerodynamic standards at the time.
Dagostino bought the 50,000-mile car, which had been sitting in the shed since 1976. TONY DAGOSTINO
The Superbird, on the other hand, was produced at a higher volume: 1,920 were built, roughly one for every other Plymouth dealer in the country. And according to Dagostino, they were not quite as good in stock form.
The Dodge Daytona has since been restored to Concours standards.
“The Daytonas did not come with vinyl tops or air conditioning,” he said. “They were assembled by Creative Industries, where the fenders, hood, trunk, grill, and bumpers were replaced. And the rear window was mounted flush to the body.”
The ’69 Daytona Dagostino heard about had incurred door damage from a minor accident in 1976 and wouldn’t shut. So the owner simply parked the 50,000-mile car.
When the car went on sale, it changed hands a couple of times in just few days, until it arrived in Dagostino’s garage.
“Everyone was flipping it to make some money,” he said.
He was particularly impressed with the car’s original colors, white with a red wing and red interior.
The car was equipped with a 440 cubic-inch, four-barrel carburetor, and automatic transmission.
Dagostino restored the car to the highest standards, even sourcing correct date-code seat fabric.
“I was lucky,” he said. “The car had zero rust, except for a little corrosion in the passenger floor area where the mice had built a huge hotel. Their urine ate a hole through the floor.”
The car was restored using the best products Dagostino could source: NOS heater hoses; trunk mat; tires; wheels; shocks; and any correct, authentic part he could locate.
Since its completion, the car has won a gold medal at the Mopar Nationals, the highest award at the Chicago Muscle Car Nationals (999 out of 1,000 points) and has been displayed at Chrysler Carlisle.
But it’s now too perfect to drive.
“It’s my full-scale model,” Dagostino said.