THE LAST HURRAH – Mopar Action Article Extra

Challenger is a California car built in Detroit, because all sunroofs were installed at ASC in Detroit,
then shipped to Hollywood. All CA cars had turned-down exhausts.

Steve Juliano’s final restoration is an amazing one-of-one 1970 sunroof Hemi Challenger that gets the last—and possibly the best—of his trick assembly line “lunch pail” parts. The term “lunchpail parts”, if you recall refers to assembly line workers — GM, Ford and Chrysler — filling their empty lunch pails with all kinds of assembly line parts. To be blunt, they just stole this stuff. Often, these identical parts, installed on cars as they came down the assembly line were not available through dealers as service items or even NOS. The only way to find them were on cars, eBay and garage sales of retired line workers in Detroit. Steve Juliano has been collecting these parts for some 30 years—long before they became desirable. Over the years, Steve has depleted his stash for his own restorations — this Challenger being his final project.

The average Mo’fan might not notice the difference between lunch pail, NOS and good repro parts, and may not even care. But if you’re a fanatic, the way Steve admittedly is, it makes all the difference in the world.

This Challenger, as we mentioned, is a one-of-one 1970 Hemi sunroof car. They only made one, and they only made one 1971 Hemi Challenger sunroof car. Steve owns both—sorta like a matched set. Steve’s goal in restoring is to bring it back as close as possible to the way it was when it arrived at the dealership direct from the factory.

Hood latch and striker are assembly line parts. Note the various original plating finishes.

This is Steve’s only luggage rack car. The factory label limits weight to 40 lbs. Steve dressed it up with a period (late ‘60s) suitcase. It is decorated with period decals—every one from that era. It took a lot to slice through $50 ultra-rare bumper stickers. Some are from Steve’s childhood—the New York Islanders, Joe Namath, the Mets and the New York Nets.

Note the original white plastic wire loom. The only way to get an original is from a lunch pail. The repops are different. The problem with the originals is that they are now brittle with age and most crack when you fold them. So you buy 20 and maybe 5 are usable.

All ’70-‘71 Mopars used GE headlamps except Super Birds which used use Westinghouse.
The old proper GE bulbs used a wide flute like these unlike later ‘70s bulbs.

Lunch pail correct-dated plug wires. Note correct red boot on distributor coil wire.

Original ASC sunroof operating instructions pus the crank to manually operate the roof in case of an electrical malfunction. Also note the Chrysler customer information to increase tire pressure by 1 psi to compensate for the extra weight of the sunroof.

Lunch pail coil correctly dated.

Lunch pail air cleaner lid. The line worker slipped this underneath his shirt to get it out of the factory.
Said he “needed it for protection” on Detroit streets.
Original decal has shrunk over time. Lid had never been on a car—until now.

Assembly line heater hoses. Even if you went to a dealer in ’69, you weren’t getting these hoses.

This is how it rolled off the assembly line.

NOS Hemi positive battery cable. You could have bought the poz cable in ’73-’74 from the dealer,
but it wasn’t even close to the one that came on your car unless it was serviced very early on.
This is a lunch pail cable—most guys who stole them took them for the copper.
The line workers stole everything—even down to valve stem caps.

Carb details—linkage, solenoid, choke etc.

The spare bottle and bracket are original unrestored assembly line items and were never on a car.

Lunch pail taillight housings.