"My name is Mike Garrard from New Zealand. I own a '72 Charger SE which I have had since '98. I am always looking for 3rd gen Chargers here in New Zealand which are few a far between.
I knew about Andrews super bee back in the late 90's but had just one photo, then it came up for sale on a local ebay type website called trademe. I managed to contact Andrew, and meet him at an American car show in his hometown (about 2 and a half-hours drive from where I live) his bee stole the show! More people looked at his bee than anything else! And now I have another Mopar friend. Here's the story of Andrews's bee.
Mike Garrard"
My name is Andrew Simmonds and this is my 71 Super Bee and how I came to own it.
I had been looking to bring in a Charger or Challenger from the US for some time, but hadn't come across the right car. A friend of mine who owns a panel shop had been looking over detailed photos of cars I thought looked good. He thought otherwise, and I went with his judgment .
Just when I thought I would never find what I wanted I looked on our local trade site Trade me, and here is my car sitting at the other end of New Zealand in a city called Dunedin. I phoned my friend Chris {panel shop owner} and said "have a look at this and tell me what you think". He phoned me back a few minutes later saying, "when do we fly to Dunedin? That good you reckon? Was my reply.
The next day after a three hour plane flight we touched down in Dunedin and went round to the guy's house. As soon as we looked at the car we knew it was the one. All numbers matching, original sheet metal, Fender tags, no dents or scrapes, or rust. After a cool 800-mile road trip home, I set to work putting all the callouts and decals back on, some interior work, wheels and tires, to replace the Cragar Super spokes fitted. Plus some time in the paint shop to sand back and re-polish the new paint job the previous owner had done.
The panel shop guys were impressed by the condition of the panels and doors when they had the interior panels off, no hits or welds totally original and in awesome condition
Since then I have been sorting minor issues as they arise getting my car back to its original condition.
My Bee has quite a few options namely, colored bumper group, With R/T taillights, front spoiler and deck lid spoiler, bucket seats, console with slapstick auto, 383 CID 4 barrel
Power steering, front disc brakes, 727 3 speed heavy-duty auto, 3.23 gears. The car was originally from San Diego when imported into New Zealand in 1995 so is a US market car.
Plans for the future include more interior work.
Now its part of the family with no plans to ever sell, hope you like it.
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