If you were into the custom car scene 25 years ago you might remember a certain Dodge Challenger with amazing airbrush murals – here it is today, after an extensive restoration: the Artful Dodger is back

Words: Nigel Boothman, Photography: Lyndon McNeil

It’s quite rare for us to feature a car with every moment of its history known, and owned by someone who’s spoken to every previous owner. But when a car stands out as much as a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T SE, especially one that’s been customised, people tend to remember it.



The first owner, a Mr Gallagher, imported it to the UK when it was almost new in 1971 and used it as a family car, including everything from a trip to the cinema (to see ‘Vanishing Point’ – what else?) to family holidays in Spain, complete with roofrack. In those days it was as it left the Hamtramck plant in its Plum Crazy paint, 383cu.in. V8 (about 6.3-litres) and SE equipment which meant a vinyl roof, a smaller rear window, an overhead ‘consolette’ in the cabin and leather on the front seats.



The R/T (Road and Track) package in 383 form gave you heavy-duty suspension, an A727 gearbox, an 8 ¾ rear axle with 3.23 gears and pretty decent performance: 120mph and quarter miles in the 14s from the 335bhp and 425 lb ft of torque. We don’t know whether Mr Gallagher unleashed all this with the family on board, but the next owner certainly felt the temptation.



Jon Jemmett painted the car black for a bit of a street racer look – very late Seventies. But after a wallop up the rear, the car was in need of more paint and this time Jon asked a mural-painting mate of his about the possibilities of airbrushing the Dodge. After the car was straightened out, this was exactly what happened, though it took a long time for the airbrush wizard (‘Mac’) to get the result he was after – nine goes at the bonnet mural alone. The theme was the Artful Dodger, with scenes of old London and the Dodger’s (or is it Jemmett’s?) face under a battered top-hat on the doors, bonnet and boot lid.



This kind of work might be out of style now, but you have to admire the effort and the skill. Inside the car, no less effort had been expended on custom seats with the Dodger’s top–hat logo hand-painted onto the ivory and mauve covers. There was an 80-watt stereo and even a TV in the centre console facing the back seats. The car popped up at various custom shows and won prizes. It soon got noticed for a magazine feature in Custom Car in May ’81 , and a lad called Peter Harris stuck a poster of it on his wall. But more of him later.



Flicking through the old copy of Custom Car reminds you what fun the customising scene used to be before it degenerated into hatchbacks with bodykits that made them look like carpet sweepers or contests about who could fit the most bass bins into the boot. The American car scene was closely tied up with the custom shows, and lots of airbrushed muscle cars, hot-rods and vans cropped up. But where are they now? This kind of mural work is virtually extinct, but you can’t really imagine scrapping a car just because it starts to look naff, can you?



Thankfully not. It’s difficult to say how many cars from the golden era of custom shows have survived, because many of them have done it incognito. Jon Jemmett eventually sold the Artful Dodger to Mr Gallagher’s son, who tore about in it for a few years, but it got abused and the murals were attacked with paintstripper. It was still in Artful Dodger trim, though looking rather sad, when Neil King bought it in 1985.
Neil sprayed it yellow and replaced the interior, getting much enjoyment from the car for 12 years. In 1994 he bumped into a bloke called Peter Harris, who had decided after a few years of driving all sorts from a V8 Toyota monster truck to a 1971 Camaro that he had to have a 1970 Challenger. And he knew exactly which one.
‘It had to be the old Artful Dodger. Having met Neil King at the Billing show in 1994, I started trying to persuade him to sell it to me, and in 1997 he finally agreed.’
Peter picked the car up with his mate John Marsh, a muscle car fan and skilled restorer whose machines have graced the pages of Classic American before. By this time, the Dodger was far from original, though it did at least still have its numbers-matching 383 and was showing a total of just 61,000 miles.



The following years were spent driving the car and collecting the numerous parts and bits of trim required for a full restoration. This took a while, and in the intervening years Peter used it as a wedding car when he got married, with John Marsh doing the driving duties. ‘I’d also spent some time tracking down the previous owners and speaking to them,’ says Peter. ‘Mr Gallagher even sent me some photos of the car from back in 1971, so I could see just what it was like when new.’
Come January 2005, there were no more reasons to delay the job. ‘I drove the car into our workshop for work to begin,’ remembers Peter. ‘The car was completely stripped; engine and box out and then shell back to bare metal. Various new panels had to be fitted thanks to it having been cut about to fit oversized wheels and spring hangers.



‘I got on with painting and detailing the parts, while John took care of the project as a whole. I had a lot of help from Tom at John Woolfe Racing for getting all the Year One parts from the States. Tony Oksien at Muscle Car Imports sourced a lot of hard-to-find used parts as well,’ says Peter.
The engine and gearbox were freshened up and re-sealed, but neither required a major rebuild. The target for the whole car to be finished was the 2005 Summer Nationals at Billing, which left a scant five months for the entire job. The bodywork was always going to be the most time-consuming part of the restoration – would they make it?



‘In the end, John fitted new inner front fenders, rear quarters, front valance, rear valance, trunk floor, trunk floor extension panels and second-hand front outer fenders and door panels,’ says Peter. That’s a lot of work, but at last the car was ready for paint. The new Plum Crazy went on beautifully and the new vinyl was fitted over the roof, leaving the car ready for John and Peter to start bolting, clipping and screwing everything back on.
‘The rebuild went pretty smoothly,’ says Peter, ‘which was thanks to John’s knowledge and skill in building Challengers and myself having all the parts and fixings laid out ready at hand. We actually finished the re-fit in time to have the car MoT’d on the Thursday before the Billing weekend.’
This left Peter time to clean and polish the car and apply all the decals to finish the detailing. A trouble-free trip down the road to Billing saw the car win ‘Best Mopar’ first time out. ‘That made all the hard work worthwhile,’ says Peter. In the following weeks, Peter enjoyed putting a few miles on the car before the 12th annual Mopar Nationals at Santa Pod. This was to be the ultimate test – Peter really wanted to know what the Mopar guys thought of the restoration.
‘I could not have been happier when I saw the winner’s note on the windscreen,’ he recalls. ‘It actually turned out to say that the car was a Classic American Car of the Year heat winner, and to top it all, Best in Show as well. These awards are testament to John Marsh’s skills and passion for American muscle cars, for which I can never thank him enough – cheers John.’ Peter also thanks ‘Steve the Sprayer’ and ‘Mick the Trimmer’, and reserves a lot of gratitude for his wife Nikki for putting up with him through the restoration.



‘I’ve now achieved something I always wanted – to own a 1970 Challenger, and not just any Challenger, but possibly the best and most well-known in the country. From top custom car in the Eighties and back to original specification again, the car has gone full circle, and I still keep in touch with all the previous owners. Amazingly, people still come up to me who remember the car from its Artful Dodger days. So I felt it was only right to keep the name going by having “Mr Dodger” on the front number plate and “You gotta’ pick a pocket or two” on the rear one.’
The car is still out and about, so keep one hand on your wallet when you next see the Dodger at a show. And keep an eye out for Peter’s next project: ‘Something a bit rough and ready…maybe Pro Street,’ he says. It’s about power, you see. Please Sir, can I have some more?