The day had come to pick Lucy up from the restoration shop. I had mixed feelings. From being nervous about driving her for the first time in 3 years to being excited beyond words. I picked her up on the 23rd of December 2005, 2 days before Christmas. I've said it the past but this time, without a doubt, it was true. This was by far the best Christmas present EVER!!!!!

A few days prior, I followed the resto' team, in a separate vehicle, to take Lucy out for her first proper test run. They drove to a place called Woodville which was a 2 hour drive one way. She performed fantastically! There were a couple of minor things needing adjustments however. There was a slight whine in the diff which is normal as it needed to be run in and have the oil changed a few times. The kick-down linkage needed adjustment, the petrol sending float wasn't reading properly and the lower fan belt pulley wasn't aligned 100% correctly. It was about 5-10mm out of line, nothing major but it was still enough to pop the belt off under WOT.

Once these items were addressed and before being handed the keys, Lucy was cleaned, polished and given her final inspections. We had a half an hour discussion about oil, safest jack spots, alarm functions, etc. I knew where to jack the car up and what oil to use but I still wanted to get the run down again to make sure I knew everything I needed to know.

When I got Lucy back it was time to drive my family around first. Mum, Dad, my sister then my cousins. After that, it was first in, first served. For New Years 2005/06 I took Lucy up North for our maiden voyage together. We clocked up around 2,000km (1,200-miles) or around 20 hours driving time. She drove superbly, not a single problem, she never missed a beat. I was over the moon. The handling was fantastic, which was quite surprising as, let's face it, muscle cars aren't the greatest corner lovers ever made.

We got plenty of thumbs up, waves & people coming over to have a closer inspection of the car. One guy who followed had one hand on the wheel & the other trying frantically to take pxt's/vids lol. That guy was definitely a hard-case. I even had one girl at a petrol station say, "Whoa, that's a cute little car!" Little!?!? lol Anyhow, Lucy deserved all the attention she had received and I was one very proud MoPar owner to say the very least.

Thanks for viewing my restoration web page. It has been a very, very, long 3 years. But, the money, stress and time have all been worth it. Now it's time to enjoy the car as this is what she was built to do - DRIVE. Please make sure you visit the main page and check out the suppliers' web sites. They were all used & have been major players in this restoration, some more than others including my mates on cuda-challenger.com.

A very special thank you to Adam who built the Challenger and now works at the Upper Hutt VTNZ. With his help, he meticulously restored Lucy to what she is today. We worked together to build and restore Lucy to my tastes and needs. I couldn't have gone through a build like this without Adam.