Burnt Orange Buzzer: Thomas Grams’ 1970 Dodge Super Bee


“I love everything with wheels. If I’m not riding BMX or mountain bikes, I’m spending my time working on my American cars”, shares Thomas Grams from Germany. When asked what got him into American cars despite growing up in Europe, he tells us, “During my childhood, I watched a lot of films and TV series from the ’80s such as The Fall Guy, Knight Rider, Highway to Heaven, Hardcastle and McCormick, Riptide and of course, the Dukes of Hazzard.

These shows would shape Thomas growing up and really fire up a desire to buy and drive an American classic car eventually. Around 2004, Thomas bought a 1969 Chevrolet C10 pick up and then in 2008, he added a 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS tribute to his collection.

He says, “Although these two classic Chevrolets are awesome, they just weren’t my absolute dream car. My ultimate classic muscle car was always a 1970 Dodge Coronet with the unmistakable angry looking twin loop front grille and bumper combination. Ideally I really wanted a Super Bee as that’s the true definition of a muscle car in my opinion but I was more than happy with a Coronet,” he shares.

However, being in Germany, finding a 1970 Dodge Coronet of any kind, let alone a Super Bee was next to impossible. He continues to say, “1970 Super Bees are really rare and hard to find in Germany. You can find quite a few Chargers and Road Runners but not ’70 Super Bees. I searched hard but never had a lot of hope in finding a good car. Even at many car shows over the years, a ’70 Coronet or Super Bee of any kind, even a four-door was a very uncommon sight”.

Near the end of 2017, Thomas came across a sales ad for a 1970 Super Bee for sale around three hours away from his home. To make things even better, it was his favorite color on them; FK5 Dark Burnt Orange Metallic. He jumped in his car right away and made the three hour drive to go see it. After looking at it, he made the decision to purchase it; finally bringing his dream of owning a ’70 Super Bee to reality.

Upon doing some research into the car’s history, he found out that it was built on May 20th, 1970 at Chrysler’s Lynch Road, Michigan assembly plant. It rolled out of the factory with a 383-4 barrel under the hood backed by a HD 727 Torque Flite Automatic Transmission and an 8 3/4 rear end with 3.23 gears.

It was painted as mentioned above, FK5 Dark Burnt Orange Metallic with white longitudinal stripes and a black vinyl bench seat interior. The options were pretty basic and included heavy duty drum brakes, power steering, HD suspension with a sway bar and firm ride shocks; pretty standard Super Bee equipment.

It was sold new on June 10th, 1970 by Joe Rosey’s Dodge in Claysburg, Pennsylvania to a Charles Dively Junior as he found on some of the original paperwork. Eventually at some point, the car ended up in California where it was restored as a father-son project before being sold to the previous owner in Germany in 2015.

Thomas explains, “It’s all numbers matching except for the transmission however that is date code correct. It also still retains it’s original fender tag and broadcast sheet. The original Scat Pack quarter window decals are even still there! While the father and son who restored the car did an absolutely fantastic job, it was missing a couple of finishing touches.”

He continues to say, “After purchasing it, I added the wheel well and front valance trim as they were missing. I also restored the original tail light panel trim and tail light housings, detailed the engine compartment properly, replaced a couple of interior pieces and installed new door handles, side marker bezels and tail light bezels as the chrome had a lot of pitting.”

“To finish everything up, I installed 15×6″ Chrysler OE steel wheels with self-restored redline dog dishes and had them wrapped in Goodyear F70-15 tires. If I know one thing, that’s that there is always something to improve on a classic and I really enjoy doing that.”

Thomas tells us that he absolutely loves to drive his Super Bee whenever he can and that he has no plans to ever get rid of it. “It’s my dream car. It took a long time to get and it’s never going anywhere”.

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Cody Krueger

Car Feature Editor – cody.krueger@shawgroupmedia.com Since the age of 4, Cody has been obsessed with everything Mopar. On Christmas of 1998, Cody's parents gave him a rusty '69 Charger shell that his father saved from a field. Cody's garage still features that '69 Charger as well as the additions of a '71 Charger R/T, '71 Super Bee, '73 Duster, '08 Challenger SRT8 and a '13 Ram 3500. Cody can truly and proudly say that he is a true Mopar nut in love with all types of Mopars!

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