When Shaun Hoisington was just ten years old, he stumbled across an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard one evening while watching TV. He says, “I saw this beautiful orange muscle car with the flag on the roof and ’01’ on the doors. I instantly fell in love with second generation Chargers at that moment and I was hooked from there on out.”
Fast forwarding to 1999, at the age of nineteen, Shaun started hunting for a Charger of his own but couldn’t find any in his price range. He kept searching but started to realize his dream maybe wasn’t ever going to happen. One morning while looking in his local newspaper, he came across a 1973 Charger that was for sale locally. “It wasn’t a 1968-1970 like I wanted but none the less, it was a Charger and that meant muscle so I decided to look,” he explains.
The car in question was a simple 318 automatic bench seat column shift car but Shaun really liked it as it was a Charger that was in his budget. “I was in awe when I first laid my eyes on it and I knew I wanted it. I went to the local bank and they gave me a loan to purchase it. I was in love.” he tells us.
Shaun would drive the Charger daily for around a year until some unfortunate circumstances led him to having to sell it. He shares, “I was sick to my stomach. My dream was gone.” Over the next thirteen years he would own numerous 4x4s and Mustangs but nothing ever compared to his old Charger.
In early 2014, he was out for a drive with his wife and kids when he spotted a Charger sitting in a driveway. He instantly recognized it was his old one! He stopped and knocked on the door and explained that it was his old car and asked if it was for sale in which the owner replied that they would indeed sell it. The owner allowed Shaun to make payments on it just to ensure that he was able to buy it back.
Shaun explains, “At the time, I knew I couldn’t really fix it up because of having a family and being on a budget, but it was mine again and that’s all that mattered. However, about six months after bringing it home, my life changed for the worst when I suffered a life altering accident at work. I fell twenty feet when the ladder I was on broke. I spent ten days in the ICU followed by four months in a hospital bed and then even more after in a wheelchair. I had shattered my femur and pelvis, fractured my wrist, elbow and tail bone and also herniated five discs in my lower back.”
He continues to say, “Over the next little bit while I was recovering, I tinkered here and there with the Charger including rebuilding the carburetor from my wheelchair. I also installed a new headliner and dropped and cleaned the gas tank with the help of my amazing wife. I was determined to not just sit in bed or the wheelchair and feel sorry for myself. I was gonna do something.”
Shaun continued to work on the Charger slowly as he recovered and his work drew attention from a bunch of amazing people on the various Mopar Facebook pages and forums and numerous people donated parts here and there to help with the project.
“We eventually focused on the exterior as it was spray painted lime green and yellow and looked ugly. One day while scrolling through Facebook, I found a guy who offered to paint it for $800 which my mom graciously donated to help out the project. Unfortunately when we went to do that, we found a bunch of body damaged that ate that money up quick. The body work was done but I couldn’t afford to buy paint. One day, I came home to a package on my front door. I opened it and it was my paint I needed with a note from a fellow off the Directly Connected Mopar group that said ‘you have been Directly Connected,’” he shares.
After the car got painted, he brought it back home to enjoy and continue to upgrade. Over time, he healed from his injury and thankfully was able to get rid of the wheelchair. Shaun says, “This car means the world to me. I don’t have tons of money and by no means is it a 100 point show car or ever will be but it’s mine and I love it. This car is truly built not bought, by a guy that has a family and works a full time job. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
