The very first General Lee gets a historic restoration after scrap yard discovery
- This man spent years tracking down the original General Lee
- He finally found it and was able to buy it for peanuts
- After restoring, he sold it for a lot more money than he’d paid for it
Published on Aug 30, 2024 at 3:58 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Sep 02, 2024 at 11:11 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
A hardcore Dukes of Hazzard fan spent years trying to track down the first ‘General Lee’ car used in the show.
It took him years and a lot of patience, but he finally managed it.
When he did find the 1969 Dodge Charger, it was in terrible condition.
Amazingly, he was able to buy it and restore it, and made a good chunk of money from selling it.
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The key word was ‘patience’
In a video interview, Travis Bell explained how he spent months building a relationship with the owner of the junkyard where he’d found the car.
His patience paid dividends because, several months later, he was able to buy the car for peanuts, roughly around $400.
He then spent even more months trying to restore it, and he eventually sold it at auction.
In the end he got six figures for it.
Talk about return on investment.
The story behind General Lee
General Lee is the automotive protagonist of the 1970s show The Dukes of Hazzard.
The show ran for seven seasons between 1979 and 1985, and the General Lee appeared in 146 episodes out of 147.
The only episode that didn’t feature the car was ‘Mary Kaye’s Baby’, which was the third episode of season one.
The car is a 1969 Dodge Charger, which was painted orange with the number ’01’ on the side and the Confederate flag on the roof.
The name is a reference to Robert E. Lee, general of the Confederates States Army during the Civil War in the US.
The future of the Dodge Charger
Charger is one of the most iconic Dodge models, but its future is uncertain.
First unveiled in 1966, Dodge produced four generations in 21 years, before discontinuing production in 1987.
They then reintroduced the Charger almost 20 years later, in 2006, but this time they turned it into a four-door sedan rather than a two-door coupe.
The new model, unveiled this year, is again marketed as a two-door coupe, but it’s electric.
Some people aren’t too happy to see the words ‘electric’ and ‘muscle car’ in the same sentence, although to be fair Dodge did try to capture the essence of a muscle car by also giving it a (fake) soundtrack.
We can probably talk about it again in a few months or a year because, by then, we’ll have the answer to the question that Dodge truly cares about.
Will it sell?
