CAR WARS EPISODE TWO: The General Strikes Back

Mark had been looking for a General lee since he was 16 and could drive a car. Mark either wanted to build one or buy one completed. At one time, Mark traveled to Houston Texas to look at a General Lee in "great condition". Upon arrival, the story he was told wasn’t the same. The car had tons of rust and some major problems so Mark drove home with an empty trailer. Another time there was a local guy that had a General Lee in his garage that had been there for years. After getting an address, Mark went over to the house and was informed that it was in fact a 1969 charger and was a General Lee in great shape - but it had sold less than a month ago. Watching several come and go on ebay, Mark knew someday he would find the right car.

One afternoon while surfing ebay, Mark spotted a nice general with some interesting history. Mark emailed the owner and got a very small response. Another email generated a phone number. This number was to Jamie Smith of Smith Brothers Restoration. They talked about the car and the history and how everything on the car was brand new and the car was really nice as of the last time he saw it. Mark wanted to know more, but they informed him the owner was Gary Baxley (a former Dukes of Hazzard stunt man) and that he was very busy and wasn’t going to talk to every person interested in the car. Mark informed them how serious he was, and finally got in contact with Mr. Baxley directly.
Mark called Gary one afternoon and was told how he had the car built for his son - but with no A/C and California heat (and gas eating him up) he thought it was best to sell it. He told Mark how Rich Sephton (original Dukes Mechanic) built the motor for him and that the motor in the car was donated by "Bo Duke" himself, John Schneider! He told Mark about how they found the car and how the Smith Brothers had restored it and it was really nice and ran really good. After a few awesome behind-the-scenes stunt stories (and a few good laughs) Mark told him that he planned on bidding on his car.

 

 

After Mark won the car on ebay, he called Gary back and set up a time to go out to California. Gary informed Mark that if he was not 100% happy with the car - he could fly home and he would find another buyer. This was fair to Mark - because Mark had told Gary he wouldn’t buy a car he couldn’t see. Mark and his dad flew out to LA and got a hotel near Gary Baxley's home. They all met up that afternoon around 3pm and went to Gary's home in Los Angeles. Gary told Mark all about the car and how they found all the signs of it being an original General Lee. Gary's son came out and showed Mark the car and told Mark how it ran. Mark found a crack in the bondo and a pretty bad scratch on the passenger side fender. Mark was not happy about that at all. Mark's dad tried to get Mark to back out of the deal - however Gary suggested that they could work out something and make everyone happy. Gary's son said the scratches must have happened on one of the days he drove the car to school. He explained to Mark that he originally felt he could drive this car every day - but soon learned that the General gets a lot of attention, loves gas and not having A/C is horrible. Mark and Gary met back up the next morning and finally agreed on a price for the car that was reasonable for both parties.

Mark got a shipping company to load the car and head to Arkansas where he would be there to meet it. When Mark got home, he got online and joined CGLFC.com and found out that the car had a lot of donated time and money and wasn’t meant to be sold. He also learned that there were some people with some bad feelings about the whole deal of the car being sold. Mark talked to Jamie Smith for a long time about the situation and found out most people weren’t mad...just hurt. A few days later Mark met Scott Romine - they talked dukes stuff for an hour and Mark knew he had a friend for life.

Mark received the car on a Monday about 5:00pm and was so thrilled. People from buildings around Mark's work came over and were taking pictures and it ended up being a big deal. Mark had to have work done to the car to make it more driveable, with just a few adjustments he hit the road. Mark took the car to Dukesfest in 2006 and Dukes Day in Little Rock. Mark was wanting to get the two bad places on the car fixed - but every painter wanted to repaint the whole car due to the difficulty of matching orange that was a little faded. Mark had planned on sending the car back to Smith Brothers to be repained. Mark really enjoys talking to Jamie Smith about dukes stuff and has learned some cool facts about the show.