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Say Hello to The Death Metal Dodge Charger! Finnegan’s Garage Ep.76

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A half-century-old barn find just got its second engine swap on camera, and it’s still trying to kill its own driver.

Mike Finnegan’s 1968 Dodge Charger — the one nicknamed “Death Metal” for reasons that become obvious the moment it’s put in gear — is back on the lift in Episode 76 of Finnegan’s Garage. The car spent roughly 50 years buried in an Indiana barn before Finnegan bought it off eBay, revived it once on Roadkill, and then watched its 383-cubic-inch big-block quit running one summer night. This episode is the diagnosis, the teardown, and the fix.

• The Charger was originally built as a 1969 ARCA stock car after a wreck, then sat untouched in an Indiana barn for about 50 years before surfacing on eBay.
• Podcast co-host Rob Kibbe tipped Finnegan off to the auction listing, leading Finnegan and Tony Angelo to revive it on Roadkill before the 383 big-block died later that summer.
• The car runs a 383ci Dodge big-block paired with a Silver Sport Transmissions kit that bolts a modern Tremec Magnum six-speed manual straight into the vintage B-body chassis.

Origins of Death Metal Terminology

The nickname isn’t a branding exercise — it’s a warning label. Finnegan has been upfront that the Charger doesn’t track straight down the road, that its four-wheel heavy-duty truck drum brakes offer underwhelming stopping power, and that the floorpans and rockers are rusted through from decades of sitting. He’s even joked that the car’s vintage race roll cage might do more harm than good in a real accident, which is a lot to admit about a car you willingly drive on camera.

The roll cage might actually be more dangerous than not having one at all.

From eBay Listing to Roadkill Star

The Charger’s résumé started well before Finnegan owned it. Wrecked and repurposed for ARCA stock car racing around 1969, it disappeared into an Indiana barn for the better part of five decades before someone dragged it out and put it up for sale online. Kibbe spotted the listing and flagged it to Finnegan, who bought the car and, alongside Tony Angelo, got it running again for a Roadkill segment — only for the 383 to die later that same summer, setting up this episode’s repair job.

The Drivetrain Doing the Work

Under the hood sits a 383-cubic-inch Dodge big-block V8, backed by a Silver Sport Transmissions conversion kit that adapts a Tremec Magnum six-speed manual gearbox directly into the B-body chassis. It’s a setup that lets a decades-old race car shift like something built this decade, even while the rest of the Charger fights the driver at every turn. In the episode, Finnegan walks through exactly what killed the engine and the mechanical steps needed to get it firing again.

Two Projects, One Garage

Episode 76 doesn’t just cover the Charger — Finnegan also updates viewers on his “Trade My Truck” project running in parallel. It’s the kind of split-focus episode regulars of the channel have come to expect, jumping between builds the way a lot of car-build content in the TRENDING NOW corner of YouTube tends to operate, bouncing from one shop bay to the next without slowing down.

Whether Death Metal ever drives straight is still an open question. For now, Finnegan’s got it running again, the Tremec six-speed is doing its job, and the roll cage remains exactly as terrifying as advertised — which, for this particular Charger, counts as a win.