1963 Dodge 330 - Lights, Camera, Action!

Ugliness is rarely a virtue, but that never stopped all the big hair bands of the '70s and '80s from bagging hoards of groupies on a nightly basis. And let's face it, despite their musical talents, most of those dudes were aesthetically challenged to say the least. Nonetheless, there's something to be said for getting the job done with subpar physical attributes, and Ted Moser's '63 Dodge 330 does just that.

It has a face that only a mother could love-make that an intoxicated mother wearing a blindfold-but the Mopar draws a cult following wherever it goes. Maybe the sweet sound of the 446ci big-block Wedge has something to do with it, or perhaps it exudes a certain mystique that we just don't understand. Whatever the case may be, Ted's 330 is a rock star on mismatched wheels. As bizarre as it may seem, sometimes ugliness is game.

Ted is no stranger to stardom, and anybody who has ever watched a movie or turned on a TV set has probably seen his work. He owns and operates Picture Car Warehouse (www.PictureCarWarehouse.net), which supplies every type of vehicle imaginable-from muscle cars to VW buses to Ferraris-for feature films, commercials, TV shows, and music videos. Just some of the high-profile movies he's built cars for include Die Hard 2, Grindhouse, World's Fastest Indian, Bandits, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Family Man, The Bucket List, Seven Pounds, and Rush Hour 2. Considering that his day job involves mingling in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, it seems rather peculiar that Ted took a low-buck, bare-bones approach to building a black sheep of a Mopar for his own personal ride. Sure, Ted deals with self-absorbed actors and directors all day, but as it turns out he's not all that different from the rest of us. "The really high-end restomod cars are nice, but who the hell has $70,000 or $80,000 to spend on a car? My intention with this 330 was to keep things simple and try not to turn it into something that it isn't," he says. "I wanted an old-school look, which is why there's nothing newer than 1970 on the car."

Like most hot rodders, Ted lacks the willpower to turn down a good deal on a project car. Fortunately, hunting down vintage Detroit iron is part of his job description, which is how he stumbled upon his 330. While shooting the movie Bandits, which starred Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton, Ted had to feverishly scout for cars all over Oregon. "The production schedule was crazy because they kept stealing cars in the movie. We hit 50 venues in 57 days, and needless to say, I ended up buying a lot of cars," he says. "We hit the jackpot when we found a muscle car dealer that had gone out of business. I bought 15 cars in total, including a '70 Superbee, two GTOs, a Superbird, and this '63 Dodge 330. It was a six-cylinder, three-speed car that was very solid from top to bottom."

As a Mopar buff, Ted saw potential where others saw a fugly bug-eyed mutant. Although the 330 represented the lowest trim level available on Dodge's fullsize offerings in '63 and '64, Ted says, the top-of-the-line Polara was built in greater volume. "The 330 is actually rarer than the Polara, and two thirds of them were powered by V-8s. Also, fewer two-door post cars were built than hardtops, which makes them more valuable," he says. So it turns out that what appears to be a garden variety straight-six, two-door post 330 is actually the rarest of the 330/440/Polara lineup. History book minutia aside, the wimpy engine and trans combo weren't going to cut it. While filming 2 Fast 2 Furious, Ted found a '68 Charger convertible that was too beat to restore, but whose 440 was prime plucking material.

Once the big-block was back at his shop, Ted tore it down, gave the block a cleanup bore, and freshened it up with new rings, bearings, and 10.25:1 JE pistons. Since the 330 was being built as a driver and not a race car, he retained the stock crank, rods, and iron cylinder heads. Performance mods are limited to a Mopar Performance 228/241-at-.050 hydraulic flat tappet cam, an Edelbrock intake manifold, dual Carter carbs, and TTI long-tube headers. As simple and inexpensive as the combo may be, it still puts down a respectable 380 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque on the chassis dyno. Since Ted's an old-school kind of guy, he naturally opted for a Chrysler A-833 four-speed trans to split the big-block's torque.

Decades of building movie cars has taught Ted to be resourceful, and that theme is visible throughout the 330. "Instead of buying a bunch of new parts, I wanted to build a car using parts I already had laying around the shop. The motor is nothing special, and I built it to near stock specs, but it makes plenty of power and it starts, idles, and drives beautifully," he says. The deft recycling continues beneath the car as well. The front K-member, suspension, steering box, and disc brakes are off of a '70 B-Body, and Ted says that the setup bolted right in. To suspend the Chrysler 83/4-inch rearend, Ted installed a set of leaf springs off of a factory Hemi car and relocated them inward for additional tire clearance. Custom subframe connectors further stiffen up the chassis. For rolling stock, Ted once again got a little creative. "I found a pair of 15x4 Torq-Thrust wheels laying around the shop, and thought, 'Hey, those would look cool on the car.' I had some custom 15x10 steelies made for the rear, and I think the mismatched wheel combo gives the car a unique nostalgic look."

The 330 doesn't just look the part, it also drives with genuine nostalgic flair. And Ted wouldn't have it any other way. "It just didn't seem right to put things like power steering, power brakes, a radio, window tint, or air conditioning on a car like this, and as a result, it takes a lot of work to drive it. I took it through an autocross once, which was a real chore with the manual steering, and they had to time me with a sun dial," he says. Despite dripping in sweat for 2,000 miles on the 2008 Power Tour, Ted loved every minute of it. "It was so hot inside the car, but it ran great and didn't have any problems. I averaged 80 mph on the freeway and got 9 mpg. The car has the best sound system in the world, since I can't hear anything but that sweet big-block tune."

While cruising the country, the 330 drew legions of fans wherever it went. Much like the not-so-good-looking rock stars of decades past, the car's funky mug only enhanced its appeal. The 330's unique front end inspired Kevin King of Year One to name it "Mothra," after the '60s monster flick, and the handle stuck. "This car is just so damn ugly, and it looks just like a giant monster as it comes up behind you in the rearview mirror. You hardly see any of them around, and I think that's part of the draw," Ted says. "I thought it was hilarious that there were so many beautiful cars on the Power Tour, but everyone was talking about Mothra. It had a cult following wherever it went." And therein lies the mystery. Why something that looks like this 330 has so much universal appeal is a conundrum that may never be solved. If we could answer that, then pudgy, middle-aged guys like us would be hanging out with Megan Fox, not writing magazine articles.

Inside the Movie Car Biz Buying, building, and hunting for project cars is the hot rodder's way of life. The big difference is that Ted Moser gets paid to do it. "My wife told me that I had to figure out a way to support my habit, which is why I started my picture car business," he says. That's not exactly how Picture Car Warehouse came to be, but Ted didn't always have dreams of wrecking cars on camera for a living. By age 3, he was already a bona fide car nut who had the unique ability to identify the make and model of every car he saw on the road. He started working at his dad's gas station at 9 years old, which gave him plenty of exposure to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. "The quality of the cars back then wasn't that great, so I got plenty of hands-on experience working on them."

Like many car-crazy kids growing up in the '60s, Ted's fascination with cars hit another gear after watching a dark green '68 Mustang fastback tear up the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt. He hadn't figured out how to turn his love of cars into a living just yet, so he went to work for both attorneys and lawyers after finishing school. "I didn't like either of those jobs, so I went back to work at my dad's gas station and eventually opened up my own repair shop," he says. "I got a call from a Denver-based production company one day that wanted me to help build some cars for Die Hard 2. I ended up becoming the transportation coordinator. Then after working on 2 Fast 2 Furious, I opened up my own company. We started with just 25 cars, but now we have over 700 in our rental fleet."

In addition to renting out everything from ice cream trucks and tractors, to exotics and muscle cars, Ted's duties include building stunt cars and rigging them up for high-speed action sequences. To this day, he draws inspiration from Steve McQueen's airborne Mustang fastback. "The movie Bullitt started my career. How we build our stunt cars and rig cameras to them were all inspired by that movie. A lot of the newer films use CGI, but it just isn't the same," he says. While director edicts often call for wrecking cars, rest assured that Ted's on our side. "I love muscle cars, so I always do what I can to save them. During 2 Fast 2 Furious, they wanted to launch a Camaro into a boat, so I bought a car that was nothing but rust and put a quickie paintjob on it. The director had his doubts, but I insisted that it would work. The plan panned out, and we didn't have to ruin a good car. Another example that comes to mind is when we were told to wreck some '64 Corvettes. I wasn't about to destroy a bunch of midyear Vettes, so I had molds made out of the '64 Corvette bodies and put them on '84 Corvette chassis. I love wrecking BMWs and Mercedes, but I hate wrecking muscle cars." -Stephen Kim