I made this page to share some thoughts and discoveries with those of you interested in building a General Lee or who just simply love the TV show.

My main motivation for creating this page came from researching the General Lee and finding conflicting information. To make matters worse all this conflicting information claimed to be "official" and "accurate". Since this can get confusing I'd like to clear the air by providing my observations.

The most important thing to realize from the get go is that if you begin your search chasing the "one and only" General Lee you will run yourself in circles. Even though the internet is full of information it is also somewhat deceptive. Words like "official" and "accurate" can often blind people into thinking that what they are looking at is what their replica should look like.

I am aware that the General Lee according to the storyline was the same 1969 Dodge Charger throughout. Nowhere in the storyline did the Dukes get rid of one and buy another. The producers wanted the viewers to think that they were looking at the same car from the pilot episode all the way through season 7 and in the reunion. The sad truth of the matter however is that over the 7 season run roughly 300 Chargers were used and I have yet to see the show's storyline establish exact details like engine size, etc. However, there are some basic guidelines to follow:

1. The General Lee is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger. While the most popular color is supposedly from a 1974 Corvette (flame red) most people choose an orange like Hemi Orange or Chevrolet Hugger orange. In the episodes the General seemed to be very reddish orange in some scenes and then a paler orange in others. I am told that the Corvette flame red pulls off this shade shifting quite accurately but if you want to go for a more set color Hemi orange or Hugger orange should work quite nicely. A good tip is to purchase a spray can with the color of choice and test it on a scrap piece of metal to see what tone best suits your taste. As long as the color is orange it will work. I am also told that a Charger from 1968-1970 will work as well but a 68 or 70 will need minor modifications to make it look like the 69. In short the base car needs to be an orange 69 Dodge Charger.

2. Each door has a 01 printed on it. The outlines are white and the center bars are black.

3. There is a confederate flag on the roof of the car which spans most of the roofline. On each side of the confederate flag over the doors, the words "GENERAL LEE" are printed in blue with white outlines.

4. The interior in most General Lees were tan but some episodes had Chargers with black interiors. There is a 3 point rollbar behind the front seats.

5. While Bo and Luke climbed through the windows to enter and exit the car, the doors were not welded shut. It was an illusion generated by the show's creators and nothing more.

6. 10 spoke American Racing vector wheels were used.

7. There was a CB in the car with an antenna on the trunklid.

8. The transmission remained a 4 speed automatic throughout the show.

9. While the engine size varied depending on what the car was used for, they were all Mopar V8 engines. Personally my favorite Mopar engine was the 383.

Aside from that, play with the dimensions. Watch the TV show