In my mind, building a "clone" has a lot of advantages over owning the real thing if you actually want to drive and have fun with the car.

The original Max Wedge cars are few and far between, and for the Mopar guys they probably rank right behind the HEMI cars (and maybe the wing cars) as far as desirability and price. The original cars that are in collections or still being raced are now valued far beyond the point where most people who could afford them would take them out and thrash them on a regular basis. Building a "close" clone can give you a car you could actually enjoy driving on a regular basis.

Once you find a body that is a likely candidate for the build, this could be a fairly simple and RELATIVELY inexpensive build depending on how closely you want to duplicate the original cars. The closer you want to exactly duplicate the car (date coding parts absolutely correct engine and drive train etc) the more expensive it gets.

Visually the major components you will need include:

The intake ( as I recall the ports on the MAX wedge heads were HUGE and using the intake on standard B/BR Chrysler heads results in MAJOR port mis-match.

The Exhaust, which as you say were long tube cast iron headers, but I understand that someone is reproducing these now.

4 speeds or pushbutton Torqueflights were both correct for these cars, and either would be fairy easy to come by.

Super Stock rear springs (which usually set these cars up pretty high in the rear, I believe are still available through Mopar Performance.

Personally, If I were building one just as a fun car, I would build a fairly "mild" 440 throw on an in line dual quad intake, cast-iron headers, a set of 3.54 gears, and a 4 speed. I would defiantly upgrade the front brakes with discs, and then take it out and have fun with it.

By the way, if the car you remember was a 62, it would have the 413 Max wedge as the 426 Max Wedge engines were not introduced until mid 63.