This low miles Plymouth GTX listed here on craigslist with an asking of $18,500 has an interesting history. The story goes a farmer bought it and used the 440 engine out of it for his pickup and it has only 23,000 miles. The car was stored inside for 8 years and outside for three more years. The current owner has had it for 20 years. The owner was able to find the truck and recover the engine. The engine needs a rebuilt, but apparently it’s the original matching numbers unit. The car looks complete and original in the pictures. What do you think you’d find if you went to Sterling, Colorado to have a look? All this story needs is a farmer’s daughter to make it complete.
This appears to be the build sheet, or part of it. The seller doesn’t say what year the GTX is, but it appears to be a 1968, right? The mice don’t seem to have made a home here.
The engine has been reinstalled, or at least set in place, but not complete. Does this look right?
This GTX is said to be mostly rust free. In the one picture of the interior, it looks complete and original. What do you think of this tale? Could this really be a bargain or even worth the asking price? I’m really curious to see the comments on this and hear what you knowledgable folks have to say. And, no, sorry, there’s no farmer’s daughter in this tale. You’ll have to provide the punchline!
Yes that’s a 68 and there’s no way to say what it’s worth without seeing the bottom of it but if it’s solid as it seems then that’s a fair price if you’re in the market. The fender tag, build sheet, and blue stripe help the value. The seat covers aren’t original and should be replaced with stock style covers. Hard to say if the front seats are right or not, something seems odd about them but it could just be those odd ball covers.
Price looks ok, except 1. data plate looks disconnected and area around it looks in worse condition than rest of car, 2. build sheet looks a bit bright for sitting around for 48 years, 3. Driver’s arm rest looks like many hours of seat time. 4. Not very happy with story about engine swap in and out of farmer’s pickup…My guess is 122K miles not 22. Were there cattle inside the car leaning on inside driver’s side upper door?
Here owner is unsure of engine and asking forum.
http://www.classicmoparforum.com/help-with-id-1967-440/
http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/archive/index.php/t-97955.html
Last post on the forum says engine is not original to the car without the “HP” stamp.
There’s a screw missing on one of the tags, and the other side is not a rivet. I’d have somebody check the story pretty well first.
What to say upon finding the farmer only has a son….”Excuse me farmer, but I’m in the wrong joke!”
When I see cars in the background that are obviously built it makes me wonder why the seller is giving up on this GTX. He certainly has access to a large garage! Who paints an engine before rebuilding it? I agree with Bob, those can’t be the right seat covers, and if they are, get rid of them! Ugly!! Larger tires in the rear, looks like this car might have been used for street racing? Something’s not right here
Car will sell.
The engine has been painted, why? Why paint an engine that needs work? It looks fairly original, I’d get it running and drive it, but first have it inspected, know what’s got rust and what’s missing. As far as the price, I’ll leave it up to the sucker with money burning a hole in his pocket
I totally agree with Cassidy, seeing his shop and other cars makes me wonder why he wouldn’t restore this car himself if it’s a numbers matching car. I definitely would need to take a Mopar guy with me to see this car in person before putting out any cash.
Four other owners and a reupholstery job doesn’t bode well for the original mileage claim.
I think its a screamin’ deal. A mostly complete, not rusty & orig “68 GTX for $18,500? Restored ones sell for BIG $$$. Who cares if it was street raced or whatever
Times are getting tough, maybe it’s a quick flip to pay for the other projects he has?
I have found the bigger the story, the more likely it has been embellished.
I may be wrong but the build sheet looks like the paint code is UU1 (frost blue body – frost blue top – single tone paint) but the car has vinyl roof moldings on it and the fender tag paint code is UW2 (frost blue body – sable white top – two tone) which would explain the vinyl roof moldings. If it was resprayed white in the past somebody did a through job – no blue to be seen. And it wouldn’t be the first time the broadcast sheet from another car wound up in the wrong car, but then there is that tek screw holding on the fender tag. That said, a Satellite in this condition would go for almost as much because you could clone a GTX from it.
RNR, Yes, I also looked at build sheet. Build/Broadcast Sheet VIN ends in 18 and dash VIN plate ends in 22. See this and next post.
VIN plate on dash:
IMHO the dash VIN tag looks the most original. The “L” confirms it was a 440 car. If that rear seat, with the build sheet, was taken from another car it seems almost scary how close the VIN’s were. I kinda of believe it may have been a factory error.
Maybe, but I don’t think the third to last digit is the same on build sheet and dash plate ((though it is hard to see on the build sheet, it does not look like a “1”)). So the VIN’s are not 4 cars apart. My guess is the greater the spread between assembly line build the less likely build sheet was put in wrong car, but who knows…if it was build on a Friday it may have been “Miller Time”.
Nice car.. Great project.. Worth it..
I’m thinking anybody that buys a car just for the engine to swap into his pickup isn’t smart enough to have a daughter….
4 owners and a driver’s door and arm rest that’s seen lots of use I’m guessing 120K on the chassis plus whatever was put on the engine after it was pulled. Throw all the BS story away and from just looking at the car with a non-matching engine seems a little rich but will probably sell.
If I had an open spot in my garages or barn this car would be sold already. This is a clean survivor with cheap seat covers from Napa and everyone seems to think its a story. I live in Ohio, cars looked worse than this when they were 10 years old. I see no evidence of a scam here! Some Farmers would yank a motor out of their wife’s new car to put in the truck that they use daily. They have work to do and a GTX hauls a lot less than a pick up! I see an opportunity to own a high end muscle car, if the underside is as solid as the rest of the car, the restoration will be vary nice when completed. As far as the fresh paint on the motor that needs rebuilt goes, I can say that when I was younger I rattle canned every motor I had. Amazing what 4cans of high temp and a cheap set of valve covers can do!!!
Not buying the story. Think is likely 122K. Would assume that at any rate. Looks like it would make a great car for someone. Seats are some kind of 70s re-cover. Maybe original structure; should be easy to replace if ya got the cash. Love the white/blue color scheme
Here’s the Fender Tag decode (minus the build date as you can’t make that out) if its legit:
CAR: Plymouth GTX 2 Door Hardtop
ENGINE: 440cid 4-bbl HP V8
TRANSMISSION: 3-Speed Automatic
TIRES: F70x14 Red Side Wall, Steel Belted
BUILD DATE: April ??
AXLE: 3.23 Rear Axle Ratio
INTERIOR: Sport Trim Grade, Vinyl Bucket Seats. Light Blue Interior.
PAINT: Two Tone Paint, Light Blue Metallic Upper Body Color and White Lower Body Color.
OTHER: Light Blue Metallic Upper Door Frame Color. Blue Horizontal Sport Stripe.
MOLDINGS:
19: Wide Sill Mouldings
25: Drip Rail Mouldings
78: Wheel Lip Mouldings
ABC OPTIONS:
H1: Power Brakes
R1: AM Radio
X2: Tinted Windshield Only
abc OPTIONS:
a6: Console
b4: Bucket Seats
h7: Fender or Hood Mounted Turn Signal Indicators
m6: Driver’s Outside Remote Operated Mirror
Thanks RSPCHARGER, you are way ahead of me.
I would like the Rally Nova in the back. I bought one of those new. Gold with black stripes. I wish I had it back. 1972 was the only year they had the Rally.
I believe some of those farm animals kicked the car in addition to leaning on it. This is another one I sure would want more details on and a thorough inspection would be a must.
Based on the link provided above on a b bodies forum (and provided it’s the same guy) said no swaps ever done but was also told it was not the original engine due to lack of an HP stamp. I guess if you want to split hairs as long as another engine was not put in place you could say it’s never been swapped.
Here is the car in 2012 photo.
Looks like it had a hard life for 22k Whats up with the ponch looking hood tac
My friend and I purchased this car from the gentleman in Colorado! As a side note we also DROVE back to Las Vegas the 71 Challenger he also had. This car is absolutely what he said it was all original #s matching everything. The car is cleaning up very nicely. We are going to shoot the engine bay with a fresh coat of polar white tomorrow and the 440 is expected to be back from the machine shop on Monday with a healthy cam and fresh rotating assembly. I own a restoration shop my friend is retired and owned this exact car in 1968 except his had black stripes and black top.
About 7 months ago he was reminiscing about it and we got on the interweb and found a 70 roadrunner locally (which we still have) went to check it out and took it home. The roadrunner is completely intact minus the 383 until this past Friday when we found the 383 that came out of it in a dodge pickup on craigslist Crazy!!!
Rewind 30 days looking for a 383 for the roadrunner came across the ad for this GTX. I turned the monitor towards him and he about fell out of the chair.
So we called the number and talked for an hour about the GTX that was a Saturday. Friday was road trip time 4am hooked up the trailer and headed north. Well needless to say my buddy now has his GTX.
As for the Challenger its a 383 auto Green Go car painted white poorly I might add. She is getting stripped down and going back to original and getting flipped to pay for the restoration of the GTX. Road runner is all cleaned up 383/727 going back where it belongs tomorrow some light bodywork sealer and will be also be sold.
As for the GTX it will be restored to the black and white he had in 68. Right now its getting a k member coilover disk conversion and fresh paint inside and under. The exterior is going to remain so he can drive it and enjoy it for awhile with all her patina. Wish us luck all and good night.
My friend and I purchased this car from the gentleman in Colorado! As a side note we also DROVE back to Las Vegas the 71 Challenger he also had. This car is absolutely what he said it was all original #s matching everything. The car is cleaning up very nicely. We are going to shoot the engine bay with a fresh coat of polar white tomorrow and the 440 is expected to be back from the machine shop on Monday with a healthy cam and fresh rotating assembly. I own a restoration shop my friend is retired and owned this exact car in 1968 except his had black stripes and black top.
About 7 months ago he was reminiscing about it and we got on the interweb and found a 70 roadrunner locally (which we still have) went to check it out and took it home. The roadrunner is completely intact minus the 383 until this past Friday when we found the 383 that came out of it in a dodge pickup on craigslist Crazy!!!
Rewind 30 days looking for a 383 for the roadrunner came across the ad for this GTX. I turned the monitor towards him and he about fell out of the chair.
So we called the number and talked for an hour about the GTX that was a Saturday. Friday was road trip time 4am hooked up the trailer and headed north. Well needless to say my buddy now has his GTX.
As for the Challenger its a 383 auto Green Go car painted white poorly I might add. She is getting stripped down and going back to original and getting flipped to pay for the restoration of the GTX. Road runner is all cleaned up 383/727 going back where it belongs tomorrow some light bodywork sealer and will be also be sold.
As for the GTX it will be restored to the black and white he had in 68. Right now its getting a k member coilover disk conversion and fresh paint inside and under. The exterior is going to remain so he can drive it and enjoy it for awhile with all her patina. Wish us luck all and good night.
BTW here is the Road Runner
and the challenger