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Caved In Barn Find

caved-in-barn

Reader Justin T came across an interesting barn find just down the street from where he lives and he thought we might be interested in seeing it. It’s a Plymouth GTX and while we would love to see this machine back on the street someday, it will likely never happen. This poor Mopar has seen its fair share of rough times and its situation just keeps getting worse. Thanks Justin for taking these great photos and for sharing them with us!

Plymouth-GTX-side-damage

This car’s life has been rough almost from day one. Shortly after it was purchased, it was slide into a telephone pole, leaving a massive amount of damage to the front end. Not many people would have the means to tackle fixing this kind of structural damage, but anything is possible with enough money and skill. The owner obviously lacked the means to fix it, so they drug it into their barn and left it for dead.

Caved-in-GTX

If being wrecked wasn’t bad enough, the barn it is parked in has begun to cave in on it. Each day the barn grows a little weaker and more of it falls in on the GTX. The barn is already resting on the roof of the car so getting it out would involve tearing the barn apart. Justin has visited with the owner about selling the car, but they are unwilling to part with it. They did allow him to venture into the barn to take these photos though.

Plymouth-GTX-logo

It might be sad to see a car like this left to slowly rot away, but we are glad that Justin was able to document it before that building collapses completely. Perhaps the owner will decide to have a little compassion on it soon and let someone pull it to safety. Not every barn find can be saved, but in this case at least its story can be preserved. Justin isn’t sure what year this GTX is, so we thought we would leave it up to your collective knowledge to identify it for him!

Comments

  1. Avatar Don Andreina

    My guess is 68

    Like 1
    • Avatar Morgan E. Winter

      Correct.

      Like 1
  2. Avatar paul

    Not saying it couldn’t be fixed, but a hard shot to the cowl like this, is about as bad as it gets. Got a match?

    Like 1
  3. Avatar Jim-Bob

    The only way this thing is restorable is if it has a Hemi in it.

    Like 1
  4. Avatar Thomas Spencer

    One of my first cross country car trips was in the back seat of a ’68 Plymouth Road Runner, to my grandparent’s home in Colorado. Every time a I see a ’68, be it a Satellite, Road Runner, or GTX, it’s a good memory.

    Like 1
  5. Avatar Richard V

    “…but they are unwilling to part with it”! I just don’t understand people sometimes.

    Like 1
    • Avatar rancho bella

      I have a hard time understanding people most times…………….

      Like 1
      • Avatar paul

        I know a good shrink

        Like 1
    • Avatar Gary Lindel

      Probably want to keep it since it is now a structural part of the barn.

      Like 1
    • Avatar Mike B.

      I bet if you waved a handful of $100’s at the owner he would part with it. IMO, most people will not part with thier yard (barn) art because they don’t know what it is worth and don’t want to “get suckered” into selling for peanuts.

      Be realistic with the owner. Do your research and tell the owner your estimate of value of thier vehicle and be reasonable in your offer.

      Like 1
  6. Avatar Rob

    From the markers, my guess would be 1968

    Like 1
  7. Avatar Rick

    Round side marker light means it’s a ’68 model for sure.

    Like 1
  8. Avatar Steve Hughes

    I bet if given the chance Graveyard Carz could bring it back better than new if given the chance. They are totally awesome on resurrecting Mopars. Someone needs to notify them and see if they could persuade the owner to turn it over to them. I’m sure they would love to tackle the restoration. zdraginman

    Like 1
  9. Avatar OLDSTUFF1941

    1968…and with not even a halfway good look at the hood or any thing to do with the engine, It’s hard to say whether this is one you could break even on after an extensive resto…If it was a HEMI or even a 440 SIX PACK ….it would be worth the time, I’ve seen worse,…brought back to life.

    Like 1
  10. Avatar Bryan Cohn

    Richard V, you know the story. “We are going to restore it as soon as we finish X” or “Our long dead son Skippy owned this car and before he offed’ himself on heroin in 1978, this was his car”.

    The stories are always the same, to the point we could write a book, assign a number to each story and then people could save their breath and just say “17”. We’d all nod knowingly as we either have the book for quick reference or have easy access to the contents of the book via the “I’m going to restore it but…” App. Available for all operating systems.

    Like 1
    • Avatar paul

      Great idea an app for our smart phones while traveling, see a car, look it up, snap, you have the whole story on your phone.

      Like 1
    • Avatar rancho bella

      Bryan…………I crown you “King for the Day”. Dang funny I’ll say……..

      Like 1
  11. Avatar Richard V

    Yes, of course, you’re right Bryan. Being the incurable nostalgic that I am I should have considered those issues – it’s just hard to see a find being slowly crushed into oblivion when it “could” have been saved. But, as Paul said, taking the blow where it did could be fatal for many cars.

    Like 1
    • Avatar paul

      It isn’t so much “could be fatal”, to fix this cowl you need to pull the complete dash, wiring, etc,most of the interior,remove door & fender & hood, windsheild, pull complete engine & trans & remove all related parts on the cowl, so basically your taking the entire car apart then putting it up on a frame machine to do your pulls which if it isn’t too rusty will allow you to pull the unibody out far enough using a laser aligner measure / pull to where it needs to be, then cut the cowl from the a pillar on the windshield through the area of the cowl & across the floor, where your going to splice the downer used cowl in. As I said it can be done but.

      Like 1
      • Avatar paul

        I left out the rt front suspension r&r & replace some part or all of the apron. This car would be better served as a donor for another project.

        Like 1
  12. Avatar Livermoron

    I have been watching bits and pieces of Graveyard Carz on Velocity lately. They are super talented at restoring Mopar muscle but super annoying to listen to. Anyway, that GTX looks like something they could handle no problem.

    Like 1
    • Avatar Morgan E. Winter

      I feel the same way about that show, wish it had more car content and less of their goofiness.

      Like 1
  13. Avatar FRED

    it saddens me to see a mopar looking like this.,what kind of people do these things to these precious gems? i just hope they don’t treat their pets or kids for that matter like this.they probably don’t have enough sense to give it a proper burial.
    please forgive spelling errors, just had my third stroke and now can’t remember s??t

    Like 1
  14. Avatar dave

    is there a reason y they wont part with it even tho the side is messed up, did someone die n it and now they dont want to get rid of it

    Like 1
    • Avatar paul

      dave that is reason #12.

      Like 1
  15. Avatar Joe T

    With all the trash shown in the one picture of the engine bay, I would suspect that the intake is gone if not the complete motor. Sad to see old Mopars, or any old muscle cars in this condition.

    Like 1
  16. Avatar Clarence

    It is a 1968-the only year that Chrysler used the small round side marker lamps. And I believe that all 1968 GTXs have the 440 HP 375 horsepower four barrel engine.

    Like 1
  17. Avatar Chris A.

    With Paul’s description of just the structural work involved, the new owner better have a lot of time and a great body shop together with a huge wallet. What was the base engine if it doesn’t have a Hemi or 440 Six Pack.

    Like 1
  18. Avatar twwokc

    Man, it would truly be a labor of love to bring this one back from the dead.
    This thing took one hell of a hit. Wonder if it was a total and the owner bought it back from the insurance co.?

    Like 1
  19. Avatar Mike Soulios

    This car is definitely a 1968 GTX with most likely a 440 motor. All GTX’s I have seen had the polished strip across the trunk lid, as also some later model Roadrunners did. I owned a 68 Hemi Roadrunner early model that did not have the strip across the lid. In the photos I can not see the exhaust tail pipes , but that gave a distinct description on what motor was in it. The Hemi’s had a stock round chrome end pipe while the 440’s had a rectangular end.
    this car can certainly be restored.

    Like 1
  20. Avatar jim s

    i too think it would be a good parts car. however if the car is holding up the barn how much money/time is it going to take just to make the barn safe enought to remove the car? great find

    Like 1
  21. Avatar Shivasdad

    My dad bought one of these in ’69 for my mom to drive. The brakes were apparently not up to the task of stopping a heavy car under my mom’s leadfoot. He upgraded to 10″ drums but it still didn’t help enough to keep her from running over (literally) a VW bug at a stoplight. I was a year old and my brother was five. No one was hurt, but that GTX never got fixed, she got a Cutlass next. I never knew what engine the car had, but that story is family legend.

    Like 1
  22. Avatar Catfish Phil

    The radiator is still in it, so maybe the motor is, too. But with all that junk in the engine compartment, perhaps only the carb could be gone. This is a full restoration and not for the faint-of-heart (me)…

    Like 1
  23. Avatar Sim

    One of the reasons I love reading Barn Finds every morning. Often the story is worth far more than the car.

    Like 1
  24. Avatar Rick

    I already said that the round side marker light meant it was a ’68, Clearance – why do you have to repeat it? Anyhow, once that thing is drug out of the barn, if it was mine, I’d just give it a good douche out and drive it as is. Kidding! Rather than doing a rotisserie restore on an obviously rusty car w/ a creamed cowl, I would find a ’68 Satellite and use that wreck as donor to build it into a GTX. Bet you could find a clean enough old Satellite for $10-12k, maybe less. Doesn’t even have to be that nice. Restoring that rusty old wreck would cost $$$ more that using it as a donor. And all you’d have in the end is a rebuilt total that you spent way too much money on that you’d never get back . . .

    Like 1
  25. Avatar andy

    My cousin had one, allegedly belonged to his cousin, was considered too much car for me at 17 plus he wasn’t coming off it, it was left parked next to his barn for 12 yrs never moved the barn caught on fire and took it out! That was story #6 an #14!!

    Like 1

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