This seller is another candidate for the worst photographer on Craigslist but here we have a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. The car is black with a white interior and claims to still retain the numbers matching 383 cubic inch V8 under the hood. You can see some up-close pictures here on Craigslist or go see the car in person near Boston, Massachusetts. The seller is asking $4,000 and will not part out the car.
OK, the hood and the front bumper look like swiss cheese but the car still has a lot of good parts and could possibly still be saved from rust cancer with a few replacement parts. Introduced in 1968, the Plymouth Road Runner was initially configured to be an inexpensive muscle car. It’s body lines and bulging hood are unmistakable.
The 383 cubic inch V8 was standard in 1969 and produced 335 horsepower. A buyer could also opt for a 426 cubic inch V8 Hemi or a 440 cubic inch V8 motor. Two transmissions were available – a 3 speed automatic or a 4-speed manual transmission, as found in this car. As shown below, the interior is fairly trashed and worn but could be cleaned up.
With 81,125 Plymouth Road Runners sold in the United States and another 3,295 sold outside the United States, the Plymouth Road Runner was a sales success. It was also named the Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1969. When new, or in nice shape, they really are fun cars to drive. This one is going to take a monumental amount of work just to get it roadworthy.
It seems slightly ironic that this car’s specific location is in a community named Swampscott, seeing as the car looks like it was found in a swamp. No offense to Swampscott, I’m sure it’s a nice community, but man this thing is rusty! Let us know in the comments below whether you think this car will end up as a parts car or whether you think it is worth saving for the $4,000 asking price.
Is it riding low because the frame is gone?
I don’t see 4 grand here and I like Road Runners!
I don’t either and I’m in the middle of restoring mine.
Cheap to buy + restoration cost divided by 4 = what you will sell it for.
Are those pop-out 1/4 windows on the back?
yes
Yes, they had roll up windows in the hard tops, but not the sedans I think.
On this car they probably will.
I’m sure that minicycle air cleaner was a big help. Other than that everything else looks in order….
If it run’s and drives, I’d be so tempted to drive it to a MOPAR show and vie for best survivor!
It looks rotten. And when these subframe/torsion bar cars get rotten, it’s not a good thing.
The car was driven in the snow with salt getting in the hood and bumper!!! Salt + sheet metal = lots of money to restore!!! I see this as a parts car and it may have $4000 worth of parts on it!!! Is would be good to see what’s left underneath the car!!!
My grandparents bought a ’69 Coronet 500 new. They lived in Chicago. By 1975 the trunk floor was completely rusted by the wheel wells. My black sheep rock singer uncle who lived at home shortly thereafter wrapped it around a tree. Since he survived it obviously had some structural Integrity left but these did not take well to salt.
Does look like this boid spent sometime under water. Might be the ironworms got the torsion bar anchors, might be why she’s sitting low. Looker over good.
Cheers
GPC
She’s rough at least the seller knows it’s a parts car. If it was a charger they would be asking stupid money like $18,000.
Hurricane Sandy comes to mind
The seller did an OK job of taking pictures. The first one showing the entire front edge of the hood gone, and holes in the front bumper tells you everything you need to know. There’s 99% sure nothing left of the fenders, doors, quarters, floor pan, cowl or trunk. No need to waste more pictures on it.
My Dad ordered and then picked up from the rail siding a 69 383 4-speed car. Hounds tooth high-back buckets, console, cool decals. Great memories of him disconnecting the headers and driving around the block then hiding it in the garage! I still have the bill of sale from when he traded it in a year later for a Ford van. Even at 6 years old I knew that was wrong. I used to think I might run across it someday and get it back but they simply did not last very long back then….
I know the feels, still looking for my father’s 69 black, black vinyl top with blue buckets and an auto. It was an air car too. It’s probably gone, Ohio isn’t kind to old mopars.
pos…
Only the 383 and Hemi engines were available in the 69 Road Runner unless you got the A12 440 six barrel car mid-year. A 440 4 barrel was the base GTX engine.
Find a nice Satellite body and make a clone.
no !!!!!!!!!
I really dig the half vinyl top or whatever it had… looks to have trim across the roof beginning at the quarter windows?
Angrymike, a few survived in Ohio, but very few. My all black 65 Belvedere, 2 Dr. Ht. 383 TF was traded into the Chevy dealer in Chardon OH with low miles in 1970 by the original owner’s son. A guy from Middlefield OH bought it and it kicked around his family as a summer driver until he brought it to western PA in 1978. It was sold to a local 18 year old whose parents paid “Hemi money” at the local specialty car dealer. He wrecked it in the first snow storm, so not much rust damage happened.
It sat in his parent’s driveway for 30 months while they paid it off, then they called my Dad’s junkyard and he hauled it away for nothing. I got it from Dad for my garage sale 1970 Ski Doo ($10) plus $50 cash. No holes, little rust, just
bent. A couple friends straightened it, painted it, and it was my summer beater in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.
At that point it became time to sell it or do it right. Since I never sell anything, I spent $30K plus a full year of labor over 4 years. That taught me that there’s a TON more rust in those cars than you can see. It’s now sitting in my building with 6 Chevys, a 1943 Ford MB Jeep (283 Chevy power).
Don’t ever try to do a Mopar without somebody who has done one before. The stuff that happened to me with a “Good” car will surprise you and your wallet into oblivion. One of these cars is a parts car on a good day.
Good parts car
Hood looks good. That’s all I need.
Who or what was chewing the the hood? LOL. Beware the salt monster.
actually not salt that ate the hood, but the extreme high humidity of Massachusett’s, where everything is dripping wet, all the time. Cars have to be in a heated and de-humidified environment there to live.
Swampscott is right on the water, so it’s not surprising between the salt air and the winters there, the metal would be in poor shape.
Hopefully this can be saved, but it’s going to take some deep pockets.
Oh my !
I can hear it rust and I am 3000 miles away
snap crack pop, rice crispys car
Bring a dust pan and broom.
“This seller is another candidate for the worst photographer on Craigslist”
Just because the guy uses the new “rust filter” on his camera, it doesn’t make him a bad photographer!!
There used to be a list of the 12 most often coined phrases in muscle car speak….Like could be restored, Heck the Titanic could be restored…….
Ya cant polish a turd………..as my dad said jack up the battery and slide in under as new body………….
Looks “Original” to me. Fair parts car.
Is that a ram air hood?
I hate to say this……BUT…..This ROADRUNNER is probabably NOT worth the trouble or money
Looking at the pictures & all that rust, leads me to believe this ride may have been in a flood or under water..I’ve seen a lot of cars & rarely do I see the dashboard rusting without direct contact with water..
Don, that might explain all the mud in the engine compartment.
It is not lost yet. Please save it !!!!!