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Cheap 1969 Plymouth Road Runner?

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.

Comments

  1. Avatar Rangerwalker24

    Is it riding low because the frame is gone?
    I don’t see 4 grand here and I like Road Runners!

    Like 19
    • Avatar RobB

      I don’t either and I’m in the middle of restoring mine.

      Like 9
  2. Avatar Tom

    Cheap to buy + restoration cost divided by 4 = what you will sell it for.

    Like 3
  3. Avatar Dave Mika Member

    Are those pop-out 1/4 windows on the back?

    Like 2
    • Avatar RobB

      yes

      Like 1
    • Avatar Dusty Rider

      Yes, they had roll up windows in the hard tops, but not the sedans I think.

      Like 2
    • Avatar Lance

      On this car they probably will.

      Like 2
  4. Avatar Troy s

    I’m sure that minicycle air cleaner was a big help. Other than that everything else looks in order….

    Like 2
  5. Avatar PaulG

    If it run’s and drives, I’d be so tempted to drive it to a MOPAR show and vie for best survivor!

    Like 5
  6. Avatar Superdessucke

    It looks rotten. And when these subframe/torsion bar cars get rotten, it’s not a good thing.

    Like 6
  7. Avatar TimM

    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!!!

    Like 2
    • Avatar Superdessucke

      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.

      Like 6
  8. Avatar Gaspumpchas

    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

    Like 5
  9. Avatar Arthell64

    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.

    Like 5
  10. Avatar Joe Machado

    Hurricane Sandy comes to mind

    Like 2
  11. Avatar Camaro Joe

    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.

    Like 7
  12. Avatar Mark H

    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….

    Like 2
    • Avatar Angrymike

      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.

      Like 0
  13. Avatar Nate

    pos…

    Like 2
  14. Avatar cunnanm

    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.

    Like 2
  15. Avatar jerry z

    Find a nice Satellite body and make a clone.

    Like 2
    • Avatar bone

      no !!!!!!!!!

      Like 0
  16. Avatar JOHN Member

    I really dig the half vinyl top or whatever it had… looks to have trim across the roof beginning at the quarter windows?

    Like 1
  17. Avatar Camaro Joe

    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.

    Like 7
  18. Avatar Hemidavey

    Good parts car

    Like 1
  19. Avatar jimmy the orphan

    Hood looks good. That’s all I need.

    Like 1
  20. Avatar Lance

    Who or what was chewing the the hood? LOL. Beware the salt monster.

    Like 2
    • Avatar Duaney

      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.

      Like 1
  21. Avatar 71FXSuperGlide

    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.

    Like 1
  22. Avatar Del

    Oh my !

    I can hear it rust and I am 3000 miles away

    Like 4
    • Avatar jeff Member

      snap crack pop, rice crispys car

      Like 1
  23. Avatar Comet

    Bring a dust pan and broom.

    Like 4
  24. Avatar James

    “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!!

    Like 0
  25. Avatar jeff Member

    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………….

    Like 0
  26. Avatar Terry Bowman

    Looks “Original” to me. Fair parts car.

    Like 0
  27. Avatar jw

    Is that a ram air hood?

    Like 1
  28. Avatar STEVE

    I hate to say this……BUT…..This ROADRUNNER is probabably NOT worth the trouble or money

    Like 0
  29. Avatar Don

    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..

    Like 0
    • Avatar Terry Bowman

      Don, that might explain all the mud in the engine compartment.

      Like 0
  30. Avatar Mike Pilkinton

    It is not lost yet. Please save it !!!!!

    Like 0

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