If you like great cars with a great story, read on! Muscle car fans everywhere appreciate the ’68 Road Runner, Plymouth’s budget bruiser from the classic muscle-car era. This magazine-featured 1968 Plymouth Road Runner in Englewood, Colorado began life with, well, nearly everything you see here including a rare dealer-installed texture treatment on the roof called a “Petty Top,” according to the seller. The listing, here on eBay classified, includes dozens of high-resolution pictures and a detailed description of this incredible and interesting never-restored survivor. The $49,900 asking price is perfect if you promised your spouse to keep the cost of your next toy under $50k.
That’s not vinyl, folks! Apparently rolled on and embellished with fake seams, the textured top has help up well thanks to careful garaging for nearly the car’s entire life. Have you seen one of these tops before?
The B-Body engine compartment evokes memories across the ages as the inner stampings graced millions of classic muscle cars, including my ’66 Dodge Coronet. The original factory exhaust system (!!) channels spent gasses rearward. Only the typical yellowed washer tank and minimal surface-rust can disprove claims that this car vanished into a time warp in 1969 and returned in July of 2019.
The two-tone interior dresses up the low-budget brawler. Note the Road Runner’s standard vinyl flooring. Bench seat and no console are typical for the model. Buyers wanting more show with their go in a mid-size usually ordered up the GTX, Plymouth’s flashier showpiece.
Let’s admit that beige cars with a rolled-on brown top rarely star in the daydreams of typical motor-heads. The ho-hum colors make good camouflage, if evading the attention of the local constabulary matters. This 60,000 mile cream-puff is unlikely to get tangled up with the commuting masses, but hopefully the new buyer uncorks the 383 once in a while. Is the tide still rising on this fascinating car’s value, or going out to sea?
I clearly remember the vinyl tops in 62 on the full size cars(Impala, etc) GM went as far as to style the roof and form the roof panel to mimic the looks of a convertible top. I also remember right around then local companies installing “vinyl-look” tops, I believe JCWhitney even sold a kit. They never even approached the look of a real vinyl top. The glue down strips to look like the seams of the vinyl tops were horrible looking. The paint used was just as bad. It is interesting to see one that has survived, definitely different…
Ma mopar also offered a “mod top” option with like flowers and such… Now a “petty top”? In 68 chrysler corp.used an inland shifter, you’ll wanna change that.
Early production Road Runners came with the inland shifter. Later production it was a Hurst.
Those aren’t Road Runner taillight lenses…
What’s wrong about them? 23 years ago I was working near Hartsville, SC and spent my meal money on a 68 Satellite for $600! It was the same color, was 4 doors, LTOP motor, automatic, no radio, manual brakes. I tuned it up, tweaked the valves, and drove it home to Pittsburgh. I never should have sold it!
I didn’t think RE taillights had chrome like that. I could be wrong.
They look correct for a ’68, to me, but I’ve never been a Mopar fan.
You’re thinking of the ’69s. ’69 Roadrunners had deleted tail trim as standard.
Mine had those…
Sorry But they are!!!!
They are correct, but since this example doesn’t have the Deluxe Decor package they might appear different.
The base roadrunner in ’68 have the same correct bezels as here with this car. The ’69 base Roadrunner bezels were completely denuded along with the trunk lid’s chromed pot-metal tail trim panel
yep the tail lights are correct – the GTX/Satellites have the raised center to match the larger tail panel….
Those taillights are correct for all B bodied Plymouths for 68 – you could have ordered an aluminum trim panel for the trunk that had red paint that “connected ” the red lenses.
We had a ’67 valiant signet as our family car .
When the road runner came out ,my dad said that it was a 2 door taxi cab with a big engine . Rubber mats instead of carpet cheep vinyl seats and no chrome
Just a basic car as was the intention
My friend Billy bought a new Road Runner in’68 and kept on touting how quick it was, Billy wasnt really a car guy. So another
friend, Johnny goes for a ride with him and afterwards tells everyone how scary fast it was but it felt like he was sitting in a N.Y.C. taxi cause of the rubber floor covering, and bare bones interior. So me with my ’67 Corvette Coupe, 327-300 4 speed says to Billy how quick do you think your Mopar is, lets get out there on 303 and bang some gears. I had him all the way down the road untill just before the end of our measured 1/4 mile he would pull ahead of me ,,,,,,just barely. Three out of three times.
Early Rhino lining?? Like the look though.
Sort of correct… I was trying to think of something to compare it to, think of it as watered-down Rhino lining… nowhere near as thick or textured, though.
Rubber matting was pretty much the norm for most cars in the 50s. The really expensive cars, eh Packard Customs, has carpet in the late 40’s.
This is why you see “fully carpeted” in many early 60’s ads.
Rubber floormats just testify that this beauty is all business. Fordfan I like the reference as a 2 door taxicab with a big engine- that’s a great description! Sure is sweet- again for 49 large you need to look it over good. Did the RR have the hoodhinges painted the color of the car? Also looks like the fender bolts are the same color also. You guys think its worth that kind of scratch??? Good luck.
Cheers
GPC
These were nice and all that, but I mentioned this last week and I will again. Saw a restored Dodge Mirada at Iola, WI last summer. Blew my mind, I would much rather have that, far more rare. Far more beautiful, plus as an 83, still old enough as to not be labeled and new car lover on this site.
You mention it in every comment. Please go and buy a Mirada already. Or a Cordoba, or any late 70’s personal luxury barge. They are all pretty much the same.
Gotta be 1 douche that shows up here from time to time and currently SMDA holds the badge.
Chris M., same guy, different user name. I think this his 6th or 7th.
Steve R
I agree Steve. I believe Billy 07 if memory serves me? Lol
The Petty top story is complete fiction or known by the seller only so take your pick. Some MOPARS from this period could be optioned with the top painted a different color than the body and they did also use the C pillar trim pieces as an actual vinyl top car used. This would show up on the fender tag and build sheet. If it is in fact a dealer installed option it has very little value because it’s not on the build or the fender tag.
Self proclaimed expert……
I know what I know. How about you?
I’ll freely admit that I’ve never heard the phrase “Petty top” before today; I would like to hear the detailed story behind calling it a “Petty top” for a dealer installed painted on version of a vinyl roof.
The above said, Richard Petty’s team did race a Road Runner (at least once) with a textured painted top. Any connotation aligning that with what is said to be dealer installed item of the same type is a modern day inference by the seller.
Wasn’t painted. It was real and ripped at the front during a Daytona race. Required a long pit stop to patch. His use of a vinyl top stemmed from Penske using it on his winning Camaro. It didn’t make Penske’s car faster (although he hinted that it did). What it did do was hide the fact the top was paper-thin due to acid-dipping the body to cut weight.
Check here.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Txbx3Y2mDL4C&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=mopars+with+painted+tops+instead+of+vinyl&source=bl&ots=sVyDSMfUY_&sig=ACfU3U2-d0F1YMJqaLY5FReJyX6cDnBj8Q&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw6MX22IjoAhUKQ6wKHWilBSkQ6AEwEXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=mopars%20with%20painted%20tops%20instead%20of%20vinyl&f=false
Can’t make the link work but the more I think about it it may have been a weld failure. Not reported that way initially, but later clarified, as I recall. My reference to the Penske influence is correct as more than a few racers tried the vinyl top approach.
I am amazed at some of the knowledge i see in these comment sections . I’m very glad i found this sight it has certainly improved my eye and impressed the hell out of me , theres a few people here that really ought to think of writing a book. Their willingness to share the information that a lifetime of experiences has given is awesome.
Plymouth didn’t figure out the taillight thing until “69” on their Runners.
Road Runners were supposed to be based on the Belvedere trim level while the GTX leaned more towards the Satellite. I’m guessing that the fender-mounted turn signal indicators were optional on the lower trim level?
Before the Road Runner, in Moparland performance came with luxury like the GTX and R/T. Chrysler wanted to bring the car in under $3000, and the RR did the trick. Base trim level featured a 3 speed stick, no radio, and push-out rear quarter windows.
Standard equipment on the Road Runner was a 4 speed.
I must have confused it with the 3 speed automatic! My bad!
These fender turn lights showed up in 1967 and were available across all models. My mom loved hers on the 1967 Valiant she drove last……….
My base RR for ‘68 had carpet and a 4-speed standard. There was no 3-speed manual. Mdw
Here’s an old ad of this car for sale. Claiming it to be documented by Galen Govier.
http://mapleleafmopars.homestead.com/68roadrunner383.html
My dad sprayed many of the vinyl look tops on in the 60/70 era. They looked good for a few years but the seam tape was an issue as it started to come loose after a few years. Some sooner.
I have a 66 Coronet with a 4-speed. I changed the Inland shifter to a Hurst and as I remember it, the Inland shifter had the little finger hooks, just below the shifter ball (which I see in the photo above). My Hurst definitely does no have these. Had this changed by 1968 ?
The shifter shown is the factory original, with the two finger reverse lockout. The Corvette, Mustang were other popular cars at the time with the two finger lockout. Ford, around 1967I believe, changed from the two finger design to a circular type lockout. Hurst did have an optional reverse lockout kit for the Competition Plus shifters, that when installed, had a red knob that stuck up through the boot on the left side, you had to push it down to engage reverse. The red knob looked pretty serious back in the day…
Like the red knob on the shifter on Mad Max’s Interceptor?
Never heard of a “Petty Top”. But if it’s on an old Mopar, someone will pay an extra $10k for it
I wonder what RIchard Petty thinks about this top and nomenclature ?
He did run a vinyl top on his race car in 1968…..there are pictures of it coming off at one race….it was just something they tried to keep up with those slick Torinos !
He did not run a vinyl top. It was painted on texture similar to what’s on this car. The roof coating was not coming loose. A bad weld was causing the roof to separate from the windshield frame.
Love those tops. My dad did his 31 model A like that and it is still on it today and it was done in 1966. Anyone was hard pressed to tell the difference and it made the car a dry weekend driver
I had to look up a Mirada to see what it was. The only reason those 100hp pieces of junk are rare is that most people were smart enough not to buy one. To compare one to this sweet road runner is beyond the pale. Later……………….JIMMY
Petty acid dipped the roofs on some of his Roadrunners in 68. The roofs were so thin they placed a vinyl top on them to keep an inspector from poking a hole thru the roof.
This car simply has a dealer added spray on faux vinyl top. There is nothing rare or special about it.
It’s become folk-lore that the car had a vinyl roof. That’s not the case. It was textured black paint. Call it the golf ball theory of aerodynamics. The “pockets” in the textured paint were supposed to capture air, which would allow the passing air to move more efficiently over the car at speed. Think about it as air sliding against air, instead of air sliding over the sheet metal.
During the race, the roof began separating from above the windshield frame.
The car’s sheet metal was acid dipped to lighten it, and this led to a failure of the body at speed. That may be true, but the book “The Cars of the King” quotes Dale Inman as saying that a significant weld was missed due to the way the front, top bars of the roll cage were installed. He said the missing weld led to the panel separation. https://richardpettyfans.proboards.com/thread/840
Oh great, … now you’re going to start using actual facts to try and build a story ! 🤔
I remember when vinyl tops were popular , some cars that were from the west coast would have the top painted instead ,as the extreme heat would quickly destroy the vinyl . They had the same chrome moldings where the top met the quarter , but a contrasting color paint instead of vinyl.
In1959 You could get the rear quarter of the roof on a Imperial with a sprayed on vinyl material from the factory, My friend Pete Kaczmarski has a coupe with it and the front half in stainless.
A dealer option is something after the fact of all the extremely important manufacturing minutia and trivialities that car geeks obsess over to weigh and measure and recalculate and quantify into data sets and lists and other types of rankings in order to convince other car geeks that this stuff actually matters.
Dealer options can be anything a dealer can dream up and adhere to his merchandise.
This Petty top thing is BS and it looks like BS. The story and car are suspect. And ugly. I’ve never seen a Roadrunner with an interior like that. Has any one else seen one like this? I just have the feeling somebody is pulling my leg here.
sweet ride
my dad had a stripper 68 belvedere painted beige like this one with the exact same cheapo interior ,hubcaps etc ,it was a 6cyl auto with rubber mat my grandfather helped him buy it as he had 3 kids my grandfathers was same color as this in and out but a 3 on the tree my dads was stolen in1971 and crashed and my grandparents was stolen in 1974 with 26,000 miles found in woods stripped for fenders and doors for beat up rr we actually saw it drive by us 2 wks later with the tan parts but dad couldnt turn around fast enough to catch him so yes its ugly but thats a base rr in 1968 and i am a mopar freak two srt8,s a 300 and a challenger 3 ram trucks ,,,just some mopar fan ,mike j from massachusetts