You all know the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, right? Well, that’s the case with this 1969 Plymouth – upon my first view I thought, that’s not a Road Runner, it’s a Satellite. Is it, or isn’t it? Let’s investigate and find out. This 1969 Plymouth B-body is located in Lowell, Massachusetts and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $8,200 with 38 bids tendered so far.
Right out of the gate, this Plymouth’s non-vented hood is a giveaway, it looks like the same component used on lessor Satellites and Belvederes. Upon closer inspection, one can see that the Ivy Green finish of the front clip doesn’t match the rest of the car. So, what happened? No seller disclosure but it’s easy to imagine that this Plymouth took a hard front-end smack and is now wearing a replacement sheet metal. The full-sized wheel covers are a bit of a disguise too. As for the rest of the body, the Road Runner’s “rust” option appears to have not been selected as the body integrity of this car shows to be sound. There are some dings and the passenger-side quarter panel has something funky going on but it appears to be straight. The passenger door has a vertical line of drilled holes that would seem to be there result of some slide-hammer action.
So an Ivy Green exterior and a blue interior, that’s less than an optimal combination. Well, a little trim tag decoding tells us that the exterior finish of this Plymouth was originally coded B7, Jamaica Blue Metallic – that explains the blue interior. The accompanying image isn’t very telling and the listing description is of no help. It’s a bucket seat, center console environment but its true condition is not revealed and the “whatever it is” (an upside-down console frame?) sitting on the front seats only makes full visual disclosure more difficult.
Under the hood, there’s nuffin’, no engine, and the seller states, “There is no engine. But I could probably get one“. OK, so will he, or won’t he? Something to ask about I guess. Further added is, “No you can not drive it home!” and, “Don’t know anything about the car, this is the VIN RM23H9A313552, please look it up and it should give you all the options” Obviously, this is just a quick flip and the seller won’t be of any help. I did take his advice, however, and decoded the VIN. Yes, this is a for-real ’69 Road Runner and was, at one time, in possession of a 335 gross HP, 383 CI V8 engine.
So, it’s a Road Runner with no running going on, the wrong front clip (the hood anyway), and a mismatched exterior/interior – the total condition is unknown. There are fourteen different bidders pursuing this Bird, I don’t get it but then I don’t have to. My best thought is GLWTA, how about yours?
Yes it was a Road Runner, not too sure there is enough left to label it one anymore.
The VIN tag is all you need.
Making a Road Runner clone out of a Satellite is too predictable. Real trailblazers make a Satellite clone out of a Road Runner. Now where’s that 318 2-barrel?
Laugh all you want, those were better cars.
Worth about $3,000 with all the problems I see and he is too lazy to address. Just another NE US rust bucket. Will Mopar mania ever end?
As usual the bidders have proven you wrong again.
I think George has a dart board with Walter P. Chrysler’s picture on it . Any hard to find rusty car going for big money is OK with him – unless its a Mopar , and then you hear from him that its not worth anything, its just rusty Mopar junk ,etc…
Mike, all that proves is there is a sucker born every day.
This reminds me of my 1st 67 camaro. I buy this camaro that the neighbors mom used to drive,but was parked for a newer camaro.(parked also 73 lt split nose).The 67 on the outside looked plain,but it had deluxe int. guages and tach. I was under the back one day and noticed the holes for the rs backup lights where filled in. I looked under the hood in the front and found parts for the hidaway head lights. The car was a rallysport but got hit in the front and filled the backup light holes. even the rs nose was harder and more $ to get so the son that worked in a bodyshop put the plain stuff on-and it was white
Reminds me of the Brown 69′ 4dr Satellite roaming the streets of Oakland thru the early/mid 90’s. Driven by a very old gentleman, that I first saw @1980. He was most likely original owner. That wore a complete 69′ front clip from a GTX! Grabber hood and all emblems too. Don’t know what became of it. As prices for Mopars started to rocket in mid-90’s. It wasn’t seen again. Saw it almost daily prior to that.
Wiley Coyote obviously caught this Road Runner. Different clip, no engine? And the seller too lazy to clean out the front seat to take pictures. It ain’t worth $8k unless someone is absolutely crazy for these.
This is probably a Plymouth Satellite that has received the interior (with VIN dash tag), fender tag, and title from a totaled or rusted Roadrunner.
The body of the car was probably never from a Roadrunner and I bet the radiator and trunk lip codes do not match the VIN. If the Satellite was a small block 318 car there are other key factors to look for as well that show a 383 was never in there.
Too bad, the Satellite was probably a nice car but has now lost its identity.
The K-member for the 318 is not the same as the one from a B/RB engine.
What’s the difference? I’ve never had to change a K frame when swapping a big block into any B or E body cars.
Seller will never be called Flipper Of The Year. But like our expert around here scolded us peons for on a listing a while back, a “serious buyer” (read as “better than you”) will not care about such presentation.
Too bad about the car itself. Probably stylish in all blue.
@RobA
……or stolen and retagged……
Real mopar guys know how to deal with fender tags and VIN issues and rust on these??? C’mon man….it was factory! Probably intended to ‘lighten up’ the car and future floggers?
I might be wrong, but I don’t think a 69 RoadRunner would have come with the aluminum piece across the rear of the trunk lid like this car has. When my son was fifteen, (he’s 54 now), I bought him a 69 RR that was a theft recovery. It was a roller but we got most of the parts to reassemble it. I bought trunk lid off of a Satellite that had the the aluminum strip. We thought it should not be on a RR but it didn’t bother us so we never removed it.
You can verify the dash vin and fender tag by locating the hidden vin number on the radiator support and to the left of that on left front. Usually can’t see it with a radiator in it. But, if the front clip has been replaced, that may no longer be valid! No motor? No trans? Console from another vehicle. 8K? NOPE!
Do Not Bid on this car!
I want the price to stay LOW.
Thank you my friends…
It didn’t necessarily have to have been wrecked ; it could have had a light hit which only needed out sheet metal. Years ago I had a 68 Belvedere that had a crunched 3/4 nose . It wasn’t structurally bent , it just needed the bolt on panels.
Yes, we get it. You hate Mopars and hate the fact that even in poor condition they can bring big money. The fact is that a lot of people do like them, and there aren’t enough of them to go around so they bring big money . Do you even notice the price of destroyed Mach 1s and powertrain less SS Cheevelles go for ?