Any car is “restorable” if cost and effort is no barrier. Reviewing the eBay listing for this 1970 Plymouth Road Runner in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, its relative completeness stands out as truly remarkable. It’s rare to find a N96 “Air Grabber” hood on a car in this condition, and, despite some rust, the N96 hood makes this true barn find more interesting for sure. Along with the N96 hood, this car’s body tag pedigree confirms it as a true Road Runner with the base engine for that package, the 335 HP 383 cid (6.3L) four-barrel V8. Thanks to MyMopar and lov2xlr8 for some details. So far at least a half-dozen bidders have driven the value of this whitewashed B-body above $4800.
Plymouth’s low-buck street-fighter, the Road Runner, came with the family and date-friendly bench seat. I’m no Mopar expert but this doesn’t strike me as a Road Runner H2X9 Vinyl Bench Seat in black. Blue door panels may date to the blue paint job, but the originals would have been black.
Visible white and blue paint mentally and visually camouflage the car’s original exterior color combination of DY3 Cream paint with a black vinyl top. Check out this similar car to appreciate this attractive and understated look. This car would have had the V21 triple-black stripes on the hood, a nice compliment to the black top. The lack of undercarriage pictures or written description of rust (other than calling it “repairable”) leaves many questions unanswered. Despite eBay’s global audience, this is truly a local sale for someone willing to visit Conshohocken wearing coveralls and carrying a good-sized screwdriver with which to stab the structural members.
This N96 Air Grabber hood alone can bring big money. The body tag codes (text in the listing) do not include “N96,” so some investigation of the actual tag would be necessary to identify if it was original equipment. If this is an N96 car, that hood needs to stay right here.
Ouch. Even if this is the original 383, it could be fused solid or have a cracked block. Let’s assume this car will never be put back completely to stock unless someone has a date-correct 383 with all the Mopar goodies in the back corner of their garage. The N96-spec air cleaner housing will turn up used if no one makes a reproduction. At the very least, this is a base ’70 Road Runner, a car that anyone could be proud to own even if it’s not perfect. If it turns out that most of this car’s rust is on the surface, the crusty appliance white paint may keep the selling price low, and you might get a bargain. In the worst-case scenario, you could be given this car and still end up underwater. Would you restore this Road Runner or send it to the crusher?
Pass.
After locating this Runner on eBay. OMG the rust on top. Now imagine the rust under it. Ok the hood is a big ticket item as long you get the parts and fix it. Again this Runner is a ghost. Done let it go.. or use it as a parts car for a better Road Runner!! 🤨
A real good look at it would be more reasonable. Maybe the rust is light. All of it looks their and seems to be all their. I wouldn,t go much more if I was interested.
It appears to have spent some time at the bottom of a lake.
Amazing East coast compare to West coast simply said “RUST” never sleeps! Advertised cars for sale East coast sellers/buyers accept rust as a given and in fact quarter panels fenders floor pans are a given. What a mess..
To restore this car in NYC it would cost at least $100K . Then you have to ask yourself what would a 383 column shift automatic be worth? I’m gonna guess and say the air grabber was added being that there is no N96 . That said what is a plain Roadrunner worth ? Not $100K
Sometimes it seems like every Mopar muscle car has survived, perhaps because the threshold of what constitutes a surviving car is so low.
Given what I saw in the pictures here and on eBay, I’m thinking that if this car isn’t a genuine N96, I would be more inclined to turn it into a G-Machine with a 3G Hemi fitted with an EFI manifold setup designed to work with the air grabber hood … if I had the money and means.
I would definitely have this handled by a professional shop, however. Mark Worman and his Graveyard Carz associates immediately come to mind, given their previous work.
My clenched teeth will never allow me to utter the words “crush it“ in regards to any Road Runner, but this one would be a true labor of love…
Tim