This 1968 Plymouth Road Runner is less of a barn find, and more of a yard find. The current owner had been trying to purchase the vehicle for the better part of 30-years, before finally securing it in 2018. He has undertaken some of the work required to return the Plymouth to active duty but has now decided to part with it. When you take a good look at it, you can see that it will potentially take very little work to return it to a roadworthy state in the short-term, while a full restoration would also appear to be a relatively straightforward task. The Road Runner is located in Springfield, Ohio, and has been listed for sale here on eBay. Bidding has reached $10,700, and the reserve has been met. A good gauge of just how desirable this classic is can be gained when you realize that there are currently 221 people who are watching the listing.

The Road Runner is a relatively straight vehicle, with only a couple of minor issues. There is a dent in the passenger-side front fender that should be easy to fix. The rear bumper is also damaged, but with replacements readily available, this also shouldn’t be a problem. The vehicle received a repaint in its original Forest Green back in 1990, and not long after this was completed, the car was removed from the road and placed into storage. It remained in storage for 5-years before it was pulled out into the open and left exposed to the elements for nearly 25-years. This exposure has exacted a high toll on the paint, and a full repaint will be on the cards. Surprisingly, especially given the fact that it has spent a quarter of a century sitting out in the weather, rust issues are relatively minimal. There is some rust apparent in both lower rear quarter panels, and it would be a matter of personal preference as to whether this was addressed using patches, or if the next owner chose to replace the panels in their entirety. There is also some rust in the trunk pan, and the owner suggests replacing this. The floors and overall structure of the car seem to be sound, with only some pitting below the rear window to contend with. Bolt-on panels with rust include small spots in the bottom corners of the doors, along with some on the inside of both the hood and trunk lid. The majority of the glass looks quite good, and the owner is including a new tinted windshield in the sale. Apart from the damaged rear bumper, the rest of the chrome looks to be in good order.

The Road Runner originally came equipped with a 383ci V8 that produced 335hp. However, the second owner asked a little too much of it on a drag-strip back in 1970, and the 383 suffered a catastrophic failure. That owner had organized for a warranty replacement engine through his dealership but decided to hand them some extra cash to slot a 440 under the hood instead. So while the engine isn’t original, the 4-speed manual transmission and the 8¾” rear end are. That owner then used the car on a regular basis up until it received its 1990 repaint. At that point, the 440 was also treated to a comprehensive rebuild. The list of work was pretty impressive and included having the block hot-tanked and magnafluxed. It was also line-bored, honed, the heads were decked, and the whole thing was reassembled using new bearings, a new timing chain, a set of headers, and a fully rebuilt valve train. The second owner only clocked around 750 miles on the motor before the car went into storage. When the current owner purchased it, he made no attempt to start it, but pulled the engine, removed the heads, checked that all was still okay, detailed it, fitted correct exhaust manifolds and a new carburetor, and dropped the engine back into place. He hasn’t attempted to kick it back into life, as the exhaust system ends at the manifolds, so some work will be required to either adapt the existing exhaust, or a completely new system will need to be sourced. Beyond that, it isn’t clear what will be required to return the car to a roadworthy state, but the brakes, hydraulic systems, and tires, are all undoubtedly going to require some work. Still, all of that shouldn’t be too hard, and the Road Runner could potentially find itself back on the road fairly quickly.

There are no really good photos of the Road Runner’s interior, but what we do know is that 25-years of exposure to UV rays have left it in a pretty sorry state. The owner has already removed the carpet, headliner, and the rear parcel tray, simply because all were beyond help. The cover on the front seat has crumbled to dust, and the rear seat is headed the same way. Add in a badly cracked dash pad and some pretty sad looking door trims, and a complete restoration would appear to be the only solution. It will be a matter of finding a kit that includes replacement foam for the seats, as this appears to also be on the way out.

In its original form, this 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was a pretty potent car. The 440 that now occupies the engine bay promises to ramp that up a notch or two. As a restoration project, it does look to be a straightforward proposition. Given how relatively minor the rust issues seem to be, it would be tempting to return the car to a roadworthy state to enjoy during the warmer months, and to then undertake the restoration work once the weather begins to take a turn for the worse once again. Maybe that is what all of those people who are watching the listing are thinking. If they are, I wouldn’t blame them.