I sold a 1968 Plymouth roadrunner when I was stationed at Davis Monthan AFB back in 2005. It was restored, with 440 (originally a 383 car) 4speed and 3.90 axle ratio. It was plum crazy. This car taught me how to hate old cars and I'll never own another one. It sold for $21,200.

 

If they can get out of the way, it means you weren't backing up fast enough.

 

I started working as an auto mechanic in 1967,,

people forget.. the yearly maintenance on those Cars was HIGH....

tune ups every year,
anti-freeze 2 years. belts 2-3 years, same with hoses.
ball joints and tie rod ends 3-4 years. same with brakes. ( 4 Drum brakes)

bodies Rusted out in 5 years, up North.

back then, I had a 64 Chevelle SS 327 4 speed and after a 65 Impala SS 409 4 speed with 4:11. and 2 4bbl.

 

OK, I'm gonna say it.

Smokestacks,
and those stupid hitch mounted *****.
Neither of which I have ever owned.

 

I actually had some on a '54 Ford. Duels on each wheel...

 

Totally agree about the stacks. Not only do they look stupid, they probably devalue the truck just because they are on there. If I were to ever buy a truck with them, I wouldn't be seen driving it until they were gone. I think most people would factor in the repair cost for the truck before considering buying one with stacks.

 

Ohhh, "truck nutz"??? LMFAO! Every time I'm at a car wash and see someone with those I always ask if they like to scrub the "nutz".

 

Oh, it wasn't the regular maintenance that was the problem. This thing went through transmission main shaft bearings, pinion bearings and engine mounts like no other . It would never give you any warning until you were stuck on the side of the road. It did turn heads though, the 11.2:1 compression with a high lift cam and 3" exhaust made things a bit noticeable.

I absolutely hated the lack of power steering, power brakes, a/c delete, and heat delete. According to years old messaging back and forth with the people at "allpar", this car may have been special ordered, with windows that had straps similar to seat belt straps that were made to hold the window shut (they had a hook at the bottom) and it had a rear axle that wasn't normal for a '68 roadrunner. It had a dana 60 with 4.10 (I swapped in the 3.90s for highway drivability) instead of a Chrysler 8-3/4. It also had a factory hurst shifter, radio a/c and heat delete and had the A-833 4-speed.

A little backstory. Before I owned the roadrunner, I had a 1969 GTX, red convertible with the 440 and auto. I was 20 at the time (1998) and was out in the evening with a friend in the car. I pulled into a gas station and someone at the pump started backing up so I slowed down while entering the parking lot and was immediately rearended by a 1980's F350 that totaled the car. The trunk was smashed nearly to the convertible top, and it had to be hauled to my house.

After assessing the damage, it was under much scrutiny that I decided to scrap the car, as these cars were all of uni-body construction, and the aft floorboard area just forward of the axle hump, behind the rear seat area had stress cracking. It was done.

I then started looking for a donor car to make into a replica. I found several belvedere's, satellites and even another GTX, but all were in such poor condition that a resto was out of any budget, until I found this car in the trees near Rosholt, SD while on a cross country drive. I stopped to look and figured it to be a '68 belvedere with a roadrunner hood on it as the paint didn't match. The VIN was partially unreadable and made decoding while there impossible. I contacted the owner (over several months of going through registration records) and he agreed to sell it for $800. I got it home and began tearing it down.

There were so many cues to this thing showing that it was a belvedere, except for the deleted items, but it had a different steering wheel (like belvederes had) and the fact that it only had one gauge, the speedometer, gave it away. I then found the secondary vin stamp and it began with "RM23H". I instantly knew that it was a roadrunner with the HP 383. The sequence number was odd though, as it was out of the range of the produced roadrunners for that year. A mopar VIN specialist (cant remember the name) relayed that the car was indeed a special order and instructed me to look for a build sheet under the rear seat pad, as they were curious too. I didn't have this and it looked as though there was NEVER a rear seat installed. I conveyed this info to them and a Mr. S. Brooks asked if he could come see the car.

He came in Feb. of 1998 and was astonished that a car like this existed and asked me what my plans were. I kept it obviously but he gave cues as to how this car may have had been purchased in a failed attempt at a factory drag car build. The lack of bolt holes for seat belts, the fact that the front fenders were fiberglass, the presence weld marks on the floor from a roll cage, custom fabbed subframe connectors that were bolted in, and that the car had no exterior trim of any kind (and had never been there to begin with) was odd. I continued with the resto, taking about $7k and a year of 3-5 hours a day working on it. The lack of options really sped up the work as there wasn't much to work on other than the body and freshening things up. Many parts were just moved over from my wrecked GTX, so things were really easy to say the least.

I tried to save the engine. It was a 383 and had been full of water for years. The bores were corroded so terribly that it was unsaveable. I did however dress up the GTX sourced 440 to look exactly the same as the 383, down to the valve covers and "coyote duster" air cleaner.

I then wanted to find out more about the car. I couldn't find much other than that the transmission was likely why this car was parked initially, as the rear main bearing was destroyed and I had many problems with this in the future. I replaced 7 of these over a 5 year period, two times on the side of a road. It was obvious that there was an alignment issue of some sort taking the bearing out and the last time it happened, well, at that time in my life, I was just done. This car was beginning to cost me money to own it, and I just wanted out.

I put it on the lemon lot on Davis Monthan AFB, AZ and several people came to look at it. On two occasions, USAF members FLEW out to look and drive it and one finally purchased in March of 2005 for $21,200 and an immaculate 1987 Mustang GT convertible with a 408 in it. I flipped that car for $10k in AZ later that year. I'm no longer into cars, mostly because of the sour taste left by the roadrunner, but I do still have the friends I made in the build-up and research of this car. Honestly, I only have one picture of it. It's a rear quarter to front fender shot in black and white taken by a friend. In the reflection you can see a F4 Phantom. Pretty cool pic. I'll post it if I can find it.

 

thanks for sharing the story Thor.

the 409 eat motor mounts... the 65 was first year for rear end control arms to frame with rear coil springs... I ripped the arm bolt/mounts out 3 times...

ended up cutting the frame in half at the back edge of doors.. and had 68 Caprice convertible frame box welded to 65 front half.

but todays cars/trucks are so much better at not needing maintenance OR VERY LITTLE. but some cars get none today.

 

If that was in the year 1954 then great.
I wasn't driving yet, but I was old enough to be fascinated with all the cool cars in that era, located in/about the LA area.

 

I heard these are good for AT LEAST 20Hp...

 

"The flames are created using unburnt fuel produced by the control module by momentarily interrupting your vehicle's ignition system."

Once you blow up your cat, you probably WILL get an extra 20 Hp...! (And a $1000+ repair bill! Brilliant!)

-W