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How
it all began...
The
first time I saw this car (about 1980) it was sitting behind a
garage, buried in snow up to the windows. My brother in law Ron
was hunting for a Road Runner or GTX and this was just one of the
many cars that he'd tracked down. We'd visit it every couple of
weeks as the snow melted. It looked pretty nice so a deal was made
and Ron became the proud owner of a '69 Plymouth GTX.
Though
it was far from perfect, the GTX had survived numerous owners and
endured all of the abuse they could dish out. According to sister
of a previous owner, it was even stolen and recovered.
While
Ron owned it, he installed a few bolt on parts such as headers, an
intake and a Holley carb. After about a year of hard use, the
transmission expired. At that time the GTX was parked for awhile.
When Ron finally decided to sell, he called and offered me first
chance at it. How
could I say no? I paid a whopping $1750 for it. (in 1982).
Most of the original parts were even included in the purchase. I
happened to have a fresh 727 in the garage so before long the GTX
was back in action. I drove the car for a few years, often using
it as a daily driver when the weather was decent. It was a fun
cruiser with its 440 and 4.10 gears. It could usually hold it's
own against the local Chevy's and Fords.
With
just over 71,000 miles the GTX still looked pretty good but
reliability was starting to be a problem. The GTX was plagued by
electrical gremlins, sloppy front suspension bushings, a leaky
fuel tank and engine blow-by. Abnormally heavy oil consumption
indicated that something definitely wasn't right! I didn't
want to risk damaging the original engine so I decided it was time
to take action. Once I got going, things started to snowball. In
retrospect, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.
This
is not going to be a proper date code, inspection marked,
100% restoration. I am building this car the way I like it, with a
mix of vintage and modern speed equipment. And since there's a
certain satisfaction in keeping it all Mopar, I used a lot of
pieces from Mopar Performance. To preserve the cars collector
value, nothing has been permanently altered. I stashed away the
original parts in case I ever want to return it to stock
condition.
The
car has just a few options. Power steering, 8-track and an
"Air Grabber", that's it! I even had a self proclaimed
"Mopar Expert" tell me that my car isn't a real GTX
because it has a column shift.
But
the fender tag doesn't lie... |
