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Post by Bri on Sept 6, 2009 11:18:19 GMT -5
This is always a great topic of conversation so I thought I'd start a thread asking the members here how they acquired their Roadrunner. Feel free to share your experiences and what led you to choose one of these cars over something else. I'm looking forward to hearing the stories from the fellow members!  |
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nick
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by nick on Sept 6, 2009 11:25:41 GMT -5
i got my 69 roadrunner off of my brotherinlaw which he had for ages and just let it sit sit there and rot . im in progress in restoring the car right now. all # matching. also have a 74 satelite roadrunner clone which is all done up. bought this car and done it up for my wife. I just love roadrunners. Mopars are and will always be my cars.
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Post by 68X426 on Sept 6, 2009 13:36:23 GMT -5
Always been a Mopar freak. Hemi Road Runner was my Holy Grail and it was 35 years in the making.
Bought my RR thru an E-Bay auction. DON'T DO IT. E-Bay is filled with scammers, liars, and cons. It takes triple work and anxiety just to find a real seller and real car. No deposits until you drive the car!!
Anyway, 10 years of searching, 2 hard years of trips and test rides and disappointments; found the car I would have built if I had the time, it was 80% perfect, the rest was for me to finish. The seller was the first one to actually have receipts and names and all the details to back up what was claimed.
Won the car, I wouldn't give a deposit in 48 hours, so drove 700 miles to get there 14 hours later and pay for it (if it was real). Trailered it home. And life is real good.
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Post by rav440 on Sept 6, 2009 13:47:27 GMT -5
its a long story , i spent a year looking for a 71 GTX 440 6 4spd car to no avail .
then stared looking at 72-74 big block road runners 440 4spd but learned that the 440 in 73-74 were only offered in auto , so i kept looking and looking and desided i would settle for an auto BUT NOWAY SHAPE OR FORM did i want a column shift car .
well i found my runner in oct of 00 contacted the owner and asked him was it floor or column shift i got the answer i didnt want to hear . latter in may of 01 the owner contacted me again and asked i i had found a car yet , isaid no im still looking , he told me if i was even remotly interested in the runner he would trailer the car the 60 miles to were i live coz i hooked him up with 2 MOPARs in my area that he had bought . when i seen the runner upon the trailer in the parking lot i feel in love with it .
yep i settled for a column shift car . but its a 440 and there arent many of them made .
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Post by Bri on Sept 6, 2009 13:50:01 GMT -5
Sweet story! You've got a gorgeous car on your hands and I think you got a real keeper there!  |
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tadam05
New Member
If it goes, make sure it goes Beep-Beep.
Posts: 8
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Post by tadam05 on Sept 6, 2009 23:34:25 GMT -5
Always been a fan of mopar's, just couldn't afford one. Landed a descent career in 2001 and started looking again. Found mine in the Canadian Auto Trader. One problem, it was located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, approx. 12-13 hours away from home. The guy sent me some photos, but was constantly hard to get in touch with. About a week later he called me back. I told him right then and there, "I will be there in 12 hours". Hooked on the trailer and arrived ontime, but couldn't get ahold of him, again! Sat in a hotel room for a couple of day's, he finally got in touch with me. He was asking 5500.00 no motor/tranny/ or fender tag. Well I negotiated him down to $4000.00, pulled it out of a slough, loaded it on the trailer and headed home to Alberta. The car was in reasonable condition, and here it is 8 years later and just finally got it on the road. Attachments:
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Post by ctownchris on Sept 7, 2009 6:30:58 GMT -5
Learned to drive a Dodge Polara in 71. Dad drove Dodge, both Grampas drove Mopar. Dated by wife in a 73 Chrysler Newport. Years later wanted old school Mopar and just started lookin. No particular model or year. Found this 71 RR. Estate sale. 41 y/o died of sudden heat attack and his wife had to sell off whatever she could. He had the car 4 months and had not done anything to it. It started and drove on a trailer with 3 different tires of 4 on it. Only 2 matched were dry rot bias in the rear. Still needs A LOT but it's mine. LOL Attachments:
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Big John
New Member
Soylent Green is People!
Posts: 19
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Post by Big John on Sept 7, 2009 7:28:24 GMT -5
I bought mine from a friend in 1979. He had bought the car from another friend who had found it sitting next to a barn. I was thinking about buying a street car to go along with the bracket car I was racing .  I looked at a couple other cars and was close to agreeing on a T/A Challenger that had been bought new at Mr Norm's when I found out the car was for sale. It needed paint, engine and trans, but for the most part the rest was there. I built a 340 for a guy's street rod and he painted it for me. The rest of the stuff I had sitting around or scrounged up.  |
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Post by Bri on Sept 7, 2009 7:38:22 GMT -5
Wow John! That car looks great! Are you bringing it to the Adirondack Nationals this coming weekend? You've got one gorgeous car!!!!  |
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Big John
New Member
Soylent Green is People!
Posts: 19
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Post by Big John on Sept 7, 2009 7:51:26 GMT -5
Wow John! That car looks great! Are you bringing it to the Adirondack Nationals this coming weekend? You've got one gorgeous car!!!! Thanks. I'd love to.. but the car is all apart. Over the years the car was first painted in 1980, then again in 1993 and it really needed to be painted again. I decided this would be the last time and we'd do it right. Here's what it looks like right at the moment.  |
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Post by Bri on Sept 7, 2009 7:57:18 GMT -5
I just acquired my Roadrunner last week. I found it totally by accident, or maybe fate would be a better word. I found a '71 ROadrunner for sale locally and e-mailed the guy about it. I have always loved the lines of the '73-'74 Roadrunners best, but next to them, the '71 & "72's ranked right up there. I went to go look at the '71 and found a yellow car that was originally Sassy Grass Green. The car had a 383 with automatic tranny. The engine had definitely been reworked as it had a very rough, loppy idle. As I was talking to the owner and he found out I wanted to keep any Roadrunner I found as close to original as possible, he divulged he had a '73 Bird stored in his garage. We took the short trip to his house and when he opened the garage door, I was met with a Plum Crazy 57 Plymouth Fury with a 413 wedged between the fenders. behind that car sat a red '56 Fury done in custom trim with white scallops. I looked around but couldn't see the Roadrunner. Suddenly, I saw a white strobe stripe buried under layers of dust. Below that I saw the ever familiar Mopar rally wheels. What I thought was a huge stack of boxes and junk stacked, was indeed the '73 Roadrunner. It was buried under literally hundreds of boxes and other junk, but the car was complete and unmolested. I checked the registration and saw the last time the car was on the road was in 1997. The car has been sitting in this garage since the winter of '97 and has just been accumulating dust and attracting boxes that have been stacked all over it. As I started taking a closer look at this car, I saw an E5 red car with white strobe stripes and black interior. An automatic transmission console and buckets greeted me when I opened the driver's side door. The car also has the original Power Bulge hood. Inside the car were stacks of boxes with the famous Mopar insignia on them. I found all new NOS wheel well moldings, headlight bezels, Roadrunner badges, parking lights and other miscellaneous pices still in plastic wrap. The guy brought me out back and opened a shed where he had been storing extra sheetmetal parts for his Roadrunner. NOS rear quarters, front fenders and doors were still in wrapping. As if that wasn't enough, he pulled out a binder and inside was all the paperwork for the car, including the factory assembly line checklist that went with the car down the assembly line. All original purchase order paperwork, previous owner information and buildsheets were included and in protective sleeves. The entire lineage of the car was at my fingertips and I traced the history of the car from day 1 with no gaps in onwership. I am the 4th owner of the car. Needless to say, I was hooked on the car. I spent over 5 hours going over the car but was totally pissed when I tried to take pics of the car with my digital camera only to find I had left the extra memory stick at home.  I picked the Runner up with all the extra parts for the very fair price of $6500 and that includes every NOS part that he's been collecting over the years. The car still even has the original exhaust and chrome tips that exit out the back. It's exactly the car I was after and even though it's not a 4 speed car, it is all original and I have found the car of my dreams. The car will never see another owner now, that's for sure. As for the '71 Runner, my wife fell in love with the loppy idle and open headers of that car, so little does she know, but she's getting a nice Christmas present if all goes according to plan. Sorry for the long story, but this is living proof that "barn finds" do still exist. The owner wasn't going to sell the '73, but when he saw I wasn't going to destroy the originality of the car, he knew he had found the right owner for his prized possession. I'm just glad I was the lucky guy who got the chance to finally get the car of my dreams. I will be bringing it home in a few weeks after it gets dug out from under all the boxes and stuff stacked all over it. |
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Post by acmea12 on Sept 7, 2009 8:33:45 GMT -5
I think my car found me rather than the other way around... I had owned three '69 RRs over the years, but hadn't had one since the late 90's and was really wanting to get back into one. Being an A-Body guy (I have four Dusters and the wife has a Swinger) I spend some time on forabodiesonly.com. One of the guys there posted an ad for a B5 4-spd A12 post. I sent him a message asking about the car as it fit the description of what I had wanted for the past 30+ years...but told him that I wasn't flush with cash at the moment due to some other projects that needed to be finished and sold. We struck up a friendship and chatted quite a bit - this was all about the June time-frame of 2008. At the end of the month he called and told me he had a serioius offer from a guy in CT. I told him to take it if the guy had cash because I just wasn't there yet. Figured that was the end of it. Went to Carlisle the next month and helped a buddy (who is not very car savvy) find and buy a '68 GTX. Spent the weekend riding around in that thing and had the B-Body bug even worse now. Two days after I returned home from PA the phone rang - the deal had fallen through and Tem (the PO) wanted to know if I was SURE that I didn't want this car. Talked to the Mrs. and pulled a few things together and made a deal with Tem. Drove out to Texas the first week of August and brought her back on a trailer. She is a stripper post model, with only the A12 package and a tach and exhaust tips as optional equipment. The wife named her "Bambi" as she thought that this was a good name for a "stripper"... Attached is a picture of her with a couple of the other cars and my SS/T. She's just a driver wearing primer - but will get a full makeover at some point. The Rallyes have been replaced with Halibrands since this photo was taken. Ray Attachments:
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Post by xs29j8 on Sept 7, 2009 10:39:15 GMT -5
It all started when some jerk smashed the rear bumper on my college car, a 1968 440 Magnum powered Polara. They took off without leaving a note offering to fix the damage. With money to fix the damage being in short supply, I decided to replace the rear bumper with a junk yard part, leaving the quarter panel damage for a later fix. After calling about a dozen junk yards, a small one in Bryan said they had nice bumper for my Polara. When I arrived at the junk yard, I could see the Road Runner sitting forlorn in the distance. I checked in at the office and we went to look at the bumper they had. It was a nice bumper, in fact it looked real nice… on the 1967 Chrysler it was part of. The manager of the yard said he thought they were interchangeable… NOT! As we walked back towards the office, I started to check out the Road Runner in the distance… trying to make out if the hood callouts were 383 or 440. Being new to the hobby at the time, I did not know that 440 4BBLs were not available in '69 RRs… and the possibility of it being a Hemi car had not even crossed my mind. I then noticed the trunk badge, but thought it was a dealer nameplate… as I mentioned before, I was a Mopar newbie. As we walked, I started to "side-step" to get nearer to the RR (we were still talking about getting a rear bumper for the Polara). About every ten feet, I would walk about 5 feet to the left… the manager would then notice and close back up with me. Finally, I looked back at the hood callouts and for the first time I clearly saw they were Hemi badges. After regaining my composure, I "casually" asked about "that old Plymouth". The manager said that they had just acquired the car in a lot purchase at a salvage auction in Dallas. We now walked toward the Road Runner, and I asked if the car was for sale. He replied that they had planned to part it out, but he would sell it "as is" at a price of $350… explaining that it had a freshly rebuilt engine. Wiping away the startled look on my face, I asked to see the engine. Sparing me a heart attack, it turned out to be a rebuilt 383. Making up a BS story about maybe putting the 440 from my "wrecked" Polara in another car, I asked if they would sell the RR minus the rebuilt 383 engine. He said they would sell the car minus engine for $150… a more affordable price for a college kid! I was hoping to do the deal that day, but the manager said it would take a few days to remove the engine AND to obtain the title which was enroute from the auction site. Then the wait began, with me calling every 2-3 days… only to be told the engine was still in the RR, and the title had not yet arrived. This went on for about a month, with me driving by the yard about once a week to make sure the car was still there… it was. Then one day I called and their phone was disconnected… OMG… PANIC! I made the trip to the yard in record time, and found the gate locked and a sign saying the yard had been purchased by the largest yard in Bryan… Doggett Auto Parts. The yard was almost empty, with maybe a dozen cars scattered about in it… including the Hemi Road Runner! I took off to Doggett, a large dismantler that did not allow access to their yard, but instead had LARGE shelving units with well organized parts. After arriving at Doggett, I rambled on to a counter guy about the closed yard and the car I wanted to buy. He said that he did not know anything about it, and asked if I would like to talk to Mr Doggett… I said YES! A few minutes later Mr Doggett came to the counter… in a crisp suit, looking like the Chairman of the Board. About halfway through my story, Mr Doggett stopped me and said: "I have spent most of my life trying to live up to the promises made by others, and don't try to anymore. If you want the car I will sell it to you for $150… with the engine… DO YOU WANT IT?".I stammered out a " Yes!", and he went to check if he had the title. A minute later he was back with the title in hand!!! I wrote a check, got a receipt and the title, and was told the car would be delivered the next day (at 11:00 AM IIRC). At precisely the promised time the next day, a shiny new Ford wrecker pulled into the apartment parking lot with the Hemi Road Runner in tow. The driver expertly backed the car in the spot that I wanted in the first try. The driver was Mr Doggett himself… I SWEAR… in a crisp pair of overalls! As he lowered the car, he told me a story of being forced to a stop on the way over by two guys who wanted to buy the RR. He said that he gave them my name and phone number… PANIC AGAIN! After he left, I called a hometown friend with a pick-up to flat tow the car to my parent's home with a rented tow bar. After a sleep-less night, we towed the RR the next morning. True story…For more pictures and information, check out this thread: board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5418223&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1Allen |
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Post by silver70runner on Sept 7, 2009 22:12:06 GMT -5
It all started when some jerk smashed the rear bumper on my college car, a 1968 440 Magnum powered Polara. They took off without leaving a note offering to fix the damage. With money to fix the damage being in short supply, I decided to replace the rear bumper with a junk yard part, leaving the quarter panel damage for a later fix. After calling about a dozen junk yards, a small one in Bryan said they had nice bumper for my Polara. When I arrived at the junk yard, I could see the Road Runner sitting forlorn in the distance. I checked in at the office and we went to look at the bumper they had. It was a nice bumper, in fact it looked real nice… on the 1967 Chrysler it was part of. The manager of the yard said he thought they were interchangeable… NOT! As we walked back towards the office, I started to check out the Road Runner in the distance… trying to make out if the hood callouts were 383 or 440. Being new to the hobby at the time, I did not know that 440 4BBLs were not available in '69 RRs… and the possibility of it being a Hemi car had not even crossed my mind. I then noticed the trunk badge, but thought it was a dealer nameplate… as I mentioned before, I was a Mopar newbie. As we walked, I started to "side-step" to get nearer to the RR (we were still talking about getting a rear bumper for the Polara). About every ten feet, I would walk about 5 feet to the left… the manager would then notice and close back up with me. Finally, I looked back at the hood callouts and for the first time I clearly saw they were Hemi badges. After regaining my composure, I "casually" asked about "that old Plymouth". The manager said that they had just acquired the car in a lot purchase at a salvage auction in Dallas. We now walked toward the Road Runner, and I asked if the car was for sale. He replied that they had planned to part it out, but he would sell it "as is" at a price of $350… explaining that it had a freshly rebuilt engine. Wiping away the startled look on my face, I asked to see the engine. Sparing me a heart attack, it turned out to be a rebuilt 383. Making up a BS story about maybe putting the 440 from my "wrecked" Polara in another car, I asked if they would sell the RR minus the rebuilt 383 engine. He said they would sell the car minus engine for $150… a more affordable price for a college kid! I was hoping to do the deal that day, but the manager said it would take a few days to remove the engine AND to obtain the title which was enroute from the auction site. Then the wait began, with me calling every 2-3 days… only to be told the engine was still in the RR, and the title had not yet arrived. This went on for about a month, with me driving by the yard about once a week to make sure the car was still there… it was. Then one day I called and their phone was disconnected… OMG… PANIC! I made the trip to the yard in record time, and found the gate locked and a sign saying the yard had been purchased by the largest yard in Bryan… Doggett Auto Parts. The yard was almost empty, with maybe a dozen cars scattered about in it… including the Hemi Road Runner! I took off to Doggett, a large dismantler that did not allow access to their yard, but instead had LARGE shelving units with well organized parts. After arriving at Doggett, I rambled on to a counter guy about the closed yard and the car I wanted to buy. He said that he did not know anything about it, and asked if I would like to talk to Mr Doggett… I said YES! A few minutes later Mr Doggett came to the counter… in a crisp suit, looking like the Chairman of the Board. About halfway through my story, Mr Doggett stopped me and said: "I have spent most of my life trying to live up to the promises made by others, and don't try to anymore. If you want the car I will sell it to you for $150… with the engine… DO YOU WANT IT?".I stammered out a " Yes!", and he went to check if he had the title. A minute later he was back with the title in hand!!! I wrote a check, got a receipt and the title, and was told the car would be delivered the next day (at 11:00 AM IIRC). At precisely the promised time the next day, a shiny new Ford wrecker pulled into the apartment parking lot with the Hemi Road Runner in tow. The driver expertly backed the car in the spot that I wanted in the first try. The driver was Mr Doggett himself… I SWEAR… in a crisp pair of overalls! As he lowered the car, he told me a story of being forced to a stop on the way over by two guys who wanted to buy the RR. He said that he gave them my name and phone number… PANIC AGAIN! After he left, I called a hometown friend with a pick-up to flat tow the car to my parent's home with a rented tow bar. After a sleep-less night, we towed the RR the next morning. True story…For more pictures and information, check out this thread: board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5418223&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1Allen When did you buy this car?? LOL  |
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Post by daytona on Sept 8, 2009 20:24:34 GMT -5
...a couple of years ago a friend called me and told me about a Superbird for sale in a town near by and asked if I knew if it was for real or not...it was, I had tried to buy the car about 25-30 years earlier and it was never for sale, but now it was ...I asked my friend if he had any interest in purchasing the Bird and he said he couldn't buy it but wanted it to stay in the area so he called me...so, I went to purchase the car on a really cold Feb day, it was below zero that afternoon...a price was agreed upon and the big orange Superbird was mine after waiting for decades..it is a 440 6BBL/AT survivor...a very nice all original car, correct numbers etc...I still haven't driven it much, but it runs very strong Attachments:
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