1968 Plymouth Gtx Base 7.2l on 2040-cars

    MOPAR, MOPAR, MOPAR...Look at this drop dead beautiful 1968 GTX. 

       Let me tell you a little story about the GTX that was almost crushed, almost stripped of it's drivetrain, almost sent to the demolition derby. The story starts with a 1968 Charger RT that needed a drivetrain. The word was sent out the the Mopar faithful to please help locate a 440 4 speed drivetrain from fan to back axle. It was not to long when the call came in. A fellow Mopar lover and B body enthusiast found a 1968 GTX 4 speed car with a complete drivetrain all the way back to the Dana 60, waiting to be crushed. The dreaded yellow marks were on the car just waiting for the knuckle head in the crane to grab it and crush it. The car was not even listed for sale, it was pretty much stumbled on while looking for B body parts in a junkyard. We got pictures of the car and it was looking pretty sad. The price was good so the car was bought and hauled away from the junkyard. Since the car was many many many miles away the thought was to have the drivetrain pulled and crated and shipped back to Florida. As luck would have it some personal business was needed in the general area that the car was in so it was decided to take the truck and trailer and retrieve the car and bring it back to sunny Florida. The car came back from the frigid north to the warm comforts of Gulf breezes and sandy beaches.

    The GTX was put into storage for a time while other matters were attended to. During that time a complete 440 drivetrain for the Charger was found which was already rebuilt. That was used instead of the GTX drivetrain. Now the decision was what to do with the GTX? Part it out? Demo derby it? Hot rod it?  The car was pulled out of storage and brought to the "shop" To say the least it was rough looking. Some kind of electric high back bucket seats were in the front, original rear seat and only one door panel, and a cracked front windshield. The trunk had to much crap to even list, from oil cans, to fishing stuff. The entire car was cleaned out and the front seats hit the dumpster. Taking a few steps back and looking at the cleaned up interior we realized it was pretty much intact, and very cool looking. Taking a few more steps back, putting on our Mopar goggles, and squinting very hard it looked pretty cool...Kind of. We thought about it and came to the conclusion quickly that fate has us picked out to fully restore this car back to it's original fighting shape.

    Holy crap it was a lot of work, but so worth it. I will not insult anyones intelligence by claiming this was a frame off restoration....MOPARS ARE UNIBODY, you can't take the frame off! DUH! I will not tell you that it is a perfect car, there is no such thing. I won't tell you that everything is original, (even the air in the tires) obviously it is not. Here is what I will tell you...This car was completely and utterly taken apart down to every single hairpin, snap ring, nut, bolt, clip, screw, and plug. All the parts were cleaned, and re-used or replaced if broken. The car has had sheet metal replaced. Both rear quarters had rot behind the rear wheels, as well as junk yard damage. AMD makes very good panels so it was decided to replace both panels. The entire trunk floor was replaced. The trunk did not have rot through, but it did have dimples from rust, so again we decided to go with new.  The drivers side floor pan was replaced for the same reasons. Front seats from a 1969 Roadrunner were bought to use. the dash had the 150 MPH speedo but the tach was removed, so we put a new tach in the dash. The radio is original, it does work on one station (who listens to AM radio anyway) The steering wheel that was in the car when we bought it was a POS three spoke from a 70's A body Mopar. Since we did not have a build sheet and a fender tag that was rotted pretty bad we have no idea what steering wheel tha car would have had. We decided that it deserved a woodgrain. The 4 speed shifter that was in the car was some terrible contraption from a GM mounted with only two shift rods...It hit the garbage can. We already had a beautiful re-chromed Hurst shifter from 1971 with a Q ball so we decided to go with that rather than the woodgrain the car wood have had.  The center console top plates are new, the center console body is one we had set aside for another car.

     Now for the geeky techy  mechanical stuff.  The drive train is numbers matching to the car. The SO number is on the bellhousing of the block and on the transmission. The Dana date code is two weeks before the car was assembled, so we believe it is the original.  The 440 needed to be rebuilt so we sent it to the machine shop. They told us it needed to be bored out .030. We had a set of new never used 11:1 pistons that were .030, so we used them. The rods were resized and bushed, the block was balanced. The crankshaft was cut 10 and 20 (mains and rods) the 906 heads that were on the engine had aftermarket valve springs and keepers, Two of the valves were deep inside the heads. We opted for a set of 906 heads that we had which were already refreshed. The camshaft is a little dandy from the wonderful people at Huges engines. The cam is a whiplash camshaft. Rings are Federal mogul, bearings are Clevite. Timing chain is a Cloyes. Oil pump is a melling high volume. The carb is the original 440 4 speed Carter carb. The alternator is from the 4th quarter of 1967. The exhaust manifolds are the correct cast iron HP. The fan is original with a new clutch. The radiator is numbers correct with an extra row of tubes (3 core) The distributor is an original cast iron dual point from 68 with Petronix inside. The transmisson was taken aparty inspected new needle bearings installed and new seals. The flywheel was turned, and new ring gear was installed and tig welded on (11:1 compression) and balanced. Clutch and pressure plate are from Mancini racing. Driveshaft is original. Dana was taken apart inspected, cleaned and put back together. Brakes are all new from master cylinder to rear axle. All new wheel cylinders, porportioning block and  lines are from In_Line Tube and are all stainless. DOT 5 brake fluid is in the lines. All brake shoes and hold downs are new. Emergency cables are stainless and brand new. Entire exhaust system is numbers correct from Acurite exhaust. Springs are originals. Obviously all new seals, and gaskets. New front windshield with a Chrysler stamp. All other glass is original. Wheel lip moldings are new, front and rear windshield trim is original. Vent windows are originals and re-chromed. The wheels are 14 Magnum 500's from Summit Racing. The tires are Firestone red line polyglas from Coker Tire, including the spare. Front and back bumpers are new from AMD. Rear tail and tail light finish panels are new. All wiring is original. The wiring we removed, completely taken apart fixed with correct color coded wires and retaped. All the replacement wires are from vintage wiring harnesses that have been saved from cars.

     So I think you get the idea of the extent of the work that went into this car.  The car was built in the month of Febuary 1968. The exterior color is Consort Blue which is somewhat rare for one of these cars. It is the original color. The interior colors are Bahama Blue and Cobalt Blue. The seat covers and door panels are from Legendary. The seatbelts are the originals.

    When restoring this car we tried very hard to use original parts. If a part was to far gone we looked for vintage replacements. If we could not find vintage we went with new. We also reproduced some original factory marks. We only reproduced what we found while cleaning parts and we did not create anything that was not there.

    At the time when a decision was to be made on what would happen to the GTX we decided that we could not cut up and original 1968 440 4 speed GTX! Nope couldn't do it. So this is a real GTX, with it's original drive train (suped up a bit) It is back in the hunt, ready to show it's stuff. Wether it is going out to dinner at a fine resturaunt or going to the track, the GTX is comfortable at either place.

    Please look carefully at the pictures, ask any questions you might have about the car. We will make the car available for personal inspection by serious bidders or their representatives during the auction with notice. We wre listing this as an auction listing, please, please, please do not ask us what our reserve is, We simply will not tell anyone what the reserve is. Bid what you feel the car is worth. We will not talk with anyone in person on the phone regarding the car. All questions must go through EBAY mail. Appointments to see the car must be made through EBAY mail. All shipping, applicable taxes and handling are the sole responsibility of the buyer.

    Thank you for considering our car.