1968 Plymouth GTX

(2011 to 2012)

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The Plymouth GTX was considered the “gentleman’s muscle car” by Plymouth, sort of midsize luxury versus the Road Runner which was intended as “bare bones”. This car came up at a very attractive price, so I worked a deal on a trade and ended up with my first Hemi car.

An original Hemi GTX, possibly 1 of 1 with the combination of the 1968 only Burgundy exterior, red interior and red striping, came with a copy of its build sheet as well as old titles and receipts. Unusual comfort items in the car included power windows, rear defogger (which was a trunk mounted fan in those days), front buddy seat in place of a console. No Air Conditioning though as it was not an option when you bought a Hemi due to no room for the equipment under the hood.

As usual, some work to do to get started, I added the correct stripes which were missing, fixed the power windows so they all worked, added seat belts which were also missing, re-arched the rear springs since its tail dragged, fixed some dash issues, replaced the power steering pump, the fuel tank leaked when full so that required a new fuel sender gasket, etc.. However, the Hemi ran really well and smooth and had its original stock carburetors. Stock and well tuned Hemi’s were known for very little vibration at idle and that is how this one behaved.

I was just in the middle of thinking through what to sort out next…It was originally built with power front disc but along the way had been weirdly converted to power drum instead, they grabbed when cold so this was a needed project. The steering column had loads of axial slop in it from a probable bearing issue so taking it apart was another…but then the 69 Charger 500 became available. That was the car I had been waiting for all along, so the GTX moved on! This is another of my old cars where I have talked with subsequent owners, it continues to do well, the owner after me fixed the remaining issues and it is doing just great!