1968 Plymouth GTX

['68 Coronet R/T]

Purchased this car recently. The pictures show it assembled but the owner had taken it to a restoration shop in town and after they disassembled the car they basically quit working on it.
The guy ended taking the car home in boxes and rather than attempt to restore it himself put it up for sale.

Oops! There's the name of the restoration shop in the background.

The guy is still searching through storage sheds to find all the parts. Much of what you see is in rougher shape than it appears in the pictures.

I will detail the restoration process as much as I can in hopes it might be a help to someone or an inspiration to never attempt anything like this.

 

[moparnation74]

From a fellow GTX owner...Welcome to the forum......

I take it the car is a blue on blue X.....If so that will be a sweet ride once restored......

Every restoration has pluses and minuses......heartaches and heartbreaks but I am looking forward to see this one come to fruition....

Keep posting updates here....

 

[GetX'd]

Another fellow GTX owner here. That will be a fun project. I’m also looking forward to see you resurrect that baby to its former glory. Keep up with the progress pics. A lot of gray matter on this forum to help with seemingly confounding details. Good luck!

 

[Riverdawg]

Good luck with the project. I'd love to find my dad's old 68 GTX.

 

[69roadr]

Well, if it's an Arizona car you got at least something to work with, except for the dash and seats!

 

[SoCal440GTX]

Nice rediator!

 

[moparedtn]

Get 'er done, son!
Kinda partial to those myself:

 

[66Satellite47]

I sure admire those folks that follow through on a restoration project. I have never had the patience to deal all the frustrations. Keep your head up & the end result will be worth it. Those cars are SO neat.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Removed the seats, console and carpet.
The floor on the passenger side is a bit rusty and when I took the heater box out the vent seal was collapsed on one side. Heater core, which I first suspected was the problem looks good.

Driver's side looks better:

Someone hacked up the doors trying to install speakers:

Pulled the dash assembly and then the heater box:

Nice mouse nest in the center. I'll post up some more pictures later.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Amazing how many modifications and problems you find in the wiring on these old cars.
Here they put a jumper cable to bypass the ballast resistor. There was a similar one behind the dash that eliminated the panel light switch.

Removing the harnesses from the firewall connector. The top one is for the wiper motor:

Next is the voltage regulator, washer pump, horn side harness. Note the fusible link:

A couple of splices and dead ends in this harness:

The final connector is for the headlight harness. Notice the yellow lead running to the relay. It is attached to the plug by one single strand of wire:

The connectors for the dimmer switch, console, dome light, trunk and tail lights is behind the driver side kick panel.
Of course all of these are wrapped with tape and labeled upon removal. You end up with a box full of wiring harnesses.

 

[69 GTX]

Welcome aboard.
I can't stress enough, take lots of pictures & label everything. You'll thank yourself later.
Looking forward to updates!

 

[MarPar]

Love seeing another GTXer come back to life!

Tag and bag everything!!!

 

[Polara426]

Arizona cars don't know what rust is. Would love to call that rusty in Ohio.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Yeah, the problem down here is the sun destroys the interiors. All the trim is dry and brittle, the kick panels texture rubs off, etc.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

The first indicator that something was wrong with heater box was they fact the right side cables weren't attached to anything.

Turns out the control lever for the diverter panel was broken off:

Pulled the cover to check out the insides:

The diverter that wasn't working any longer. All the foam seals are dry and turn to powder when touched.

Also discovered the water leak that rusted the floors. It turns out the passenger vent to cowl seal was pretty distorted and obviously not making good contact.

This all goes on the shelf for now. Plenty to do before we need to fix rebuild this.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

My schedule hasn't allowed me much time to work on this car.
Finally got the door and quarter glass from the guy but nothing on the exhaust system.

Checked the trunk lip and radiator support numbers against the Fender tag. Everything matched so that's good.

 

[eldubb440]

Tag and bag everything!!!

View attachment 632967

yes, because 30 years later you might not remember where it all goes ...... here's mine

 

[moparedtn]

yes, because 30 years later you might not remember where it all goes ...... here's mine

What the heck is the pup chewing on there?

Ok guys, lookit, your resident old fart cheerleader here.
If a 4-time cancer survivor can do it, you surely can too. Get to work!

 

[malex]

Some inspiration for you. I did this one 10 years ago.

This one is 100% original metal, nothing changed. This is a J code 1968 and a few things to note. Of course the one is the torque boxes, second, the pinion snubber was double plated, and at the rear shackles there is an additional gusset. These are all factory reinforcements.

A recent picture sent to me of the 68.

Not sure if this will help you but this was the paint code under the dash of the GTX.

Good luck with your build!

 

[munger77]

I love the detailed photos. I can relate. I've seen all those types of issues on mine, and checked 'em off one by one. Not easy for me, but if someone helps it makes it much more fun and productive for me. That car looks awesome. My '68 in the photo on the left was originally blue with light blue interior and within the past 50 years the interior was changed to white; I love white interiors especially when it comes to hot sunny days.