Before You Buy - 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner Pre-Purchase Inspection (And What To Look For)

Rocket Restorations
Rocket Restorations
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Published 2024-07-27
So what do you when your Dad buys a 1971 Plymouth Road Runner in Reno, Nevada 11 hours from home? Well you hook up the trailer and go get it! In this video we show you in detail the process we do to thoroughly inspect a car we are looking to buy. Showing the numbers of the car, any rust or rust prone areas, how we find out how much body filler it has, go through the documents for the car, decode the fender tag, test drive it and show you why this is a good car and worth of buying. We also show what a valuable tool a paint gauge is to see where previous work was done on a car.

The Road Runner is super rare with the factory M73 rubber bumpers. My dad has been looking for a documented one for almost 20 years and finally found this one. The bumpers totally change the looks of this car and make it look so much better. The car has a lot of other neat options like rear window louvers, spoiler package, hemi orange paint and much more.

If you are buying a Mopar this is a step by step guide on what to look for to make sure you get a good car. Special thanks to Sierra Classics for letting me film the car at the dealership.

www.sierraclassics.com/used-inventory/index.htm?ga…
All Comments (21)
  • @ronaldrey8474
    Congratulations Tom's Father. Great looking Road Runner !
  • @clembob8004
    Overall, a pretty nice car, and the way you went through it in detail is great because you go through all the important stuff and it's easy to tell what's good and bad throughout the car. I wouldn't be afraid to have the car, but I agree the aftermarket front suspension setup is not what I would want. They can work really well, but on a vintage Mopar I much prefer the good old torsion bar setup.
  • @kirkneprud8336
    On page 21 of the 1971 Satellite, Road Runner, GTX sales brochure there is a picture of the louver option, the lovers are blue and match the car color.
  • @archieguitarz4700
    Diamond in the rough, but she looks awesome and has some great options.
  • @442olds7
    Back in he 1980s a guy i know had a 1972 Road runner yellow lemon twist black stripe. 400 ci with air grabber , pistol grip 4 speed. Black interior. He ran dual Thrush Mufflers (Straight throughs) could hear him coming a mile away. Lol. he still has the car today, I believe he had it body worked and repainted to factory lemon twist black stripe, saw it last year going down the road...shes a beauty.
  • @adeeponionbreath
    Good find on a nice car. Your analysis is impressive. Congratulations on acquiring this. Beat Fuselage bodies can look goofy. With the right options and new looking they can be gems.
  • @JeffMiletich
    California? But you're in Reno??? If you go to their website they have photos of the Roadrunner from January 2024. I'm amazed at your knowledge of cars -How do you remember all of those codes on the fender tags??? Were you a Quality Control Lead Tech for the Chrysler Corporation in a previous life? What a sweet Roadrunner!
  • @debbiebermudez5890
    Mr. B. Here ! 🍩☕️👀😎👍. Am not a fan of that model but your inspection to look at a vehicle is right on ! 🍩☕️👀😎👍 very interesting & informative !
  • @drp457
    Hope to see a follow up on the back to stock fixes.
  • @noberet
    Great episode Tom. Learned some more.
  • @mokeimusic
    Why would anybody do all that suspension swap and not put on a front sway bar? Still a nice car though.
  • @maxsav007
    In my experience cars like these always bring more money than their worth because buyers never have somebody go over them and they dont know the difference. The good restorations from the smaller shops dont make money because they take so much time. Quick and dirty cars like this easily double their money. To me, coilovers, tubular suspension and Wildwood brakes are screaming red flags. They do it because its easy and they make a ton of money on it, but they are NEVER set up right. They just bolt it all together slap a coat of paint on it and boot it out the door. The cars ride and drive poorly, and the customers think its ok because they dont know any better. Then some poor owner down the road has to spend thousands with an experienced shop just to get the car as good as it would have been stock. Great vid, very cathartic, there are thousands of cars like this, hopefully people learn.
  • @Ray-tf2fl
    One my favorite style!!!! Question were the fender tag rivet or screws? BUTIFUL car