Transforming from rusty to pristine: The amazing restoration journey of an abandoned 1970 Plymouth Road Runner into a classic beauty

After 33 long years of hiding in a barn, this classic car has been given a new lease on life and restored to its former glory. It’s now ready to shine at any Concours event and turn heads wherever it goes. This car is a true testament to the beauty and power of American muscle, and its restoration is a triumph of dedication and hard work.

The yellow drop-top you see here ended up with the current owner, Rick Pattee, back in 1979. The Mopar was in a rather poor condition, but Rick fixed it and put it back on the road. Three years later, however, he parked it in a barn and left it there until 2015. Yup, this Road Runner was sidelined for a whopping 33 years.

But unlike many classic muscle cars that emerge from long-term storage only to be parted out, Rick unearthed this convertible for a full restoration. It took him about two years to get it right, but the Road Runner is quite the looker now. And it probably sports a unique color. You see, Rick calls this color Viper Yellow, which wasn’t included in the Plymouth palette back in the day.

Unusual, eye-catching, and completely mesmerizing – that’s how I’d describe the paint job on this Road Runner. The color is so unique that even the owner, Rick, isn’t sure if it’s a custom shade or one sourced from the Dodge Viper. Regardless of its origin, the hue is very close to Plymouth’s Lemon Twist from 1970 (which Dodge also offered as Top Banana), making this Road Runner a true head-turner. And let’s not forget about the car’s flawless exterior, which is sure to impress any classic car lover.

Oh, and it also rides on air shocks in the rear, which is why the bottom end of the car is jacked up. I’m not a fan of the stance, but I must admit it works well on these long-fendered B-body Mopars.

The black-striped hood hides one of Chrysler’s most popular engines from the golden age of muscle cars: the 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) B-block V8. Essentially a larger bore version of the 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) mill that Mopar introduced in 1958, the 383 arrived in 1961 and soldiered on until 1971, finding its way in every single muscle car offered at the time.

Granted, it’s nowhere near as powerful as the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) RB or as desirable as the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI, but it’s no slouch either, at 335 horsepower and 425 pound-feet (576 Nm) of torque. And it’s potent enough to push the Road Runner down the quarter-mile in less than 15 seconds and toward a top speed of more than 125 mph (201 kph).

And while the 1970 Road Runner isn’t particularly rare, the convertible layout turns this Mopar into a hard-to-find gem. Because while Plymouth sold 36,861 Road Runners that year, only 658 of them were drop-tops. That’s only 1.8% of total production. And that figure goes even lower if we narrow it down to engine and transmission options.