The story begins around 2015 at a local Mopar car show. One of the Mopar owners at the show mentions that he knew of a 71 or 72 Plymouth Satellite or Road Runner that happened to be upside down at the bottom of a ravine out east on the South Dakota prairie. It was way down an embankment off the side of the road, and had been there for at least 20-30 years. He thought it might be a Road Runner, but wasn't sure. We parted ways and I kicked myself for not grabbing his name.
A few years passed and I was telling this story to another fellow club member Jeremy, and I described the guy to him. He thought he knew who I was talking about and gave the guy a call - bingo. After contacting Doug myself and having him send me some pictures, I knew I was interested in the car. At the price he quoted me, worst case scenario, I would still come out ahead with all the little parts I could scavenge off it. The pictures revealed a very sad looking car, and not a Road Runner, but a 1972 Satellite Sebring Plus. After studying the pictures some more, I told Doug that I would be interested in the car, and we set about plans to extract it.
Before seeing the car in person, I was trying to not get too excited about it. I told myself that the only way that this car even gets a remote chance of being resurrected is if it has these 3 qualifiers:
1) It has to be a true sunroof car.
2) It has to be a big block car.
3) And it definitely has to still have its fender tags to prove it.
The day finally came to meet with Doug and we went out to extract the car. I could not believe how far down the embankment it was! Using a lot of chain and posts to get it to roll up the hill easier, it was up on the road within a couple of hours. It looked even sadder when we rolled it off of its top. We drug it up on a trailer and got back to Doug's place to give it a close look over. Remember my three qualifiers? As "luck" would have it, it met all 3. And not barely, this car was a stunner when it was brand new.
This 'Sebring Plus is one of the highest optioned '72 Pluses I have come across. So much so that the fender tag is completely full! One more option and this would have been a two-tag car! On top of that, it sports a super color combo. This car is Hemi Orange with a white interior and white canopy top. Not only does it have a big block, it has the 400 4bbl HP engine - the beefiest engine you could order for the Sebring Plus. Some of the better options that came on this car include, of course, the sunroof, A/C, power disc brakes, dual painted racing mirrors, bright exhaust tips, the AM/FM with console mounted cassette, and power windows.
The car took a very hard hit to the front end, and it will take some time to sort out what can be saved and what will have to be replaced. I have already concluded that I will have to find a donor car, as finding all the sheet metal and front frame rails, along with all the nuts bolts and brackets individually would not be very cost effective. But there is no hurry as I have several years before I retire and am able to get started on this one.
