Family Rewires A Trailer To Go Get Another Car And Looks Back On The Day They Helped Pull A Black 67 GTX Out Of A Dirt Floor Garage

Ask a car family what they do on a free weekend and the answer is often the same: go get another car. That is the spirit of this update from @BackWoodsPerformance67, where a family has just rewired a trailer so they can head out and pick up their next project, and then spends the rest of the time telling the story of a black 1967 Plymouth GTX that came out of a dirt floor garage.

A barn find muscle car video cover beside a stock photo of a vintage car in a garage workshop.

The setup is simple and very relatable. Somebody bought a trailer and rewired it, and now they are ready to roll. They are headed out to get another car, after a trip the day before that brought home a parts car. Along the way there are jokes, groans about recording a video three different times, and a toolbox that one of the guys picked up for work.

The reason they keep coming back to the GTX is simple. It belongs to Owen, who bought it recently, and the family tells its history as they walk around it. It is the kind of story that keeps a hobby going.

The Car and Its Funky Paint

This is a real 1967 Plymouth GTX, and as they point out, everything you see on it is real. The funky paint dates to the 1970s, and the Ramcharger stickers on the car were put on around 1973 or 1974. The tires are Firestone Drag 500s, which they have dated to 1970, in a size of 30 and a half by 12 by 15. The car has full exhaust that was added by a previous owner, and it is undercoated red.

The hood lifts off and is steel, not fiberglass, which they point out as a legitimate surprise. There are also some odd choices. The deck lid is bolted down with the hinges removed. The interior is bare bones and race ready, with a roll bar, no back seat, factory buckets, factory door panels and a factory dash. It is, in their words, a home built 1970s race car, and the paint shows its age.

From Showroom to Dirt Floor

The car was bought new, and they still have the starter card with the first owner’s name in the engine bay. Around 1969, the father of the man who later owned it bought it as a graduation present for his son. He did not want to buy a four-speed for a teenager, so he chose an automatic car with the 440 and the GTX bucket seats and a column shifter.

That lasted about a weekend. The family went to Chrysler, bought what they needed over the counter, and swapped the car to a four-speed at a buddy’s house. The son then ran a ten second pass at Michigan Dragway, and he said that after the clock showed his time it was suddenly a lot harder to find street races. Then life got in the way. He even ended up marrying the woman who helped paint the car, and the family has photos of them standing next to it.

The car then sat in a shed with a dirt floor from about 1979 until 2014 or 2015. That is the part of the story the kids remember hearing years ago. One of them says that the first time he met a man named Junior, Junior was telling their dad about pulling a black 67 GTX out of a dirt floor garage and describing the funky paint, and he has remembered it ever since.

A Series of Owners

Junior brought the car back to Kentucky and kept it in his airport hangar, where he played with it for a while. When life got in the way for him too, he sold it to another fellow around 2017. That owner held it until Owen bought it on a Sunday night. They say they once considered buying it themselves, though they joke about who is telling the truth.

The family also hopes to track down the original owner. They have heard he had a stroke and is in poor health, and they would like to bring the car to Michigan to reunite them, if at all possible. They are not getting their hopes up, but they plan to put out some feelers.

Plans for the GTX

Owen plans to run the car at the track every once in a while and show it, a bit of both worlds, though he says it will live in a kind of retirement compared with what it used to do. It needs a few upgrades first. The fuel system will get attention, with a new fuel pump, a replacement for the weak factory tank and new fuel lines. They may leave the old pump in for show. The goal is to make it safe on the track and enjoyable on the street.

They also plan to put red headlights back in, though not both, so Owen can still see if he gets caught out at night. Their big goal for the car is next year’s Roadkill Nights, where they dream of straight racing it on Woodward Avenue, which they say would make a heck of a story.

Trailering a Car Safely

This is a good reminder that bringing a car home safely is half the project. A well-prepared trailer makes the difference between a smooth trip and a roadside disaster. Rewiring, as this family did, is a smart place to start, since lighting problems cause many tow stops and tickets.

Test every light before you leave: brake, turn, tail and marker lights.
Check tire condition and pressure on the trailer, and carry a spare and the tools to change it.
Inspect the hitch, coupler and safety chains.
Balance the load, with most of a car’s weight slightly forward of the trailer axle.
Strap the car by the frame or axles using rated tie-downs, at four points or more.
Know your tow vehicle’s rating, and never exceed its capacity.

The Heart of the Hobby

What stands out is how much of the hobby is about the people. A family, a trailer and a long drive. A story about a car that sat in a dirt floor shed for decades and then found its way back to the track crowd. That is how many of us imagine car collecting at its best, with the work shared across generations and every project adding to the tale. For more from the family and their next adventure, check out @BackWoodsPerformance67.

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