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We’ve all heard the barn-find stories. They often start with a shed or an abandoned house and a car hidden inside that’s been parked since who knows when. A lot of these stories are full of second-hand information and spotty facts, this one however, is information straight from the source.
It’s an amazing story, and to give it justice, we’re going to start back in 1978 with Glen Wolford, the previous owner of the car and the one that parked it in a storage unit where it would sit for more than 30 years.
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It may look dirty, but under that coat of dust is a rock solid body.
“The story starts when I was in high school back in 1978,” Glen explained. “I saw the car around town and thought it was pretty cool.” He didn’t see the car for about a year, but ended up meeting the owner, a man named Raleigh, and working with him at Western Nuclear out of Jefferey City, Wyoming.
That gave Glen the opportunity to talk to him about his 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. “He didn’t want to sell it to some young kid since he didn’t want them to go off and wreck it.” Not too long after that, Glen and Raleigh were looking at getting laid off soon and Raleigh agreed to sell the car.
To make a long story short, Glen ended up getting a different job in a different city and parking the Plymouth in a storage unit in Hanna, Wyoming, without any long term storage intentions. There, it would sit untouched until this year when Randy Lichty of Casper, Wyoming, would cut the rusted lock on the door and expose it to daylight for the first time in three-decades. keeping in mind, that was the same lock that Glen had put on the storage unit door in 1983.
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Randy is a good friend of Glen’s and the two have known each other their entire lives. “I went to kindergarten with Glen,” Randy explained. “We’ve been friends as long as I can remember.” Today, the two live in Casper, Wyoming, although on opposite sides of town. “I still see him every once in a while,” Randy explained.
[8]This car is really a time capsule. Notice that it has the flip-out style rear window instead of the roll down windows.
Randy started asking about the car and asked if Glen would sell it to him, Glen always refused until he was laid off about a year ago and needed the money to pay off some bills. “Glen contacted me and asked if I was still interested. I jumped at it,” Randy explained. “I always told him that if he got financially back on his feet I’d sell it right back to him for what I paid for it.” Randy loves the car, but he’s a good friend and a stand-up guy.
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This is how the car looked after a quick bath. Its amazing how clean the car came out after sitting for so many years.
They made the deal about a year ago, but couldn’t find the title and it took until about 3 weeks ago to get a new one issues. Randy has not seen the car in more than 30 years and has no idea what condition it is in. “I asked if he knew what the condition of the car was,” Randy told us. “This is where it gets interesting and the words I head scared me a bit.” The answer was that Glen had no clue. Glen hadn’t seen the car in more than thirty years either. This sort of beats the definition of sight unseen as neither buyer or seller had seen that car in more than three decades.
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Randy drove the 200 mile trip from Casper to Hanna to look at what he had purchased and find the condition of the car. “I was almost afraid to open the door,” he said. He tried the lock and it didn’t work, it was rusted solid. “I took a chance and cut the lock, the rest is history.”
[15]Could you imagine the feeling of not knowing the condition of the car, or even if it was still there, and opening the door to this?
The car was covered in dust, but in phenomenal shape. The storage unit was like a time capsule. There isn’t an inch of rust anywhere on the whole car. It’s totally solid and complete. It’s an original V-code, 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner with a 440 cubic-inch 6-pack engine, 4-speed manual transmission, and a Dana rear end.
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The custom artwork is something leftover from Raleigh, along with the black accent paint across the back and the custom made wood shifter grip.
Raleigh did the accent paintwork with the black on the back and the art on the rear quarters. He had also done the artwork on the air cleaner and made the wood handle on the shifter. “It’s just one of those time-machines,” Glen explained when talking about the condition of the car.
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Even the interior cleaned up real nice.
“It surprised me that the car looked so nice and that there wasn’t any mice or bugs or anything. We opened the car and it smelled like mothballs,” Randy explained. “It was just dumb luck.” Back in the day they’d keep a box of petroleum based mothballs in the car so they could use them in a pinch to boost the octane of lower quality fuel. That’s what Randy thinks kept it safe.
[20]Imagine looking through the back window of your truck to see this following you.
The plan is to basically rebuild the engine, put it back in, and not touch it from there. That’s exactly what we’d do too. A car in this good original shape deserves to be driven as it is and survive as a time capsule.
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