One-Off 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T Spent 20 Years in a Barn, Now It's a Fully Restored Gem

Dodge's counterpart to the Plymouth Belvedere, the Coronet was the company's entry-level intermediate at the time. The lack of fancy features may explain why it's not as sought after as the Charger, but the Coronet was no stranger to performance. Dodge began offering the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 in the Coronet as early as 1966 and added the R/T package in 1967.

The latter bundle was very similar to that offered on the Charger. Not only it included a few performance-oriented goodies, but it also came with the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) Magnum V8 as standard. The 426 Street HEMI was on the options list too. Both mills turned the Coronet into a full-blown muscle car that was notably more affordable than the fancied-up Charger.

The nameplate was quite popular in 1967, with more than 100,000 units built, but only a little more than 10,000 examples were ordered with the R/T package. That number is not low enough to turn the R/T into a highly sought-after and very expensive rarity, but a convertible is quite hard to find. That's because only 628 customers went with the high-performance bundle on the drop-top configuration.

Almost all buyers opted for the base 440 V8 engine, but three of them got the optional 426 HEMI. Yup, they're among the rarest Mopars ever built and valued at more than 500,000 a pop in restored condition. They don't cross the block very often, though.

But that's not to say that 440-equipped versions are common. Of the 625 examples built, some turned out to be one-of-few or even unique gems thanks to certain features. The car you see here, for instance, is one of those one-of-one cars any Mopar enthusiast will obsess over. And it's mostly because of the Medium Copper Metallic color, which found its way on only three Coronet R/Ts in 1967. Two of them were hardtop models and the third one is the convertible you see here.

The Mopar also has a cool story to share because it didn't always look like this. The drop-top had a rough life and ended up needing a restoration back in the 1990s, when the current owner bought it. But life got in the way and he kept it in a garage for almost two decades before putting it on a rotisserie sometime in 2017.

After a full rebuild and about two years in the body shop, the Coronet R/T came back to life and looks as good as it did when it left the assembly line. It was restored using two other 1967 Coronets, but it still rocks a numbers-matching V8 and it's period correct in just about every department.

Showing only 90,000 miles (144,841 km) on the odometer, the copper convertible is now enjoying retirement as a Concours-ready car. And it will soon be joined by a 1967 hardtop in the same color (non-R/T). But until that happens and the owner can display them as a pair, check out this gorgeous convertible in the video below. Summer can't be here soon enough, right?