This 1970 ‘Cuda Convertible Is Barely a Car Anymore — Collectors Still Want It for One Number Stamped on a Tag

This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertible has been reduced to a bare shell, a stripped cowl, and one stamped fender tag — yet collectors are still willing to pay close to $20,000 for it. The reason comes down to rarity: Plymouth built just 635 ‘Cuda convertibles in 1970, and fewer than one percent wore the High Impact Sassy Grass Green paint this one supposedly left the factory in. Backyard Barn Finds documents the deal as it happens, tag and all. Watch to see why a car that can’t be driven is still worth fighting over.

Some cars get restored. Some get parted out. This 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda convertible has spent its years doing neither, and what’s left barely resembles a car at all — a bare shell, a stripped cowl, and one stamped metal tag that a very specific kind of collector would still pay real money to own. That tag is the entire story here. Once you understand what the number on it represents, a wreck that looks like scrap in the video stops looking worthless and starts looking like one of the rarest survivors of its era. So why would anyone hand over real cash for a car that can’t be driven and barely qualifies as a car at all? Watch how the story unfolds and the number does all the talking.

What’s Actually Left of This Car

The video makes no attempt to dress up the condition. What’s left is closer to an archaeological find than a project car: a stripped body shell, a rusted floor pan, and enough of the cowl and firewall intact to confirm what it once was. There’s no drivetrain to speak of, no interior, and nothing resembling a finished surface. Viewers reacted to the state of the car almost as much as to the sale itself, with more than one comment joking that identifying it required something closer to dental records than a VIN check. Others pointed out, only half-joking, that what’s pictured is really a front clip and a data plate rather than a complete automobile. And yet the seller — and the channel documenting the deal — never stopped calling it a car, because in the world of numbers-matching Mopars, that stamped tag is often worth more than the sheet metal around it.

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The Number That Makes It Worth Saving

Every 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda left the factory with a fender tag stamped with build codes: body style, exterior color, interior trim, engine, transmission, and the plant and sequence numbers that tie the car to Chrysler’s original production records. For collectors, that tag is the difference between a real numbers-matching ‘Cuda and a clone built to look like one. A legitimate tag lets a buyer document a car’s original color, drivetrain, and options even if every panel around it has to be replaced. That’s exactly what’s being sold here — not a driveable car, but a verified identity that can anchor a ground-up rebuild and still carry the provenance that serious Mopar collectors and auction houses require before they’ll call something numbers-matching.

1970: The Peak Year for the E-Body ‘Cuda

1970 was the first model year for Plymouth’s redesigned E-body ‘Cuda, sharing its platform with the Dodge Challenger and giving Plymouth a genuine pony car competitor with a wide engine lineup, from a base slant-six up through the 440 Six Barrel and the legendary 426 Hemi. Plymouth offered the ‘Cuda as a true convertible for only two seasons, 1970 and 1971, before the drop-top vanished from the lineup entirely for 1972. That two-year window makes any 1970 ‘Cuda drop-top scarce by default, regardless of engine or color, which is part of why even a shell generates serious interest instead of getting scrapped outright.

Why Sassy Grass Green Matters

1970 was also the year Chrysler leaned hard into its High Impact color program, throwing names like Plum Crazy, Panther Pink, and Sassy Grass Green at buyers who wanted their muscle car impossible to miss. Plymouth built 635 ‘Cuda convertibles for 1970 across every available engine and trim combination, and only a sliver of those left the factory finished in Sassy Grass Green. If the color code on this tag checks out, that alone puts the car in a category with only a handful of surviving examples — which explains why a shell with no engine, no interior, and no paint left to speak of is still being treated like a discovery instead of scrap.

The Economics of Buying a Shell

Buying a car in this condition means buying a legal identity, not transportation. The asking price referenced around this listing sits near $20,000 — real money for something that can’t be driven — but that number makes more sense once the alternative is considered. A restoration built around a reproduction or mismatched tag is worth a fraction of one anchored to a documented, factory-original fender tag, no matter how good the bodywork looks when it’s finished. Serious buyers in this market are effectively purchasing the paperwork and the starting point for a numbers-matching build, then budgeting separately for every panel, wiring harness, and drivetrain component the finished car will need.

Why the Comments Turned Into a Debate

The reaction under this video split almost evenly between disbelief and respect. Some viewers couldn’t get past the idea of paying real money for what amounts to a rusted front clip, with jokes comparing the car to scrap metal or a can of corned beef hash rather than an actual vehicle. Others pushed back, noting that thirty-five years ago cars exactly like this one were treated as disposable and crushed by the thousands, which is precisely why so few genuine 1970 convertibles — in any color — survive today. That tension between preservation purists and people who see nothing left to preserve runs through almost every comment thread on a barn find video, and this one was no exception.

What a Full Restoration Would Actually Cost From Here

Rebuilding a car from a bare shell means sourcing or reproducing nearly everything: floor pans, quarter panels, a correct interior, wiring, glass, and a period-correct drivetrain matched to whatever the fender tag specifies. That kind of build easily runs well into six figures once labor is factored in, which sounds extreme until it’s measured against what a correctly optioned, numbers-matching 1970 ‘Cuda convertible brings at auction — a market where finished, documented cars in rare High Impact colors have sold well past that mark. Buyers willing to gamble tens of thousands of dollars on a shell are betting that the finished math still works in their favor once the tag’s provenance is verified.

Why Barn Find Channels Keep Turning Up Cars Like This

Backyard Barn Finds built its audience by documenting exactly this kind of deal as it happens — tracking down forgotten cars, negotiating in real time, and showing viewers the unglamorous reality behind a rare survivor before any restoration work begins. That access is part of why a video showing what most people would call scrap metal pulled in more than 2.3 million views instead of getting scrolled past. It’s not a polished restoration reveal; it’s the moment before that story even starts, and for a big segment of the muscle car audience, that moment — tag, rust, and all — is the more interesting one to watch.

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