Did you know that in an effort to attract more women customers, Mopar outfitted several of their 1969 to 1970 models with floral patterned interiors and vinyl tops? These psychedelic rides were known as Mod Tops.
Taken from a creepy 1969 Plymouth Advertisement:
Look what Plymouth’s up to now… A floral vinyl top. Or floral seat and interior trim. Or both.
Who needs it? Anybody with a penchant for the different. The exciting. The original.
Why did we do it? To win you over to Plymouth, naturally.
We’ve been designing cars with women in mind for years. Maybe that’s why we have the biggest selection of interiors in the business. More colors. More fabrics and vinyls. More choices in seat designs… If the print pictured on our Barracuda Sport Coupe doesn’t win you over there is an aqua and blue floral pattern available on our midsized Sport Satellite. And many other features with women-winning ways.
See your nearby Plymouth dealer. He has a whole mad, mod story. He’s fond of women, too.
Mod Tops were available in yellow, blue or green and were installed on popular Dodge and Plymouth models such as Satellites, Barracudas, Swingers, Darts, Coronets and Super Bees.
Although the look was fitting for the time, Mod Tops only lasted for two years between 1969 and 1970 – resulting in only 2,876 vehicles produced with the option.
The website Moores MoPars has put together an impressive registry of known Mod Tops – which includes helpful information, pictures, and even leads for places to purchases OEM and reproduction floral vinyl.
Love it or hate it, the rare option adds value to these cars. But it also raises an interesting question: If your restoration project came factory with a floral vinyl top and interior, would you keep it or change it to suit your taste?
My husband says if I am going to drive it he would keep it the way it is – if not he would do something to his liking. I prefer the yellow print.
I think I’d have to restore it as original because of the rarity of the mod top option.
To be honest the green on green mod top looks pretty good and the yellow on yellow in the last picture isn’t so bad either. But the yellow top on that green Cuda is killing me.
I agree. Olive Green & the yellow. floral is a no go.
I love them!
I just like the nostalgia behind them, kinda like the pet rock ya just cant get them any more
All of these tops and cars look GREAT!!! Most of the original NOS vinyl for these tops and interiors were located thanks to Legendary Auto Interiors. They made many of the vinyl tops and are in the process of trying to reproduce some of the mod material. There is also a gentleman in Canada who is impeccably documenting the restoration of an all original 1969 Charger Daytona with a one of a kind floral mod pattern that was used as an experiment and test vehicle for the graphics and design center within Chrysler back in 1968-69. To this day many of the individuals involved back then are part of the documentary!! Very exciting stuff!!
I believe I own the only Dart GTS big block Mod Top.
I should mention that it’s the one in the pictures above. Yes, it is original. It now has its original mag hub caps and redline tires, not the dog dish/white letters as shown in the pics. Those are old pics before I owned it. It was rotisserie restored in the early 2000’s and has recently (June/July 2018) been through a cosmetic refresh and looks like a fresh resto. The top has the original material, not reproduction. 383 bored/ported/cammed to 450HP. 4:10 gears. Runs 12.90 quarter mile on slicks with the original 727 trans. One race, now it’s show only. Driven once or twice a month, weather permitting. I live in Marin County, California, so it gets its exercise.
Hi Brian Burbank,
Yours is definitely a very groovy GTS, but there is one other LS23 Dart GTS in my Mod Top Registry:
It is an X9 Black one: ModTop #109
http://www.mooresmopars.com/modtop109.html
Got any new pics you can email to the Mod Top Registry? 🙂
My brother owned a 1969 barracuda green with mod top bought new in Trenton mo. 1969 it was a 340 4 speed and was fast it set on dealer lot for over a year
I have a 1970 cuda ( not barracuda ) y2 Sun Fire Yellow that had a yellow mod top. When I bought the car it had a black vinyl top. I didn’t want a vinyl top so I pulled it off. I had to pull the drip rail moldings and front and back glass moldings off and under the moldings were pieces of a mod top. I checked the build sheet and it had the code V1P. That was in 1977 and I really didn’t think much about it except I thought ( man that’s ugly) . Around twenty years ago I did a rotisserie restoration on the car and never gave that mod top a second thought and did the car in Moulin Rouge . Maybe I should do it again in y2 yellow and a mod top. Na
I am putting together a Fender P Bass in the light yellow body and would love to do a pick-guard in the yellow Mod Top floral print. I need a print of the pattern so I can do a transfer and a vinyl wrap. My wife had for her first car a ’69 Barracuda Yellow Mod Top and my uncle had a ’69 Plymouth Fury in yellow Mod Top. That is so rare and I am a car purist, soooo. If there is any body that could help me with a wrap for the pick guard I would greatly appreciate it! cmoorevette@gmail.com