[Mark Simiele]

Always a treat to see a survivor original paint car. At first glance I thought it was Warwick blue but its Crystal Turquoise. A bench seat with a/c and wheel covers too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/19450034488...sAAOSw6gVhjT46

[dataway]

WOW!

[Brewster]

I would leave it just the way it is and enjoy her.

[69hardtop]

I’ve been to Grand Junction CO on business quite a few times and I can attest to the no rust climate of the area. Still amazing to me that these nice cars continue to pop up out of nowhere

[GTOnly70]

Love it!

[1969 Ram Air]

This car looks so original. It would make a great cruiser. Great colors for sure.

[dataway]

If my wife had already retired (like me) and we had moved to our new location, I'd be bidding on that.

[north]

Neat example of the "Non hardcore" type setups (Auto, AC, bench, hubcaps etc) that were the majority of all GTO's in the day. One oddity is no softray glass (even the windshield) on an AC car.

[camerjeff]

It is a Nice car, but odd that it has clear glass & A/C. I bet if it were a 68 it would have the 2bbl 400 also.

[Ram Air IV Jack]

So many people claim to own survivors these days but then you inspect them and that is not the case! This car appears to be a true, to the survivor's name and a model to use for restorations. Hope it gets a good home.

[Sidponcho]

Very cool indeed. A great representation of that color too.....so many are way off.

[1969 Ram Air]

$19,700 reserve met. Very tempting.

[dataway]

I wonder ..... is the original engine still in it? I notice he didn't mention that, and he has the last digits of the engine number blurred out in the photo (could be a focus issue, but looks more like on purpose ) That engine number is not related to VIN, so not sure why he would do that, also doesn't show the VIN tag. Not sure why people protect VIN numbers, you can't really do anything nefarious with them.
Seems like promoting the fact it has original engine/trans would be a no brainer.

At that mileage .... could have easily had a replacement engine installed at some point. Doesn't look like it ... but jeez, if I was selling it I'd be yelling about the matching numbers.

[1969 Ram Air]

Originally Posted by dataway

I wonder ..... is the original engine still in it? I notice he didn't mention that, and he has the last digits of the engine number blurred out in the photo (could be a focus issue, but looks more like on purpose ) That engine number is not related to VIN, so not sure why he would do that, also doesn't show the VIN tag. Not sure why people protect VIN numbers, you can't really do anything nefarious with them.
Seems like promoting the fact it has original engine/trans would be a no brainer.

At that mileage .... could have easily had a replacement engine installed at some point. Doesn't look like it ... but jeez, if I was selling it I'd be yelling about the matching numbers.

Good points. The seller does claim it's all original, but without a picture of the partial engine VIN, I wouldn't trust that statement.

[Sidponcho]

Originally Posted by dataway

I wonder ..... is the original engine still in it? I notice he didn't mention that, and he has the last digits of the engine number blurred out in the photo (could be a focus issue, but looks more like on purpose ) That engine number is not related to VIN, so not sure why he would do that, also doesn't show the VIN tag. Not sure why people protect VIN numbers, you can't really do anything nefarious with them.
Seems like promoting the fact it has original engine/trans would be a no brainer.

At that mileage .... could have easily had a replacement engine installed at some point. Doesn't look like it ... but jeez, if I was selling it I'd be yelling about the matching numbers.

Matching numbers wouldn't make much difference....its not a RA or SD or Judge.

[dataway]

Would to a lot of people ... because a "survivor" isn't a survivor without original engine, trans etc. On a restored plain jane it wouldn't make a lot of difference, on survivor type ... yes.

[Sidponcho]

Originally Posted by dataway

Would to a lot of people ... because a "survivor" isn't a survivor without original engine, trans etc. On a restored plain jane it wouldn't make a lot of difference, on survivor type ... yes.

What's a the car sells for 25,000 with the original engine and transmission. How much would you deduct if it did not have the original engine?

[blue71ta]

The seller is a stand-up guy. I bought a GTO from him and had a positive experience.

[dataway]

Originally Posted by Sidponcho

What's a the car sells for 25,000 with the original engine and transmission. How much would you deduct if it did not have the original engine?

Personally I wouldn't buy it as a "survivor" without the original engine and trans, cause then it's just another old GTO that's been wrenched on by someone that probably doesn't know what they are doing.

But ... if I really wanted it ... I'd want to pay $20,000 instead of $25,000 if it was non-original. I always keep in mind that while it's not a "rare" car ... an unrestored GTO with the original engine still intact is a hard car to find in todays market. With the supply of GTO picked as clean as it has been, unrestored original cars with original engines are very few and far between regardless of their production numbers. Big difference to me between a GTO that has the engine blown up, or worn out, swapped, and a car that still has all the "as delivered" equipment in it.

A car like this one, really only has one thing going for it to command a premium price ... originality, no rare options, no low productions numbers. There is ONE thing that makes this car a potentially great find .... originality, if it doesn't have that, well .... what does it have?

[Ram Air IV Jack]

Originally Posted by dataway

Personally I wouldn't buy it as a "survivor" without the original engine and trans, cause then it's just another old GTO that's been wrenched on by someone that probably doesn't know what they are doing.

But ... if I really wanted it ... I'd want to pay $20,000 instead of $25,000 if it was non-original. I always keep in mind that while it's not a "rare" car ... an unrestored GTO with the original engine still intact is a hard car to find in todays market. With the supply of GTO picked as clean as it has been, unrestored original cars with original engines are very few and far between regardless of their production numbers. Big difference to me between a GTO that has the engine blown up, or worn out, swapped, and a car that still has all the "as delivered" equipment in it.

A car like this one, really only has one thing going for it to command a premium price ... originality, no rare options, no low productions numbers. There is ONE thing that makes this car a potentially great find .... originality, if it doesn't have that, well .... what does it have?

Excellent statement and very true. True original cars are very hard to find now that they've reached the half century old level. However, there are many cars out there that are fakes with restamped numbers, switched cowl tags, etc. Look at how many people today claim they have survivor cars and then you look at them at a show and see things not quite right. Most here would love to have an original RAIV Judge or GTO but because the true remaining examples pull 6 figures now, these people will make one. Seems there are Judges everywhere today and when I bought my first one back in 1973, you hardly saw one on the road.

It seems the term original has a different meaning to many owners. You're correct, a car to me would have to have its born with drivetrain to be called original. If this car is what the owner claims it is, then yes it would command a decent price. Most of these cars lost their originality decades ago when the original motors blew up on strip and street races. The original GTO's have been scavenged by collectors over the years but Chinese parts have allowed people in the hobby to build what they want. Nothing wrong with this but don't call the car a survivor or an original like as so many do.

If you find a true original car in decent shape, like this one maybe, grab it because it a rare find indeed!!