[OKCHIEF]

Hi everyone, I joined the PY forums recently. I was waiting for a decent day outside to pull these two out and get some pictures for this forum. The Can Am is a no air car with red interior. This is the 4th Can Am we have had. Back in the '90s my wife and I each drove one to work and every once in a while we would meet to eat out or go to a meeting after work, and it was always fun driving home with two Can Ams. This one is pretty nice, not so nice we are afraid to take it out for cruises and weekend drives. The '73 is the 3rd of those that we have owned, the first I bought in 1982 off of a grocery store parking lot in Lubbock, Texas. It was dark green with baby moons. My little brother now owns it and is restoring it. The second is a fairly rough 4-speed car I still have. This Porcelain blue with blue interior car is also a 4-speed. It now has a 455, it runs but needs redone. I have put it back to stock condition otherwise, no trim rings, no wheel well molding and no rocker molding. I am in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma and anyone passing through is welcome to stop and talk Pontiac. Thanks, Tim

[hpp]

Good looking cars,nice garage too...

[BR57]

They are both really nice Pontiacs.

Blue is a good choice for a 73.

[tabob]

Nice cars. I love the story about you and your wife driving twin Can Ams back in the day!

[OKCHIEF]

I dug out some pictures of the green '73 I talked about in my original post, the one my brother now has. The first two pictures you see I took in the United grocery store parking lot in Lubbock around 1981. This is before I bought the car, the owner worked there. It had around 95,000 on it when I first saw it and by the time I was able to buy it it had around 120,000. I ran it up over 200,000 before I sold it to my brother. He drove it quite a bit before he rebuilt the motor. I would guess it had somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000. It is not unusual for cars out in this part of the country to have high miles. One reason I moved from Lubbock, you have to go at least 100 miles in any direction to get somewhere, and even then you may not be anywhere. This car originally came from Foster Pontiac in Memphis. The next two pictures were taken at a park after I moved to Oklahoma in 1983. You might spot the two car seats in the back, we had twin girls. They came home from the hospital in a '67 GTO. Money is tight but I think my brother may have this car in Dayton, if all goes well. Tim

[performerrpm]

ive only seen one can am in person or should i say passed it. was in sapulpa, ok around 99-00 time frame. coulda been you. it was like the white one

[BR57]

Is that green GTO ever nice too. Looks like it could have been a GM poster car. Don't see the standard baby moons very often either and you showed us two cars with them. If more people could see our cars in the condition pictured I am sure there would be a larger following.

[Lightfoot]

Thanks for taking the time to give us the interesting background information on the green '73, Tim. I wish I had taken (more) pictures of all the cars I owned in the late seventies, early eighties.
That 400 was a trusty workhorse. I'm wondering if the original color was Brewster Green?

And your recent Can Am is quite unusual, without A/C. I don't think I've ever heard of one before. Was it a delete option? You should definately get a PHS report for that car.

[77 Canamman]

WELCOME to PY, and Nice story.

I am also looking for a '73 4 speed GTO to go with my '77 Can Am.

Non A/C Can Ams are a bit unusual. From what I have seen and documented, 80 percent of Can Ams had A/C and 20 percent did not.

[dblsprt68]

Tim, very nice cars and really jealous of the shop!!! I took my Can Am to the 07 Tulsa POCI convention, any chance you were there? There were 9 at the show, 7 were very nice and 2 (includeing mine) were OK. The other OK shape car (a 403) belongs to a Pontiac nut that lives outside of Tulsa. He said he had another one in his shop that was dis-assembled. Love those Can Am's!!!!!!!

[Alvin]

Tim, Welcome and thanks for sharing your great Pontiac stories and photos!

[OKCHIEF]

To answer Lightfoot's question, that is an original green color called Verdant Green. In those old pictures it is hard to see the exact shade of the colors. I think that is kind of a rare color on a '73 GTO. I can't remember ever seeing another that color. If you are not too tired of me yet, I was going to relate some more '73 GTO stories from my history. I grew up in Ohio and the first '73 GTO I had ever seen was a black with camel interior standard shift car. It was at a show in Northwest Ohio sometime in 1979. I was working on buying it, I even went to the guys house in Muncie, Indiana to look it over better. You just did not see '73 GTOs where I lived. There were many early GTOs, up through '69, but after that they just were not there. I liked the car a lot and returned home, went straight to the bank and got a loan for it. I was living in a trailer park at the time, had the money for this car when a '67 Phathom blue 4-speed GTO cruised through the trailer park. I got on my bicycle and chased him down. I bought that '67 with the money I got for the '73. The next year I moved to Lubbock, Texas and could not believe it, there were newer model GTOs everywhere. The '73s of course caught my eye, I already had it my mind to buy a '73 from that black one I had found. In a short amount of time I had found four '73s around town. The green one as you know I bought, but there were two Florentine Red (maroon) cars, one with a 455, I found a picture of it and am posting it. If I remember right a guy named Frank Foley owned it. The other red one had a black vinyl top, this is the same color combination as the rough one I have now. The fourth one was Regatta Blue with a white vinyl top. I know I have pictures of it somewhere but can't find them right now. It was so strange, where the GTO's dropped off in Ohio, they picked up in Lubbock. Lots of '70 on up GTO's, also lots of foreign cars in Lubbock which you did not see at all in Ohio (1980) since so many people there had jobs in the auto industry. I did not like Lubbock all that well, they called it the "Hub of the Plaines" which I translated to "The Middle of Nowhere". Tim

[W72-Bandit]

Did one of your previous Can Ams happen to be a blk interior/bucket seat/column shift?

[Ben M.]

I lived in Lubbock for a while and I can say that the amount of cars there was interesting. I bought my '72 there. Which United store was it? ;-)

Nice cars though.

[Lightfoot]

Back in 79-80, There was a salvage/dealer in Lubbock that was clearing all their 58-64 Chevy parts, and ran ads in Hemming's every month. I was heavily into classic Impalas at the time, and I remember being fascinated about wanting to visit Lubbock.
The Buddy Holly factor had something to do with it also.

I got the Pontiac bug in the summer of 1980.

[OKCHIEF]

To W72-Bandit: No, none of my former Can Ams had black interior, they were red or white. But one of the red interior cars did have the bucket seat automatic shift on the column configuration. To Ben M. I don't remember the location of that United store. As you may have noticed, my mind retains in great detail all that has to do with the car itself, but I pretty much don't store away all the other stuff.
One of you mentioned wrecking yards and Buddy Holly, there was a wrecking yard right across the street from where Buddy is buried that had nothing but 1955-57 Nomads and Safari's. You could not walk in the door there, he did not want to deal with the public, just do mail order. I don't know if he is still there. In the way of some Buddy Holly trivia, his first headstone was stolen, and they replaced it with one of those flat ones that are flush with the ground, and it has some musical notes on it. There is also a Buddy Holly Museum there now, but I actually liked the museum they have there now for WW II gliders better. WW II glider pilots trained in Lubbock, it's a very nice museum and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Lubbock. Later, Tim

[Alvin]

Pretty Hot, Dry Desert like with a random tumbleweed or two in Lubbock & OK - yes?

This helps keep the vintage Poncho Tin & Iron ready for restorations and minimizes those pesky RUST Worms!

Pls Post more pics when you get the chance. Thxs for sharing.