[Jim Perez]

Hello all,
This is the story of how I came to own a 1965 GTO. Lets just say its all my dads fault. He will be 70 years old in Sept. and I am 44. I have pics of me in his blue 1958 Pontiac automatic with tri-power. He traded that in on a used red on red 1960 Pontiac two door, 3 speed, 389 tri-power car. I have picures of me in that car also. In 1965 he worked in Salinas Ca. and I found out later he used to drive by Don Groth Pontiac every day going to work. He told me later that in Nov or Dec of that year the dealer had two 65's left, a White one and a Burgandy one. He bought the Burgundy one that was a hard top, four speed with tri-power and red interior. He did mention that before he decided to get it he saw on the news that a guy stole one from a car lot and there was a high speed chase on hiway 101 and the cops couldnt catch him till he crashed. He also said the dealer offered to install a 421 for an extra 500 dollars. He passed on the 421. My mom told me she was so mad she cried for a few days when he brought that car home as money was tight and the 1960 car thay had was like new. Basically I grew up in that car. Family trips out of town were very comfortable with all that room and it was fast. He ended up putting about 100,000 miles on that car before he parked it in front of the house. He stopped driving it around 1973 and there it sat. I really wasnt thinking about owning a car then (I was in 6th or 7th grade). People would stop by every now and then to ask about buying the car. The answer was always no. One day a guy stopped and wanted to trade a beat up 1936 ford pickup, that was the first time that the answer wasnt no. He answered "Im giving it to my son, its his car". When I turned 16 I got my license and the car. I put another 40k miles thru high school and after. I had the engne rebuilt and I am currently doing a frame off on the car. My dad asks when I will finsh his car for him and laughs. By the way my dads daily driver right now is a 1999 Formula Firebird. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Jim

[Jim Perez]

Hello all,
This is the story of how I came to own a 1965 GTO. Lets just say its all my dads fault. He will be 70 years old in Sept. and I am 44. I have pics of me in his blue 1958 Pontiac automatic with tri-power. He traded that in on a used red on red 1960 Pontiac two door, 3 speed, 389 tri-power car. I have picures of me in that car also. In 1965 he worked in Salinas Ca. and I found out later he used to drive by Don Groth Pontiac every day going to work. He told me later that in Nov or Dec of that year the dealer had two 65's left, a White one and a Burgandy one. He bought the Burgundy one that was a hard top, four speed with tri-power and red interior. He did mention that before he decided to get it he saw on the news that a guy stole one from a car lot and there was a high speed chase on hiway 101 and the cops couldnt catch him till he crashed. He also said the dealer offered to install a 421 for an extra 500 dollars. He passed on the 421. My mom told me she was so mad she cried for a few days when he brought that car home as money was tight and the 1960 car thay had was like new. Basically I grew up in that car. Family trips out of town were very comfortable with all that room and it was fast. He ended up putting about 100,000 miles on that car before he parked it in front of the house. He stopped driving it around 1973 and there it sat. I really wasnt thinking about owning a car then (I was in 6th or 7th grade). People would stop by every now and then to ask about buying the car. The answer was always no. One day a guy stopped and wanted to trade a beat up 1936 ford pickup, that was the first time that the answer wasnt no. He answered "Im giving it to my son, its his car". When I turned 16 I got my license and the car. I put another 40k miles thru high school and after. I had the engne rebuilt and I am currently doing a frame off on the car. My dad asks when I will finsh his car for him and laughs. By the way my dads daily driver right now is a 1999 Formula Firebird. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Jim

[jwcfbd]

I only wish my Dad thought of something like that.

[soon2b2ltmp]

Here's how I got my Catalina. But First a background story.

My dad joined the Dupage County Sheriff's Department in IL, in 1967. They had Pontiac Catalina's for Squad cars, not police packages (except for the 1970 model year.), just regular sedans. the '67s had a Mechanical siren just like the fire engines, and every time you turned it on, the lights would dim and the engine would sputter. Any way I had found a picture of my dad, the Sheriff, Undersheriff, and nine other deputies in front of Brand spanking new '72 Catalinas.

So, I decided that I wanted to make a replica of my dad's old squad car. Looking around for a four door sedan was becoming tough, until a good friend of mine calls me up to tell me a friend of his lives across the street from an old lady who is selling a '72 catalina. Well I call up the lady, about 85 y/o, I asked her about the car. She had gotten that car from her girlfriend who lived down the street when she moved into a nursing home. The new owner's husband drove it until 1993 when he parked in the driveway, then he died shortly thereafter. Then I come along, the car had 55,600 miles on it. I have the protect-o-plate, the paper from the dealership when they picked it up from the railyard, and all three booklets that go in the glovebox. What did I pay???? Three Hundred dollars for the car.

[uneasyrider]

Here's how I ended up with my 1974 TA...

Long long ago in a land far away...

WAY back in 1984/85 (getting long enough ago I don't really remember lol) my buddy Chris bought this car from the second owner. It's a local car and was bought originally about 40miles from here. He had it for about a year and in that time he and us (the "gang") drove the living crap out of it. It lost a rod bearing (only had a two core radiator ) and we fixed that. He sold it and the guy that bought it drove it for about a year and didn't like the mileageand he put it up for sale. My other buddy Kevin seen it come up for sale and he bought it. Same as above we went out and drove the living chit out of it! Well that lasted for about two weeks and on one of our "community" chip-in-for-gas and swap drivers "fun runs" I was driving and we lost the rod bearing again. Still a two core radiator and it was 100F. Well that ended the career of the old TA (and maybe a good thing because that might be why I'm still alive and telling this story ) while Kevin went into the army and stored it, got out, stored it for another four years or so at various places until it ended up at my Grandma's barn. Well there it sat until 1993 when he gave it to me for my college graduation present (COOL, HUH? ) because he thought I would have the money to do something with it. Well I ended up selling it in 1995 (because I had no money, along with a very nice little 1979 Z28, 4-spd, hot little 325hp 350 but the cam was flat) to the guy that is doing the work on it now for $1,500. The TA only has 89,000 miles on it. The paint was faded badly, the interior wasn't great, the tires and shocks were shot, and of course it wasn't running. I wanted someone to buy it that would have the money and the knowlege to do the work. Well it sat behind his place until 2003 when I got the money to buy a car. I looked around and couldn't find a thing I liked for the money I had so I asked the guy that bought my TA if he could get it on the road for the money I had and he said he thought he could. He had never transferred the title in all those years so "technically" it's been my car since 1993. So I guess in the end I did get the money to fix it up it just took 10yrs to do it. It's almost done and it's turning out nice.

[6704gto]

well i got my car when i was 14 my mom gave me her 67 gto she bought new,i was so excited to have the car,i still own the car to this day

[firebirdcrazy1959]

the guy was drunk when he sold me my 80 firebird for $250.he was the brother of a guy i lived next to.he saw my girls bird and said i have a firebird for sale.he said $250.i paid him right there,sight unseen.he said the car was nice.he was drunk so i thought ok,maybe its just ok not nice.i got to the location of the car.it was at his uncles restoration shop.when i pulled up,i saw the car.i thought it wasn't the car i paid $250 for.it was nice[back in 96].still had the tires from the factory on it.it was black[not factory].white interior was mint,body solid as can be.rally II's.then he shows up and says"how much did i sell the car for?'.i tell him and he says "OH".i have the bill of sale.then the fun starts.he says i don't have the title.my buddy has it.ok no problem,call me when you get it.never called.put a garagemans lien on it.cost $125.i got the title after that.i've had the car 10 yrs now.it shows its age now.haven't driven it much in the last 6yrs.poor car

[Johnny Mac]

I won my wife and car in a poker game in Reno . Thanks to the Nevada sun, not only was the wife tan, the car didn’t have any rust either.

[60sstuff]

Originally Posted by Jim Perez

Hello all,
This is the story of how I came to own a 1965 GTO. Lets just say its all my dads fault. He will be 70 years old in Sept. and I am 44. I have pics of me in his blue 1958 Pontiac automatic with tri-power. He traded that in on a used red on red 1960 Pontiac two door, 3 speed, 389 tri-power car. I have picures of me in that car also. In 1965 he worked in Salinas Ca. and I found out later he used to drive by Don Groth Pontiac every day going to work. He told me later that in Nov or Dec of that year the dealer had two 65's left, a White one and a Burgandy one. He bought the Burgundy one that was a hard top, four speed with tri-power and red interior. He did mention that before he decided to get it he saw on the news that a guy stole one from a car lot and there was a high speed chase on hiway 101 and the cops couldnt catch him till he crashed. He also said the dealer offered to install a 421 for an extra 500 dollars. He passed on the 421. My mom told me she was so mad she cried for a few days when he brought that car home as money was tight and the 1960 car thay had was like new. Basically I grew up in that car. Family trips out of town were very comfortable with all that room and it was fast. He ended up putting about 100,000 miles on that car before he parked it in front of the house. He stopped driving it around 1973 and there it sat. I really wasnt thinking about owning a car then (I was in 6th or 7th grade). People would stop by every now and then to ask about buying the car. The answer was always no. One day a guy stopped and wanted to trade a beat up 1936 ford pickup, that was the first time that the answer wasnt no. He answered "Im giving it to my son, its his car". When I turned 16 I got my license and the car. I put another 40k miles thru high school and after. I had the engne rebuilt and I am currently doing a frame off on the car. My dad asks when I will finsh his car for him and laughs. By the way my dads daily driver right now is a 1999 Formula Firebird. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Jim

Great story! Hope you get that GTO of your Dads back on the road soon!