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#1
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70 Ram IV WT7 Judge PMD Marketing Car
Finally .... after years of chasing after one of these Unicorns - we got one.
And its about as top shelf as you could ask for. Ram Air IV - 4spd - Red Interior - PMD Factory Marketing Car - DOCUMENTED. A number of us have been pursuing these vehicles and their history for quite some time on here. They are very difficult to document within USA boundaries, as it MUST have its buildsheet unless it was built or sold within Canada. It was a No-Cost Special Appearance Option. Therefore, will not appear on a PHS Invoice. This is the First USA Plant Built 1970 WT7 Judge we have ever been able to find/document on this PY Forum. This is not to say that other documented or documentable examples do not exist. But nobody here knows of another one built within the USA. We have documented 1 other which was an Oshawa Canada Built Ram3 4spd with Black Bench seat. At least 51 of these are proclaimed to have been built. We were beginning to wonder. The end of year sales/options figure shows no data on WT7 option for 1970. For 1971 it shows 15 WT7's. We discovered this car almost by accident. Only by the work and knowledge gained from documenting a 1971 WT7 just within the past 2 weeks - did we gain the knowledge of how to identify such a specimen from the Pontiac Michigan plant. Up to that point - we had no known way of even how to determine a 70 Judge at all, from a 1970 Pontiac Michigan buildsheet. Which turned out to be quite simple after all was said and done and cross referenced for accuracy. It all boils down to the PNT STR Box located under column #67. In the case of a WT7 - it also involves the paint code - and build date. Along with an A in the PNT STR Box. A = Black / Red / Yellow package E = Blue / Red / Yellow package O = Orange / Pink / Blue package Y = Yellow / White / Green package On a 1970 White Judge, the Blue Stripes and White Spoiler go hand-in-hand. We've had numerous such examples in the past, and there will be many more such examples in the future as well. Also on the Whites, the Black Stripes and Black Spoiler go hand-in-hand, and vise-versa. You didn't get one - without the other, on a White Judge. I found this Judge on eBay while hunting down more buildsheet examples for the 1970 Judge Buildsheet and Stripe Decal thread we are doing. The owner was unaware of its full heritage. Oddly enough, the 1971 WT7 Judge we just documented less than 2 weeks ago - was also discovered by its buildsheet being posted on eBay. The owner of it also was unaware of its full heritage. Both of these examples were unknowingly restored as Blue Stripe / White Spoiler. Sharp keen searching eyes in the know made the difference on uncovering this pair. This 1970 Ram Air IV 4spd WT7 Judge is currently owned by a gentleman in southern Florida. It appears to be in very excellent condition to boot ! |
#2
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Nice work Todd!
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Some guys they just give up living And start dying little by little, piece by piece, Some guys come home from work and wash up, And go racin' in the street. Bruce Springsteen - Racing In The Street - 1978 |
#3
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Todd, Private investigator for hire?
I always wanted to track a second PHS on mine too, but JM says one only(Have indentical line on PHS w/5% discount noted). JM did say it was a PMD Brass hat car... I need your CSI skills to verify. Very cool work! When was this car built? I see shipped 3/70 on 1st PHS from PMD and 9/70 shipped on assumed 2nd PHS?? Love the CC 6458 line on build sheet refers to TAG and ASAP too and appears on PHS as it must mean something... PI?
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Mike/Illinois Last edited by Judge273; 09-13-2011 at 07:55 AM. |
#4
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So you're saying if a white car was specified for the black stripes, it's a WT7 car?
What if someone specified the black stripes but not the WT7 option? I'll admit my brain is tired, so if I have missed something in my reading comprehension, my apologies. |
#5
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Quote:
I know I heard all 51 were built in Arlington too and that was NOT true thanks to the Oshawa built car. Its light but it is a start to document these cars....Maybe the CC 6458 code means something??
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Mike/Illinois |
#6
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Very cool. Thanks for posting (and finding) all that!
K
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'63 LeMans Convertible '63 Grand Prix '65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer '74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/ My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524 "Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926 |
#7
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Need Rob Anderson (Wakepowell) to post his docs here.
1970 RA4 WT7 car . . . with 29+ options! Rob has both PHS invoices, but I can't recall if he has a build sheet. Rob's car was the "cover car" for some of Pontiac's 1970 brochures / sales info. I'll guarantee you that you'll NEVER see another RA4 Judge with more options! Keith - you may recall that we "chatted" about Rob's car a couple years back.
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Regards, "455HO" Lloyd 2008 GMC Sierra Denali 2WD Crew, L92 6L80E, Silver w/ Ebony guts, 14.26 @ 98 |
#8
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Part 1
Well I guess it's time to tell my side of the story and hopefully you guys can help fill in some of the blanks. I will be doing this in multiple posts as it will take some time to complete it. I will tell the story from the day we acquired it and then go into the details of what we learned of it's past history. It all started on January 1 2007 new year's day. My brother called me and informed me that a 1970 RAM 4 Judge was on ebay and we should have a look at it. We already owned the Canadian pepper green GU9 4.33 diff ram 4, 4 speed so we really didn't need another one. The ebay car was a white with red gut 4 gear with factory build sheet and multiple PHS'S. The car was advertised as being partially restored needing some interior finishes and a fresh paint job. As we are all aware this was early 2007 and the market had started to turn down. Both my brother and I are passionate about ram 4 Pontiacs and I am a sucker for red interiors so we decided to pay the asking price and agreed to purchase the Judge. We bought the car from Greg Teeters (any relation to you Todd) his ebay handle is gregsgto2.I sent a buddy of ours to pick up the car from Greg. Once it arrived we all took a good look at her and realized it would need to be taken apart and restored from scratch as it would be difficult to repaint and detail it with all the mechanical components in place. As most people already know this is a super solid all original pan Judge one of the best I have ever seen. The paint on the other hand was toast. It had an early 80's repaint that was cracked in about a thousand places which left us with no alternative but to hand strip all the paint to bare metal and start off with a clean slate. The guys spent the next 6 months restoring the Judge as we began doing the research in an effort to try to answer all the questions I had about it. I was aware of the notorious black spoiler cars as we had seen photo's of numerous white cars with this option. I contacted a bunch of my favorite Poncho gurus in an attempt to see if this was possibly one of them. The response was always the same if you can't document it than it most probably isn't. I was at Barrett when the ram 4 WT7 sold in I think 2007 or 2008 and was also led to believe that that one was the only real WT7 ram 4 know. So with all the research leading nowhere we decided to do the normal thing and finished the car as a blue stripe white wing Judge. I wasn't all that concerned as we had a 1970 Ram Air IV,4 speed Polar white, Red interior, executive order Judge and it doesn't get much better than that or so we thought. |
#9
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Quote:
If one STUDIES all the buildsheet examples that are relevant, they will have all the info to make the proper deduction. Two that come to mind are the 70 Delete Judge and the 70 GTO D98 Striper. Black Stripes and Black Spoiler go hand-in-hand. Especially after the option was instated. And of course a Marketing Car would be done in full WT7 fashion, unless MEMO'd otherwise. |
#10
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He has always refused to share any of the documents about his Judge. Pretty certain the buildsheet was located during restoration. Its not a Documented WT7 - as built. Blue Stripe // White Spoiler is about the only thing Wake has revealed. But a VERY NICE and HIGHLY OPTIONED PMD Pedigree IV Judge. |
#11
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oh well, he can still say he owned it once. More than likely somewhere along the tree, we are probably related. Its a very uncommon last name. We've talked about it a little. But have never met in person. |
#12
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I thought I remember that White one Greg had.
But, he has had a few White RA IV Judges in the past....
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Mike/Illinois |
#13
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Quote:
Shipped a month later March 16. Maybe it sat on PMD Hdqtrs showroom floor for a month first before hitting the Pool ? Possibly replacing Wake's Judge in that spot ? (LoL , idunno) Would love to see Wake's buildsheet now that we have this data to work with. Looks like all you folks so far need to read this other thread (70 Buildsheets Stripes Decals) in its entirity and absorb ALL the info's data's within it. And take note of anywhere your question or comment has already been addressed by other means. TYVM http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=676127 I have a good feeling we will now uncover at least a couple // few more 70 WT7's within the future, armed with the new facts/data. |
#14
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This is a sheet from the 70 assembly manual, supplied by Kenth.
Maybe he can do us a clearer copy. Or walk us through it some. Can't read everything that well myself. But i would think any true 70 WT7 should not pre-date this sheet. Nov 10 1969 And perhaps even allow some extra lag for readiness in the equation too ? Maybe Kenth or Ransom can answer something like that ? |
#15
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Quote:
Last that I spoke with Rob he was under the impression that his WAS a WT7 car. Doesn't detract from his car in the least - it's one VERY special Judge! When I met Rob in person at the 2008 DAPA PSN's in San Antonio he had huge signs made up showing both invoices. Should have taken a pic or two, LOL!
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Regards, "455HO" Lloyd 2008 GMC Sierra Denali 2WD Crew, L92 6L80E, Silver w/ Ebony guts, 14.26 @ 98 |
#16
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Part 2: The history.
I know it rambles a bit. Well this is the story that was given to us when we purchased the car. It has a couple of blanks in certain areas and I would like anyone that can, to fill them in. We all know that the car was built in the middle of Feb 1970 and delivered to Pontiac on March 16 1970. The next six months is the first mystery. The recent indications are that it may have spent this time as a display car or for photo's. If anyone has a vintage picture of a WT7 with red interior please post it. I was initially told that it was owned by the vice president of marketing for Pontiac as his personal ride but always questioned why it was then sold as a new 5% car six months later. Wouldn't it have had to be sold as a used car and not a fresh PHS documented car as it would have titled to be put on the road? Or could the exec's drive a car unregistered on the road in 1970? This next part of the story was given to me by Greg in writing so I am just rewriting it as submitted with minor edits such as personal addresses etc. 1. Delivered to Schappe Pontiac, Madison Wi. 10/18/1970 Car was sold by Al Peck (salesman) to a GM district manager. Schappe is now Don Miller Pontiac and still located at 801 E Washington street, phone number 608-258-3500. I spoke to a Johnny K (a Greek name) as he said he sold a lot of the performance cars in those years. Johnny said he remembered this car as it was difficult to order a Judge at that time due to an impending strike at the plants. 2. The car was traded back to Schappe in 1972 with approx. 20000 miles on it and placed in their showroom for sale. The next owner was Brian Lytle living on Dunning lane in Pardeeville WI, (WE HAVE HIS PHONE NUMBER AND HAVE SPOKEN TO HIM).Brian owned the car for about a year and a half and was driving it when it dropped a valve. He then had the engine repaired under factory warrantee in 1973 at Portage WI as Brian had purchase an extended 50000 mile protecto plate. Brian stated that it took almost 3 months to have the car repaired as they needed that much time to get a "ARMA STEEL" crankshaft for it. Brian then drove the car for a short period of time and traded it in on a new Corvette at Thornstad Chevrolet in Madison WI 608-286-6108.Al Peck was the salesman at the time and he did the transaction with Brian. Al was originally at Shappe Pontiac but moved over to Thornstat Chevrolet later on. I spoke to Al a few years back and he said he remembered this Judge and was going to check for any old paperwork he had saved. I haven't gotten anything from him to date. The next month the car was sold early 1974 and that owner is unknown thus far. In mid 1974 Ed Mahoney from Prairie des Chien, WI. bought the car but only owned it for a couple of weeks and then sold it to John Bernardi of Antioch IL. I have spoken to John as late as March of last year 2010.I believe he told me that he raced the Judge for a while and then stored it until he sold it to Greg Teeters sometime in 2006. When we purchased the car it was still titled to John Bernardi. John comes back into the story much later again but that's a separate subject. If anyone can fill in any of the gaps in history so far please chime in. |
#17
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The GM of Canada Documentation for Canadian Built 70 WT7 that Jason located / bought / documented / restored / sold.
Very Cool Car. And the 1st DOCUMENTED WT7 to hit this board. I also saw another Canadian WT7 on eBay in 03 or 04. With GM of Canada document. But i wasn't a member here then. And had no idea they were such needles in the haystack at that time. Didn't save any info or pix. |
#18
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Great story so far, please continue!
__________________
Regards, "455HO" Lloyd 2008 GMC Sierra Denali 2WD Crew, L92 6L80E, Silver w/ Ebony guts, 14.26 @ 98 |
#19
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I have that doc as well. Jason D. of Transformation Restorations, correct?
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Regards, "455HO" Lloyd 2008 GMC Sierra Denali 2WD Crew, L92 6L80E, Silver w/ Ebony guts, 14.26 @ 98 |
#20
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Dan and Mike both have good points on their cars about the 5%.
These cars must not have been driven hardly any - if any. Have seen other PMD Pedigree Invoices where the discount was much steeper. Even with tire wear credit given on some. |
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