68 Ram Air II What do you think?
 

Hello Guys, Here are some pictures of my Ram Air II I am restoring any input would be great I will be posting more picture as I go. The body is ready to go to the paint shop. The car has a cool story that I will share as we go along with all the details about it.

NICE!

Did you paint the rear clear or cast grey first or is it bare?

It is painted, tubes and cover are steel paint center is cast blast them blacked out with low gloss black

Looks great!

Got the picture of when you got it you can post up with the story?

Will do tonite

Nice job!
Questions/observations:

• Is this a Rally II car? Wondering about finish on drums if Rally II car vs. non-Rally II
• Breather tube to air cleaner should be black Zinc, not silver
• Power Steering box should be black

This is almost exactly how the rear of my Baltimore Judge was painted. The black was about 2/3 up the rear cover and the black hit the brake lines and stopped there. Is this a Baltimore car by chance?

I beleive most people paint the entire back area of the rear which covers the rear end cover and the back of the tubes. I'm glad to see how you did yours! It looks nice.

I believe the alternator fan should be silver.

Wow very impressed!

So how was it before you started?
What dealer?
Info and Picture Pictures Pictures please!!

Looks great! Maybe someday I'll find one.............?

Hey Rick,

It looks great!!! Thank you for posting the pictures. How about a before picture of the engine?

The attached picture is from Rob Bugby's RA II vert. I am not sure if the breather tube is silver or black? When I took mine apart I thought it was silver?

Here is the info on the car invoice date is 7/09/68 Pontiac plant sold new at Seltzer Pontiac in Chicago, Aegena Blue, Black interior, Options, safe t track, AM radio, retractable headlamps, rally gauge w/panel tach, soft ray windshield, G70x14 red wide oval,4:33, ram air, 4 speed close ratio. I bought this car on Ebay as a parts car there was no doghouse on it and you could see from the pic it had a bent frame horn, car was complete engine and all, after talking with the guy about the car he said he removed it from original owners property after he passed away. The family was selling the farm. every car the guy ever owned was on the property. all but the GTO and a GS Buick went to the crusher. So after I won the auction I went to pick up my parts car the next day and when I got there I could not believe what I found. The body had rust issues but not your normal salt rust. The engine was stuck and I could tell it had water go through it. but the car was so complete less doghouse. laughted and cryed all the way home with it not knowing if the motor could be saved. spent the next day pulling it out. the next week geting apart but by the third week everything was done at the machine shop. I have been able to save almost everthing including the original carb. The body took a complete doghouse, one door, both quarters(NOS), Trunk floor and some froor panels (from a rust free CA car) and a trunk lid. I also used a AZ GTO frame. so the car is a Frankinstien LOL. Pictures comming. Thanks for the responce The Alt pulley and fan was something I was not sure on I found them both ways, The breater tube I also was unsure on, The car has steel wheels with poverty caps so I thought the drums were unpainted, The steering box is a manual and finished raw?? Thanks Guys

Why can't I stumble across a RAII like that. Just goes to show ya that there are some still out there!

And it is not green!! :hooray:

Very nice.

You don't have to be that happy about it! At least we don't have green interiors!

Besides, how cool is VOODOO GREEN! ;)

That's going to be a beauty! Lots of work already, and the best is yet to come. From a dealer in IL too.

It does grow on you, but I am still not enthused about the color.
What is Verdoro anyway?? Is that even a word?

Atleast if it was really called Voodoo green, that would be cool to say.


My 68 RA FB is Aegena Blue. That is one great color!
Similar story. but no motor or trans. :(

Bought it on Ebay several years ago. Was advertised as an old race car. Scoop on hood, gutted int and had big block Chevy mounts, but not cut up. I only looked at the auction because I was looking for a clean 68 FB body to build a F.A.S.T. car. He sent me the PHS and I saw a “7” in the 34 box.

Turns out he was a Chevy guy. He bought the car for the engine and trans and even though he had the PHS and it stated RA, he never thought that it was anything special.

Very nice,no such thing as a perfect car.

Awesome story I'm presuming Verdoro sprung from verdant which means:

1. (of countryside) Green with grass or other rich vegetation.
2. Of the bright green color of lush grass.

I've often considered painting my car another factory color. Aegena and Aleutian Blue are at the top of my list. You don't see them very often and they look great. This sounds like it will be a killer car when complete :cool:

In the first set of pictures it shows a heat shield over the driver side exhaust manifold. This is the first RA II that I have seen that has this heat shield. Has anyone else ever seen an RA II with that heat shield???

The factory built the chassis upside down.

When the assembly was finished, a line worker with a spray gun dusted the components with a thin coat of black paint.

Just enough to keep it from rusting at the dealers....:)

John:
Good question. In theory, yes the RAII should have had one as delivered.
The std. air cleaner should have been on the car and taken off by the dealer.

Being this was a “fair” weather RA system, you had to put the regular air cleaner back on
during winter months and the heat shroud was part of that system. Personally I have never seen one, but it probably was one of the first things tossed. From a restoration standpoint, I’d consider it just as correct to not have it as having it. I have also never seen a RA car being shown with the std. air cleaner and closed scoops in the trunk.

The 69 parts hood lists a 9794227 part number for the outer ex. shroud for the 68 GTO RAII. It calls for the same inner as the 69 RAIV. Some of the pictures I have of supposed original cars do show studded head bolts on the LH side location.

Now the odd question is what did the 9794227 shroud look like? That is a different number then the 69 RAIV.


gto66yellow – where did that ex. Shroud come from? Was it on the car when you got it? From your picture it looks like a cut-up version of the RAI heat shroud.


Brian

That is the original. I bought a repo Ram Air III and it is stamp the same but the original is smaller, I was able to clean up the original and save it. It was painted black from the factory. The inner sheild looks to be the same as a Ram Air IV. John if you want I can make you one from the repo I have or I will take my money back for it if you go this route.

Any chance you could make two? PM or email me your address I can send one out!

Maybe you could post some more detailed pictures of the heat shield. Front side, back side. Since the RA II piece is so rare. Scott

In Spanish, green is "Verde." "Verdant" comes from the same root, presumably Latin.

Hey Rick,

Thank you for posting these pictures. If guys like Brian haven't seen one of these heat shields then it must be really rare!!!

I would appreciate you being able to make the other one so I can install it on my car. I will give you a call.

It would be great to see a few more detailed pictures of the heat shield off of the engine.

Thanks...

That's a real gift to find an original out there!

Thanks Rick!

Anyone got the production number breakdowns on the sleeper roundports?

GTO Man vs Auto?
FB Man vs Auto?

GTO

RA II, Manual 199
RA II, Auto 47

These numbers include the convertibles.

I've seen two GTO vert RAIIs. Which is about as many HT I've seen. A green one and the OP's car,

Boss, How many HT have you seen or know about? I don't think the vert breakdown is 50/50.

3 verts that I know of, John's, one in NY & one in Chicago - that one an auto.

Hard tops? Around 15, only 3 auto's though.

Probably the lowest survival rate of any roundport? Any pix of John's vert?

there are probably several still out there sitting in someones field or garage and they dont have a clue what it is.
with the engine missing, there isnt any stand out tell tale signs of what it is. with 4:33 gears in the gto, it didnt take much to lose the engine. if the dealer or original owner didnt put the ram air scoops in them, they would look just like a regular gto.

That what keeps the hunt on for those sleepers in the sheds...Just like the OP and brians FB story. Ebay is good for some Pontiac treasure hunting still.

Found figures on some website which gave RAII engine production, which was slightly higher than number of cars built but still under 400 total. not sure how accurate that info is but either way they are scarcer than RAIII, RAIV or 455SDs.

I am slowly acquiring all the mechanical bits... I would **love** to find an original RAII car minus drivetrain at this point. ;)

400 built from March of 68 til when? It maybe more scarce since it came late in year, and only in GTO or FB. Out of nowhere for many who didn't see it coming...

I think by that time the Judge and TA for 69 were advertised. Both could be had with the RA IV...

More pictures of the heat shield

Earliest build date I've seen so far is my Pontiac built 05C with an invoice date of 05/28. My 05A Baltimore built RA I has an invoice date of 05/08.

March 68 is when Pontiac offered it or made it available? Seems to be the written word...

I'm not lying here Mike, no RA II's built before my RA I was built.

For what it's worth.

Rick,

Thank you for posting the pictures of the heat shields. AWESOME!!!

Mike,

My car was built 06A. If the earliest known RA II GTO was 05C, that would make the date May 12 thru 18th. I have heard that new model year vehicles would start showing up on the dealer lots sometime in September. So, depending on inventory levels at the end of the 1968 production year, GM/Pontiac may have started the change over process in August? If this is true then we could assume these cars were only built in a 14 to 17 week period?

Does anyone know when the first or earliest Firebird RA II was produced? Or the earliest documented Firebird RA II?

Thanks for the pics, looks great. Scott

Here is the timeline as best as I have been able to piece together based on different sources.

1st-2nd week April 1968, dealers were unofficially informed of the RAII.
(This is purely through word of month from talking to owners or dealership employees over the last 20 years, but I do get similar stories – probably some heard earlier and some later)

5/7/68: Bulletin went out officially announcing the “Ram Air II” engine with the
new price to the dealers.

Around 5/20/68 (Monday): First RAII’s were shipped. Jim Mino’s 5/22 invoiced RAII
Bird has a hand written price adjustment on it for the option.

6/12/68: Last date orders for the RAII was accepted per Pontiac’s distribution bulletin.


Looks like they were built into August. PY’s “RA1John” has a card from a RAII with an Inv. Date of 8/6/68 and a EUN of 82424X. This had to be one of the last.

Brian,

Any GTO's built at any of the plants other than Pontiac? and any of the birds built anywhere other than Lordstown?

Not sure how the engines would have made it there in such a tight time frame.

Chris,

I have a picture of the data plate on Rob Bugby's RA II Vert. I do not think it is a Pontiac built car. If there would be no harm in posting the pic, then I will do so. Let me know.

ramair 2
 

the numbers for cars are not 199 and 47 you could order motors over the counter for racing these are included in those numbers.

ramair2
 

my car is a baltimore factory one the frist one that came out of the factory the heads do not have 96 on them and the pertecto plate has xs instead of wy because the person typing the plates werent informed of the motor change. my broadcast sheet confirms this with ay in the box.

Hey Rob,

Welcome to PY Years!!!! I thought it was a Baltimore built car. We need pictures!!!! LOL

Nice that you have joined the forum. Your ragtop is a true time capsule! Scott