Rare 69 GTO option
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqkW-N2dIAw Tire pump?:noidea:

Idk the GTO and their options well , but it was a cool video IMo and especially seeing the things a non Pontiac person II is up on. . Is that legit that they had a reclining pass seat?

I’ve had 2 power seat 69 birds and know where there’s a third right now but that supposed to be a pretty rare option

The insta air option could be had on about any 69 Pontiac as long as it didn't have RamAir.

Whoever ordered that car just barely missed Ram3 coming into production.
I think mid November 68 is the earliest documented Ram3 GTO invoice date.

Reclining pass seat started in 66.
On non-headrest cars , you had to order headrests as part of the option.
Not available on Firebirds

Cruise Control on GTO was a big rarity , started in 67. Automatics only.

The air pump wasn't available on the base engine GTO in 69 either, only on the 2 bbl engine. The issue was the dual snorkel air cleaner . the pump bracket was redesigned for 1970 so it could be installed on cars with dual snorkel (GTO and 455 GP). It still wasn't offered with RA. Attached pic is of the 69 style bracket on a 350 HO LeMans, 70 bracket was of a curved design to clear the second snorkel.

Talking cruise control the 70 dual snorkel was reconfigured to clear the new cruise actuator design for 1970.

An interesting sidenote about the passenger reclining seat is that when it was ordered on a 69 and up car you got the 67-68 style side mount seat release button instead of the 69+ center mount release button. And you got it on both seats, left and right.

The car in the video was a 69 GTO Auto AC
I couldn't decipher his invoice.
But it had insta-air "on the car".
High option car , but it's been through numerous owners.
Someone may have added more things to the car.

On the order form the only exclusions listed (NA) were RA4 engine and RA induction.
I must have been looking at a firebird order form on gt-37 website.
I don't remember now which one I was looking at, but with the RA language it was probably Bird. (single snork)

If you look carefully at that original window sticker it does not include the Instant-Aire 694 option so it was added later or by the dealer.

You are correct that the only written exclusion is 347-348 (the two RA engines), however the bracket physically doesn’t allow the installation of the dual snorkel air cleaner so it couldn’t have been factory installed. As I mentioned the option was redesigned for 70 with a new bracket that relocates the valve away from the forward snorkel. We think of this option as rare but I have four cars that have it on the PHS (3 bonnevilles and a LeMans). However in my PHS collection I have six or seven hundred non RA 69 GTO’s and none have the option.

That's my old GTO, I bought it from the original owners in 1987. Sold it months later to a GTO guy in Columbus, Ohio who offered me double what I paid for it and I couldn't say no. He added the NOS Instant Aire, tilt wheel and a few other small things. The OO wanted the Ram Air III engine, but was told it wasn't available at the time he ordered the car. It was the best driving GTO I've owned, smooth as butter!

Oh, and I'm the guy who bought it three more times. I've always kept track of that car.

Photo attached of the original owners visiting me at a car show many year ago.

Grant

Original window sticker.

Regarding reclining front passenger seat rarity: I have a 1969 RAIII automatic Convertible. TT 4B. That has the reclining front passenger seat with headrests, on the PHS. I've seen one other GTO with this option.
So how rare do you think it is?

Pretty rare, less than 1% in all Tempest cars, production shows .9% through the '69 model year. Headrests were mandatory on all '69 vehicles, they just charged you for them early on before including them in the base price later in Jan of 1969.

Thank you for your quick response. Here's another question on option rarity: 1969 GTO convertible CUSTOM front and rear lap & shoulder belt option (sales code 432 UPC WS2 $63.19) I believe this was probably the rarest option on a GTO or any Pontiac in 1969. Who would have spent that much money on that option back in the day?

You're welcome. I'm showing these as UPC - AK2, Sales Code - 452 , Custom S/Belts & Frt & RR Shldr Harness. Total of .3% for all Tempest models through the 1969 model year. Obviously much rarer in a CV. Yes, crazy. I would have certainly spent that money for a different option!

Yes the convertible lap/shoulder were only available on 7436 GTOs.
Many years ago when I lived in Michigan, I found a set of these seat/shoulder belts in a 1968 Chevy Impala convertible I remember it to be an SS big block. It got the 18 seat belts (9 sets), they were so rusty the belts that attached to the floor could be pulled loose with the hardware intact. I restored the belts and plan on putting them in my 69 GTO convertible. This scrap yard that I got them from was very close to General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford Michigan. I suspect that this vehicle had been used as a test vehicle for the seat/shoulder belts and very likely also for saltwater testing of some sort.

Saw this in 2009 Parsippany NJ. There was also a car with the tire inflator, cant find that picture.

That is rare, they're definitely the custom buckles. Is that photo of front and rear shoulder belts or just the front belts?

The picture is of front convertible shoulder belts, they mounted to the convertible top frame brackets. Rear convertible belts bolt onto the trunk hinge brackets and are visible from inside the trunk.

The 69 seat belts bolt onto options were quite convoluted…

Standard GTO belts came in black, green and gold and were manually adjustable with plastic covered buckles. All but convertible included two front shoulder belts. Optional on convertibles were non-deluxe front shoulder belts for about $23.

Deluxe belts came with brushed stainless buckles, offered in two additional colors (red and blue) and also included self adjusting feature for two front lap positions.

There were many versions of this deluxe belts option. First was a convertible only choice which was about $11 and did not include any shoulder belts.. next you could order the option with front shoulder belts which cost about $13 on hard tops and about $36 on convertibles. Finally, you could also order front and rear shoulder belts with deluxe and that cost 40 odd dollars for hard tops and about $63 for convertibles..

I looked at my 69 GTO PHS collection (1,225 entries at the moment) and here are the rarest options:

...none with economy axle or instant-aire pump (both offered only on 2 bbl engine cars), two tone paint with special paint
...one example of performance axle (2 bbl only)
...three examples of: trailering package, non deluxe shoulder belts (cvt only), self regulating alternator
...four examples of power bench seat, HD springs (not to be confused with R&H springs), air shocks, space saver spare
...six examples of: safegaurd speedo, 7 blade flex fan (not to be confused with 7 blade clutc fan), power flow ventilation
...seven cars with Custom wheelcovers (these are a common option on other years but are very rare in 69-70 for some reason)
...eight cars with deluxe belts with front and rear shoulder belts
...ten cars with two-tone paint, wire wheelcovers, winter wipers
...eleven cars with the rubber trunk mat option (not to be confused with the standard fiberous mat that all GTO's came with
...twelve cars with: deluxe belts without shoulder belts (cvt only), speedo adaptor (mandatory for 3.90-4.33 gears with auto trans), declutching fan (not including AC cars which came with this fan as part of the AC option)

Headrests were not mandatory until 1/1/69, so any time before then would require a buyer to opt in and pay for it.

Would love to know the color combos of the two-tone cars.

Diego, I’ll post the two tone colors on those cars next time I look at my listing

Every 69 model year GM car was built with headrests.

Up to dec 31st 68 they showed on the invoice as a $16.85 option and if the customer insisted the dealer would remove them and credit the $16.85 charge. They even were supposed to install a GM kit that blocked the holes so kids wouldn’t get their fingers stuck..

As of Jan 1st production the base price of each car increased by $17 instead of charging for the option and it was no longer legal for dealers to remove them as they were now federally mandated.


Somewhere in my stash of parts I have an NOS bag with I believe 12 head rest hole blockers.

Might that be the reason there is no alpha-numeric code for the headrests on this window sticker . { A _ _ }
This is the one that 428ho4spd posted . Late'ish 1968 built.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1746568197

i'm curious what a rubber rear trunk matt looks like

The rubber mat was an over the counter GM accessory.
Rectangle shaped and covered the bulk of trunk floor , had GM embossed on it.

Sort of like an anti-fatigue mat in a work area.

The Red 69 GTO Convertible that was on BaT last week had one in it.

Factory installed option also. Originals were dull grey. Ames does a repro but they are black. Interestingly they were available on all full and midsized cars but were clearly designed for the big cars so the fit poorly in a GTO but that’s how the factory made them, one size fits all.

Here is one I have never seen pop up on a 69 GTO
55 Amp Alternator
S/R .... Solid state regulator maybe ?

Currently for sale on eBay.
Pretty sure this was formerly one of BLKBRD's cars in Florida.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hJoAA...l/s-l1600.webp

Self Regulating Alternator, no separate voltage regulator on the firewall with this option.

Yup, it was standard equipment on the 68 GP till the high failure rate made them cancel it. Then they tried it again as a standard feature on the 69 FB 400 but again high failure rate made them pull it again.

It was also offered on all 69’s as an option but only for narrow time windows.

I've had a couple '69 GP's with them, but were slightly higher 61 amp units. They came standard with it if you had electric rear defog and ATC a/c as I recall.

The Mayfair Maize 69 convertible in the 2009 photo is Mike Spizziris car. That was my first GTO in 1988 and he bought it a few years later from the kid that bought it from me.

I have always wondered about mine..

1969 GTO convertible, Auto, Crystal Turquoise with....

AC, cruise control, fender turn signal lights, front disc, glove box trunk release, power driver seat, hood tach.

Some of that seems odd and not common for a convertible and 1969. Wish it had Ram Air IV.

Here you go:

ten cars:
8 cars had Cameo upper (Lower: 2 CT, 1 midnight grn, 2 matador, 1 Paladium, 1 Liberty, 1 Expresso

1 Starlight black top (Lower is CR-this car is a Judge)

1 limelight top (lower is midnight green)

I noticed most of them are Atlanta Arlington and Fremont cars, that with the Cameo white tops make me think this was a bit of a southern thing, vinyl tops dried up quickly in southern sunlight?

Btw, here is the picture of a factory installed accessory trunk mat from my Bonneville convertible. The hole that looks hand cut is factory because it is a convertible, there is a cutout pattern on the back side of the mat.

Found a picture of the back, the cut out hole must have been for the Bonneville since the other hole outline is for the six inch shorter Catalina trunkpan. Since the cutout hole that was cut is larger I wonder if it said Bonneville and Tempest? There is no other reason the hole would have been bigger since all A and B convertibles used the same sized tiedown bracket.

Much appreciated!

I’ve seen a green/green car as you describe.