GTO HUMOROUS STORIES - Kirban
 

Here is a few back in the day when I was not too smart. I was smart enough to at least pick the rite car to hang my future on but made mistakes a long the way. here goes a few of them keep in mind the time period was between 1976 and 1982 or so.

When I first was getting GTOs to take apart the first time I ever saw red plastic fender liners was on a 1966 GTO...I thought they were aftermarket so I left them on the car when it went to the junk yard.

It was a hot sunday morning my wife and I and our son who was about 6 years old took a 1965 GTO 4 speed with trips to go to Church...prior to doing this I decided to put a screw into the tripower linkage that would make the end carbs dump fuel sooner. My thinking was it would bring the power band up. About 2 miles from home I tested my theory and guess what the car died....not only did it die but I could not restart it.

My wife of course had little patience in the heat....I in turn had to walk back to the house taking our son with me to get my tow truck to tow it back home.

Lesson learned.

Of the 25 plus GTOs I sold back in the day one thing I never liked was the original seat belts they looked like an add on. I used to take a single edge razor blade and cut them out of the car.

I guess that kills the original value!

On the other side of the coin good fortune did come my way on some deals. I member this 1966 GTO that was partially disassembled sat in the back of a collision center. I made a deal for the car. Had no intake but heads and block was still intact no exhaust manifolds.

Fortunately my knowledge at that point was alittle better and I discoveed the exhaust ports where round something I had not seen before. Bingo...turned out the block and heads were RA IV stuff. Something that I was not expecting to find in a partially diassembled 1966 GTO that had been unclaimed in the auto body yard for some time.

Another quick story....I was away one weekend my wife spotted a 1965 GTO for sale in the local paper she called on it and talked the guy into holding it til I could look at it. I ended up buying the car and upon inspecting the trunk there sat a metal 1865 ram air pan....yes I was smart enough then to know what it was.

Last quick story not centered on GTOs but more valuable....I towed a car for a guy once back to his house. He was short of cash to pay me so as he was showing me around his garage I saw something hanging on the wall that I had never seen before it was like brand new and chrome and the base part had the 3 holes for tri power in it. I knew it was not a Pontiac item but I also knew since I never seen one before it must be rare so I got it instead of all the payment for the tow job. Got it home researched it turns out it was the ram air set up for
the Olds in 1966.....extremely rare.....I knew of a guy who had such a car and I figured heck he would be the buyer for sure....he turned it down as it was too much money. I think I wanted like $350 back then.....I then sold it to a major GTO collector for my price.

One more quick story comes to mind...

In the late 1970s about once a week we would drive down to my mother in laws for dinner. My wife usually went down earlier I would grab the paper prior to going and a 1965 GTO trips 4 speed caught my eye. It was on the way to dinner so I stopped...car was blue on blue faded original paint all original had maybe 90,000 miles gas crisis was in full bloom....I bought the car for $350.....my friends thought I was nuts paying that much for a muscle car. I was late for dinner but it was worth it.

all memories now..

denniskirban@yahoo.com

That red fender liner story rings a bell. 1st car I parted was also a 66 with the liners. I did take them out but everyone laughed about how stupid they would look on a car, so they were tossed, not in the best of shape but still.

an 1865 ram air pan?
was that a test to see if anyone was really reading your post? :o) [1965GTO]

My favorite is still Wankers forklift Judge rotisserie. ;)

http://www.428gto.com/wankers.jpg

My goof I was tired....

denniskirban@yahoo.com

however a 1865 pan would have been even more collectible.

Rotisserie
 

:eek: umm I do like the color:D

1st car bought in 75(68 FB/Verdoro green) had red fender liners.
Thought someone painted them. Spray bombed them flat black.

Dennis , Rex here I have a few stories like your& some that really made me some money over the years. When I came out of the Navy in 77 I went to work back in the dealerships as what I did befroe I went in. I use to go to the junk yards all the time , but when I decided to go back to collage I needed extra money because I quit my job & let VA pay me. I srarted running the junk yards for real. I met & got in good with an owner of the biggest yard around. After buying a lot of stuff from him for a year or so he began to save items for me to buy that he knew I would want. One saturday I went to the yard & he said come with me. I didn't know if he was mad or what. But we went to his house, he lived on the prorerty at that time, so we went into his basement & showed me a few things that made my eyes drop. He showed me a Chrysler tri-power for a small block , a big block & a big block chevy. All COMPLETE carbs linkage air cleaners everything. Oh he showed me the last 2 items a duel quad for a buick nail head also complete with linkage & air cleaner & a 63 corvette dash showing 23K on it. I looked at him & said Don I'd love to have all that stuff but I don't think I brought enough money. He said if you keep buying from me the way you have(which I knew I would because it was helping me put myself through college) I'll make you a deal. He asked how much I had on me. I knew not to lie to him so I pulled all the money out of my pocket & showed him I had brought what I normally do which was $ 300.00 & some change. He looked at me & said I'll take the 300 & you can have all of it. I thought I was going to fall over. Now this guy was not dumb by any means & knew what this stuff was worth. But he helped me carry it to my truck & I went home that day with a smile. On the way home I though being saturday I'd stop at the speed shop of a friend of mine just to see if they were intrested before I took It to the swap meet the next sunday( 1 week away). Whan I got there they almost fell over for the chrysler & chevy tri-powers. Now I paid 300 for everything & now they were digging in the register & both there wallets to give me my asking price for the 3 of $ 1700.00. They finially got it all to me & away I wnt home with a smile. The following week I went to the swap meet at the ACC at Notra Dame IN. & the duel quad got parted out the air cleaner & corvette dash went to Corvette Central in IL. because the air cleaner is the same as the duel -quad for the 409 cars & well the dash is 63 vette. That went for another $ 450.00. Thn the quad intake went for another $100.00. So you see I had a great day going to the yard that weekend. Don & I traded for the next 15+ years, & he always had something good stashed away for me when I came down. OH, the money that I made from the swap meets put me through college & paid a lot of bills during that time. Don't really know why I stopped but If you or any one reading this may think this & some of the other stories I may pass on aren't true , you can always ask Barry Martin, we became friends about that same time & have staye friends since & he can tell you I've had a lot of intreating times with him & without him too. Most Know Barry Martin (Sonic Motors) Near Detriot MI. I know this was long but all the good stories take a few min's to tell. Barry use to come down to my part of the state every once in a while to buy & he to was never disappointed when he got over this way.

Great story Rex....I have known Barry Martin a long time as well run into him once in awhile at Carlisle.....he never looks like he ages....another guy I run into is Ron Johnson who has been in the "game" or business for along time as well. Sure those guys have stories as well.

In a way we all got lucky that the car (GTO) was the one A body car that really took off in value. Ironically in 1969 my new wife drove our 1964 GTO 4 speed to work every day....her job? She worked in the PR department at Hurst.....kinda of a hint of things to come.

denniskirban@yahoo.com

Dennis , before I forget your modles will be on there way either tommarow or tuesday depending on the weather as I just had my should worked on & it's a little iffy to drive yet. But for the stories I had to go to work the day that It started to snow the winter of 78-9 & the car I drove to work was my 67 GTO. It got around in the snow pretty good but by the time I went from Mishawaka IN. to my house in Niles MI it had snowed at least 10-12 inches on the ground & I was pushing snow up over my hood by the time I got home. When I was about 6 blocks from my house I floored it the speedo was buried, I saw a clean path to the drive of the apt. a couple of doors down & buried it in snow so deep I had to roll the window down & climb out & push snow away from the door to open it enough to be able to roll up the window & close the door. I was about 1/2 block away from the garage door & it took me almost 20 mins to get to it & get inside. We stayed inside for the next 3 days but my GOAT didn't let me down & I got home in it. Now as far as Barry if you see him soon say Hi for me , but if you want to hear any of the stories we had in those years , well thats a time better done face to fae after a couple of drinks cause theycan get a little INRERESTING. We have had some good times over the years. I saw Barry at Norwalk this year but didn't get much time to talk as I was there with some one else & we were looking for some deals. But to a point your right about Barry he does stay about the same over the years just like most of us though just getting a little thin on top.

hey Dennis
 

Hey Dennis since you are telling stories I was going thru some of my things and found this from the previous owner maybe you can tell if you remember this car a girl in NJ owned it. Its funny that you where out looking at cars two days before Christmas and you did not note that it was a HO motor car code YE I own it now and had it restored.

Dennis,didn't you have a green 383 Dodge Dart for a short while? Maybe you had flipped it.

Me thinks Dennis is MIA here. His last post was in2014

So.it's 1965, a corner on Main Street in Carbondale, PA. A bunch of guys hanging on the corner when a guy named Bob comes along with his new '64 Goat 4-speed, tri-power and stops at the light. Guys start yelling at him to light 'em up and he refuses. Guys keep after him and he finally says, "Well, maybe a little out of second". The light changes and Bob revs it up and proceeds to lay 2-smoking fishtail streaks up the street, right past the Police Station. The cops come out in seconds, but Bob's gone.

A few minutes later, along comes "Whitey" in his stock '52 Ford flathead stick. Same scenario. Guys holler at him to light 'em up. The light changes and Whitey obliges. Vroom, vroooooom, chirrrrp! The cops come charging out, see Whitey going up the street and give chase. A few minutes later, here they come back with Whitey in handcuffs. He's taken inside to a chorus of whistles and whoops.

Poor Whitey never did have any luck. He drank himself to death before he was 40. Bob died early as well, about the same age. He was a victim of hard-living, too.

Riding in a friend's 69 GTO convert (Illinois rustbucket) when it developed a bad driveline vibration.
We pulled over and crawled underneath to see what it was.
This was back in the day when we were skinny enough to do that without a jack.
We saw one of the U-joint bearing caps was MIA. He was working as a mechanic so he had tools with him.
No problem, we simply found a 12 point 3/8" drive socket to serve as a substitute so we could make it home. It actually worked quite well.

Same car met its demise in when he was rear ended by a teen driver doing about 70 mph.
The GTO was about 2 feet shorter, but was still driveable.
No injuries, but we had to use crowbars to extract his tool chest.

Except for the '65, ours were daily drivers as well. We had enough of them around that we would refer to them by the model year (ie, "..are we taking the '64? or the '68?).

K

Have not posted in the Stories section in a long time but thought I would pass this one on as it caught me off guard.

I was at a friends shop over the holiday this year and we were sitting around telling "Pontiac Lies". I was talking about the 64 GTO "Blue Car" that people say was crushed by the factory.

I have heard rumors over the years where that info might not be totally true. That being said, there we were, sitting around the shop.

So one of the guys says where is the crapper, first visit there (like me).
So I am drinking my coffee and a couple of minutes later the guy yells out "HEY WHERE IS THE GEORGE?"
"THERE IS NO 'BUTT-WIPE' IN HERE'

So I spit my coffee I was drinking out on the floor, all of the other guys started laughing, and they had a good joke at my expense.
I drink some more coffee after cleaning up the floor, and we were back to talking about the "Blue Car" and The "Hurst Shifty Doctor" (Jack Watson).
(Did anyone ever buy a Blue 1964 GTO from Jacks estate?) I figure Dennis Kirban would know, he was tight with the Hurst People. Jack W RIP

Tom V.

What ever happen to Dennis? I haven't seen or heard from him in years. All I know is he got involved in Grand Nationals.

Check the Lobby, he also has a periodic column in The Legend.

Sorry, no use for "The Legend". Never was a fan of that Corvette inspired group. Are they still around? Seriously, I thought I heard they went under.