[1969Judge]

Here is my "one that got away" story...

I came across a '69 GTO Judge convertible back in 1986. I had wanted one of these for years but never thought I would find one, let alone locally. It was sitting on a used car lot that seemed to also sell muscle cars. It was a "field" car, had been sitting in some guys yard for 10 years, but it was fairly solid - though rusty, all the parts were there, it only had 43,000 miles on it, numbers matching everything, and it still ran! I even got to test drive it - awesome!!

$2500 was the firm asking price. Unfortunately, I only could come up with $1500 because I was in the middle of restoring my '71 Firebird at the time. He offered to take what I had as a deposit if I could come up with the rest ($1000) in a few weeks. I agreed, paid him, got my receipt, wrote down the VIN, and left to find a way to come up with the rest of the money.

Two weeks later I show up with the $1000 I still owed him. The car is gone and so is the owner of the place. I am told he is on vacation and the car is not on the lot because I had bought it. A week later I show up again. The place is closed. He went out of business, filed bankrupcy and took off. I later found out he sold the car to someone else for more money right after I bought it.

I was robbed of my dream car and my money. To make it worse, a few days later I received a package back from Pontiac (I had sent them the VIN) - they verified it was a real Judge convertible that was originally sold 20 miles from my house. I kicked myself for years for not getting a loan or borrowing the extra cash that day instead of waiting like I did...

Then there was the '69 T/A in the middle of a restoration, with ALL of the NOS parts (fenders, quarters, chrome, etc.) still in the boxes, for $2200 or best offer. I passed on that one at the time but I later regretted that decision also...


Scott