[ged2227]

I had always loved the looks of the 1970 GTO. Since I was 14, I had dreamed of owning one. Around 1988, I was looking through The Want Ad (for those of you from New England, remember the Want Ad?? ) and found a 1970 GTO for sale in Riverside (Providence), Rhode Island for $1000/ b.o. So, I had my brother and father go down with me (as I was 15), on a VERY COLD November night to look at the GTO. We were NOT in the greatest of neighborhoods…. The house was more like a shack with plywood ‘outcroppings’ for additional room. I remember going to the bathroom and seeing rusting car parts in the bathtub. In disbelief, I looked up at the ceiling…only to be greeted with an excellent skylight… Which turned out to be a non existant roof (!!!).
The GTO was a red/red/ black vinyl top car. The original 400 was gone- replaced with a 350. The endura was cracked, scratched up, crooked. Both sides of the car were dented in, rotted, patched, then rotted AGAIN. Rear bumper was rotted. I remember the interior having CLOTH bucket seats from a Monte Carlo. When I asked where the originals were, the owner stated ‘about 3 blocks down, on the corner, under the street light’.. LOL. Sure enough, they were there. Of course, I bought the car for $800…
Once my brother and I loaded the seats, we promptly attached a plate from another car and off we went, with my father in the ‘chase car’. Of course, we were FLYING down 95 to 146. Every time we came to a stop sign on the side roads, my brother would light up the single track….
This was the car I learned how to turn wrenches on.. I promptly removed the nose, the interior, etc. Then I put it all back on…only to take it off again, and so on.
The summer after I got her home, a friend of mine wanted me to help him with his 76 Camaro. Being daily driverless at the time, I threw a MILK CRATE on the floor of the GTO and drove it to his house. At that time, it had NO EXHAUST, wasn’t tuned, had leaking trans lines, no interior, no windshield, no rear brakes and no DRIVERS SIDE FLOOR! As I’m driving, sand was flying up and hitting me in the face!!!
As I pulled up, he’s just standing there is disbelief… ‘Dude, I could hear you coming 5 minutes before you got here!!!’
The car ended up getting partially parted out (the nose- fenders, endura, hood, etc) I sold for $300, I scrapped the rest of the car- TH400, disc brakes, clean interior!!) and crushed… 