[gto-greg]

Some years back I was on the hunt for a 70 Challenger somewhere North of Tucson. My uncle had spotted it on a rancher's property, and we drove out there to see if it was available. Turns out the rancher had sold it before I was able to get there.

My uncle then wanted to run by a salvage yard to get some parts for one of his cars. When we pulled up into the parking area, I saw a black 67 GTO sitting off to the side (dusty, front tire flat). It kind of caught my eye, so I went and chatted with the owner of the salvage yard. She told me the GTO was her personal car, and not for sale. Cool, so we chatted cars for a bit and then my uncle and I left.

Over the next few months, my uncle would go by that same salvage yard, getting whatever parts he needed, and would always chat with the owner. 6 months later, she said, "Tell your nephew if he wants the GTO, he needs to come get it this weekend." Turns out, she was selling the business and moving out of AZ.

I quickly borrowed a trailer and went over, and worked out a deal with her. As I was about to pull the GTO onto the trailer, she came out of the house with a diecast model of a 66 GTO, and set it on the passenger seat. She said, "If I can't have a real one, I don't want the model, either." She then started to tear up and went back into the house.

My wife said to me, "How does it feel to make a woman cry?" Well, crap.

The attached pictures of the black GTO is the day I first saw it. The second picture is with it done (color is Black Cherry, and was a cloudy day when I took the picture so doesn't really show how the color pops)