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Old 04-25-2013, 12:35 PM   #44
russgoodman
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Cache, OK
Posts: 458
Re: Got a story of a car you "loved and lost" or sold? Or found ... years later?

One of my good friends/college roommate/co-worker has a good story but it turned out bad for them.

His dad special ordered a 70 ram air IV Gto Judge. He was serving in Vietnam and was on break (can't remember the military term) back over here for either Christmas or Thanksgiving break. The dealer opened up on the actual holiday just so he could get the car. He traded a 67 Gto in on it. Atoll blue, cream interior, 4 speed - turned out to be pretty rare since most of the blue cars had black interior.

He came back after the war, had a bunch of fun with the car. Floated a valve and had some warranty work on the engine. Had to have a head and maybe even the block replaced.

Got married. Had a Grand prix and pickup in 1977 and didn't need the Judge, sold it to his best friend. The friend sold it sometime in the 80s, but bought it back about 6 months later.

The friend kept it in a shack in the middle of Cache, OK and nobody even knew. Pretty much just sat for years and years. He promised that it would go to my friend and his brother when he passed away so they could have their dad's car.

Guy has a heart attack and dies unexpectedly probably 2 years ago. Daughters said if dad wanted those boys to have that car, then its fine with us.

One of the son-in-laws buddies gets in his ear and tells him you can't give that car away, its worth a bunch of money. That son-in-law and daughter end up with it in the Oklahoma City area, put it on ebay, and end up selling it (think they actually ended the auction early to sell it to a collector).

I had a bad feeling the whole time that they would never get that car back. When we graduated from pharmacy school, my friend and his mom made the guy a really nice offer for it, but he wouldn't take any money for it because he wanted to give it to them like he promised. Lesson learned - write that kind of stuff in your will.

Car is in Dallas and the collector has tried to get it concours. Bought date coded matching wheels, distributor, etc. He lists it on ebay for $92,000. I contact him explaining that I knew the original owner, he was interested in the car, but couldn't pay that. He says he can take $89,500 for the original owner. Needless to say the car stayed put. Not sure if he ever sold it or not.

Sad thing is the boys didn't want the car because it had the potential to be valuable, really valuable. They wanted it because it was their dad's car.

One good thing is that in 1988 the dad picked up a gold 67 Gto and restored it to red/white top like he traded in on the Judge. The boys grew up racing the car. Original 400 got tired, my friend built a 455 for it by himself as a jr in high school that lasted from 1999-2009 without even a refresh and was still going strong when they pulled it. Put a IA-2 Jim Butler motor in it and some NO2 and its running mid 10s now. This one won't ever be sold - and at least the boys will have 1 of their dads cars.

Here's the expired ebay listing of the current owner and a link to 133 pics he has of the car

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1970-...orcev4exp=true

http://www.demesy.com/graphics/ftp-e...dge/index.html
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Last edited by russgoodman; 04-25-2013 at 12:42 PM.
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