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ALAN BLALOCK’S 1968 GTO
This is not my first GTO.
If Uncle Sam been kinder to me in tax year 1996 I most likely would have
never bought this car as I already had the GTO of my dreams: 1967 49
state HO hardtop 4-speed in one of my favorite colors - Mariner Turquoise
with parchment interior. I loved that car! The bottom line was that I had
a big tax bill to pay in April and only a short-term loan to buy me some
time until I could liquidate something. That something ended up being my
beloved '67 GTO. As soon as it was sold, I started scouring the net and
newspapers calling on every GTO I could find. The most reasonable one I
could find was up near Truckee, but it would need to be towed home and it
had some serious rust problems.
In mid-July I found a '68
GTO hardtop advertised on the net that was local, as in San Jose local
and it was reasonably priced. I still wasn't convinced that I could be
happy with anything other than another '67 GTO, but figured I'd go see it
any way. It turned out the guy only lived a few miles from my work and it
wouldn't be too far out of the way to take a look at it on my way home on
a Friday night. When I saw the car my first thought was
"yuck!". It was a putrid combination of oxidized gold 70's
vintage "Miracle" paint with large areas of black and grey
primer. The vinyl top had been removed revealing a truly rotten back
window area. The car had a buckled and rusted hood
and bent nose from some other GTO partially painted in black primer over
what appeared to have been Verdoro green paint. The seats had stuffing
coming out the tops and the driver's seat bottom had a split with foam
dust everywhere. The original wheels were missing their wheel covers and
the tires were ancient and cracking. The rear bumper was bent and rusty.
Cosmetically the car was awful looking!
The guy I bought it from
is the son of the original owners, it had remained in his family since
new. He explained that he'd had the engine and transmission rebuilt in
1989 but hadn't driven it much since. Apparently, he just started it up
occasionally and kept the registration up to date. The car had about 217k
miles on it. The car had A/C (non-functional), automatic transmission
with the Hurst his’n’hers shifter, standard 350 horsepower engine and
an open 2.93 rear end. The engine roared to life easily though it had a
terrible exhaust leak. We went for a test drive down a quiet industrial
street nearby. The car ran good and ran fast (lots of rubber left on the
ground)...it was an incredible adrenalin rush! That sold me, right then
and there. So we went back to the guy's house and started talking money.
We came to a very reasonable dollar amount and my promise to restore the
car and keep him up to date on my progress.
The first two years I
spent many hours gathering together new and used parts to make the car
something to be proud of. I found an original and much nicer rear bumper
to replace the rusty one on it. I made a few changes along the way:
removed the vinyl top permanently, added tilt wheel, added 15x7 Rally II
wheels, added wood steering wheel, and added a hidden headlight system.
When I had the car repainted I had the nicer hood and nose installed and
changed from the original April Gold color to a Mercedes dark green color
(very similar to Verdoro Green). I had the seats recovered and the
headliner replaced, though I'm still running with the original carpet I
do have a new one waiting for me to find the time to swap it out. I found
the exhaust leak under the intake manifold (cheap intake gasket set) in
the exhaust crossover. I blew out one of the glass pack mufflers and
decided it was time for a new 2 1/4" aluminized system with Dynomax
mufflers and big chrome (14x3 inch) tips. That ended up a bit louder than
I expected.
I still have a number of
changes and improvements that I'd like to make in the future, including
adding power and front disk brakes (the original non-power drums are a
joke when it comes time to stop), Rally dash and finally get the A/C
compressor replaced and the system recharged. I guess there's never an
end to the "to do" list. This car has been so dead reliable,
always starting right up even when it sits for a month or two. The car
will never be a "trailer queen", even though it now has a place
in my garage (for the first time in its life). This car is meant to be
driven and I have put over 10k miles on it over the last 3 years.
Sometimes I wonder if this car was just sitting there waiting for me to
find it, take it home and love it.
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