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Wayne Barnes' GTOs
The year was 1978, and I was 18 years old when I found my 1st
GTO. This car
was the common color called VERDORO Green, and it was a 1968, 400
automatic, hardtop. It had a tan vinyl roof, which I quickly dyed BLACK.
Loaded with options: A/C, tach & gauges, posi, hidden headlights, and
a gizmo called “REVERB” for the rear speakers, which made the radio
sound like I was in a can. Plus it had low miles. All for 800.00 dollars.
But I made my first GTO mistake by trading it for a 1962 Chevy Pickup with
a 396 c.i. rat motor. It was a neat truck, but I soon found out it wasn't
a GTO.
Between
the years 1978 & 1981, I probably had about 80 cars. I would buy one,
fix it up, and then trade or sell it. I found a neat 1968 Chevy II SS,
350, 4-speed, but I still missed that GTO. So, along comes a pale yellow,
black interior, 1968, 4-speed, GTO, with hidden lamps, with a $1,500 price
tag. I sold the ChevyII to a friend who knew the owner of the GTO. This
turned out to be my 2nd GTO mistake! On the way home from the GTO purchase
cruising down Hiway 24, the mufflers fell off the old Goat. The car was
pretty rusty underneath and ended up costing me a bunch of money and time
to fix it up just to be safe. I took the car to the drag races a few times
before I figured out the posi rear end was not hooking up, so I got to
spend more money rebuilding the differential. It seemed as though every
time I revved the engine up tight it would bend a push rod or two, so I
learned not to rev that Pontiac like I did my Nova. The GTO sure did give
the rear tires a workout when I hammered the gas and power shifted!
One burnout near a friends house prompted her father to say “GTO
must stand for gas, tires and oil” (the rear main seal did that Pontiac
thing).
I sold that GTO after one rainy winter proved that the back window
engineering left something to be desired, all things left in the trunk
would become waterlogged! More GTOs came and went over the next several
years, but then there was a dry spell until September 1992. I saw an ad in
the newspaper for a 1967 GTO automatic, and I thought it was worth a look.
I took Jodi's new video
recorder with me so I could bring home some live shots of the car. It was
champagne with a black vinyl top and almost no options. After showing the
tape to Jodi she gave me clearance for the “project.” It took about a
year to go through the engine and trans. and differential and do the body
and paint. This GTO really did turn out nice and drove like a new car to
boot! We drove to several shows in California and had a lot of fun at the
drags too.
We
decided to sell it and look for a 4-speed GTO because we really enjoyed
her 68 Firebird with the manual trans. Just about the time the Goat sold I
got a call from a guy named John, he left a message with Jodi that he
wanted to start a GTO club in the area. Well, now I can't find a GTO for
sale, so I didn't return his call. How could I be in a GTO club without a
car? John was very persistent and he called a couple of more times,
finally Jodi said “CALL HIM BACK!” And the rest is history. I have a
friend that decided to part with his super nice 1967 hardtop HO 4-speed
and I was on the spot to get it the next day! This Fathom blue GTO has a
great history and now I may have made my 3rd GTO mistake. We'll let Ray
Mares tell the story from here. I'm
really glad the club has done so well, I've been fortunate enough to be
able to repair and service a number of club members cars at On Track
Automotive and really do appreciate the confidence people have placed with
me. The 1968 GTO that I have
now reminds me a lot of that 1st Goat back in 1978, I won’t give this
one up!
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