Posted By: XS29L8
68 GTX - 01/08/12 04:05 AM
As some of you may have seen in the WIW section, I recently acquired a 68 GTX.
I came across the thread with the link to the Craigslist ad.
The ad offered a pretty simple description of the car - 68 GTX, 44,000 miles, 4 speed, no p/s, no p/b, a couple pics of the car in an old hog barn and asked you email the seller for more info.
It was clear by the pictures that the car was black with red stripes and red interior.
I promptly dispatched an email to the seller asking for more info and/or a phone number to call him as well as gave him mine in case he preferred to call me.
In my rush I accidentally typed 69 GTX into the title area of my email. Luckily the seller went ahead and contacted me back despite my error, inquiring if I was in fact interested in the car.
I responded that yes, I was very interested and asked that he call me when he had a moment and we could discuss the car and provided my cell phone #.
By that time it was 9-9:30 and time for bed so I brought my phone with me to bed just in case and called it a day.
Woke up the next morning and went about my business with my phone in my pocket just in case and about 8:30 I got a phone call from Jeff, the seller of the car.
After a short conversation he mentioned that he had someone coming to look at the car the next day(Saturday) so naturally my response was to ask if it was possible to come take a look a the car that day (Friday) to which he responded yes, it was.
So, tossed the dog in the car and off we went to take a look at the car about 90 miles away.
Needless to say upon checking the car over I was blown away with it's condition. Straight out of the late 70's, rusty Cragars and everything.
I checked the motor and trans still carried the correct VIN, fendertag matched the core support and trunk rail #'s. Jeff and I pulled the rear seat and found part of the build sheet.
The body, while not perfect was in very good condition in comparison to what we usually find here in the midwest. It needed no work on any of the floors including trunk floor, trunk extensions are still very solid as was the rear window opening.
The original black velvet paint was still there and looked like it would take a nice shine with a bit of elbow grease thru all of the door dings and other (hate to say it) patina.
We talked about how he had purchased the car in September of his senior year of high school. He had pulled the motor and gone thru it in shop class then had a friend that was going to repaint the entire car but somehow that got derailed after just completing the engine compartment. This was in 1981.
The car then sat in his dad's shop for a while before moving it to where it resided in the hog barn for nearly 20 years.
He really seemed to be having a hard time with selling it, I assured him it was going to a very good home and that I would gladly bring it by to show him once I got it up and running.
After looking things over for a couple of hours we struck a deal, I gave him $500 down(all I had in the cupboard) and wrote up a bill of sale indicating it would be picked up in the next week or so with the balance being paid at that time.
As I was driving home it really started to sink in that I had finally found a fantastic GTX and I started getting really excited about what I was beginning.
Naturally I called my wife and let her know we had another child on the way
and all my buddies. I then gave my dad a buzz and asked if he might want to run up and get it with me the next day to which he agreed.
I called Jeff and he said he would be around if we wanted to come get it no problem.
I then called my buddy with the car trailer and asked him if I could borrow it, he said sure but he hadn't had a chance to fix the wheel bearing that was getting loose. Shoot.
I then remembered one of my other friends' dad had a nice car trailer so I gave him a call and he said I could borrow it no problem.
So, ran out and got the trailer right after I got back into town and went home and got my straps and stuff ready to go.
When I went out later on Friday evening I noticed that one of the tires was almost flat on the trailer with a nice nail sticking out of it. *(@#!
Luckily the local wally world was open so I popped the wheel off and ran it down there to have it plugged. Disaster averted.
So, called it a night as dad was going to come over around 730 the next morning to hook up and head out.
Got a bit of a late start as for some reason the trailer tire was a bit low when we got it hooked up so had to air it back up.
Got up there and loaded the car without issue, just used a couple come-a-long's and a floor jack.
Then we noticed that the tire was back down once we got the weight of the car back on it. Luckily Jeff had a compressor so we topped it off.
Loaded the hood, grille, radiator and other misc parts off of the car into the back of the truck, paid Jeff and off we went.
Had to stop 4 times on the 90 mile drive back home to fill up the damn leaky tire but got it home no problem.
I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow both as found and as it sits right now. Hoping to give it a good wash tomorrow and maybe take a little mild compound to the paint and see what can be done with it.
Plans as of this moment are:
Clean the paint up as best it will
Re-do interior - needs new seat covers/foam, headliner and carpet/sill plates. Probably going to replace the door panels as well. Luckily the console isn't broken and all of the other interior trim is in good condition other than needing a good cleaning so that's some $ saved.
Pull the #'s motor and trans, put the in the corner for safe keeping and stick the 512/Keisler TKO600 I have in the garage in it.
Rebuild front suspension and rear axle(if necessary, one of the wheels was locked up hoping it was just a brake drum)
Probably put some kind of front discs on it. I'll keep the drum stuff but I don't want that kind of horsepower and stock 4 wheel drums.
Find some kind of replacement wheels. Not sure what I'm going to do here, thinking about:
Slots on all 4
Cragars or Keystones
Torque thrusts/ET's on front with redlines, black steelies out back with a vintage looking DOT approved slick
Also going to try to find a few stickers from some of the old drag strips that have since been closed. Going to stick those in the quarter windows and try to age them a bit with a heat gun.
Trying to make it look like an old racecar that got put away in it's prime but has been brought back to life and is ready to rock and roll again.
I came across the thread with the link to the Craigslist ad.
The ad offered a pretty simple description of the car - 68 GTX, 44,000 miles, 4 speed, no p/s, no p/b, a couple pics of the car in an old hog barn and asked you email the seller for more info.
It was clear by the pictures that the car was black with red stripes and red interior.
I promptly dispatched an email to the seller asking for more info and/or a phone number to call him as well as gave him mine in case he preferred to call me.
In my rush I accidentally typed 69 GTX into the title area of my email. Luckily the seller went ahead and contacted me back despite my error, inquiring if I was in fact interested in the car.
I responded that yes, I was very interested and asked that he call me when he had a moment and we could discuss the car and provided my cell phone #.
By that time it was 9-9:30 and time for bed so I brought my phone with me to bed just in case and called it a day.
Woke up the next morning and went about my business with my phone in my pocket just in case and about 8:30 I got a phone call from Jeff, the seller of the car.
After a short conversation he mentioned that he had someone coming to look at the car the next day(Saturday) so naturally my response was to ask if it was possible to come take a look a the car that day (Friday) to which he responded yes, it was.
So, tossed the dog in the car and off we went to take a look at the car about 90 miles away.
Needless to say upon checking the car over I was blown away with it's condition. Straight out of the late 70's, rusty Cragars and everything.
I checked the motor and trans still carried the correct VIN, fendertag matched the core support and trunk rail #'s. Jeff and I pulled the rear seat and found part of the build sheet.
The body, while not perfect was in very good condition in comparison to what we usually find here in the midwest. It needed no work on any of the floors including trunk floor, trunk extensions are still very solid as was the rear window opening.
The original black velvet paint was still there and looked like it would take a nice shine with a bit of elbow grease thru all of the door dings and other (hate to say it) patina.
We talked about how he had purchased the car in September of his senior year of high school. He had pulled the motor and gone thru it in shop class then had a friend that was going to repaint the entire car but somehow that got derailed after just completing the engine compartment. This was in 1981.
The car then sat in his dad's shop for a while before moving it to where it resided in the hog barn for nearly 20 years.
He really seemed to be having a hard time with selling it, I assured him it was going to a very good home and that I would gladly bring it by to show him once I got it up and running.
After looking things over for a couple of hours we struck a deal, I gave him $500 down(all I had in the cupboard) and wrote up a bill of sale indicating it would be picked up in the next week or so with the balance being paid at that time.
As I was driving home it really started to sink in that I had finally found a fantastic GTX and I started getting really excited about what I was beginning.
Naturally I called my wife and let her know we had another child on the way
and all my buddies. I then gave my dad a buzz and asked if he might want to run up and get it with me the next day to which he agreed. I called Jeff and he said he would be around if we wanted to come get it no problem.
I then called my buddy with the car trailer and asked him if I could borrow it, he said sure but he hadn't had a chance to fix the wheel bearing that was getting loose. Shoot.
I then remembered one of my other friends' dad had a nice car trailer so I gave him a call and he said I could borrow it no problem.
So, ran out and got the trailer right after I got back into town and went home and got my straps and stuff ready to go.
When I went out later on Friday evening I noticed that one of the tires was almost flat on the trailer with a nice nail sticking out of it. *(@#!
Luckily the local wally world was open so I popped the wheel off and ran it down there to have it plugged. Disaster averted.
So, called it a night as dad was going to come over around 730 the next morning to hook up and head out.
Got a bit of a late start as for some reason the trailer tire was a bit low when we got it hooked up so had to air it back up.
Got up there and loaded the car without issue, just used a couple come-a-long's and a floor jack.
Then we noticed that the tire was back down once we got the weight of the car back on it. Luckily Jeff had a compressor so we topped it off.
Loaded the hood, grille, radiator and other misc parts off of the car into the back of the truck, paid Jeff and off we went.
Had to stop 4 times on the 90 mile drive back home to fill up the damn leaky tire but got it home no problem.
I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow both as found and as it sits right now. Hoping to give it a good wash tomorrow and maybe take a little mild compound to the paint and see what can be done with it.
Plans as of this moment are:
Clean the paint up as best it will
Re-do interior - needs new seat covers/foam, headliner and carpet/sill plates. Probably going to replace the door panels as well. Luckily the console isn't broken and all of the other interior trim is in good condition other than needing a good cleaning so that's some $ saved.
Pull the #'s motor and trans, put the in the corner for safe keeping and stick the 512/Keisler TKO600 I have in the garage in it.
Rebuild front suspension and rear axle(if necessary, one of the wheels was locked up hoping it was just a brake drum)
Probably put some kind of front discs on it. I'll keep the drum stuff but I don't want that kind of horsepower and stock 4 wheel drums.
Find some kind of replacement wheels. Not sure what I'm going to do here, thinking about:
Slots on all 4
Cragars or Keystones
Torque thrusts/ET's on front with redlines, black steelies out back with a vintage looking DOT approved slick
Also going to try to find a few stickers from some of the old drag strips that have since been closed. Going to stick those in the quarter windows and try to age them a bit with a heat gun.
Trying to make it look like an old racecar that got put away in it's prime but has been brought back to life and is ready to rock and roll again.
Sounds like good things do come to those who wait 
i agree,, get it back together,, enjoy it,, for a season!! i'd given 10K 
for it!
I'd be tempted to put fresh Cragars on it. Torq Thrusts are nice, but everybody and all their 3rd cousins have them now. Me included! 
Have fun with the refurb! 
Just my 
but that black car with all the factory chrome on it needs shiney wheels at all 4 corners. The wheels like in the pic you posted would look good, especially if they're polished. 
