Hi folks. Thanks for the add to this forum. I look forward to seeing some awesome cars and projects here.

My pop was a Pontiac fan and had two almost identical 1967 GTOs while I was growing up. Both gold with white tops. I believe one was a pillar post car and the other a hardtop. I got to drive the second one a few times in my teens and I still recall the power of that car.

After I moved out and was doing my best to try to be an adult, I came across a 1965 LeMans convertible that had been dressed in GTO trim. It was a rolling basket case at the time, with no top on the convertible frame, and all of the interior and trim packed in boxes and stowed in the trunk and body. Pretty much a big model kit waiting to be assembled. It was at a small independent shop that specialized in Jaguar and other Euro specialty cars that was about a mile from the house I rented at the time. The shop had taken the car down to the body to paint it (red) and then stopped working on it, so it was sort of half abandoned under a tarp in the corner of their yard. For some reason, it had seats from a GP that fit onto some homemade adapter brackets. When I bought it, the seats were not bolted down to the brackets, just stacked on top of the boxes of interior trim parts. It started, ran, and held an appropriate idle. The brakes worked and felt moderately firm. So, I surprised the shop manager and now former owner of this Pontiac by setting one of the GP seats onto the bracket bolts and driving off after we signed the title over. It was not too far to my house, but it was an amazing ride pushing the clutch in and rocking back and forth on that unsecured seat. My friends who had given me a ride to the shop let me know that the gas tank was missing one of the straps and was bouncing around like crazy for the short trip to my driveway.

I then spent a good deal of shade tree mechanic time putting the basics of a new interior into it and installing the convertible frame and top. I fully intended to finish shining it up little by little and rebuilding the drivetrain. In the mean time, I drove it around as it was with the new interior panels, carpet, seals, and top. I still did not have the appropriate seats for it, tho I had replace the GP ones with the correct A body seats, tho these were from a Skylark convertible and in need of a rebuild and recover.

As I progressed further into the attempt to grow up, I ended up buying a house (also a fixer upper) and bringing a couple of super awesome kids into the world. Car went onto the back burner and life moved forward. It was a good and fun ride, tho I have now made myself come to the realization that someone else who will focus on it needs to put it back together again and do it properly. I hope y'all enjoyed my little tale, and that maybe it brought up memories of the first time you got a car running and took it out on the road even when you probably should have bolted those seats down. :) - jim

Appreciate the tale and info behind some of the Pontiacs that come through here, even if they are for sale :) . Feel free to stay around and chat if you want either after you sell it 😉