Following the original GTO, the iconic “first muscle car,” Pontiac cooked up the all-new 1968 GTO with a unique aerodynamic fuselage, dynamic colors, futuristic Endura front, and a host of power train choices and optional features. This particular 1968 GTO convertible left the factory in brilliant Alpine Blue with a white and teal interior, white top, 400 cid V8, and a four-speed floor shifter. Located in Lovettsville, Virginia and offered via auction here on eBay, this old “Goat” needs a complete once-over.
Before hiding out in a Virginia barn this GTO inhabited the rust belt, and the listing pictures reveal serious sheet metal rust, and signs that the new owner can anticipate structural repairs as well. Convertibles often suffer more comprehensive damage than a fixed roof car when exposed to the elements courtesy of their additional water ingress points.
This second-generation GTO offers room for four (five in a pinch) in a svelte package that’s “just right.” The 1968 GTO garnered Motor Trend’s “Car of the Year,” and this one will be stunning when restored. Picture yourself slipping behind the wheel, twisting the key and coaxing the 400 to a throaty idle. Soon you’re enjoying a favorite two-lane (top down of course), wind in your hair, catching a smile from your favorite co-pilot… pure bliss.
The decoded VIN and body tags identify this rusty hunk of metal as a 400 cid with 4bbl. Current condition is unknown but it doesn’t look good. The seller claims that “everything is original except the water pump,” though we might assume this excludes maintenance items such as belts and tires. Many ’60s colors instantly polarize buyers into camps of “Love” or “Hate,” but this blue and white combination holds broad appeal, and that’s good for resale value. There’s also the convertible mantra: “when the top goes down, the price goes up.” The new owner will be playing detective, archeologist, welder, and a host of other roles… or paying others to do so. With that in mind, where do you value this long-forgotten GTO?
Holy #$%*! Check out the rust through of the frame rail! For every bit of rust you see, there is three times more underneath…
Unfortunately, while a new frame, original or aftermarket (“g machine”) is a possibility, it looks like no one is making repro body shells for these
If you put four or five people in this car right now it would probably break in half lol.
Parts. Car. Now. (insufferable gut wrenched sobbing)
Some things I can’t un see!!!
Too bad it wasn’t covered in license plates
That is one sick GOAT, it has a serious case of cancer.
Wow! There’s good and bad here. The bad is obvious, That’s a lot of rust! The good news is it’s mostly all there, and there are lots of reproduction parts available. This is definitely going to need a frame and frame off restoration. To be anywhere near affordable, it’s going to take someone with the skills to do most of it themselves. But when done Wow!
Have we seen this car…or barn before ?
I thought the barn looked familiar myself.
I think you are right. It’s a barn full of GTOs, all in similar condition, IIRC.
Bid to $5400 & reserve not met yet. I can’t even imagine what it would cost to bring this back from the dead. I can see the drivetrain & VIN ending up on a Lemans. That’s the only thing that makes financial sense.
$5400 worth of rust..I’ve got some rust piled up in the back yard…any offers!??
Personally, I feel that cars like this (in unrestored condition) will more or less vanish from the scene in the next 10-15 years. As time marches on and rust continues to take it’s toll, awesome cars like this will get to a point where restoration is simply no longer feasible or desirable. Salvageable bits will be scavenged, and the car will be carted off to return to Mother Earth.
With rust repair not generally being able to be done (or at least not done well) by the novice hobbyist, and farming the work out to a shop becomes even more prohibitively expensive, cars in the condition of this GTO will just be left to die in whatever forlorn barn or field they have resided in for the previous umpteen decades.
Coupling the above points with the shift going on in the hobby right now (the influx of 20- and 30-somethings entering the market with different classic car preferences than those of the previous generations), it makes me wonder what the restoration rate of a car like this GTO will be 10-15 years from now.
I personally love Pontiacs and I’ve had many of them. But if I were to choose between this GTO and the 1994 Firehawk available for $9000 that I saw for sale the other day on some *other* site, I would choose the Firehawk in a heartbeat.
It sold for $7,455. Wow I know one thing for sure that car is not all original. Look at the pic with the 4 barrel carb. See that spiral wrapping on the fuel line? That is actually Aviation Grade Anti chaffing tape. I have installed hundreds of feet of that on Chinooks. LOL. He ain’t foolin me, no sir.
My boss owned that car, so I personally saw it, I actually cleaned all the garbage out of the truck and interior…it is a MAJOR project!!!