“Hello, Maaco? Yeah, um…” It’s always sad to see such a legendary muscle car in such unbelievably deteriorated condition like this 1969 Pontiac GTO “The Judge” is in. Wow. This major project is listed here on eBay with bids already surpassing $5,000 and there are over four days left on the auction! Wow, again! Celina, Tennessee is where you’ll have to meet the shipping company that you use, you aren’t going to drive this one home. Thanks to Jacob M for submitting this find!
The Judge was a special edition named after a recurring skit on the tv show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, where Sammy Davis Jr. played a judge and would say, “Here comes the judge, here comes the judge.” Everyone under 40 years old just fell asleep. “Who is Sammy Davis Jr? Laugh-In? What’s that?”
A restored version of this car can top $100,000 but, as you can see, it’ll take most of that to restore this one. This is most likely a parts car at this stage of its life. There is a vast sea of rust and former bodywork going on here to almost rival anything that I’ve ever seen. Oh yeah, the original Ram Air III engine and 4-speed manual transmission aren’t in the car and they aren’t included. So there’s that, too.
I can see where there could be thousands of dollars worth of usable parts on this one, but the thought of a car, any car, in this sort of condition being over $5,000 is.. something. Amazing? Depressing? Amazingly depressing? I grew up when a perfect version of this car would have probably been this price so maybe it’s just my own mortality rearing its ugly head. Hey, the back seat looks perfect!
This echo chamber is where the beautiful music-maker of a 400 cubic-inch V8 with 366 hp would have been. That’s painful that it’s missing and it affects the value like nobody’s business. It does have the famous hood tach and other things that will no doubt add up for anyone who is restoring a similar car. Original parts are king when you’re deep into a restoration and buying a whole parts car is often the way to go, if you can swing the storage and shipping. What is this car worth as it sits here? $7,500? $10,000?
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