1970 GTO Convertible
Ken found this red rocket after cruising around in his Impala (see below) for a few years. The draw of owning 8 Pontiacs over the years (vs 3 Chevys, 1 Buick, 1 Olds, 1 Cadillac and 1 Ford (oops) ) became too great for him and with GM A body as the prerequisite, there was only one way to go …. It was just a matter of time. That time came in the late fall of 2015 when an ad listing a 1970 GTO convertible at a "this is not a museum piece" price caught Ken's eye. Not being a numbers matching guy (read: "how much is it?") Ken was more than interested. The car was a 35yr project of a Pontiac enthusiast which saw it nicely assembled from parts of his 1970 GTO convertible, his 1970 GTO Judge hardtop and his 1971 Lemans Sport convertible… was all fine by Ken. |
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Sure it has a Holley carburetor on it (what is that all about anyway) which will be replaced by a proper Q-jet eventually, but aside from that and the 1977 W72 Trans Am block under the Ram Air III heads it has all of the Pontiac parts needed to complete its transformation into a nicely optioned Judge clone. There is still work to be done but finding a car complete with the Ram Air system parts, a judge decal package still in the box, tilt steering, power windows and operational air conditioning …… makes this car exactly the A body GM that Ken would have built it himself.
Ken's Garage is set up nicely to accommodate two classics (See below for bad news on Ken's Impala). Even if it is a little too clean (see anal retentive) for the author's taste. Seriously Ken... If the rest of the member's wives see this website and make us clean our garage's to look like yours, you are coming over to help!
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August Update
Here is a picture of the GTO with the full stripe package installed. Ken wanted me to replace some or all of the old pics on his page but years from now he will be glad I left all pictures in to show the transition from nice car to beautiful car.
Ken has also been busy under the hood and under the suspension. The last two things required to qualify for the Judge nomenclature (in Ken's mind at least) was to finish the transplant of the ram air system and the large diameter front sway bar from the donor Judge .... and those are now done! YOU be the "Judge" is this one sweet ride or what? 
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Ken Bids Goodbye to the 1968 Impala Convertible
Word on the street is that Ken has sold the Impala. Everyone in the club is attributing this sale to reoccurring side effects that Ken suffers from being on the receiving end of a hockey puck many years ago.
Alas... I guess it is better to have loved and lost this beauty than to never have loved her at all.
Ken found this GM time capsule ten years after parting with his 1968 Firebird convertible (you know … kids, no time etc) and while on the hunt for a reasonably priced GM A body convertible he stumbled across this 1968 396/TH400 numbers matching Impala Convertible in of all places, Alma Ontario.
It was built in Oshawa and originally sold in Vancouver (still had the dealer’s emblem on the trunk) and was painted in GM Canada QQ Verdoro Green (primarily a GM Canada Pontiac colour). Its original gold interior had been supplanted by a donor black SS interior less buckets seats, at some point in its travels between east and west and back.
Evidence of its time in western Canada remained in the form of a marine Holley carburetor that had displaced the original q-jet and a marine water separator in the fuel line near the fuel tank! The Holley was replaced by a proper 1968 q-jet located in Edmonton but the water separator was too cool looking to remove!
Ken Bids Goodbye to the 1968 Impala Convertible
Word on the street is that Ken has sold the Impala. Everyone in the club is attributing this sale to reoccurring side effects that Ken suffers from being on the receiving end of a hockey puck many years ago.
Alas... I guess it is better to have loved and lost this beauty than to never have loved her at all.
Ken found this GM time capsule ten years after parting with his 1968 Firebird convertible (you know … kids, no time etc) and while on the hunt for a reasonably priced GM A body convertible he stumbled across this 1968 396/TH400 numbers matching Impala Convertible in of all places, Alma Ontario.
It was built in Oshawa and originally sold in Vancouver (still had the dealer’s emblem on the trunk) and was painted in GM Canada QQ Verdoro Green (primarily a GM Canada Pontiac colour). Its original gold interior had been supplanted by a donor black SS interior less buckets seats, at some point in its travels between east and west and back.
Evidence of its time in western Canada remained in the form of a marine Holley carburetor that had displaced the original q-jet and a marine water separator in the fuel line near the fuel tank! The Holley was replaced by a proper 1968 q-jet located in Edmonton but the water separator was too cool looking to remove!
The Club is considering painting all of our cars green in honour of this fallen angel...
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