Storage Unit Find: 1968 GTO 400 H.O.
Like many Craigslist ads, this one doesn’t have a lot of information. Only three pictures are provided. They don’t speak a thousand words either, maybe a hundred. I can’t even tell you the color of the interior. However, I can see enough to be intrigued. This looks like a very straight, well-preserved car. I see no indication of rust above the rear bumper or around the rear window. Can’t see the lower extremities of the body, however. That’s where the trouble will be if there is any. Located in Hendersonville, TN, this 1968 GTO is advertised for sale here on Craigslist for $15,500.
What have we here? A chrome bumper? Yes, this is the second endura delete 1968 GTO I’ve run across in just the last couple of months. There were 2,108 endura delete cars produced, but I don’t know if I ever saw one in person. If I have I surely don’t remember. Reported to be an 87,000-mile car, it’s equipped with the matching numbers 400 c.i. High Output engine. The standard 400 engine was rated at 350 h.p. Having a more aggressive camshaft and freer flowing exhaust manifolds, the H.O. engine was rated at 360 h.p. A total of 87,684 GTO’s were produced in the 1968 model year. Out of that number, 10,564 of them were equipped with an H.O. engine. The transmission is reported to be a manual. A heavy duty three speed was standard but they are rare in a GTO. I’d bet it’s a 4-speed.
The air cleaner and valve covers may be aftermarket units. I think the original air cleaner had a dual snorkel black base with a chrome lid. I’m not seeing that here. I’m not seeing a power brake booster or an A/C compressor either, but it’s so dark in the engine compartment I can’t positively verify any of that. I can see the car has rally wheels and some old-looking, off-brand tires. Hopefully those aftermarket moldings protecting the sides are the adhesive kind. The seller says he lost his storage space and must sell the car by September 1, so the car may have been moved by now or it could be sold. All I know is the ad is still posted as of this writing. It’s impossible to say without a first-hand look, but this car might be a real bargain. What do the readers think?
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Comments
Wow. This seems like a steal
i think it is not green.
i thought ’68 gto had to be green. must be a clone. ;-)
seriously nice to see a ’68 gto that isn’t green or tan. a black interior would be sweet but even a blue or parchment interior would be great.
No doubt!!! its a CLONE guys don’t be fooled!!!!!!
Hmmm- only 30 minutes from me…
Go check it out! Give us the info! He States he has the build sheet!
Regards Chris
Just texted him..we’ll see. Can’t Imagine it’s still around.
If the seller is going to make claims about rare options and says he has the window sticker to back up those claims, there is no better time to produce it than in your ad, especially if you are under pressure to sell the car.
I guess he missed the deadline to move the car. One would think that would light a fire under his feet enough to maybe wash the car, update the ad or include more pictures.
If the car is what the seller claims, it seems like it could be good deal.
Steve R
amazing it’s still listed after more than a week & two weekends.
if it’s the real deal or even a decent knockoff it should be sold already.
that said, as the owner of two storage facilities, it’s surprising what some folks leave behind. yes, usually it’s absolute crap, but from time to time we see some decent stuff.
best was a 5-speed ’85 Mustang GT with 100k on it about 8 years ago. planned to trade it to a concrete contractor for replacing some curbs that were destroyed by a drunk driver that went straight instead of following the bend in the road, about $1000 of work.
he towed it out of my shop parking lot & traded/sold it to somebody before we’d solidified the deal. of course the guy who wound up with it came after me for title when all i had was a signed abandonment of unit contents statement from storage tenant. all worked out fine but i wish i’d known Fox bodies were gonna be so valuable.
anyway, if i was within a few hours drive i’d definitely show up with cash to check this one out.
poseur, the ad doesn’t say this is being sold by the storage facility.
The owner lost his storage and is trying to sell the car and get it out of storage and it has a clean title.
Also the ad does say it is a manual transmission.
When you see a GTO with a chrome bumper why is it assumed it is an endura delete instead of thinking something happened over the last 51 years to warrant the change of the front bumper?
When it’s a extra cost color, it’s easy to infer a chrome bumper.
This Goat 🐐 could be the real deal and it could be a tempest too.
I have been to Henderson years ago and if I had time would check out a clone or deal.
People who list minimum sometimes are hiding things or maybe this owner is very senior in life 🕤
Sometimes people don’t post much or say much because they don’t know any better. There not a flipper that’s trying blow smoke up your you know what. If your trying to buy a legitimate car you have to get off your butt, get out from behind your computer and go and look at it like a real car guy does. Sitting behind your computer and spewing a bunch of garbage like your an expert is a joke. We all know there are fakes and there are gems out there. Go look at it get the facts and back up the claims. You can’t buy cars from pictures or evaluate them. If your trying to your going to get burned or miss out on the real ones.
So you’re saying all flippers are liars and cheats?? This is one flipper that tells it like it is, doesn’t lie about his cars, and hates that stereotype! Don’t blanket every car flipper into one lump comment, you’re 10000% wrong. There are plenty of honest sellers out there still just trying to make a dollar extra to help pay the bills for their families well being…
If I was close I would definitely check this out, it only takes a hour for a real GTO guy to verify it’s real or not. If he’s not smart enough to include proof of model in his ad he will not be smart enough to hide it in person.
The build sheet will tell the story. He lists, in the paticulars, that it’s a manual car. That blue is nice!
Regards,
Chris
OK I will try to explain sales and marketing to you all once again. Being in sales and marketing for 35 yrs successfully I am an expert.
The purpose of any ad is to drive sales and with selling a car the idea is to get the phone to ring. Ths seller wants to weed out the tire kickers as much as possible so less is more. If a buyer is serious about buying said car they will call. At that point the next step for the seller is to get said buyer to come see the car and hopefully buy it.
The sale doesn’t happen till the buyer pays for the car and sometimes they will buy it without coming to see it but not that much. 99% of the time the buyer will request more pics and info anyway so what is the point in adding them to an ad?
Remember the goal is to get the phone to ring so you can sell it, not anything else. I know this is hard for most of you to comprehend because you are not in sales and marketing but in my business this is marketing 101.
in my mind the phone rings more if there is more info in the ad. perhaps i don’t know what i’m doing.
you answered your own question
Absolutely agree, in most cases if someone is simply texting they are not serious.
Another thing is if you let the interested party walk once he comes to see the car or item in question…….there is a 98% chance he will not return. You must sell while he or she is there!
The car is real, been for sale a long long time, and the guy is sick of people calling his nice low miles endura delete HO a lemans . Hes burnt on the bottom feeder mentality. The phs if there is one (yet) will tell the story, some people get old and then it just becomes a car again
The vin will tell you if it’s a real GTO, If it starts with 242, then it’s legit.
Seller just texted me…”SOLD”. Don’t know if it sold a week ago or today.
You should tell him to take the ad down then.
Happy he sold it.
I feel his pain on the bottom feeder aspect of sales these days, esp via CL & less so eBay.
Older folk have a completely new paradigm to deal with: internet, email, texts. All prone to be fraught with scammers. And good luck knowing how to separate the time wasters, dreamers, con artists from legit buyers this way.
Just getting somebody to show up & look at a car in person can seem an impossibility.
A big thank you to BarnFinds for making it easier for enthusiasts to connect with sellers!
Chrome bumpers. 68’ Lemans had the chrome bumpers, not on the GTO. It’s a CLONE. Shame on him!
You know I hate to be blunt but you are the one who should be shamed for two reasons
First, there are very few chrome bumper GTOs but they are real and very cool.
Second, Shame on you because you don’t know your stuff yet you call others out. Because Lemans AND Tempest had the chrome, not just lemans.
so maybe you should do your research Cadmandan. because Lemans, Tempest and GTO’s all have or could have chrome.
Not a clone. I have the build sheets
I barely know GM cars and even I knew about the endura delete (probably from reading BF). Had the seller texted me he still had the car, I would have been consulting SlickB about GTO identification!
A total of 87,684 GTOs were produced in the 1968 model year. Of those 77,704 were hardtops.
Fox News just ran an update on the status of the car: http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/09/11/possible-one-kind-1968-pontiac-gto-listed-on-craigslist-after-15-years-in-stsorage.html
Thanks for letting us know Jeff!
That’s pretty cool!
The Fox article says he traded three 1966 GTOs for this car. Huh?
And a poorly written article at that.