[Keith Seymore]

How we got our Second Pontiac

(also known as)

How we got our First GTO

Ok, so its the fall of 1963 and Dad is now the proud owner of a brand new 1964 GTO.

Well....I use the term "proud" loosely. This car had the worst paint job of any production vehicle that he had ever seen in his life. It had little flecks of dirt in it and globs of some kind of black stuff that wouldn't wash off. It also had poor adhesion, and if tape was applied the paint would come right off when you attempted to remove the tape.

Although grateful to not be stuck with a total loss, Dad went back to see Dick Jesse to complain. "Dick" he said "I'd be embarrased to drive this car; it needs a total repaint".

Dick wasn't sure the factory would cover a totally new paint job but said he would make some calls. He contacted the factory rep, Carl Klessick*, and Carl agreed to paint only the problem areas. Dad was to take a small piece of masking tape and stick it over any spots needing repair.

Dad did as he was told and drove the car over to Carl's office. Carl came down to the street, only to find this '64 GTO COMPLETELY (!) covered with masking tape. I think Dad said he used a whole roll to cover the car. Carl approved a total repaint - at the factory and at their expense - right then and there.

After the car was painted it was taken back to Royal and one of the new car prep guys put a real nice "Blue Coral" wax job on it. When all was said and done it was a very respectible looking automobile.

After doing his own "Royal Bobcat supertune" job on the car (similar to post #61 of this thread: "The Gasket Story") Dad was having good success with this car as well. It was also never defeated in B/S class competition and, legend has it, the first GTO here locally to run in the twelves**.




*I'm sorry, I can't remember the last name for sure and couldn't find it in my notes.

** Royal had rented Detroit Dragway for a test session so Dad went along just for fun. He had continued to refine the package and went out and made what felt like a pretty good pass. When he got to the ticket booth they didn't have a time slip to give him. Shaking it off, he decided to make another pass. He did and it also felt like a pretty good run. No slip. He decided to make a third pass and at it's conclusion they told him to report to the control tower.

He walked up the stairs and into the office, to find the track owner Gil Kohn scowling at the desk. "Seymore, nobody likes a smart a$$" he said, and showed Dad the time slips: 12.97, 12.95 and 12.93. Apparently they were concerned the timing equipment wasn't working properly and wanted to check it out before giving Dad the data.