[marxjunk]

I have a rusty RAIV GTO (non judge with POP and window sticker), silver black top interior..has 1/4 moldings and the tail panel is blacked out ,factory paint under a maaco looking burgandy paint...jambs never touched they are still silver...I will get pics of the tail and pic of the trim tag when i get back home..can definately tell the black out is factory issue...

BY the way..it isnt for sale save the pms...lol

[marxjunk]

Heres pics of the tail panel and trim tag...the car has 1/4moldings...and something weird..the body number on the trim tag is a single digit...greater than 1 less than 10..like 0000* .i never noticed it...but the O2C seems like it should have a larger body number...i didnt look at the VIN, i will dig the papaer work out and see how low the VIN is...weird...or is it just weird in my head...like maybe a pilot car? Ive never seen such a low body number...any ideas?is it a errored stamping? wow...now im curious, i never ran the PHS because i have a POP and the original window sticker, and a complete history of the car from day 1...the estate I got it from, the guy was a GTO fanatic and his wife told me the car was special, and the old guy used to talk about it for hours on end, he never lived long enough to restore it...now i need to do some research...

[GTO JOHN]

Thanks for posting the photos marxjunk. Original cars are the best. Your tailpanel blackout goes right through the trunk lid rubber stop porch on the tailpanel just like my 02A Limelight Arlington blackout car. My 02B Arlington Judge has the blackout line inside the humps. It appears factory original so if all three are true cars then the blackout tape was hand applied without a template. This would explain the difference between our cars.

If you remove the bumper and taillight bezels you should find the taped line disappears behind there and transitions into a fogged line through the taillight openings. Palladium Silver should be visible on the outer sides of the taillight openings where the bumper stops bolt in place.

Finally, I have no real explanation for the super low body number on your car. The body numbers were sequential and based upon the number of two door hardtop bodies (style 37) that came down the line and included GTO, LeMans, and Tempest models. The only thing I can think of is a misstamped tag. Your 02C build date crossreferences with a 5000 body number build date. So if your tag reads "00007" then I suggest it should be "05007" because the 5000th body would have been made that week. Perhaps they forgot to put the 5 in after they took out the 4 in the body tag die. Just my theory unless somebody else can come up with something better.

I'd run the PHS just out of curiosity to see how it was optioned from the factory. Looks like a great car to restore. 1 of 403 made (310 4-spds, 93 auto)

[oxfordsteve]

I have 4 '69 GTOs in my possession at this time. 3 are Atlanta cars and the Judge is Baltimore. None had the blacked out tail panels, and neither did the Atlanta 69 I sold. My 2 '69 Lemans parts cars were minus black tailpanels too but never paid attention to their build plants.

[Dens71TA]

Originally Posted by GTO JOHN

Did that car come from Port Washington, WI?

Nope. Its a '69 GTO roller that Red Goat found sitting in a back yard in Denver,CO and posted for sale here on PY about 3 years ago.

[GTO JOHN]

Anyone ever run across anymore blacked out tail panel cars?

[hobi]

Originally Posted by GTO JOHN

Anyone ever run across anymore blacked out tail panel cars?

I got a NOS one from Ron Johnston its black edp coating you guys really need to get over this black thing.

[gtohurstjudge]

John, my car was originally crystal turquoise , built in February 69 at
the Arlington plant and it had the blacked out tail panel from the factory. The last time
I repainted my car about ten years ago I did away with the black as I got tired of people
telling me it was incorrect!

[GTO JOHN]

Not only a color change, but a blackout delete now? I bet it would look good on your car especially with the front chin spoiler installed. Of course you will have purists telling you that is incorrect also lol.

I know the blackout is not on the PHS but I wonder if anyone has a buildsheet on a blackout car. Would be interesting to see if there was any code for the treatment.

[hobi]

Originally Posted by GTO JOHN

Not only a color change, but a blackout delete now? I bet it would look good on your car especially with the front chin spoiler installed. Of course you will have purists telling you that is incorrect also lol.

I know the blackout is not on the PHS but I wonder if anyone has a buildsheet on a blackout car. Would be interesting to see if there was any code for the treatment.

John I love you man but this black tail panel thing, tell you what I will get Frank Rizzo to make you a build sheet with it on there.

[69 RA GTO]

I know the blackout is not on the PHS but I wonder if anyone has a buildsheet on a blackout car. Would be interesting to see if there was any code for the treatment.[/quote]

John, I have a 01C Crystal Turquoise GTO where I found a perfect build sheet on top of the gas tank. It is a Arlington TX built car and I just look at the BS and no where on it does it show anything about black out. Hope this maybe helps alittle.

[Bet Winner]

Might that be a tape line at the edge of the black out? I have seen some say that they have never seen a tape line on any original GTO.

[marxjunk]

my RAIV GTO has the tape line....for some reason my pics are gone...i will see why or repost

[MikeNoun]

I never heard of a factory blacked out tail panel on a 1969 GTO.

Blacking out of tail panels was probably the single most popular thing to do in the late 60's, along with jacking the rear up with air shocks.

Many guys back then had a buddy at a paint shop, even their own local high school auto shop, do a black out on the tail panel of their cars.

[gtohurstjudge]

Mike, they built blacked out panel GTO's and mine is one of them. I bought
my car in 71 and it was blacked out, including the openings behind the tail light bezels.
Nobody would have removed the rear bumper and tail light bezels to black out that section
of the body. I've parted out many Arlington built GtO's with blacked out tail panels back in
the 70's. Blacked out tail panels is an undisputed fact or should be by now.

[GTO JONES]

Here is one picture I have when I restored it 20 something years ago. The one picture shows the blacked out panel. I bought it new off the show room floor.

[MikeNoun]

Originally Posted by gtohurstjudge

Mike, they built blacked out panel GTO's and mine is one of them. I bought
my car in 71 and it was blacked out, including the openings behind the tail light bezels.
Nobody would have removed the rear bumper and tail light bezels to black out that section
of the body. I've parted out many Arlington built GtO's with blacked out tail panels back in
the 70's. Blacked out tail panels is an undisputed fact or should be by now.

John, not saying they didn't do it, I just never heard of it. But it's odd that with thousands of build sheets floating around out there (and with the advent of the web) no one has ever seen any reference to a black out on a build sheet.

With what we've seen in the assembly line/paint process, there's no way a plant manager would just voluntarily black out tail panels on certain GTO's, without specific instructions, diagrams, and orders from the upper office to do so. They would need the black out paint readily available, in a spray gun, and after the base color was applied, someone would have add the black out with specific instructions as to where to apply it, which may or may not require taping.

This would of course add additional cost per car, not to mention labor time, and there has to be some paperwork for them doing so.

So is the black out specified in the Pontiac A-body Assembly Manual? Was there any references to the black out in any bulletins?

[69 RA GTO]

Here are a couple more pics I have from somewhere that show the blacked out tail panel

[gtohurstjudge]

On my car, the black out paint was the same gloss as the firewall and top of the cowl.....most likely all painted black at once after the body color was applied. they already
had a gun with black paint in it for painting the firewall. the only extra work would have been
masking the diagonals on the ends.....maybe a 10 second job at most. This would have been a great question for John Sawruk....bet he could have
found the answer to why they bothered to do it on some but not all the cars. Also on the original paint on my car I know the black was done at the factory as there was no blue
paint under it....only brown primer.

[MikeNoun]

The black out would have required the car to be moved to an in-line repair booth off the assembly line, an area where they typically did fixes for paint flaws, and any special black outs or paint stripe applications. The tail panel area would have been masked for a black out.

They didn't have some goober with a spray gun shoot firewall paint over a finished body.

There has to be some documentation and diagrams to show this process. Again, I'm not saying they didn't do it, but there must be documentation about how to apply the blackout.