Hot Rods Strange factory/dealer ordered muscle cars !

How many have found strange ordered options on factory/dealer muscle cars ?
I'll start this off.In 1963 while on a trip to Tulsa Oklahoma a friend and I spotted on a used car along the side of the road a plain looking dark blue 62 chevy biscayne 4 door with black walls and "dog dish" hubcaps and flag emblems on the front fenders. As it was Sunday and the lot being closed we pulled in to see if it was a "sleeper"327. We found the car to be to our surprise 409/409 with a "three on the tree"transmission !!
I have never seen another ! Anyone else ever found strange cars optioned like this ?

 

I found a 1964 Impala SS sitting on 4 flat tires beside a house in an old part of my town of Owasso a couple of years ago. Rang the bell, nobody home, so I looked it over real good. It had a numbers matching 327/4 brl/camel hump heads...factory bucket seats and a console with a factory block-off plate where the shifter would go...and it had a factory 3 on the tree.
I finally was able to talk to the owner, who bought it new and he said it came that way when he bought it in Tulsa in 1964.
And it could not be bought. I checked back often with the old guy and I guess I pissed him off, because one time when I drove by, it was gone....win some, lose some.

 

You've won a few lately, Larry.

 

I remember a couple: when I was in high school, one of the guys a year older than me had just graduated from high school and had a good job working at a grocery store. With his new-found wealth, he bought a used 64 Bel Air 4 door sedan off the local Chevy dealer's lot. It was maroon with that mousy beige interior they had, and it had a 327-300 horse engine with a factory 4 speed. About 20 years ago, I ran across a 64 Pontiac Tempest station wagon that was factory equipped with a 326, 4 speed. The story was that the original owner was a young woman who had ordered a new 64 GTO at the time. When she found she was pregnant, she'd gone back to the dealer and changed the order...

 

We had a 57 210 4dr hardtop with padded dash, powerpack and limited slip. This netted one of the rarest 57s produced if you bother to look it up since the 4dr hardtop was a pricey option and 210 was low on the pole.

 

I remember a few oddities. My neighbor (who just died at 89), had a 1970 Mustang convertible he bought new with a 351 equipped with a shaker hood and a two-barrel carb. Trust me, he wasn't one to modify his cars. I worked with a guy, who in agreement with his wife, bought a new Cutlass station wagon in the mid-60's. Unbeknownst to her, he ordered it with a four speed. She was unhappy to say the least. I have heard stories of hemi, 4-speed, four door Mopars, but I'll leave them to the guys that have actually seen them.

 

2 blocks from me sits a 64 Pontiac 4 dr htp 409 425 hp 4 speed (Canadian car) been sitting for 40 years

 

Came across a station wagon a while back with a factory 383/four speed. It was an OT 1968 Plymouth Satellite, but was original right down to the dog dish hubcaps.

 

Not exactly a "muscle", but early in the '70s I worked on a customer's bright red '63 Pontiac 4 door Catalina hardtop equipped with dual exhaust, 4 speed, power windows, manual steering & brakes, & a 2 bbl carb.
Must have had 3.08 gears as we replaced the clutch every year ...

 

I bought a 1965 Chevrolet 4 door hardtop with a 4-speed.Thing pulled hard and when I ran the numbers it was a
327/300 horse engine.Rear gears were 4.11 all factory. Frame was rusted to the point of failure so it was parted out.
Worked at a service station(not a C-store like today...we fixed cars)and a customer had a 1964 Chrysler Newport station wagon with a 413 and 4-speed.That was odd.

 

My dad bought a new 1966 Plymouth Fury with 4 doors and a 383 4 barrel, 4-speed.

 

A guy I went to high school with told me his folks had a 69 caprice with a 427 and a 3 on the tree and l told him no way would somebody order a top of the line car with a big motor and a base Trans like that, well a bet was made and a trip to his house later I payed up.

 

Back in 1981 while working at the local agricultural supply, the boss and I got onto the conversation of fast cars ..

He (Stan) told me about his brother who by chance only lived 2 blocks from me...
Seems his brother had a metal twisted 1970 (I think) 4 door Mopar with a 426 with a standard/4 spd.

While the body was more or less crunched beyond who cares (it was a 4 door),
There was nothing wrong with the drive train
And Stan's brother wanted the car gone (more than likely a 'wife' thing).

Stan, Myself and My buddy Brian went over to look at the car after work.
Stan's brother brought out the keys.
It had been sitting since the accident which tore up the front passenger
corner but didn't really effect drive-ability.
The accident was less than a year prior and the engine fired right up
(as far as mopars and gear reduction starters go anyway) and seemed to run smoothly.
We popped the hood and I remember seeing that huge mill with dual carbs widely
spread out underneath the gargantuan landscape that was a 70's era mopar.

My brother-in-law Lorne and I were always talking about building a
hotrod from one of the T frames that his Pa had kicking around the Farm..
I thought this might be a good engine for it.

"How much you looking to get for it, the car, -'as is'.."?
"Well $100 I s'pose but you're not the first ones in line".

..Nope, we sure weren't.
It was sold within days to another in the family, an uncle or a friend of one of their uncles...
..Didn't really matter at the time I guess..

Lorne and I never actually did build a hotrod outta the T frames on his Dad's farm
as they were mostly pretty messed up from dragging them around the farmyard
with 500 or 1000 pounds of weight added in order to 'grade flat the bumps in the road'.

But we did start frakking cars in a most unusual way.
I think The first was 67 Polara that we bought for 25 or 50 bucks.
Off came every body panel and most all of the floor in an attempt to 'Lighten' things up.
That old 383 with 2 frame rails, 4 tires and a front seat with steering wheel probably weighed
less than 1200 pounds stripped right down and our favorite pass time of the summer became
the 'fine art' of performing high speed reverse to direct drive drops and flooring it.
It's hard to describe the shear pleasure of 1/4 mile long "j" marks embedded into the rural roadscape.

Everyday would generally start out with a search for 2 scrapyard type tires that would hold air.
Sometimes they would last 15 minutes.. sometime more.
Each days finale always ended in the same thing,
a rather bone shaking drive home on shreaded tires but we soon learned
that the faster we went the sooner the tires would exit the rims and
the ride smoothed out after that (barring of course the loud noise of
driving on the rims).


...I kinda imagine that if we would have been lucky enough to buy that 426 powered
4 door that it probably would have had the same fate..
After all, it was our search for a hotrod engine that initially led us to strip the 383 Polara down.
-A 383 that with the addition of 2 alcohol injected fools, lasted about a week.

...If I remember correctly, one of the next $40 cars in line was a 70ish chev wagon
that we promptly painted "Beirut or Bust" on the sides (With bulls eyes to match)
after which we proceeded to go out and kill a forest..
-The daily search for chev tires went on (for about another week).
Then came the 68 Galaxie with the 390, A barb wire fence helped to rid of us the white vinyl roof.....



.

 

Friends that worked at the orginal chevy dealership in this town tell the story of a new 1964 impala being towed in from wyoming where the engine exploded and discovered that the auto was a test mule for the yet not available 427. They contacted head quarters and were told to unbolt the engine and send it without investigating the reason for the failure.

 

As an underclassmen in high school, I remember a '66 Caprice in the parking lot that was all metallic blue (no vinyl, top) and had dog dish hub caps. It had 427 emblems on it and a 4 speed.

Later in life, I worked with an older guy that said his brother, in '61, had ordered a new Chevy wagon with a dual quad 409/4 speed.

Gary

 

That is actually a 1969 GTX with the reflectors on the fenders.

 

Yeah, brain freeze, the pic was taken Sept. '69, car was brand new.

 

A friend of mine has a OT 69 Camaro bought new by his uncle in 69. It's a base model, no power steering or brakes or AC, only options were a 396 with a console shifted 3 speed. His uncle drove it that way for years, finally putting a 4 speed in a few years before he died. Everything else is just as it came from the factory.

 

i ran into 2, both cars built for retiring employees...

1st a 4 door 1954 chevy LOADED every power option in / from the entire
gm line up, seats,windows (everything)most likely taken from cad -n- olds of the day
with a 265 auto... WOW the widow told me the story of this about her late hubby.

2nd a 2 door 1964 impala white with a 396/ m22 4 speed (not much else in the fancy department)
as we all know 396's didnt come out till 65

well thats all i got...

 

I've posted photos of a couple local ones in the past few months, but I try to be real sneaky about it.

 

Love the "Meat" on the back of that corvette !! LOL

 

A friend's dad bought a '62 4 door Galaxie off a local used car lot in the mid '60s with a factory 385 (single 4) HP 406", along with an automatic transmission and power steering, options that were not supposed to be available with the 406.
And then there is the brand new '68 Mustang fastback I test drove from a Louisville KY Ford dealer that had a 390 hp 427"/auto that were only supposed to be installed in Cougars.

 

I owned a 64/65 Pontiac Tempest Wagon with a 326 and factory 4spd. ans a power rear window (maybe they all had that). This was 1986 and I had just moved to Flagstaff the summer before. It was a silver, grayish color. Bought it for $200.00 sold it for $200.00. I never thought to keep some of the cars I've owned.

Pat

 

People next door to our ranch bought a new 64 Chevy wagon with a 409 and a 4 spd-recently saw another one here that belongs to a guy who has some 409 cars-don't know if it is orig but looks it.

 

i sat in a (one of 50) 1969 camaro real Z-L1 still on our lot for sale.
i worked as a line mech in 1968 at/for a chevy dealer
couldn't buy it because i was a (young, poor, family start up, punk ,kid...LOL)

 

Not really a muscle car, but saw what I thought was a '65 Pontiac Bonneville in a parking lot once. On closer look it said "Parisienne" (I have no idea how to spell that word) on it and had "409" emblems on it. I talked to the owner, and I guess they came like that in Canada.

 

My first car was an OT `66 Charger..Black w/white int. and every option available...Except power brakes. odd

 

In college in the mid eighties a staff member's daily driver was a '65 Impala 409 4 speed. Yes they made them, not necessarily rare but unusual at the least.

 

In 1969/70 I worked in a Service station, the mechanic had something of a reputation for tuning
hot cars. Someone brought in a 396 SS Chevelle that had a 3 speed trans. Strange way to order it.
The mechanic drove a 65 Ford that came from the state police auction- it had been specially ordered
for a captain that refused to drive an automatic so they got him a 390 with a column shift 3 speed.
Strangest one I ever saw was a 70 Plymouth Satelite my buddy bought used- it was a convertible but
had the slant six and a 3 on the tree. Wealso had a customer who had a 66 Chevelle station wagon
with a 327/4 speed combo., Wish I had that one now.

 

One of my dads buddys ran a successful bicycle shop, his "shop truck" was a '65 chevelle 2dr wagon with a 327/4 speed.
Tedly, that ford with the shaker is really interesting, Ford of Canada did a LOT of odd stuff. The 271hp falcons are probably the best known, but theres a ton of weird Canadian ford muscle out there if you keep your eyes open.