oneownercollectorcar.com Writing copyright D. S. Brown, photography courtesy and copyright William Nawrot. Bill Nawrot has owned several GTOs but that doesn't stop him from wanting more. Passing by this 1966 Montero Red GTO his interest was piqued back in 1979. The car was solid due to its history as a Texas car that hadn't seen much road time in the salted streets of Chicago, Illinois. The contemporary photo below shows the CTA Building which wasn't there back in 1979. At the time it was a vacant lot. The GTO was parked where that van is in this picture. About a year after first spotting the GTO, Bill was able to buy the car for a price that will make your head swim: $350.00. There was a catch, however: the current 350 replacement engine was blown and the original 389 had been lost to the mists of time. 1 / 5
But what a cool find! The Montero Red car doesn't have a vinyl top. The roof is actually painted white. This was a wise tactic in Texas where this car came from. The sun reflects off the white and keeps the interior cooler. It was somewhat common in the 1960s to encounter cars with a different color roof and body. Once the vinyl top became just about mandatory, and we were all so used to seeing then our minds automatically fill in the blanks for us. When I first saw this car I assumed that it was a vinyl top. Same thing with the 1964 Mercury Marauder in the TWENTY YEARS PLUS section. It has a black painted roof and from ten feet away you assume that it has a vinyl top, too. Back in the day before vinyl tops became so common, it would have just looked like a two tone car to a casual observer. A post vinyl world reconfigures our reflexive perceptions. The factory paint on Bill's GTO was all original and unretouched. The sides below the pinstripe retained nice factory sheen. The Texas sun ensured that areas of direct exposure were severely faded. The hood, trunk, and even that white roof were shot. Funnily, despite the superior reflective properties of white, the roof didn't survive the sun. Red is notorious for sun fading, but it was actually the white roof that was the worst area of wear. The roof paint was so weathered and thin that it had primer showing through. The original dealer's cast metal name plate on the trunk lid was probably from Terrell, Texas. After all these years Bill can't say for sure. Texas is tough on paint but kind to the metal underneath. This GTO was rust free except for the usual spot below the rear window. The typical rear window leak and subsequent trunk rot was minimal in this car as seen below. The Montero Red GTO has a Red interior that held up reasonably well. Note the console mounted automatic shifter knob barely visible in front of the passenger foot well. You can also 2 / 5
spot the A/C vents at the extreme outer edge of the dash support. Coming from Texas the GTO was equipped with factory A/C which is a virtual necessity and not really considered an option down there. The VIN is 242176K136347. Maybe that original Texas owner is out there somewhere reading this, or perhaps the lucky current owner. Drop us a line if you are! The VIN decodes as follows: 2= Pontiac 42= GTO 17= Two door hardtop 6= 1966 model year K= Kansas City, Missouri final assembly plant 1= V8 engine, built within the first 100,000 produced at the plant 36347= Factory sequential number 36,347 This GTO was equipped with air conditioning, power steering, radio, tinted glass and a two speed automatic Powerglide shifted through a console. The hubcaps were the full wheel, "Custom Wheel Disc" Sales Code 461 UPC P02. The optional air conditioning shifted the rear axle standard ratio down a notch from 3.23 to a 3.08 to keep revs lower and hopefully preserve the belts and A/C unit. As was typical of many midsized 1960s cars, the GTO wasn't ordered with the optional power brakes. Intermediate sized cars of the time period were fairly light cars and manual brakes could still get the job done. 3 / 5
The Texas GTO had 66,505 miles showing. Mileage was likely 166,505 miles based on the age of the car and the fact that it had blown two engines so far. That is about average for a car at this age. The original radio, engine and transmission were the three factory items no longer with the car. Bill didn't bother fixing the blown non original Pontiac 350 engine in the car when he bought it. When the trans blew in 1979 the other owner put in a TurboHydromatiic which Bill sold during the process of bringing the GTO back to a 1966 spec drive train. Bill rebuilt a 389 4 barrel and installed it in the GTO along with the Powerglide attached to the replacement engine which took the GTO back to factory correct configuration in one shot. The 14 year old upper front control arms had to be replaced. The rubber bushings were dried out and disintegrated on touch. Texas heat combined with engine heat and oil leaks can wreak havoc on rubber parts. After a few years of ownership Bill had completed the work needed to make the GTO roadworthy once more. Once it was ready for licensing Bill had the car titled to him Feb 15, 1984. Bill and his wife Patti enjoyed driving the GTO in summer over the next three years. Of all the places to have a breakdown it decided to die on a major toll way in the mid 1980s. The 389 engine locked up and the GTO had to be towed home. Bill kept the GTO in covered storage for 4 / 5
12 years, but never got it running again. When Bill finally admitted to himself that he had three other GTOs and hadn't dealt with the Texas GTO for years he was in the right frame of mind to sell. His wife Patti's new Lincoln needed garage space that the GTO was using and Bill really couldn't keep up with parts for four GTOs at once. Once he looked at the situation rationally he sold the car. It ended up bringing ten times the original purchase price. In 1997 solid cars were worth a lot more than back in 1980. The GTO was ironically in the same condition as when Bill first discovered it. The body was the same and the engine was seized just like the engine that was in it when Bill first spotted it all those years ago! When Bill sold the GTO, the odometer read 73,200 miles which was likely 173,200 miles based on the deductions made earlier in the story. Bill and Patti combined put 6,700 miles on the car over the course of a few summers. Bill sold his 1966 GTO on July 20, 1997 for $3,500 and put that money towards Patti's Lincoln. You'd think he would be happy that someone else was going to deal with the car that had been neglected for so long. It would be nice to only be responsible for the upkeep of three GTOs. That's manageable. It would be nice to park Patti's new Lincoln indoors. But car guys are not all about logic. Bill felt a major pang after selling and now regrets it. The car haunts him a little bit to this day and he wishes he had it back. Part of the problem is that after the car was gone an ideal solution presented itself. Bill stumbled upon a place that would have done a complete rebuild on the motor for $1,000. Nowadays this kind of money is chickenfeed, but even back in the 1990s that was a very reasonable price. In fact it was a bargain when you consider it would have put Bill back on the road in a 1966 GTO that really needed nothing else to be an enjoyable summer driver. That old Texas GTO was too solid and nice to have been parted out and is hopefully cruising down the road somewhere today. 5 / 5