My dad made a $500 barn find of a '69 GTX. Doesn't run but turnes over. Ran the VIN and it's a real GTX with the 375hp rated 440. Interesting thing is it's manual brakes/drum all the way around, power steering. The seats are blackvinyl with red velour down the center. I always thought the GTX was the higher end RoadRunner, meaning more luxury i.e, sacrificing weight. Is this a rare option car because the lack of options?

Interesting thing is the build sheet number stuffed behing the back seat differs from the fender tag. Build sheet is a RM23H9... Vin# while the fender tag is RS23L9.... Anybody help me with some details?

 

hi jerett
nice find as with the build sheet thats a common mistake from the factory as when they were on the line assemblers would just throw one in it as they might have had acouple or more in there hand while putting them in it seems the center of the seats got treated to so 70's era treatment with the red velour i've seen acouple other GTX's with drum brakes kinda uncommon i think but heck either way 500 bucks is a great find espeacialy if its a numbers matching car would you be willing to take some pics of it so we can see the condition?
Terry

 

Sure.. My father lives in another state and his pics are by phone so not the best quality but I will post.

 

It is not uncommon to find a wrong broadcast sheet on a vehicle, but not because assemblers just threw one on it. Those sheets are what the car was built by. Most assembler's had a specific Build Code to look for and selected the parts accordingly.

These sheets were put on the car in many different places such as the Trim Broadcast, the IP line, the bumper line, engine line, frame line, axle line and tire line. What would occasionally happen would be a sequence mix up some where and when that happened, you started ignoring the broadcast sheet attached to the particular assembly that was on the conveyor and just go the the "body" and try to match the feeder line assembly to the body being build which would allow for the wrong sheet. You would also have a work ticket packet thrown into a wrong car. When that ticket was retrieved for the right car, a broadcast sheet could have been left behind. This usually happened in off line repair areas.

Yes, I retired from Chrysler and built many of the "muscle cars" during the 60s and 70's.

If assembler just arbitrairly threw a wrong track sheet on a car, it would be built wrong and since every workstation that applied those sheets to the car on the assembly line only had one per car at thei disposal, and the sequence number would be verified at each Inspection station and would be caught very quickly.

Was there inncidents where people purposely threw a wrong sheet on a car, I am sure there was, but that wasn't the main reason for it.

 

So how does this explain the the build sheet references RM, 'M' for Medium priced while the VIN tag reads 'S' for Special priced. then the engine codes vary between the two. H on the build sheet and L on the VIN. Then there's the sequence numbers. that vary by about 500..

BTW here are those pics. Grill is perfect. Left door has an interesting dent up by the window. Cancer in the left rear lower quarter. Trunk doesn't appear to be rusty but has a thorough undercoat including in the trunk. But not rusted through as I have regularly seen.

 

definetly a nice find!!!!!
and thxs 65 for clearing it up on the sheets

 

I'd say it's more likely that someone has changed the back seat, especially since they have been re-done at some time to add the red velour. That'd be a fast, easy explanation for the wrong build sheet in the back of the seat.

My first GTX, totally stock, was a '68 I got in '74. 1200 miles (yea, 1200, it was actually one of those "The owner was killed in Nam" cars I got when I was assigned to Ft Campbell) There had been no changes made to the car at all, and it was standard drum brakes (Standard for the GTX being 11 inch front and rear, 3 inch wide front, 2 1/2 rear, maybe 2 1/2 and 2 respectively, not sure now), standard steering, no power anything except engine. They could be ordered that way, but like someone said, it wasn't too common to find them without at least power steering. Power brakes was a little less common, they hadn't been around too long by then, and discs, well, discs were really new, and a high dollar option, and they were still having problems with the 4 piston set up, so they were really pretty uncommon.

Gotta admit tho.... 130 miles per hour, standing on the brakes with both feet and pulling against the steering wheel for more pressure to stop sure was exciting lol

 

Very nice Barn find , it would be nice to have alot of them still up in barns and for that kind of money tell your dad he got one heck of a sweet deal and if he ever wants to sell it for a bit more let me know

 

Nice looking car........great find

As far as the track sheets, I couldn't really tell you how they got mixed up, but I noted many ways that they could get mixed up. The sequence numbers could vary by thousands depending on how it happened. Building a car back in those days, were much different than it is today and at one time we had 23,000 unavailable vehicles at one time. What is an unavailable.....It was a vehicle that was built off the Final Line but had not been shipped yet. With 23,000 vehicles sitting around it really meant that you had cars not shipped that had been build months before. If car A was sequence number 40098 and was only missing a glove box door, and car B was parked next to it with sequence number 50099 with say a bad engine, but happened to have the same color glove box door with the broadcast sheet taped to it from the Instrument Panel line it was not out of the question to take the glove box door off the one car (with the track sheet) and put it in the other car in order to ship it which now gives the 1st vehicle two different track sheets. That is just one of many many many examples of how it could happen, but again and only talking as a person that was there, it usually was not because of someone purposely throwing extra sheets on a car. That just didn't happen. ere their disgruntled employees, there sure was, especially in that period, but throwing an extra track sheet wasn't the way they showed their dissatisfaction.

 

I have to say, it's interesting to know how things were then. You have a lot of information obviously. I bet you had no idea that there would be such a huge following for the cars that were passing right through your hands. No one did.

Shoot, I'm only 32 years old and a connoissuer all things with wheels. I remember as a kid when I would see Honda Trail 90's leaned up against the back of houses rotting; today collector items. At age 15,16, 17 years of age, going to the local wrecking yards to find parts for my '62 Ford Falcon. At 18 (14 years ago) I bought a non matching numbers 1970 Cuda with a heated-up 440 and totally rust free for $3800!

Jeez, at the age of 32, I'm a relic compared to the new drivers and their V-Tec Honda's, and TRD Toyota's. "Rice is nice but steel is real" That phrase may mean nothing in the near future. Well, let's hope it does!