When I was 15 years old, I had a casual friend with a 1968 gtx with a 440 six pack. All of my close friends were GM fans and most drove SS's and GTO's with a few 55-56-57 hotrods and they were all fast -- but not fast enough to beat the GTX.

At the time, I had to conform to my friends way of thinking (and also my Dad was a Pontiac/Chevy salesman) but in my heart, I always wanted a GTX with a 440 six pack. Just to make the fantasy completely out of reach, I decided it had to be a convertible!!

Fast forward to 2004. I have been perusing the Classic Auto Trader and deals on wheels and a thousand other classic auto mags. I've been looking for my GTX for 20 years and now I've discovered the internet has even more. In addition to that, now I've got the money!

I watched it for 2 years waiting for the right car and the day finally came. It wasn't quite perfect since the engine was not a six packer but it did have all of the other criteria and a few extras like power windows and the air grabber hood. I watched it for a week but did not bid until the last hour when I went completely berserk and decided this would be my car.

I ended up with the winning bid of course and the guy I bought it from decided he would transport it to me from California for $1,000. A week later, a big enclosed car hauler pulled up in front of my house and I got in my new old car and started the engine, backed it out and took a little cruise around the block. It ran near perfect.

I found no rust anywhere. The engine bay looked like a 10 year old car with a little oil spillage but not leakage. The convertible top had some issues but nothing that couldn't be fixed. The trunk pan had some very minor bubbling. The paint job was old and not very even but other than these items, this car was perfect.

I promptly took it down to our local body restoration specialist and let him do what was needed. After they got all the wax off of it, it looked pretty plain. There were some obvious spots where there had been some repairs and the paint did not quite match but there was no excessive body filler anywhere and the lower quarter panels had been repaired sometime in the past by a very good body shop.

I had the transmission completely rebuilt and that's all I've done so far on the car -- I still have a ways to go. I bought a correct six pack set up and am debating with myself whether to install it myself or take it to an expert. I will probably do the latter since I don't want to make any stupid mistakes. When I do, I will probably have the engine rebuilt completely and install hardened seats, etc.

I am still not certain if it is a number matching motor which may sound crazy to some people but it really doesn't matter to me -- It only matters to the value of the car and I'm not planning to sell it for any reason because I love it and I waited a long time to get it. I do know that it is a 69 440 HP and that is what matters to me. Someday, when I can get underneath it, I will sand the paint off the block and reveal the number underneath. Thanks to the power of the internet I finally know where to look thanks to Moparts chat, and the GTX registry.