A friend pointed out what he said was a '72 GTO about a mile down the road. We drove out in his '72 Lemans GT and we took a look. We were able to check it out although I don't remember the circumstances as to why it was o.k.
Later when I saw the guy and the car as I drove by I stopped out front & told him what I believed his car was, a '72 Lemans GT hardtop coupe with T41 Endura front end, 350 2-barrel with GTO duals & splitters (code in the VIN told me), HD 3-speed with Hurst, 3.23:1 rear, Cardinal Red with black vinyl bench, now '71 GTO buckets & rear seat. So what does he do? He goes in the house and brings out a box of pictures showing when he brought the car up from the Carolinas. I called it right. At that time it had gold GT sword stripes on it, which I didn't think they did with the T41. You learn stuff by asking. It was now solid red, and a Muncie 4-speed was just swapped in. I asked what happened to the Dearborn 3-speed, to which he replied that it went into the dumpster. I asked what was wrong with it, he said, "nothing, nobody wants them." I was willing to go dumpster diving right then until he said that they picked it up the next day.
Maybe he was just throwing me off, who knows? Damn nosey people (oops, that's me.)
Another time a few blocks from my place I caught a glimpse of a nice '71 442 W30. I did not feel like just walking up to that place would have been welcomed, so I left it. Later when I was out for a walk and saw the guy there I asked if I was seeing things when I saw a W30. I could tell he was a little leery but he invited me in to have a look after I told him I lived 4 blocks down and own a '67 Chevelle. It was a nice specimen, stock, dark brown with gold striping W30 M21 with black buckets no console, spoiler & bell tip exhaust. A few doors down from him a guy owned a '56 Chevy sedan delivery. Yes, I chatted with him as well, and he showed me under the hood and around. Both those neighbours haved since moved away. And the non-car guy that lived between them with the familiar blue '68 De Ville convertible died. The last I heard, the sedan delivery went to Smiths Falls. 30 years ago... The De Ville convertible went to Windsor.
I have so many instances of walking up to talk cars with strangers. 1 block from my place was a '65 Olds Jetstar1 in primer that the owner was blocking out, so I went over. He was restoring it stock and was an Olds guy through and through. He showed me the very rare '72 Olds Super Stock wheels from a Delta 88 that he intended to run.
Hell, I walked up to a brother in Atlanta to admire his '67 Marlin. He looked at me surprised, like, "people don't do that around here.". Stock with custom paint & decent wheels, he did appreciate the comment, but he must have figured I wasn't from those parts. That was when I was young and foolish (and a little ignorant).
