Lost: 1972 Y Code Revere Silver GTO hardtop

                                                                     By: Patrick Smith

   This is a different post for certain. Instead of listing a new entrant in the Y Code Registry, we're describing a car long ago cast away by a previous owner. This was in the past when he wasn't aware just what he had. Looking back, he wishes it had been a different outcome! Our story begins with a nice looking 1972 GTO hardtop finished in Revere Silver metallic and a lush black Expanded Morrokide interior. The drive train was a 455 four barrel L75 motor which was code "Y" on the VIN and backed with the TH400 automatic transmission and 12 bolt carrier. All 455 powered A body Pontiac cars had the 12 bolt carrier that year.

A bit grainy, but it's all we have of Bill Wolfe's Y Code GTO. 

   For options this car had Am Fm stereo radio with 8 track player, Rally II wheels on 15 inch rims with the TXL wheels 15 inch Goodyear Polyglas G60 x 15 raised white letter tires, rocker panel trim, wheel well moldings, console, Safe T Track limited slip differential, Formula steering wheel, tinted glass, custom interior group which gave you upgraded door panels with pull straps and carpeted runners and of course, Expanded Morrokide seat coverings in bucket seat style. finally the car had chrome fixed pedestal rear view mirrors and Y98 suspension option. The owner was Bill Wolfe at the time and the picture you see was when he owned it.

  This is the second Revere Silver Y Code in our registry. Revere Silver is one of Pontiac's nicer colors that year. You could get a number of interiors to go with it but to me, black is the best choice. Available that year was a Pewter vinyl interior which is quite difficult to get colors to look right when dying it. As for Revere Silver paint, we have another one located in North Dakota which was for sale. Sure would be ironic if it was the same car, wouldn't it? A quick look at the options scratches that theory. Our North Dakota car had a vinyl top and base steering wheel with power windows. I guess Mr. Wolfe will have to keep searching for his old ride. I hope he finds it.
  * Article (c) 2017 Patrick Smith PHS 1972 Y Code Registry

The Rear Spoiler--The "Option" that never was!

                                                                      By: Patrick Smith

  This is sort of an awkward subject. I liken it to saying "the bull jumped over the fence" when talking about someone's kid in front of their parents in mixed company. I will dispense with the unpleasantness now and move on to the actual topic at hand; rear spoilers for 1972 GTO and Lemans. You see, Pontiac didn't offer a rear spoiler on their 1972 GTO  as such. There was a duck tail spoiler, new for 1972 shown in print but the mold for the three piece unit broke the first week in production and it was never repaired. Some say the mold broke the first day. All I can tell you for sure is two LeMans cars got them from the factory and one GTO had it added using a parts counter purchase. Those are the only known cars to have ducktail spoilers. John Sqwirblies' Sundance Orange 1972 GTO hardtop is the single GTO and the LeMans cars were early production press pool cars used for road tests in Super Stock magazine. There was a 1971 spoiler standalone option listed as UPC N90 option in group 474. That was how you could get a spoiler on a non Judge car in 1971 only. By 1972 the spoiler option was gone.
 

John Skwirblies 1972 GTO as it appeared in Muscle Car Review's Factory Freaks issue. Title is a misnomer
in Skwirblies' case as the spoiler was an over the counter purchase post sale.Note the 1971 tail lamps.

   Meanwhile it was available over the counter and installed by many an owner at the dealer or by themselves, the 1972 GTO and LeMans Sport were sold spoiler free. So many have worn them over time one can be forgiven for thinking it was available that year. Reproductions are available now of every GTO spoiler from 1969 to 1972. The last one, the duck tail, was repopped using the example from John Skwirblies' car which had one installed from an over the counter purchase back in the day. We'll show you his Sundance Orange hardtop and pics of that set up for reference purposes.

The underside of Skwirblies' 1972 ducktail corner spoiler. It is somewhat rough and not up
to the usual quality of a GM part. 

    Actually Skwirblies car is interesting for a couple of reasons. It sports a bright rear view mirror assembly which has long been believed to appear on early production 1972 GTOs before the Federal Mandated black pebble finish mirror was enforced as a safety feature. Bright mirror backs were believed to cause blinding reflections on sunny days. His GTO also has 1971 GTO tail lamps which was commonly found on build out year GTOS and LeMans. Officially, the Luxury LeMans cars were supposed to be the only ones using these that year but many GTOs and LeMans have shown up wearing a set.

    My car, a last batch build example had a set. It's interesting  to see Skwirblies car had  a pair as well. Since his was restored in the mid 1980s before much was known about the 1972 cars its likely incorrect parts were installed as well. We know Ram Air induction wasn't offered with the 400 yet his car had this set up in the photo feature taken in the Muscle Car Review article for their factory freaks article. Skwirblies car also has a set of early 1972 custom interior door panels with pull straps, carpet runner and 1971 GTO emblems above the arm rests. Early build 1972 GTOs are known to have this feature and it disappeared later on. As for the rear spoiler, we have a detail image of the underside of the end corner piece. As you can see, this was a somewhat shoddily manufactured set and you can see why it would break easily. Engineering probably deemed it wise to eliminate the tooling when the dies broke.

Box containing an original 1970 GTO spoiler. Good units are $1000 apiece now but
reproductions have been available for awhile now.

  For 1970, the rear spoiler was revised completely and issued a new part number along with accessory kit. This spoiler, pn 480473 and accessory package pn 988806 were for the convertible and hardtop car. There was a 1970 convertible accessory package issued as a part number, 988833 but it is unknown if it actually made production. By the way, there is no such thing as a Judge torsion bar trunk rod. The manufacturer simply changed the position of torsion bars to add extra tension. The 1971 GTO spoiler isn't the same piece as the 1970 unit. There are minor differences between them. Basically the variations are; wide set mount, rough bottom seams on spoiler underside and smooth seams on underside.
 

Original pieces were rough underneath. The pedestal mounts were studs as well.

  When it comes to reproductions some vendors have replicated the rough seams found on the underside of spoilers. A repop also exists with the smooth underside as well.They differ by weight compared to the originals however and the pedestal mounts are studs on originals while threaded bolts are on reproduction pieces. The mold quality underneath was abysmal compared to today. This kind of sloppiness was acceptable in 1970 from an outsourced supplier to the Big Three. The revised spoiler was eventually smoother underneath but the early "3 piece" versions looked like the black one you see above. That's how it was. They are heavy pieces too. The lightweight units being reproduced now are like balsawood in comparison! By the way, the holes for studs are 4.75" apart from center to center.
 

Even when painted you can see partial separation between pedestal mount and the
actual wing underneath this 3 piece spoiler. That's how it was. Things weren't perfect back then.

   I haven't any pics of accessory kits yet to show you. Likely are the attaching hardware for the studs. Have a look at this painted spoiler underneath and you'll see what it was like to have one of these babies installed and why some cars are deemed over restored nowadays. Cars didn't come out free of paint runs, orange peel and zero roughness. An exhibition car might be like that but not a regular ordered car. Something to think about when you're trying to nail that showroom new look.
                *Article (c) 2017 PHS Y LeMans and GTO  Y Code Registry. 

Another Y Code LeMans Sport Convertible Found

                                                                          By: Patrick Smith
           

As you can see, a GTO grill badge was added by owner. An understandable sentiment since it is as
as you could get that year. Car is still in original owner's possession and in good shape!

    We recently rediscovered another Y Code convertible to add to the registry. I knew about this car 8 years ago when I'd bought mine and was doing research on the drive train and D98 stripe option which my documents stated it came with new but had nothing when I purchased it. I was considering ordering a set from Phoenix Graphix but wanted to know what the originals were like so I could compare them and see if they were close enough. Well, on a website that specializes in GTOs owned by , there was an Aztec Gold 1972 convertible with white lazer stripes, exactly what my Cardinal Red car would have. I emailed the owner and talked to him about the stripes. Turned out they were factory original. He was able to answer my question about whether the decals were sealed on top between each lazer cut out, preventing wax and moisture from getting in there and causing tears. GM did indeed do a laminate layer on top the lazer stripes. My question, answered, I thanked him and went on.
 

Another dusk view of the Aztec Gold Y Code convertible.

   I started the registry in the summer of 2015 and entered the ones I knew about off hand. Alas, I cannot find the Starlight Black hardtop that was in Peachland, BC. It had a later VIN than mine and may very well be the last 1972 455 GTO made.Maybe one day...I was on the web last week when I saw this car appear in one of many community pages dedicated to GTOs. It seemed familiar. I looked at the plates. Yes, this was the car I saw many years ago. I contacted the owner and learned that when I first made contact, the car was in his son's possession. The original owner is the father and he has the car back in his garage. It's always been and still is in good hands. In fact, the engine was rebuilt in 1995 and runs like a top. Speaking of tops, the car sports a white one from the factory. We should go over the list of goodies because this one's a real beaut!

The owner's car with his son's German Shepherd in the front. 

   Starting off with a November 18th 1971 build date at the Pontiac plant in Michigan, this convertible received Aztec Gold metallic paint, 272 White interior and code A White convertible top. It came through with the L75 250 horsepower 455 4 barrel V8 and TH400 transmission. The GM Canada documents show just 6 of the 307 convertible LeMans Sports sent to Canada had L75 engines. This is one of them. For options, the car received power windows, bucket seats, chrome front door edge moldings, wheel well moldings, heater and defroster,  sport mirrors, front console, white lazer stripes,standard rear axle ratio of 3.31, Safe T Track limited slip differential, custom pedal dress up, manual drum brakes, dual exhaust, power steering, rally II wheels, trim rings, G70x 14 white letter tires, Endura Styling option, AM push button radio, rear speaker, additional fuel for delivery and the mandatory Canadian Equipment option since it was sold new in Manitoba.
 

Notice in this pic you can see the location of the die cast 455 fender emblems as used on
LeMans Sport cars. This emblem was used for both 455 motors round port and D port but only only LeMans Sport
cars, not GTOs. For more info check out our 455 Die Cast emblem article on this site.

    The car is in good shape and still in the hands of the original owner. How about that for cool history?An early production car, it sports the 140 mph speedometer yet has the Federal mandated safety style rear view mirror finished in black pebble instead of bright metal as found last in 1971 GM cars.I've seen some 1972 cars with the older style mirror in place, but not many. In one GM promotional photo there is a Cardinal Red hardtop with the bright rear view mirror installed. Such deviations are known to exist as they are using pre production cars. Another example is the Aztec Gold 1972 GTO 455 hardtop used in promotional photos by GM. It would appear the Federal mandated mirror assembly was available early in production but perhaps not in sufficient quantity for every car to get one.
 *Article (c)2017 by PHS Y Code Registry.