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.