The behind-the-scenes story of the
’70 gtos that portrayed a ’70 judge in the movie dazed and confused
Like every good story, this one
starts a long time ago and at the beginning. My first car was a ’62 Catalina
wagon with a 389 and an automatic. It was handed down to me after my family was
done driving it into the ground. That was in 1972. Trading up from there, in
1974 I acquired a ’69 Firebird convertible with 400 Poncho power and a four
speed, which my father, Major Tom, helped me bring back from a non- running
hulk. It was hard to believe that it was only four years old and beat to death.
In fact, it wasn’t even running.
An factory issued
455 H.O. powered the No. 1 hero car. It amazed the cast and crew with its
ability to smoke the tires into oblivion.
It was with this ’69 Bird that my
oldest son, James, and I took our first steps to certified Poncho craziness.
From the earliest days of being together as a father-and-son team, we did many
things together, but none were more meaningful than spending time in the garage
working on the Bird or driving it around. Sadly, it had to go to finance twin
sons born in 1985. But not to worry, the Poncho bug had bitten us hard; as soon
as we could, we acquired a ’79 Trans Am that we souped up and repainted in the
late ’80s.
As with many projects, the things
that happen along the way are crucial to shaping the final outcome. From these
beginnings, I realized a longtime dream of having the space and the shop to
build cars and restore them the way I wanted.
My sons and I took apart many
vehicles and put them back together in those days. We also learned how to do a
decent paint job. As our skills grew, so did the gaggle of cars we had on hand
to monkey around with. We had a bunch of them, including GTOs, Corvettes,
Shelby Mustangs and other wild machines–including more Catalinas!
My infatuation with the ’70 GTO
started with a viewing of Two Lane Blacktop at a midnight movie showing. After
seeing that Orbit Orange muscle car, I had to either acquire one or build one.
Purchasing a real ’70 Judge proved very difficult—none were available to me. I
took matters into my own hands and bought a running and driving ’70 GTO.
No. 1 shows the
blackout treatment and the front air dam used on GTOs and Judges that year.
I acquired that GTO for less than
$1,000. It was colored yellow, green, and primer, and its roof was caved in
because someone walked on top of it at a football game. Many people have asked
me, “Why did you put a vinyl top on a car built to be a Judge clone?” The
simple answer is, with my meager skills, no amount of bondo could make the
damaged roof look right.
After collecting the best hoods,
doors, deck lids, and other body parts, the project took shape in my garage.
Many of the fine reproduction parts we take for granted in 2014 were simply not
available in the early ’90s. Around this time, we found and installed a really
nice rear bumper and real quad exhaust tips, and that took the project very
close to completion.
It was, in hindsight, a rather
innocuous beginning to the movie business for my family. James was poring over
the classified ads in the local Austin paper, The Daily Texan, in 1992, as we
did every weekend, and he saw an ad for vintage cars needed for an upcoming
film to be called Dazed and Confused. James called me at work every day and
said “Dad, we have to do this.
I was busy at work and did not
think much of it until he called me again and said he had set up a meeting with
Jerry McKnight, the film’s transportation captain. I was pretty concerned that
my GTO was messy and the battery was not charged. How could we meet with these
Hollywood people?
This shot of the
No. 1 car shows freshly installed NOS exhaust tips. Reproductions were not yet
widely available.
Undaunted, James washed the GTO as
best an 11-year-old could and hooked up the battery charger while I was at
work. After arriving home from the office, James and I headed off to our movie
meeting with destiny.
