what ever became of the 68 H/O convertable? anyone know

 

I don't, but here's a cool photo of it:

 

It was a parade car prototype and not one of the 515, correct?

 

Correct. Just like the 69 converts are not counted in the 912.

 

First question is which one? There was more than one '68 H/O ragtop. Most of the photos I've seen are of a gold one. I have seen photos of a silver one too and by one source (the owner of the gold one) there may have been as many as 4 silver ones.

I have a 1983 letter from the (then) owner that a friend had found. Here are some highlights:

Unless there was more than one gold one, it was sold to Atco Dragway by Hurst in 1969. The track used it until 1973 or 1974 and then sat until December of 1975 when a guy named Bill bought it for the grand sum of $175. It had 111k on it at that point and was in pretty rough shape (body and mechanicals). It was still wearing the gold paint and had the gold Hurst rims on it. He got it back running and raced it for 3 years or so. As of '83, it had been parked in his garage for almost 5 years and had about 114k miles on it.

Then, a few years ago, I was discussing the car in a thread on ROP (since lost in their last crash) when out of the blue, the son of "Bill" showed up and shared some pictures and memories of the car. I have copies of the pictures, but not the rest of the info. I don't remember if they still had the car or not...

 

is the the Joe P parade pic the atco dragway car ... strange how none of the converts have surfaced anywhere or even a clone that I know of

 

I saw an ok 69 clone go through the Mecum auction in St Charles Illinois about 5 years ago. It wasn't a great car but pretty darn nice. It sold for around 42k but I guess the buyer backed out once they realized it was a clone. The car went through again at the end of the night and didn't get any more than 25k - the owners were POed. Haven't seen it since either at a car show or in an auction listing.

I do remember the owners seemed to think they were sitting on something spectacular even though they admitted it was a replica.

 

Nothing to do with the H/O's but I read a cool article a few years ago about the 67 Chicago auto show's 68 442 convertible that's owned by an old dealer down south in Georgia, I think. It's sitting in storage, unrestored.

 

Have pictures from an indoor show in (I think it was) Chicago around Thanksgiving 2010 with a silver 68 H/O ragtop. I don't recall the details from the post from the guy that took the pictures (was it supposed to be real or a clone). That one had a similar paint scheme to the gold one except for silver replacing gold and the deck lid area was painted black (like the hardtop) rather than silver replacing the gold like the known one. The hood colors were reverse like the gold one had. Also had Hurst rims (with red lines).

Just did a little web surfing and found a nice color photo of Linda and the shifter platform on the back of a silver 68 H/O convert. This one had a silver hood, I think a black deck lid area, and stock SSII rather than the Hurst rims. Looks very much like a "stock" convertible version of the hardtop. Photo appears to be from 1968 NHRA Indy Nationals.

 

Here's a few pic's....

 

Some clone pic's from this years 2013 H/OCA Nationals....

 

This would be one of the few times you would want air shocks...

 

that's what you call "top heavy"

also love the last pic, look at everyone sitting all over that car. You wouldn't be touching it today.

 

I just saw this thread. "Bill" was my father, and he owned the gold one shown in a few of the pictures earlier. It was bought from Atco Dragway right before Christmas 1975 for $175. My father didn't have the money, so my uncle gave it to him as a Christmas present. When he got the car home, he cleaned out the trunk and found $50 in a pair of jeans. The engine had a spun bearing, the second one in about a year, which is why the track wanted to just get rid of the car. My dad fixed the engine and bracket raced the car, and ran a best of 12.79 @ 109. My dad raced the H/O, while my mother raced a 1968 442 convertible, which I own now. He needed money and sold the car around 1988 to a collector in Arizona, I believe his name was Jim Battle.

A few interesting things about the car, if you looked down the side of the car you could see paint that was less faded on the door in the shape of an "H" (not a square) like most of the photos above. When we got the serial number off the engine, it did match the serial number of the vehicle. The interesting part was the only thing besides the serial number was "68EX". We could only assume it meant 68 experimental. The car had A/C, disc brakes, power top, power antenna, wood grain dash, and ram air.

I was so sad when he got rid of the car. He told me "Don't fall in love with them". I think he was just trying to make me feel better.

 

^^^ Cool story & pics.
Thanks for sharing.

 

Holy cow, i just did a W-30 Appraisal for Jim Battle this past weekend!!!

I will ask him about that car!!!!!



STeve

 

How cool is that.... somebody mentions a name, bada boom bada bing, another guy knows that guy... what a great story.....and I can not wait to hear what is next. You have to remember in the late 70's these cars were just old cars... there wasn't any internet etc I bought my 69 Gto 4 speed convertible around then for 600 dollars from the original owner, I bought a 67 gp convertible 4 speed for 150 rough as it was it ( by those day standards had little to no rust, needed a top and a tune up... Man if we only knew then what we know today....

 

X2...very cool story!the power of the net can be a good thing too!
I have never seen rims like those before....only for that car?

 

botmbulb- thanks so much for sharing that story and photos. I hope you don't mind us saving copies of those photos- internet sites have a bad habit of crashing and losing the vast base of information that was collected. The photo of the lineup of '68's on the lawn with a '69 in the background, under service, was awesome.


StickW31 - if you have an "in" with the Jim Battle link, please look into it at once. Maybe this thing is still tucked away out there somewhere.

See also
http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...=414945&page=2
where the elusive '68 H/O Convertible is referred to

Chris
517.449.0432

 

Just talked to Jim,

Kelly Bakes owns the car now and is restoring it. Isn't he on this board???

 

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ly+bakies.html

 

Didn't Jim own one of the '69 convertibles at one time? Does he still? I remember him having it the '87 OCA Nationals in Lansing. Here are a couple photos from then (note the Arizona plate on the front "1 OF 2"):




His was the "other" one (the east-coast car), not the Hurst-Airheart one that Alan Bender owned in San Jose for many years that was just restored/displayed with Linda and the platform on it recently.

 

This one was at the MCACN in Chicago in 2012.

 

Beeuteefull!

 

X 2 awesome

 

What a great story. I originally read it on ROP a few years ago. It's great that you've shared it again because it was all lost in the last ROP crash.


Does anyone know where the 68 and 69 Hurst Convertibles modified? There have always been rumors of others besides this/(these) 68/(s) and the three 69's. I assume Hurst used these for promotional purposes all over the country

 

Regarding the 69 H/O convertible, it is owned by a guy named Kelly, just not Kelly Bakies.

Jim Battle used to own my 68 H/O, sometime in the mid to late 80s. At the same time he owned my 68 he also owned one of the 69 H/O convertibles. I believe the 69 pictured (with the plate that say "1 of 2") was his.

Regarding 68 H/O convertibles, there had to have been at least 2 - one silver one and one gold one.

 

Hey Steve (StickW31) - I sent you a PM. Please respond when possible.

 

I’ve never seen this pic before. Which H/O was this? It doesn’t look gold in the pic.

 

Neither

Based on the interior door panels and the "G" on the rear quarter under "Linda"....
I believe that is a 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix Convert.
and thats a pretty long rear qtr pictured there....

 

 

That would make sense as I've never seen the pic. The upper peak molding and lack of headrests threw me. I could have sworn it was 68, even with the different interior