Jim Wangers' 1969 Trans Am Ram Air III found in Alaska | Barn Find Hunter - Ep. 50

so these are the pretty cars that Preston and Terry have but there's some cars Undercovers here that they've found that are pretty much untouched which were born fine so they're gonna invite us to take a look at these cars vans it's all one of the ones [Music] we're in Fairbanks Alaska and I happen to have been here about a week and a half ago and there was a big antique car event a parade a car show a picnic and I met a bunch of old car people and got leads for this episode one guy I met a really enthusiastic guy named Preston and he lives in North Pole and he showed me pictures of some of the cars he owns and some of the cars in his backyard and his father's backyard I said we're going to visit you so we're on our way to North Pole Alaska right now and we're gonna visit Preston and maple visit Santa as well [Music] [Music] sir and you have too many cars this is Preston and this is Terry and thank you for inviting us so these are the pretty cars that precedent Terry have but there's some cars Undercovers here that they've found that are pretty much untouched which were born fine so they're gonna invite us to take a look at these cars what's the first cover over here the great cover here this one is a 69 Cobra 428 car man it's all one of one for the Marti report of one of one really yeah because they ordered a clock it's got factory hood pins on it those are factory yeah no we figured is the dealer ordered it as a as a promo car and it sat on his lot for almost an entire year so it's dad I found this a couple years ago and like four feet of snow in a guy's backyard in town in in Fairbanks in Fairbanks that's original paint yes holy mackerel so it's got air conditioning disc brakes power steering but it also has an automatic as well a four-speed was a standard option on these cars but you wanted it to be an automatic it was an extra additional cost I mean I when I was a kid I remember Hot Rod Magazine had an insert that Ford Motor Company would put in as an ad and you could spec out a Mustang a galaxy and a Torino and I suspect out a car just like this I mean small hubcaps 428 and I was only you know 14 years old or something but this is like a dream so this is a 68 69 69 everybody always says nice nice Mustang because of the fastback you're the first pack yeah man oh man so that's original interior original paint yeah and you found it in town how many miles are on so these floors I got solved these floors oh that's original floor yep somebody took care of this car 78228 miles factory air automatic we took out all the carpet out and found a registration from 1976 so it knows that it's been in Alaska and clear in Anderson area since the 70s down there oh man what a what a fine want to fire up oh wow yeah all right I'm not gonna touch a guess well forgot there you go so interesting no tachometer no [Music] so did you paint those rims nope someone else did so how did you find this far we're just going through the neighborhood every Sunday mean dad tried to go through a neighborhood and just look in people's backyards or just just driving by and at first I thought it was a Talladega thinking Oh Robert no it was just like this in the snow event it was eight I dig into the past back in and the more I found through it in four feet of snow I said this was a Ford 28 car this is something unusual so how long you have it we've got it for maybe seven years now probably what a sweetheart I'll turn it off okay so you can see somebody who ordered an unusual car here and that it's got the biggest motor it's got air conditioning it's got an automatic but no tachometer so they did not order the gauge package which is unusual but I guess this person was more interested in the luxury high performance car than a real high performance car okay so here's the Marti report interesting one one mission thing I could see is that was 4100 $9.38 new so okay sports roof which is the fastback top and that the base car was thirty $181 so to get to the 428 four-barrel no charge for speed no charge competition suspension no charge wide oval tires no charge six inch wheels with hubcaps no charge the automatic was $37 option over the four-speed his ability group electric clock was 15.15 EIN cents they had white sidewall tires white oval so they had a different kind of tire the console 100 bucks power steering power brakes air conditioning was three hundred eighty dollars that was expensive option a radio was 61 bucks tinted glass 36 because it came down to 40 109 so it's interesting the 428 okay it was a cobra to begin with so that's why the 428 was included so you know the Marti report guy named Kevin Marty puts out these tells you the options that car came with so how many cars were ordered in this paint 634 trim code 238 with this engine to 20 323 cars will order with this engine transmission option look right here it says it was ordered in 68 wardens so they'll be ordered in October 11 1968 I was built you know half a month to move two weeks later or a schedule for building was built actually about a month or five weeks later and sold on sold wow it's at around for a while that's what we kind of assumed that it was a dealer car possibly yeah yeah and so the dealer went to Oxnard California huh and then here's another more detailed note so one of these cars came in to look clock so one person this the person who bought this new bought that electric lock for fifteen dollars and fifty nine cents isn't that interesting that's a special car I why were you I would not restore this car and that's kind of where my heart's coming to every stores a lot more desirable to have an original paint car it can only be like this once you know man I like it okay so what else you got here and these two cars were barn finds in the north pole area here we bought them from their original owner they were doing both in the same garage oh don't don't uncover it let me see what it is it's obvious it's a fastback I'd say it's a Mustang let me see if I can come up with the cut of the year of it it's just got a concave rear panel let's see what the front is here I love doing this it's got a emblem in the center or the horse so I'd say it's a 67 or 68 Mustang Fastback 67 67 okay let's and I can't tell what cover color I think it's white no I like it red alright just what I meant so it's got fog lights well these are the original ford protective lens covers on here this has got 51,000 original miles on this car look at that so these were an option I have no idea but I will grab the Marti report here as well no kidding so it's a red car is that cold candy apple red optional style wheels fog lights I guess dual exhaust well who knows alright so we've got a red car red interior 50 1579 miles so this has a 289 yep it's a a code motor it's a C code car C code car so it's got duals as well did you put the duals on there and they were there water just like this yeah how long did you buy this maybe three four years ago and tell me the story we found this we found it from the wall well the guy who owned it he was a parts run er for the local parts store he was in his 70s good idea and he's always had and always talked about these two cars that he had his garage and really you know and so when we bought them we lost four or five friends because we bought these cars so they don't even talk to us so he had both these cars in the same garage and he was IRAs are as health was yelled and stuff and he knew that I was a car guy it just we just had a good connection like he was good like like I was gonna take care of his cars right him isn't that nice yeah doesn't have a cam or is it just kind of I don't know what about the engine it idles like a funny car that's like on nitro that you drive these boys I just drove this one yesterday Wow that's okay and they may got the Marty we part for this one see what what Preston does here for all his cars he gets the documentation of them so he could find out it's almost like a birth certificate for a car so he you buy these from Marty Kevin Marty and he documents the car you have so this car Mustang Fastback the base price was twenty five hundred ninety-two dollars came with a 289 two barrel which was $105 option over probably the six-cylinder motor it had a lower gray lower back panel which is back of the tailpipes 4-speed transmission was 184 bucks wide ovals $62 AM radio sixty-four styled wheels so the styled wheels for $93 option I've seen those wheels before but not with that cap on there that's an unusual center cap hey we do suspension is 30 bucks tachometer trip gauge was 54 so it came to 33 94 and it was shipped to Smith and Gandy Ford I guess in Seattle Washington so oh the way it breaks down there's only one car in this color scheme with this engine package came with styled wheels and this is it the only car like it well it's got the rare blackout panel yeah so let's take a look at that panel the back so that panel was $12.95 what could you get for 1295 now on a new car so this blacked out panel because 12 month 12,000 92 cents yeah so he was a veteran and he was a Marine so he shipped it out and he come back or something into Seattle they drove up or something with his car so they had both this and that so this is the guy you bought it from mm-hmm so how long did he own it for brand-new he was the original owner yeah you see you're the second owner yeah man you're a lucky guy Wow so all these cars are stored indoors in the foul weather in the winter time yep there you have a warehouse somewhere uh yes so that's a cool car it's a hoot to drive man hmm the 4-speed you just want to just shift and go yeah yeah a good time yeah it makes good noises too okay so that's the other card so don't recover it yet although I can probably imagine what it is oh maybe I can't this is convertible okay so it's a Mustang when I saw this roofline I thought it might be a Pontiac of Earl it's a Mustang so let's see I'm not good at denta flying 6566 unless I can see the dashboard yeah it's a Mustang so I'd say 65 66 convertible 65 65 overall okay red again actually they call them 64 and a half this is six four and a half yeah but they're all titled does 65 yeah so this gentleman bought this new did he buy this soon as well I don't know the story on it he didn't really say too much about it that was his car no kidding so she had a stick-shift convertible huh yeah that's a three-speed yeah a three-speed so is this a six-cylinder this is a v8 c-code car c-code car okay it's got no seat belt it was like a four dollar option so it's kind of scary going down the high because there's no seat belts no kidding so you doing some work on this the heater system yeah the heater core leaked after all these years mm-hmm so this it's indicated twenty-seven hundred twenty seven thousand miles this has gone around once so do you think that's I don't know yeah you know the the clutch pedal the brake pedal don't look worn it it looks to me like maybe the dashboards from painted yeah well they put somebody in the car it was originally a poppy red the cult which was like an orange and he didn't want it orange oh yeah I painted it red to match his car yep and the top looks sound is that original top you think it could be yeah it's a power top no it's okay well don't leave any Fig Newtons in here I'll tell you that that's a nice car me yeah I feel bad we're walking around like these cars but it shows not about those strany cars no we found this one here in town as well 71 GTO and this is a fair bearing scar yep now that's that's been repainted that's your story though okay well what's next [Music] welcome to my backyard here so is this a Pontiac graveyard for the most part yeah what is what am I looking at here so this one is a 66 67 LeMans oh it's got the overhead cam yeah which is kind of rare because nobody keeps them right so we found this car because it's a post car yeah and the posts are very they made less than 7,000 of them so they're very hard to find and we've been trying to find our wait 30-some years to try and find doors for a real GTO post car that's been in the queue for a while this so this is a portico because that's where the panel's like this is a parts car yeah corner is he injured yeah it's doing here so this was you know when General Motors experimented with different kind of cars also Beall tornados and Corvairs turbocharged cars this was another General Motors experiment it was an overhead cam six-cylinder motor that was really quite a good engine that unfortunately didn't have a very long lifespan was it Lumina head or anything or as well as much about the inline sixes I don't either I just know that it's a low low production car off the assembly line it's like number like seven or something zero zero seven or something it's a really low number car so somebody worked for the government it's the Department of Defense the United States of America huh interesting yeah it's got weeds growing up inside it Oh through the transmission hole so this was a floor shift was it a stick I have no idea I can said we just bought it kind of yeah it's got a clutch pedal so which probably it could have been a four-speed I suppose or certainly a three-speed okay what else we got I'll follow you and here's a 67 LeMans as well so like that one yep so this had the one step up I guess an engine that was a overhead cam six this is a 326 correct and this is a pape yep it's a hardtop yep now is that a parts car uh it's in between its kind of you could go either way with it huh this one here is a rare run it's a 67 Catalina station wagon with a 428 Wow how's it rare okay so I'm a wagon guy is that a solid car it is it's been sitting in Alaska for as long as I can find I haven't I got the PHS on it yet to figure out the history on it and things like that like you did your history on your 428 wagon with the 4-speed yeah yeah so it's interesting that Pontiac and Ford both had 428 in the same error huh well yours at 67 that's what mine is as well and that's not America I suppose yes and it's got power seats it's got a lot of unusual options in it so dad called up Jim Wangers and said hey what's the story on these big wagon cars you know he says it was kind of rare to have a 428 in a way again yeah can you open that hood is he in there I don't know if I've ever seen a 428 and a Pontiac so what was this called al Bonneville okay oh man it's untouched so that's a very low option for no air conditioning what's your intention for this car well we bought it because our friend he's got a Oldsmobile station wagon that says we'll race for food so it's pretty hopped up so we were gonna do the same thing so you're gonna fix this car up pretty solid body it is yes it's kind of excited you don't see that it's riveted on there so that's factory isn't that interesting it looks like a an emblem from the defender do you remember what you paid for that the guy just gave it to us isn't that great like okay you're interesting that old thing just take it away yep they had trees going around it so now it's growing trees around it now and you got a title with it no title with it so we have to get it bonded in okay police have to come and inspect it or troopers mm-hmm okay well that's a neat car I mean we're we were talking to enact to do a rainbow 5 before that be a blast that's a neat car man then I got a another one for you two in the garage you never guess what's in this garage all right what do you got in here this one is a 69 Trans Am Ramar four we bought this from Jim Wangers personally oh wow so he was a with Pontiac motor division right yep so Wow is that an original car yes Wow and we got to keep his Detroit plates ma'am so you didn't buy this in Alaska obvious no we bought it from him in California so tell me about this 69 Trans Am yep 400 it's a 400 ram air for bran therefore is it a hard tub yes I don't quite have the million dollars yet to buy the burl that have all been found right is this a four-speed car it's an automatic uh-huh that's original paint another original he took it back to Pontiac and and had it redone by Pontiac Wow so you're the second owner on this car I'm not sure maybe the third or fourth you know because so Wangers might not have been the original owner no okay Wow geesh so that's you bought it just like this haven't had to do anything - yep I've done nothing - it hurts we want to get it out and drive it well you know it just takes a few things we just got to put the pins in and we'll go out and get some nice curves yeah yeah I'll do that you want me to move this star out okay I feel like I'm 14 years old again getting to drive cars that I admired in magazines of all the barn fine cars that they have here this would be my favorite and I would leave it just like this I mean this is a real time capsule and I think Torinos are kind of underappreciated I think Cougars are starting to become appreciated Torinos are the next car because Mustangs are so kind of prolific that this this is a good car to have at this time because I think it'll always go up in value it's a hard car to find fart spoiler [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] in high school I was on the cross-country team if you are a sports team in high school you had to go home your parents had to pick you out for you because it was no bus and so I used to hitchhike home every day after school and I got picked up by a 69 Trans Am I got in this car and I said to the guy who took me I think he's a fiber what kind of car is this he's it's a Trans Am car plenty of had to build so many of to make it legal for Trans Am racing as it was 500 to homologate the car but I've never driven Warren I've wholly ridden one see the air cleaner is up here in the hook breakdown on the top [Music] [Music] looking good [Music] we have some nice cars thank you yeah be back in about a month boy it's sweet Thanks alright Terry I'll take it I've just got to live out a high-school fantasy of driving a Pontiac trans-am 69 this car was purchased from Pontiac executive Jim Jim wingers who was over the high performance program and it's interesting he sold it to Preston and here it says hey Preston you are the perfect owner for my special 69 Trans Am take good care of it Jim winger's is that amazing I mean that's it's touching so let's talk about the value of this car Haggerty has this car listed in fair condition fair condition OK at 127 grand so even as just a not a very great condition car 127 Grand in good condition number three condition will be one hundred and seventy grand number two condition excellent two hundred and six grand and then in concours condition $262,000 so this car to be a conquest car has to be perfect perfect perfect and this car is not perfect so if we subtract that out it becomes a number two car excellent able to win at a local car show but then if you add in things like Jim wingers ownership of the car and the fact that it was restored before Jim at Pontiac it really became remanufactured so it would fall somewhere between between the number one number two it would be in the low to hundred thousands to maybe coming up higher than that III think a lot of people would bypass a concours car to own a car that was restored by the factory for the executive that oversaw the construction of these cars when they were new and he was the most previous owner of this car so an amazing an amazing piece of history an amazing car that drives like new and looks like new this has been a heck of a morning with Preston and Terry this father-and-son muscle car collecting team I mean and and do like what what I love to do is just ride around looking in people's backyards and if they said they've covered about every road in this section of Alaska but you know here we are in Alaska it's gonna be 82 degrees you would never imagine if you live in Ohio or Alabama or something that how warm it gets here but then it also gets extremely cold but I want to thank these guys for not only letting us see their collection of cars but but you know the fantasy of driving an early Trans Am car transient fiber is just amazing so thanks for me thanks for reaching out this has been amazing this has been amazing thank you yeah I get that you happy hunting Haggerty estimates the value of this car as a 2-door sports roof 428 335 horsepower four-barrel Cobra jet in fair condition twenty six thousand seven hundred bucks in number three good condition thirty-eight thousand seven hundred in excellent condition 59504 Edition eighty two thousand eight hundred and of the cars here the barn-find ish cars that are here this would be my favorite to drive back home to the East Coast

Channel: Hagerty

Views: 2,048,555

Rating: 4.8804359 out of 5

Keywords: Hagerty, Classic Car, Classic Cars, pontiac, tans, am, 1969, ford, torino, mustang, fairlane, 428, 429, Bonneville, wagon, factory, le mans, OHC6, overhead, cam, OHC, post, 2 door, 4 door, 4 speed, coupe, sedan, 289, hipo, bucket seats, console, rare, hidden, alaska, north pole, Fairbanks, barn find, Tom Cotter, gt350, automatic, marti report, 1 of 1, GTO

Id: iaZqGw5Vx8I

Length: 27min 42sec (1662 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019