TOTAL PRODUCTION 1970 OSHAWA PLANT ??

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

RE: TOTAL PRODUCTION 1970 OSHAWA PLANT ??

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Astro Jet wrote:

OK, and I'm sure Big Ray will chime in here to correct me if I'm wrong, but I was almost certain that 73 GTOs were also assembled in Oshawa. I am pretty skeptical about what I read in some of those magazines; some of the research is pretty poor. The only thing I take as gospel is conversations with people who actually worked at the plant or GM and are in a position to know such things, people like John Sawruk, Padgett Peterson or Fred Simmonds.

What I really wish is that George Z. would let us go wild in examining all his microfiches.

I'm with you on that. Just about everything out there ignores any A-bodies after 1972. I also believe that GTOs could have rolled out the doors of one of the Oshawa plants for 1973. The thing is they were rare from any plant back in 1973. Oshawa likely would have made very few. I never remember seeing them, and I'm talking about the fall of 1972 until today. I saw a rusty '73 GTO Sport Coupe in Mississauga, Ontario back in 1986 or 87. It was Medium Red metallic with black buckets, a black beltline stripe surrounded by red pinstripes, a 455 automatic, original paint and decals by the look of things. I wish I had looked at the v.i.n. tag to see where it was made.

CDN2PLS2 · Uber Guru

Yup,I've only come across about half a dozen '73z from Oshawa.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

I have personally seen 2 VINs and cars for Oshawa GTO's in 73. I had to intervene on an argument at a cruise one night as the car's validity was in question. If I count Mike's in BC that would be 3 I know of. The VIN of course does not prove that it is a GTO option car, you need the paperwork for that, but usually a T or Y in the engine code spot is a good indicator. Plant code is 1 for Oshawa.

I hope Mike reads this because I think George put the exact number of F37 Sport Coupes that got the GTO option on his paperwork, I seem to remember 231. Then we also need to know how many D37 Colonade Coupes got it if any.

CDN2PLS2 · Uber Guru

Build numbers I have are 16 Coupes,231 Sport Coupes.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

So there we have it 247, if I added correctly.....C1 will let me know. That is 247 out of 4806 total production.

parothead · Member

Hi Guys new on here......thought i would share....just recieved this morning from gm historical about my 1970 gto sport coupe.........apperently there was 1866 total gtos built in oshawa in 1970 of various models.........mine, with the L75 option 455 there was only 133 made.....i also have a unique option package with it that has two tone paint metal roof ( as opposed to the vinyl which is more common) and a few other unique optons making it a very rare car indeed.....they say that they didnt track colors back then but i dont think the pallisades green over pepper green was to common......shes a beauty

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

WELCOME! We will expect pictures!!!

parothead · Member

i would be happy to share pics but to stupid to know how to get them onto here...can email to anyone interested and maybe that person could post on here...or not.....can tbeleive the wealth of information on here.......cheers

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

I am guessing that with a name like parothead you are an avid fan and follower of Jimmy Buffet. I sometimes go the the Toronto Maple Reefers Parothead Society functions here in Toronto, "party with a purpose."

To post a picture open a Reply box.

At the bottom is a small box to choose - Attach Image(s)

A browser will open and then you find your photos and click on them to add. Once you choose the photos scroll down to:

Upload Images - click and wait until they upload

Click - Submit Post

That should do it.

parothead · Member

A devout follower of the reverend Jimmy Buffett....right down to the new MGRTAVL plates i got for the gto...i willtry this upload

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Holy Sheet !

That is such an awesome car, that two tone is incredible. Have you ever tracked down the original owner to find out the story on that. Get that on our registry, that is a piece of Canadian Auto history man!

PS: next parothead party here is April 3rd, looking forward to it! Sweet Plate too!

parothead · Member

I am trying to track down the original owner in saskatoon where it was ordered and delivered to mid city motors in may of 1970 which i understand is no longer in bussiness......and i have heard that al ot of thes places shredded their documents years ago or when privacy laws came into effect...i do have some cousins there that i have contacted to see if they recognize the car or anyone who might have information.....how does one go about puting this one in your registry...now that i am a computer genius for uplaoding these pictures anything is possible....party on the third sounds good....you never know where and what parot heads are capable of......

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Send a private message - PM, to 68sd, Fred with the details of your car. You can see the registry we are building if you click the "1970 + Canadian Pontiac General Forum" first topic is the registry.

In Ontario the Ministry makes everyone purchase a used car package and it lists all previous owners on there. This is done so previous owner may be contacted about the car, it helps deter fraud and mileage roll backs and what not. I am sure the Ministry in your province has this info, you may need to make a special request and pay.

parothead · Member

This car was originally bought out of saskatchewan..... i bought it in alberta and now it resides in manitoba.....thats a few goverments to go through.......lol....i have never heard of this used car package before and have lived from bc to manitoba ....might be unique to ontario....but i will check it out....cheers and thanks

Astro Jet · Poncho Master!

73SC wrote:

In Ontario the Ministry makes everyone purchase a used car package and it lists all previous owners on there. This is done so previous owner may be contacted about the car, it helps deter fraud and mileage roll backs and what not. I am sure the Ministry in your province has this info, you may need to make a special request and pay.

The problem is UVIP provides names, but no contact details due to privacy concerns. Sorta defeats the whole purpose doesn't it if previous owner's name is J Smith and he lives in Toronto. The whole thing is a bit of joke, I have never filled in the mileage part and never once been refused a registration renewal because of it.

Beaumont4008 · Uber Guru

Welome to the site from a fellow Winnipeger, That is one nice GTO, looking forward to see it at a few local car shows.

Ian

-- Edited by Beaumont4008 on Monday 23rd of March 2009 08:18:17 PM

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Astro Jet wrote:

The problem is UVIP provides names, but no contact details due to privacy concerns. Sorta defeats the whole purpose doesn't it if previous owner's name is J Smith and he lives in Toronto. The whole thing is a bit of joke, I have never filled in the mileage part and never once been refused a registration renewal because of it.

You need to use some detective skills but I traced the original owner and second owner by doing web searches, the third owne I purchased it from. In my case the original owner sold it to someone on his own street so my car spent the first 16 years in one hand the next nine in another all on the same street in Willowdale.

the70judge · Guru

There is some stuff on numbers on the Performance Years site..

We were working on the Canadian Judges but I do recall somewhere there was an amount of total GTO's out of Oshawa in 70

" Production Numbers Judges" "Oshawa built 288 Judges in 1970 NOT 442
The 442 # is the total # of 70 Judges Sold NEW in Canada in 1970 not the actual production of the Oshawa assembly plant.GM of Canada records every car regardless of where it was built as recorded total # sold new in Canada.
The balance of 154 Judge cars are probably 50 RAIV Judge cars built from Pontiac head plant because Oshawa only built RAIII Judges and the other 100 or Judges are from other assemble plants in USA ie Freemont California is a lot closer to the western provinces of BC and Alberta than Oshawa.
I hope this clarifies the #'s for everyone.
Fred Simons is correct 288 Judges built in Oshawa.

That is correct.Here's the poop on the ones BUILT in Oshawa
L74+M13=5
L74+M20=177
L74+M21=60
L74+M40=45
AND POSSIBLY ONE 455 auto car I'd Love to find.
The other number is sold New in Canada.

http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=493226&highlight=canadian+judges

Is one of the links

and I dug up this in there somewhere

1866 GTO and 442 Judge, are the amount SOLD inside Canada. Would be a combination of those built and sold in Canada - plus those built in the U.S. and exported/sold into Canada.

Some of the Oshawa Judges may have been exported to U.S. or even abroad. The 288 is the number they produced in Oshawa. Going by the statistics of the drivetrain breakdowns.

So the correct answer depends on which question you want ask - in the end. Good things to know, too.

vintagegz · Veteran Member

Here we go: M31 in 1968 was a Jetaway 2 speed automatic for Oldsmobile. Just off the top of my head we built 442's in Oshawa in 1968, 1969, and 1970. Yes we did build GTO's in 1973 in Oshawa (RPO-W62). Sorry too busy to look up numbers, try to surf all the various sites and answer a question every now and then. And yes Hillar can order a history package on his 68 Olds built in Oshawa.

vintagegz · Veteran Member

to the70judge, I do not know where you are getting your L74 figures but they are way wrong, and we did not track some of those combinations, but figures are not correct.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Thanks for chiming in George, next time you look can you shed any light on the long standing and persistent rumour that about a dozen 1970 GTO's got 396 Big Block Chevy's installed? We have postulated that they would have been run close in sequence maybe near the end of the model run.

Then there is also the persistent Small Block Chevy in 1st Generation Firebirds rumour too done as Shop Orders maybe to somehow satisfy Trans Am Racing rules in '67/68? confuse

vintagegz · Veteran Member

73SC, unfortunately no 396 GTO's from Oshawa, would never have happened for internal political reasons back then, they would sooner have scrapped the cars than do that.

Regarding the Firebirds, not sure what you are asking ;)

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Thanks George, that settles a big rumour on here about the GTO.

On the Firebirds, In 1968 some Trans Am teams raced 302 Small Block Chevy powered Firebirds under the guise that Ponticas were sold with Chevrolet engines in Canada.

The question is do you know of any Firebirds sold in Canada in 67 or 68 that had small block Chevrolet engines installed in them by GM Canada?

Astro Jet · Poncho Master!

Weren't all 67-68 Firebirds sold in Canada built in the US? I don't think there was ever a "CP" version of the 1st generation FB (or any generation for that matter) that had Canadian specific engines in them, we always received what were essentially "US" models. To qualify for the trans am racing circuit, didn't the drivetrains have to be factory installed amd be a regularly available combo that the public could order? That wasn't the case with the Chevy small block in the FB so it didn't really matter that GM Canada happened to install Chevy drivetrains in A and B bodies.