Well, I finally got ahold of the original owner!

Fortunately, he had uncommon last name, which made it a bit easier, as did the fact he's still alive! Working backwards from the protecto plate, I found him listed in the pamphlet for the Edmonton Elks club of all things.

I talked to him for quite a while today, nice fellow. To summarize, he was 25 years old in 1969 and wanted a Corvette or a convertible of some kind. He wandered into Northgate Pontiac in Edmonton, and there it was on the floor (ie: he did not spec and order the car, the dealership did). The car had been built in April and this was the height of summer.

It was three days before my first birthday!

To his recollection, there were not a bunch of miles on the car, so it doesn't appear the dealer was using it as I had initially guessed. He knows of no other four speed convertible big block cars, but heard at one point there might be "four or five". Given only 11 coupes, that's not likely... as discussed, the car is one of 1 or 2 so far as the records show.

He kept the car 4-5 years, eventually selling it to a friend that has since passed away. I know the name of what I think is the third owner as well, but haven't located him.

He said he loved the car but had some trouble with the original paint fading on him, and that otherwise, it was a great car. Most of what he was able to tell me about the car (how it was equipped and so on) I already knew from the documentation, but it was interesting to hear him tell it nonetheless!

I am a little apprehensive about the fact that the V.I.N. tag is loose. The trim tag not so much. Hopefully they don't impound the car for months at the border until they are satisfied that all is sound. BTW hollow rivets for the trim tag with a messy glob of dum-dum is what they used, while the V.I.N. tag uses rosette rivets. It used to be a crime to even posses those rosette rivets. The law may have changed recently in the U.S. to enable shops to properly repair cowl areas.

Well, since I last updated this thread I got the car home and unloaded it's guts from its carcass. If you think that's gross, add "rodent infested" for effect, and you're starting to get the idea. It's a mess. On the plus side, this car was acid dipped (but not well primed) and the chassis cleaned so everything is dry. No grease!

Today I unloaded everything out onto the floor into logical groups and took pictures of what I have. For example, power windows. Harnesses. Seatbelts. Underhood. Wipers. Plugs and brackets. Rubber Pieces. And so on. I also have one group of "Rare Parts" that includes the louvers, emblems, side markers, rally caps, air cleaner, shifter, and so on. Only a few braces I couldn't identify, so I posted pictures on the forum to see who could figure them out!

Next step is to put all of that stuff away onto a shelving unit and unload the trunk, which contains the bulk of the interior.

The good news of the day is that I found the missing two louvers just thrown into the interior with all the other "junk" pieces, but they weren't damaged. And in my "Magic Pontiac Parts Cupboard," I found the two NOS red side markers I need. Sadly I am out of stock on clear lenses. I guess I need to check Ames to see if the backsides (Lens and housing) are shared with anything - crossing my fingers, but not hopeful. Also still missing one 427 emblem. And the Protecto Plate didn't make it, which is unfortunate. Good thing I have photos, but I'd rather have the plate. The seller is "going to look".

The most embarrassing part was that my first step was to unload all the body panels, which were stacked on top. I did that and was missing a door. Long story short, my wife came out to help me look one last time and it was buried under the convertible top in the well below it, but it just looked like trunk firewall from behind! Can't believe I missed it, but I've got it now.

Today's task was to remove the body from the chassis, which went fairly well. I had a friend cut some 48" pipe so that I could triangulate the floor-to-cowl section before lifting the body off. It might have been worth it to X-brace it, because the back is VERY heavy. By which I mean, lifting at the very back of the rocker still presents a tippy proposition, so I wound up adding some weight up front and then clamping the whole car down to the lift to make sure it can't rock. I bounced on the back of it before raising it and it's nice and stable.

Not many surprises. Rust is actually a little less than I expected, so that's good.

One thing I did notice was there's cool linkage that connects (I guess) the steering column to the standard transmission. Is this so the column is locked? But when, in what gear? Or is it neutral safety?

The other odd thing is a triangular piece of metal on the driver's side frame.  F41 specific?  Convertibles?  All cars?  Only my car?