PHOTOS COURTESY OF
LEELANAU COUNTY, MICH.It sounded like one of those
enticing online clickbait stories:
“Rare muscle car found in a stor-
age unit.” But this one seemed le-
git. A 1969 GTX convertible—one
of 700 built—was being sold via
an online auction by the Leela-
nau County Sheriff’s Department
in Michigan. The 440/automatic
convertible had been left in a
storage unit that had changed
hands a few times. Unpaid fees
had racked up, and the facility’s
owner finally asked the Sheriff’s
Department to take possession
of the rare Mopar. A check by
the department of the VIN didn’t
turn up a current owner.
Once the sheriff had posses-
sion, the county was compelled
to sell it at auction. Online bid-
ding on the car took off shortly
after the department listed it,
jumping to $47,600 within a few
hours. A day before the auc-
tion was slated to end, the high
bid had reached a remarkable
$58,600.
But that was when 13th
Circuit County Judge Kevin
Elsenheimer issued a temporary
restraining order that effectively
halted the sale. Thanks to public-
ity generated by the story and
some sleuthing by classic car
insurer Hagerty, the car’s myste-
rious owner came forward and
indicated interest in taking pos-
session of it.
Hagerty staff inspected the
GTX during a public viewing.
In the trunk was an unopened
box of replacement carpet that
had a mailing label. It had been
shipped to a friend of the owner,
who had moved out of state.
Hagerty contacted the friend,
who didn’t know anything more
about the status of the car, but
the lead led to the out-of-state
owner.
The restraining order doesn’t
necessarily mean the car won’t
end up back on the auction
block. It gives the owner time
to get his paperwork in order
and presumably settle what has
to be a sizable storage bill and
towing fee. Failing that, it would
again be subject to sale to the
public. In other words, this may
not be over.—Barry KluczykTHE SAGA OF THE ‘ABANDONED’ GTX
Muscle Car Bookshelf
Convertible Top Restoration
and Installation
by Fred Mattson, 176 pages,
softbound; CarTech Books,
cartechbooks.comThe easy route for author
Mattson would have been to
document the restoration ofa single top on a single car and
call it good. He’s far more ambi-
tious than that, tackling in one
volume several different res-
torations of different kinds of
folding tops, including retract-
able hardtops and custom tops.
Chapters also cover (no pun
intended) the necessary tools8 SEPTEMBER 2019
By Drew Hardinfor top restorations, parts
suppliers, care and repair of
restored tops, and power-top
maintenance. His broad ap-
proach means this isn’t purely
a muscle car book, though
there are several muscle mod-
els here to demonstrate his
techniques.