The above ad appeared in Car Craft magazine in 1969.
My comments on this ad were blogged in the registry forum on 2/23/12 and they read:
6PK2GOBEE 1BBL/Pack Member Lift Off Hoods Forever! Posts: 26
Re: I would like to post this for the Dodge boys
Reply #7 - 02/23/12 at 11:13:18
There are a couple of things here to comment on. 1) The original ad photo was taken with a fish eye lens which distorts everything in the field of focus, in this case the front pass. 3/4 view INCLUDING giving the illusion of the "SIX PACK" standing up more and rolled forward, "in motion" so to speak. 2.) The photo was touched by Dodges ad agency, BBD&O, which surely included enhancing the "SIX PACK" to make it stand out more, it appears the SIX and P are retouched as they are at a slightly different angle than the other letters...looking at the ad we see: the antenna was taken out;the side scoop bezels are taken out;the pass. door/quarter panel crown line doesn't line up;and the driver isn't real(or at least his face received art treatment-I call him "the phantom") 3) Look closely and the center brace on the hood scoop was also "arted" out, notice that part of the hood center crown line is missing near the scoop.......
KevinM
Car_Craft_1969_21_-_Copy.jpg
Now, let's take a look at some documentation photos and date code information.
To the right is a photo from 1971:
Photos from 1981 below:
Photos below from 1982 still wearing its original paint:
The Case For The "SIX PACK TO GO" Ad Car
by Kevin Mocyk
My personal history with this car begins in 1972 when at the age of 11, I saw this car on a Sunday morning, sitting at a stop light in my hometown of Baldwinsville, NY, no doubt heading for the local dragstrip, ESTA Safety Park in Cicero, NY. One of my older brothers said: "Look!, there's one of those Six Pack super bees!" to which my father jokingly said: "What does that mean, there's a six pack of beer under the hood?" We all laughed, and I never forgot the image of that car!
In 1978 I saw it again, this time in a townhouse parking lot with the engine out of it. I stopped to take a look at it and thought about buying it, but the next time I went by it was gone. Fast forward to summer 1980 when I saw it next to a barn just outside of Baldwinsville. I stopped and inquired, and to my good fortune "Sue S."--someone I went to high school with--answered my knock on the door. The owner of the Bee was her husband's relative, and she thought that he would sell it. She gave me his contact info. I looked the car over good. It was nice, original paint, very low miles (23K--it now has just under 27K), no rust. Mechanically it was not running, but the engine was not the original, mostly disassembled, and set up anyway.
In early 1981, I became the 8th owner and bought it less the engine long block. I did buy the original intake, carbs, and air cleaner assembly. The car came with the original alternator, dual point distributor, and power steering pump which was still attached under the hood. The previous owner "Dave G." also had a brand new set of six pack carbs which I bought. One year later it was running and I stored it while I went to college locally. There were things about the car that intrigued me. Most notably the power windows. I decided to start doing research on the car's history in 1982. It was at this point that I contacted the selling dealer, Sam Dell Dodge in Syracuse, NY, and I spoke to the sales manager who--in turn--had me talk to the parts manager, Mike DiMartini. Mike had been a mechanic there at the time this car was sold new.
As I began to describe the car's exterior, Mike interrupted me and said: "Oh man... I don't believe it! You mean Big Bad Dodge is still around?!" The car had a name? Mike explained that the car had BBDO on the window sticker and so it was nick named "Big Bad Dodge-Orange" or "Big Bad Dodge" for short. I learned later that BBDO was: "Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn," Dodge's ad agency in the musclecar era, and they handled the "Six Pack To Go" ad. I compared the ad car to my car. The similarities were undeniable. This ad, which is now widely circulated, only appeared in a few magazines back in 1969 for a very short time. It was not as well known back then as it is now.
Mike finished describing the car to me, power windows, automatic, console shifter, buckets, AM-8 track. He knew the car well and went on to tell me he had been in negotiations with the dealership to buy it when one of the salesmen sold it suddenly for about $1,000 under invoice! Any time that the car came in for service or warranty work, which turned out to be frequently (ten times for transmission work alone), Mike would make sure he was the servicing mechanic--no doubt for the road testing after!
The car arrived at the dealership sometime in early May of 1969 according to Mike, and sat on the showroom floor for seven months unsold, until very early December 1969. During this time, the dealer decided to dress it up by adding factory chromed road wheels with F70-14 red line tires and chrome valve covers "To try and move it, because it wasn't selling." Mike relayed this story to me when I spoke to him in 1982 and added: "The original owner never drove the car until the spring of 1970 and within three months blew the original engine in a street drag race. While the car was at the dealership for a warranty replacement short block, he defaulted on the loan and the dealer kept the car." The 1970 warranty short block had the big "six pack" rods and 10.5:1 pistons. The car was then sold to owner #2, Nick G., who was the first of four people in one family that would own it. After he bought the car, Nick spoke to the original owner, who flagged Nick down while he was driving the car in Syracuse, and got the same story on the car from him.
Nick vividly remembers the car and told me that it was a Sam Dell "promo" car that had about 10K miles on it when he bought it and came with the AM-8 track, factory road wheels, and power windows, before I had a chance to describe the car to him! (Nick is the one who painted the side scoops black.) Shortly after Nick bought the car, he blew the original transmission and the car sat at the dealership for almost a year while the regional rep negotiated with the factory on what to do. The car finally got a new Hemi transmission. Nick took the car back and sold it to his brother Rich. Rich only had the car for about three months and then sold it to his cousin Wayne S., who would later sell it to his brother Randy. In 1976 Randy sold the car to Earl G. He then sold it to Dave G. in 1978. In 1981, I bought the car from Dave G. who had installed a 4-point bolt in roll bar, tore the engine apart, cut up the wiring under the hood, and lost interest.
This car was used hard for both street and strip drag racing. Around 1971 or 1972, it had 4:88 gears put in the original Dana 60 rear end (they were still in it when I bought the car). It also had a set of Keystone mags put on it, along with Firestone Drag 500 rear slicks and hooker headers. I did get a warranty transmission with the car, but it was not the hemi transmission. Somewhere along the way, the warranty block disappeared.
The car's options are listed here:
M6X Vinyl Bucket Seats***A01 Light Group***A05 Protection Group***A12 440 3-2bbl Engine Option***B51 Power Brakes***C16 Console***C55 Bucket seats***C62 Manual 6-Way Seat-Left Hand***D34 Torqueflight Transmission***EV2 High Impact Paint-colors***G11 Tinted Glass-All***G33 Left Hand O/S Remote Mirror***H31 Rear Window Defogger***J25 3- Speed Wipers***J41 Pedal Dress Up***L31 Hood**Fender Mounted Turn Signals***M05 Door Edge Protectors***M46 Simulated Quarter Scoops***M85 Tachometer***P31 Power Windows***R22 Am W/Stereo Tape Player***R31 Rear Speaker***S77 Power Steering***S81 Sports Type Wood Grain Steering Wheel
***Also, I have a small part of the bottom of the broadcast sheet which, after careful analysis, reveals that the word "SPECIAL" was written there and encircled. I believe there is a paper between the bottom front passenger seat cover & foam cushion, but I have not removed the seat cover yet to see what it is.
John Sagar who owns an A12 road runner (car #275 in the registry) and lives in this area remembers seeing this car practically every day back when it was new or almost new. He described it to me, as he saw it, on several occasions, and remembered it having Keystones in the mid '70's and he was acquainted with Randy S. In 3/09 he blogged the following in the registry forum:
Documentation and date code photos below:
K frame date code reads: 0769 1 (March 17, 1969). Original washer bottle date code is 0859 (March 26, 1969)
Tags inside of the front bucket seats tops:
Above: Power window switch panel
Above: Alternator date codes: 6th week of 1969 & 1st month of 1969
Above: Distributor tag numbers: 2875982 IBS-4014D date code: 15 9
Above: In 1982 I ordered a complete factory exhaust system from Donahue Dodge in Cicero, NY, and got one of the last 7 factory H pipes left in the country! Those are real factory Hemi mufflers...
Above: I left this sticker on the inside of the drivers door when I restored it. I believe it is an inventory control number attached to factory show/press/promo cars. Does anyone have any knowledge about these stickers? Input welcome!
Above: Radiator cowl VIN stamp
Below pictures are from 2012 and as it appears now. I put the dealer-installed wheels and redlines back on it in 1992.
Below pictures show interior details. AM-8 Track with only one in dash speaker.
Click here to add text.
Above: 6-way drivers seat
Above: Power steering and brakes
The original carbs were good only for parts. I sold them in 1982 and installed the new set I had purchased from the previous owner. In retrospect, I should have kept the originals for the date codes. The new set has always worked great!
In 1988 I decided to completely restore the car and finished it in 1990. Even though it was a rust-free body, it had accumulated enough wear on the paint and a few dings over the years to warrant it. It was good enough to take a 1st place at the local Mopar show!
Now lets take a look at the newspaper ads from back in 1969...(below)
The "Big Sale" ad appeared in the Syracuse Herald Journal on 11/7/69..."many other extras"...I'll say!
The ad below appeared in the Syracuse Herald American on 11/16/69..."red line tires"
The ad below appeared in the Syracuse Herald American on 11/30/69. This was the last ad for the car when it was new.
One very unusual feature of the car is that although it came with the AM-8 Track, it only has one in dash speaker like the AM radio cars would have had. It does have the rear speaker and fader control. The normal would have been 2 dashtop speakers with the AM-8 Track, and the new car factory literature specs out the 2 speakers on the dash. It is very likely that the Bee was "walked" down the line by an Executive that "ordered" the change to AM-8 Track after the body assembly was finished.
THE CAR TODAY:
I restored it in '88-'90 using a 1968 440 HP2 block bored .030 over with a 3 26 engine assembly date. 1970 Six Pack rods, crank and balancer, TRW L2355F forged pistons, an Isky 280H 3-bolt cam with Hemi hydraulic lifters were used for internals. The top end consists of 906 heads, stock valves with hardened keepers, Hemi valve springs, and TRW chrome moly push rods. It puts out an honest 530 horsepower. I rebuilt the warranty transmission and installed a Mopar Perfomance shift kit. I swapped the 4:88 Dana 60 with a drag racer buddy for a 1967 3:54 Dana 60 out of a Hemi car that only had 17K on it in 1983. It is driven only on nice days when the weather is perfect on quiet back country roads. I am planning to do a few cruise-ins and car shows in the future.
This car was never driven in the winter and has never had any rust. The doors and trunk lid have that new car "click" when you shut
them, and the interior still smells like a new car! All glass is original as is the vinyl top, hood, trim, etc. The original bumpers and guards were re-chromed. The power window motors have never been out of the car. It is garaged year round.
"SIX PACK TO GO !"
John always called my car "red" even when we parked next to each other at the local Mopar show!
According to Dave Watt of the Six Pack Registry, this was the 2nd Automatic Bee "ordered" by Chrysler. Dave added the following:
Dave also adds that of the early cars, he believes only 1 Bee was equipped with the options visible in the "Six Pack To Go" ad (my car) and that of the total production, the number so equipped could be as low as 1%. However, later cars were not used for press/media/promotional purposes.
Looking at the "SIX PACK TO GO" ad in a side-by-side comparison (at a similar angle), we see the same commonalities: Hemi Orange paint, side scoops, vinyl top, bumper guards, fender-mounted turn signals, full tinted glass, wheel well trim, door/side window belt line trim, night/day rear view mirror, bucket seats with 6-way drivers seat (so we also know it was a console car), wood grain sports steering wheel, also notice the angle and position of the air cleaner lid decal (which is the original in my photo, not removed when I restored it in '88-'90), and finally, driver's side mirror only. The door edge trim no doubt was "arted" out along with the side scoop bezels.
Note: the center brace visible as hemi orange through the grill in my photo was blacked out originally, I overlooked this when I re-assembled the car after restoring it. See the original paint photos below.
I also contacted Chrysler Historical Collection and received the following response from them:
Above: The original air filter that was still in the air cleaner assembly when I bought the car in '81
Above: Original washer bottle date code is 0859 (March 26, 1969)
