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Tony,
Welcome to the Forum. What you are planning is a magnificent gesture. Your dad will be overwhelmed. Anything I can do to help is yours for the asking. I can't offer much in the way of recommending shops to do the work on the left coast, but I can definitely recommend some good sources for reproduction parts. Linda already mentioned Ames. They're out of New England with excellent service on their products. OPGI in CA has been a solid provider for me as well as Year One, also in CA. Just Dashes is a great bunch of folks who can restore your dash, gages, plastic chrome parts. The guys and gals on this forum are an excellent source of information and can provide lessons they learned the hard way so you can avoid them. I would strongly suggest getting some books for your library. The ones I use most are the Helm Pontiac Factory Maintenance manuals. They are available from Helm for your year or you can pick up a used set on EBay. Doug Roe wrote an excellent book on Rochester Q-Jet carburetors that is a great source of general information on how things work together. Also, the GTO Restoration book will make you smarter when talking to a restorer about work you want done.
I agree with Rukee on the engine choices. While 454's are plentiful, there are plenty of 389-400-421-455 blocks out there waiting to pull your dad around town. If all else fails, Jasper is a decent source for a complete long block. If you want to go more radical on the engine, the guys at Kauffman Racing and Butler Performance would like to hear from you. Given what you have in that Civic, I'm thinking Jasper might be a bit mild for you. All of these places have websites. If you need snail addresses, let me know.
Best of luck with the Goat and thanks for doing what you do for a living. I'm USN (Ret) myself.
Bill
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