Pontiac GTO Forum banner

First time I've posted about my restore....

23K views 99 replies 21 participants last post by  PontiacJim 
#1 ·
.....and I'm well into it. Here are some pics of my 1967 GTO restore. It started life as a '67 base and I didn't get an original motor or rear end. I'm not doing a concours resto, just a "nice" frame off. I have a '73 455, it is a 4 speed car, and thankfully spent most of it's life in California. Just this weekend I lifted the body off the frame so I can clean it up underneath and do a total redo of the chassis. The finished product will be a 1967 GTO with a 455, aluminum heads, 17" aluminum rallye's, maybe vintage air, in the original Turqoise/Turqoise color scheme.
 

Attachments

See less See more
4
#2 ·
Looks like a great project. The body looks like it is in great shape. We are at about the same point in our restores. Mine is also a turquoise 67, but black inside. I have quite a bit of rust repair to do.

Mine is all matching numbers, so I will (hopefully) be sticking to the 400/TH400.

I look forward to watching your progress.
 
#3 ·
My floors are real nice. What is showing in the pic is after I wire wheeled and painted them. The outside of the body needs some wheel well and back window work. Trunk is solid. Since my interior is turquoise I considered changing the outside to silver because I thought turquoise/turquoise was odd. Now I've decided it's a pretty cool interior color and I'm going to go with it. Mainly I just hate trying to spell turquoise.......

Are there any pics of your restore on the forum?
 
#5 ·
Nice, air car! Looks like you're a little further along than me but close. My goal is to have the main body back on the refurbed chassis by April? Then I'll start on upgrading to front discs and get started on rebuilding the motor. Good Luck, keep them pics coming! I'll let you stay slightly ahead so I can take advantage of your discoveries.
 
#9 ·
Welcome!

Interesting... It looks like it started down the path to being painted Montreaux Blue by looking at the complete coverage of the floors. Clearly, the inside of the panel are Turquoise though. Gotta like the rust free cars! I have one and I'm thankful for that every time I look at it.

I take it by your user name you're into Corvairs. Whatcha got? I grew up with them and have owned a couple myself. I have a soft spot for them!

Chuck
 
#10 ·
The car is actually Turquoise/Turquois. I bought interior paint for the floors and it's way off. For the stuff that actually shows I'm going to have to get more serious. I found something that matches a little better.

When I was 16 I had a 1963 turbochgarged Corvair Spyder and a 1964 GTO. That was 40 years ago. Last summer I finished my '65 140 Corsa resto (pictures attached), and now I'm doing this GTO. And they say you can't go back!
 

Attachments

#12 ·
Looking good and as much as it's not glamorous, it needs to be done...

I too had a '63 Spyder. I know where it is and am trying to retreive it. Fortunately it is garaged and has not deteriorated since i owned it.
 
#15 ·
That car taught me a lot about cars. Good luck on getting it, if you do, send me a pic. I love the Spyder dashes, I think when I was 16 that was the main reason I bought it.....

As far as the grunt work, yeah, has to be done. The thing that bothers me most is what it's doing to my garage. I figure I have maybe 3 more weekends, then after that I'll get some decent weather and can power wash out the facilities. Hard for me to work in a nasty disorganized garage.
 
#16 ·
In 1965/66, my neighbor across the street bought a new bright red Corvair Monza convertible. I remember riding in it as a 5 year old kid. It had a chrome shifter with a big white ball and the black shift pattern on the top of it. A four speed. I was hooked. After that, every model car I built had a 'Hurst' shifter made out of one of mom's stolen stick pins with a little white ball on top. That corvair was a neat car, and very fast and fun to ride around in!
 
#17 ·
Update, Rear End Assembly Back In

Finally turned my wrench from loosen to tighten. Have my rebuilt rear end back in. Replaced all bushings, went from a 2:73 open to a 3:23 Yukon posi, added boxed lower CA's and added a 7/8" sway bar, took off the air shocks and replaced with KYB gas adjusts.

On to the front end! Target to have body back on frame by end of April....
 

Attachments

#18 ·
Looks good! :thumbsup:

Ah yes, I remember the day I too flipped from loosen to tighten, wait until the day you get to wax her! :Scottwax1:

Congratulations on hitting a milestone, I'd much rather see progress than another thread on "giving up" on a frame off restoration. :cryin:
 
#19 ·
Thanks for the thumbs up! Haha, a couple years away from waxing!

My immediate goal is front suspension, drop the body back to frame, and get it to rolling chassis stage so I can CLEAN MY GARAGE! The business of grinding the underside, frame, etc has left about a 1/4" of dust on everything and my painted floor is a mess.
 
#20 ·
That is indeed, momentous! There's something about getting your frame back and Painted/powdercoated... You not only go from loosen to tighten, but you also get to stay clean(er).

Congrats!
 
#21 ·
It's officially a rolling chassis. Got the front suspension done except front sway bar (waiting on some poly bushings). Left the front brake hardware off so I can add a disc conversion later. Next is front to back fuel and brake lines, then I can drop the body back on, push it out and clean my garage and get to the clean stuff. :bannana:
 

Attachments

#22 ·
Progress this weekend. Took the 455 block and crank to the machine shop. Both are standard which is nice. Going to get them cleaned up and fluxed and then decide bore. My wife, son and I celebrated Mothers Day on Saturday, and then the wife came out and helped me lower the body of the car back onto the frame. Next I'm going to take a look inside the gas tank and see if it the sender and tank are okay. Anybody know of anything I can swish around in it to keep it from rusting before I mount it? It may be another year before I actually fill it up.....
 

Attachments

#25 ·
Hey SLC. I guess I started on it for real last November, so been at it 7 months now. Disassembly and surface rust cleanup sucked, but that's past me now. Everything is fairly clean to work on. Next step is to get my motor back, that may take awhile because the machine shop is pretty busy. I'll keep posting progress!

Good luck on your '71, nice year.
 
#27 ·
Got my motor back

Got the 455 back from the machine shop. .030 over, crank turned out to be standard, had it polished. In the interim I rebuilt the steering column. The lower bearing was shot. I learned steering columns are complicated! Finally got it back together, should be a huge improvement.
 

Attachments

#28 ·
Well, lots of progress. First thing I had to do was take advantage of the weather and power wash the garage and repaint the floor to improve my working conditions. Much more enjoyable to be in the garage now. On the interior side I took the dash apart. Will be looking for a set of rallye gauges, but the dash facia itself came out pretty good. Have the short block back together. decided to try and use the full windage tray off the 400 on the 455. A little worried about clearance but it seems I have it all worked out. Hope to have the block and tranny back in in a couple weeks....
 

Attachments

#29 ·
Looks good. Couple of questions. I don't see the alignment pins in the block for the heads. They usually get pulled to deck/clean the block surface, don't forget 'em.

Oil plugs in the front oil galley or did you have the holes tapped and pipe plugs installed? - I can't tell from the pics. The pipe plugs are better than the plugs, but if plugs, make sure they are staked well so they don't have any chance of coming loose. I went with pipe plugs on my 455. The trick is to make sure they are not inserted too deep to block the oil passage and cut off/restrict oil flow.:thumbsup:

Also, hate to be a butt, make sure you remove all paint off those surfaces on the front of your block where gaskets will be fitted. Paint is too slick and gaskets can "slip" out - ask me how I know. Just sayin'.
 
#30 ·
I didn't even notice the missing head alignment pins. I would have when I went to put the heads on! I hope I can buy them from Ames or something.

The oil plugs in the front are plugged and staked well.

On the paint, yeah, I didn't have a clean timing cover to put on when I painted the block so I ball parked it, will come of with some acetone on a rag.
 
#34 ·
Progressing

...and on we go. Installed my favorite all purpose Pontiac camshaft, the 068 yesterday. Also added the oil filter adapter, motor mounts, and even the HO style wire guide to route the starter wire using HO exhaust manifolds. I used the '73 timing cover because it was in better shape than the '67 I had. I then realized it has the 11 hole water pump setup. That's fine, but I wanted to use my '67 pulleys and I think an 11 hole water pump with that 4" spacing is a half year ('69?) only part. If I can't find one I'll have to use the '73 balancer and pulleys which I guess would be fine. I'll have to mock them up tonite and see what way to go.

Next - I need to lay out the cash for the Edelbrock 87cc aluminum heads. Ouch....
 

Attachments

#35 ·
...I used the '73 timing cover because it was in better shape than the '67 I had. I then realized it has the 11 hole water pump setup. That's fine, but I wanted to use my '67 pulleys and I think an 11 hole water pump with that 4" spacing is a half year ('69?) only part. If I can't find one I'll have to use the '73 balancer and pulleys which I guess would be fine. I'll have to mock them up tonite and see what way to go.

Next - I need to lay out the cash for the Edelbrock 87cc aluminum heads. Ouch....
If the goal is to run the 11 bolt timing cover with the current '67 PS pump and alum pivot bracket/etc, you will need the correct "late '69" waterpump pulley, the '68+ damper and the correct matching '68-70 crank pulley. Will also need a front '69 style alt strap, as the '67-68 style is made for the geometry of the 11 bolt timing cover.

Am very aquainted with such swaps as have been putting Pontiac bracket/ pulley PS changeovers together for the last two decades, normally put together and sell at least one such changeover each month. From the early '60's on, Pontiac had a progression of bracket series and different stagger (design) of pulleys, one can't mix the '71 up style brackets and pulleys with earlier style pulleys or mix the 8 bolt style timing cover with '71 and later brackets and pulleys, just won't work
 
#37 ·
the short '69 waterpump, AKA the "351" with it's matching pulley will match up with the correct '68-70 crank pulley. It won't match up with '67 damper/crank pulley, one reason being the '67 damper can't be used on the 11bolt timing cover.

Performing a '69 concours restoration, or something close to it, or maintaing an extremely original '69, there is nothing wrong with using the correct "351" casting pump and matching wp pulley, as all the pieces will mate up and be '69. Have two rebuilt "351" casting pumps going out Weds, can relay from chasing them down as nice cores, the original casting dated "351" pumps typically are more expensive and end up being mainly a high end restoration Item. That stated, the only other time I will go with the short '69 style 11 bolt waterpump is when providing parts for a nice driver or a street/strip type '67 or 68 V8 Firebird that customer wants converted over to 11 bolt waterpump. The stock fan needs all the clearance it can with a stock dimension radiator and fan shroud in the early Firebird. The more common and readily available "tall" 11 bolt waterpump doesn't work well in that application.
 
#38 ·
the short '69 waterpump, AKA the "351" with it's matching pulley will match up with the correct '68-70 crank pulley. It won't match up with '67 damper/crank pulley, one reason being the '67 damper can't be used on the 11bolt timing cover.....
I guess that's the key, "the '67 damper can't be used on the 11 bolt timing cover".

I need to get all my dampers and pulleys out. The problem I have is the car did not have the original 400 engine, and come to think of it, it did not have the proper alternator bracket. Then I got the 455 out of a '73 Grand Prix. Would like to use the '67 stuff, so will probably have to swap out the timing cover.

The main reason I originally went with the newer cover was the timing marks, they go all they way to 12 degrees either way, which is good for the 068 cam because I sets at 9 BTDC. As I recall, the early one only goes to 6 degrees. No big deal, but I failed to realize the different pump heights, etc.

A small delay, 2 steps forward, 1 step back....
 
#41 ·
Christmas in August

Nice package came today. A pair of Edelbrock 87CC heads for my 455. Not quite ready to put them on, but had to mock them up just to take a look.

So shiny. Been having to spend time on the Corvair and got a little sidetracked, need to get back to GTO time. I'm thinking of putting the shortblock and tranny back in the car and building it up from there since the whole front clip is off.......
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top