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Finally time to restore my first car - 67 GTO 'Vert

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  MrageSmack 
#1 ·
It's a long sordid tale I will spin, so buckle and put your reading glasses on. I like stories, hope you do too. I have held on to the first of my 77 cars in my lifetime, a '67 GTO convertible. I "technically" own 2 hardtops and a coupe the same year, but those were destroyed by my uncle, more about that later. But the good news is, I held onto this one somehow. I bought it at age 15, in 1980, and stored it a friends house for two years till my dad let me get my license at 17. At age 16, I also bought a hardtop, and hid that one at another friends house, waiting for that damn license my dad would not let me get. By the end of my 17th year of life, I owned four GTO's and many many parts, most of them the "good stuff".

With no garage, I kept a rented storage space to keep parts and even rebuild motors. I also sold parts out of there. I was called "Mr GTO", a local legend of sorts in the days before the internet. :lol: In 1983, I went to Car Craft Nationals with another car, a 454 '78 Caprice, my DD. When I came back, my storage unit had been cleaned out. I lost a complete RAIV motor, RAIV heads, a WS block, many Q-jets including my HO unit, a '66 Tri power and pan setup, a set of red fender liners, a freshly rebuilt race TH400, a M22, a set of Ralleye I's, a RAIV Ram Air pan, and a set of Chevy 302 Z28 heads for good measure. There was other aftermarket stuff too, but that was the big stuff.

Honestly, I became a little disgruntled at the time, figuring it was someone in the GTO scene back then that I sold parts to. I used to show everyone who walked through the door all my goodies, I was proud of my collection. It was hard to track stuff down back in the day, I never recovered anything, and started to lose interest. So I shipped 3 of my cars off to store at my uncle's junkyard, and moved the convertible around until my mother built a garage in 1985, where it has sat since. It had not run since 1980 when I bought it, when it had a Buick drivetrain and powerglide in it. It has the Royal Bobcat decals on it, as it did in 1980, but I assume decals were bought and/or a previous owner bought the kit through the mail. Unfortunately, being the naive teen I was, I assumed my uncle was hooking me up and letting me store them for free, I mean, he had over an 100 acre junkyard. But many years later, when I went to get one of them taken out, he wanted $3 per day, per car, for I can't even recall how many years it was, over ten at least. I could have bought a small house for the money he wanted back then. We argued, and he won, sending them all to the crusher later. Something about possession being 9/10ths rang true. He was tired of people asking about them and shooting him lowball offers thinking they were for sale.

Life intervened repeatedly, plus I was burned out, and my Vert sat idle, as it still does at the moment. I had a RAIII motor rebuilt by a local drag racer in 1983, for LEADED gas, I even turned it over by hand for a while, but eventually that even stopped. I can't even recall exactly what I have done to the motor. I know .030 over, 10 or 10.5 compression, cam to RAIV specs, 1.65 rockers, professionally ported intakes on the #12 (I think) heads, crudely ported exhaust by your truly, before I ever heard of Jim Hand, when I just assumed bigger was better. I have a NOS SD455 800 Q-jet on it that I found in 1984, it has never seen fluid. I redid the interior and top, minus the rear seat which was also taken from storage (hey, I need one if you got one) and have a set of 4.33's somewhere over there (I think) to install. Which I won't do now of course, but that was my teen mentality. Speed. Speed. Speed. And convertible for the chicks.

So as my daughter is nearing the midway point through med school, I have decided to start planning to finish the project I started in 1980, I have to for my own sanity. I don't have the original drivetrain, and don't want to obsess over numbers looking for one either. The value of the car cannot be measured in dollars to me, I will never sell it. My heirs may, but I will be dead and won't care at that point. I want to get this on the road and drive it - often, so I will be doing a resto mod of sorts. Be up to date functionally, better than stock, but still look original for the most part. I want to tow my race boat to the river or take it on vacations. Probably an overdrive tranny (200R4 most likely), 4 wheels disks, larger Rallye I's, modern red lines, etc. Plus I have to sort out what to do with the motor. Over the next few years, I want to start accumulating parts smartly, not like I did back them. I have zero miles on my motor, and it may not be usable today. I have zero miles on my steel belt red lines, and they are likely flat spotted and worthless. I cut and rewelded my RAIII factory headers to fit my chassis. And before I get the request, like I would probably do, :lol: nothing is for sale at the moment, not until I know which pat I am taking, or even what i have.

So that's my story. Though I sound like an old "get off my lawn" guy, I am forum savvy having been involved in many other makes and models, I just need to catch up to speed with today's Pontiac world and get reading. I feel like I just came out of prison after 30 years and saw a cell phone for the 1st time, so much has changed. You post internet guys don't realize how lucky you are! I still can't believe I don't need to write companies in the back of magazines for a cheaply produced pamphlet of their parts anymore......though I will if I have too!

Nice to introduce myself, hope I don't pester you with too many question. If anyone has any links or advice based on what I have written, I will be much obliged.

Stephan

PS. I can't believe a gave away two 1967 q-jets, one to put my tri power on and one to put my SD carb on. To me they were not worth anything, but oh how times have changed.
 
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#5 ·
Welcome, Stephan!

Man, parts of your story were like looking in a mirror for me. October 30, 2011, I drove my 69 under its own power for the first time in over 25 years.

Hang in there brother, you can do this. Photos would be great when you can..

:cheers

Bear
 
#6 ·
Thanks guys. Bear, I can't wait. Been getting grief from the family for years, one sister even sold it, of course that deal fell through when I was told. :lol:

Been doing a ton of reading lately, can't recall having a fraction of this info back in the day. Never even heard of LSA until this week. But reading is bringing some details back to mind. I struggle to recall my cam, but thought it was Erson or Isky, some oddball maker, near .500 lift and duration in the 290's, 294 comes to mind. That will have to go. Don't want to open the motor until I need to, no point in exposing it any more than necessary.

Sorry no pics, but the car has 28 years worth of crap piled around and even on it. To those who live there, it's just a car to put plant pots and deck seat cushions on. I'll get some pics when the time comes.
 
#7 ·
Mine was a shelf when i found it also, luckily pots and boat cushions do a lot less damage than road salt and collisions. Welcome to the forum, post a build thread and pics when you get started so we can follow along. Isky and Erson were some of the first Pontiac HP cam makers, i am running a custom ground Erson full hydraulic roller set-up in my 473, lots of Power parts for the Pontiacs now days....but we still pay a premium for being such a small tribe.
 
#9 ·
Welcome aboard, Stephan!

I agree; this hobby is SO different now that information is readily available at our fingertips!

Congratulations on being able to hang on to your baby; now have fun getting it back on the road!
 
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