[GTO Yeah]

I've finally gotten around to pulling together the pictures I've got. This is my 67 GTO. I've named her Gertrude.

This is the ebay image that stole my heart:

My fiancée said she’d buy me a classic car to restore with my dad as a wedding gift. I just had to pick out the car and stay within budget. My search included a 67 GTO, 68 Charger, 70 Challenger, and 67 Camaro. I found this on eBay summer 2021. We bought it sight unseen.

She looked good enough and was listed as a numbers-matching HO. The big plus was that she was running.

Running motor is always a plus!

Most of the rust looked superficial:

The chrome could use some love:

Quarter needs some work:

Same with the other side:

4 on the floor!

The interior looked pretty good(ish):

Floor is shot though:

I'm at my limit for attachments, so I'll have to continue the story on the next post...

 

[GTO Yeah]

I had the car shipped to my parents' place where the garage and tools were at.

 

[GTO Yeah]

It was a few months before I was able to go see her, but I got to work right away:

I started pulling out the interior:

Mouse nests everywhere!

My dad decided to show me how to do some patchwork:

And completely schooled me:

We got her mostly cleared out:

And ready for the next steps:

 

[GTO Yeah]

I'm lucky my dad is retired and wants to keep working on her while I'm at work. He got the front clip pulled off:

And the motor out:

Turns out she's not an HO, but I love her anyway:

 

[GTO Yeah]

I finally got a chance to head up to help my dad with the car over the holidays.

First step was getting the rest of the interior out:

While my dad welded some bracing in:

We got the body off the frame:

And on a cart:

The frame needs a lot of love:

Some of the body mounts are shot:

And the front pass side is bent in by about an inch:

But the body seems good and she's gonna stay that way!

Ready to get to work:

 

[GTO Yeah]

Got pics of the tags and number stampings:

The kickpanels had more rot than we'd anticipated:

 

[GTO Yeah]

New outer rocker in:

At this stage, I was getting nervous and kept adding more bracing (probably in all the wrong places) when my dad wasn't looking:

Found some interesting stamping by the trunk and decided to take a pic:

Driver side outer rocker in and I took this opportunity to put some xmat in as well:

With the floor and trunk pans offering no support, we wanted to lift the body uniformly from the trunk and the door mounts on the front. The supports go straight down in the back. We'll have to figure out something new once we get ready to replace the trunk pan:

This is my first shot at welding. It looks like the top of a snickers bar:

Got the pass side wheel house in:

 

[GTO Yeah]

At this point, I had to head back to work, but my dad is keeping the project going. Here are the new kick panels pieces going in:

Passenger side looks like new!

The body mounts on the firewall were rotted:

So my dad fabbed some repairs:

Fitting the driver rear quarter:

Buuuut the rear doesn't quite work out:

 

[GTO Yeah]

And the rocker area will need some work:

While my dad does all that, I try to contribute by doing mini projects in the only work space I have in my apartment--the bathtub:

 

[armyadarkness]

It's a tremendous undertaking for you, especially since it seems like this is your first go around with a project of this magnitude. Lucky you have a great dad.

Repo body panels suck... but it's what there is. Best of luck to you on it all. 67 is a worthy year to do.

 

[GTO Yeah]

It's a tremendous undertaking for you, especially since it seems like this is your first go around with a project of this magnitude. Lucky you have a great dad.

Repo body panels suck... but it's what there is. Best of luck to you on it all. 67 is a worthy year to do.

Thanks! Yes, I’m very lucky. I definitely wouldn’t have had the courage to cut into the car like this if he weren’t there. My dad has been handy as long as I can remember. He once built a go kart with some square tubing and a rototiller engine when I was a kid.

It works out well because he can scratch the itch while he waits for parts on his project—most of which are coming from the UK.

 

[Drewm]

Based on the limited amount of quarter panel rust, wouldn't it be better to use a patch panel rather then the whole quarter, especially given the poor fitment of the entire quarter?

 

[GTO Yeah]

Based on the limited amount of quarter panel rust, wouldn't it be better to use a patch panel rather then the whole quarter, especially given the poor fitment of the entire quarter?

I agree and I think that will be the plan. We're going to try to use as little of the piece as possible. The wheel arch is rusted out as well as both dog legs on the quarter. I couldn't find patch pieces for the front and rear dog legs, so we had to pick up the full quarter.

 

[Drewm]

I know aftermarket panels suck, but Im actually surprised that the quarter is as far off as it shows in the picture. Thats not even close. Any chance thats a 66 quarter and not a 67?

 

[GTO Yeah]

I know aftermarket panels suck, but Im actually surprised that the quarter is as far off as it shows in the picture. Thats not even close. Any chance thats a 66 quarter and not a 67?

Yea the Ames catalogue notes that it's actually a 66 panel. Luckily the original tail portion is in good shape.

 

[lust4speed]

Excellent work, and excellent photos detailing your work -- please keep the updates coming. The casting date of the engine on January 5th matches up good with the data plate showing the build date as the third week of January. PHS documentation would confirm that it is the original engine and list other build options.

I have a restoration project that I never got going on that is a close match to your car. Fathom Blue car also but with an automatic, black vinyl top and black interior and a little less rust. It's also out of the Pontiac plant. We stripped it down years ago and only the body shell and frame are outside in the weather but everything else is inside the barn. Luckily the Southern California winters are mild.

 

[GTO Yeah]

Excellent work, and excellent photos detailing your work -- please keep the updates coming. The casting date of the engine on January 5th matches up good with the data plate showing the build date as the third week of January. PHS documentation would confirm that it is the original engine and list other build options.

I have a restoration project that I never got going on that is a close match to your car. Fathom Blue car also but with an automatic, black vinyl top and black interior and a little less rust. It's also out of the Pontiac plant. We stripped it down years ago and only the body shell and frame are outside in the weather but everything else is inside the barn. Luckily the Southern California winters are mild.

View attachment 149818 View attachment 149819

Very nice! It could be a good year to pull it into the garage and get it on the road. Hagerty says this will be a hot year for GTOs! (not that I'll ever sell mine)

 

[GTO Yeah]

I picked up a G Force crossmember to give the frame a little more rigidity, but I ran into the same problem someone else on this forum did. The mounting holes didn't quite line up.

I had to squeeze the frame a bit with a ratchet strap to get the mounting bolts in. I'm concerned this is going to make for some problems down the line--namely that I'll never be able to uninstall/reinstall without the body off the frame. Or that it might create some issues with my body mount points lining up. I'll see if I can get some pictures of it later.

Has anyone else done this? Also if this question should be posted in the "Frame" forum, I can move it there. Thanks!

 

[PontiacJim]

I picked up a G Force crossmember to give the frame a little more rigidity, but I ran into the same problem someone else on this forum did. The mounting holes didn't quite line up.

I had to squeeze the frame a bit with a ratchet strap to get the mounting bolts in. I'm concerned this is going to make for some problems down the line--namely that I'll never be able to uninstall/reinstall without the body off the frame. Or that it might create some issues with my body mount points lining up. I'll see if I can get some pictures of it later.

Has anyone else done this? Also if this question should be posted in the "Frame" forum, I can move it there. Thanks!

You are good where you are, just keep the photos coming.

I don't think I would be "squeezing" the frame you don't really know which side of the frame is pulling in as it may not pull in even and then your driveline angle could be off center with the trans tail kicked over to one side or the other and a driveshaft angle that could cause issues later.. I would either add some metal to the ends of the crossmember, make a short adapter plate with holes for the crossmember and holes for the frame and bolt it together, or wallow out the holes(?).

Keep in mind that the factory crossmember uses a rubber cushion on the ends of the crossmember where it bolts up. If you eliminate this, again, you can change driveline angles. If you place an incline meter (bought at Home Depot/Lowes) and place it on the engine on a flat area, (generally not the intake as it can have a slight rise to its carb surface), you want about a 3 1/2 degree tilt to the rear. Should give you an idea if your crossmember is OK, or even if the trans mount is too thick (which seems to be on some aftermarket mounts).

 

[GTO Yeah]

You are good where you are, just keep the photos coming.

I don't think I would be "squeezing" the frame you don't really know which side of the frame is pulling in as it may not pull in even and then your driveline angle could be off center with the trans tail kicked over to one side or the other and a driveshaft angle that could cause issues later.. I would either add some metal to the ends of the crossmember, make a short adapter plate with holes for the crossmember and holes for the frame and bolt it together, or wallow out the holes(?).

Keep in mind that the factory crossmember uses a rubber cushion on the ends of the crossmember where it bolts up. If you eliminate this, again, you can change driveline angles. If you place an incline meter (bought at Home Depot/Lowes) and place it on the engine on a flat area, (generally not the intake as it can have a slight rise to its carb surface), you want about a 3 1/2 degree tilt to the rear. Should give you an idea if your crossmember is OK, or even if the trans mount is too thick (which seems to be on some aftermarket mounts).

What are the tolerances for something like that?

When I say squeeze, it was barely 1/8”. It looks like the tranny mount has some comparable play where I might be able to move left or right slightly. And I’m hoping to be able to shim up or down to get things aligned.

I’ll have to reassess once we get the body mounts repaired on the frame. Based on what you’re saying, this could be problematic down the line if I don’t get things 100% straight and lined up now.

We did some initial measuring based on the Service Manual, but it was tough to find the center points of the body mount holes because they’re rotted out. And the book seems to be missing some measurements that would be helpful—specifically the diagonals.