'72 GTO - Project 'Just-A-Driver'...

[gto406]

Small update:

Decided to focus on the body first, and finish stripping the paint, and doing the metal work on the body (lower rear 1/4 panels, etc.).

The frame was wrapped in foam/poly, and with alot of help (thanks Lukas!) we managed to hoist the frame to the ceiling using a set of tow straps.





The body is now centered in the garage, and the sandblast cabinet I ordered is built and hooked up.



The last few days have been spent cleaning small parts (including the stock Poncho honeycomb wheels I will be running).



Also have been using the chemical stripper to take off the last coats of paint/primer (albeit that is slow going).

I just may have to revert to grinding the rest off (or biting the bullet and sending the car out for a media blast).

Cheers,
Brian.

[gto406]

Bump for pics I added, enjoy.

[gto406]

Small update...

Stripping body using chemical and following with mechanical (i.e. sanding w/36 grit 3M green disc's). Painful and slow (and smelly!) but makes room in budget for new wheel/tire combo



Cheers,
Brian.

[LSXZ28]

Lookin good!

[gto406]

Thanks LSXZ28!

[gto406]

Another minor update, pics should be up over Xmas.

1. Body has been completely stripped (had to resort to glass beading to clean-up spots around the rockers that were simply too difficult to get with either chemical stripper or mechanical. And yep, garage is now a 'beach' (literally and figuratively) 8^)

2. Friend has given me access to his schools shop (he is a technology teacher) so I have media-blasted all the parts at the school. In the process of repairing the rad-saddle. Other parts just need priming painting (fortunately he has a small paint-booth at the school)!

3. Just received my parts from Tamraz (great to deal with). Parts include:

• New repop trunk-lid

• New repop bumper (re-chroming was more than 3X the cost of this repo)

• New set of full quarter skins (not the full)

• New set of outer wheel-houses

I thought I had ordered the 'full quarters' but I may just try and work with the skins. They aren't as poor (in terms of quality) as I thought they would be (just have non-stock features behind the wheel opening - toward the back of the car). I have to 'keep reminding myself' it is just a driver. Breaking all the spot-welds and pulling the full quarters could be painful.

Overall, a very nice Xmas present 8^)

Happy holidays!
Brian
'72 GTO.

[wmhjr]

Good luck with the quarters. I'm not real familiar with the quality of the skins on the 68+ GTOs. Hopefully they're much better than on the '66. Glad to see you're continuing to make progress!

[Brad1970]

Lookin forward to seein some current pics....

[gto406]

Thanks gentleman,

Not a lot of progress (unfortunately) as work (and work-related travel) has impacted available time on the GTO.

I have managed to finish blasting the window channels, trunk rear filler panel, and the interior (including the rear passenger foot wells and the front passenger foot wells). I am sure I will have more to do, but sick of grinding, sandblasting so I began a bit of metal-work. Only problem is I ran out of 'autoweld' so I tried welding some small holes and a small patch in the rocker using .030 flux-core. You will see the results are not great. I now have .023 and autoweld gas so my hope is I can close up these holes (need to get a brass or copper backer).

My mechanic (who will be helping me on the project now to speed things up) dropped by, and we fitted up the rear quarter. He is suggesting we go right up/over the top and attach it (using a lap joint) on the top/flat surface (close to the trunk opening). This way we won't see the cut-line, and with the lap weld it should be a bit stronger.

We were speaking today, and it is likely I will let him finish the metal work, while I start assembling the frame. I have all the parts now to make the frame a roller, and it will likely take me as long to finish putting the frame together as he can do the metal work ;^)

I also include a shot of the front driver/side fender I picked up from a friendly gent in PA. The part is still down there, but my hope is to go to Spring Carlisle and bring it home at that time.

[1971CHEVELLE]

wow awesome project so far

[gto406]

Apologies - been a while since I provided an update to PT.
Pictures to follow:

- Completed stripping the body shell;
- Began metal work on body (repairing pass-side door-sill, and lower front windshield)
- Wont be starting 1/4 panel repair until car back on the frame
- Drove to Spring Carlisle and picked up the following:
- engine parts (e.g. chrome dual-snorkel air cleaner)
- all my window-felts, seals, interior/exterior bolt kits
- clamp/brackets for the brake/fuel lines on frame
- front driver/side fender (see previous picture above)
- Pulled apart rear end and ordered new Richmond safe-t-track, 3.36 gears, and T-A BOP/10-bolt cover
- blasted and repainted the housing (using Bill Hirsch miracle paint - gloss black)
- blasted and repainted front/rear sway bars (again w/Bill Hirsch miracle paint - g.b.)
- blasted and metal-working front rad-saddle, and inner fenders (almost ready to paint/prime)
- sent frame, rear-end and all chassis parts to my mechanic (given we need a rolling frame to drop the body on, this has become first priority)
- sent engine off to my engine guru (we swapped out intakes to the Performer RPM, cut the exhaust-manifold mating surface, and he is installing a new timing chain, and going to town on the head porting) - hope to pick the mill up by mid-September

Realized the car wouldn't be ready, so I got a bit anxious and grabbed another ride. Car has been in the southern US most of it's life (very clean). Plan is to drop a date-coded (1969) Poncho motor (406 CID) with #13 ported polished heads, and a custom ground Comp-Cams camshaft. Will be running a KRE North Wind intake. Car should hopefully run in the 10's

If all goes well, the Firebird should hopefully be on the road by the fall of this year (mid-October).

[Jeffrotech]

Thanks for the update.

I also have a '72 off the frame. Hope to get to a point where I can start my own thread on here.

Funny enough, I also have a Firebird ('68) - which has been a slight distraction from the GTO!

Keep at it!

[gto406]

Thanks Jeff, I saw your posts (on other threads) and was going to contact you (as you had the combo I have always dreamed of - a 72 GTO with a first-gen Bird). Now we are in the same boat!

What plans do you have for your GTO?

I am migrating mine from a red-light terror to more of an all around comfortable, well-handling/stopping machine. The Bird will fulfill (at least for now) my drag-racing sickness, lol!

Please feel free to post some pics or info in this thread on your ride. Would be interesting to have two '72 Goats being restored/restified at the same time to compare notes 8^)

Cheers,
Brian
'72 GTO (project underway)
'69 Firebird (hope to be hearing the V-8 rumble soon).

[Jeffrotech]

Brian,
Cool stuff. Well, I don't really want to hijack your thread with my crap... but you asked for it.

I've had the GTO since I was 17 (my 1st car)... 20 years ago!!! Shortly after getting it, the SBC that was in it blew, so I found a really good built 350 locally and swung it in... and I drove it for about 5 years. She'd top out at 140mph and was stable as a rock! I knew I needed to upgrade the brakes and suspension, and fix a couple body mounts, so the the body came off! I had the frame sandblasted, then fully boxed the frame and painted it inside & out w/ POR15. Since then, I've bought a house, got married & had our 1st kid. The wife is really looking fwd to the day where she can ride in the car, so I've got her support (pretty damn important in this hobby).

Plans: I have Global West control arms for the front, along w/ '79 Z28 spindles. I also have some huge Brembo rotors (14" and 12") - and I think the Cayanne calipers will be a perfect match. The frame will get a few cool tricks, which I will cover when I start my own thread. Most likely a 9" rear, watts link, with a more-or-less stock geometery. My biggest dilema is wether or not to narrow the frame! I think I will notch it a little w/ mini-tubs, just so I can fit something large (ideally a345/35/19). I have a set of 305/30/20s that I will most likely run for now. Why so big? Because without a big sidewall, most tires just get lost in these wheeltubs. 28" dia just seems right! It's a big car with a big back end. Other plans: full cage, welded to the body, reinforced body bolt sections (tied to cage), gutted doors, lexan windows. Yes, it will have a radio: iPhone, amp & speakers - that's it. Motor: balanced, blueprinted 400 Poncho built for boost; h-beams, forged pistons, 7.5:1 (will change to 8.2-8.5:1 down the road when I upgrade to Edlebrock heads) - only missing component is the Whipple. Trans: Richmond 5 speed (cause that's what I have "in stock"!). Body: I bought a one-piece fiberglass nose YEARS ago, and I plan on using it - and I'll reinforce it w/ carbon fiber. Lots of aero mods planned, too!

Firebird: bought it from the original owner! Old friend of my dad's... the first (and only) old car he TOLD me to buy. 49k miles when it got it, has 69k miles on it 14yrs later. Took my wife on our first date in it - and she says I can't sell it. No arguments from me. Only mods are Dougs headers, flowmaster exhaust, 16" Jaguar (BBS) wheels - LIGHT!, 4bbl carb & intake. She's a nice driver, but will get the 'treatment' if/when the GTO is done. This one will stay as stock looking as possible!

I hope to participate on here with an actual thread of my own... I just want to be able to piece together enough stuff to justify it. Soon...

[gto406]

Hello all!

I realize it has been a while since I have posted on P-T. I had moved the project over to PY-Forums, but after two+ years posting there (in the 70-72 GTO/Lemans section) it seems there is a strong interest in completely stock/unmodified vehicles.

I am all for originality, however I still firmly believe that most 'pure examples' have already been restored and are available to be viewed in your favourite classic-car museums (e.g. Floyd Garret's). With that in mind, I have decided to re-home the project build thread back on P-T. The goal being to gather more feedback, and hopefully help/inspire other folks with GTO's (or A-Bodies) to work/modify their cars.

Alot has transpired since my last posts here (in August 2010) - wow that is just over 3yrs ago! Let me try and bring folks here back up to speed on where we are at:

- Took my frame down from the ceiling, and all gathered parts - and handed it off to my mechanic to assemble.
- he assembled the rear-end, and put together my front/rear suspension as well as steering box
- I also brought the engine down, and we coated the top-end (lifter/cam, push-rods) in assembly lube (motor was already broken in) - after buttoning this up I masked and painted the motor the correct 72 Pontiac Blue (# escapes me at the moment)!
- once I repaired one minor area on the driver-side floor-pan, I re-seam sealed, primed and repainted the underside of the GTO, I had the body (on the cart) sent down to be joined up with the frame (fall 2011)

Some photographs to give you an idea of this work:





More to follow...
Brian.

[gto406]

Here is a few photo's of the body going back onto the frame (note we also put on some primer to protect the metal from rusting):



Further updates coming...

[gto406]

Once the body was fastened back on, the car came home - and sat for almost 9 months. I was 'burned out' from trying to work on this car, and put the motor in the Bird. For posterity, here is a shot of the Bird and the motor we installed, etc.



Here is a brief video of the car/motor running. We ended up having some issues and had to pull it back out. However, I think ultimately it turned out to be a sweet little street terror:



Back to the Just-A-Driver GTO...
BR/Brian.

[gto406]

Once I got back onto the GTO, the next big question was 'what to do?'. Do I work on the quarters or get the motor hooked up, and sort out any small issues with the chassis?

Well I decided to focus a bit on getting everything hooked up. Having a colleague (Howie) helping me, we began working on finish installing components on the car, including:
- oil filter housing/oil-filter (done)
- headers re-coated with Bill Hirsch hi-heat (2000degF) paint and re-installed (done)
- brake lines, including getting fluid into the lines, and bleeding the brakes (done)
- fuel lines, including the main (-6 A/N) fuel-line, a 5/16" return line, and also a vent-line (all but vent-line done)
- fuel tank (clean out old, coat and acquire a new sending unit)
- after trying dilligently to save the 'old tank' we got a new one (and a new sending unit)
- new tank was coated (internally) and then clear-coated with 3 coats of clear (straps re-painted)
- sorting out heating and ventilation (acquired a Classic Auto-Air flex-fit A/C+heating system)
- acquired and installed a new Powermaster 100amp alternator, and a CVF 3pulley system (I am not a fan of March)
- had to fix some minor holes in the floor (didn't notice these when I did the floor - unsure if bolting down the d/shaft loop may have opened these up) - seam-sealed and primed the floor
- rebuilt/repainted my rad-saddle and inner fenders (required some metal-work, lots of filling/sanding)!
- installed hushmat and mocked up block-off plates (home fabricated) on the firewall.

Some additional pics:



Still more to come...

[gto406]

A couple of the tank (after coating) the gas tank straps, and the FAST EZ-EFI with the stock dual-snorkel air cleaner (and an old brand-new Cdn-Tire air-filter I had for an old truck, which fit perfectly)!





We re-installed the doors and the repro deck-lid (aka trunk) and I have lined up everything nicely (thanks 400 4spd on PY-Forums for the guidance!). Have been working on the exhaust system (I picked up a 3" stainless Magnaflow kit for this year of A-body), and I have everything lined up from the muffler right up to the header collector.

I have to modify the d/shaft safety loop (the loop is becoming a pain!) and re-fit it underneath the car, and once I do that I will likely tight up everything put it on the ground and get some shots of the muffler system. Our plan is to then transition to the rear-quarters and light metal work. I wish I had the room to be able to take-on/off the body from the frame - but am working in the best way I can (given what I have at my disposal).

More pics to come shortly!

Thanks for your interest,
Brian.

[LSXZ28]

Love that Bird!