1967 GTO project thread

[Nicks67GTO]

Outstanding work. I read through the entire build. Great information especially on the brake parts. Great project.

Thanks! Im a big fan of your 73' as well.

[Nicks67GTO]

go for the Dakota digital gauges! but dont put in any of that terrible wood grain, if anything add in some of the fake carbon fiber decal stuff

Im actually leaning toward speedhut gauges now. For about the same money I can get a much better looking gauge. Ill just have to fab them in the back of the 67' dash. A buddy Bob {old66tiger} did this with some speedhut stuff and it turned out great. Ill be pretty much copying him on his install.

[mikewoods]

Nick, Did you get the brakes installed yet? I'm curious to see how the RHD S10 master cylinder worked out.

[Nicks67GTO]

Nick, Did you get the brakes installed yet? I'm curious to see how the RHD S10 master cylinder worked out.

Unfortunately I haven't installed it yet. I take forever to get stuff done on the car. It will probably be this fall when i'm done driving for the year. Ill do the brakes and get the wheels bought and tires installed....which reminds me I forgot to update this a few weeks ago....

[Nicks67GTO]

So I bit the bullet and bought one of those wheelrite tools. I ended up buying tires from Summit. First, finding them cheaper everywhere else on the interwebz and beating Summit up on the price match. I went with Nitto555's. 245/45/18 fronts and 265/50/18 tires in the rear......yep 50 series tires in the rear. I like sidewall and a filled up wheel well in the rear. Its probably some kind of deep seeded issue from when I was a 12 year old kid, reading carcraft and drooling over all the pro street stuff......regardless I like it that way so were going to try the 28.4" rear tire and hope it fills nicely. Iv'e got some time off this week so im hoping to get a few issues with the car figured out, then remeasure my wheel spacings and get my wheels ordered.

[Gil]

Hi Nick,
Good tires choice...
Make your mesurements & go MAG G's
Awesome ride !
Gil

[67goatman455]

WooHoo! i'm interested to see the style you go with!

[Nicks67GTO]

WooHoo! i'm interested to see the style you go with!

Definitely going with Mag G's from Billet Specialties. I was considering the polished Weld S-71 for a little while. They had a $100/wheel rebate going through August. I decided I couldn't justify the extra money and I wanted timeless wheels that wouldn't ever "date" themselves.....I think the Mag G's will fit that look well.

[lucky13firebird]

Nice, looking good. Gotta agree with you on the sidewall. A little meat is good for you. Let us know how you like the nittos, i tried the dunlops off my tempest on the firebird and they absolutely suck. Same exact size as my nexen n3000 but nowhere near as much grip and the dunlops cost more too...

[Nicks67GTO]

A lot of stuff going on but Ive been forgetting to take pictures....

I got a curveball thrown at me a few weeks ago. Heard a nasty clunking noise when I was trying to start the car. Found out that I sheered some teeth off of the ring gear on my flywheel. I believe it was caused by an issue within my starter. This also mangled the pinion gear on my starter. The starter is at RobbMc for repair and I got the flywheel re-ringed locally.

Since I was going to be in there anyhow, I ended up buying a Ram clutch from Bob {old66tiger} My clutch works great but its pretty aggressive and I wanted something smooth and reliable. The old clutch grabs fast and takes a little getting used to. Ill probably never put a set of slicks on it so the dual friction clutch I had in there was probably overkill. It will be for sale soon.

The Richmond 5 speed is leaking oil and it needed some seals and it scratches on a power shift into second gear now. Its 15 years old and had the crap beat out of it its whole lift so i'm not even mad. Iv'e got some synchronizers and seals coming and ill probably do the rebuild next week. If you have a richmond 5 speed do yourself a favor and shop around. I got seals from autoplicity for literally 20 bucks as opposed to 125 bucks that summit wanted. Yes I mean that literally. Same parts. What was going to cost me $375 bucks through summit, ended up costing me $175 bucks just by shopping around.

I also got my rear axle centered up with advice from Savitske. Apparently its common for these cars to have the rear axle off center a hair. Mine was a 1/4" too far to the passenger side making wheel measurements hard to take. So I turned my adjustable upper rear control arms a half a turn each. The driver side was shortened a 1/2 turn. The passenger side lengthened a 1/2 turn. Done deal. Perfectly centered rear axle. It wont mess with pinion angle either. Marc is the man. I also took my final measurements for wheels. Measure twice, cut once right? It looks like the verdict is 18x8 5" backspacing in front and 18x9" 5.75" backspacking in the rear. I'll be ordering on Monday or Tuesday.

[Nicks67GTO]

Trying my hand at some new seals and synchronizers in the old Richmond 1:1 Street 5 speed. Iv'e actually never pulled a transmission apart before. Sorry about all the pics. Im a little excited about messing with the guts of a transmission!

I definitely had some brass in the oil when I drained it. It was starting to scratch in second on a hard shift and was leaking pretty good out of the shift arm seals so it was time. Iv'e had it for a long time and I bought it used then. It's been ran hard for years and still looks pretty darn good inside!

Last night I got everything pulled apart and cleaned out. New shift arm seals installed and part of it reassembled. Ill be finishing it up in a few hours. Here's where I got last night....

[Nicks67GTO]

Well after a few setbacks {as usual} I got the 5 speed back together this evening. New seals and synchronizers. The 3rd 4th, 5th synchros were fairly easy. One gear was a little stiff to get off but I got it. Then I found out that you have to press the front bearing off to do the first and second gear cluster. I was under the impression that it could all be done with hand tools. This is not the case. With a press its an easy job though. Anyhow my buddy Jeff at Goodyear 5th street tire let me use his press and we got it all done on Thursday. I need to stop being a cheap ******* and buy a press. After reassembly I shifted through the gears and everything felt smooth. Looking forward to getting this in and rolling through some gears tomorrow.... Here's a few shots of the reassembly....

[Gil]

Hi Nick,
Wheels ? Pics ?
Gil

[lucky13firebird]

Working hard i see, yeah a $150 press pays for itself in no time.

[Nicks67GTO]

Hi Nick,
Wheels ? Pics ?
Gil

No wheels yet. At this stage of my life I take forever to get stuff done. Its typical 32 year old stuff like wife, kid{s}, house projects, long work hours, gym time etc....

[Nicks67GTO]

Working hard i see, yeah a $150 press pays for itself in no time.

Agreed. I'm going to look for an older used one locally. I hear the cheap harbor freight presses are junk.

[Nicks67GTO]

Wheels are ordered.

18x8 5" BS in front. 18x9" 5.75" BS in the rear. Billet Specialty Mag G's was the final call. Now the waiting game starts. Newstalgia Wheel says 3-4 weeks.

[Nicks67GTO]

Nothing overly exciting....just did some cleaning up and painting all my brake parts. VHT caliper paint. Satin black with a clearcoat. The paint went on VERY nice. Im pretty impressed for rattle can stuff. Z51 Kore3 fronts and LS1 rears.....

[tommycomfort]

Nothing overly exciting....just did some cleaning up and painting all my brake parts. VHT caliper paint. Satin black with a clearcoat. The paint went on VERY nice. Im pretty impressed for rattle can stuff. Z51 Kore3 fronts and LS1 rears.....

Pretty exciting to make progress, but I'm more excited about the Malibu in the garage!!!

[Nicks67GTO]

Pretty exciting to make progress, but I'm more excited about the Malibu in the garage!!!

Quick fun facts about the 70' Malibu.... My aunt bought it new. My dad has owned it since the early 70's. My sister drove it in highschool in the late 80's and I was the last one to drive it in high school circa 1998. Its all there, original as it gets and pretty much rust free. 350/350 car. PS,PB,AC,rear window defog, delco 8track, bench seat, column shift, tilt. It was a real cruiser. Anyhow there's been a deal made for it. After I get the GTO done its going to be my next project but i'm a few years off from that. Iv'e already been dreaming though. Leave the patina. ridetech coilover chassis. Junkyard LS conversion, 700R4 or 4l60, 18's over C6 brakes etc......