69 GTO Build

[ekmxryda]

Thanks Brian, any updates on the frame work?
Mike your car looks great with the front end on! Great job on the paint. When can you roll it out to show us how it looks in the sun?



Little steps made over the weekend, have clearance for Watts link, trunk floor tacked in place now I just have to make it look nice.

[Fastmonty]

Eric,

Thanks, and good point about sunlight... The car isn't powered yet, and it's kind of a bitch to roll it on and off the lift manually. Hopefully it'll be fully functional in a couple months. That said, I will put the trunk lid in the sun this weekend. I did some paint blending/rework on it and now I'm super curious if I did it right. Ha, ha... I'll post it next week.

Keep up the work on your end.

Mike

[Fastmonty]

Eric, et all,

I have a problem. In my excited haste to assemble the front end, I neglected to install the inner fenders. Which can't be done afterwards... That I know of. Now the question is, do I need the inner fenders? I've seen some low cars, without inner fenders. I'd rather not do four hours of rework, please let me know what you all plan to do.

Many thanks. Mike.

[SShep71]

Eric, everything looks great as usual. Its good to see you making progress.

Mike I would check with the DMV, I know cars run without inner fenders, but that doesn't mean its right. Even though there isnt much road debris, dirt and all doesn't mean there aren't potential hazards either way. Let me know what you decide to do.

AS far as my 69, well I have been doing a little here and there. I have mostly been building equipment for the car build. I have a metal cutting bandsaw, bead roller, truck crane, disc sander and some other things in the works now. I got a chance to meet with the interior guy and I got a quote of 5-5500.00 to cover everything in red leather. I have to check with other places still but I have a starting idea at least.

[ekmxryda]

Hey Mike, I am hoping to modify my inner fenders to make room for big tires in the front, and to clear the new suspension. I think to run without them in New England would be tough, but it never rains in Southern California for you guys so you should be fine! Haha! I would just look at it as practice for body panel alignment, mark out where things are now. Use blue tape and a sharpie.

Hey Shep, Thanks! Hope to see your interior come together soon. Are you back at it now that you are home? Hope everything is healed up, need to see an update soon! Your new shop tools sound good, I need to keep upgrading mine too.

Placed an order for a T56 Magnum last week with Mark at Bowler! Super nice to deal with and very helpful.
Some more parts made up for the trunk last weekend.

[Fastmonty]

Eric and Shep,

Thanks for the feedback on the inner fenders. While I don't care what the DMV thinks, I have elected to suck it up on do the necessary re-work to get them installed. All of my A/C plumbing is under the passenger fender, which would be another X hours to secure that mess, as well as the electrical on the other side...

On the more exiting side, I put the trunk lid in the sun to see what it looks like, as well as check my rework. (I bumped into the lower rear corner of the decklid when painting, so I had to repaint that corner) Luckily you can't tell... ha, ha...

Enjoy...

[ekmxryda]

Mike the paint looks really good! Nice job on the blending and buffing, you are so far ahead of me its starting to make me jealous! I love that color too!

More welding done, still more to go...

[ekmxryda]

Some more time grinding and sanding welds before new transmission showed up.


T56 Magnum from Bowler shipped super quick, thanks Mark!


LQ9 and trans dropped in frame nicely then rolled it under body.


Want to push engine back a couple inches, need new mount plates or ...


Trans tunnel is next on the list.


Thanks again Mark!


Dropped in the 69 Impala dash to test fit, and will get on fuel cell soon.

[Barrrf]

Oh my.......moving right along. Metal work is looking fine.

Looking forward to following this one along.

[Fastmonty]

Eric,

Awesome work on the mock up! I remember those days... ha, ha... I made some significant progress this weekend too. Including the rework of installing the inner fenders and re-clearing the left rear, as well as wet sanding that area (Again). New progress was installing the front brakes, and finishing off the exhaust install, which required welding the rear supports and tips on... (I haven't Tig welded in over a year... I almost forgot how to) Lastly, I also went to the local Goodguys show and thought of you guys... check out the Judge. It has a Butler 463 stroker motor in it. I forgot to look at what frame they used, I was too excited taking pictures...

Enjoy.

[ekmxryda]

Hey thanks Bart, I like your new wheels its too bad they don't make 19 x 12's I would grab some!
Your ride is coming together nice.

Car is looking good Mike! Looks like you got a lot done over the weekend too, nice work on getting the nose back together. The fender to door gaps look perfect too.
Nice flush glass and shaved drip rails on that Judge at the car show, tell him (or her) I need to know where he got the glass!
When are we gonna see your car parked next to the orange Judge at the show?
Looks like all you need is a gas tank!

[mikes2nd]

I think that butler engine car is one of the leftovers of the failed Jim Wagners GTO projects I think... those guys sold those projects for like 30-40k, I looked at one, was an insane buy at 35k... I think they used roadster frame with a C5 rear end. That looks like the "third" one, they didn't have the custom rims for it and they were "scaling back" on the frames and vette suspension.

They sourced the butler engines, and I think those grills are what makes me think its the big3performance failed projects. There was a convertible also. They were clones also, I emailed the guy about them but I was halfway done with mine.

here was the original fully built up one.

http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...ngers_edition/

you can see the frame here from the "first" car. When I saw the "for sale" ads on racing junk, the frames were not art Morrison. I think they were not getting orders and hadn't put out the cash yet.

http://www.highperformancepontiac.co..._interior.html

[Fastmonty]

Eric,

Thanks for the compliments... the door gaps look perfect, cuz they are. HA Ha. The guys that built that Judge are in South Dakota... they gave me their card. The web link is... http://www.g3rods.com/gallery.php?ca...d=69_gto_judge looking at their site, it looks like they got the custom frame from somewhere.

Keep at it!

Mike

[Roger Poirier]

Why the 69 Impala dash? Whats wrong with the factory dash that fits perfect. Only asking...

[Bonhomme]

Hey Guys,

I just found this thread and it's awesome. I've had my 69 GTO for 6 years now and while I have lots of pro touring plans, I don't have the garage or time yet. So I'm just enjoying ripping it up as she is.

Eric - you're doing some great work, can't wait to see more. Would love to see it in person some day - I'm in Fitchburg. Hope you find work soon!

Gus - I work in Southbridge, so not to far from you either - we should all get together someday.

Roger - like others, you're build and story is what inspired me into going the pro touring route with my goat. The HPP issue on your car came out just after I bought her and let's say my copy of the mag is completely beat up from re-reading the article over and over.

I feel like I'm among friends - not too may pro-touring builds in these parts.

Keep up the great work!

[ekmxryda]

Hey Mike, looks like G3 Rods Judge was built well, they do nice work. AM frame
Mikes2nd, yeah 35k would be a deal for a Wagners Judge, too bad they didn't have a TV show like Gas Monkey to subsidize them!
Hi Roger, my original dash was stolen when it was sitting out back. Plus I want to do something custom so the metal dash gives me a good starting point.
Would be much faster to use the factory dash but I always seem to take the long road to getting things done!
Hey Bonhomme, nice to find another pro touring friend in Mass, we are a rare breed in this part of the country! Haha! Nice GTO too! We should hang out with Gus sometime soon, and whoever else that is close by. Maybe some cruise night that is central this spring?



More cutting welding and grinding ahead, need to drop the tunnel in a bit more. I think my auto darkening welding helmet needs to be upgraded. It is at least 10 years old and I have been getting a bunch of milliseconds of flash and over a long day of welding that must add up to burnt retinas! Any welders out there have any recommendations or brands to check out?
Thanks!

[Roger Poirier]

Would be much faster to use the factory dash but I always seem to take the long road to getting things done!
Thanks!

LOL. I have noticed that... Should be bad a** if and when it's finished.

[ekmxryda]

Thanks Roger, I hope it will be finished someday!
I think sometimes that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to getting things finished quickly. For example take these fenders that I spent the last six hours stripping and sanding. Could have just bought new ones but I tell myself that it will be cooler to leave some character marks on the old ones, after I spend a few more days welding dog legs on and beating them back into shape!
Then the other side is that I love working on it even if I am only making a little progress.
Oh well at least I am back on it moving forward slowly.

[Gautilicious]

Hi there,

My name is Gauti and i´m from Iceland. So my spelling is not perfect :-) I stumbled upon your site and I love your work. This car will be amazing. I very much look forward to following this project. Me and my father are also restoring a 1969 GTO. Cool story about that specific car is that when my father was 25 years old he owned this car. And in the 2011, about 35 years later we bought that same car. Here is a link to our forum but unfortunately all the info is in Icelandic but like the old saying goes ,,a picture says more than a thousand words".

http://spjall.ba.is/index.php?topic=3597.0

Best regards,
Gauti Birgisson.

[ekmxryda]

Hi Gauti,
Thanks for the compliments! Your spelling is better than mine! Very cool story about the GTO that you and your Dad are building, you guys are doing great work! I checked out the link and used Google translate to find out you and your Dad are fighting over what direction to go with the build. I guess it all depends who is paying for it, haha! I find it tough to work with my Dad sometimes too, you need lots of patience along with a few beers. Keep up the good work though!

Tony can you put holes for the radiator support on both top and bottom for all A body frames? Or at least a pilot hole on the bottom would be helpful.
Not a big deal, bolting on the front end to figure out stuff.



White Vinegar after washing off paint stripper


Need to dimple die speed holes


Sorry for the bad picts, not much to show off though