1967 GTO project thread

[Nicks67GTO]

Car looks great by the way! Any plans for different wheels/tires?

Thanks LSX! Yeah after the frame swap i'm going to measure up and order some 18" Billet specialties Mag G's and Nitto555's, 18x8 in the front and 18x9 in the back. The front tire will probably be a 245/45/18 and the rear will be an oddball its a 265/50/18. Its basically the same size sidewall profile as a 295/45/18. I don't have room for a 295 width unfortunately but I like sidewall and the full wheel well look so these look to be a good solution!

[Nicks67GTO]

I really have a lot of high praise for you and your purchasing prowess. The project is coming along well. Just make sure you do your homework so you don't have to purchase twice. This hobby is expense enough.

Thanks Roger! Agree on the double purchases. That always hurts. I am unfortunately redoing my brakes, wheels and tires but my dad has a 70' Chevelle that they'll be used on. He just wants 15" wheels and a quiet cruiser so they'll work perfect for him!

[Nicks67GTO]

Well I got my frame back...finally. Its now within 2mm on the front balljoints. The frame was clean as a whistle but crooked, really crooked in spots. It took them 13.5 hours to clean it up...ouch. But now its probably better than it ever was from the factory. Most of the factory seams are really well done so i'm going to leave most of them alone. Iv'e got to clean a couple welds up but its not big deal. I decided to go with the ABC boxing kit and their solid aluminum body mounts. I also went with an isolator kit from SC&C designed for these body mounts to prevent any "unlike metal" corrosion problems that would ever occur.

I just wanted to throw something out there. Iv'e seen lots of debate on weather or not to use a 110v fluxcore welder on frame work. While I wouldn't use it to build an entire chassis or ever consider one professionally, the little flux core Lincoln 120v welder might make some ugly ass welds and spatter all over but penetration seems fine and i'm pretty sure it shouldn't be any problem keeping the boxing plates in place. Ill just have to do a little extra work cleaning the welds up a bit with an angle grinder.

I'm about done tacking my plates in and ill start filling soon....

[gotyorgoat]

I have a 67 with 18X8's in the front and 245/45/18's and they rub the bottom of the fender on the front and the back when I turned the wheel. I cut the openings wider, but should have just gone with a 245/40.

[ekmxryda]

Hey Nick

Lookin good! I am going with the ABC solid body mounts as well.
Perfect time to do the mini tub work while you have the frame swap going on.

[Nicks67GTO]

Hey Nick

Lookin good! I am going with the ABC solid body mounts as well.
Perfect time to do the mini tub work while you have the frame swap going on.

I have done a lot of thinking on the minitub setup and I decided against it. Its pretty expensive if you use the ABC parts, it appears to be very time consuming and I just cant bring myself to cut the original sheet metal up.

[Nicks67GTO]

I have a 67 with 18X8's in the front and 245/45/18's and they rub the bottom of the fender on the front and the back when I turned the wheel. I cut the openings wider, but should have just gone with a 245/40.

What back spacing did you use? Iv'e seen more than one guy running 245/45/18's on the early A body cars without any issue.

[gotyorgoat]

I have a 4.5" backspace on the fronts and 5.5" in the rear. I think that a deeper backspace in the front would have helped with clearance at the top so that I could lower the car, but I am not sure that it would have helped where it rubs at the bottom of the wheel opening on both sides since the wheel will travel across this area when the wheel is turned no matter what the backspace. I had the rears figured out when I bought my wheels, but the fronts were a crapshoot based on what I had read in other posts. I do think that a 245/40 would have cleared. I would post a picture but I cant seem to get that to work.

[gotyorgoat]

My rears are 18x9 with 5.5 bs and 275/40/18 and they clear but I had to massage the outer wheel housing.

[Nicks67GTO]

My rears are 18x9 with 5.5 bs and 275/40/18 and they clear but I had to massage the outer wheel housing.

Got any straight on, side profile shots of your car? What do you use for photo sharing? I use photobucket. I copy and paste the IMG code and it works every time.

[gotyorgoat]

Wheel rubs on the lower part of the opening on both sides when wheel is turned.


This is actuall the rear tire on the front. I ordered the rears first and then test fit them to see if I liked the sidewall thickness. The distance from the hub to the outside of the rim is actuall the same on front and rears with my offsets so you get the idea.


Actual photo of the front and rears installed. I took this in the parking lot of the bodyshop where she is getting bodywork and a Lava Red paint job. I should get it back in a couple of weeks.


275 wide tire clears with no problem but needed to push out the outside lip of the wheel well.

[robbie9999]

Kook project watching progress

[Nicks67GTO]

Hey Merry Christmas to....ME!

The mounts where a bit more than advertised because Pontiac apparently had an extra body mount as opposed to Buick, Olds and Chevy....huh. I never knew that.

-ABC black anodized body mounts and hardware kit
-Savitzke's little fiberglass/rubber isolators for them. aparently to avoid corrosion between unline metals and eliminate squeaking associated with solids.

[Nicks67GTO]

The last few weeks iv'e been limited on time. This frame boxing takes forever. I bet I have 20 hours in it at this point. Tack and move, tack and move. Anyhow Iv'e been making progress. I'm about 75% done welding and iv'e done some grinding to clean the fluxcore welds up. It should look pretty clean when i'm done. You can see some of the spots where the welds are clean vs where they are raw yet. The fluxcore welder seems to be working out just fine but there's no denying the welds are ugly. I can lay a row of dimes with it.... but they are some dirty/spattered looking dimes...haha

[Nicks67GTO]

Got a little work done today...

I had a hole in my frame for no good reason. It looked like someone used a cutting torch and cut it out years ago. I'm not sure why someone would do this? Anyhow I got that cleaned up with some 1/8" steel....

[howehot]

Looking good.

[Nicks67GTO]

Well I got my rear rails pretty much finished. They really didnt turn out too bad for an old fluxcore welder and a 4.5" dewalt angle grinder! Ive got a little bit of clean up to do yet but ill be ready to finish the front frame rails this weekend.

[Nicks67GTO]

Back from the blast and powder coat. I was torn between a semi-gloss black and satin black. I went with the satin. It turned out great. The little weird spots you might see are dried snow. The weather in Iowa has been horrible all winter. When I brought it home Friday/Saturday it was no exception. Anyhow...I'm extremely satisfied with the work done here.

[Nicks67GTO]

Whoops, I had to re-post the last pics. I moved them in photobucket and it erased them....

[67goatman455]

Sweeeeeeeeeet