Purchased in 07. 66 GTO stripped to the bone racecar. THAT was my 1st mistake. Got er home plates ins. Pulled the Bird over to get a family shot. Justa6 N Justa66.
Thumpin 396 Chevy, No brakes, Entire frontend was sooo shot you could move the wheels back into the fenders. Front to rear missing rubber in bushings. Replace all...upgrade to disk. New Cragers N sticky Mickeys. Interior was completely torn out. Seat mounts welded to the floor for fiberglass race seat. So many holes in tunnel (for diff/shifters) All wiring ripped or cut out. Toggle hot, toggle start. Did find the dash pad in trunk. Did get some interior parts, org seats (destroyed), oddball chrome, couple shot doorpads N 2 armrest. LOL 1 was a backseat. Rust through on pass/floorboard N trunk was cheese.
After years finding GTO parts new and used. Including a 421 SD Tripower motor. I couldn't align the front end with all new parts. Guessing frame damage. Got your Chevy hangin!!!!
Frame shop confirmed. Frame is bent in sooo many places, straighten one bends another worse. Then they found front A arm mounts (pass/side)were cut off and rewelded to straighten out. GAME OVER. Floors, missing body mounts. What wasn't rusted off was used to bolt body directly to frame. Inner rockers were Justa plain missing and tranney was holding floors up. Junk it bro. I dont think so......... Worked for PMD 30 yrs, will spend the next 30 building my dream car if thats what it takes now. This was a Thurs. Shop owner told me to haul it outta there by Monday. = DEPRESSION. Made 1 phone call and found a frame. CATCH..its a complete car that needs to be stripped. Me and owner started @ 8am, 75 miles from my house and completely stripped this car right down to gauges, glass and window tracks. Fought with owner over the dash harness as it had all bulbs/sockets missing from my GTO. I won. Had it home by 1:30pm!
By myself claimed my new frame prize by 7:30 same day. Sanded, painted/cleared and had it up to shop Monday @ 8 am. Already on jig. They picked up my body and dropped it on new frame. Now haul this pile O parts home. He didn't charge me for any work. I tip my hat to you for takin on this project.
Back to SQUARE 1. Transfered all new suspension including the cleaned/painted A arms to new frame. Body up and major rebuilding begins as doorpost braces are also rusted away. Fabricated all new and inner rockers and kick pads with new air boxes. NEW floorpans/braces/body mounts front to trunk. Tore out shoulder tendons and rotator cuff lining up body mounts. (way to go might mouse)
Rebuilt the 421 and dropped er into the framerails. Til rust do you part! All Pontiac with better warpaint!
Final push to "git er done" for the Woodward Dream Cruise in Aug. Couldn't use the Lemans electrical harness, but seperated and built my own using missing clips/sockets to rewire the entire car. JUSTA use painless...trust me.
Interiour mods include console and the very rare pay to play option. Justa like the LIL car outside the grocery store. LMAO
Finally, 1st fire and ride with stops for photos. Overheat, sometimes workin sometimes not rear tail lights keep er home for the dream cruise. 2days before and have to give up and get the Sunbird ready for display with the Sta-bil rig for the weekend.
Monday Aug 26th I go into have my shoulder rebuilt. OH for the love of Pontiac. I waited too long for surgery and they can't reattach my bi-cep. During the downtime installed new heater core. hoping the extra coolent in system will help with overheat, rewired rear tail lights with new sockets and also wired in sequential tail lights, VERY COOL. Fabbed up a fan schroud and finished installing new wheel well/rocker chrome. 1st pics out for this year.
Justa in the driveway, but temp never got past 180. Using a single carb throttle cable and had to shorten, still not 100% open. Need to replace with a Tri cable. Every piece has been found. Missing only the original radio knobs for an AM I picked up to fill the hole in dash. Will hide a better setup for tunes. Also missing the square domelight cover. Need new chrome clips for missing window trim front/rear clips. Enough to hold em in place, but took too long to find the chrome. Want it right. Paint will be on the back burner til next winter. Timing is the next issue. Runs, idles well, but has major stumble. There are only 2 marks on crank pulley with no timing scale. Only a peep hole to line up. Gonna install new tune up parts and try the other timing mark. As I live on dirt roads and rainin straight throught the last week. Can't wait for the roads to dry up N test N tune.
Now your cookin...