Update on my latest project - 68 GTO

Thought you might enjoy a little project update...

I bought this car in March, 2012. It's a Fremont-built GTO that has apparently spent its life (til 2011) in California and Nevada.

I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of pictures, but did not go to Nevada to look at the car. Here are a few of the seller's pics:













I knew it needed trunk floors and lower LH quarter repairs, as well as a patch in the left fender.

According to the seller, he bought the car (as a roller) in the mid-90s and started building it. He had installed a 1969 "big car" 428 and a TH400 with either a 2.93 or 3.08 posi. It was originally a non-hideaway car, but the seller had installed hideaways. They were not working and the vacuum hoses and switch were missing.

It ran, but the brakes were not working well.



Here is what it looked like when it arrived in Michigan in early April:



The black paint was mostly rattle-can touch ups to cover bare metal.

After spending some time checking it out, I decided to get it roadworthy and drive it as much as possible over the summer (2012), then get it ready for a winter paint job. My target was to have it on the road for the Woodward Dream Cruise in August.

After going through the fuel system and the brakes, I started cutting out the trunk floor and found that the left quarter was worse then I anticipated. Typical...rust is like an iceberg; what you see is about 10% of what's really there!

Surprisingly, the trunk braces and fuel tank supports were in great shape.









Had to purchase and/or fabricate a bunch of patch panels and had to replace the panel between the rear window and the trunk opening; it was really bad...













Got all that stuff done between April and July and pushed to have it on the road for August...

Rally wheels re-done:




Interior cleaned up, repaired an old, cracked steering wheel to replace the Buick wheel that was in the car, got the gauges working, got the dash pad crack repaired:





Pulled the 69 bumper off, refurbished the headlight mechanisms and the grilles/doors:






MADE IT![]
Had it drivable by July 30.

A few rattle cans of flat black, and this is how it looked when we hit Woodward for the Dream Cruise:







After the Dream Cruise and a few more short trips, I started prepping the body for paint.

I brought it out to the painter and he recommended stripping it to bare metal. A few old repairs were obvious and he wanted to make sure he knew exactly what was under all that flat black paint and old "hi-build" polyester primer.

Lots of DA time yielded some ugly surprises.
Looks like the car sideswiped a guard rail early in its life...




There was a triple crease running from just ahead of the door opening almost all the way to the rear wheel opening and even into the rear section of the quarter.

Must have happened a long time ago; the only paint under the repair material was the original primer and black lacquer!







I spent a LOT of hours on the Endura bumper. The bumper was sandblasted down to the bare ruber/urethane base. I opened up the worst of the cracks, filled all the holes and re-shaped contours with a special flexible epoxy material. Lots of work...





Here's how it looked when it went to the painter in early November:








In the meantime, I've been busy on the seats. Got the rears and the passenger seat done:






Here are more recent pics from the body shop...

These first pics are from early December.

Quarter skin removed, all hidden surfaces prepped for new skin installation:





Test fit new quarter skin:





Two weeks later, I returned to see that the car was wearing its first primer coat:







The door skin is loose and awaiting replacement:




New Dynacorn door skin. Turned out to be a very nice piece:





These next few are from December 20:

Base coat and cleared from the A pillars back:









As of January 7, the car is painted from the firewall back and he's now working on the fenders.



We are going to replace the "Soffseal" deck lid weatherstrip; it is so thick it is holding the decklid up about 1/4" above the quarters. When we re-installed the original weatherstrip, the fit was perfect...

Compared the cross-section and found that the Soffseal part is more than 1/4" taller than the original part. Left the trunk closed for a week and it still didn't collapse enough to allow reasonable opening and closing efforts. The weatherstrip is pushing the decklid up with so much force, it was impossible to open the trunk with a key.

I'm going to try the weatherstrip from Inline Tube; they tooled that part themselves and it is supposed to be identical to the original section.




Here you can see the same seal issue with the door. The SoffSeal part is harder and taller than the original seal. This is how the door fit looks after a full week of compressing the seal with the door closed. It's held out about 1/4" beyond the quarter surface. Without the new seal, the fit is perfect.

We are going to give this some additional time; if it doesn't compress enough, I might be replacing the door seals, too.








Hood & bumper will be last.
The hood has some low areas that need to be corrected:



The body has been cleared, but still needs to be blocked and polished.

More to follow!

Joe,I have a wagon that I would love to leave with you for a few months! You do great
work,cant wait to see the finished car!

Wow Joe, great work! That car has come a long way in a short time! And way cool that you got it together in time for Woodward.

What color is that? A dark graphite? Sexy!

And that's crazy about the weatherseals. You'd think after all these years of repopping them, that they woulda had them right by now. Smh.

Can't wait for another update!

Wow, fantastic work! Some day when I win the lotto.....lol Wish I had the time and resources for such an endeavour. Starting point not far off from where my 68 Cougar is...

Lookin' good! Nice job getting that all done in a short time frame. The color is very nice looking in the pics, I bet it's sweet in person. Are you going to do anything with the drive train? Are you going to use the vacuum operated exhaust from the company you owned?
Keep up the good work, and keep the pics coming.

Mike

Great job! Following your progress reminded me of when I was restoring my derelict '67GS the first time back in the late '80s.

Flasheroo wrote:

Joe,I have a wagon that I would love to leave with you for a few months! You do great
work,cant wait to see the finished car!

Thanks for the compliments, but I think I'll pass on your wagon project...after this one is done, I have some plans for my Bonneville! I'd really like to drop a 400 Pontiac in that little G body.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Wow Joe, great work! That car has come a long way in a short time! And way cool that you got it together in time for Woodward.

What color is that? A dark graphite? Sexy!

And that's crazy about the weatherseals. You'd think after all these years of repopping them, that they woulda had them right by now. Smh.

Can't wait for another update!

It looks gray because it's so dusty, but it is "Starlight Black" base/clear. It's. Originally a black car so I went with the original color.

I've talked to a friend of mine about the seals...should have talked to him before I bought what I bought. He has had the same issues on his cars and I would have learned which ones fit best. he told me the doors will eventually compress enough to work OK, but he recommended a different trunk seal.

200OZ wrote:

Lookin' good! Nice job getting that all done in a short time frame. The color is very nice looking in the pics, I bet it's sweet in person. Are you going to do anything with the drive train? Are you going to use the vacuum operated exhaust from the company you owned?
Keep up the good work, and keep the pics coming.

Mike

Yes, it will have a VOE system eventually. The "VOE 2" vanity plates are already on the car...

Olds Weighty Eight wrote:

Great job! Following your progress reminded me of when I was restoring my derelict '67GS the first time back in the late '80s.

That's a neat car...is that the convertible listed in your sig?

Thanks everybody. I figured this might be an interesting topic, even though i isn't a longroof.

Wow, just wow!

PM'ing you my address and a plane ticket. I'm ready for you to start on mine!!

Car sure has come a long way in a short period of time. Your doing some very nice work...always great to see a classic come back from the dead. I hope your planning on sending some pictures of the finished car to the PO.

Good luck with the 400 swap...you have a good eye, I love the tasteful mods.

JP

81X11 wrote:

Wow, just wow!

PM'ing you my address and a plane ticket. I'm ready for you to start on mine!!

Mike,
Just ship your car here. When it's done, I'll put 20 or 30,000 miles on it to make sure everything works OK.

Will load it up Joe!

WOW... nice work!

Do you still have the buick steering wheel?

1993 Roady-man wrote:

Do you still have the buick steering wheel?

Sorry, it's been sold.

That '68 really does look fantastic. You do great work sir!

-Mike

Thanks,.. and yeah the car looks great.

Joe,

I do not know how I missed this thread on your 68 Goat, Nice work, I ran into the same issues with the last GTO I redid 20 years ago, a Ram Air III 69 Automatic. Rust free expet for the rear filler panel and rear window channel, and had about 3 inches of bondo filling many dents of the drivers side.

Your 69 looks good, are you planning on adding the lower valance panel grills that the Hidaway cars had? It does clean up the look as they hide the Vacuum Cans for the doors.

I need to come up to your place and have a beer, I do Like your taste in Pontiac's.

Cammerjeff,

Thanks for the comments; I've admired your Pontiac selections, too. Really like the Formula and the Astre wagon!

I don't think I've ever seen the valance grilles you mentioned; I'll have to look for a picture somewhere.

My car is a 68, but it wore a 69 front bumper in many of the photos. It's got the correct 68 bumper on it now.

A visit sounds like a great idea!

Visited the body shop today.

First base coat is on the fenders and hood.
Started blocking this morning:

Joe, it looks like it was only the 69 Cars with hidden headlights that got the lower grills, I see the lower valance cut outs on 68's are much smaller. My Bad.

Are you going to be around this weekend? Looks like I may get a weekend off. Fingers Crossed!!!!

cammerjeff wrote:

Joe, it looks like it was only the 69 Cars with hidden headlights that got the lower grills, I see the lower valance cut outs on 68's are much smaller. My Bad.

Are you going to be around this weekend? Looks like I may get a weekend off. Fingers Crossed!!!!

PM sent!

UPDATE January 25, 2013

While the car is at the body shop, I have been working on the seats and other parts to get them ready for installation.

The seats didn't look too bad, but when I pulled them out of the car I found a lot of rotten seams and some old rust stains. The foam was obviously in bad shape; it felt like you were sitting in the seat frame instead of a foam cushion.

When I took them apart, I found the typical rusty springs and some rust on the metal frames:










Got the frames and springs bead-blasted and painted them:






Re-installed the springs into the frames:








Sewed up new suspension units to replace the old, tattered burlap:
Front seat:




Rear seat:




Installed replacement felt underneath the new urethane foam buns:





Then added soft, non-woven pads and slip-sheets before installing the covers:






Then, after a lot of stretching and hog-ringing, I ended up with this:







I still have to re-install the plastic covers, but I think the seats turned out great!

These were ACI foam buns and Legendary covers.

I'm totally impressed. You can fix anything!

-Mike

"You can fix anything!"

My daughters believe that, too.

But when you're as old as I am, it's just all those years of experience.

"We're not worthy"

/Wayne

Wow dude. Impressed!

toomanytoyz wrote:

"We're not worthy"

/Wayne

Wow dude. Impressed!

Thanks!

Nice work. I've got new skins in the box waiting to go on my 65 Impala seats. Have to go pick up some hog rings and pliers...

Joe,

Those seats look great! I haven't been brave enough to do seats yet, maybe the next set, as my Astre's seats and door panels are at my favorate upholstery shop now.

See you around 3 today.

cammerjeff wrote:

Joe,

Those seats look great! I haven't been brave enough to do seats yet, maybe the next set, as my Astre's seats and door panels are at my favorate upholstery shop now.

See you around 3 today.

I'll give you a tour of my trim shop. LOL

Those are a thing of beauty!

jayoldschool wrote:

Nice work. I've got new skins in the box waiting to go on my 65 Impala seats. Have to go pick up some hog rings and pliers...

TSC has em in stock, cheap too

Very nice work Joe!!

Joe,if you're going to rub these seats in our faces please post larger pictures!Boy is Mike going to
freak when he see's the progress on your Goat!

Great job on the seats! The first and only time I've done this was redoing the interior in my 1968 Firebird about 10 years ago. It's hard work folks!

Flasheroo wrote:

Joe,if you're going to rub these seats in our faces please post larger pictures!Boy is Mike going to
freak when he see's the progress on your Goat!

I promise to add some nice, clear pics as soon as I get the plastic side and back panels finished.
I hope to have it all wrapped up tomorrow (Monday).

Seats are finally DONE!

The top of the rear seat back has a few small waves along the emboss lines, but I think they will smooth out when they warm up.
All in all, I'm happy with the results.

Damn Joe,those are beautiful!You do very impressive work.Now put some paint on that rusty
spring!

Flasheroo wrote:

Damn Joe,those are beautiful!You do very impressive work.Now put some paint on that rusty
spring!

It's funny; I noticed that when I posted the picture.
That spring has a white dry-film lube on it, but I used a spray wax lube on the other one.
The flash really makes the spray lube look orange!

Maybe I'll use the wax on both sides...no one will ever see it, but it'll bug me knowing it looks like that.

I've installed the gauges and woodgrain on the dash bezel...looks pretty good!


Here is the dash bezel with the woodgrain applied:








And some pics of the installed gauges:








There are some dark spots on the tach face in this is close-up, but it must just be a reflection; the part looks great

Almost need sunglasses for that cluster,looks like the factory parts on the showroom floor back in
1968!

did you get the bezel re chromed?

Yes; it was done by Vacuum Orna-Metal in Romulus, MI.

Wow, fantastic work. Ditto the Wayne comment, not worthy.
You sir, are an artist.

Thanks, Sprocket!

Don't know about being an artist, but I definitely have a touch of OCD.

JoeT wrote:

Thanks, Sprocket!

Don't know about being an artist, but I definitely have a touch of OCD.

Best case of OCD that I've ever seen.Great work and remarkable progress too.You sure are not wasting any time Joe!
Keep up the good work!

Time for final sanding and polishing; should be ready to bring it home for re-assembly by the end of the month.












Bumper turned out pretty good!







Still sanding the hood & fenders







It's starting to look good!

Joe,its way past starting to look good,AWESOME would be a more appropriate word.You sure
dont waste any time do you?I dont think any of these fancy shops with their own line of tools
and products could do it any faster OR better.How big is your garage because I cant tell?

Jim,
There is no way I could do this paint job myself; it's at a restoration/body shop.
I've known the shop owner for a few years; he was a customer of mine when I owned the exhaust business.

The rest of the work (seats, instrument panel, vehicle dis-assembly, body stripping and rust repairs) was all done at my home. I have an attached 3-car garage and an area in the basement where I can work on smaller stuff.

I wish I had a larger shop (detached pole barn), but that's just not gonna happen....

JoeT wrote:

I wish I had a larger shop (detached pole barn), but that's just not gonna happen....

you can always fill in the pool, and build the pole barn there!

buickestate wrote:

JoeT wrote:

I wish I had a larger shop (detached pole barn), but that's just not gonna happen....

you can always fill in the pool, and build the pole barn there!

Nah, that'll never fly!