70 Judge Tribute Build
 

So the driver is due for a refresh, and felt since I was going to go through it, might as well make it something worth while. I've always like the 70 GTOs, the styling is killer, the sheet metal is all available, so it makes sense to go in that direction.

I did the 442 tribute for my daughter, she loves it, so figured I stick with a winged car and make it a Judge for my son (he's inline for a classic).

Figured I'd track the progress here, and if I need any help or anything, what better place to go?

General Project Outline: Clone a 70 GTO Judge from my 71 LeMans Sport. Modern comforts, overdrive, AC, sound and thermal control, nice sound system, and low maintenance.

Here's a shot of what I'm starting with, many have seen posts of this car over the years, at PY shows, cruises, etc.

Also attached is a couple of examples of the direction I'm going, either an Orbit Orange or an Atoll Blue, and obviously, this build isn't going to be correct, just a 'tribute'. If I grabbed someone's car here, um, thanks!

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In preparation for the build, one item I purchased early on was an endura, and sourced it from EnduraBumper.com. I did another thread on this, and gave them a plug, feel the service and quality was worth a mention.

Obviously the proof will be once it gets mounted, and how it fits, but I've seen a number of endura bumpers in my time, and this one seems pretty nice. When the time comes, I will post more regarding.

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Getting right to it, the tear down begins. I blew the front clip off, and pulled the engine and trans.

Someone was interested in purchasing the front clip, but for some reason, we couldn't come to an understanding. (will be listing it in the parts section soon)

Also there's a shot of some assembly line markings on the cowl, not sure what they mean, but figured I'd include the pic for others' possible interest.

Some of the pics are out of sequence, but you get the idea....

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In case anyone questions if I drove this car hard or not...

Got the tires mounted on the new wheels, US MAG 18x9s, and got the rally center caps for them, should look good.

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So before I take the body up to the body shop, I needed to change the body bushings, since with worn out bushings, you can't do any panel alignment. I was tossing around the idea of possibly having the frame blasted and powder coated, and finally just said what the heck, and dropped the frame.

I used angle iron and bolted it to the forward pinch weld where the fender bolts to the cowl, and lowered it on to jack stands.

In the rear, I used angle iron on the bumper mounts, and lowered those on some 6x6 posts.

I gutted the front suspension and most of the rear, but you could drop it and roll it out if you wanted to. I did leave some of the rear suspension and the exhaust in place, and just removed it after the fact.

I know it looks shady, but believe me, it's not going anywhere, and is properly supported! I shook the whole thing a bunch beforehand, just to make sure the stands would hold it.

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So I got the frame loaded in my POS truck, and hauled it to the blaster and powder coater. Turned out pretty good, and just for reference, to have the bare frame blasted and powder coated cost me $750 in my area, which is probably a little more than most, but I am in a greater metro area.

As a suggestion, if you're going to do this, I suggest you take some time and clean up welds, slag, etc, and have the frame checked for cracks and repaired as needed.

I looked into boxing the frame but figured for my build, it wouldn't be required. If anyone is curious as to my logic, feel free to ask.

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Excellent thread! Looks like lot's of progress

Thanks! Oddly, it actually has gone pretty fast up to this point, kind of surprised. Took like 4 or 5 hours to take the front clip off, like 2 hours to remove engine and trans, about 4 hours to gut the interior, and about 6 hours to remove all the suspension and the frame. The time it took to remove the suspension and frame includes cleaning up the parts coming off as well.

So spoke with Doug at Global West like a week ago, and got all the stuff ordered to freshen the suspension. Hope that stuff will be here today or so.

Engine was dropped at CVMS couple weeks ago when I pulled it, and the trans was shipped to CK Performance to be freshened up.

So the plan is to get the suspension done, frame installed, engine and trans installed, then take it to the body shop. That way it can roll around and the body shop guys aren't burdened with moving the hulk.

Also going to prep the firewall and underside before I take it to the body shop. I'm going to use a Vintage Air AC setup, and because of, will smooth the firewall. I purchased a smoothie panel from ABC Performance, and should have the firewall prepped and the panel tacked into place by the end of the weekend.

The underside I'm going to clean up, wipe down, and coat with truck bed liner. There's some minor repairs that need to happen on the floor pan cross braces, seems a couple small areas held water and rusted a little. Think it's like 2 spots of like 2" by 2" at most, not enough to even purchase pans. The braces I'll hit with some Eastwood internal frame coating once the patches are done. Luckily, when I first got the car in '91, I pulled the carpet, wire wheeled the whole floor, and POR-15 it. Saved it.

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Where is Endura Bumpers? There webpage doesn't tell you were there located.

Keep the pictures coming.:)

I would have to look at the receipt as to where they are located, don't remember off the top of my head. There's a YouTube site and a FaceBook page, neither have that info.

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Looks like EnduraBumper.com is in Indiana, but still haven't dug up the receipt.


Anyway, couple updates here, and at least I will post a pic!

Got the firewall prepped for the smoothie plate, ground the raised lips, beat a few high spots in, and wire wheel the top/cowl area. Had to dig out a bunch of seam sealer on the top, and sides of the cowl, wire wheeled the groove, and went heavy on the POR-15 in the seams.

On the firewall, I mocked up the smoothie plate, used a sharpie and outlined it, ground/wire wheeled about a 2 inch path on either side of the sharpie line, and shot it with zinc weld thru primer. (Holy crap that's stuff is $31 a can!) I also hit a number of holes that were for firewall pad push retainers, and a few other holes that 'appeared' thru normal use, and will weld those as well.

Broke a windshield removal tool, it's an older one, so couldn't get the windshield out this past weekend, but ordered a new one, hope that will come in before next weekend.

Got a call from Jim at CVMS, seems the engine will be fine with a re-ring, new bearings, and general clean up. Will do a new cam and lifters, still trying to decide what I'll do there. I will give a break down on what was done etc once I get to that point and will post.

Also got a call from Chris at CK Perf, the trans is done, had to replace a few hard parts, did new frictions, and ordered a lower stall converter. (@2600) . Both shipped today, so should have it before the weekend. The original converter, which was @ 3000-3400 stall, I have getting freshened up, and will re-use on the 442 in the spring. (it needs an overdrive bad)

So I have some work to do, need to get the firewall and underside done before I bot the frame back up, then need to knock out the suspension to a point where it rolls, drop the engine/trans in, and take it up to the body shop by the 3rd or 4th week of Sept. . Whew! Or that's the plan!

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Trunk key code and maybe the sequence number for line-up of car for the day built. Pontiac plant built?

Hm, not sure, but I do have the PHS on it, maybe I will dig it up and post info.

This car was ordered by a Pontiac dealer owner for his daughter to drive to college. It was not badly optioned, 71 LeMans Sport, lucy blue, PB, PS, AC, tuxedo interior, and vinyl top. 350 2bbl auto car. I bought it from the second owner, and it had about 69k miles on it as I remember, think I paid 2600 for it in '91, there again, I would have to check, but pretty sure. At one point I had someone approach me stating they knew the original owner, the girl who drove it to college, so the history I got from the second owner was validated. I bought the car specifically to use as a tow vehicle for a boat I was planning on buying, put a 400 in it with a Th400 and a 12 bolt 373. I bought a house instead of the boat, and the car ended up being a driver. I drove the car as my primary transportation pretty much until about 2010, and it's had like 7 or 8 engines in it, and I would freshen the engine or replace every @ 100k or so. My kids grew up riding in this car and it's a piece of the family. This go around, when it's done, the plan is to give it to my son (my daughter got the w-30 clone).

Here's a shot of it from like 1993, I had just put an H-O Strong Arm suspension on it, and 16s from like an 88 T/A. Trivia: My kids, young at the time, were ducked down in the car when I took this pic.

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So my buddy came over and welded the smoothie plate in today. Only took minor doctoring, a few slight high spots, and a little trimming of the panel. Held it up there and started tacking it into place.

He did like 4-6 inch spacing between the welds, started at one side, and worked his way towards the center of the firewall. That he said would prevent having the panel under any kind of tension.

Once he made a pass, he went back and started filling in the spaces. Hit it with a grinder with a course sanding disc on it, ground the welds down some, checked for open areas, and hit any remaining.

He's going to come back on night this week and do a slight bit of filler, sand it out slightly, and it will be ready for seam sealer and paint.

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Also got the frame installed over the weekend, set the ABC solid bushings in place and raised it, got all the bolts in....

Did the underside in truck bed liner, though there are areas I left exposed so some minor repair can be done (without catching fire). I'll touch it up once it comes back, not a problem.

Will get the suspension parts cleaned up, a couple may need a touch up with a rattle can, but for the most part, it's all ready to bolt on. Have new hardware, a good number of new parts, shouldn't take long to get it rolling.

Engine is close to being completed, will bolt it to the trans and drop it in before I take it up to the body shop.

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What kind if material are the bushings made from? :)

T6061 billet:

http://www.abcperformance.net/body%20mounts.html

They're the ABC Performance ones.

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Got the smoothie panel finished, primed, and ran all the seam sealer. Then shot it with a initial coat of paint. Seam sealer should be cured by tomorrow, so will shoot the final coats after work.... (sorry for the quality of the shots, got lazy and used my phone...)

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Here's a better pic of the finished firewall....

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Dang flu blew my schedule! But did get a bunch of stuff done.

Got the front suspension done and test fit a wheel/tire. The outer tie rods I got from Rock Auto were not boxed properly, were the wrong parts, had to order another set, should have them Wednesday.

Got the rear detailed, all the rear suspension installed, rear installed, and test fit the wheels/tires. Need to touch up the axle tubes, there was some scuffing during installed, a misting is all it should take to straighten out.

Not going to do the brakes and all until it comes back from the body shop, main goal is to get it rolling and the engine/trans in to limit damage after paint. Should have the engine back in a week or so. Should have it in the body shop within 3 weeks.

A couple pics of progress...

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Engine and trans installed, going to the body shop this coming week. Sweet. I missed my slot because the engine took a while, machinist had the flu, was a nasty one, glad he cleared that ok.

Finally got to use the G-Force 4L80E swap trans cross member, had that thing for probably 2 years, never installed it. Fits great, and allows for a certain amount of adjustment at the mount, up and down, with shims, to correct driveline alignment. Will get to use my Tremec app on my smart phone for that.

Once it's in the body shop I will clean the garage, ebay a bunch of parts, and get the front & rear seats recovered. I can knock that out in the basement, won't freeze!

Also have to do some minor stuff on the clone, shouldn't be too bad.

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In case you care, my vote is for the atoll blue :D

Pretty sure I'm going with Atoll, and was hoping to find a similar color in the Hot Hues line.

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Any updates? Have you used those solid body mounts before?

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No, never used the ABC mounts before, but it's no-brainer stuff. They fit well, even if the instructions are a little weak. One thing you have to remember is the body bolts that are along the seat pans need to be like a 1/4" shorter than the rest, but no biggie.

Update is, still waiting for my slot in the body shop to open. I missed my original window, and that added like 4-6 months before I could get in. Like most other shops, their' bread and butter is collision work, and with the weather, there have been delays. The one car that is ahead of mine, a '62 GP, is almost done, or is done, I was told to check in tomorrow.

Once I get it up there I will clean the garage, and start collecting other parts. I have everything for the body, so it's mechanical and interior stuff I still need to get. I have like 70-80% of it all, just a few final, big-ticket items I need, like the EFI ECU and the like.

Soon. And a shame now that it prob won't be done until the fall...

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Great thread!

X2 on the great thread, Are you going to put a heater in it..

Yeah, I'm torn on either a Classic Auto Air setup or a Vintage Air setup. when I get to that point I will make a selection, but thinking Classic Auto most likely. I've had very good service from them, and pricing is better.

Spoke to the body shop yesterday, they are clearing a spot for my car. They finished the 62 Grand Prix that was ahead of me, and a 66 Buick GS. I may go up tomorrow to get a couple pics of the GP, that thing is sweet. Owner chose a pearl white Caddy color, turned out good. Anyway, there were hang ups on both those projects, which delayed my car getting in there. Just the way things work out in this field...


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Just to be informative...

I use rattle cans for suspension and other area finishing, for a number of reasons. One, later down the road, it's easy to touch up, and that's a big factor. I learned when doing the clone that it's not easy to find matching shades of rattle paint, and found that it's best to stick with one brand. Also, when trying to make sure different paints are compatible, it's best to stick with the same type of paint, be it epoxy or whatever. You don't want to find out after that you now have to strip a large section of something because you shot lacquer over acrylic or something.

Anyway, what I use is Dupli-color Engine paint, semi-gloss black. Can get it everywhere, readily available, not too expensive, and as my body guy says, sticks to anything. Don't have to worry about it catching fire either! Fairly good about repelling solvents and chemicals too.

I looked at a bunch of the bed liner stuff too, and originally bought some roll-on stuff, think it was Rhino-liner. But, that stuff is a pain to apply, need a bunch of rollers and different sizes, and it's still hard to get into some areas. So, luckily, there are aerosol ones. I didn't want one that would be 'rubbery' either, or one that would come off easy. And what I ended up with is the Dupli-color Bed Coating. I tried the Rust-oleum one too, it's fine, but it's a little more expensive and a little harder to find. I was able to get the Dupli-color one on sale for $7 a can, which is a pretty good deal, think normally they're like $10-12 a can.

I've gotten good results with my rattle can approach, and for a driver-quality car, it works, looks good, lasts, easy to touch up, and makes parts/areas last longer.

I'm curious how other approach this on a driver-class car, and would like to hear opinions/suggestions/comments...

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FINALLY!! Spot opened up in the body shop, and got the car up there! Here's a shot of it on the rollback:

Hope PY gets the site figured out, looks like all my previously posted project shots are now gone...

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You did not have old rims to put on? Those are real pretty and overspray clean up sucks!! Congrats. Hope they finish it fast.

Gave the old wheels to a board member, but the shop does have 'shop' wheels they will put on it.

Those are the US Mag ones, 18s, I like them, and will look good once it's done.

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Those wheel are what I want to run on my GT-37. They look great!:clap2:

Just got the wheels straightened and I am waiting on tires. I will post pics once I get them on. Thanks again for the really nice wheels. Glad they got you into the body shop and I can't wait to see it when it's done.

Glad to hear! Should be cake to get them polished out too! Nice to see they will get good use!


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Stripped, can see the previous work that was done, thankfully it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was sweating they made a mess of the whole panel, this can be done with a patch.

Can see some of the work already done on the trunk lid and quarter end, they are trying to keep busy until the quarter patch panels come in.

Roof was saved from a good coat of POR-15 like 15 years ago, no major work needs to be done anywhere. One door has a small spot in the lower rear corner where previous repair work needs to be corrected, nothing big.

Some minor window channel work as usual, again, nothing big.

Another 2 - 3 weeks and it will be further along, I will go up and grab some more shots then...

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Agreed :-)

What trans? Are you mating the 4L80E up to the Pontiac 461? How? Is there room in the tunnel?

Yes, 4L80E, the one I had in there for like 7 or so years I had freshened up by CK, was fully operational. I went to a new converter, wanted less stall. Considering going to a different rear gear as well, drop from the 373 to like maybe a 331, haven't decided.

If you search here, I did an install thread when I originally bought it, listed all that was needed to complete the install. Definitely one of the best upgrades I can recommend to anyone.

Here it is:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...ighlight=4L80E

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Stopped by the body shop yesterday, the driver patch is almost done, body guy said they may shoot a guide coat on it today. Said he should have the other side done by the end of next week, and mock the front clip up too. Nice.

EDIT: Oh yeah, all the floor patches were done, and what you can't see in the pic is the work done on the outer wheel house, its fully patched. Body guy said the driver repo outer wheelhouses are very rough, and were too short going forward, he had to make a big piece. He said the passenger side was great, he's not sure why the two were so different, maybe they made a mold out of a passenger side for the driver stampings.

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Sweet! Looks like he is moving right along! Nice progress

Going in for a guide coat of primer, all the front end is hung....

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UPDATE:

Went up to the shop last Friday, and they were spraying the build primer on the fenders, hood, valance, doors, and deck lid. They were going to push the body in and spray that too early this week.

I will go up this coming Friday and take some pics on the progress.

Not sure what the hold-up was, but they did pump out a lot of work over the last 4 months. And looks like they have dedicated some time for my car, and it will be ready for paint here shortly.

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UPDATE:

Was asked last week to provide a paint selection, they had moved everything into the booth and plan on doing the cut in Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

So had started a thread in the Body section regarding Atoll variations, and got some decent suggestions. Only way you really can 'see' a color is on a car, so I drove around to different dealerships and checked out colors. Most were too 'purple' for my liking, and some didn't quite 'pop' the way I was hoping for, so I ended up picking a Caddy color, Opulent Blue.

I'll go up Friday and take some pics of the cut in, see how it looks.

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Can't wait to see some color on this car ! Your building a killer street machine.

Yeah Mike, I can't wait either, has been one delay after the next with this project! And over-budget is an understatement!

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Glad to see it's going into the booth. I can't wait to see it painted. Going to be a sweet car.

Really looking forward to seeing the Opulent Blue on it....

Sounds like a great build -- EFI, overdrive, A/C. Glad you didn't put an LS motor in it.

Cool back story on the car, too.

Let me know how the body bushings work out -- curious to hear if you notice a harsher ride with these.

On the rear gear, certainly seems like 3.73 would be fine with an overdrive and 18" (or was it 17") tires. I'm thinking about an overdrive for my 68, which has 3.90 gears now.

No heartburn on the cloning, either. Most Judges are a bit too valuable to use as daily drivers.

Scott