My '66 GTO Restoration
 

The work has been going for a few months now.I bought this car back in the late 90s and have been looking for someone (good) to do the restoration.This was my Parents car and I gew up in it until about '72.My parent bought it in late Dec '65 and I was born about 2 weeks later.My dad found the car and bought it for me in '82 so it was my car in H.S.The car was restored in '86,we found out later very poorly and I sold it in '90.
Here is a couple before pics,the lady that bought from me it had the car painted this medium blue.The bottom pic is the guys shop that is doing the restoration and he is letting me help to save me some $$$!

More pics

More dissassembly.

More pics.I got the '67 qtr from Phil.

Progress!

Nice project, I'm gonna love keeping up with yours while I attempt to do mine as well.

Great story. Kinda reminds me of Merlotgoat's as his was handed down by his grandparents. Wonderful to have a family connection to an already great car. I'm rooting for you.

Favorite thread watching a restoration. Always good to see a great car restored, even better that is family.

Thanks for the kind words guys!Skeeter I've been checking out several others restorations myself,those guys have really helped me out!
This time I am making sure the car is done right and nix on the shortcuts.That is the reason I drove to Georgia to get Phils '67 1/4 vs trying to use the ill fitting repop 1/4.
The other big thing for me is to decide on a dark blue color close to what it was painted back in '86.I will post a pic of the original color and the restored color.

Cool story & good luck on the car.

NIce looking car even before you started tearing it down.
Your story confuses me a little bit.....Looks like you or your Dad have bought the car 2 (or maybe 3) separate times?

I'm a little ahead of you on mine....getting it back from the paint shop in 2 weeks. The I'll have all winter to put the dash, interior, and wiring in. Hope you are having as much fun as I am having. :D

Great story!
Good luck on the resto...

Paul Harvys the rest of the story.....
 

Sorry about that.The car was sold in '72 for for around $500 to son of some good friends of my parents.The car passed from him to several members of their family but they didn't always get the title changed.Fast forward to '82,dad came in from squirrel hunting and told mom he found the old GTO.They thought I was out of earshot but I wasn't so I came in to plead my case for the car.A week later we went to see the car,it had rusty lower quarters and faded silver blue paint but I was in love!It was the original 389 and 2 speed auto still in place,the headliner has a couple small holes and the carpet was faded but still decent and seats did not have any rips in them.The topper was in the glovebox:the owners manual with dads name on the protecto plate!
The windshield leaked in the drivers floor,the fuel pump needed replacing because it leaked in the oil pan.That was the worst of it all for the sum of $300 and it ran,the odometer had 112,xx miles!Dad drove it home.
We did the usual tune up,tires,exaust and a rebuilt alternator and from there it was my daily drive in H.S.Some of the kids laughed but not when I beat several of them racing and I still had the snow tires on for some of the races.I rebuilt the moter in Auto Mechanics at VoTech my senior year.('84)
While I was stationed in Germany(Army)dad was having a guy restore the car using sheet metal from The Goat Farm.I was sending money home to help with the cost.The car was finished about a month before I came home from Germany('86).My parents sent pics to me and I could hardly wait to get back.Cometically the car looked great but within a 6 months there were paint bubbles popping on the car and the guy would not fix them.I parked the car a few months before I got married in '88 and bought a '85 GP.The car sat under the edge of the my parents barn with only a tin roof over it for a couple years and when I went back into the Army right before I was stationed in Alaska I sold THE CAR in Dec of '90.
It took several years but I finally found the car with the help of the Mo DMV,I kept the Owners manual with the VIN in it.It also took a couple of years to pry the car from the owner.He had bought it from the person I sold it to and the car was a mess.It still had the original engine/transmission but both needed work as well as body,interior(DUCKTAPE on the seats and headliner!) ect and to top it off I paid more for it than I sold it for.:(That was '96 or so.
The car won't be going back to original,I want to add more power and comfort to it.The car was manual steering and brakes.Sorry this is so long but you asked for it!;)

What a great story!!!!!! thanks

I sure did....and don't apologize because NOW it's a great story! When the story is about a Goat, the longer the better...lol
You're a lucky guy..Very few people get a second chance at the one that got away...Between you and your Dad, you got rid of it twice and got it back twice.

Lol!I was tring to be brief and hit the high points,oh well.

Blue,
Looking good. You will probably be finished with yours before me. What was the original color on your car? Norman still hasn't painted the 64 but he got my buddie's 57 ragtop done. We are going up there tomorrow to take some parts for it. I will take some pics and post one or two.

Great story and good luck with the car, always good to get another 66 on the road.

I think it's good to get ANY old car on the road! :cool:

I was wondering when you were gonna start this thread Blue. I know that car has been apart for a while from reading your posts. Good luck on it. I love restoration threads.

And what a great history to boot!! Youre a VERY lucky guy.

Off the the powdercoaters........
 

this past friday!!We dropped off the frame and A/C core support and hood hinges for stripping and powdercoating,the front fenders,the rear 1/4,hood,deck lid,inner front fenders for stripping and e-coating.They are busy so it will take 4-5 weeks.
My body guy started replacing the outer 1/3 of the drivers side trunk pan later that day.Saturday he finished putting in the trunk 1/3 and also put on the trunk extension piece.I started scraping the inside roof insulation off,now thats a dirty job!

More pics!

Moar.The rear is a posi N one from '69 Judge,I will be putting a 3:36 ring and pinion.The "M" emblem in on the original gas tank.Anyone know the name of the company that made them?The mess in the trunk pan pic is from scraping the insulation off the ceiling.

Great little story, what was the original color, and what will it be now?

The original color was Fontaine Blue.I have not decided on a color yet,I am looking for a dark blue close to what it was painted in '86.I have to get a pic posted of each color.

Here are 2 pics:1 is me in front of my car in the summer of '86,my soon to be in(out)-laws are sitting in the chairs.Dennis has a '78 or '79 gold TA on the other side of my car.

2:My car in '84 parked beside my aunts Ferd truck.It has a 390 with headers on it and she says it would take my GTO but she would not race me.

:mad:I'm sorry about the poor pics,I just scanned the pics in and HP has a special program that keeps the pic inside.You have to sign up and buy a certain amount of prints ect:argue::mad::mad::mad:I was able to forward them to my computer and capture them with my resizer program but they are small. I never had this trouble before on an older model HP printer

Had to resize the pic

Hes a better pic of the original blue.Notice the rust in the lower rear 1/4

More pics from '86

Dark blue with a black vinyl top?

That's sharp...

Thanks,I did not want the vinyl top to be put back on.The guy told my dad the metal was too thin on top and the only way he would do it would be to fiberglass the metal and install the vinyl.Dad told him do it,he didn't have much choice they had already started and the was not another guy to do it.
The guy did a bad job over all we found out later,we are having to fix his mistakes.Also when we pulled the vinyl top off guess what?????No fiberglass covering the top:He lied!:mad:I really was not too surprised.

I will not put the vinyl top on this time.

Yeah, that never happens, does it? :rolleyes::mad:

Not much to report.I have a pic of the new trunk piece installed and the new lower filler panel.Also I disasembled one of the vent windows and left the other to help me in stallation on the seals.
I will be on vacation in Mo until next week

I painted the firewall and most of the underneath of the shell with POR 15.I forgot the camera saturday.

Finished painting the underneath of the shell with POR 15,I will post pics later.Also I got my N rear back from the posi +ring and pinion set up,$100!

Your picture with the Fontaine Blue and vinyl top.... that was the color of my 66 Tempest. To me it was one of the sharpest colors Pontiac had that year. It went great with that body style. And waxed, it looked even better. LOL

If I was to repaint mine other than the original color (Martinique Bronze), it would have to be Fontaine Blue.

Pics finally:)

Blue, how about a better picture of the wooden stand you've got the body mounted on. Looks good from what little I can see of it.... but show us more of it. Inquiring minds what to know what it looks like.

LooKs like it's something I could build seeing I'm not a welder. LOL

I will look for a better pic of the stand.The guy doing my car built it to do the metal work (lots)on a '66 Bonnie.The front and rear cross boards are a little long for my '66 GTO shell.

How much of a PITA is that? My 66 has a very annoying wind whistle that I need to address in the near future...

Not bad since I had the vents out of the door.I believe there are 2 bolts holding it in.

There are 2 screws holding the triangle together and the place where the window pivots it just pulls out.
I will be buying new chrome vent pieces for my vents.

Worked a little while tonight scuffing the POR-15 that I already painted.I recieved some of the parts I ordered from PY:front to rear 3/8 fuel line and front to rear bake line,my dash harness and poly body bushings.Picked up my axle bearings and seals yesterday.

I forgot to get pics tonight of the stand my car sits on.I will get them saturday.

My wife is already calling my car the "other woman":D

Looking good. Seeing the vent windows reminds me that I should get to work on mine!:)

Shawn

Blue,
restoration is looking good. I also am restoring a 66 GTO. I took tons of pics but all were lost due to laptop crash. Would you be willing to loan or sell your pix . If so let me know.

brian@rountreecc.com

Sell...Hmmmmmmmmm.:D NO,you can pull and keep all of them you need this is what these threads are for is to help others.I thank alot of other for their pic that helped me out.Check out Andre' '66 GTO thread it is several pages long.

Here's the link to the Andre' thread Blue '66 is referring to...It's a good one-
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=457012

There are a ton of pics on my site... http://www.akvalley.net/~ss/ Click on the pic of the GTO.

I also have a thread on here: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=516826

No rust under the windshield? I thought all of these cars had that.

Yes it had rust in the windshield channel.I saw where a couple of small hole were covered with brass.