After about 22 years of ownership, I'm finally able to begin restoring my first car, a 1966 GTO. I thought I'd create a thread here to document the process and ask questions along the way. And perhaps you all will make some
and enjoy the ride.
The backstory is that this is my first car, which I got in 1997 when I was in high school. We paid around $2500 for it, and although we knew it was rough around the edges, it is a true 242 GTO with PHS docs. Original build specs are as such:
- Assembled at the Pontiac, MI plant
- Delivered to an unknown dealer in Jacksonville, FL
- Post/coupe body
- Cameo Ivory exterior
- Black interior
- 389ci 4Bbl 335hp
- Auto trans, floor shift w/console
- 3.23:1 Safe-T-Track differential
- Deluxe wheel covers
- Air conditioning
- Soft-Ray tinted glass
Although it was sold new in Florida, it somehow made it back up to Michigan, which is where I grew up and bought it. By the time I got my hands on it, it had been resprayed (very poorly) in red, had a warmed over 400ci engine with RAIII heads and TH400 trans thrown in it, and an Olds 12-bolt posi rear with 4:30 gears. It was (is) a tired old car, but it was fun to bomb around in when I was sixteen.
Once I graduated high school in 1999, I was in college and too broke to do anything with it, so I put it in storage and moved all over the country, eventually landing in Seattle. After it sat in storage for nearly 20 years, I finally had it shipped from Michigan to Seattle in December, 2018 so I can begin restoring it. This is where the fun begins.
Plans are to do a complete bare metal frame-off nut & bolt restoration. It's going to stay red with a black interior and dog-dish hub caps, but I'm going to build a new engine (400/461 stroker) and upgrade the brakes and suspension. Once it's finished, it's going to get driven hard.
On to the photos...
How it looked in high school. Same as today, other than the wheels.
Seeing the light of day for the first time in nearly 20 years. Getting ready to be shipped across the country to be with me, finally.
Its new home with me in Seattle. This is where I will be doing all the work myself, except for metal and paint work.
Data plate
Other than the door panels, the interior is largely original. I foolishly cut the dash in the '90s for a modern stereo... Oh well, it can be fixed.
A crusty but low mileage (under 10k miles) 1975 400 500557 engine. This block replaced the warmed over 1970 400 that I got the car with (cracked a piston). I was a teen and needed a new block ASAP. I will probably clean this engine up and use temporarily as a cruiser, but I also have a nice untouched '68 400 block that I'm going to do a proper 461 stroker build with at some point.
Carpet removed. There are a few thin spots, and the front passenger footwell is totally shot, but it's much better than I thought it would be. Door sills are rock solid. Inner wheel housings look good, too.
The worst of the rust in the floor pan. It doesn't creep up the front kick panel very high, so should be easy to fix.
Found a for sale sign inside the rear quarter panel when removing the interior. Someone sold it for $550 at some point. It says 'INQUIRE AT STATION', so I'm guessing someone took it to a service station when the original 389 wasn't running right and it turned out to be a blown engine so they just dumped the car and left it for the station to deal with. That's one theory, anyway.
Inside of left rear wheel arch with trim removed. Very solid. In fact, the wheel openings at all four corners are in really good shape, except the very bottom few inches behind the rear wheels.
Leading corner of right rear wheel opening. Solid.
Left rear lower quarter behind rear wheel. This is about the worst of it. The rot only extends a few inches up on both sides of the car, so should be an easy patch job.
I was very happy to see that the inner dash metal wasn't rusted out at the base of the windshield. There is some rust visible outside the car at the base of the windshield, so I'm sure some work will be needed there, but at least it appears to not have crept inside the car.
The trunk pan, rear deck (base of rear glass), and parcel tray are all shot. The trunk lid itself has rust along the rear edge, and the door shells are also significantly rusted out. Fortunately, I was able to find a pair of very solid original doors (no easy feat with a post car) and a trunk lid, so I don't have to worry about fixing the existing doors or trunk lid.
Anyhow, that's all for now. I will be updating this thread periodically as I make progress, and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions for you folks along the way. Thanks for reading!