[thefirebirdm@n]

Looks like thats behind the kick panels. Sorry, I haven't removed the kick panels in my car yet. In fact, I'm not doing anything to the interior until everything else is done.

[stevensd]

its above the kick panels. my new panels are installed

[stevensd]

ive included better photos. one of the drivers side and one from the passengers side

[thefirebirdm@n]

Ok, well its been a while since I posted. The frame was dropped off to the powdercoater in late nov and he could not get to it until this week. The holidays backed him up, bad weather, blah blah blah. No biggie. He does good work. Took a few pics while I was there while they were washing all the blast media off:









Supposed to pick it up monday or tuesday. i'm stll gathering all the new parts and then the frame/suspension/brakes re-assembly will begin!!!

[robz]

Originally Posted by PaulatFast

You sure? because I'm certainly not. Have a production date for the stoppage of the quarter rocker moldings? I have seen very late 69's with the moldings. Ever notice how many 69 convertables are missing these moldings? That debate is still debatable. Not fact. One thing is for sure, your car is supposed to have them, and it does!

Yes, Paul...Feb/69(see bulletin below) ...Only the convs still got them until the end of the run (not sure why but all original '69 convs in I saw have them)....

[robz]

Originally Posted by thefirebirdm@n

Ok, well its been a while since I posted. The frame was dropped off to the powdercoater in late nov and he could not get to it until this week. The holidays backed him up, bad weather, blah blah blah. No biggie. He does good work. Took a few pics while I was there while they were washing all the blast media off:









Supposed to pick it up monday or tuesday. i'm stll gathering all the new parts and then the frame/suspension/brakes re-assembly will begin!!!

WOW! That is one clean frame...where did this car live most of its life???

[thefirebirdm@n]

Central Texas (near Dallas), New Mexico and then South Carolina.

[thefirebirdm@n]

Well after another 1.75 year wait I am back to working on the GTO again. Some things have changed in my personal life, primarily my work schedule and where whereas I was working in SC about 3 weeks a month before its now only one week. So between that and the fact that I will get more restoration work done on this car if its at home with me the plan is to get it back to roller status and then trailer back home. 20 hours of driving from Sumter, SC to San Antonio, Tx. Ironically this car has made this trip once before albeit in the other direction and under its own power. When I got back from my assignment in Japan in 1998 the car was being stored at my mother and fathers house here in San Antonio. We visited for a month and then I drove the car to my next duty assignment which was Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC. Now its time to take her back home and complete the full restoration.

Lately I have been really bad about keeping these threads up to date. I am still working on my 73 Trans Am and find I rarely have time for it but I am through with my college degree program so I am hoping I will have time for regular updates to both threads.

[GOAT WHORE]

Jimmy, nice work, thanks for directing me to this thread.

[north]

Originally Posted by PaulatFast

You sure? because I'm certainly not. Have a production date for the stoppage of the quarter rocker moldings? I have seen very late 69's with the moldings. Ever notice how many 69 convertables are missing these moldings? That debate is still debatable. Not fact. One thing is for sure, your car is supposed to have them, and it does!

My take on those moldings (based on 30 years of scrap-yarding, owning etc) is that all plants stopped installing them sometime in March April on hardtops but convertibles had them to the end of production. I suspect they didn't want to stock two different GTO pn's for low volume convertible quarters on top of already having two different pn's for the LeMans and Custom S convertible quarters (Custom S never had those moldings LeMans's did).

As for the black out area I have seen them on Atlanta, Fremont and Baltimore cars (all were very early cars: Sept-Oct). I've also seen them on B body cars from the Pontiac and Southgate plant (same very early production) so I would think it reasonable to think that all plants did this.

[thefirebirdm@n]

Ok, so the buildup has finally begun. Couple of starter pics below. I was going to do a pretty stock rebuild and then talked myself out of it. I decided on some upgrades as you guys will see.



Bare frame, powder-coated and ready to go. The frame has been in this state for probably 3 years. Amazing how a project can stall for 1000 different reasons. The place where I had it stored had it buried under a bunch of boxes and various other car parts. It took a couple of hours to dig it out, move it into the shop and clean it up. No worse for the wear.



Upper/lower Tubular control arms are from UMI Performance. I looked at probably 7 or 8 different vendors that offer tubulars and I felt UMI had the best mix of quality and price. You'll notice I did not go with coil-overs. They are getting more inexpensive now and are far easier to install but I chose to go with the stock coil springs.



The spindles are stock. I purchased a comprehensive kit from CPP that included everything I needed to completely rebuild that portion of the suspension. I have upgraded calipers and rotors that you'll see in subsequent posts. Again the CPP kit seemed to offer the most value for the price tag. Also their packaging was superb and the parts quality has been very high so far.

[thefirebirdm@n]

More progress, more pics. Took the requisite finagling but got the springs in on both sides and then installed the new dust shields, caliper brackets and rotors. New bearings were installed in the rotors along with all new hardware.

[Hammertime Mike]

The frame looks real nice ! Your lucky to have a place like you have to do the resto. They do take second fiddle to life. Keep us posted on your progress.

[thefirebirdm@n]

So two weeks later I finally get to post the last of the pics from the first week's work on my GTO, lol. To finish up the front I installed a new center link and inner/outer tie rods sourced from OPGI. I also installed HD Tie Rod sleeves from OPGI. I cleaned and painted the original steering box a nice steel cast color for the body and aluminum for the cap to make sure it never rusts again. Considered just clearing it but I like the cast paint. Finished steering linkage with a new Idler Arm from OPGI.









After finishing the front I reinstalled the wheels and rolled the rear end in to get going with that. She was finally back on all four tires.



The suspension kit I purchased from UMI Performance also included everything I needed for the rear end as well. Tubular upper and lower control arms, new 1" lowering springs, Bilstein Shocks, new rear sway bar and customer adjustable frame braces which were very particular to install but worked out perfectly. In the pics you'll notice that the rear end looks like crap. One of the bushing mounts was cracked and after some stress testing I found that it was cracked enough to break off. Very disappointed but better now than later when driving. I was planning to replace the rear end with an 8.5" 10-bolt a 12-bolt if I could get one but I have contacted a welder here in SA who thinks he can weld it and maintain the structural integrity of the stress point even though its a cast piece.









Once the rear end is repaired it will come out and get cleaned up and restored with all new drum brake components. The next week I am out there to work on it I will be running the new stainless brake/fuel lines and installing the engine/transmission to get ready to drop the body back on the frame.

[thefirebirdm@n]

I just posted about this in another thread. Only thing left to order to finish off the frame/suspension rebuild is a body mount kit. I unwisely did not save the old ones nor did I make any notes on their location and after some research here on PY last night I see that the different bushings in the kit go in a different location. Given that, I am hesitant to make that process any more complicated than necessary but I am interested in using Polyurethane bushings. Any recommendations from the group? Personal experiences?

Also, surprised there haven't been any comments on the progress thus far. Interested in any feedback anyone has. Too much for the purists? Not enough for the Pro Touring guys? I am actually a purist myself but as you can see I like upgrades when I can afford them. Thanks...

[webfoot]

Originally Posted by thefirebirdm@n

I just posted about this in another thread. Only thing left to order to finish off the frame/suspension rebuild is a body mount kit. I unwisely did not save the old ones nor did I make any notes on their location and after some research here on PY last night I see that the different bushings in the kit go in a different location. Given that, I am hesitant to make that process any more complicated than necessary but I am interested in using Polyurethane bushings. Any recommendations from the group? Personal experiences?

Also, surprised there haven't been any comments on the progress thus far. Interested in any feedback anyone has. Too much for the purists? Not enough for the Pro Touring guys? I am actually a purist myself but as you can see I like upgrades when I can afford them. Thanks...

If it were me I would replace with standard rubber bushings, I would not want all that extra road vibration from the poly units. Just thinking out loud here but the idea of those is also to absorb some flex, of which the poly will barely have any so it will transmit this flexing to the body itself.

Don't take it personal, there are a lot of resto threads on this site. I have one too and it doesn't get a lot of comments unless I have a problem or question. BUT, people do read them! I like the upgrades you have done. I went pretty stock with mine but added PS, and PDB.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

i like all the upgrades and goodies you used.
but -- i -- don't like blazing red calipers with logo names trying to grab the glory through the slots in rims on cars. just me

Would not use poly body bushings or poly drivetrain mounts unless its more of a competition car than it is a driver.

Keep up the good work
Hope it all goes well on welding the differential housing too !

[68droptop]

Sounds like we have the same idea with our cars. Mine is a numbers matching from carb to rear 68 vert. I plan on driving my car so I'll do it how I want. Especially when I plan on having my kids drive it so I want it as safe as possible. I'm sure some of the guys will not like what I plan on doing but I don't care.

Everything you've done looks great. Makes me want to get in the garage and work on mine. I'm going with the rubber body mounts. I don't want the stiff ride and squeeks.

Keep updating this please. The pics on comments help so many guys with their cars. Maybe they don't comment, but they are looking.