#81  
Old 07-02-2019, 07:39 AM
randy1966GTO randy1966GTO is offline
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Nice progress. Do you have room at your work area to store the parts you take off or do you have to transport home until ready for reassembly? Part of my plan to get mine taken down and painted is figuring out how to keep the parts out of the way.

Glad you have less rust than expected, I have some bubbling at the lower doors and quarters that is pointing toward similar concerns with what is behind it in the structure. You will feel better when you get the rest of the car completely disassembled and know exactly what all needs repair.

Keep up the good work!

  #82  
Old 07-02-2019, 10:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randy1966GTO View Post
Nice progress. Do you have room at your work area to store the parts you take off or do you have to transport home until ready for reassembly? Part of my plan to get mine taken down and painted is figuring out how to keep the parts out of the way.

Glad you have less rust than expected, I have some bubbling at the lower doors and quarters that is pointing toward similar concerns with what is behind it in the structure. You will feel better when you get the rest of the car completely disassembled and know exactly what all needs repair.

Keep up the good work!
Unfortunately, I have to transport most things that I take off the car back home. The shop where I am working on the GTO does offer parts storage, but it comes at a lofty fee that I don't think is worth it. I was pretty worried about storage being an issue at home, but most parts are off the car now and I should be okay when the remainder that come home. It will take some creativity, though.

As of this week, I'm also going to ramp up the frequency of how often I work on the GTO. Until now, I've mostly been working on it one day per week on the weekends. Now I'm going to step it up to two evenings and a weekend day. Really want to get this thing torn down fully and on a dolly.

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  #83  
Old 07-03-2019, 09:49 AM
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Spent a few hours working on the GTO again last night. I removed the HVAC box on the firewall, to which I was curious to know what horrors lie beneath. The car has a bunch of rust on the inside of the cabin on the side kick panels (just in front of the doors), so I thought the cowl where the heater box resides would also be complete toast. Fortunately, it's not that bad. It'll need some work, but there is a lot of usable metal remaining.

The less good news, however, is that I found a lot of rust at the base of the a-pillars . I'd say this is not altogether unexpected, but it was the first time during this project that I removed something and wasn't pleasantly surprised by what I found underneath. I've seen my body guy tackle far worse, but it looks scary to me. I'd be curious to hear experiences from others here regarding this type of repair.
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  #84  
Old 07-03-2019, 06:54 PM
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Looks like you're going to have to find a donor

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  #85  
Old 07-03-2019, 06:57 PM
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Looks like you're going to have to find a donor
Actually, looking in the Ames catalogue, it appears that reproduction parts are available for this area.

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  #86  
Old 07-03-2019, 07:01 PM
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That's good to know. I haven't gotten into that area on mine but it could well be in the same condition. I'd be interested in how that stuff fits, if and/or when you try it.

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  #87  
Old 07-03-2019, 07:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Greg Reid View Post
That's good to know. I haven't gotten into that area on mine but it could well be in the same condition. I'd be interested in how that stuff fits, if and/or when you try it.
Yeah, I was relieved to see that reproduction metal is available. I'm sure there will still need to be some fab work needed to rebuild everything in there, but the bulk of the rot should be addressed by the replacement panel.

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  #88  
Old 07-04-2019, 08:04 AM
randy1966GTO randy1966GTO is offline
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I have some rust at the base of the A pillars and across the front of the windshield opening as well and glad to know that repro parts are available.

When I took all the HVAC parts off to install the Vintage Air I was expecting a lot of rust but had almost none. Amazing how much heavy stuff came off and how little parts went back on with the Vintage Air, are you going back with stock parts?

I decided to do my seats this summer and have PUI upholstery on order with 2 months to go. I'm going to follow your progress on the metal work and maybe dig into that next year.

Cheers

  #89  
Old 07-04-2019, 10:41 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randy1966GTO View Post
I have some rust at the base of the A pillars and across the front of the windshield opening as well and glad to know that repro parts are available.

When I took all the HVAC parts off to install the Vintage Air I was expecting a lot of rust but had almost none. Amazing how much heavy stuff came off and how little parts went back on with the Vintage Air, are you going back with stock parts?

I decided to do my seats this summer and have PUI upholstery on order with 2 months to go. I'm going to follow your progress on the metal work and maybe dig into that next year.

Cheers

At this point in my thinking, I'll probably go with a Vintage A/C system rather than stock. Part of that decision is based on the fact that the fiberglass box under the dash has been cracked and glued together by previous owner(s), so it'll need a fair bit of resto work as well. It's fixable, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I suppose one decision to make will be if I use Vintage A/C rather than stock, is whether I should weld in steel block-off plates to fill the big holes in the firewall. Of course, companies sell non-permanent block-off plates, and I may go that route, but they don't look as clean as if the holes were permanently filled. Part of me thinks it's a no-brainer to have them permanently blocked off, but another part of me recognizes that A/C cars were not terribly common and allowing the car to reverted back to 100% stock at some point (by someone else, after I'm gone...) has its place.

I don't strictly need A/C, since I use it maybe only 3-4 days out of the year living in the Pacific Northwest, but I plan to take the GTO on some long-distance road trips once it's restored, so being able to cruise down the highway with the windows up (i.e., without wind noise) would be nice.

Surprised to hear that it's taking so long for you to receive your replacement upholstery. Is that a normal wait time? I was planning to use PUI with my car as well.

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Last edited by ZeGermanHam; 07-04-2019 at 11:18 AM.
  #90  
Old 07-12-2019, 08:33 AM
randy1966GTO randy1966GTO is offline
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The block-off plate that came with the Vintage Air kit fit well and looks great painted black, in my opinion. I was amazed at how much the stock parts weighed compared to the VA system, I would say 70-80lbs more. Love the VA, $1450 and 40 hours of my time to install at a leisurely pace.

The wait for the PUI upholstery has been quite long for a couple of years if you're ordering something other than black I think. I received my Parchment rear covers yesterday and will get those done while I wait for the fronts to arrive in late August, ordered them on June 8th.

  #91  
Old 07-13-2019, 11:24 AM
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Originally Posted by randy1966GTO View Post
The block-off plate that came with the Vintage Air kit fit well and looks great painted black, in my opinion. I was amazed at how much the stock parts weighed compared to the VA system, I would say 70-80lbs more. Love the VA, $1450 and 40 hours of my time to install at a leisurely pace.

The wait for the PUI upholstery has been quite long for a couple of years if you're ordering something other than black I think. I received my Parchment rear covers yesterday and will get those done while I wait for the fronts to arrive in late August, ordered them on June 8th.
Thanks for the info regarding block-off plates with the Vintage Air setup. I must admit, pulling weight out of the car and freeing up space in the engine bay is certainly appealing. Seems like a good value, too. Sounds like I'll probably go with the VA system.

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  #92  
Old 08-25-2019, 09:18 PM
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It's been over a month since I last updated this thread, but I have not been idle. The body is now completely stripped out and ready to be separated from the frame. The guy who will be fixing the rust has a car ahead of mine which will be with him for around three months, so I'm in somewhat of a holding pattern for the time being.

In the meantime, I bought a bunch of square tubing and learned how to weld and made a body dolly as my first welding project. It was a lot of fun! It took a lot longer than I anticipated due to having to cut everything with a handheld cutoff wheel, then make sure everything is square using a flap disc. If the shop I work in had an industrial bandsaw, it would've taken a fraction of the time for me to make the dolly. But it was good experience for me regardless.

Came out pretty nice! Some of my welds are prettier than others, but it's strong.
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  #93  
Old 08-26-2019, 12:52 AM
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Nice work!

Man, I'm gonna need one of those soon for my 71 convertible project. Now you have me thinking about building one myself...

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  #94  
Old 08-26-2019, 01:18 AM
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Nice work!

Man, I'm gonna need one of those soon for my 71 convertible project. Now you have me thinking about building one myself...
Thanks! Including the heavy-duty casters (550lbs each), hardware, and all tubing, the final cost was under $200 to make it myself. So the cost savings are definitely there if you go the DIY route.

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  #95  
Old 08-26-2019, 05:33 AM
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I'm in for the ride mate

Great story and pictures
John L.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

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  #96  
Old 10-06-2019, 11:20 AM
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Had a chat with my body guy earlier this week, and it sounds like he'll be ready for my GTO in about six weeks, give or take. So the body will be coming off the frame and heading out for media blasting soon.

In the meantime, I'm trying to stay busy while I wait for that time to come. That translates to going through all the boxes and bags of parts I have and looking to see what needs to be cleaned up and refurbished. I spent some time last night bead blasting a bunch of things. It's such a satisfying process to bring old crusty parts back to life.
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  #97  
Old 10-06-2019, 12:48 PM
RedDirtRoad RedDirtRoad is offline
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I feel you brother
My 67 is in the same phase as yours
But I will have some progress photos soon
On my thread as well
Not about to hijack this thread
Keep up the nice work

  #98  
Old 11-25-2019, 01:01 AM
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Today was a big day for the '66. I finally separated the body from the frame. The body will be taking a field trip to the media blaster on Tuesday, then it goes in for metal work which is beyond my ability. While the body is being worked on, I'm going to have the frame taken down to bare metal and then rebuild it with a fresh suspension, brakes, and differential. I was happy to find no major issues or trouble spots with the frame.
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  #99  
Old 11-25-2019, 06:56 AM
RedDirtRoad RedDirtRoad is offline
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Looking good.
I am right behind you. I hope to have my car on a rotisserie by the end of the week .

  #100  
Old 11-25-2019, 10:14 AM
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Super cool.

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