[JasonD]

Originally Posted by TEG

Jason:

Did you find any carpet tags on the car when you pulled the carpet up? My 1970 had tags that read "McGee Carpet" and were dated. I bought carpet tags from In-Line and they are nothing like what was on my car. If you found them, could you photograph them, please?

I have partial photos of mine and no longer have the 1970. FYI--the tags were stapled into the carpet under each bucket seat.

Thanks,

T.

When we took the carpet out it was so smelly from the mice that were living inside that we immediately threw it in the dumpster. I remember seeing carpet tags on it too......but I didn't think to photograph them.

[CDN2PLS2]

Did it originally have that much overspray? I've seen other Oshawa GTOz that way.It seems the Painter was paid by the Gallon.

[JasonD]

Originally Posted by CDN2PLS2

Did it originally have that much overspray? I've seen other Oshawa GTOz that way.It seems the Painter was paid by the Gallon.

Yeah it actually had alot of overspray all the way over to the tranny tunnel........I think I actually put on less than the factory!

[JasonD]

Here we have the firewall completely restored. There were 4 areas where there was yellow grease pencil used. One right in the center of the firewall that reads "L74" for the Ram Air III engine option. The rest of the markings were to the very far driver's side. The number "10", which would denote the paint code, the number "268", which was the black bench seat interior code, and a great big "O" at the bottom, which I have no idea what that means. These were all copied exactly how they looked before......including the overspray pattern on the firewall.


Also, note the pattern of the sealant sprayed around the heater box area and around where the throttle cable goes through the firewall and where the speedo cable goes through. These patterns are all replicated just like the factory did it. There is also some fo this sealant sprayed around where the emergency brake pedal attaches to the firewall, but the bolts to the pedal need to be installed first......so I'll add that later.

I used rubberized undercoating to replicate the factory sprayed sealant:

[JasonD]

Here we are introducing the nice new body to the nice new frame.

[The Boss]

Has there been a 6 figure RA III Judge yet?

If not, we could be looking at it!

Nice work Jason and thanks for sharing it with us.

Chris

[bulletpruf]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Has there been a 6 figure RA III Judge yet?

If not, we could be looking at it!

Nice work Jason and thanks for sharing it with us.

Chris

Chris - not sure if that was a rhetorical question, but a Carousel Red '69 RAIII Judge went for over $100k at BJ - think it was early 2006.

Jason - beautiful work; appreciate all the info and pictures.

Scott

[CDN2PLS2]

I didn't see any at Bj that looked this Nice.

[TEG]

Originally Posted by CDN2PLS2

I didn't see any at Bj that looked this Nice.

'
IMHO opinion, BJ sets the standard for....mediocre restorations with shiny paint! I doubt many Judges have been sold at B-J and restored by people with the talent or concern for detail shown by Jason and nearly every member of this forum. They aught to be refering to auctioned Judges as having a "PY Judges Forum Level Restoration" and forget about the quick jobs at BJ. You guys clearly set the standard. Again just my opinion.

[JasonD]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

I've seen some really nice cars at Barrett-Jackson and I've seen some real doozys. They sell alot of cars so I guess every one can't be perfect.

Speaking of imperfection, the clock in my Judge wasn't working so I decided to take out all the gauges and gauge bezel and give them all a nice restoration. I soon found out that GTO dashes are not built like Trans Am dashes......because it was easier to just take out the entire dash than it was to take out just the gauges.

I had no intention of taking the dash out of this car but it's no problem because that will just make it easier to clean everything up under there and restore my pedal assemblies and stuff. Also it will make it easier to clean the dash pad more throuroughly while it's out.

Here are some pics:

[JasonD]

The dash bezel (like alot of them) had lost just about all it's chrome edging over the years. I really did not want to buy a reproduction because I didn't want to lose the original woodgrain and swirled aluminum inserts.....which are in perfect condition.

So I had my sister mask off all the edges. (my sister is a master at taping and she does the masking on all my cars for me) She masked off everything on the bezel and we painted the edges with chrome paint. The results turned out very good and I'm just very happy to be able to re-use the original bezel.

[Judge273]

Jason looks great, and progress has been amazing. Sounds like a family affair too.
How many hours to date?

[JasonD]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Jason looks great, and progress has been amazing. Sounds like a family affair too.
How many hours to date?

Thanks Mike.

Yes our entire operation is a family affair. We've all been working together in the shop for 15 years now.

We've all worked on this car "after hours" so it's been hard to keep track of the hours, but I would imagine we'd be over 500 hours by this point. Frame-off restos usually run over 1000 hours on even the nicest cars.

[wagonmaster]

Originally Posted by TEG

'
IMHO opinion, BJ sets the standard for....mediocre restorations with shiny paint! I doubt many Judges have been sold at B-J and restored by people with the talent or concern for detail shown by Jason and nearly every member of this forum. They aught to be refering to auctioned Judges as having a "PY Judges Forum Level Restoration" and forget about the quick jobs at BJ. You guys clearly set the standard. Again just my opinion.

You took the words right off my keyboard. B-J is nothing but a bunch of unknowing idiots with more money than brains.

Tim

[TEG]

Originally Posted by wagonmaster

You took the words right off my keyboard. B-J is nothing but a bunch of unknowing idiots with more money than brains.

Tim

Tim:

We must think alike because...God Bless the Wyoming Cowboys! Three of the greatest years of my life (pre-kids of course) were spent at the corner of 8th and Gibbon in Laramie, Wyoming. Ah, the Buckhorn Bar, Elmer Lovejoys, The Library....damn good years. Went to law school at UW and I look forward to someday returning. Just spent some time in Laramie this summer. Didn't see any Pontiacs cruising around though.

[CDN2PLS2]

That's exactly what I saw when I was at BJ.

[Greg Reid]

A few of us here who are also members of the 'Trans Am Country' forum are well aware of Jason's history of quality restoration work. Prepare to continue to be amazed.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the outcome myself because I've never seen a GTO come out of their shop.
Very nice work Jason.

[paulkx807]

Jason,great job .Your quality of craftsmanship and attention to detail is an attribute to this hobby.Keep up the incredible work,and I am looking forward to the completion...
Paul

[JasonD]

Thanks Greg and Paul for the kind words.

[JasonD]

My clock wasn't working in the Judge, and I really didn't want to switch it over to quartz movement because then you lose that little "tick tock" motion of the second hand. So I tore the clock apart to see if I could do anything for it.

It turned out that the little "points" mechanism inside the clock had just stuck together after sitting for 30 years. Once I separated the points and put a little light oil on the clock mechanism, the clock started working perfectly.

I also tore down the rest of the gauges, cleaned and restored them, and bolted them all back into the dash assembly again.

The dash pad itself was thoroughly cleaned and given a light coat of dye to freshen it up, along with the rest of the dash assemblies like the glove box and the metal parts. The "Judge" emblem on the glove box door is especially stunning. It looks like it was made yesterday. It's in perfect original condition.