[Bruce Meyer]

I picked up this non running GTO in Lake Havasu City, AZ. Its been sitting outside since 2007. The sheet metal is dent free and no rust at all. Lake Havasu City is very dry area of AZ.
I will be doing a resto on it and will post pics of progress as I go.
I will be looking for advice and opinions as I go also. Thanks.

[vertigto]

Congrats...that looks like a great starting place.

More info on the specs and plan??

[HoovDaddy]

Nice. No better region to get a car from.

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by vertigto

Congrats...that looks like a great starting place.

More info on the specs and plan??

Its a 400 auto with/AC. Original color was Palisade Green. Someone painted it silver using very low quality paint. The motor in it is a 455. I was on my way to Nevada when I saw this for sale. I didn't have any reference books with me. I knew the motor would be a Y something but wasn't sure. I looked under the hood and saw the 13 400 heads and a YC stamp on the motor. I figured it was correct. The woman selling it didn't know anything about the car.

When I got it home I realized it was a 1971 455 block with the 400 stuff bolted to it. Oh well. I do have a 1970 YS 400 block sitting in my shed.

Im pretty sure I think I am going to paint it Atoll Blue since its a non matching car and Im not a big fan of Palisade Green. It has a black interior so I can paint it any color I want.

[Mister Pontiac]

Wonderful find, Bruce.

If you don't have a home for that 71 455 short block, I may have some interest. I'm always on the lookout for certain date range 71 455 blocks.

PM me if you like.

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by Mister Pontiac

Wonderful find, Bruce.

If you don't have a home for that 71 455 short block, I may have some interest. I'm always on the lookout for certain date range 71 455 blocks.

PM me if you like.

Ok I will let you know if I decide to sell the 455 short block.

[Bruce Meyer]

Pulled the front bumper and started sandblasting. The desert preserves the sheet metal but its murder on endura bumpers. This ones going to need a lot of flexible filler.

[Bruce Meyer]

Ive been out of action lately due to a bad back. Ive been working on the the front bumper. Here is about 25 hours total so far. Ive been using Polyvance flexible filler and am very happy with it. It feathers real nice and is very flexible and it sticks to the Endura bumper real good.

[Bruce Meyer]

Can anyone post a close up picture of the very center of the front bumper where it meets the hood? The line on this one is pretty much completely gone and I need something to go on so I can reshape that part of it. Thanks.

[scott70]

Had to get a pic with a good perspective of the point.

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by scott70

Had to get a pic with a good perspective of the point.

Awesome! Thanks!

[lamans71]

Looking forward to watching the rebuild as you progress, get what you can done now as the heat of the summer will be upon us soon.

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by lamans71

Looking forward to watching the rebuild as you progress, get what you can done now as the heat of the summer will be upon us soon.

Im lucky enough to have this shop equipped with A/C.
Right now I have to wait until Friday when a buddy of mine can help me fit the front bumper to see how far off my bodywork is. A 70 GTO bumper is Heavy! I thought 68/69,s were heavy. These things are monsters.
In the meantime I sandblasted the bumper brackets and painted them. I was happy to see there was no pitting.

[lamans71]

A/C for your shop is a nice bonus for sure!

[scott70]

When we put the nose on my 70 gto we jacked the front off the ground by the cross member. Install the nose and then let it back on the ground onto the suspension. It would move the nose tighter to the fender. Surprising how much things move around by just jacking the front of the car off the ground. The engine was in the car.Getting the nose where I was content was alot of moving the nose left and right,,,,up and down. And still isn't that great as far as being even and flush everywhere. The nose shrunk length wise over the years. And you can only bring the front of the fenders together just so much because the hood is a certain width. I'm not a body guy and it drove me nuts. I had to walk away and regroup a few times.

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by scott70

When we put the nose on my 70 gto we jacked the front off the ground by the cross member. Install the nose and then let it back on the ground onto the suspension. It would move the nose tighter to the fender. Surprising how much things move around by just jacking the front of the car off the ground. The engine was in the car.Getting the nose where I was content was alot of moving the nose left and right,,,,up and down. And still isn't that great as far as being even and flush everywhere. The nose shrunk length wise over the years. And you can only bring the front of the fenders together just so much because the hood is a certain width. I'm not a body guy and it drove me nuts. I had to walk away and regroup a few times.

Ive had the same issues with a 69 GTO that I did. The bumper was in bad shape like this one. I took it off the car and patched it up and forgot about it. When I went to bolt it up it was way off and had to be redone. With this 70 I left the car intact and patched up the bumper and did a test fit. I was lucky this time and everything lined up so now Im doing final touch up and primer. These things are very tricky. I almost decided to look for a better one until I saw the price people wanted for a decent one. Ive got around 40 hours in this one so far. I couldn't imagine what a body shop would charge to fix it right.

[Bruce Meyer]

Finally done with the bumper. Lots of priming and blocking. Filling pinholes. etc,etc. Next up is the hood.

[Bruce Meyer]

Started to sand on the hood and noticed it has 2 layers of factory green under the silver. The rest of the car has 1 green coat and one silver. I think I found out why. A dent on the hood scoop that was filled with bondo. Im wondering if the hood wasn't damaged in shipping and the dealer fixed it with bondo and a repaint. Im pretty sure I can pound that out from the bottom side.

[Bruce Meyer]

The hood is almost done. My Air Compressor broke down so bodywork is on hold till a replacement part comes in. Started pulling the front sheet metal off. Those nut clips or whatever they call them were breaking like crazy making it a real PIA. One thing that is good is there is no rust in the cowl area or lower fender. The factory Palisade Green looks pretty good. Not a bad color really.

[SD455DJ]

Bruce, Nice work so far! I do like Palisade green, but I'm a bit biased. Following your progress.

Dennis