[68 Caretaker]

Got a question for the 68 experts. After going through some old GTOAA judging sheets from the previous owner, I believe my inner fender to fender bolts are wrong. Anyone have any pics of originals? Thanks.

[Scott Thelander]

looks like door hinge bolts
and
windshield washer reservoir delete ?

welcome to the forum ...

Scott

[dataway]

Pretty sure they should be much shorter and pointy. Usually they have bits of rag stuck to them that gets ripped off when you clean the inner fenders

[68 Caretaker]

Originally Posted by Scott Thelander

looks like door hinge bolts
and
windshield washer reservoir delete ?

welcome to the forum ...

Scott

I think the bolts are generic body shop hardware. I found 4 nuts in a box of leftover restoration parts that might be the right ones. The washer reservoir is there.

[68 Caretaker]

Originally Posted by dataway

Pretty sure they should be much shorter and pointy. Usually they have bits of rag stuck to them that gets ripped off when you clean the inner fenders

I found 4 nuts in a box of leftover restoration parts, but they are different from yours. I wonder if different assembly plants used different style hardware or there was a different supplier? Thanks for the pic.

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, they should be the shorter, sharp pointed ones that dataway shows. The nuts you have on there now are ok. Just change the bolts and I think you'll be good. I've never seen the type you found in the box used in that location. Plenty of other locations but not there.

[dataway]

Yep .. those clips you found are way too light duty for that location.

The clips you have installed now look to be generic re-pop clips used in various locations. The originals are pretty big.

[68gtoMN]

Originally Posted by 68 Caretaker

Got a question for the 68 experts. After going through some old GTOAA judging sheets from the previous owner, I believe my inner fender to fender bolts are wrong. Anyone have any pics of originals? Thanks.

Is that Paint Code V - Nightshade Green? I have two NSG cars - my first ever GTO is this color.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 68gtoMN

Is that Paint Code V - Nightshade Green? I have two NSG cars - my first ever GTO is this color.

Kurt, it is and it's one you're sure to have seen. Check the op's intro thread.. https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=846755

Sent from my moto g(6) play using Tapatalk

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by 68 Caretaker

I found 4 nuts in a box of leftover restoration parts, but they are different from yours. I wonder if different assembly plants used different style hardware or there was a different supplier? Thanks for the pic.

Hard to tell their size, but at first glance they look like the ones found all over the core support

[68 Caretaker]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Hard to tell their size, but at first glance they look like the ones found all over the core support

Well guess what I found? 4 nuts on the radiator support belong on the fenders, so I changed them out with the 4 that I found.

[68ragtop]

Seeing your going after detail correctness, you can purchase a Gates Power steering hose that does not have that darn ugly restrictor crimped in the center.
We had a thread on that a number of years ago. At some point they starting producing the pressure hose with that restrictor, but the orignal 68's never had it.
Gates part number 354730 is a chevy truck hose that is the same, but without the restrictor. Not an exact duplicate of the original as almost nothing is,
but is the next best thing & is a very inexpensive improvement

[68 Caretaker]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

Seeing your going after detail correctness, you can purchase a Gates Power steering hose that does not have that darn ugly restrictor crimped in the center.
We had a thread on that a number of years ago. At some point they starting producing the pressure hose with that restrictor, but the orignal 68's never had it.
Gates part number 354730 is a chevy truck hose that is the same, but without the restrictor. Not an exact duplicate of the original as almost nothing is,
but is the next best thing & is a very inexpensive improvement

Thanks for the tip. I ordered one this morning. That was one of the items on the judging sheets from GTOAA that he got dinged for.

[north]

The unrestored 69 GTO's and LeMans' I've come across over the years use either of those style nuts to hold the inner fenders to the fenders. I never really studied what the pattern was to see if it was an early late thing, or a plant thing or just different suppliers.

[68 Caretaker]

Originally Posted by north

The unrestored 69 GTO's and LeMans' I've come across over the years use either of those style nuts to hold the inner fenders to the fenders. I never really studied what the pattern was to see if it was an early late thing, or a plant thing or just different suppliers.

Well, after my last post, I found some pics of an 18k mile 68 LeMans. This car had 4 of the style that I found in the box of extra parts holding the inner fenders to the fenders. I’m wondering now, if the ones that I changed out from the radiator support should have stayed on the radiator support? I found them under the 2 front fender bolts on each corner at the top of the support.

[68ragtop]

There's no doubt that many of these clips & screws have been swapped around from where they should be. When you think about the assembly lines in 68, those guys didn't see correctness they way we do today. Running low on specific clips & swapping them out for something else to keep things moving until break time wasn't unheard of at all. No question that happened & has been discussed on this site quite a bit

My late father in-law had a 68 lemans he ordered new & became my parts car after sitting in a very poor storage arraignment from 1982 - 2001. He never messed with the car from original. While the car was an un restorable rust bucket, it was extremely helpful in the restoration of my GTO as a guide to keeping things correct. There were several things on that car that were original & not what you normally see. For example it had two different sets of bolts holding the quarter glass covers in place. left & right side were completely different. Also had much longer bolts holding the front valance on. Still have all the pictures of that stuff somewhere.

I think keeping the hardware that a car had in place from the factory is very cool. It's what preserving & restoring the cars is all about. Also makes for great discussion as well! But if your not 100% sure its original, I would just install the hardware that was most commonly found on these cars.

While I am very happy my 68 is finally finished, I really miss all of the research on stuff like this.

[68ragtop]

Started browsing through some of the old pics & I have & found another example. These are the hood hinge bolts. I do not know which where in the fender, & which were in the hood, but you can see there are three oddballs. Or, 5 oddballs depending on which ones were supposed to be installed

if the bolt bin is running low on the factory floor, I cannot imagine anyone caring which bolt was used in this case.

[Greg Reid]

My rule of thumb on the pointy vs. squared off bolts is I like the pointy type if they involve anything that has to be flexed into place...fenders, valence panel, etc.

[Kenth]

Here is the screw used for 1970 GTO, may be the same for 1968?
#3960314 size 5/16-18 X 13/16, uses nut #9789994 and a washer at screw head.

[68ragtop]

Mine are the same size/shape, but course thread. Not sure if that changed at some point? Both my parts car had GTO had the course threaded bolts. I can take some pics too.