Hello Pontiac people
 

Hello, I just joined your forum so just stumbling around a bit. I have a 69 GTO that I am restoring so might need help or advise. Not new to the car hobby or even Pontiacs in general. I found this car here in South Dakota. It is rust free body wise. I had been hit in the right front many years ago. I had a bent frame but right fender and hood were the only things hurt. So I replaced the frame and started building the car. Original drive train gone so starting over. It is a 242 car and appears to have been a 400 RAM AIR III 4 speed. Some ram air parts were in the trunk. I have a 400 4bbl and 4 speed now in the car. But trying to find missing parts. Anyway I will just start with this just to say hello. I am 67 years old and have restored many cars. I have in my collection a 68 Charger , A 70 Plymouth Superbird , A 70 Mustang coup , and a 70 Chevelle. Looking forward to being a Pontiac owner .

Thanks
Don :sorry:

Welcome and good luck with your car.

Welcome, Don!

Post some pics of your car.

:)

Gitterdone Don!!!

Thanks for joining and sharing!!!

Welcome to the PY forums Don. :)

I’m sure you’ll find plenty of helpful advice and information here as well as connecting with many of the parts you need in the classified forums.

Bart

Welcome and good luck with the restoration. Lots of good information on this site. You have the big 3 covered in your collection and that's cool. You will find strong brand loyalty to the Pontiac V-8 engine and lots of info as well.

My dad was a Pontiac man and I owned a couple over the years. My favorite was a 63 GP I put a 421 tri-power in it years ago out of a 64 Bonneville. Ran like a scalded dog.

Welcome from Manitoba.

Good luck with the project...lots of resources here

Superbird hey...cool!

Welcome. Please post pics of your collection.

Welcome! Sounds like a fun project. :)

Welcome, I have a soft spot for 69 GTO's as one was my 1st car.

Welcome. I figure Hide-Away headlamps on the Dodge, Plymouth huh, and maybe the 69 GTO?

Curious if ya think the GTO has the nicest interior of that collection?

Welcome Don, from over here on the other side of the state, near Sioux Falls!

welcome Don this is the place!

Welcome.

Welcome Don. You know it doesn't really exist if we don't see pics!

Actually I think of all my cars the 68 charger has the nicest interior. They were very comfortable and plush. Yes the charger and superbird both have hide away head lights. My GTO does not. The GTO did not have many options. Mine had an AM radio , no power steering or brakes and no A/C. It was a 4 speed car with ram air ( I am not sure if that was original as some parts were in the trunk and the hood was missing. It was liberty blue and had never been re-painted. The paint was so thin you can see the primed in most of the car. I am painting it carousel red and using the judge stripes. I thought those were such a good looking color. And with it not being a numbers car it really don't matter to me. My car did have a GTO emblem in the center of the dash that most don't seem to have. I was told this was on early 69's. I will try and post a few pictures.
Thanks

Haha I like that! I will get some pictures posted at some point soon. The car is a complete project. The best part is no rust. Something I am not used to. I replaced almost everything except the roof , doors , hood and front frame rails :gag: it had a little dent here and there but nothing big.

Here are the cars I have now minus the GTO.

Liberty Blue is an awfully pretty color too. Love it with a parchment interior.
Does it have the Ram Air pull cable under the dash?
Nice collection by the way..

gosh you got all the bases covered...

This one had blue interior. I had the bracket that attaches to the steering column and a hole in the fire wall. But I don't know if any thing is original. I found a bunch of the lug nuts in the glove box that have the black center. But I am sure t was not a judge and I think there the only ones that had these. I lifted it and redid the under carriage before putting it on a good frame.

Thank you my cars are not perfect or even all original. I just grew up with these old cars and I love them. I do everything myself so there armature but run and drive and are enjoyed. But nothing special.

You are giving me some motivation to do another car that I have here as I was seriously questioning whether I had another restoration in me. Being that you are 2 years older than I am, I'm now thinking, why not?

Well like they say on the pizza box: You've tried the rest, now try the best. :cool:

Honestly a very nice collection - the '69 will fit right in.

My first GTO was Liberty Blue. Great color but hard not to like CR as well. Good luck.

To get a better idea of what you have w/o sending off for PHS invoice copy, check the cowl tag & see how early a body build the car is. Calendar year 1968 build would strongly point to not being originally optioned with a Ram Air engine.

Agree with Greg, nice variety with your collection! Am a big fan of bare bones A12 SuperBees & God willing, I'll eventually have one. In regards to '69 GTO's & Firebird 400's, Liberty Blue is a stunning & desirable color, many would prob agree, more so with parchment interior. My .02 would be to repaint the car Liberty blue. If you have to have a spoiler on back, go for it. Have had two customers that each had decklids prepped & painted, one with a Judge spoiler, one without. Like their changing up tires & wheels, swapping out decklids added some variety.

Why not indeed. I figure that if I am able and I love what I do then do it as long as you can. I am not wealthy and don't care to be at this point in life. I have a few health issues and lots of aches and pains. But hey I am still here. I don't believe in bragging about this stuff because it will be here yet when I am not. But I had a good friend that started a street rod build at 85 years old. I live in the days of my youth and there I will stay. I have one more I want to build after this lol. I have a 72 rallye charger that will have a modern gen III hemi with all the bells. I have to say I love this site and the Pontiac people. I am a member of a lot of sites but this one seems to be more friendly and honest. Thank you all for making me feel at home here!

I might need some help there. I do not understand the GM tags at all. I have spent most of my time in Mopar and Ford.( this is for the post of understanding the build date and tag information.)

Wow ...nice lineup. The best way to have them is not perfect.

Take a clear pic of the tag and post it here.
It will get decoded fast probably.


:)

This is the tag. I haven't had anyway to decode it.

09C is the body build date code.

Body was built 9th month, 3rd week out of the Fremont plant

See if this helps.
http://ultimategto.com/cgi-bin/stats...ataplate+price

So it was an early car. Just wondered as a friend also has a 69 GTO and his did not have the emblem in the center of the dash that mine does. Another guy said they were only on the early cars. I don't know if that is right.

I understand early 69's had the stainless rocker mouldings behind the rear wheels, my early 69 Lemans had them as does yours as shown in the pic.

I am not sure . That was one of my questions. My right side rocker cover was messed up so I was looking for one. I have seen them for sale new but that wouldn't match the one I have. And I have seen stainless and aluminum both. I will look at the rear ones and see if I can tell. There off the car right now.

The rear rockers were only installed on the early models is what I meant. I think the early engine water pumps had the short pulley snout also.

I will check them out. I pulled them but never paid much attention .

So i heard stories the 66 Charger had a nice fluorescent dash. Assuming the 68 does also.

The 69-70 GTO Dark Blue interiors can be a real nice look.

My October 68 build has the dash emblem and the stainless trim behind the rear wheels.

No the 68 does not have that. Totally different dash.

Ah dang. A PMD fella owned the 66 Charger (Hideaways, Fluorescent dash), along with a 4CYL Tempest, and crowed about the state-of-art & beauty in the 66 Charger dash. 68 dash looks pretty good.

I'm stupid partial to the 68 GTO/LeMans dash, with nods to the 69-72 GTO/LeMans/GP dash.

After looking mine are stainless but all of them on this car are stainless. The rear as well as the front.

To clarify, I'm only trying to say that early 69 A-bodies (GTO, Lemans, etc.) were equipped with rear rocker mouldings. Sometime during the model year, mid year, the rear rocker mouldings were eliminated from factory production, for some reason, on these models.
And yes they are stainless, as aluminum would surely never hold up to continuous road rash.

That I do not know but I have a friend with a 69 GTO and his did have the rear moldings but no dash emblem as we have. I will get a date of build from his just for comparison. I did not realize that they eliminated them later on. I am kind of new to the GTO over all. And well mine was not a very good source to learn from as it was missing parts lol.
Don

Here's a service bulletin on this:
(so, probably after 2-24-69 went into effect)


:)

Thank you for that information! Learning about these old cars is what it is all about. Great information. My 69 has the emblem as well as the rear molding and the parking brake trim.
Thanks for the post
Don

GTO's could get RamAir 3 engine/induction before the Judge came out.
But not until some time in November 1968 , are the earliest cars we have found.
Your September car wouldn't be a prospect, but all the better if you have some of the items.
Judges started production around mid-january.

GTO dash emblem lasted until about mid-February.
Judge on glovebox started around end of Feb

Lower Quarter trim stopped around end of Feb , depending on plant sometimes.
Convertibles kept them the whole year.

Any car with Rally2 wheels in 69 got the black center lugnuts.
And black PMD center caps
Judges were the only ones without trim rings

Pick any color combo that makes you happy.
We can live with it. :)

What can you tell us about your engine ?
Year model , block code , head code , carb #

Thank you as well for information. I didn't know squat about the engines and just grabbed one on craigs list because I have not seen a lot around here. I picked this one up in Cheyenne Wy. I will get the numbers off of it and post them. I don't think it is any great engine. I re-built it but have not fired it yet. I was impressed that the heads were closed chambered . They have a 13 that is in the center above the exhaust manifold.

I have a friend that got me into building a GTO. He has a 65 and a 69. He raced the 69 years back and the body has very low miles on it but no original engine at this point. He just had an engine built (in Florida I think) It is a large stoker with over 500HP. I am going to invite him to the forum . He has been a Pontiac man all his life.