Project GTO take 2
 

After lots of planning, I started to rip the gto apart today. Here are some pictures, I will be documenting the whole thing.

I restored it between 2004-07 but did not do many things together as I was between the ages of 14-17 and had little know how or money. Now that I am able to do it right, I want to return her to full glory.


What I started with this morning was a fully functional car that I would daily drive over the summer.
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That's it for today. I was doing most of the work solo till my buddy dropped by to help and my back is sore.

Great start!
Looks like a very solid car!!!

Last time I replaced the quarters and patched the floors and trunk pan. They really needed replacing, which is what I am doing this time. I am just about finished building a rotisserie so I can do a full floor pan from firewall to tail panel. Luckily the body work won't need too much this time, but I will be replacing the hood and drivers door.

Today as it was too cold, I made a run to the parts place and picked up the 1 piece floor pan, 1 piece trunk pan, core support, and a drivers door. I'm excited to get started on the floors once I get the rotisserie ready and the body mounted on it.

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Ya got your work cut out! Looks like a great project!

Looks can be deceiving for certain. Last time I did the car, I made it so it was safe and looked decent. There is lots of work under the surface. Today I took apart the rear end, dropped the bumper and gas tank, unbolted the body mounts and lifted it up and started cutting the trunk out.


For lifting the shell, I used the mounting bolts for the conv top assembly. They are fairly solid and built right into the structure of the body. They did quite well for lifting it up to start cutting. Note the use of engine hoist and engine leveler.

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Tomorrow I hope to finish cutting the trunk pan out and maybe start fitting the new one. That all depends on how fast I get all the old braces cut out and can clean all traces of rust off and get a coat of weld thru primer on. I would love to get this thing running by mid to end of June :usa2:

Just a little update as school and work have been keeping me busy. Can't wait till the semester is over in 2 weeks. Got the trunk mostly welded in, need wheel well patch panels to weld in to finish welding those areas.

I started cutting the floor Monday, and finished yesterday. I could not believe how crumbly the structure was as the air chisel started hitting the spot welds. Took me about 8 hours total to get the floor out, including making the front to back bracing to support the firewall. So far, the body hasn't twisted at all, both doors open and close just as well as they did before, even when lifted up with the hoist. The bracing is very simple, but very effective.

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Oh, the rocker panels are unbelievably solid (thankfully) given the amount of crud that was in them. There was a mountain of dirt, rust chunks, and insulation (guessing mice moved it there?) stuck in them to hold water. All I plan on doing to them is cleaning them off on the inside then coating the whole inner rocker cavity using a frame inner coat kit once I have the floor welded in.

Cool project, will be awesome when it's done!

Looks great, keep up the good work!

Thanks. It is going to be a lot of work, but this time around I feel like it is going much better just because I have done this before. Some more pictures coming from the work I did today.

Rear body bolts were in to keep it square and mounted, but still lots of room to pull the body up.

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The floor prepped for install
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Worked the back part in first as it has the part that curves up. This was a hard part moving the pan around by myself as I'm by no means a big or strong person.
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Setting the body down onto the pan. I bolted the pan down with all 4 mounts to square it up, but still loose to slide around. The body slid down onto the pan like a glove when letting it down. The rockers and braces all lined up perfectly.
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And how it sits after today. I have not started to weld the pan in yet, but that won't be too bad. Just lots of drilling and spot welding.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/z...430_155654.jpg

I now need to order the firewall extension floor pieces to repair the remaining floor issues and then install wheel well patch panels too. Then I finally get to pull the body to detail the frame and clean the body up well. :)

Looks good. :)

You went full head on with this. Its looking good. Keep up the good work !

Man, for a backyard project that is amazing work!

Thank you. No better place to do this in my opinion.

Thanks everyone. I know there may be some professional builders appalled at how I'm lifting the body around, but the very simple bracing I put in it hasn't let the body twist at all during this. When sitting down, the doors still open and close perfectly meaning to me that the body hasn't moved one bit.

I wanted to do the floors right and clear out as much rust as I could as I'm only 23 and need it to last me the rest of my life ;)

Are you using the Eastwood frame inner coat kit? I've used it myself on a GP crossmember that I'm using on my Lemans convt; seemed to work fairly well.

Nice work on the car, by the way. Keep the pics and details coming.

Scott

That's what I was planning on using as it seems to have good reviews and should protect the inside of a rocker as well as a frame rail.

I have one more week till school gets out then I can really get to work.

I guess you are a little older and must have more money now. You are doing some very nice work

Thank you.

Got the body off and on the rotisserie today. Finally so I can finish the floors and wheel houses then detail/paint the bottom.

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Spent my whole weekend off getting to this point so now I am just relaxing the rest of the day away.