''69 GTO Ram Air on a budget
 

My GTO needed Ram Air. It's not a RA car, it's not a Judge, it's not even numbers matching, but what does that matter anyway. It's also a lot of $$ for either worn out original parts that need restoration or for a full repop kit that likely won't fit right without modification anyway. So why not work with what ya' have, buy the bare essentials, make the rest and modify it to work better.

I started by finding a used repop upper pan for sale locally and then bought the flapper assembly. It was at this time that I learned that Pontiac made two styles of ram air hood inserts and mine weren't the ones needed to attach to the flapper assembly. I've read nothing but horror stories about the aftermarket inserts, the OG ones are really expensive, and I don't have touch up paint for my car anyway, so I decided to just hog out the scoops on my car and make my own filler plates to keep the air moving through the flappers. I did this shaping some sheet metal and adding some metal strapping to attach the assy underneath the hood.

I also enlarged the opening in the upper pan as the one there seemed really small, and removed the vacuum diaphragms as I intend to leave this open for the mild weather here in So Cal.

more pics of the flapper assembly

Here are a few pics of the upper pan opening enlargement. Using the template helped me mirror the other side for a symmetrical shape and the one pic shows the material removed.

The lower pan also required modification to clear my throttle body and electronics on the firewall. I did this by making a .75" ring with a piece of strap steel shaping it round and welding it to the pan. I trimmed back the rear and shaped an edge to clear the electronics. I added a strip of aluminum to help hold support the foam in front to keep it from deforming while inside the car.

I also cut down the lower foam seal as the pan itself is quite close to my hood and the foam may distort from squeezing too much. Yes, that's an electric knife- they work great for trimming open cell foam like this. I clamped this down and zip tied the trigger so I could use my hands to guide the foam through for a clean cut. Easy.

Wow, I'm impressed...very nice work.

Dennis

First pic shows the cut edge of the foam with my electric knife. 2nd pic is my third arm holding it in place while I trimmed down that lower foam seal.

Lastly, I used one of those air filter lids to take advantage of any available airflow coming in as I had to use a 2" filter which isn't that tall and I didn't want to restrict the engine from air. I also don't like the idea that the air has to bounce off the filter lid and go around it to enter the engine. Seems inefficient to me.

All in I'm less than half of what a "kit" costs, and now my restomod GTO has what looks reasonably decent.

Nice job! I like it.

Looks awesome. You've done some cool projects to that car.