[imposter]

nick make suer you have enough spacers for those springs i'm thinking on going to the global west big block ones as i'm maxed out on spacers, thats for the front of course

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by imposter

nick make suer you have enough spacers for those springs i'm thinking on going to the global west big block ones as i'm maxed out on spacers, thats for the front of course

Thanks for the heads up. I got the spacer kit so hopefully I should be ok?!

[Nicks67GTO]

Well some more cool stuff showed up yesterday....

SPC upper arms with delrin greaseable bushings, NASCAR style Howe tall upper ball joints, CM cross shafts and aluminum adjusters!!.....





SPC lower A arms with the progressive rate jounce bumpers, Howe balljoints and the shim/install kit!!...

[Nicks67GTO]

Well its throwback time.

I ran across some old photos of the car from the 90's so I thought I would add them to the mix since I wont be getting much done on the car in the next few months.

Here she is around December of 94'. Found it in Hemmings. It had a long travel. It came from California by way of Connecticut. If I remember right, the guy we bought it from had gotten it in a package deal with a convertable from a guy in CA and all he wanted it for was the Hurst wheels on it. He had it delivered to Connecticut and decided to sell it. Anyhow here it is. The first day it was mine....



Off the trailer and into the garage! Notice the smashed in 1/4 panel....ouch. We bought it like this knowing it was hit and got it pretty cheap.

[Nicks67GTO]

It sat for a while as we collected a few parts, namely a 1/4 panel for the driver side. If I remember correctly we got the rust free straight 1/4 from a lemans out of the south somewhere. It was a vintage Pontiac specific business but I dont recall the name. I also remember it wasnt cheap either. At this point I was about 14 and I think my Dad got his first sticker shock on a car resto. the 1/4 was replaced at a local body shop.

The next step was to strip it completely down and have it bead blasted to see how bad it was. We were pleasantly suprised at the complete absence of any rot rust at all except from under the vinyl top. Chalk one up for an original CA car. I'm talking pure virgin 67' sheet metal. To this day the car looks 4 years old underneath. Anyhow the top was the only place that needed any repair work at all. The only panels that aren't stock are the 1/4 and the trunk pan where it got hit....

[Nicks67GTO]

Thats all for now. Ill add some more vintage stuff in the next few days...

[GT182]

Sweet!

[Nicks67GTO]

I think its time to add a couple more retro shots....because Iv'e got nothing to report other than iv'e been driving the wheels off this thing and yesterday I got my clean Montana 67' frame in to the shop to make sure its straight before I start boxing it. Im tossing around the idea of narrowing the rear wheel area by 2" each side and adding a 2" strip of steel in on the old wheel wells as well. That would be the only body mod I would do. I would have room for a 315 tire maybe even a 335 tire?? Anyone on here done this?

anyhow heres some throw back pics!!

In the garage and jambed out, ready for the rebuilt engine!






Me and my Dad. I'm about 15. I'm buttoning something up here.



In she goes. Me on the far side, my Dad below and my old neighbor buddy on the upper left hand side.



That look of amusement was because I was at that point, oblivious to how bad the Hedman headers where going to be to install. Worst header fit ever and as we all know,they're Pontiac headers to boot.... even good ones are a bitch.....



In this pic you have 2 of my buddies from HS, the old guy across the street, some sheet metal that would be going on the car and in the background my other 67' GTO at the time. A 335hp #'s matching post car with a pro-tect-o plate to prove it. I ended up trading it in a round about way for a 91' Z24 cavalier.......yeah....ouch





Ill post some more later...

[GT182]

Henag in there Nick... it only gets better once the hard stuff is done.

Headers are the one thing I'd never even think of installing. The RA manifolds would be much easier.

[charles bledsoe]

Love the old retro pictures, keep them coming, thanks!!

[Nicks67GTO]

Nothing too cool has happened lately with the car.

I did however finally get my "new" frame up to the shop to be checked. This is a Montana frame and it is absolutly 100% rust free. Its beautiful......and I guess its crooked as hell...LOL. It took a hit to the right front horn at some point in its life and kinked the frame a touch. That sucks.

So when i bought it, it was suppposed to be a guarenteed straight frame. I called the guy up and we cut a deal and hes giving me back about 40% of the price I paid. I'm keeping the frame since its so clean and he made it right. The shop said they'll have roughly about a day in it.....theres an unexpected blow to the pocketbook. Ouch.

[Nicks67GTO]

So heres the latest. The frame is still at the shop. I was basically told i'm a second tier customer straight up. Most guys would get pissed but i'm ok with honesty, even if its not what I want to hear, I can appreciate it. I get it, they make their money on insurance claims, not GTO frames, so whatever.

Anyhow I decided on a brake kit. I'm went with TRSD 13" Signature series fronts. After seeing this kit im about 99% sure i'm going to go 12" rears too. These brakes aren't as expensive as you might think either. I got them damn near $100 bucks cheaper than Jegs or Summit offer, just by doing a little searching and comparing between vendors. They consist of 2002 Shelby Mustang 45mm twin piston calipers, 13" D&S zinc washed corvette C4 28mm thick rotors, CNC machined hubs that re drilled for 7/16 and 1/2" wheel studs, braided lines and all other hardware. They are VERY nice and the 13" brakes are HUGE compared to the 11" stuff that I have on there right now. Ill be pulling those parts for a 70' Chevelle I have on the back burner. I might be ordering the rear 12" kit as well but frame clearance issues need to be verified since my rear was ordered 3/4" narrow on both sides.

Anyhow here's a bunch of 13" brake kit pics.....

[arbys]

Those are good pictures. Is the dollar bill what's left after $2K? How did you do all your research? I wouldn't have thought to check on Mustang and Corvette parts.

PS It looks like a 3 course dinner on the table.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by arbys

Those are good pictures. Is the dollar bill what's left after $2K? How did you do all your research? I wouldn't have thought to check on Mustang and Corvette parts.

PS It looks like a 3 course dinner on the table.

HAHA. The buck is there for reference when looking at parts...but yeah the buck lost a lot of buddies in the battle of big brake! They weren't cheap but not as bad as one would think. They were about half of what Kore3 wanted for the C6 front kit and I just couldn't justify the extra $. Tobin@ Kore3 is a cool cat and his customer service is exceptional besides that. I wanted C6's in a bad way but after consideration for everything I bought these. I got the front kit for $650 shipped. Not too shabby IMO and they'll look good behind the Mag G's i'm planning for springtime!

I did hours of research as I normally do. Lots of google searches, making phone calls and sending emails to both companies. The difference between the TRSD's and C5-6 brakes is mainly in the rotor width. C5-6 is 32mm and the C4 that comes in my kit is 28mm. The calipers were both PBR cast originally, the TRSD's are powdercoated unlike the C6's and both had similar calipers. The 4mm width wasn't a huge deal to me since i'm not going to ever take my car to speeds that require that kind of rotor cooling. It was a no brainier for me and TRSD had fantastic custiomer service when I bought their 11" kit that im currently using..

[Nicks67GTO]

Well I got my frame back...finally. Its now within 2mm on the front balljoints. The frame was clean as a whistle but crooked, really crooked in spots. It took them 13.5 hours to clean it up...ouch. But now its probably better than it ever was from the factory. Most of the factory seams are really well done so i'm going to leave most of them alone. Iv'e got to clean a couple welds up but its not big deal. I decided to go with the ABC boxing kit and their solid aluminum body mounts. I also went with an isolator kit from SC&C designed for these body mounts to prevent any "unlike metal" corrosion problems that would ever occur.

I just wanted to throw something out there. Iv'e seen lots of debate on weather or not to use a 110v fluxcore welder on frame work. While I wouldn't use it to build an entire chassis or ever consider one professionally, the little flux core Lincoln 120v welder might make some ugly ass welds and spatter all over but penetration seems fine and i'm pretty sure it shouldn't be any problem keeping the boxing plates in place. Ill just have to do a little extra work cleaning the welds up a bit with an angle grinder.

I'm about done tacking my plates in and ill start filling soon....

[arbys]

I would think that penetration is penetration. I've started to lay down some good welds with my Weldpak 135. BTW where did you get the boxing plates?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by arbys

I would think that penetration is penetration. I've started to lay down some good welds with my Weldpak 135. BTW where did you get the boxing plates?

ABC performance, they make some neat A body stuff for the DIY at home hotrod guy.

http://abcperformance.net/

Agreed on the penetration. I made a comment about it because I read a lot comments from interwebz hero's who just insisted you have to have a 208v industrial mig setup to get anything done.

[arbys]

That boxing kit is is a sweet deal for the owner but also a sweet deal for the maker. After he has the computer program for the layout think how inexpensive it is to whip those out one after another. It's simply amazing what those computers and plasma cutters can produce with such precision.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by arbys

That boxing kit is is a sweet deal for the owner but also a sweet deal for the maker. After he has the computer program for the layout think how inexpensive it is to whip those out one after another. It's simply amazing what those computers and plasma cutters can produce with such precision.

Agreed. The CNC and laser stuff is amazing. I'm in electrical maintenance so iv'e been around these types of machines and they're amazing. This guy has to be making a killing on the stuff but its also a huge expense for the machine up front. The price is stiff but it saves a lot of time. Boxing the frame is EXTREMELY time consuming. I'm only fitted and tacked and I probably have 8 hours in it. You also cant just go welding it all up or you will warp the snot out of these wet noodle frames. Its tack tack tack tack. It's a slow process so anything to speed it up a bit was worth it.

[Nicks67GTO]

Got my body black anodized aluminum body mounts/install kit in the mail from ABC Performance and my isolaters from SC&C!

Merry Christmas to me!

During this process I learned from ABC Performance that 67' Pontiac's had 2 more body mounts than Chevy, Buick an Olds....this is right...isn't it? I got sold 16 mounts/hardware where C,O&P only use 14.....anyone else heard of that?