[cuz68]

Looking good Jarretts70, I like to see pics of the body work comeing back to life.

[jarretts70]

Nothing new to report on the car other than starting to collect a bunch more parts required to get it going.

Just wanted to say really glad to see this forum back up & running!

[jarretts70]

Dredging up this old thread again. This car will one day be done!

Haven't updated in a long time. Spent the last couple years focusing on my T/A and finally have a car finished! Well...almost...at least I can drive it! Here's a pic, forgive the awful wheels. I have a set of 15x8 snowflakes but haven't finished them yet.

So back to this GTO. I'm going to bolt the body to the frame so I can install all the sheetmetal to set gaps, prime & block sand, etc. Then I'll pull it back off the frame to paint the body & build the chassis.

I dug out the body mount kit. I bought it a long time ago, don't remember from who (maybe Inline Tube?). Anyway, I can't figure a couple things out. The main part of the bushings (between body & frame) are very close to the originals, except the originals have a separate metal ring that installs to the bottom of the bushing, where it sits down in the frame. The new kit does not have those rings. The original ring in the picture is reusable, but most of them are in bad shape or totally rusted away. How important are they? I can't seem to find them anywhere. Note in the picture the bushing is sitting upside down, so you are looking at the bottom side where it sits in the frame.

Second issue - the bottom part of the bushing (that goes between the body bolt washer & frame) - the original were a solid donut, but the new ones are more of a "cup". They don't properly index with the other part of the bushing. Am I missing something here? The body mount kit says "A-body" but it believe it's specific to a Chevelle. I would have assumed they would be the same but I might be wrong.

[HWYSTR455]

Get another body mount kit, those don't look right. Might be for a different year or whatever, but the ones our host sells are more if not just like the OE ones.

I had one set I gave away, because I went solid bushings. Those were correct, and pretty sure I got them from Ames, like 4-6 years ago. They looked nothing like those you pictured.

The ones I had were typical 'biscuits', with the locating washers and sleeves. I even bought some extra singles, and had planned to use bolts in the unused locations, or locations that just pushed in, but like I said, I went to solid.

Remember too that the core support bushings don't come with the body kit, or at least I don't think mine did. I had to buy the core support ones separately.

Funny, my T/A project is the one that took a back seat, and will finish the A-body first! But I plan to get on the 'bird next year, just a partial restore, so I can at least get some drive time on it, I miss it!

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[jarretts70]

I looked at the mounts shown in the Ames catalogue. The main biscuits (between frame & body) of the bushings that came with my kit look just like the Ames ones. It's just the smaller donut that fits from the bottom side that's different. I looked my originals over and they are still in really good shape; I think I'll use the new biscuits combined with the original donuts.

Thanks for the heads up on the Ames bushings. I thought I'd have to fab my own for the core support but see I can order them from Ames - one less headache. I went thru that pain in the rear with my T/A, I wound up having to combine new biscuits meant for a Camaro with some thick aluminium spacers a machinist buddy made for me.

[jarretts70]

HWYSTR - I've been thru a couple of your build threads. Your Judge Tribute is awesome, I love the color.

My GTO has taken so long that my plans have changed a bit. When I started it was going to be a very stock resto. But I've changed my mind a bit & now it's going to be a bit more "resto-mod". Nothing too crazy but will get some suspension upgrades. And the big change will be the color. My car was originally Cardinal red & that's what I was going to keep it. But my favorite Pontiac colors are always blue. Lucerne blue, Martinique blue, etc...I'm really happy with the color of my T/A and a while ago decided I wanted the GTO to be blue as well. Looked at a bunch of pictures of original color 70's and decided that Atoll blue with pink eyebrow stripes would be the bomb...that was before I saw your thread!

Since it can be hard for a paint store to get an color correct off an old code my plan was to find a new vehicle as close to Atoll as possible & run with that. Your color was one I looked at, as well as a cole called "Stone blue metallic" - saw it on a new Denali & looked pretty sharp. A little darker than yours I think..

[HWYSTR455]

Thanks! Yeah, I need to update that thread badly! I work on it pretty much any moment I can outside of work. I'm about to take a solid week off and with the weekends, should have about 9 days to work on it. There's a bunch of fab, especially the wiring, which has added to the time, had hoped to have it done by now.

Yes, Stone Blue Metallic, one I looked at, but for some reason I stuck with the Caddy color. There were several that I looked at and liked, it got so close to spray time that in the end, I just did an eyes-closed-and-point thing!

Picking newer colors is a good practice, especially for a driver. Repairs/matching is very easy, and you can go to the auto parts store and pick up touch-up paint. Generally, a color that's about 2-3 years old is more affordable.

Thing about new colors, you can look at cars that have it on them already, and not rely on a chip. Newer cars have different lines, and the color never looks the same on older cars, but it still is better than a chip. The color I have in indirect lighting, looks very dark, almost black in low light. That and the stripes, both are hard to get an idea from pics. I'm looking forward to get it out in use, and see how the colors are.

I HAVE to get back on my 'bird, it's killing me. It was very close to done when I stalled on that project, but along the way I changed direction, several times, so now need a few things. Not bad, and could knock it out pretty quick, but it won't be to the level the tribute is. Maybe I will come back around to it and go thru it again, make it better, will see.

I can't remember the specifics about the mounts at the moment, have a mental image, but not sure that's correct! Heheh!

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[jarretts70]

I never thought about the newer colors being easier to match, but it a really good point.

Did you pick the Caddy color because it was closest to Atoll, or just because you liked it best? Funny, but I've never seen an Atoll car in person, just pictures. So I don't have a great point of reference,

[HWYSTR455]

Yeah, because it was closest to Atoll, wanted a 'tribute' that was fairly close to original. I went around to all the dealerships, looked at all the blue cars, and wow, it was mind-boggling. It was tough to chose, didn't want anything that had 'purple' tones to it, and still had somewhat of an effect.

I saw an Atoll car a few years ago, but after looking at other blue cars, I lost the details in my mind. The OE Atoll is still a stunning color, has some effect to it, but it's still not like newer colors. Orbit Orange has an effect too, was struggling with that color.

Another reason I wanted something close to an original factory color is so I could easily chose the stripes too. Since they are reflective, and multi-color, it's tough to make sure it all 'flows' and goes together.

The Caddy color still has a touch of purple tint to it, but it's acceptable, and subtle. There was a Toyota color that was nice too, but really wanted a GM color. There's a Ford color that's very nice as well, think it comes on the new Edge, but can't recall.

I also didn't want anything that was real 'sparkly' from flake, or big flake, think that would detract from the stripes or be too 'busy'.

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[jarretts70]

I'm totally on the same page as you, I look closely at every blue car I see on the road & have shot down a few colors for being too "purple". Saw a pretty cool dark blue Audi SUV thing a couple days ago that was very "blue", but haven't tracked down a code yet. I keep coming back to the Stone Blue Metallic or the color of your car. I've seen a few Dodge trucks running around that aren't bad.

I stopped at the place where I buy my paint today to look at a few color chips. The guy there warned me some blues are a 3 stage process - you need to put down a base of solid blue before spraying the metallic blue over that, finished with clear. Do you know if your color was like that? It's not a deal breaker or anything, but there is extra time & cost with the 3 stage process.

[HWYSTR455]

It's a base coat clear coat, yeah, that's pretty much what you want too, much easier to spray and repair.

The Dodge colors all looked too purple to me, some you couldn't tell until you see the same color on a different car or truck, and in the light.

Yup, saw the Audi color, and it's too blue for me. It's like a kinda flat blue, think if it had a little more flake it would look better.

So just to say, Atoll, by definition, is like a deep lagoon in the ocean, and the color is very deep. Brighter light lightens the blue. So for me, a flat color, or monochromatic/single color, just won't do it.

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[HWYSTR455]

Oh, also, within GM, as you go from make to make, colors have different names, but can be the same color. If you know the different names, you can look at the color on different bodies, and get an idea of what the color looks like on different shapes. Like on flat or wavy panels.


http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcod...20Ocean%20Blue


http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcod...?gmcode=WA705U

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcod...f=GM&gncl=Blue

Just try to pick one that within 5 - 7 years so it's more readily available. Others can be mixed, but cost more.





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[jarretts70]

Great! Thanks for the advice, that paint code website is really helpful.