[John Milner]

I just drug this '71 GTO home the other day. It has been off the road since the late 70's. It is a factory tropical lime green car with green interior and white vinyl top. It is a YS 400 car. The car came with buckets, console, power windows, manual drums, and 3:23 positrac. It was raced quite often and had 4:88's set up in place of the 3:23's and a set of ladder bars in the back. The original block is missing, but I would imagine that the 4:88's probably took care of it back in the day.

[The Boss]

Cool! What's the plan?

[marxjunk]

ya know, i love tropical lime on skylarks,,just doesnt work on GTO and i dont know why...for me anyway..i had a 71 Tropical GTO 4 speed car, and it never grew on my...

WHats goin on with that strapping technique on the bumper?

where did it come from..? looks like a solid project...nice front clip...mine had hood pins too..lol...years ago it was the only fix if the latch stuff broke..i did 3 or 4 in my day..back when i was young and dumb.....

[John Milner]

I'm not a huge fan of the color combo yet, maybe it will grow on me. Since it seems to be a fairly rare color, I'd probably go back that color. I'm not sure on what engine to stick in it. The car came with some .030 domed 400 pistons, so I have been kicking around building a high compression 400 to race. But, I have a 455 or 428 with a tripower that I will probably end up putting in to get it mobile. The original 3:23 ring and pinion is in the trunk, so I'm probably going to set those back up after I do a burnout or two with the 4:88's.

Although it is hard to see, the strap on the front is actually looping through the hood scoop opening. It would be my luck that the hood would blow off the car coming home, so I put a strap on it.

[marxjunk]

i had a 71 auto car that was black primer and it was tropical too..with a weird greenish tan interior..i left it black primed and had fun with it...i drug it out of arkansas...and it was such a rust free car....i sold it to a buddy and he gave it to his brother for a birthday gift..my brother just gave me hard times..lol

[OVERULD]

I've got a brand new Jade Green carpet set I'd be willing to sell at a decent price. PM if interested.

BJ

[John Milner]

I've had this car since 2012 and still have not fixed it up. I have mainly just been gathering up extra parts for it. I have had other cars in front of it before I can start getting it back on the street. I am nearing completion of those so I should be starting on this one soon. Just last week I was finally able to find the name of the guy who owned this car for over 30 years. Through some mutual friends I was able to get his phone number. I gave him a call and he still had the original numbers matching YS block for the car that the guy I bought the car from did not get for whatever reason. The guy was nice enough to just give me the block. The 96 heads and several other engine pieces were in the trunk when I bought the car. The car needs a ton of work but I think it will be worth it with the original numbers matching 400.

[dstryr]

That's awesome, sure will be nice to see it on the road again.

[unruhjonny]

that's a SERIOUSLY sweet score!

Congratulations!!

[4dblnkldude]

Yeah. Congrats!!!

[indymanjoe]

That's the perfect color combo as it sits to drag some shiny camaro's down the track. Have some fun!

[John Milner]

I'm glad that the original block got re-united with the car. The engine block was .030 already. The block has sit bare since the late 70's so it got pretty rusty. I'm having a machine shop hone it out to see if it will go .040 and if not, it will for sure go .060. I'm a little undecided on if I'll build the engine stock or put some domed pistons in there to bump the compression up some and run a nice cam in it. I'm leaning towards just building it fairly stock. So, I probably won't be doing much racing in this one. I'll set the 3:23's back up in it. The PHS didn't show a whole lot as far as options. It will be going back the factory colors for the interior and exterior.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Those type Invoices were usually cars ordered by active service men - with heavy discount.

But this one may have been ordered by a service woman .

Color combo - with whitewall tires and wire hubcaps - on a GTO ,
doesn't seem like a man thing too much , imo.

It will look sharp back in those colors , but i'd hesitate putting whitewalls and wire caps back on it.

Here's a a semi-similar car for inspiration.

[CraigGT37]

nice color combo, early car also.

[thepontiacman]

Nice project.

I parted a Lime green/jade green 71 GTO years ago. YS auto., still have build sheet.

[John Milner]

Have finally got around to working on this project some as time and money allows. As far as the body, I cut out and replaced the catwalk/package tray with one from another donor car. It was difficult but not as hard as I thought it might be. The body still needs some work but is coming around nicely. The hood turned out nice after patching the front. After bodywork on the trunk lid and doors, I sprayed some Tropical Lime paint on the underneath side of the trunk lid and the back side of the doors. It is a really nice color in the sun. I ended up using another front bumper as the Oklahoma heat and sun had baked the original one. The replacement bumper was stripped to the bare rubber and several coats of SPI epoxy primer were added along with minimal amounts of Upol flexible filler.

I will be adding rally gauges to the car. I did reuse the original speedometer. Instead of Jade Green interior, I will be changing it to Sandalwood as I have a very nice Sandalwood dash. It will be a keeper car so when something happens to me, the next owner can change it back to Jade if they prefer that. I sent an AM/FM mono out to be restored and it turned out very nice. It will be working with a factory 8 track player. I will also be adding a factory tilt steering column.

[John Milner]

The #'s matching block was extremely rusty as it had sit outside since the late 70's. The block had to be bored .040 and decked just enough to clean the surface up. It received flat top forged TRW's. The rods are stock with ARP bolts added. The N crank was ground .010 on the mains and rods. I stepped up the camshaft to an 068. The 96 heads received a valve job with new valves, springs and seals. Compression will be in the 8.5:1 range. It won't be the fastest GTO in the world but I just want it run smooth, be reliable and run similar to what a 71 YS engine should. The original Quadrajet cleaned up and rebuilt nicely as did the original distributor, starter and water pump.

I hope to sit the engine and the rebuilt th400 back in the car for the first time in nearly 50 years soon.

[TXSTARFIRE]

Fun to see this car start to come together!

['ol Pinion head]

Looking good Scott!

[Cerberus]

Love the tropical lime and sandalwood, which is much better than the green or black interior in my opinion.