[Scarebird]

Looks great!

I did not realize your shop was just a short walk from the SODO station.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

Looks great!

I did not realize your shop was just a short walk from the SODO station.

Thanks! Yes, the SODO station is just around the block. Very convenient. Are you in my neck of the woods?

[MUSLCAH]

What wheels you going to run ?

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

What wheels you going to run ?

Steelies and poverty caps at first. I'm probably also going to buy a set of Rally 1s and run them without trim rings or center caps. I like the stripped down vibe, and I'd like to have two sets of wheels and tires so that I can change it up depending on my mood.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

Thanks! Yes, the SODO station is just around the block. Very convenient. Are you in my neck of the woods?

Was. I will have to look to see if a red 66 is out next time I ride the Link.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

Was. I will have to look to see if a red 66 is out next time I ride the Link.

I'd be happy to show you the car and give you a tour of the shop space sometime if you're ever interested. Lots of amazing cars there.

[ZeGermanHam]

It has been a few weeks since I last updated here, but I have not been idle with the GTO. I have spent the past few weeks installing sound deadening throughout the cabin of the car. The entire floor pan, firewall, underside of cowl, roof panels, kick panels, etc., have all been covered in 80mil butyl sound deadening maid by Noico. I still have yet to install it inside the doors. It was a time-consuming process to cut and roll every square inch, but that tedious work is mostly behind me now.

Here are a few photos of the floor pan before everything got covered with Noico. The painter sprayed a thin textured coating to help somewhat suppress vibration (I guess?). And the underside of the body was also covered in 3M body schutz rubberized undercoating, so between everything, it should be pretty civilized inside the cabin when done.



I also got the firewall block-off plates installed that came in my Vintage Air kit. Not my favorite look, but it's fine and ultimately I wanted to use a Vintage Air kit rather than restore my big original A/C system. The extra space in the engine pay will be welcomed, and it's all fully reversible, so it can go back to stock if I ever feel like it (doubtful).


The past few days have been spent figuring out how to integrate my new Hurst Pro-Matic 2 ratchet shifter into the stock center console without any butchery of the console itself. This meant I had to unfurl the new carpeting, get the console out of storage, and start mocking things up to take measurements. The previous owner of my car had cut an enormous hole in the original console top and also screwed a bunch of holes into it to mount the previous Hurst shifter. As a reminder, here is what that looked like (before restoration):




After sourcing an uncut console top to replace my destroyed original, here is what I did to make everything work together. First, the Hurst Pro-Matic 2 shifter had to be modified a little bit. I trimmed some off the top, and also relocated one of the rear mounting tabs.




After those changes, mounting the shifter directly to the floor pan allows it to sit just below the surface of the console top. Perfection!




Here is where the shifter is positioned when in Drive:


And the console lid can still be opened when in Drive:


I'm super happy with how the shifter turned out. It's mounted very solidly, feels great, and will allow me to bang off shifts with ease. I think it also looks really cool (for an auto), and I'm so glad that I didn't have to cut up the console top at all.

[Old Goat 67]

What a pleasure to read your posts here.
Nice clear not-to-large pictures and Each one has a clear description on what you did.

My compliments Sir, and I like what you are doing and why!

Charles

[ZeGermanHam]

Thank you, Charles! It makes me happy to bring others along for the ride and share the experience. I have learned a ton from others here, and I hope that this thread will provide someone else with useful info down the road as they tackle projects on their own car.

[1_Wild_Cat]

Wow Ham - that came out beautifully. Details make the car in my opinion and you have an eye for them.

[ZeGermanHam]

Thanks Wildcat! I couldn't be happier with how the shifter came out, and it feels so good to click through the gear positions. I love how it functions similarly to a sequentially shifted gearbox, where the shift lever always returns to the same position after upshifting or downshifting, and you can't accidentally skip a gear.

From a visual standpoint, I'm hugely relieved that I was able to get it seamlessly integrated into the factory console. I had no idea whether it could be done. The only photos I was able to find of the Hurst Pro-Matic 2 shifter installed in a '66 GTO w/factory console showed that they had screwed the plastic chrome top that came with the Hurst shifter onto the car's metal console top, which was something I deeply wanted to avoid doing. The shifter is such an aesthetically important part of the interior, and a tacky looking aftermarket shifter install can really hurt the look of an otherwise beautiful interior. So this is actually a sizeable weight off my shoulders now finally knowing that I will have the interior look that I always wanted in my head.

Attached is a photo of the only other example of this shifter being installed in a '66 w/console that I could find. I'm sure others have done it, but photos are not out there. I much prefer my outcome versus what's in this photo.

[389]

The 1966 Pontiac GTO is the best-looking Pontiac ever made in my opinion. It's not loaded with chrome and its size is perfect. It has the best-looking taillights. I wish I had one.
421, three Hollys, on a aluminum intake, stock single points distributor converted to Capacitive Discharge, TH 400 shifted by a Hurst Autostick, 3:08 or 2.73.
Emerald green with black interior. On a set of ET or Crestline spoked aluminum wheels.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by 389

The 1966 Pontiac GTO is the best-looking Pontiac ever made in my opinion. It's not loaded with chrome and its size is perfect.

I may be biased , but I totally agree. The '67 was a better car mechanically due to coming from the factory with the TH400, dual master cylinder, and front disc brake option, but I prefer the looks of the '66. As you say, it has better taillights, and I prefer the more restrained use of trim along the rockers. I also prefer the more understated grills used on the '66 versus the '67's chrome chain link style, but I find that this view tends to be in the minority and most others prefer the look of the '67. You can't go wrong with either '66 or '67 - both are total home run cars from the heyday of American muscle, but the '67 always struck me as having a little too much bling added given how tastefully done the '66 was.

But make no mistake, both years are fantastic and I'd be happy to have both.

[MUSLCAH]

67’ s have a skinny waist ..because of the rocker chrome and lower door and 1/4 chrome. The 66 is the fat girl….lol

[ZeGermanHam]

Another way to think of it is the '67 is a woman who is wearing too much jewelry.

[1965gp]

I really like that shifter. My car was converted to a th350 and I am using a stock shifter. It’s so loose it’s difficult to run it up through the gears. I am going to see if I get used to it- otherwise this is a great option

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

I really like that shifter. My car was converted to a th350 and I am using a stock shifter. It’s so loose it’s difficult to run it up through the gears. I am going to see if I get used to it- otherwise this is a great option

I can't recommend this this shifter highly enough. It looks inconspicuous and period correct, and it feels extremely solid, mechanical, and precise. Shifters are one of those things that make a big impact not only on how a car looks, but also on your overall experience driving the car. If you decide to revisit the shifter in your car, the Pro-Matic 2 is one of the best options. It's the best combination of looks and function, IMO.

[MUSLCAH]

A month has gone by ? Where you at

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

A month has gone by ? Where you at

I'm glad someone is still curious!

I've certainly not been sitting idle, bit everything does seem to take longer than expected.

I will try to post an update with photos later tonight if I can. I have been without internet service for the past week after a large truck snagged the fiber optic cable coming from the utility pole and ripped it out of my house. Posting multiple photos here and formatting them correctly is difficult to accomplish on here with my phone, but the repair guy is supposedly coming to fix everything at some time today.

[ZeGermanHam]

Alright, after what felt like spending a week in 1992, I finally have internet service at home again. Here are some photos of what I've been up to.

I sandblasted and painted the pedal assemblies, then polished the stainless trim and installed new pads. Came out looking rather sharp.


Then I got things moving in the wiring department. Had to take the plunge and finally cut the firewall opening to accommodate the American Autowire Classic Update kit. This doesn't really bother me at all, since this is not an original numbers-matching car by any stretch. And it would be rather easy to return it back to the original dimension opening.

Here you can see the outline of where the cuts will be.


All done.




After that, I got the firewall pad and "upper cowl" insulation installed. Note that for the upper cowl insulation, rather than using the factory style exposed fiberglass panels (crazy...), I bought some HVAC duct insulation. Very cheap and effective, and no fiberglass dust ever again.


The firewall insulation pad was a little more annoying to install than it should be due entirely to the push-in clips/plugs. The molded firewall pad fit fantastically, and all the holes lined up exactly where they should, but the darn plugs were a PITA to push through the holes in the firewall metal. My solution to the problem was to hammer them in using a 1/2" impact driver adapter as so:




Then back to more wiring, this time focusing on auxiliary gauges. Very nice electric AutoMeter gauges made in the U.S., which look great, IMO.




There are some things I'm a stickler about, and gauges are one of them. In my book, the aux gauges must all have the same dial sweep, either partial or full, but all the same. I like the look of having three partial sweep gauges, and they will all point roughly straight up during normal driving conditions.


Got the gauge cluster all ready to go, both the assembly itself and the wiring inside the car. It has since dawned on me that I will likely have to lower the steering column to get the dash bezel installed, which I wish I didn't have to do. It's less fun monkeying around with painted parts...




I also noticed that my American Autowire kit includes wires and a bulb socket for a parking brake warning light. My instrument cluster had this hole taped off from the factory, but it did still have the lens in the cluster that says "BRAKE". I decided to peel the tape off and install the light socket and gain this feature. But that also meant I had to come up with a switch for the parking brake pedal assembly. I don't think anyone makes the switch bracket, but I found this photo online:


Using the photo above as a reference, I fabricated my own bracket from scrap metal I had around and then bought a switch from O'Reilly Auto for $6. Easy!


I also got the HVAC control unit converted to function with the Vintage Air system going into the car. Pretty straightforward, but I'm wondering if I should install the control unit into the dash bezel and then install the whole assembly into the car, or rather if I should install the dash bezel first, then install the HVAC control unit afterward. I haven't really figured out the logistics of that process yet.


And lastly, between work and the GTO, I've been getting out to the track in my other car for some fun as well.


Between nights & weekends, I'm working at least 20 hours/week on the GTO every single week, but stuff takes time. Or at least it does for me.