[72projectbird]

This car is amazing! The 65 GTO is one of the coolest Pontiacs ever made!

The chassis itself is a work of art. I usually don't like lowered muscle cars, but for some reason it works really well with the big body goats. Those wheels are amazing also!

[darbikrash]

Originally Posted by 72projectbird

This car is amazing! The 65 GTO is one of the coolest Pontiacs ever made!

The chassis itself is a work of art. I usually don't like lowered muscle cars, but for some reason it works really well with the big body goats. Those wheels are amazing also!

Thanks for your comments!

I think the '64-'65 GTO's are really tricky shapes. The form is bold- but simple. It's a primitive shape, basically two rectangles one atop the other with a rake to the C pillar. That's it -nothing else. In addition to the C pillar, the trunk line is quite long. It took me a long time to develop a taste for the 1st Gen GTO's, but now I love it. I know back in the day I remember a lot of these cars were submitted to air shocks and had the rear ends jacked up, which just ruins the lines of the car if you ask me. There is something about the C pillar rake which just does not work with a forward body rake.

This is just my opinion, but if this shape is low- and flat- or at most sublety raked forward in the stance, it accentuates the look of the long trunk line and gives it almost a sinister look.

There is something brutally honest about a '65 that is lowered, flat, and painted a dark color.

Here are some pictures of a color study we did in "Tennessee Whiskey Gold"



And a two tone, which I did not care for:



We decided on the Brewster green color as it was a factory Pontiac color for early '70's Trans Ams, but not as well known, it was (and still is) a special Porsche color reserved specifically for family members. It was never offered as an RPO Porsche color, except for a special run of 13 cars built in 2012, 12 were sold and the thirteenth is in the Porsche museum.


Here are some shots of the sheet metal work.


A couple of cuts made to seat the body down onto the chassis, driveshaft loop is clearanced first:



Driveshaft too close to the tunnel:



Mark up the locations for the upper four link brackets to clear the floor pan:



More clearance:



Some help for the 200 4R:



Mark up for the mini tubs:







Next we can start putting it back together.

[darbikrash]

Wheels just arrived.

[6 Grrrs]

WOW those are sweet.

[Nicks67GTO]

Whoops. Double post

[Nicks67GTO]

Sweet build. Subscribed. Do you have the dyno sheet by chance?

[darbikrash]

Not really. I did get a partial pull, maybe half throttle, after we ran a break in run to seat the rings. We made this partial pull (below) and added some more fuel to the base map.

Uploaded the new program to do a full power pull, and heard a really large bang. The 200R4 let go- catastrophically. So that was the end of (chassis) dyno day.

The trans supposedly had all kinds of hardened goodies, 300 M input shaft, hardened input drum, etc, well past the usual stage 3 200 R4 build. Upon disassembly, the trans builder reported the input drum was not hardened- he had used a new supplier and there was no heat treat.

The brand new high dollar trans was pretty well scrap, the magnetic drain plug had about 1/2" of metal shavings glued against when I drained it.

The builder replaced everything at no charge.

Anyway, here is the only recorded (part throttle) pull we got from the dyno session, prior to the trans grenading:

[rohrt]

Was it just a bad build on the tranny or just not strong enough?

[darbikrash]

Builder's error. They used a new supplier for the input drum and it was not heat treated. Replaced with an Art Carr drum and all new parts.

[rohrt]

Originally Posted by darbikrash

Builder's error. They used a new supplier for the input drum and it was not heat treated. Replaced with an Art Carr drum and all new parts.

Love what you did with the car. Love the whole concept.

I'm sure someone will ask but why not the 4l80?

[darbikrash]

Here are some shots of the reconstruction of the floorpan and firewall to fit the new chassis and transmission. The 200 R 4 was chosen as it is a direct bolt up to the Pontiac block, and has minimal clearance requirements to the stock tunnel.

Firewall smoothed and some bead roller detail added:







The Wildwood M/C is mocked up for position to set the correct pedal height. I'm using manual brakes- so the M/C piston sizes are specified accordingly, and most importantly the pedal (pivot) length is extra long to allow extra leverage for manual brakes. This moves the M/C up slightly on the firewall to allow for the extra length pedal.



With the new firewall in place, it's time to build up the new tunnel. For all the new tin, we are using 18 gauge AKDQ steel. It runs through the slip roll and bead roller very nicely. This specific alloy is a trick that the Detroit guys invented, it is designed for deep drawing of automotive fenders and other parts with large deformations. it forms like butter, but has the same tensile properties of normal cold rolled steel. It makes a huge difference in being able to form shapes, while still maintaining good weldability. it's somewhat hard to find (especially in CA) but it's worth the effort to find it. AKDQ stands for Aluminum Killed Draw Quality steel.



Normally we'd make this tunnel on a slip roller, but we decided to make it in one piece to eliminate weld joints. As such, it was too long for the slip roller, so we bump formed it on a press brake.





Welding the rear tunnel to the floorpan. The square cut out to the left is clearance for the upper 4 link suspension mount shown by the red arrows in a previous post.



4 Link suspension notch outs:



Next post I'll show fairing the trans tunnel to the firewall. Minimal clearance was needed to clear the 200 R 4. This is important as I want to use the stock center console with stock PG shifter. Also rear (and front) wheel fairings.

[darbikrash]

Here are some shots of the trans tunnel and mini tubbing. The trans area does not need too much work as the 200 R4 is not much bigger than the PG it replaced. This car had the center console, and I wan to use the factory 2 speed PG shifter to shift the 4 speed OD 200 R4.

I am using a Shiftworks cable shifter to adapt the factory console shifter to the OD trans.





Rear tubs:





Patch added for extra width:





Tubs in:



Front wheel housings too:

[darbikrash]

With the floorpan and wheel tubs ready, it's time for some bodywork.

Down to bare metal, no media blasting, all by hand:









Passenger rear quarter got hit, typical excessive bondo repair, so its removed for a new panel:





Discovered some unpleasantness on the dash directly under the windshield, the only rust on the whole car. The damage went pretty much from door to door on the dash, so we welded in a patch panel:





Guide coat and setting panel gaps:









Block sanded primer:

[darbikrash]

Inching closer to the paint booth. I hope to be in paint by this weekend.

[LiL Jack]

Very nice. 65 is my favorite year. I am restoring a 65 black with red interior.

[elefantrider]

Lots of work. Something tells me this is not your first rodeo.

[darbikrash]

Just had a visit with the paint shop.

Trunk looks stock to me. :-)





That nasty business on the dash is cleaned up too:

[darbikrash]

Here are some color shots:

Nice and straight.



Brewster green:



Although Pontiac made a factory color of Brewster green (I think for early '70's Trans Ams) Porsche also made a version. The Porsche version was never available as a production color from Porsche - this color was reserved for cars manufactured for family members only. They did however produce (13) 911 Club Coupe special editions cars in 2013- all in Brewster green. Twelve were sold and the 13th is in the Porsche musuem.

I got the Glasurit paint code and ordered Porsche Brewster green, which you see here. While the Pontiac color is a darker, single stage paint, this two stage water based paint has a very, very fine metallic component which makes the paint light up in direct sunlight.

See what you think:

[darbikrash]

So it's not all rainbows and sunshine- the rear wheel backspacing and width are not right. We are remaking the rear wheels to push out the tire another 1.125" towards the fender- possibly also going up a tire size. We went to an awful lot of trouble to maximize the rear tire size, and it is too conservative as it sits now. We can use another 1/2" of forward rake and at least another 1" of tread width.

On Monday we will fit check a 345/30-19 and stagger the front and rear diameters. The fronts are perfect at 275/35-18.





I'm anxious to the get chrome, trim, and glass in the car.

[wheelspin]

Nice take on a '65 GTO. Love the color choice, the wheels, and especially the high quality chassis components. I have similar power trains in both my GTO and my TA. What area of SoCal are you located in? I'm in Hacienda Hts. near the junction of the 60 & 605 freeways.