[6 Grrrs]

Love it.

[darbikrash]

Some pics of the engine compartment:

[darbikrash]

Dynamat going in, next is the headliner, then the glass.

[darbikrash]

Finished up the Dynamat. Inside the doors and near the rear passenger window regulators we put lots of individual strips of Dynamat to damper the rattling that these cars get from stuff inside the doors banging around. It's pretty amazing, when you slam these doors they have solid thud when they close.




The steering wheel mock up shows that we need a 14" diameter wheel, even with the Ididit tilt column. The original wheel is way too large, both in diameter and in dish.




Added some ProCar rally seats (below), which are pretty nice for the money. To dress them up a little bit, we added some Alcantara inserts in black. The factory seat brackets place the seat way too high, so we'll have to cut down the brackets to get headroom. We'll carry the same upholstery theme to the rear seats, except the rears have to be modified to clear the new tunnel. We are using the factory rear seat frames modified to clear the tunnel, with new upholstery to match.



The Dakota Digital dash looks real nice. We added a new woodgrain dash insert from our web hosts and it fits nicely. It's a little disappointing that the Dakota Digital stuff does not talk to the Holley ECU, all the necessary sensor inputs are already in the Holley for oil pressure and water temperature. It would sure be nice to use the Canbus signal from the Holley to provide inputs to the dash- but they do not talk to each other.

We were able to share the oil pressure sensor input by splicing into the Holley sender mounted next to where the distributor would go, it is a three wire (0-5 VDC) so we can share this with the dash, the water temp is a two wire and this cannot be shared. In the case of the water temp, we added a new (redundant) sensor to the passenger side cylinder head heater block off plug. Speedo comes from a sensor Dakota supplies that attaches to the 200 R4, and fuel level comes from the Rick's Tank sender. Tach comes off the coils.





Still got some clean up to do on the HVAC controls, this was a factory A/C car so we are reusing all the original stuff on the dash side, and Vintage Air controls on the backside. This should clean up pretty nice.



Starting to put the dash together, these pictures do not show how nice this dash looks with the A/C vents polished and the painted dash.



Since the car does not have a distributor, we thought it would be cool to hide the coils and have the plug wires pass through the firewall through individual grommets. Here are the coils tucked away and mounted up under the dash.

[elefantrider]

Could you have found a way to make the original gauges work with this setup? I love the original '65 rally gauges with the checkered flag. I do not remember if your car had them.

[darbikrash]

I really like the rallye gauges as well- but this car did not have them. If it did, I think I would have made an effort to restore them. I did investigate the cost to restore what I do have, and it was about the same as the Dakota Digital set up.

Another really nice option is what Nick did on his '67, those Speedhut gauges came out really nice on his car.

[darbikrash]

Here is a video we shot on the day of the chassis dyno. Those guys at Westech were sure surprised when we showed up with no body. It's a chassis dyno right?

[darbikrash]

We finally got the rear wheels remade. These are 18" x 12". We could not fit a 19" under the car, but I'm happy with the new size. Also, I gave up waiting on the new Goodrich Rival S tire, we finalized with Pilot Sports. These are 335/30-18.

[elefantrider]

That is a lot of rubber. Grooves look deep. Looking forward to seeing them on the car. Were they able to rework the old rims or did they need to scrap them and start from new.

[Nicks67GTO]

Love this build. Do you intend to do a lot of Auto X?

[darbikrash]

Originally Posted by elefantrider

That is a lot of rubber. Grooves look deep. Looking forward to seeing them on the car. Were they able to rework the old rims or did they need to scrap them and start from new.

Those are new rims. The previous rims were 18" x 11", these are 12". The 18" x 11" rears with Falken Avenis 315/30-18 are for sale if anybody wants them. Zero miles.

Originally Posted by Nicks67GTO

Love this build. Do you intend to do a lot of Auto X?

Thanks, I would not call this a serious autocross car, but I might run it a time or two to see how it does. Mostly a driver, but I do want it to handle and stop.




We're into the wiring now. Since all the EFI wiring was already completed for the chassis dyno session, we just have to mount things and get the general vehicle wiring in place. Not a single OEM wire is kept, everything from dome light to neutral safety switch is new.


The ECU is tucked up under the kick panel cover. We have a USB connection that runs up to a port in the glove box for connection to a laptop.



Fuse box in the trunk. We'll make a nice cover for it.



We'll run the main harness down the tunnel. We have a central relay panel under the hood.

[darbikrash]

Just some odds and ends. Due to the increased height of the driveshaft tunnel, we had to modify the rear seat, and rear seat back so it would sit correctly.

The theme of the car is to try and keep it looking somewhat original, especially in the interior. We did change the front seats to a more modern bucket, but we have all replacement OE style door panels, headliner, etc. We wanted to keep the back seat fairly stock as well. To this point, I think most upholstery shops would have gone with buckets in the rear, as the tunnel is so tall that there is not much room for padding at stock seat height. We decided to keep the bench seat, and trim away the frame to get the seats to fit, and reupholster to match the fronts.






With these new formed pieces, the seat sits down in the stock location. Now it's off to upholstery to finish this up.

We reused the factory stainless window moldings, after a little straightening. Every piece of glass is new, and it sure looks nice.



During the chassis dyno session the trans seemed to run hot, so we added the B&M trans cooler to the front. We have enabled an input on the Holley ECU to read trans temp, and with a $15 two wire sensor we can read the transmission temperature. Line pressure too if we want. The Vintage Air condenser is also shown mounted here.



Kind of hard to see here, but this is just above the tunnel under the dash. This shot shows the firewall pass through for the plug wires. Coils are up and to the left, under the dash.



Engine side plug wire pass through:



Also it is time to start cleaning up the engine compartment. We temporarily mounted many things for the chassis dyno session, and its time to find better placement for things like the P/S reservoir, remote oil filter mount, etc. Here is a core support bracket that saw a little time on the bead roller:

[darbikrash]

Wiring is complete, now on to the engine compartment to clean up loose ends, and then we can finish up with the interior. Getting closer!

[darbikrash]

We had to modify the shift console to accommodate the sheet metal work on the trans tunnel. We used a ShiftWorks kit to adapt the factory powerglide shifter to the 4 speed OD trans. This gets rid of the stock linkage and converts to a cable shifter arrangement. When the factory shift knob is back on and the carpet is in it will look pretty stock.



Finishing up the Vintage Air install:



Starting to clean up the engine compartment, crimps on the A/C lines. We're running the lines back behind the fenderwell to hide them until they pass through the firewall bulkhead



For the chassis dyno session we had mounted a temporary P/S reservoir right to the Type II pump. This stuck up too high to allow the hood to close, so a remote P/S reservoir was found and located that gives us the gravity fall to the pump.



This car has manual brakes, so no booster is needed. We sized the M/C piston appropriately and also used a extra long brake pedal to give reasonable pedal pressure acting on the ZO6 rotors. Ironically, the engine vacuum is over 16" at idle, so vacuum power brakes would have been easy. I like the engine compartment better without the booster and I have always wanted to try a car like this with manual brakes to see what kind of feel and pedal modulation I can get. We'll see.



Rear proportioning valve tucked in nice and tight- easy to get to for adjustment.



I think I am going to get rid of all those hex heads and get CRES button heads.



Yup!
Should be on the road in a couple of weeks.

[darbikrash]

A couple of updates.

Just a bone stock '65 with a set of aftermarket rims:



Until you look a little closer:




We got the 18" x 12" and 335/30-18 tires on, and they make all the difference in the look:



We're leaving the upper window trim install until last:



But the big news is the engine compartment. It is nearly complete, and I have been really sweating how in the heck we were going to get an air cleaner- any air cleaner to fit with the crazy small hood clearance between the top of the throttle body, and the closed hood.

Not only is there very little vertical clearance, but off to the side the throttle linkage and fuel rails pose a significant obstruction. The guys showed some great creativity in coming up with this idea, which I really like. And it fits.



If you squint real hard it almost looks factory. It's just a 389 with a 3/4 race cam, really!



Each of the two snorkels goes to a fabricated filter canister located inside the fender. There is an round filter element on each side, giving plenty of filter area.



Driver's side:



Lots of challenges under the air cleaner cover to clear all the obstructions. It's all TiG welded out of flat stock.




Serpentine belt system:



New steering wheel:



Easy to see the digital gauges:



Still lots of wiring under the dash, but the seats are done and the carpet is now in as of today.

[6 Grrrs]

I love it. The stance is perfect!

[tripwr1964]

MAN! i don't even know what to say!! that is a work of art.
thks for sharing with us all too!!

[darbikrash]

Thanks for your comments! We've put about 200-300 miles on the car, working out small issues, squeaks, rattles and a small axle flange leak.

Surprisingly, not many issues at all.

Once I get a decent amount of miles on the car, I plan to do a post to discuss the way the car drives and handles, as the suspension and chassis are all modernized and brand new, and improving these attributes was one of the main goals.

[darbikrash]

Just a quick update, the car is going back on the chassis dyno Monday for some final RWHP numbers, and some cold start tuning. I'll post the dyno numbers when available.

Also, the car will make it's first public debut Sat, Aug 22nd at the newly located Cars and Coffee car show, at the Orange County CA. fairgrounds. If there are any PY forum members that are interested in seeing the car in person and visiting, we'll be there. The show starts and ends early, from about 6:30 AM to 8:00 AM.

[stobin]

I wanted to post some comments on this thread since I had the opportunity to witness this car in person. To say that it is impressive would be an understatement. I was attending a local Pontiac show with my father and his recently ground up restored '65 GTO that he and I built together, when John pulls up in the lot and is directed to park along side of us. The engineering in this car is top notch. The RS chassis really makes a statement. The Finspeed wheels are completely off the chart with the bronze finish against the Brewster Green. The car is tastefully executed. It does not scream at you, it looks like a lowered GTO with high end aftermarket wheels. No custom body mods to give it away. I wish I could have flipped the switch on the RS chassis for my GA. I talked to him for way to long about his car, and he was more than willing to put up with my questions...sorry John.