# 1967 GTO restoration journey



## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

Since bringing home our 67 gto, I've been tinkering/working on it when I can. Thought I'd give a few updates along the way.

Built a cart for the body that is very similar to the design from Squidtone (thanks again Dave!). Body was removed from the frame and set on the cart with help from some friends and neighbors. 

The frame is actually pretty solid, which surprised me considering the condition of the floor and trunk. After some measurements, the frame appears to be pretty straight with no major issues noted. There will be some welding needed around some of the body mounts, to make the holes clean again - but nothing too bad. Numbers were found on the frame, after wire brushing and cleaning, matching the frame to the car.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

An AMD one piece floor pan was bought. This pan has the inner rockers and braces already attached.

May be overkill, but some bracing was added to help keep everything in place before cutting the floor out. 

Side note, Ive been keeping an eye out for some NOS parts and although I don't need it right now, I found a great NOS tail panel. GM sticker was still on it and is in great shape. I will need this down the road and couldn't pass up a great piece at a great price.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

Lots of spot welds removed and more trimming/cleaning done - prepping for the new pan. Portions of the outer rockers will need to be replaced, but that will be done later on. The body will eventually be chemically stripped and cleaned, once the car is a little more solid.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

During some of the spot weld removal, my single stage sanborn compressor quit on me. I suppose it was a good excuse to upgrade to a 2 stage unit. Found this Dewalt compressor after doing a lot of research and checking reviews, was a good deal and (other than being very yellow) its doing a great job - much more power and even a little quieter.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

New pan was fit into place - after some aligning, a few plug welds were placed. Once the trunk pan is finished, the body will be set back onto the frame to confirm placement, then everything will be welded completely. Overall, this pan fit very well.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

Here is one more of the floor pan, installed.


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## 64GTOConvertible (Aug 28, 2016)

Awesome work!


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

Looks great! I noticed your car doesn't have the diagonal braces for the rear suspension connecting the lower control arm to the cross member. I wonder when Pontiac started using those braces?

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Looks great! I noticed your car doesn't have the diagonal braces for the rear suspension connecting the lower control arm to the cross member. I wonder when Pontiac started using those braces?
> 
> Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


If I am correct, and as I recall, the upper/lower control arm braces were used on manual trans cars and not automatics. If this one is an automatic, then that would explain it. However, as you questioned, they may not have been installed in the beginning of the '67 run and were installed some time later after production began.

Other good questions would be if the 3-speed manual transmission cars got these, did all 4-speed cars, regardless of rear axle gearing, get them or only the 3.90/4.33 geared cars, and how about any Ram Air automatics? :thumbsup:


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

64GTOConvertible said:


> Awesome work!


X2 on Awesome! Great work as well as the detailed pictures. Other members have asked about the bracing of the body when doing the major work you are, so great pics for all to see.

You are making it look soooooooo simple (like one of the TV/cable network shows- what did it take you, a day to skin and spot weld the floor in, and look no dirt on the garage floor either :wink2, yet I know it ain't so. Keep up with this thread, and keep the pictures coming. If you run into snags, post them along with what you did as my experience is that no project ever goes smooth and there is more than one monkey wrench being thrown into the project. :yesnod:


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Rear diagonal frame braces became standard equip under manual transmission GTO's in very late '65 Production. There was a service bulletin about retrofitting these under earlier built GTO's that were being thrashed hard (my terminology). If you look at enough early frames, many early ones were riveted in the rear coil spring pocket area. Going back 3 decades, have ran across quite a few early frames (clean southern feames) that were cracked in that upper passenger rear side spring pocket. The frame braces were installed to comat this problem. Kirban had the early style reproduced in the late 80's & they are a quality part. The '68-'72 style were installed on Pontiac A-body's equipped with Muncie 4 spds. I've yet to find a pair under a 350 3spd equip GT-37 or '72 LeMans GT & can't remember if there was a pair under a 3spd '69 GTO that I parted. Olds was much more liberal with the use of the later style diagonal frame braces, one will find the under many years of automatic & manual trans 442's


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Looks great! I noticed your car doesn't have the diagonal braces for the rear suspension connecting the lower control arm to the cross member. I wonder when Pontiac started using those braces?
> 
> Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk



Thanks! I'll be honest - I never realized, or noticed that. I did a quick search for some pictures online to see if I can get a visual, but I'm not seeing much. The car was originally a 3 speed manual car, but I will be putting in a 4 speed when the time comes.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

PontiacJim said:


> X2 on Awesome! Great work as well as the detailed pictures. Other members have asked about the bracing of the body when doing the major work you are, so great pics for all to see.
> 
> You are making it look soooooooo simple (like one of the TV/cable network shows- what did it take you, a day to skin and spot weld the floor in, and look no dirt on the garage floor either :wink2, yet I know it ain't so. Keep up with this thread, and keep the pictures coming. If you run into snags, post them along with what you did as my experience is that no project ever goes smooth and there is more than one monkey wrench being thrown into the project. :yesnod:


Appreciate it, Jim :cheers: I will do my best to keep up with the thread here. Yeah, there is definitely a lot of work involved in doing just what you see above, as I'm certain your aware.


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## DMH22 (Jun 5, 2017)

Now I see what you were talking about, Shake-n-Bake. Not sure why my car is missing these, or if it even came with them. Looks like they are easily added once I get to chassis portion of the restoration..I hope


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

DMH22 said:


> Now I see what you were talking about, Shake-n-Bake. Not sure why my car is missing these, or if it even came with them. Looks like they are easily added once I get to chassis portion of the restoration..I hope


Yes, very easy to add those braces. Sounds like there was an early (pre-68) and late (68-72) style. I know the 68-72 style are reproduced...not sure about the early style. Hopefully the vendor that PH mentioned still reproduces those. I just looked at the GTO Restoration Guide book by Paul Z and Chuck R and it says those braces were added to all manual transmission GTOs sometime during the 1965 production run. 

Here is the best picture that I could find of my braces (1968 4sp RA car)...Pinion Head would know if 1967 braces look similar.


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

PontiacJim said:


> X2 on Awesome! Great work as well as the detailed pictures. Other members have asked about the bracing of the body when doing the major work you are, so great pics for all to see.
> 
> You are making it look soooooooo simple (like one of the TV/cable network shows- what did it take you, a day to skin and spot weld the floor in, and look no dirt on the garage floor either :wink2, yet I know it ain't so. Keep up with this thread, and keep the pictures coming. If you run into snags, post them along with what you did as my experience is that no project ever goes smooth and there is more than one monkey wrench being thrown into the project. :yesnod:


Totally Agree. And no two projects ever seem to be the same either. A process that works well for one car might not be the best plan for the next so it's a bit of moving target at times. I actually start to get worried when too many things go smooth because I know the other shoe is about the drop soon. Still great fun to restore these cars since there is a large amount of useful info gather and always something new to learn at every turn.  

Took me two full weekends to cut out my floor and weld in new. I made a pretty big mess too.


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