# Sticky  Restoring my 1968 Convertible-Voodoo II



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

Decided to share some photos of the restoration process of my 1968 GTO in case anyone is interested. 
I name most all my vehicles...this one is called Voodoo II. This is a car that I bought in Tucson over 30 years ago. I responded to an add that said "Convertible GTO...needs engine work and new top". When I saw the car it needed a bit more than that but I bought it anyway. I rebuilt the engine, trans, replaced all the wearable parts in the suspension, brakes etc and got it so it would run and drive. Then gave it to my brother so he could work on the interior have a new top installed and enjoy the car. Unfortunately he never was able to work on the car and kept it in storage for the next 15 years. He then hired a restoration shop to finish the car but that didn't go too well. The car was at the restoration shop for 9 years before it closed down and then the car went missing. Eventually I was able to locate the shop owner, recover the car and buy it back. The car was in pieces....completely taken apart, even the body was separated from the frame. Lots of parts were missing and all the previous work would have to be done over. 

The car deserved to be restored since it is a Ram Air II 4 speed car. Verdoro Green, black interior, black top, rally gauges, rally II wheels, disk brakes, power steering, 8 Track.
The Ram Air II was released in the spring of 68 as an upgraded version of the popular Ram Air 347 option code first offered in 1967. The RA II had new round port cylinder heads very similar to the RA IV that followed in 69 and 70. The manual trans RA II engines had the famous "041" camshaft which was carried over to the RA IV engines the following years. By all accounts, these were fairly brutal performance models considering they came with the mandatory 4:33 HD STT axle, M21 close ratio 4 speed transmission, round port cylinder heads, aggressive camshaft, etc. At this point in time there are 5 convertible RA II GTOs known to remain in existence (manual and automatics). Hopefully some more will turn up later...

So, I went out in search of a shop that specializes in classic Pontiac restoration only to discover there are several swindlers out there that just wanted to rip me off. I decided to spend some time to research exactly what would be needed to restore the car to a fairly high level. Knowledge is power and the more I learned, the more confident I became that I could tackle the project myself. I have completed frame off restorations before so I wasn't totally clueless but I also knew this car has some extra historical significance so I want to do the best job possible. Luckily there are some very knowledgeable and helpful people on this forum that I can rely on to help me if/when I get stuck so that is comforting. I then spent the next 20 months searching and collecting the missing parts.....most notably the engine. The original RA II engine was not with the car when I bought it back in 1987 so finding a suitable replacement was going to be a challenge.

So, enough talk. Time for some pics. Here is the pile of parts that I came home with. Not pretty. The floor boards had been replaced but the workmanship was poor and the replacement pans were not primed so they had flash rust across the entire surface. Not sure what brand floors the guy used but they didn't fit the car very well so I knew they were going to have to come out. The rest of the body looked decent although the LH qtr panel looked like someone had gone after it with a dent puller.....might need to replace that panel but wouldn't know for sure until after the car was media blasted. Once the car is media blasted, the sins have no place to hide. 

If you guys are interested....I can continue posting progress updates.


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## NorCalJeremy (Jan 30, 2018)

Looks like quite the project I'll keep eye on your progress if you don't mind keeping the thread updated. This will be my first restoration and I'm wanting to tackle as much myself as possible. I do have great friends to lean on too but this fourm has been great at getting my head right for the journey ahead. Good luck on your's can wait to see it evolve.


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Thanks for the story behind your '68 and for the pics. Would greatly appreciate you doing a resto thread with pics and all (like Dan Woodland - http://www.gtoforum.com/f83/dans-69-restore-tale-53945/ ) . My father used to say if you want it done right you have to do it yourself. He grew up with Model T and Model A Fords so it was easy for him compared to GTO's, but it still seems to be true today. Best of luck with your restoration.

Long live '68 GTO's!!


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

Glad to see there is some interest in the project. I wasn't sure anyone wanted another restoration thread since there are some good ones out there already.

The project is well under way but there is still a lot of work to do. I work on the car during the weekends so progress is quite slow. Even so, I was looking back through the photo folders and was amazed how much better the car looks now compared to when I started. 

I should mention that a complete restoration like this is not cheap. The cost of parts and materials alone (without any labor) is just about the same as the price of a finished car in many cases and especially so when you need as many parts as I did. If this car was a base engine model then it probably wouldn't make financial sense to restore it so it would then become an emotional decision.

Maybe it would be a good time to talk about resource literature. Once I decided to move ahead with the project, I dug out some old books and manuals that I have owned since the 80s and looked them over a bit. I also searched the net for additional info that would be helpful for this project. The photo below is the assortment of printed material that I have collected (so far). 

The two bottom rows are the most useful. The 1971 illustrated parts catalog is full of exploded view illustrations and part numbers for various applications. The books cover previous model years going back quite far. Very good coverage for GTO models up through 71 so it's a great resource. The binder on the lower right is the 1968 Service Manual that I have owned for decades....glad I kept that around all this time 

The second row from the bottom are more essentials in my opinion. Good info in all those books on that line. The 1969 Assembly Manual contains many sheets from the 1968 model years but most all have been revised for 69....even so, it's useful to have for reference at times.

The third row shows some additional books that really aren't necessary to have. The Collectors Originality Guide has some great color photos but otherwise didn't have anything that wasn't already found in the books previously mentioned. The How To Restore Your Pontiac GTO was even less helpful. Someone that needs that book probably should not attempt a frame off restoration project. The How To Rebuild Pontiac V8s didn't have any info that I didn't already know but I can see how it would be a good book for someone who is unfamiliar with Poncho engines. The Cliff Ruggles Q-jet book is well written and very useful if you want to learn more about QuadraJet carburetors. The Doug Roe Q-jet book and the Racer's Handbook are books that I bought in the 80s and contains a lot of theory and principals.....useful for modifying a carb or engine for competition. Neither are necessary for a restoration project.

The top line are old catalogs and booklets that I found in my files. Both from companies that are no longer in business. Purely PMD was a Pontiac restoration shop where I grew up and would frequent in my youth. They built some pretty nice cars and I was fortunate to work with those guys part time one summer around their shop. During my time there, I learned a few things that still help me to this day so that was a very good experience and likely the inspiration that caused me to build and race Pontiac's a few years later. Nothing on that top row is necessary....just included it in the photo since I had the stuff all laid out.









Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## Juice564 (Jan 17, 2016)

Very cool! That color combo will look beautiful! Welcome to the "GTO restoration club", specializing in busted knuckles, loud swearing, and empty wallets! 

Look forward to more pics!


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Yes! Keep em coming, especially the engine build.

Bear


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

BearGFR said:


> Yes! Keep em coming, especially the engine build.
> 
> Bear


I will be checking clearances in a few weeks to make sure the machine shop did the work properly. I always align hone as well so I have an undersized timing set and also hope it fits. I did search and find something on Cloyes website that shows how to measure the center distance. Maybe this link will work. I know you don't need it but might be helpful for the next build. 

http://www.cloyes.com/Images/CloyesHP2017.pdf


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

*Day 1-Inspect for rust*

The day finally came where I was ready to start working on the car so I dragged it out in the open and pulled out the engine and transmission. Out came the 1967 WZ code Firebird engine that we built all those years ago. It has 670 heads that have been heavily worked by a fellow named Dunk Brown. If I remember correctly, he worked at the GM proving grounds in Mesa Az and was the go to guy for Pontiac cylinder head port work. Set up to run an HC-03 cam which I think is a little more wild than a "041" stick. Figured it would run pretty well with those 4:33 gears out back....too bad we never got it out to the strip to find out. Not sure what I will do with that engine.....maybe something will present itself someday...

So, back to the GTO...
I wanted to get some good photos before I started taking things off the car so I could reference later. Good thing I did because I can't tell you how often I go back and look at the early pics. I also inspected the common areas for rust. I used a wire wheel on an angle grinder to remove the paint and expose bare metal to see what I was dealing with. To my surprise, the rockers, wheel wells and trunk drops were in excellent condition. I did find some body filler on the back corner of the LH quarter panel....super thick....caked on. So, I was pretty concerned about what I would find underneath once it was media blasted. I also took note of undercoating, seam sealer and over spray so I could attempt to duplicate later on. Note the heavy seam sealer at the body joints behind the rear pumper that was then painted over with body color. Also noticed the rear plug at the quarter panel to tail pan returns must have been installed after paint since there was no overspray on the plastic plug. The LH inner quarter panel to tail pan section was heavily dented.....additional signs that something serious happened to that side of the car in it's past life.

Also note the awful work on the floor pan install and how the contour doesn't nest up to the floor braces very well at all. I guess the guy never heard of a wire feed welder....talk about old school...he brazed the floors in. I didn't even know people did that any more! I had to plasma cut out some sections of the floors just to get the body to set back on the frame correctly. However.....the floor braces were super solid as were the inner rockers. I was happy about this since it meant I would be able to keep the original braces in place and only had to replace the floor pan itself. I decided I was going to order a new one piece floor from Restoration Performance Center in Tempe AZ which is pretty close to where I work. My plan was to replace the floor and then send the body out for media blasting and epoxy powder coat. Then I would see what else needed to be replaced/repaired once all the parts were blasted.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Thank you for sharing your project, your pictures and progress is helping me keep focus on my ‘73, I have started my own photo album on what the condition was when I picked it up and what I have done to this point with hasn’t been much since I got it in December and it’s winter here in Michigan. You have been lots of help and can’t wait to see more of your progress.


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

Cafr119 said:


> Thank you for sharing your project, your pictures and progress is helping me keep focus on my ‘73, I have started my own photo album on what the condition was when I picked it up and what I have done to this point with hasn’t been much since I got it in December and it’s winter here in Michigan. You have been lots of help and can’t wait to see more of your progress.


That is the idea.  Sharing what we learn so more classics can remain or get back on the road. I keep telling myself this is my last project car....but we have a 1973 LeMans Sport Coupe in the family that is crying out to be restored. These things are like puppies....when you see one, you just have to bring it home and give it some love.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Lol, how true, pm me some pics of your ‘73, I’m currently waiting to hear back from CTC auto on some items I’m in need of.


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

First, Thanks for the pic of your literature, I have some of those and need to hunt up some more.

Second, Thanks for the photo size you're using, it comes up nicely, well focused, and large enough to see detail clearly. Appreciate that!


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

1968gto421 said:


> First, Thanks for the pic of your literature, I have some of those and need to hunt up some more.
> 
> Second, Thanks for the photo size you're using, it comes up nicely, well focused, and large enough to see detail clearly. Appreciate that!


Good to hear the pics are working. The original files are too large to upload....the site complains when I try to attach so U have been saving the selected photos to another spot on my computer and then resize them one at a time so they are under the limit. Wasn't sure they were clear enough so I am glad to hear is works okay on your end.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> The original files are too large to upload....


There's a way around that if you have a web site where you store your photos.. Instead of attaching them as files to your post, embed a link to where the full size images are. Like this: (*Note: replace the < > characters in my examples with square brackets like this [ and this ]*)

<IMG>http:---link to your photo---</IMG>

Bear


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

BearGFR said:


> There's a way around that if you have a web site where you store your photos.. Instead of attaching them as files to your post, embed a link to where the full size images are. Like this: (*Note: replace the < > characters in my examples with square brackets like this [ and this ]*)
> 
> <IMG>http:---link to your photo---</IMG>
> 
> Bear


Thanks for the tip but I don't have a hosting site for my pics. I like the idea of uploading them here so they remain as part of the thread. I have come across many posts on various forums where the photo is no longer available and it pretty much renders that particular thread useless from that point on. I think I even saw that some people on the PY forum had to pay what they called a ransom to their photo hosting service to get access to their pics again. Although....it would be nice not to have to resize but I think I have a system down now...


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

*Day 3-Clear body and cut floors*

Day 2 I messed with the convertible frame and checked to make sure it extended and folded well. There were a couple of flat bars that were bent up so I got them all straightened out and looking good. I referenced the 1968 Fisher Body Manual.....which I only have electronically so it wasn't shown in the group of books that I posted earlier. At any rate, the photos are super boring so I'll skip posting anything further about that day.

My son came over on Day 3 to help, which I really enjoy.....except he is always raring to go and I have to slow him down a bit. This is our 3rd frame off restoration together so I feel lucky to get father/son time doing stuff like this. I decided to let him remove the floor while I proceed to remove everything from the body that was bolted or screwed on. I prefer to replace floors with the body on the frame....just seems easier to me than trying to do it on a rotisserie. We use a plasma cutter to rough cut away the large sections and then we go back and carefully peel away the remaining sheet metal from the braces or anything that we want to keep intact. I crawled under the car with an 1/8" drill and made several holes where I wanted the cuts to be made. I then 'connected the dots' from above so my son wouldn't cut through the braces or anything else that we wanted to keep.

The trunk floor looked good from below but there were signs of "rust acne" on the RH side so I was anxious to see if I end up with swiss cheese when it comes back from the media blaster. Both quarter windows were busted so I used some glass that came from a donor car to mock up how all the parts work together. I figured this photo would help me when it comes time later to install the new windows.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Father/son how great, man, I’m so jealous, your able to work and we are still dealing with cold temps, snow and right now we are almost 60 degrees out and it’s been raining for almost 24 hours off and on and we have flooding in fields and ditches, and my project has been idled, benched and called off due to rain, lol ( trying to be funny )


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## dd68gto (Nov 14, 2012)

Doing same thing with my son now. We have a Southern California car that we are working on. It a 68 convertible/ A/C car and same color combo as yours , it's not a ram air and it's and auto with the his/hers . Looking forward to following your thread I just posted a few picture of my trunk ( we are learning as we go) but in no way doing a full restoration like you. Best luck and if you need any pictures mine is mostly original . Doug


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

Cafr119 said:


> Father/son how great, man, I’m so jealous, your able to work and we are still dealing with cold temps, snow and right now we are almost 60 degrees out and it’s been raining for almost 24 hours off and on and we have flooding in fields and ditches, and my project has been idled, benched and called off due to rain, lol ( trying to be funny )


Been super lucky with the weather lately....its been rainy and cold but only during the weekdays. The weekends have been in the mid to high 70's for the high temps so that is nice. I want to paint the car in the 75-85 temp range since I use a turbine sprayer and it heats up the air a little bit. If I wait too long and miss the weather window then I will have to use a traditional compressed air system....which works but has more risk since I have to filter, scrub and de-humidify the air supply. Turbine systems only need to worry about filtering the air.....oil and water are not an issue with those things.

I will try and get some pics of the 73 LeMans when I can.


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

dd68gto said:


> Doing same thing with my son now. We have a Southern California car that we are working on. It a 68 convertible/ A/C car and same color combo as yours , it's not a ram air and it's and auto with the his/hers . Looking forward to following your thread I just posted a few picture of my trunk ( we are learning as we go) but in no way doing a full restoration like you. Best luck and if you need any pictures mine is mostly original . Doug


Thanks for the offer....might need some help actually. Does your car have the speaker in the RH side of the rear seat back support? If so and its accessible, can you snap some pics showing how it's mounted and what the fasteners look like?

Also could use some measurements to locate the stainless trim on the interior door and qtr panels. From the pics I have seen....looks like the qtr panel trim is fairly level but the door trim rises as it approaches the dash. I presume this is to clear the vent window crank handle but I am not sure.

Not sure what stage your project is in but if you are planning to do some body work then I recommend you rest a straight edge against the qtr panels so you can see the compound curve that exists there. It's easy to bury that with filler and not realize it. Something I learned while I was replacing a quarter panel. Luckily I was able get access to some virgin cars and took some measurements so I could get the contours correct. Sorta dodged a bullet there...:surprise:


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## dd68gto (Nov 14, 2012)

No speaker in rear. Is that where factory mounted rear speakers in the convertible? I will snap some pictures of the interior, it all original except front seat cover (legendary nice quality) . I am worried about my quarter panels. I know by paint they are original but they have been filled with 1/2 inch of filler covering accident ( crazy the amount of filler they used) which lead to water sitting and rust. ( at least it not salt rust which is what we get up here in the NE.) As I am sure you know they do not reproduce the convertible quarter panel. I'm going to try to patch mine as i have a mess . I will
PM some pictures to you .looking forward to help you and I'm sure you csn help us . Doug


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

*Day 4: Floor replacement continues...*

Peeling the sheet metal away from the braces is pretty simple. The method I use is to use an angle grinder with a wire wheel to locate the spot welds. I then center punch each weld, drill it out with an 1/8" bit and then use a hole saw type spot weld cutter with the pointed centering tip. The centering tip is spring loaded so in theory all you really need to do is center punch the weld and the spot weld cutter should remain located in the weld but it never works that way for me. After several broken bits....I have learned it's better to pre-drill the hole and then my cutters last much longer. I then use a thin chisel on an air hammer to separate the metal. Usually works pretty well.

Found a date stamp on one of the floor braces. Z18 I think "Z" is the stamping machine or station...18 is for the week of the year. My car was assembled in the 21st week so most all the stamped panels that make up the body were made in the 17th, 18th or 19th week. The windshield frame was the 16th week...that was the earliest date I found on any of the parts.

Before I cleaned up for the weekend, I tried a test fit on the floor to mark my cuts for the perimeter. The replacement floor had a small lip that folded down against the inner rockers and that was causing a conflict with the fit so I ended up trimming it off and the floor fit was nearly perfect. This pretty much wraps up my second weekend on the job. Many more to go...


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking good,very nice on the floor, I’m going to have to do that same thing on the ‘73, the difference being they don’t offer a one piece floor like yours or atleast that I’m aware of, I have to do some reach and see if there is anything out there that would be a close replacement


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Excellent work, photos, and description as to what you are doing and how. A super way to guide others in similar situations. Like all the bracing which is a must for a convertible or any body not supported by its frame.

On the quarters, I would try and work with them. My brother owned a '67 GTO when we we younger. it had been rolled on the drivers side. The fender/door had been replaced, but the quarter panel had a ton of bondo. I was able to work a lot of the damaged panel out and use a minimum of filler on the quarter panel. I think he owned it about 10 years before selling it and there was never an issue - remained just as good as when I first did it.

Keep posting, you make it look all too easy! Do you work for one of those TV shows where it'll be finished in about 3 weeks, your hands will never get dirty, your garage floor is spotless, and it'll look like it just rolled out of the factory? :lol:


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

PontiacJim said:


> Excellent work, photos, and description as to what you are doing and how. A super way to guide others in similar situations. Like all the bracing which is a must for a convertible or any body not supported by its frame.
> 
> On the quarters, I would try and work with them. My brother owned a '67 GTO when we we younger. it had been rolled on the drivers side. The fender/door had been replaced, but the quarter panel had a ton of bondo. I was able to work a lot of the damaged panel out and use a minimum of filler on the quarter panel. I think he owned it about 10 years before selling it and there was never an issue - remained just as good as when I first did it.
> 
> Keep posting, you make it look all too easy! Do you work for one of those TV shows where it'll be finished in about 3 weeks, your hands will never get dirty, your garage floor is spotless, and it'll look like it just rolled out of the factory? :lol:


Thanks for the compliments....I really wanted to rework and save the qtr panel but the damage was way past my skill level. Will be interested to see if you agree when I get around to posting those pics. Disappointing because it would be nice to claim the car has all its original exterior body panels but it just wasn't workable for me.

I was approached by a production company that wanted to document the restoration but that didn't pan out. They had a schedule in mind and I don't work with schedules.....the car tells me how long it will take and there is no debating it. Plus I would have to do all the work at my shop and that was a problem for me because then it would feel like a job. I like doing what I can at home and spend the weekend that way. It sounds funny but when I am at home, it doesn't feel like work for some reason.


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

*Day 5: Trim floor to fit*

Noticed another date stamp….it was in the dash near one of the holes for the radio knob shaft. This one reads “6814 X19”. I presume 6814 relates to a part identification number….X (stamp station?)….19 is 19th week of 1968. At first whenever I would come across a date stamp I would document it with a photo. I later found many more of these after the body came back from media blasting so the novelty quickly wore off by then.

Picking up where I left off, I trimmed the floor and set it in place to see if the bolt holes lined up. The outer holes by the rockers were dead on but the two belt anchor holes on the transmission hump were off. Not that uncommon with reproduction panels so I marked in white pen where I might need to relocate those holes. I then checked underneath and noticed some gaps between the floor and the braces so I clamped them both together and the belt anchor holes lined up much better. I guess the reproduction floor fit pretty darn nice after all and it was just ‘operator error’ at work here. 

I spent some time with a wire wheel and removed the surface rust on the rear seat pan. It looked nice and solid so I just needed to scribe a cut line to join the two floor sections together. As luck would have it….I found the original rusted out seat pan in the trunk and it had the original seat belts and reinforcement plates. I took photos to document how the belts were attached, made note of the little plastic retainers for the rear arm rest cover lamp fixture wire harness and then proceeded to salvage the seat belt anchor reinforcement plates so I could relocate those to the car.


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

*Day 6.1: Weld Floor in place*

After what must have been a dozen fittings….everything was all trimmed and ready for welding. Good time to prime the braces so they can resist future corrosion. I use a heavier body rust oxide primer down inside the braces and then mist the flanges with weld thru primer for the plug welds to come.

With the pan clamped down in place, I can get underneath and scribe around all the braces then I pull the pan out, measure in a little bit for the ½” flange and pre-drill some holes for plug welding. I try and plug weld in the same sort of spacing as the original spot welds were placed. I do have a spot welder but it’s not able to do this job…..would need longer tongs and more clamping force since the braces are heavy gauge metal. For this purpose….wire feed plug welds will work and look the part when finished.

Test fit the pan for the last time to verify all the holes are placed correctly and check that the braces is up against the bottom. I use a wire to poke in each hole to check the depth. Also want a thin gap where I am butt welding the two pans together at the rear seat brace. It’s not shown in the photos but I used a disk sander to clean off the E coat before welding that rear seam.


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

*Day 6.2: Weld the floor in place*

Another shot showing how nice the bolt holes lined up in the reproduction pan. Double checked a few more things and then broke out the welder…

Plug weld the holes, then grind smooth. Sometimes I have to weld and grind a couple of times to get it right. Sometimes I miss a hole completely….just in a hurry I guess. Eventually the welding is finished and looking decent.

I decided to weld the shifter hump to the transmission tunnel. I think the originals were just screwed on but I wanted mine to be welded. I know it’s not 100% authentic but this is how this one is going to be. Maybe I will run some screws in from the top so it looks correct when viewed from below.


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

*Day 7: Weld braces, brackets etc*

Next item on deck is to weld in the rear seatbelt anchor plates, rear seat frame brackets and the convertible B pillar braces.

Light coat of black paint to protect the bare metal and then prepare to transport the body and other off parts to get media blasted. Once blasted, I then should be able to inspect the car and determine what needs to be repaired and order the necessary parts. Hopefully it’s not a huge list….


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Lookin' good!

Bear


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Beautiful work!


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

*Days 8 and 9: Prep parts for media blasting*

Met with the media blaster to review photos, obtain pricing and talk schedules. In my situation, it worked out best to split the work into two batches. Batch 1 would be things like Body, Fenders, hood, doors, seat frames, wheels etc. Batch 2 would be the chassis items such as Frame, cross member, upper/lower A-arms, rear control arms, springs etc. I am not able to easily transport the body on the rotisserie so I left it clamped to the rolling chassis for transportation purposes. The media blaster will remove the body from the frame and hang it from his rig for blasting and epoxy coating. 

I spent the weekend preparing all the batch 1 items for blasting since I had an appointment to drop off those parts the following week. This would be my last opportunity to take photos and notes for later reference so I spent a little time with each item. When all this stuff is blasted, I will lose record of things like clip locations, fasteners orientation, finishes etc. Many times, the original finishes are preserved where there is another part or piece of hardware that has protected it from the elements so it’s very useful to document those things for later. I sometimes draw a sketch on a card with notes and toss them into the hardware bag for that item just in case I need help remembering things later.

I didn’t take count but I probably took over a hundred pics of various things. Many of them not worth posting but here are a few shots anyway. You might be able to see about a 3” long section of the lower windshield frame where it’s rusted through….the rest of the car looked pretty good though.


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

*Day 10: Deliver first batch to media blasters*

On Day 10 I delivered the first load of parts to get media blasted. These were all the off parts.....everything except the body. I got to see a Nomad that was racked up and ready for powder epoxy coat. It was freshly blasted, then washed in an etching solution and then neutralized with deionized water. The body was just going into the oven to get pre-heated prior to epoxy primer coat. Will be doing the same thing to my parts.


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

*Day 11: Pick up parts from blaster*

Had a weekend off while I wait for the parts to come back from media blast. Pulled out some catalogs and started on the parts list. 

The first load of blasted parts was ready in 4 days (weekend included) so I picked those up right away. 

All parts were media blasted and either left bare, PPG Powder Paint Black or PPG Powder Epoxy Primer Grey. Coverage is far superior than sprayed liquid paint so that is a major benefit, especially since we are dealing with panel assemblies that have surfaces that are not directly accessible. This saves me time since I don't have to rush the freshly blasted parts to the booth for epoxy primer spray. Now I can get started with any necessary metal work, spot re-prime and then apply my body filler directly over the epoxy primer. For the black parts, I just need to scuff up with a Scotchbrite pad and apply the correct gloss black top coat as appropriate. Love this stuff!


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Man that all looks so pretty. How did you go about finding this media blasting service and where are they? If I ever do another car I'd love to start with a foundation like that.

Bear


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

BearGFR said:


> Man that all looks so pretty. How did you go about finding this media blasting service and where are they? If I ever do another car I'd love to start with a foundation like that.
> 
> Bear


The company is AZ Pro-Strip. 
www.azprostrip.com
Owners name is Patrick and they do excellent work. There are a ton of restoration shops and suppliers in the Phoenix area so I started asking around and almost everyone recommended these guys so I had them do my 55 Bel Air. Back then, they just offered blasting services....no paint or priming yet. 

Several years later I had him blast our '61 bubbletop and he offered the powder service but I was too cheap to go with it. Car still came out nice but it took some extra work. I vowed to go with the powder primer and paint on my next project and happy that I did. 

Really cool stuff. Very impressed with the coverage and quality. Total cost was about $3400. For that price he blasted and epoxy primed the body, doors, fenders, hood etc. Blasted and painted the frame, suspension components, inner fenders, core support, ram air pan and hood baffle, seat frames etc. There were just a few items that were blasted and left bare because I wanted to finish them myself....those were the wheels, springs, brake disks, brake drums, rear axle housing, hood hinges etc.

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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

That powder primer sounds like a terrific idea. I've always heard to never remove the factory primer if you can help it because it's not possible to duplicate the quality with a spray-only product. Baked on powder though.... seems like it should be really good.

I wonder if they'd know of shops in the DFW area or in Texas that do what they do?

Bear


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

BearGFR said:


> That powder primer sounds like a terrific idea. I've always heard to never remove the factory primer if you can help it because it's not possible to duplicate the quality with a spray-only product. Baked on powder though.... seems like it should be really good.
> 
> I wonder if they'd know of shops in the DFW area or in Texas that do what they do?
> 
> Bear


I called Patrick and asked but he wasn't aware of anyone out in your area. Bummer. 

Maybe you can look up the PPG rep in your area and see who they sell product to and perhaps you might get lucky. The actual product for epoxy primer is called PPG Envirocron. There are some great YouTube videos. It is the same stuff used for OE bodies today. Most common application method appears to be Electrostatic with liquid coating in a dip tank. Smaller manufacturing operations use Electrostatic powder. 

When you get time, browse around the ProStrio website and it talks about the necessary steps. This might help when you search for the same services in your area. You might find a good media blaster and then have someone else apply the powder....if course it's much more convenient if the same vendor offers both services. . Happy hunting!


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Thanks again for doing this thread, it's fascinating to look at, learning alot here. Patrick's service is awesome!


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

1968gto421 said:


> Thanks again for doing this thread, it's fascinating to look at, learning alot here. Patrick's service is awesome!


Cool. Glad you are finding it useful. I worry about being to verbose but the explanation might be useful to some. There are many ways to tackle something like this so I don't want people to think this is the only or best way. Each project is different with different needs so I try to explain my thought process that way others can choose if that same idea works for them or not. 

Some of my best ideas came from other people. 

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

*Day 12: Pick up body from blaster*

3 days later the body was ready to be picked up. First thing I noticed was the LH quarter panel…..what a mess! Not sure how much of it I would be able to save. I wonder what happened to cause this sort of damage? When I bought the car in 1987 it was already painted Mayfair Maize so I didn’t know it was originally Verdoro Green and someone had changed the color. Whoever made the repairs must have been a sculpture artist because they piled on the filler super thick and carved it to the desired shape. Amazing that it lasted as long as it did before the cracks appeared. This throws a wrench in my plans since I was hoping for minor spots to repair. Now I will have to re-think my process and figure out what to do next. There were several spots with rust holes in the bad quarter also. The lower door jamb was rusted through in 3 places and also some rust holes in the lower part of the panel just forward of the wheel opening.

The rest of the car looked great. Some minor damage to the other qtr panel but that can be saved. The trunk floor was worse than I expected, since the braces look good I will probably just replace the bad sections with parts from a donor trunk floor.

Next action item is to get the body onto a rotisserie so I can take the rolling chassis apart. Based on the evidence of previous collision damage, I think I should check the frame and have it straightened if necessary. When that is complete then I can drop the frame and suspension components at ProStrip to be completed.


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

*Day 14: Mount body on rotisserie*

Day 13 was wet weather so it turned into parts organizing day. The first wave of boxes arrived from Ames so I separated them into bins and containers so I could locate things as I would need them. Also popped over to Restoration Performance Center in Tempe and picked up a complete quarter panel. They only offer the hardtop version so I wanted to see what the differences were and perhaps figure out a way to make it work for me. Jury still out on that idea though…

Eventually the weather cleared so on day 14 so I pulled the body off the frame and mounted onto the rotisserie. Spent several hours inspecting the body and made a punch list of items to fix/repair/replace. Found a few spots where the floor to brace gap was too large so I would have to cut those plug welds and suck them back together and re-weld. Not sure how I missed that when I welded in the floor the first time. Never seems to fail….I try a little short cut that ends up costing me more time in the end. I should have screwed the floor down to the braces and then remove one screw at a time for the plug welds. Another lesson learned…. probably could write a book full of stupid stuff that I did which ended up costing me more time in the end.

Even so, still not a terrible scenario. Aside from the messed up LH qtr panel….the rest is fairly straight forward. Punch list item count grew quick but for the most part they should be simple tasks. Things like….smooth out the plug welds from the previous guy’s work over the rear axle….cut out and replace some brazed spots on the toe boards…..replace rusted portion in windshield frame….replace a few trunk floor sections etc. 

At this point I formed a basic plan. 
1.	Strip down the chassis and associated parts and drop it off at ProStrip for blasting and powder painting.
2.	Work on the body punch list items listed above.
3.	Reassemble the rolling chassis san powertrain.
4.	Mount body to rolling chassis with new body bushings.
5.	Re-configure body bracing so the doors could be attached to the body.
6.	Repair/replace LH qtr panel. I prefer replacing quarter panels with the body on the frame and the doors attached so I can make sure the gaps are correct and the panel fit is the way I want it. Plus, the 5 items that precede this one will give me something to focus on while I hunt for a complete convertible quarter panel.....if any are available. 
7.	The rest I will make up as I go…..no sense in planning much further than this anyway since there is bound to be another surprise or two along the way. 

Here are some more pics. I looked but did not find a partial VIN stamp near the heater box area of the firewall so I presume the partial VIN stamp thing occurred sometime after the 1968 model year? There was a panel part number/date stamp but that was it.
So, are we having fun yet? Good thing I like challenges….at least that is what I keep telling myself anyway…


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## mainegoat68 (May 5, 2011)

Great job. I've been watching, as I have a 68 also. I couldn't do a project like that now. In my younger years, but not now. I salute you.


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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

I too enjoy your journey. I'm doing a frame off on a 72 and am grateful I don't have as much work to do as you do. I did the same process (6 years and finished in 2013) on a 55 Chevy Sedan Delivery I have owned for 40 years. I said I wouldn't do it again. Here I am doing it again. I tell my wife I should have my head examined. My 55 was together when I did it. This Pontiac, like yours, was all apart and it makes the chore that much bigger trying to piece it together.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

dd68gto said:


> No speaker in rear. Is that where factory mounted rear speakers in the convertible? I will snap some pictures of the interior, it all original except front seat cover (legendary nice quality) . I am worried about my quarter panels. I know by paint they are original but they have been filled with 1/2 inch of filler covering accident ( crazy the amount of filler they used) which lead to water sitting and rust. ( at least it not salt rust which is what we get up here in the NE.) As I am sure you know they do not reproduce the convertible quarter panel. I'm going to try to patch mine as i have a mess . I will
> PM some pictures to you .looking forward to help you and I'm sure you csn help us . Doug


Doug - please post your pictures for all of us to see. Following with great interest.


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

mainegoat68 said:


> Great job. I've been watching, as I have a 68 also. I couldn't do a project like that now. In my younger years, but not now. I salute you.


Thanks. Definitely a major project. Should be rewarding when finished. My first ragtop restoration so that keeps it a bit more interesting. 

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

tjs72goat said:


> I too enjoy your journey. I'm doing a frame off on a 72 and am grateful I don't have as much work to do as you do. I did the same process (6 years and finished in 2013) on a 55 Chevy Sedan Delivery I have owned for 40 years. I said I wouldn't do it again. Here I am doing it again. I tell my wife I should have my head examined. My 55 was together when I did it. This Pontiac, like yours, was all apart and it makes the chore that much bigger trying to piece it together.


Starting with a complete assembled car is MUCH easier for sure. My 55 was in pieces when I bought it 10 years ago. Luckily the 1955 Chevrolet model is very well documented so that puzzle was a little easier to figure out.

I think the 55 Chevy is one of the most historically significant models of the 20th century. It took me a long time to find mine because I wanted a 4 door Bel Air, V8 Dusk Rose model. Not many made compared to other colors since Dusk Rose was introduced late in the production run. I guess it's okay to hi-jack my own thread....here are some pics. 





































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## mainegoat68 (May 5, 2011)

When I did my 68, I owned and drove it for 30 years. The last 10 I've been picking away at it. I'm going to finish the small details this spring, and it will be done. I'm about 3/4 finished on my 56 Chev big window short box, and will jump on that when the goat is finished. Your 55 is sweet, you can't beat the Tri-5's styling, car or truck.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Shake-n-Bake, Love the way your sharing your day to day and the steps your taking and the pics, the Goat is going to look awesome that’s no doubt !! Nice work, Bro !!


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

Cafr119 said:


> Shake-n-Bake, Love the way your sharing your day to day and the steps your taking and the pics, the Goat is going to look awesome that’s no doubt !! Nice work, Bro !!


Thank you.
One of the upcoming updates is windshield frame repair...hopefully you will find something useful in that post.


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

*Day 15: Disassemble chassis*

Removed front suspension, rear axle and brake/fuel lines from the frame, careful to make note of how the clips are located and what order the lines are placed in each clip. Pressed out all the bushings from the control arms and gathered up the parts to get blasted. Did not notice any frame damage anywhere. Measured in several spots and everything looked straight. Hmmm? How did that qtr panel get so much damage without tweaking the frame?.....or maybe the frame was straightened way back when the repairs were made the first time? Really wish these cars could talk sometimes….sounds like it would be a heck of a story. 

Found the frame stamps. Frame code is CF for convertibles. 4 10 looks like the date stamp (April 10th). Also see what might be a Julian date (131), that would be May 10th with the leap year figured in for 1968. I wonder if the frame dates are like the axle dates where there is a casting date of the individual parts and then another date for when the components when assembled? If so, then I suppose the April 10 date might be when the frame rails were made and the 131 (May 10th ) date might be when the frame was assembled? Not sure I will ever know the answer….I included a photo of the frame stamps. The partial VIN stamp is on the top surface in this same area…..it matches the VIN of the car so we can be fairly certain the frame is original to the car.

Day 16: Decided I wanted to be sure so I dropped off the frame to get checked. Received a call that all was good and within spec so no work was needed. I paid a small fee and picked it up and headed straight for the media blaster’s shop.


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

*Day 17: Body punch list items*

Started working on the punch list task items. First up was the rust hole in the windshield frame. I don’t have a donor piece so I’ll have to make my own replacement section. Pretty simple if you have a stretching machine or some other way to stretch one leg of the formed angle shape.
When I cut out the rusted section, I will also loose a little tab that folds over onto the cowl so I made sure to allow for excess material in my replacement piece to make that same tab. I then break formed the metal, scribed some lines and drilled “cut-to” holes for my electric shear tool. Then stretch the short leg which has the net effect of curving the long leg. Test fit a few times until the curve is correct and then trim to fit. Buzz it in place, fold over the tab and then grind the welds smooth. 

Probably didn’t need to worry about the tab since this area isn’t even visible with the lower stainless windshield trim in place but no reason not to try and do the best job possible….even if nobody will ever tell the difference.

One task down and on to the next item on the list….


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

*Day 18: Pick up chassis parts*

Received a call from ProStrip saying the chassis parts were ready so I took off work early to pick them up. The frame came out really nice. Frame stamps still quite visible so I was happy about that. 

During the chassis disassembly process….I noticed something odd about the rear axle. Upon closer inspection it looked like one or both axle tubes were bent. I took several photos but still pretty hard to see the bent tubes. I did find one photos that exaggerates the curve…..check out the axle in the background on the last photo here. Yikes! Luckily there is a reputable driveline specialty shop in town that is able to straighten the tubes. Replacing the rear axle with another unit isn’t the first option since the Ram Air assemblies are quite rare and don’t come up for sale very often.


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

As mentioned 2 years ago, restoring that car right, is the only way to do it. Progress looks really good!


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

Pinion head said:


> As mentioned 2 years ago, restoring that car right, is the only way to do it. Progress looks really good!


Agreed. Thanks for your good advice back then and for all the very useful and valuable information you have shared via these forums. I spent many hours searching through and reading older posts on this forum as well as others and your input is always thorough and comprehensive. 

For me, half the fun of a hobby like this is learning interesting facts and features about how these cars were designed, produced, marketed and sold back when new. 

My latest fascination is with the documents that are commonly referred to as Build Sheets. The GTOAA Identification Guide has an example called "1968 CAR BUILDING ORDER" and I have an copy of that same form found in a documented RA II car...maybe 60% legible. Then I have also seen something else called "BODY BROADCAST COPY" also from a RA II car and the format is quite different yet contains much of the same information.

The title of each form could be a clue for the purpose of each document. Still gathering info and hope to learn something new yet once again. Interesting stuff...

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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking great !! I only wish all I had was just that small of spot of windshield rot, your progress is looking great !!


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

*Day 19: Engine mount brackets*

Not exactly a day’s worth of work….(only about 15 minutes to be exact)…but if I do any work and lift a tool then I consider it another day of progress.  Helps to keep me motivated at times….

The engine mount brackets were the very last thing to come off the frame so I wanted to make sure they were the first to go back on. I can easily imagine a scenario where I forget about putting these on until after the front suspension is installed. It’s probably a much harder job with the A arms in the way…best to get these on now and avoid possible regret later.
So, I headed out to the garage just before dinner and bolted them to the frame. There is a L and R bracket so I thought I would document where they go in case anyone later needs this info. 

On a side note…..but still related…..when I first removed the brackets, I observed what looked like white marks across the bolt hole openings. I imagine these must have been placed there to show where V8 engine mounts are placed. There are multiple holes in the cross member so the other holes might be for the 6 cylinder Tempest engines. I figure I would try and replicate those marks just for fun. Will be quite hard to see them once the engine is installed and the car assembled but might make for an interesting conversation starter if anyone ever notices.

Also found some yellow paint marks on the front spindles. I presume these were intended to identify disk brake spindles since that was an available option. I also remember some redish/pink colors on the “pig ears” on the rear differential housing (where the bushings are located). Can’t figure out what that would be for……perhaps not all models had bushings pressed into those spots? Was that just a Tempest thing? 

Thinking about the irony of how I have been my own worst enemy. When I was younger….I was quick to remove factory parts and replace them with whatever I felt would perform better. Never a care in the world about part numbers, date codes, original markings, plating finishes etc. In high school….one of my summer jobs was making deliveries and helping out at a Pontiac restoration shop in Albuquerque where they were working on a 1969 Ram Air V GTO Judge and a 1969 Trans Am. I remember those guys spent hours and hours on things like correct wire color and markings, part numbers and date codes and I thought they were crazy for doing so. The Ram Air V GTO was not even a real car……to my knowledge Pontiac never produced a Ram Air V vehicle for sale to the public. So the car we were building was simply a “what if?” project. 
Now I totally get it. Wish I would have appreciated these things more back when I was younger


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

*Day 23: Straighten rear axle*

I spent the next several days working on the body punch list items. Eventually I worked my way back to the trunk and decided I needed to look for a donor car. I found a suitable trunk floor from a 68 convertible at a local salvage yard so I picked it up. There also was a 69 convertible right next to it that had quarter panels but they were quite rusty around the wheel wells and lower sections. The rear corners sections were also cut away so not really an ideal piece….decided to keep looking.

Disassembled the rear axle and had it straightened. Was pretty cool how they did it. They set the axle in a giant press with an axle holding fixture and then heated the tubes a little at a time to straighten. They had this long straight pole with collars that bolted into the main carrier bearing caps. The pole stuck out both ends of the axle tubes. The poles had thick rings with stepped landings machined for various axle tube sizes. Those rings would slide along the straight pole and used to determine when the axle was totally straight. Way better than the eyeball method. I didn’t think to take any photos….by the time I arrived my axle was ready and waiting and they had another larger truck axle in that machine. Pretty cool set up. Cost to straighten the axle was $317.29. Cost to replace all the bearings and set up the ring/pinion was $576.63. Felt like a good value and I was happy the original unit was not damaged beyond repair. 

The carrier in this axle has 4 pinion gears and the axle shafts themselves look fairly stout compared to other axle shafts that I have seen. The differential housing has a large “N” cast on top of the pinion snout as well. Pontiac called these HD axles so I presume they are a stronger version compared to standard GTO rear end assemblies. Mandatory gear ratio in 67-68 Ram Air GTOs is 4.33…..quite an aggressive ratio in my opinion. I suspect this axle ratio contributed to the low survival rate of these engines.

Elapsed time: 2 months


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

*Day 27: Front suspension*

Worked on small items over the next several days. Cleaned, painted and reassembled the front spindle assemblies….pressed in all the suspension bushings…rebuild the steering box etc.

Decided to assemble the chassis since it’s a lot more fun than repairing rusty body panels. I started with the front suspension. I referenced my disassembly photos so I could set up the spring compressor the same way and everything went together quite well. There is a little window in the lower control arm and that is where the end of the spring goes. There is a top and bottom to the spring. The top of the spring coil is flat and fairly level….the bottom of the spring is a square cut coil wire that fits into a pocket on the lower control arm. 
1.	Set the spring in the lower control arm and compress to 11 ½”.
2.	Attach the spindle to the upper control arm and slide the cross shafts onto the studs…screw on the nuts finger tight.
3.	Lift the lower control arm into place with the spring sticking up into the spring pocket in the frame. I used a floor jack to carry the weight only…..not to force anything into place. Should go easy. I used a short section of pipe between the jack pad and the spring compressor plate since I didn’t want to apply any force to the threaded rod in the compressor. Not sure it matters but was just being extra safe.
4.	Secure the lower bushing bolts and lower ball joint and the slowly release the spring compressor.
5.	Leave the bushing bolts loose for now. I place a wire tag there with a label that reads “Loose”. This reminds me to tighten those bolts later when the engine and body weight is on the frame.

Took an educated guess on spindle finish....not sure I like it. The yellow mark is too yellow for sure.....the place that set up my axle gave me some darker yellow marking paint....might try that and see if it looks more correct. Anyone know what the correct spindle finish is? If not close enough then I still have time to remedy the situation...


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

My reference book says all front suspension parts were painted 60% gloss black. The original AC Delco spiral shocks were painted grey, HD part # 3182027 for 1968-1970.

Looking at a B&W picture of a 1967 disc brake set up from the back side, it appears all brake parts are painted the 60% gloss black EXCEPT the splash shield/backing plate (silver or anodized?) and the front brake hose to backing plate brackets & steel brake lines which appear to be natural in color.

Steering box is painted 60% gloss black with the top and end plugs left natural aluminum in appearance.


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

PontiacJim said:


> My reference book says all front suspension parts were painted 60% gloss black. The original AC Delco spiral shocks were painted grey, HD part # 3182027 for 1968-1970.
> 
> Looking at a B&W picture of a 1967 disc brake set up from the back side, it appears all brake parts are painted the 60% gloss black EXCEPT the splash shield/backing plate (silver or anodized?) and the front brake hose to backing plate brackets & steel brake lines which appear to be natural in color.
> 
> Steering box is painted 60% gloss black with the top and end plugs left natural aluminum in appearance.


Thank you. I had come across that same info as well...at least for the suspension parts. The document I found was referencing the black out spray applied to the assembled chassis. It was one of the sheets from the assembly manual and it showed the specific areas that were to be painted and even had a note to avoid spraying the disk brake backing plate. The question I had is "why apply the blackout spray if the components are already black?" The photo you reference is interesting....if possible, can you post it here please?

There is a detailing guide on the Inline Tube website and it shows the spindle as a grey phosphate color I believe but they were working on a 69 model so not exactly the same.....the 67 disk brake car would be a better example IMO...


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Here is the B&W pic of the 1967 Disc Brake.


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

PontiacJim said:


> My reference book says all front suspension parts were painted 60% gloss black. The original AC Delco spiral shocks were painted grey, HD part # 3182027 for 1968-1970.
> 
> Looking at a B&W picture of a 1967 disc brake set up from the back side, it appears all brake parts are painted the 60% gloss black EXCEPT the splash shield/backing plate (silver or anodized?) and the front brake hose to backing plate brackets & steel brake lines which appear to be natural in color.
> 
> Steering box is painted 60% gloss black with the top and end plugs left natural aluminum in appearance.


The GTO Restoration Guide's loose use of 60% gloss black for nearly everything under the hood and chassis wise differs from actual use. The two fellows that compiled that book 30 years ago made their share of mistakes. Neither were early Concours restorers, quite a few of their statements have been a point of contention for decades. Many of the nations top Pontiac restorers have examined extremely low mie original cars which have been put up inside & not undercoated or spray bombed. Many notes have been taken. Combine those observations with those of us that have nothing special low mike example cars built out of the same assembly plant and same year, makes for some serious observations. 

When looking at the following original late '60's GM front suspension pieces, low mile original components will exhibit a variety of color differentiations. The inner & outer tierods, as well as the centerlink & idler arm were all forged steel. The centerlink is also date coded towards the center. All of these pieces show a darkening of the steel, a hot forged look, none are painted. Spraybombing with cast blast or black paint, just won't cut it. In the cutting edge Concours restoration process, quite a few of us use variations of a refinishing method and follow up with a special coating to prevent rust on these components. NOS GM tierods ends & ball joints are at a premium & are occasionally used. Often nice low mile upper control arms are restored with the original ball joints intact. Tie rod adjustment sleeves will contrast in finish due to original plating & also receive the thin coating process. Swaybar end links are typically plated, often a dull clear zinc. Original spindles are a cast steel, not painted, two inspection marks will be evident. Typically, one yellow, the other often a low gloss near kelly green. Disc brake dust shields are typically a clear zinc, later, 2nd Gen dust shields have more of a galvanized appearance. Spiral shock spray gray is an easy match. 

In wrapping this up, will note many "restorers" simply go wild with the plasticized tags off the $38 sticker "detailing sheets". In my experience it's best to go light on such ID code tags. Specific spots on the spiral shocks, coil springs, the bale on the master cylinder, the throttle cable, all used such tags originally. Two letter ID code stickers on the disc brake dust shields & fronts of the lower control arms, not happening here, have never seen evidence of this & neither have quite a few longtime hardcore restorers that "we talk"


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

PontiacJim said:


> Here is the B&W pic of the 1967 Disc Brake.



Great. Thank you for the pics. 
Here is the Inline Tube frame detailing guide that I was talking about. It's for 1969 though....so maybe not exactly correct for 1968.
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4d7af2_8bd7c7c3206247e5babd73edf84d9a5e.pdf


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

PontiacJim said:


> Here is the B&W pic of the 1967 Disc Brake.


Great photo! 
I remember it now from the GTO restoration guide book. Very helpful....especially since this photo was obviously taken before the part was attached to the chassis which means the black spray hadn't been applied to the suspension parts yet. Only thing missing is the yellow paint mark.....still a good reference pic none the less.


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Great photo!
> I remember it now from the GTO restoration guide book. Very helpful....especially since this photo was obviously taken before the part was attached to the chassis which means the black spray hadn't been applied to the suspension parts yet. Only thing missing is the yellow paint mark.....still a good reference pic none the less.


OK, looked at the Inline Tube picture. Here is my opinion on "concours" restoration. First, since none of us were on the assembly line or worked for GM/Pontiac when these things were being built, "concours" is a relative term because we don't have the facts, ie prime source documents or first hand knowledge of what is correct. So the best we can do is look at low mileage cars and/or carefully dissect our cars looking for clues as to originality.

My guess might be that each assembly plant may have had their own way of assembling/detailing their cars just as they had different means of handling their build paperwork and/or Data tags. It does not appear that standardization was the theme across all Pontiac plants. Now the only way to verify "concours" quality work would be to take 20 low mileage cars from each Pontiac manufacturing plant spanning a full years worth of line production at different points of time, and different build shifts, and dissecting those cars to find the consistentcies to make a qualified statement as to what is "concours" correct.

So one guy says that "concours correct" is X because his car had it. Another guy says, hmmm, I don't think so because my car doesn't have what you claim as correct, but my car has X and is an original unmolested car. So who is correct? I think the term "concours" is as over inflated a word as the egos who want to think they know what it is. Besides, you can claim "concours correct", car association judges can claim it "concours correct" as a standard to judge a car by, and the unwilling buyers who seek a "concours correct" car to invest in only purchase it because it has been labeled a "concours" correct car by whom??? the GM officials who issued the edicts as to how the car is to be assembled & detailed, the engineers who designed the car, or the employee specific to each station they worked along the assembly line? Nope, people who were not there make the call on a "concours correct" car - and those who want to cash in on aftermarket "exact reproduction" and "concours correct" reproduction parts for your car.

I say just do what you feel is best for your car and use whatever material you choose yourself to use as your guide in building what you want to call "concours correct." The general public, car enthusiasts, and car show attendees will never know, and most do not care, if it is "concours correct" and will simply marvel and appreciate a well done and restored car - whether concours, unrestored, hot-rodded, modified, period era correct, or an LS swap-out.

So keep moving forward on your build, which is looking fantastic, do your research on what is original or not, and choose how you want it to come out as you see it. :thumbsup:


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

Jim, I totally agree. Thank you for the comments. I like to discuss topics of originality and correctness because it's fun and interesting.....and it's how I learn cool stuff. However there comes a point where reason prevails and the project needs to move forward. I accept that some items may not be 100% correct when the car is finished but it won't be due to laziness or lack of trying. Conversely....I really don't want to slap stickers and chalk marks all over the place either. I have seen cars done up with too much of that stuff and it doesn't look right in my opinion. Love to look at old factory footage because it's a real indicator of how things were done. Yes, in the end it's my car and I am building it for myself so I do take things with a grain of salt so to speak.

Roger, thank you for the photo of NOS steering knuckles with inspection/application marks. I tried to reply to your PM but your mailbox is full. Popular guy! . 

I am excited because now I know how to finish the knuckles so I will be satisfied with how they appear. Also keeping in mind that the factory did spray black paint on most of the moving parts before the body was married to the chassis. Thanks guys! 

Now to get to work on the car......have much to do still....weather is going to be fantastic today so I need to make hay while the sun is shining!


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

*Day 28: Assemble chassis*

Ran the fuel and brake lines and secured into place. Took a little bit of tweaking to form the lines into the correct shape. I kept my original lines as a reference so it was just a matter of putting the lines side by side and adjusting the bends to match as needed. 

There exists a semi-low mileage unrestored car not far from my home so I painted the axle to resemble what I see in that car…..Hopefully I got it close. The new bolt on parts are how they came out of the box. My goal at this point is to just assemble the parts so I can have my rolling chassis back since I will need it soon. I want the roller frame to use to mount the body for the quarter panel replacement. I will have to go back later and make a punch list for detail items and correct as necessary. Things like sway bar end links, posi tag, rear spring color and finishes etc. We also have the front spindles to re-finish and I am sure there are several other items that will be discovered.

I did purchase a tag detail kit from Ames but it’s quite generic. The shock ID tags had the correct code so I used them. The spring codes in the kit were not correct so I’ll have to make my own. I am sure many folks would just affix the tag anyway and call it good but if I am going to tag something….it really should to have the correct information printed on it. The rear springs are replacements….so I just left them black as they came out of the box and put on the (incorrect code) spring tag from the kit. This is my visual clue that these are not the original springs. I have my originals and may end up using them later but I want to see how the car sits with these springs before I put the originals back in. 

There were many tags in the kit that I won’t be using. The axle wrap tag isn’t going on my car since I don’t believe that would be correct. The axle wrap tag in my kit isn’t for ZL code anyway so it’s a moot point. The factory manuals do say there is a tag on the LH brake drum so I will put one there…. again, after I make my own because the one in the kit isn’t the correct axle code….and will wait until I figure out which drum is correct. My car has two different drum styles….one or both could be incorrect so I’ll have to figure out which one I need and source the correct item(s). I’ll have to make a trip out to see that low mileage example car once again since this time I will know what I am looking at. The first time out there I was just excited to see an original car that I wasn’t as observant as I could have been. 

Meanwhile, I assembled the chassis and put the wheels back on so it rolls around. Will sit idle until it’s time to put the body on so I wrapped it up a little bit. There will be welding and grinding for the quarter panel work and later some block sanding and all that dust just gets everywhere. No fighting it but I figured I would at least try wrapping the chassis and maybe there will be less cleaning later.


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

*Day 30: Trunk floor repair*

I debated a bit on replacing the full trunk floor or using patch panels instead. Generally speaking, I prefer to keep as much original sheet metal as possible so I decided to go with patch panels. I could have purchased reproduction panels but I paid a little more for panels from a salvage yard donor car. 

Decided to let my son try his hand at this stuff so he tackled the first panel while I was finishing up the chassis assembly. I helped him here and there but most of the work is his. I think he did a pretty good job for his first try. He made a small mistake and left out a section of metal about 1” x 2” but that was an easy fix. He felt bad but I told him that all mistakes are an opportunity to learn something so we just fixed it and moved ahead. We then welded up some pinholes here and there and hammered out a dent or two. Took us two days to complete the work.
Elapsed time: 3 months


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

*Day 31: mount body on frame*

Not much to explain here. Painted the firewall, cowl and under body and then put it back on the frame so I can begin work on the LH quarter panel.


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## dfmoeller (Dec 6, 2012)

*Frame*

Just a quick question about your frame. Did you do anything to coat the interior of the boxed sections? Just curious. I'm almost to that point with a 67 convertible and I really like your powdercoat solution (the PPG epoxy stuff). Or did I miss something in the thread?


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

dfmoeller said:


> Just a quick question about your frame. Did you do anything to coat the interior of the boxed sections? Just curious. I'm almost to that point with a 67 convertible and I really like your powdercoat solution (the PPG epoxy stuff). Or did I miss something in the thread?


The parts are washed in a etching solution and then rinsed/neutralized with de-ionized water. Then into an oven to preheat the metal and evaporate any remaining moisture. The powder is electrostatic charged so it gets everywhere, even inside the boxed frame sections. When baked, the powder changes state from powder to liquid and cures. Seems to work very well.

Another method is to dip the part in a large tank if you have anyone in your area that does that. A company that makes service bodies for chassis cab trucks might have the necessary equipment...


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking sweet S-n-B !!!


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Started working on the punch list task items. First up was the rust hole in the windshield frame. I don’t have a donor piece so I’ll have to make my own replacement section. Pretty simple if you have a stretching machine or some other way to stretch one leg of the formed angle shape.
> When I cut out the rusted section, I will also loose a little tab that folds over onto the cowl so I made sure to allow for excess material in my replacement piece to make that same tab. I then break formed the metal, scribed some lines and drilled “cut-to” holes for my electric shear tool. Then stretch the short leg which has the net effect of curving the long leg. Test fit a few times until the curve is correct and then trim to fit. Buzz it in place, fold over the tab and then grind the welds smooth.
> 
> Probably didn’t need to worry about the tab since this area isn’t even visible with the lower stainless windshield trim in place but no reason not to try and do the best job possible….even if nobody will ever tell the difference.
> ...


YOU ARE A CRAFTSMAN! DANG-I'm in awe of your skill.


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

*Day 32.1: Begin Qtr panel repair*

Thanks guys! I have learned a lot by all the mistakes that I have made.  I usually don't make the same mistake twice....I seem to find ways to make new and improved mistakes. Even so, I have never tried something as complicated as a full qtr panel replacement on a convertible so we are treading new ground here. :surprise:

I studied the damage quite a bit and couldn't really see a path to save the existing quarter panel. The key body lines were mangled and I wasn't sure I could form them back to shape. There was some rust in a few spots and quite a few drilled holes. The first step in dent repair is to visualize how the damage occurred and then work that process backwards. I wasn't able to determine the initial or the last impact point so I was basically stuck without a plan of attack. I pretty much spent an entire day trying to find a solution and eventually I gave up and moved to plan B.

Plan B was to find a complete quarter panel from a donor car. Reproductions are not available for convertibles so I would have to find one somewhere. I spent the next 3 weekends hunting for something that would work. The two convertibles at a local salvage yard did not have good quarters.....one car had both qtrs removed already and the other car had qtrs that were rusty at the bottoms, the trunk cut out and the rear corners cut off.....no not what I was looking for. I found a good donor car for $5000 and it had both quarters that I could use but I didn't want to spend that kind of money to chop up another car just yet. Eventually I did locate what looked like a good quarter panel but the seller wanted $3500 for it and it did have some rust around the lower edges. Decided to pass on it. On to Plan C.

Plan C is to purchase a full replacement hardtop quarter panel and see if there was any way to make it work. I pulled the replacement panel out of the box, found the horizontal center line and marked with tape. Did the same to the good RH side qtr panel on the car. Then I used a laser line tool and took measurements from the centerline to the top ridge line in 1" increments along the length of both quarter panels. I then plotted the dimensions on graph paper and connected the dots and that showed me where the differences were.


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

*Day 32.2 donor qtr panel*

Becoming more desperate by the day.....I went back to the original salvage yard to look at the partial qtr panel one more time. It was a pretty warm day and I was a bit delirious from the heat that I was starting to have visions of how I could make the crappy salvage yard piece work for my car. It was missing the rear corner and the edge along the trunk lid and the lower sections were rusted away but I bought it anyway. Got it home and tried it on the car. At this point a light bulb went off in my head and I formed a plan. This would be Plan D.


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

integrity6987 said:


> YOU ARE A CRAFTSMAN! DANG-I'm in awe of your skill.


X2. Could not agree more.


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

*Day 33.1 remove bad quarter*

I apologize in advance for the onslaught of photos you are about to see but I don't think there is a simple way to show quarter panel replacement. It's not a simple or quick procedure....at least not the way I do it. A professional probably could do this in a quarter the time it took me....but I like doing for myself when possible so let's get started. The worst that can happen is I screw it all up to heck and back and then I'll be in the same situation as before. So, armed with some feigned confidence...I decided to move ahead.

Basic plan: Graft the donor upper quarter to the reproduction quarter panel and make a good convertible quarter panel.

I needed to have the door mounted for this procedure so I had to cut out a portion of the body bracing to install the door. Once I was happy with the alignment and gaps, I proceeded to strip away the original quarter panel. Notice the excellent coverage of the powder coat epoxy primer. That stuff is awesome. I then trimmed the hardtop repop quarter and checked to see if the lower portion fit and if the total length was good. Overall fit of the Dynacorn panel was excellent. Not sure what happened to the aftermarket these days but I remember when aftermarket panels were scary......these day not so much. Or, maybe it's just they do a better job with GTOs since they are special....


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

*Day 33.2: reproduction panel door gap issue*

My love affair with the reproduction quarter panel was over as quickly as it began. I wasn't very happy with the door cap. Looked okay from the side but looking down from the top was a different story. I decided to mount the door on the other side and see how it compared. That confirmed what I suspected....the LH door gap was not going to work for me.


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

*Day 33.3: begin welding donor panel*

I decided to see what the gap looked like with the donor panel and I was much happier. The radius bend at the door jamb looked a bit tighter than the reproduction panel as well so I decided I was going to use the donor panel for this section. This meant I would need to cut the reproduction quarter into two pieces and then weld in the door jamb edge from the donor panel in between the reproduction prices. Meant a lot more work but I think I will be more pleased with the results so I moved ahead with that plan.

Elapsed Time from start of project: 4 months


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

*Day 34.1: add repop qtr panel*

Welded on the door jamb and then started to lay out how the reproduction panel will fit. There is a compound curve profile in the quarter panel that is about 24 long horizontally. it's begins where the quarter window ends and runs towards the back of the car. It is a very slight concave depression in the panel that begins about 2" down from the top body line spans about 3 1/2" below that point. It would be a super easy thing to overlook and end up covering with body filler later so it helps to take notes so that shape can be recreated correctly. In my case, I was lucky to have a good quarter panel on the other side because I was constantly using my profile gauge to check, double check and triple check stuff.

In one of these pics, you can see how the hardtop quarter upper body line rises up and in compared to the convertible body line. That was causing me some problems for final fitment of the quarter panel so I was going to have to cut off that corner and deal with it later.


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

*Day 34.2: peel weld*

After cutting off the corner....the replacement quarter panel fit pretty well so I Kleeko'd it into place. I sliced the vertical section of the door jamb so the seam of the two panels would fall on the flange below.....this helps to avoid panel warpage and functions as an alignment guide at the same time.


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

*Day 34.3: slice and peel*

The horizontal splice was a different story. Very long run, with no support behind so I like to use the slice and peel method when joining sections like this. No matter which method I use....I space my first pass of welds 1" apart and cool each weld with an air nozzle right after they are placed. Working slowly and taking my time to make sure the panels are aligned. Then I check the panels to make sure they are flush....a light pass with a grinder will show if one panel is low. At this point, I am able to bring up the low panel so I make sure I do that before the next pass of stitch welds. The second pass of stitch welds are placed in the center of the first pass. I then make a third pass and at that point I have stitch welds spaced 1/4" apart along the entire length. I grind these down and then fill in the 1/4" spaces. Really helps to have a second pair of hands so the helper can align the panels while I buzz the tack welds in place. We like to use a jewelers screwdriver since it fits right in the seam and works great. 

When placing the Kleekos....I was sure to keep the reproduction quarter panel pressed firmly against the donor panel below so the concave shape would be accounted for. Continued to apply pressure as I was making the slice and also keep light pressure applied when stitch welding. When the welds cooled....the concave shape remained and I was happy that it wasn't lost.


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

*Day 35.1: rear corner*

The corner piece for the hardtop was a different shape than a convertible so I needed to modify it to fit.
I made a template of the right side, flipped it over and taped it to the left. Then I used a duplicate template to show me how far I needed to move the metal.


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

*Day 35.2: qtr corner*

This time I used the shrinker machine to tighten up the curve until it matched my template. I shrunk the very end piece in a little more than necessary because I want a slight valley at that seam to account for the weld material at that point. Welded in in and it looked good. The radius on the body line was not as tight as the donor body line so I will need to spend some time with a hammer and dolly form to get that looking like it should.


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

*Day 36.1: Corner lip*

Looking about as good as I could have hoped for up to this point, so I was cautiously pleased with the progress.
However, walk around the the back of the car and it looked awful. The termination lip at the very rear of the corner piece didn't work so I opened it up and and then folded it around the trunk piece below. That wasn't working so it would have to come out. Fresh out of donor pieces....I decided to make my own part. Once again, I made a template from the other side, traced it on a piece of aluminum and then folded and kerf cut a piece of metal in the spots where the stretching machine could not reach (jaws too thick...). I clamped the formed piece to the aluminum and welded up the kerf cuts and that seemed to work out well.


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

*Day 36.2: repair corner termination lip*

Welded in my fabricated piece and was happy with the fit. Somewhere along this process I test fitted the rear bumper to make sure the corner piece would work well. I can't believe I didn't take ANY photos of that process. I must have been getting anxious as it felt like I was fairly close to pulling this off. 
Was quite a challenge. Not sure I would want to tackle something like this again. Will take a little break for a couple of weeks and recharge. Then look over the work with a fresh set of eyes, make a punch list and make corrections as needed. Still lots of grinding and smoothing but for now I was needing a rest.

Elapsed time since start of project: 5 months


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

S&B, don't apologize, the photos are great and show the rest of us how to properly do it. If you don't mind, I'd like to save your pics for personal use as a guide should I discover i need to do something like this with my '68 (heaven forbid!). Thanks for a great thread!


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

1968gto421 said:


> S&B, don't apologize, the photos are great and show the rest of us how to properly do it. If you don't mind, I'd like to save your pics for personal use as a guide should I discover i need to do something like this with my '68 (heaven forbid!). Thanks for a great thread!


Thank you and feel free to download and save any photos that you think might be helpful later. No two situations are exactly the same. This method worked okay this time but another car will have a different set of issues so the process might need to be altered as necessary.

I hate to imagine what it would have cost to hire a professional shop to do this work. They surely would have less man hours than I did but I am sure the car would have been there for longer than a month. Doing it myself allows me to keep the project moving forward so there is value in that alone.

I have had some guys tell me they waited for years to find good NOS quarter panels for these cars and then paid dearly for them. While I can appreciate the undeniable authenticity of unused NOS quarter panels.....I was not willing to set the project aside for several years and hold my breath for one to come along. My focus is to get this car on the road and share it with others. 





Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Welded in my fabricated piece and was happy with the fit. Somewhere along this process I test fitted the rear bumper to make sure the corner piece would work well. I can't believe I didn't take ANY photos of that process. I must have been getting anxious as it felt like I was fairly close to pulling this off.
> Was quite a challenge. Not sure I would want to tackle something like this again. Will take a little break for a couple of weeks and recharge. Then look over the work with a fresh set of eyes, make a punch list and make corrections as needed. Still lots of grinding and smoothing but for now I was needing a rest.
> 
> Elapsed time since start of project: 5 months


:surprise: <---- jaw dropped, eye blinking awestruck.


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

*Day 37: LH Qtr panel punch list*

Punch list items for the LH quarter panel was fairly long. Need to drill some holes for the lower trim behind the wheel well, grind and smooth the welds and do some hammer dolly work at the body line where the corner piece was grafted on. I saved some drop off pieces from the original quarter to help locate where new holes needed to be drilled or cut. 

The replacement quarter was missing the finished corner piece on the back of the wheel well opening so I cut off the original corner from the section I saved and welded it in place. Typical process.....weld, grind smooth, weld in any voids and repeat until completed. The replacement quarter panel also had more flange material at the lower portion where it gets spot welded to the trunk drop, so I trimmed it to match the original piece. Now both quarters matched each other side to side.

Also on the punch list was to get the door gap adjusted. I had removed the door for some reason and then went to put it back and couldn’t get it re-aligned to my liking. When I adjusted the gap along the rocker… the jamb gap looked good but the top door edge didn’t line up with the top edge of the quarter panel. With the top edge of the door aligned with the qtr panel….the jamb and rocker gaps were off. Eventually I noticed the top edge of the door was bent down a little bit right at the end (see photo). Not sure how or when it got bent, but was probably my fault or something I did. After the top edge of the door was corrected, the hinge bolts were easily adjusted so the gaps looked much better.

Note to self: Should be more careful and try not to make extra work for myself.


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

*Day 38: Begin work on RH quarter panel*

Didn’t want to leave the bare metal exposed for much longer so I sprayed a couple coats of epoxy primer. Took a break from the LH side for a while and started looking over the RH side to see where I should start first. I had originally thought that side of the car was in pretty good shape but the years had not been as kind to that quarter panel either. 

Door gap was pretty good but there was a tear at the very top right corner of the quarter panel so that got welded up and filed smooth. I placed the door glass, regulators, latch, door handle and vent window inside/on the door and it didn’t really sag as much as I expected. A little deflection but not much. Will do the same to the other side and see if there is any difference over there.

There were probably about 2 dozen small dents, dings and scrapes on this side. About half were accessible from inside so I could work them with a hammer and dolly and some patience. Technique is to try and convince the metal to move back into the shape since it normally wants to do that anyway. If I try and force the metal then it normally results in more work for me in the end.

I used a welded stud puller for the dings that I couldn’t easily access from behind. If my son is helping, I usually have him apply some pulling pressure to the stud while I try and work the dent out from the inside using an old assortment of trunk lid torsion springs. If that fails then the next try is with the slide hammer on the puller. Spot primed with epoxy primer to protect the bare metal. Generally speaking, we have a very dry climate so moisture in the air isn’t really a concern for us but I was doing this work during our monsoon season so I didn’t want to take any chances.


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## Anderslober (Mar 15, 2018)

Amazing thread! You certainly do great work. I wish I had a garage!


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

Anderslober said:


> Amazing thread! You certainly do great work. I wish I had a garage!


Thanks. I have a 2 car garage but prefer working in the adjacent space outside provided there is shade. Gives me more 'elbow room'. 
At the end of each weekend's work, I pull the car into my enclosed trailer and back it into that space which is secured behind a locking gate and my two big trucks. I used this same basic method for my 2 previous restorations and it's worked out pretty well. Wish I had a larger garage but have to work with what I have available to me.


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

*Day 41: Qtr panel metal work*

Spent the next several days working on cleaning up the welds, and smoothing out dings and dents as I come across them. Tedious stuff but I prefer to work the metal as good as I can get it before applying body filler. The RH quarter panel was a bit more wavy than I expected so I started to become less confident in using it as a good reference. I needed to see some other cars and figure out a way to trace or record the contours more accurately. Prefer to find example cars with original paint if possible. Checking a restored car would be less reliable since it’s easy to deform or eradicate the contours with body filler if the restorer isn’t careful. 

Was pretty hard to find some examples but eventually I was able to locate a few good candidates to view. I went back to the salvage yard and checked the remaining quarter panel on the donor car and someone else sent me some great photos of a car in Tucson so I had two good examples to look at. I eventually found another car and was able to gather dimensions and make good notes and sketches that would be very helpful.

Will post a couple of pics just in case someone else is working on a convertible and isn’t aware of this contour over the wheel well. I didn't notice it at first myself....someone else pointed it out to me and thankfully they did or else I would have been clueless. The red lines are the approximate upper and lower boundaries of the concave area.


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

*Days 42 & 43: Fender and doors*

Started working on the doors and fenders while I research the quarter panel contour issue. 

The fenders had multiple small dents and dings. Most of them were pretty easy to tap out. The doors were really nice…no rust anywhere and only a few dents to work out. There was a very small portion of pinhole rust in one of the fenders so that got cut out and replaced. I use a file across the worked area to let me know how straight the panel is getting. Takes a while….spent a couple of days on these items.

Elapsed time since start of project: 6 months


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

*Day 44: Mock up front clip*

Really curious to see how the fenders and hood would fit. Never know what problems I might find so I need to check it out now. Better to deal with problems now compared to later and then have to redo the work all over again.

The two fenders are OE pieces but the hood is reproduction. I have the original hood and it’s not rusted anywhere but it is kinked pretty good at the crash point by the hood hinge. I worry about repairing it just to have it kink again later so I’ll try out the reproduction hood and see how it fits. If I don’t like it, then I will consider plan B. Who knows, maybe I’ll fix the original hood and paint it anyway. Then I’ll just hang it in the rafters so it can always remain with the car. Might make a good conversation piece.

All things considered….the fenders and hood fit pretty nice. It didn’t fall together though…..I had to adjust and check and adjust some more but each time things looked a little better than they did before. With the fenders aligned with the hood, I could see that the driver’s door was adjusted too far out but that was an easy fix. The RH door-fender-hood gaps looked pretty good. I wonder how the nose will fit?


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

from post #92 SnB - "apply some pulling pressure to the stud while I try and work the dent out from the inside using an old assortment of trunk lid torsion springs."

Can you please elaborate on the function of the trunk lid torsion springs in this process?


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

I have a good guess at what the torsion springs are for. Recall that they tend to be long and L-shaped. I watched a guy at a paintless dent repair shop use similarly shaped tools once. He was able to insert them behind the dent in very tight spaces to reach, in ways it would have been impossible to get to with regular body tools. Placing the tip of the L on the back side of the dent and then "twisting" the tool let him apply pressure to try to push the dent out. 

Bear


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

BearGFR said:


> I have a good guess at what the torsion springs are for. Recall that they tend to be long and L-shaped. I watched a guy at a paintless dent repair shop use similarly shaped tools once. He was able to insert them behind the dent in very tight spaces to reach, in ways it would have been impossible to get to with regular body tools. Placing the tip of the L on the back side of the dent and then "twisting" the tool let him apply pressure to try to push the dent out.
> 
> Bear


Exactly. I came about the idea by watching the paintless dent removal process. Some of those guys are amazing. The tools they use are quite expensive.....in the $3500-$5000 range for a full set. 

Sometimes the welded stud puller can over pull and leave a peak or ridge that then needs to be knocked down or shrunk. I try to avoid over pulling by "moving" the metal from behind. The metal in these older cars is much heavier gauge than modern vehicles so deck lid torsion rods work pretty well. They are made from spring steel which is the exact type of metal used to make those dent removal tools. The rods from a convertible sometimes have a handle folded on the end so it offers a wider pressing area which can be useful. The process worked pretty well by placing some lumber inside the car body to use as a fulcrum point. It seems that dents removed in this manner require much less body filler to smooth compared to using just the puller and then tapping down the high point. Maybe it's more effort than necessary.....just trying new stuff from time to time and see what works for me. :confused


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

*Day 45: Adjust front clip*

Hopefully I am not boring everyone with the uneventful updates but sometimes there isn't much progress but still plenty of stuff to do.
Once I mocked up the front clip it became apparent that there is more going on with these models compared to chrome bumper cars of the 50's and early 60's. I decided it would be worthwhile to finish assembling the front end to make sure that everything fits and look for hidden surprises.


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

*Day 46: Test Fit Nose*

This is the nose that was on the car when I bought it all those years ago. Probably not original since there are no holes for the emblem. Part number is 9790773 but I can’t find that in any of my books so I can’t verify the application. Sometimes the parts books list a replacement number vs the original part number so maybe someone out there can check that number for me. 

At any rate….I had the nose blasted with the rest of the car so I could see what I was working with. Was disappointed with the fit at first try but then I worked with it for a little bit and things started to look better. Not great…but better. There are little notches in the nose that show where the fenders should be so that was a nice guide. It showed that I needed to adjust the driver’s side fender out a little bit but that was okay. This nose is going to take a lot of work to get right. Sorta looking forward to the challenge.....I know those words will come back to haunt me later. 

Now that I see the car mostly assembled, I noticed some items of concern with how the body was setting on the frame. I decided I was going to investigate those concerns before going any further.


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

*Day 47: 68 vs 69 hood comparisons*

While reading old posts on this and other forums I came across several discussions about the differences between 1968 and 1969 hoods. Stumbled across a photo for a 1969 ram air hood that someone had for sale so I compared that photo to the original hood from my car. There were 3 obvious differences that I could see with the under hood bracing. The 69 hood has relief areas pressed into the bracing that appear to be there for some clearance purposes. I think the 69 models have a different fan shroud so that might be part of the reason for the differences. Not sure what the other depression near the hood scoops is for....maybe alternator clearance? 

Also compared my original hood to the reproduction Dynacorn hood. Inspected it pretty well.....could not detect any difference. My conclusion is the Dynacorn hood is based on the 68 hood. The reproduction hood may work for 69 as well....but there is a difference compared to original. At least compared to the one photo that I could find.

Interesting observation of note: The 69 hood appears to have it's black out sprayed on after the hinges were attached. My 68 hood looks like it received it's black out before the hinges were attached. Makes me curious if that is a 68 vs 69 thing or just a plant to plant variation? I find stuff like that to be super interesting and makes this project a little more fun and may explain why some folks say the hinges are black phosphate and others say it's more of a light grey finish. The set of hinges that I have are a light grey color....not black or dark colored at all.


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Hopefully I am not boring everyone with the uneventful updates but sometimes there isn't much progress but still plenty of stuff to do.


Not at all. This thread has been an educational experience for this '68 owner.


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Darrel Davidson had the best discussion over on PY several years back on the different styles of '68 GTO hoods. I'm about to be moving more hoods over, & am going to try & reference which style of GTO hoods that I have before reboxing. Know what GTO's I took them off of, but the doesn't necessarily mean that's what they originally came on.


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

Pinion head said:


> Darrel Davidson had the best discussion over on PY several years back on the different styles of '68 GTO hoods. I'm about to be moving more hoods over, & am going to try & reference which style of GTO hoods that I have before reboxing. Know what GTO's I took them off of, but the doesn't necessarily mean that's what they originally came on.


Sounds interesting. I will try and find that thread. Different styles of 68 hoods is interesting. My car was 19 year old when I got it so no guarantees it's original to the car either. It was painted Mayfair Maize with purple primer underneath. Under that was Verdoro Green which was the original color of the car so I suspect it might be the original hood but can't be certain. I didn't find any date stamps on the hood so that seemed a bit odd. Maybe the date stamp was on the section that was cut away for the ram air pans? Do the hoods have date stamps and if so, about what area would they normally be found?

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

*Day 48: Test Fit convertible frame*

The windshield frame looked out of square so I installed the frame and checked the fit. Looked okay on the LH side but the RH side was not looking good. The convertible header piece is adjustable but the variance was too great to be a simple adjustment issue. Something was out of whack here. 

Investigate some more and find the body isn’t sitting level on the frame. Not trusting that my concrete pad is flat enough of a reference point to measure from…I decided to pull the car up into my enclosed trailer and check things in there. The floor of the trailer was flat enough for this purpose. With the tires inflated equally….the frame was parallel with the floor but the body leaned a little to the right side. Added some shims at the two body mounts under the right side of the cowl and installed all the body bolts and torqued them equally. With those adjustments, the car body (rockers, cowl, tail pan) were parallel to the floor and to the bottom surface of the frame. Measurements at 4 key points of the body to floor was equal side to side so the body lean issue was corrected. To my amazement, none of the door gaps changed at all or at least I could not detect any difference.

Now that the body was adjusted and sitting on the frame correctly, I rolled it back out into the open and now the twist in the windshield frame was more obvious. Packed the car away until I could figure out how to tackle that situation. Another unexpected hurdle to deal with.


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

*Day 49.1: Cut hood for Ram Air*

Decided I was going to use the reproduction hood since it fit as well or possibly better than the original. Hood scoops fit either hood about the same so there was no difference there. Still was researching the twisted windshield frame issue so I figured it would be a good time to cut up the hood now.

For those that aren’t aware….the 1968 Ram Air cars did not have the air cleaner parts installed at the factory. Not sure why but those items shipped as a kit for the dealer to install. 1968 Ram Air cars would have left the factory with the standard GTO single snorkel air cleaner with chrome lid and hot air tube and shroud on the LH exhaust manifold. The dealer would remove that air cleaner assembly (shroud on exhaust manifold can remain) and install an open element air cleaner pan on top of the carb. Then there is another pan or baffle that is screwed to the hood (foam seals on both items). The under hood bracing has to be trimmed to make clearance for the hood pan. There was likely some sort of installation instructions or guide that shipped with the kit but I have never seen that document for GTO cars…..I have seen the one for Firebirds so I presume the GTO was similar. Usually the hood bracing was rough cut and not super clean or nice looking. The baffle covered those cuts anyway so it didn’t have to be neat looking.

I didn’t have a template but I do have my old hood so I could see where it was cut and also noticed that it wasn’t installed in the correct position. I presume the quality control may have dropped a few notches once dealer mechanics began working on the car. So, transferring the cut lines to my new hood would not work since I wanted to position the baffle correctly this time. After looking at it for a little bit, I figured it would be easy to make a template and took lots of photos to help others who have a 68 ram air car or just want to add these parts to their car since it’s kinda cool looking. So, here is the step-by-step process I used.
1.	Determine which side of the pan is engine side. Tip: The two hook tabs are towards the hood side. Photo 1 shows the engine side of the pan.
2.	Tape some pattern paper to the engine side and trim out the opening and around the perimeter.
3.	Locate and cut out the alignment hole. I also cut out the mount holes for the pan and access holes for the hood scoops. This was unnecessary since it had no benefit to this procedure. You only need to cut away the alignment hole at this point.
4.	Feel through the pattern paper for the debossed shape around the air cleaner opening. Using the “pull” or “return” of the debossed shape as a guide, cut away the paper so you end up with something that looks like the 4th photo.
5.	With the template still on the pan…..set it on the hood and center the air cleaner hole. The two tabs on the hood side hook under the hood bracing. This is an installation aid for when these were installed at the dealership.


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

*Day 49.2: Cut hood for Ram Air*

6.	Photo of tabs hooked under the bracing.
7.	Use some sort of pin through the alignment hole into the hood bracing. There is a pre-existing hole there…..probably used to hold the insulation in non Ram Air cars. 
8.	Apply tape to the hood around the perimeter of the pan. This will help you position the template in the next step.
9.	Note the stepped rear area of the pan. Depending on how you formed your template…..it’s possible to run long here. If so, it’s not an issue….just make sure the template is located side to side. It’s the position of the forward (peaked) end that matters the most.
10.	Remove the template from the pan and tape it onto the hood using the locating tape as a guide. NOTE: Make SURE you have the engine side of the template facing you. Do not flip it over or you will cut the wrong part of the bracing. Look at this photo and match it.


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

*Day 49.3: Cut hood for Ram Air and tach*

11.	Mark the hood for your cut. Shown here in White marker.
12.	Cut along the mark you just made. If you want to be extra cautious….remove the guide tape (green tape in these photos) just so you don’t accidentally cut way out there. Your cut is inside those tape marks.
13.	Test fit your pan….should fall in there nicely. Trim a little bit as necessary until you are happy. Using the pan as a template….mark the location of the 5 mount holes. Make up a stop guide so you don’t drill too deep. It would be easy to drill through the bracing and accidentally dent or ding the outer hood surface. Don’t do that!
14.	Mount your pan.
15.	Hood tack template. Taken from the old hood but also happens to be published in the 1969 Assembly Manual.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

You're an artist! I'm sure you're going to win a ton of trophies! What's the final color going to be? Post 1 shows Mayfair.


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

integrity6987 said:


> You're an artist! I'm sure you're going to win a ton of trophies! What's the final color going to be? Post 1 shows Mayfair.


Thanks. Doubtful there will be any trophies of any consequence since all the major judged events are on the Eastern side of the country. I won't be able to drive the car very far with the factory 4:33 gear set.  

Color is Verdoro Green with black top and black interior. Seems like a love or hate it color for many people. I happen to love it so it works for me. 

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

*Day 50: Check windshield frame*

In my last post....forgot to note that it was now 7 months since the beginning of the project. 

Confident the body was sitting level…I now could now take measurements that mean something. The window opening was about 3/8” out of square and twisted a bit. Taking out the rack would be easy enough but slope was tougher for me to figure out. I set the glass in place hoping that would tell me something but it didn’t really help me much. I could see that it didn’t fit in the frame with equal space around each edge but I still wasn’t able to figure out what adjustments to make.

The great thing about a hobby like this is there are other folks who are willing to help when needed. A fellow Pontiac enthusiast in town allowed me to take dozens of measurements of his convertible cars that he was restoring so I was very thankful and grateful for his help. He also shared a little bit of his considerable knowledge for restoring convertible GTOs so that was a major bonus. Thank goodness because it pointed me towards a solution.

As a way to double check the measurements, I visited the salvage yards and measured key points on those cars for reference. That info aligned nicely with the measurements taken from the project cars I visited earlier. However, those cars were 69 and 70 model years….my car is a 68 so maybe not exactly the same? Then I remembered that my car has vent windows! That would be the key for me since I could use those windows to check the angle of the A pillars. I measured other 68 models and figured out how to set those windows exactly by triangulation. Distance from top of door to top of vent window…..distance from window channel guide to rear edge of door….diagonal distance from rear corner of door to top corner of vent window. Plus, there are witness marks on the rubber seal where the car had been painted back in the 80s so that was my final bit of useful info. 

With the vent and front glass in place, I could see what was wrong. Now I just need to figure out how to fix it. Am not surprised the windshield frame was messed up. When I recovered the car after it was evicted from the restoration shop….it was upside down on a wobbly rotisserie rig. A fellow that was there at the time the cars were pulled out of the shop said the landlord used a forklift to move all the stuff. Apparently he wasn’t very careful with the cars. I bet the windshield frame got caught on the forks of the lift and tweaked a bit. Will probably never figure out for sure what happened though….??

Note the holes in the RH door for the side view mirror. Might have been a dealer installed accessory or even a Day 2 owner installed item but I don’t believe those were an available RPO item so it really shouldn’t be on the car. I will need to weld up those holes. Another item to add to the long punch list.


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

*Day 51: Straighten windshield frame*

Luckily my neighbor offered some advice how best to fix the windshield frame. He made a career in the body shop and insurance adjusting industry so he had a lot of knowledge to share. He cautioned me about pushing and pulling without first bracing the cowl and door jambs since those items could move out of place. Sounded like great advice so I braced stuff as best as I could and then pressed the rack out of the frame and squared it up. The header bar needed to move towards the left of the car in order for the glass opening to be square. Once I had that looking good, then I pulled back on the RH corner until it moved where it needed to be.

Method: Apply tension to the frame so it moves a little further than needed….hold it there and stress relieve the area where the metal folded in the first place. This is done by tapping on the metal with a hammer at the spot where the metal was bent…..there were little wrinkles on the A pillars so that is where I felt the tension needed to be relieved. Seemed to work because when I let off the tension the frame didn’t spring all the way back to where it was before. Per the advice of my neighbor, I made multiple small pulls and moved the A pillars a little at a time. Don’t rush it. Eventually it will get there. Took about 5 or 7 tries and then it looked much better.

I used a combination of methods to check and verify the windshield frame was moved into the correct position. The vent windows helped to locate the front to rear slope but I needed something to check for side to side so I used some plum bobs (after leveling the floor of the car with hydraulic jacks). Lastly, I used diagonal measurements to various points of the body to make sure things were square. Seemed to work out okay.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Wow, that’s awesome, nice work. I love auto body repair and love watching the older auto body guys, they all seem to have these off the wall remedies and fixes that just amaze me. I’m really enjoying watching your build, I love watching ”Bitchin Rides”, but one doesn’t get to see all the stuff your showing and explaining. Great Job !!!


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

Cafr119 said:


> Wow, that’s awesome, nice work. I love auto body repair and love watching the older auto body guys, they all seem to have these off the wall remedies and fixes that just amaze me. I’m really enjoying watching your build, I love watching ”Bitchin Rides”, but one doesn’t get to see all the stuff your showing and explaining. Great Job !!!


Always good stuff to learn from the more senior car guys. I always listen closely when the opportunity for some free advice is given. It amazes me how they remember specific little details such as the orientation of the little clips at the bottom of the windshield glass. I would have had to look in my books or photos to figure it out but my neighbor knew how they went without needing a book.....and it has been at least 20 years since he has restored a car. Amazing.

Those TV shows are in a no win situation. Viewers really want to see the finished car at the end of the episodes so there isn't any way to show all the effort it takes to bring a car back to life. I think they do a pretty good job summarizing the highlights though. There are a ton of steps that I am skipping over as well. Not really possible to show everything. Some stuff just happens and I forget to take photos. 

I had some body guys come over and inspect the car before it goes into paint and 2 of the guys didn't know the quarter panel had been replaced and they didn't figure it out so I felt pretty good about that. Little successes like that are rewarding. 



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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Oh yeah I’m sure your not catching everything you do as your dong it and posting it, I was taught by a senior shop owner, he wasn’t one to used filler much if any at times. I just wish I had all the machines and equipment he had.


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

*Day 53: Reassemble front clip*

Starting to get pretty good at assembling the front clip……must have taken it apart a couple dozen times by now. With the body sitting proper on the chassis and the windshield frame fixed, it was time to put the front clip back on and see how it looked. For the most part, the gaps looked pretty good…not sure if anything improved but at least I didn’t go backwards this time. Pushing ahead, I decided to see how easy or hard it would be to repair the Endura bumper. There were some scuff marks here and there but no real deep gouges or chunks missing so maybe it will go well. I consulted with as many guys as I could to see what products they use for Endura repair. The two choices mentioned most were SEM and 3M. I checked with my 3M rep and the part number was no longer available so I picked up the SEM product. 

I wanted to have the bumper mounted on the car so I could determine where the epoxy plastic repair needed to be built up. I covered the fenders with wax paper to keep the epoxy repair from bonding to the metal during this process. Not sure if that is the best way or not…seemed to work out okay…


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

*Day 54: Endura repair first try*

Applied some epoxy repair and tried to sand the nose to match the fenders. I found the SEM stuff difficult to work with. It comes in dual cartridge form and utilizes a mixing nozzle. Probably better used on smaller repairs. I was covering large areas so it was messy and quite a bit of work. I didn’t expect fabulous results on the first pass but I did expect a little better than what I ended up with here. Not really happy so I am going to try the 3M stuff. My rep says they have a new part number product that replaces the old number I was looking for so maybe that will work better.

Decided to test fit the rear bumper and make sure it will work. Pretty happy with the fit. This is a reproduction bumper. Looks just like my original one….except more shiny.

The RH inner fender well (front) was quite beat up. I didn’t even notice it was dented up when I had it blasted and powder coated but I just couldn't get it to fit correctly and eventually I noticed that it was messed up. Staring me right in the face....not sure how I missed that. What a waste of money and time. I tried to beat it back into shape but it looked pretty rough. Eventually I gave up and went down to the store and purchased a reproduction for $95. Looked like a perfect match except it fit MUCH better.

Elapsed time since start of project: 8 months


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

*Day 55: Endura repair second try*

So, it turns out that 3M just changed the tube size so they gave it a different part number. 5896 is the larger tube, 5895 is a smaller size. Same stuff. I like this much better. I can mix what I need and spread it more evenly and where I want it. Sands pretty nice too. I can tell this is going to work much better than the SEM stuff. Already just with a quick pass the nose matches the fenders much more closely. I think with some more work I will be able to get it to match better than the factory bumpers ever did. Decided I was going to go to the back of the car and work my way forward through the punch list items. If I am going to get the nose to fit the way I want.....I better make sure all the body work is as good as it's going to get first.....then I can match the nose to the rest of the car.


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Really looking good at this point. Looking at the build, would it not be easier at this time to install a few of the firewall items with the nose off for easier access, such as the heater core/blower motor & box, wiper motor, brake booster/master cyl/ front steel lines/pedal set-up. 

Just seems it might be easier to access with the nose off (or at least one fender & the hood) and not take any chances of damaging/scratching up painted surfaces. Just my thoughts. :thumbsup:


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

*Day 56: qtr panel lead seam repair*

Major issue. Discovered a hairline crack in the body filler where I applied it over the lead seam at the rear quarter panel. The filler panel that covers the trunk hinges is spot welded to the quarter panels and then filled with lead at the factory. I called someone that specializes in convertibles for advice and he said that is a known problem area on these cars. Pretty much a mandatory item that needs to be addressed on every car that he has restored. After learning of this issue, I decided to remove all the filler on top of the quarters and investigate. I melted out the lead and found a crack in the metal. Welded it up and then made some filler plates that fit into the recessed area previously occupied by lead filler. My plan is to weld in the plate and grind smooth. That ought to keep that area from cracking in the future. I checked the other side and it was fine but I applied the same 'fix' anyway....just to be safe.


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

PontiacJim said:


> Really looking good at this point. Looking at the build, would it not be easier at this time to install a few of the firewall items with the nose off for easier access, such as the heater core/blower motor & box, wiper motor, brake booster/master cyl/ front steel lines/pedal set-up.
> 
> Just seems it might be easier to access with the nose off (or at least one fender & the hood) and not take any chances of damaging/scratching up painted surfaces. Just my thoughts.


At this point in the build, none of those items had been detailed yet so not ready to install. The car is going to come apart and off the chassis for the poly primer and then get reassembled for block sanding. Then will come apart once again, with the body on a body cart for the 2K primer....more block sanding and then get painted. Will definitely reinstall all the firewall items before final assembly of the front clip.

Thanks for the suggestion though.....I can see myself missing that step later and having to take it all apart once it's painted.


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

*Day 57: Punch List items*

Worked my way forward taking care of punch list items. Didn't take many photos. I did notice there appeared to be too many holes in the door where the side mirror goes. Decided to mount the mirror and sure enough....some of the holes were exposed. Would want to weld that one up before it goes to paint. Someone had mounted an aftermarket side view mirror on the right door so I welded up those holes also. Found a few minor dents near the repair area of the quarter panel so maybe it was a good thing I had to get back in there. I probably had too much filler on there anyway.....this gives me an opportunity to review my work and do a better job. The filler went on much thinner this time. Much happier with the body work this time. 

Elapsed time. 9 months.


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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

That's nice work and attention to detail Shake. Thanks for that seam pic. I bought my 72 vert mostly painted (but apart) and have noticed the hairline cracks like yours. There is a small dent about the size of a nickle in the same area. It looks like someone dropped something on it (maybe the trunk lid corner trying to assemble). So, I was going to have to repaint that area and hope to blend. Now knowing about the seam (it was posted on threads months ago), I plan to fix both at same time.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

SnB post#122 "Welded it up and then made some filler plates that fit into the recessed area previously occupied by lead filler. "

Was the factory leaded seam "flush" as you are trying to make it?

"Back in the day" when these were pretty common 10-12 year old 2nd or 3rd owner cars, I remember this area to have a ~3/16" wide x ~1/16 recessed smooth channel, and some cars (with M50 tires and tall gears) this area was cracked.

Anybody else remember that far back?


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

integrity6987 said:


> SnB post#122 "Welded it up and then made some filler plates that fit into the recessed area previously occupied by lead filler. "
> 
> Was the factory leaded seam "flush" as you are trying to make it?
> 
> ...


Yes, the joint was filled with lead and flush with the surrounding painted surfaces. The earlier years may have been different but each 68 that I have seen had no visible seam when painted.


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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

I believe only the convertibles were hidden flush. Coupes and hardtops had visible factory seams .


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

tjs72goat said:


> I believe only the convertibles were hidden flush. Coupes and hardtops had visible factory seams .


Thanks. That clears it up for me. For sure, I am remembering non-convertibles. No one I knew had one from back in the late 70's.

SnB is sure creating a work of rolling art, and making rapid progress with it!


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

*Day 60: Drill valance for molding*

Spent the next month working my way towards the front of the car and fixing things as I go. Also mounted all the moldings and trim to make sure it all fits and looks good. The convertible well molding was pretty twisted on the LH side so that took some time to straighten enough to get it to fit. Test fit the original hood scoops to the reproduction hood and they didn’t fit great. However, the scoops didn’t fit the original hood all that much better so I was going to need to work on the scoops to get them to fit how I want.

The original valance panel was one of the items that went missing while the car was at the restoration shop. I sourced a replacement from a donor car but it was a LeMans. Decent shape but it didn’t have the holes for the valance molding that was standard on the GTO models so I would need to drill my own. I purchased reproduction moldings and laid out where the holes needed to be drilled.

I messed it up pretty good. I assumed the molding wrapped around the edge of the opening…sort of like roof flashing on a building. This caused me to drill the holes very close to that edge. I thought the hole placement was a bit odd but I went ahead and drilled anyway. I then test fit the piece and it looked horrible. I eventually decided to check my reference photos from various books, publications and my library of photos of other cars and I soon realized that I made a big mistake. The molding trim does NOT wrap over that edge but sits back inside the opening….maybe set back about 3/16” or so. I opened up the rear of the holes and the trim fit much nicer (last photo). However, the holes were now visible on the forward edge. 

Lesson learned……again. Check twice, drill once. Bummer. I will have to weld up the holes and start again. 
10 months.


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

*Day 61: Polyester Primer*

Day 61: Super Build polyester primer

With the valance panel holes welded up and re-drilled in the correct spot, I was finally ready to spray some coats of polyester primer. I would load up the car in my trailer and transport it to my shop for this step. 

This gives me an opportunity to do a trail run for the final paint process. I plan on painting the body off the frame on a body cart so I needed to figure out how that was going to work exactly. Wasn’t too bad, I rigged up a way to lift the body with a forklift and set in on the cart. My paint booth is the inflatable kind so I had to set it up and then spray on the primer. Worked okay but the lighting was quite poor. Will need to set up the booth outside when it comes time for the 2K primers and base/clear coats.

My basic plan is to spray on 3 coats of polyester primer. Reassemble the car and take it home for block sanding to 240 grit. If the car blocks out good then I will move on to the 2K primer. The primer I use can be mixed 3 ways…as a High Build Filler, Surfacer or a Wet on Wet Sealer. The polyester primer takes the place of the high build so my next step can be the surfacer step. Then sand the surfacer primer to 400 and then spray the final coat of wet on wet sealing primer. The sealing primer goes on like clear coat so it’s ready to paint without needing to be sanded any further. If I wasn’t using sealing primer then I would need to sand the surfacing primer to 600 grit since the 400 grit scratches could show in the metallic base coat. Either way works.


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

*Day 63: Verdoro Green Color Test*

Begin block sanding the car on Day 62. The polyester primer dries very hard but it’s basically sprayable body filler so that makes sense. Sanding that stuff is never easy. Any filler product that says it’s easy isn’t much of a product to use in my opinion. 

I had the paint store mix up a batch of Verdoro Green for a color test. There was some original paint left on the sides of the firewall so that would be my reference point. Checking two things here….color match and if primer color makes a difference. If the base color paint is good quality…it should not matter what color the primer is beneath since 3 coats of a quality base should be 100% opaque. I am using Diamont R-M paint. The folks at my local paint store says it's premium quality paint. I used it on my 55 Bel Air with great results so I'll give it another try.

There are at least two Verdoro Green color formulas on file. Early (67-68) or Late (1969 and later). They look pretty close but the early color is much more dynamic than the later color. Not sure why Pontiac changed the formula. Maybe the body shops were having trouble matching the color when these cars needed spot repairs? Maybe the color started out as a Pontiac only color and then was later offered on other GM cars? If so, I can see how the formula might be changed for cost avoidance. Maybe it’s a combination of things. At any rate…the formulas are different. I went with the early formula of course.

To my eye, the color is an exact match. One car card has grey primer…the other has buff. Coverage is 100% because they both look exactly the same when painted. Took 3 medium coats.


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

*Day 66.1 Endura Nose work continued*

I got bored after several days of block sanding so I decided to work on the Endura nose for a change of pace. The wax paper idea seemed to work pretty good so I continued with that method. As expected, the 3M tube stuff worked much better than the SEM cartridge product. I would mix it up, spread in on and then remove the nose for sanding. This plastic repair is pretty good stuff…I don’t think I encountered any pin holes or voids of any kind. Actually pretty easy stuff to work with.


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

*Day 66.2: Endura nose work continued*

The nose gets removed and reinstalled many times during this process. I worked on matching up the ends to the fenders first and then will work on the center section once that is completed. Not sure if that is the proper procedure but it’s now I decided to work it. ?? 

Elapsed time: 11 months


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

*Day 68.1: Sand and prime nose*

Straightened and polished the convertible well molding on Day 67. Was able to get it to fit pretty good. Had to work the pinchweld a little bit but it eventually got there.

On Day 68 went back to work on the nose. I left it alone for 7 days to see if the 3M plastic repair would shrink but it didn’t appear to change at all so continued on. I ran into a clearance conflict with the hood….it just about touched the nose in the center when the corners were aligned correctly. I studied all the gaps and came to the conclusion that I would have to shave the back edge of the nose to gain some clearance. Seemed a bit drastic so I better make SURE the front clip is aligned and set exactly where I want it to be.


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

*Day 68.2: Finish and prime the nose*

This is about as good as I was going to get it so I decided to spray some primer and set the nose aside for now. Primer I used is SEM Flexible Primer Surfacer 39134. Sands very nice.

Still need to figure out how to drill the holes for the nose emblem……a problem for another day though. Still have the hood scoops to work on and a lot of block sanding left to do. Block sanding is pretty low on the fun meter so I struggle to stay motivated at this stage.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking good, hood to nose gap not too bad !! Getting the gaps, seems,etc can be a b*#ch sometimes.


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

Cafr119 said:


> Looking good, hood to nose gap not too bad !! Getting the gaps, seems,etc can be a b*#ch sometimes.


It's funny because I expected the nose to be the most difficult part of the body work but the rest of the car has been much harder than I expected. Many subtle curves and details that are easily overlooked at first glance. I will be a happy camper once I get past this stage and complete the paint work.

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## Akhuntr (Oct 9, 2016)

*Can Mine be next???*



Shake-N-Bake said:


> It's funny because I expected the nose to be the most difficult part of the body work but the rest of the car has been much harder than I expected. Many subtle curves and details that are easily overlooked at first glance. I will be a happy camper once I get past this stage and complete the paint work.
> 
> Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


Seeing how the nose was easy you can always help me with mine...lol


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

Akhuntr said:


> Seeing how the nose was easy you can always help me with mine...lol


That looks very fixable. I would get the entire nose media blasted so you have a good foundation to build on. Then make whatever repairs you need with the 3M epoxy. 

Looks like a nice project you have there. 

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

*Day 71: Hood scoops and more block sanding*

A few more updates for those that are still following along with this build...

Worked on the hood scoops a little bit and continued with block sanding the body. I decided to try body filler on the scoop inserts and see if I could get them to match the hood vs changing the shape of the hood to match the scoops. When the scoop fasteners are tightened, the shape of the hood changes a little bit so I had to use some weights to simulate the fit for when the nuts are tightened on the studs. It is so hot here in Arizona that filler and glaze goes off very quick….I usually get around 3 minutes of working time so there wasn’t time to actually fasten the scoops to the hood. The weights seemed to work okay.

Before I brought the car home from the work shop, I took the time to mount the body on the frame and get it adjusted in what will be it’s final position. We have a section of the concrete floor in the warehouse that is dead level so I was able to get more precise with my adjustments. I noticed the door gaps did change a little bit after that procedure so that was interesting. You might be able to see how the LH door is a little high at the latch side and the RH door is kicked out slightly at the bottom. I would need to remove the fenders and re-adjust the doors again. This was actually good news because I then would be allowed to get the front clip adjusted a little better than before. Everything starts with the doors….if they are off, the rest of the stuff going forward will be off also.

As I progress along with the project, things that might have seemed minor in the beginning are becoming more important and require extra attention. 

Elapsed time since start of project: 1 year


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

*Day 72: Second coat of poly primer*

Still finding things that got overlooked and needed to be corrected. There were several dents on the underside of the decklid…one in particular was quite a large deformation….someone must have slammed the trunk when it was full of junk and dented the bracing under the lid. The more I looked, the more I would find random things such as extra holes or a damaged mounting tab etc. Amazing how much can happen to these cars as the decades roll along.

Eventually got around to blocking the quarters and decklid and had broken through to the epoxy primer below so I decided on another coat of polyester primer. I had just enough material to cover these parts in 2 good thick coats. I hope I am able to block these without breaking through this time.


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

*Day 73.1 Block sand decklid*

For me, large horizontal surfaces are the hardest to block because the metal can flex if too much sanding pressure is applied. I knew it was going to take some time to block sand the decklid but for me it’s time well spent because I want to try and get a perfect reflection of the sky or mountains in the surface when it’s painted and polished. I prefer the guide coat in powder form. It comes with an applicator pad and gets rubbed around the work area.

For this part, I can use my largest sanding block with criss cross patterns working from one end of the panel to the other, stopping and the end of each pass to blow out the sanding dust buildup in the paper. Then work my way back to the other side. Do this about 5 or 6 times then take a photo. Very light pressure….just enough to hear and feel it cutting and try to keep the metal flex to a minimum. I like to do this in the shade to keep the decklid from changing shape in the sun. The sun is quite the factor here in Arizona….we learn to stay out of the sun whenever possible.


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

*Day 73.2 Block sand decklid*

I keep sanding until all the ‘primer acne’ is gone. Sometimes I start to see the color of the under primer showing through and then I have a decision to make…Spray another round of poly primer or fill the acne with glazing putty. I usually fill with glazing putty since it’s the same stuff as poly primer…..just one is sprayable and the other is spreadable. 

The top two corners of the decklid didn’t level out with the rest of the panel but came darn close. I just finished those areas with a smaller soft sanding block. I don’t worry too much about getting the panel super flat all the way to the corners anyway because the edges will flex a bit when the weather stripping is installed and trunk lid is shut. At this point the decklid is ready for 2K primer. Now to block sand the quarters one last time and hopefully they come out nice.


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

*Day 75.1 Drill nose emblem holes*

The nose that was on the car when I bought it 30 years ago didn't have an emblem or the holes so either it's a 69 nose or possibly a replacement part. It has a Pontiac part number but I can't find a match in any of my parts books so I am a little stumped. At any rate, it's going on the car so I need to figure out the hole size and placement. My first try was an epic failure. Not only did I not get the hole spacing correct....I also didn't drill them at the correct angle so the emblem did not sit on the nose correctly. So, I repaired the nose and tried a different process.

I decided I needed a template.....something that will show me the exact hole locations and the entry angle into the bumper. I taped up the backside of the emblem so I could use a profile gauge to locate the mounting studs more accurately. I then traced the profile onto a piece of cardboard and I now had a good template.


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

*Day 75.2 Drill nose emblem holes*

Success.
13 Months...


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> A few more updates for those that are still following along with this build...
> 
> Worked on the hood scoops a little bit and continued with block sanding the body. I decided to try body filler on the scoop inserts and see if I could get them to match the hood vs changing the shape of the hood to match the scoops. When the scoop fasteners are tightened, the shape of the hood changes a little bit so I had to use some weights to simulate the fit for when the nuts are tightened on the studs. It is so hot here in Arizona that filler and glaze goes off very quick….I usually get around 3 minutes of working time so there wasn’t time to actually fasten the scoops to the hood. The weights seemed to work okay.
> 
> ...


Yes - still following and still impressed.


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

*Day 77: 2K Primer*



integrity6987 said:


> Yes - still following and still impressed.



Thanks. I have time for a few more updates. Hopefully I can get this thread caught up to show current progress....

Set up and sprayed some 2K primer in the "surfacer" formula. I was going to shoot it as a "sealer" but I wanted the opportunity to block sand just in case I needed a little more leveling in some areas. I used UPOL 2253 Primer and tinted it green. This way I can easily see if I am getting close to breaking through to the body work below during the final blocking stage. Also helps with base coat coverage but that is a secondary consideration really. Really like this brand of primer....good quality at a good value.


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

*Day 79: Paint B sides*

The body and doors blocked nice....the fenders and hood did not. I decided I better reassemble the front clip onto the car and see if that makes a difference with the sanding. Maybe the fenders and hood flex differently when on the car vs on a stand in the shop. I decided to paint the B sides before re-assembling the car. B sides are door jambs, body jamb at doors, trunk opening and hinges and the underside of the decklid. Also decided to paint the nose since it was sitting there and ready to go.


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

*Day 82: Seal primed*

Reassembling the car did the trick. The front fenders and hood blocked nice once they were bolted back on the car. The hood in particular made a big difference. I would even go so far to say that nobody should ever block sand these hoods off the car.....must be installed since the hinges do cause the hood to flex along the sides. Even the fenders changed shape a little bit when off the car so it's better to final sand them while bolted together. I understand the factory didn't do it this way but I am going for a far superior paint job than what was done originally. 

Took the car apart for final seal primer. This last coat of primer does not need to be sanded because I sprayed it in a ratio of 4 parts primer, 1 part activator and 2 parts reducer. Can apply base coat directly to this primer within 24 hours. If I wait longer, then I need to scuff with grey scotchbrite pad or wet sand with 800 grit very lightly. This is really my final body check since sealer primer sprays like base coat so I can see how the car looks wet. Also dries with a satin sheen so that can still be helpful for pre-paint inspection to look for any surprises.

By this point in the process I had changed my game plan at least three times. I finally ended up with mounting the body to the frame permanently by setting, shimming and tightening the body mount bolts. I would not paint the body on the cart I was using before. Reason is the body flexed a little bit on the quarters and I wanted to be able to final check the car with the body on the frame since that would be a more accurate representation. Totally okay to paint the fenders and hood off the car. I am confident they will look great once I put it all back together after paint.


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

*Day 83: Paint*

And par for the course.....it ended up being 107 degrees on the weekend I decided to paint. 
Not ideal but with summer coming quick, I had to forge ahead. If I had known then that this weekend would only be high 80s or low 90s then I would have waited. Water under the bridge now.

Base coat went on perfect. Very happy. 2 coats covered....3rd coat for effect. Very dynamic color.
The clear was much harder to work with since it was curing quicker than normal and did not flow out very much between coats. I ended up turning down the volume and spraying the clear wet on wet and that seemed to work okay. I planned on wet sanding anyway so it's going to look great once I am done.

Elapsed time since start of project: 14 months


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking good. Wet sand and a buffer fixes those issues. There times I find myself laying primes and paints and clearing in the early morning hours ( like 3 am est ), when the humidity is low and cooler out at those times. Like others here I’m following along with your project, Thank you for sharing.


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

@l;


Cafr119 said:


> Looking good. Wet sand and a buffer fixes those issues. There times I find myself laying primes and paints and clearing in the early morning hours ( like 3 am est ), when the humidity is low and cooler out at those times. Like others here I’m following along with your project, Thank you for sharing.


Agree. Laying down clear in the cooler temps is much preferred. Unfortunately the inflatable booth I used doesn't have lighting so I had to spray during the day so I could see what I was doing. I tried adding light fixtures but it was really difficult for me to see well enough. Consequences of getting older I guess... 

The clear I used is primarily intended to be cut and buffed so a little texture isn't a problem for me anyway. What I didn't expect is the clear to continue to level and flow for several days after being sprayed. 24 hours later it looked much smoother....36 hours later it was nearly perfect. Might be more to do with solvent evaporation vs flowing out but either way it is looking really nice so far. I cut all the panels down within 48 hours after being cleared so now I get to spend the weekend working up the grit numbers to 2500 and then start compounding and polishing. 

Then assemble the engine and install it...then the heater box/firewall and then I can reassemble the front clip. Still a TON of work left to do.....


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

I continue to follow your efforts and thoroughly enjoy your posts. You're doing a "guide book" for proper restoration of a GTO body.Thank you for continuing to post all the details---most appreciated.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

SnB " I understand the factory didn't do it this way but I am going for a far superior paint job than what was done originally. "

That's the understatement of the year!


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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. It looks good. I like that color.


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

Had to get a new phone since my old phone started to malfunction. Was just getting used to it too. Now I have to learn how to operate a whole new device. Figured this is a good opportunity to try and post some pics.

The fenders and valance are looking nice. Working on hood and decklid next. Body and doors will follow. So far so good...hope it continues this way.





































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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Finish looks Good! 
What clear? 
What line of RM base coat? 
Did you use SPI epoxy?


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

Pinion head said:


> Finish looks Good!
> What clear?
> What line of RM base coat?
> Did you use SPI epoxy?


Yes, it's turning out pretty nice so far....maybe too shiny (if that is such a thing...)
I used RM DC92 clear. Have used it before with great results and it seems durable. I think it's odd that it's not listed on R-M's commercial website.....they show some other kinds of clears. 
Product Offer | rmpaint

R-M is a BASF product and they have what appears to be a website specific to collector car finishes
http://refinish.basf.us/
Somewhere on this site you can find info on DC92
DC92 High Solids Clear
It's a little tough to spray when warm out....learned that the hard way. Sprays and levels pretty nice in moderate temps (70s-80s). Small parts are super easy to clear with little to no texture.....larger areas are tougher.
If I had a booth with a baking feature then I'd probably use DC5300 instead of DC92 

Here is a link for the R-M base that I used....type is Diamont base.
Product Offer | rmpaint
And similar (or perhaps even the same) stuff on the BASF site...
R-M

In my opinion, the RM product is very comparable to PPG. A gallon of RM Verdoro Green is about $675 before discount. A Gallon of PPG Verdoro Green is about $950 before discount. RM reduces 2:1 PPG reduces 1:1. So I figure they both cost about the same in the end. The "you get what you pay for" theory fits well when it comes to paint supplies.....at least I think so.

I did not use SPI Epoxy.....not sure what that is exactly. I've heard about people using it for a primer on the endura noses over on the PY forum but that is all I know about the product.

For the body panels....I had them all media blasted and then sprayed with PPG Environcron Epoxy Primer (powder version).
I then used Evercoat Rage Ultra body filler. Evercoat®
Sanded and then sprayed everything with Evercoat Super Build 4:1. Evercoat®
Sanded and then sprayed with U-POL 2253 primer tinted green. U-POL - Products
Really liked the U-POL stuff....would use it again. I sprayed it as a surfacer and then sanded smooth
Once happy with everything I sealed it with the same stuff. U-Pol 2253 mixed as a sealer. Sprayed really nice.
Was planning to scuff it with grey scotchbrite prior to base coat but ended up lightly wet sanding with 800 grit. Not sure why....just because I can't leave well enough alone I guess.
Then R-M base coat. Verdoro is hard to shoot. First coat goes down more transparent than I expected but you just have to walk away. Come back for the second coat and has already flashed about 3 shades darker. Second coat is full coverage. 3rd coat for effect and looked fantastic.
The clear was tough.....but looking good now.

For the nose I used 3M05895 A & B plastic epoxy repair. Primered and sealed with SEM 39134 Flexible Primer Surfacer and sanded. Then resprayed with that same SEM as a sealer. Sprayed the RM base right on top of the sealer without any sanding since it has been within the 24 hr window. Then cleared with DC92. No flex additives. All those products are flexible enough without needing anything else.

As with any project, there are things I would do differently. Not sure I am sold on the polyester primer product. Might have been happier using a good high build primer with a couple applications. Matrix or U-Pol would be my choice. Heck, there are a lot of things I would do differently but I'll think about that if/when the next project comes along. At this point I am trying to tell myself this is going to be my last car that gets restored.......but there is that '73 LeMans Sport Coupe in my uncles driveway that looks like fun......I must be crazy. Seriously.

One last thing on the RM Clear....
Since I have used it before, I have a pretty good idea how much build it provides. On this car I used the entire gallon so I know its on quite heavy and allows me to cut it with 1000 and then 1500 on a DA sander. Saves me a lot of time. That first couple of cuts should really be done in the 24-48 hour window and then set aside to finish later. Being a one man show....I just can't get it all done in that window but I do try and at least get those first two cuts done and then deal with the rest later. I hand sand the rest to 2500 and then buff and polish. There are some fine scratches that I can see if the lighting is just right so I go back with 2000 or 2500 and sand them out and then buff it again. 

Here are some pics of what the parts looked like during those first couple of cuts on the DA.....and then one final pic of the fenders just prior to polishing. Not sure if you are able to zoom in on the third photo but you can see what looks like some little fish scales in a few spots. Those are low spots in the clear. That all worked out during the hand sanding stage. I did have some dust that settled on the hood but luckily it was in the last coat and sanded out easy. (whew!)


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

Pretty happy with the decklid. Will wait about a month before waxing. The Meguire's products seem okay. Almost as good as 3M professional I think...hard to tell much difference between the two.























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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

I can SEEEEE YOUUUU. Amazing depth! At least 8ft to the ceiling and the garage door opener over your shoulder.


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

integrity6987 said:


> I can SEEEEE YOUUUU. Amazing depth! At least 8ft to the ceiling and the garage door opener over your shoulder.


Thanks. Exceeding my expectations so far. A little scared because nothing has gone this well with the project up to this point so I am bracing for the other shoe to fall, so to speak.

I posted a short video on YT for my uncle. You guys might be able to view it if interested. I will try and post a link.







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

Day 18,250 (50 years)
In the overall story of this car....today is it's 50th birthday. Was hoping to drive the car today in celebration but I didn't get the car done in time. 

I did get the body moved to the garage so I can finish cutting and buffing so I guess progress is being made ever so slowly. My wife and I took the other GTO and celebrated Voodoo II's birthday with some dessert. Also moved the polished parts to my storage area for safe keeping until they are needed. Fascinated how the paint looks so different depending on the lighting conditions. Should be an interesting looking car when fully assembled and out in the sunshine.

Happy Birthday Car! You have gone through a lot in your 50 years....hopefully there will be many more years to come.





































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

*Day 88: Wet sand and buff LH side*

Making preparations to paint the firewall, dash, inner wheel wells and trunk but I really need to finish wet sanding the clear coat before I do anything else. I am so tired of sanding stuff.....

As I expected...my luck eventually ran out and a defect in the paint surfaced. Well, more like I caused the defect by wet sanding through the clear. :banghead: I didn't even notice it until after everything was polished up and I was cleaning up for the day. I parked my 05 GTO next to the 68 in the garage and I decided to take a "Here is looking at you kid." photo of the reflection in the paint and that is when I noticed the defect. A thin line on the lower body line of the door about midway front to back (directly under the reflection of the 05 GTO tire...)

Bummer.

Not sure what is the best way to correct this. Will sleep on it and figure out something. I have about a quart of paint left over so I'll probably have to repaint the door. Won't do anything yet.....I still have the other side of the car to cut and buff. No telling what I'll screw up over there. Trying not to beat myself up too much about it. Mistakes happen I guess...


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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

I had a similar issue. Wet sand the whole door, lightly dust in the affected area with paint enough to cover your mistake, clear. Wet sand and buff. You'll never notice it way down there unless you go very heavy on the spraying. You're just looking to get some color back on the blemish.


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

tjs72goat said:


> I had a similar issue. Wet sand the whole door, lightly dust in the affected area with paint enough to cover your mistake, clear. Wet sand and buff. You'll never notice it way down there unless you go very heavy on the spraying. You're just looking to get some color back on the blemish.


Thanks for the suggestion. I am thinking about something along those lines. Prefer to avoid repainting the entire door since there is a chance it might not look the same as the rest of the car. Don't mind clearing the entire door....that is easy and simple enough to do.


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

I have discovered a few more defects in the paint. I have what looks like a hole in the paint on the RH quarter panel. Don't really know what happened to cause that....must have been something I overlooked or prepared incorrectly. Showed it to some professional auto body guys and they think it's related to body filler since there is some in this area. 

Also have a little wave on the forward lower portion of the RH door. Super hard to see unless you watch the reflection while leaning side to side. Nearly impossible to observe in a still photo. If you zoom in to the reflection of the work table, you might be able to see one leg doesn't line up with the table.....that is where the defect is.

So.....
Going to sleep on it a bit. Will probably repaint the entire body and doors. Sounds excessive at first thought but it is probably better than trying to spot spray the base and hope it blends.......have to pretty much re-clear the whole car anyway so what the heck. I have the paint....might as well fix the defect in the qtr and both doors and then re-paint the car. 

The hood, fenders and decklid look fantastic so I would like the car to match the same level of paint quality.

So close.....yet so far away. 
My niece came over to inspect the car today. She seemed very interested. She was asking lots of questions about how cars are built and actually watched several YouTube videos showing how 60s cars were assembled at the factory. Cool to see when youngsters take an interest in these things.























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## tjs72goat (Jul 20, 2017)

That's too bad. It does look like a pinhole from body filler shrink. Have to cover it somehow, or moisture will get to the filler and the surrounding area will eventually rust.


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

tjs72goat said:


> That's too bad. It does look like a pinhole from body filler shrink. Have to cover it somehow, or moisture will get to the filler and the surrounding area will eventually rust.


Yep. Bummer for sure. I went ahead and filled it with glazing putty and let it shrink for about a week. Then dabbed some primer on top and let it cure for a few more days and sanded smooth.

Will see if the wave in the door is in the clear or in the body work below. The results there will determine if the entire body/doors get repainted or just the one door and quarter.

My instincts tell me just to repaint door to door (including quarters). Will cost me about $500 in materials but then I can put this behind me and move ahead with re-assembly.

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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Those type of spots, when spraying paint will show up, paint will find any and all imperfections in body filler, stone chips that was sanded down in the prep, or sometimes in the final wipe down prep, contaminates will get caught in these small imprefections. Best wishes on the repaint.


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

Cafr119 said:


> Those type of spots, when spraying paint will show up, paint will find any and all imperfections in body filler, stone chips that was sanded down in the prep, or sometimes in the final wipe down prep, contaminates will get caught in these small imprefections. Best wishes on the repaint.


Yeah, every little thing stands out for sure.

Most of the guys I talked to say stuff like this happens even with the best of preparation methods. Still happens to them from time to time so I guess I don't feel so bad.

I will wet sand with 600 grit and reshoot the car. In the whole scope of things it's not that bad really. There never will be a better time to re spray the car than right now.....before anything is bolted on.

Trying for the perfect paint job is a curse at times. The better the finish, the easier it is to spot minor imperfections. Life was better when I would spray clear and then buff it without cutting.


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

I hear ya, I miss working in a body shop. I miss the use of the paint booth. It can be trying when doing a paint job in my own little make shop, but some of the best paint jobs ( IMO ) came out of places like that, and your best painters start out like that cuz you learn how to over come issues, runs, drips, etc, lol. I agree with those guys you talk with, your redo will come out great. Looking forward to seeing the car complete.


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

Turns out the defect on the lower portion of the door was in the clear. I blocked it out with 600 and then worked my way back to 2500. Should polish up nice but it's a moot point since I think I decided to repaint the door anyway. Further explanation below...

The lesson learned for me is I need to stop doing this kind is work in my garage....not enough light. I moved the car back to my normal work area even though it is in the direct sunlight this time of the year. I popped up a canopy so I had some shade at least. I was able to see sooooo much better though. This will enable me to see what I am doing when I wet sand the clear to get the smooth, flat finish I am looking for.

I must have changed my mind a dozen times already.....the current plan is to repaint the RH side of car. The quarter needs it.....the door does not but will do it anyway just so I will be 100% sure they match. This ought to do it. If all goes well I can cut and buff one more time and should be done with the paint work.

Famous last words...





































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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

SnB "I moved the car back to my normal work area even though it is in the direct sunlight this time of the year."

SPF 1,000,000 sunscreen?


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

integrity6987 said:


> SnB "I moved the car back to my normal work area even though it is in the direct sunlight this time of the year."
> 
> SPF 1,000,000 sunscreen?


Darn near. Long sleeve shirt, canopy for shade and a shop fan is the only way to survive. I start about an hour after sunrise and work until about 1:00 pm if the forecast is in the 100-105 range. If the forecast is 105-112 range, better wrap up and be indoors by noon. If over 112 is expected then my work day ends around 10:00 am.....IF I even go outside at all. Wet sanding in the dry heat means I can only work small areas at a time because the water will evaporate and leave the residue behind. 

Still prefer this to a humid place like Houston or Florida. I don't do well with heat plus humidity.....probably because I am acclimated to a dry climate. You may have noticed I took the car back to my shop today. I can finish prepping the car there for paint. Now that the car is basically sealed....I can run the evap coolers in the shop and work in relative comfort. Evap coolers are very very effective as long as the air is dry. Will all end in Aug when the monsoons arrive. This is the time I need to get stuff done so I can drive the car in the fall. Cruising season here is Oct thru May. Very few classic cars on the road from June to Sept. :surprise:


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Send us some of that DRY air to the Southern Plains. Near 6" of rain in my rain guage in the last 2 1/2 days and it's back into the 90's. Am in really good shape, but working in and out of the shop, it gets old changing my vented loose fitting shirts several times a day from sweat. 

The Deuce is looking good! Thanks for the rundown a week ago on the materials used, was remiss in not following and answering back.


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

Pinion head said:


> Send us some of that DRY air to the Southern Plains. Near 6" of rain in my rain guage in the last 2 1/2 days and it's back into the 90's. Am in really good shape, but working in and out of the shop, it gets old changing my vented loose fitting shirts several times a day from sweat.
> 
> The Deuce is looking good! Thanks for the rundown a week ago on the materials used, was remiss in not following and answering back.


Will try and push some dry air your way. We had some rain a couple of weeks ago....it was nice while it lasted.
The car has come a long way....hard to believe it's the same car that I started with since it looks so different now. Kinda looking forward to hearing it run......but still so much work to do first. Someday....


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Yeah, its definatly is looking good. I really have enjoyed watching your progress and looking forward to seen the finished resto. As far as your temps, I have no clue how you Az residents deal with those hot temps, I was a over the road driver and loved going to Az, Tx , not so much of CA ( CHP are tough on over the road Commercial drivers ) but, here in Michigan the winters can be brutal and everything rusts cuz of the salt, very hard to keep things nice.


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

We have had somewhat mild temps lately. High temps around 105 but overnight lows about 80 degrees so the early mornings are a good time to paint still. Our offices were closed for the mid week holiday so I took advantage of the opportunity and repainted the body. Good thing too because tomorrow is expected to be 115 and an excessive heat warning is in effect. This was probably the last decently "cool" day of the season. Going to be brutal from here on through the remainder of summer... 

Everything seemed to come out real nice. Should cut and buff at least as nice as the off parts so happy about that. With luck, will be past this part by end of the weekend and then I can start bolting things back onto the car. 






































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

Spatter paint the trunk.









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

First bling...









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

Painted firewall, dash and underside of the hood. Now I can think about assembling stuff. Will work on fuel tank and rear bumper first since those items are in my way and an obstacle in my parts shed.

Outer felts and glass is next. The off parts will have to wait in the garage until their time comes...





































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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

A thing of beauty - a rolling sculpture!! Pretty radical change for 1968 - but not a surprise vote Car of the year. Please excuse my bias.


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

integrity6987 said:


> A thing of beauty - a rolling sculpture!! Pretty radical change for 1968 - but not a surprise vote Car of the year. Please excuse my bias.


Thanks. It's starting to resemble an automobile a little bit more each time I work on it. Will keep plugging away and see how it goes back together.


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

Spent some time on the dash. Wanted some way to replicate the slight texture finish on the upper dash. Tried a few ideas and settled on SEM texture paint. Dries a flat black but has a little too much texture out of the can. I found I could knock it down fairly easy with a light grey Scotchbrite pad. Can't let it dry too much or the pad is less effective. I ended up doing it three times before I found the look I wanted. Covered it with flat black enamel since I wanted it to be as durable as possible.

Lower dash is satin black.

Reproductuon fuel tank fit nice.

Will install the glass next.





































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

*Day 96.1 Tail Light Housings*

Haven't really worked on the car much lately due to the weather.....or at least that is the excuse I am going with. Truth is I am having trouble staying motivated or maybe getting a little burned out on this project. Hopefully it will pass.

Have been dreading the tail light issue. Mine were in bad shape.

The tail light housings for 1968 are a little unique since they appear to be fiberglass construction instead of stamped or cast metal. I am very curious why Pontiac made them this way since it doesn’t appear to be a simple or easier method. The lamp sockets are formed into the housing which makes them very difficult to remove or replace which is a bummer since mine had a fair amount of corrosion where the lamp fits in. Additionally, the spring loaded terminals inside the sockets were rusted/corroded and needed to be replaced. I am not aware of any good quality reproduction housings and/or a wire harness/socket kit so I will try and repair my original set. 

The lamps were corroded into the sockets so I had to break the globes and use needle nose pliers with curved jaws to pry out the metal lamp bases. The contacts inside the sockets were very crusty so I needed to find some way to clean them so they would make a good path to ground which is necessary for the lamps to operate. Replacing the sockets isn’t the best solution since they are press formed into the fiberglass housings and they also have grounding straps bonded to them….so not something that I am likely to find as a replacement part. Scott (forum member) had a great suggestion on how to rebuild the sockets so I figured I would give it a try. Thank you Scott for the help! So with a little searching, I did find replacement sockets online that appeared to have internal parts that I might be able to use to restore my sockets to usable condition (see pic for vendor info...). 

There are three lamp sockets in each housing. The center socket is for a backup lamp so it only has one wire. The two outer sockets are for dual filament (parking/stop) lamps so they each have two wires. All sockets have a rubber boot where the wires enter the socket base. The rubber boots can be carefully rotated back and forth until they ‘walk off’ the end of the sockets. This exposes the insulated plastic base that organizes the spring loaded wire terminals. . It was fairly brittle so I squeezed them with a pair of pliers and they crumbled into small pieces. I made note of which wire went where so I could put it back together the same way. I worked on one lamp socket at a time to minimize the chance of mixing up the wires. Next step is to remove the internal parts from the replacement sockets so they can be used to rebuild the original housings.


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

*Day 96.2 Tail LIght Housings*

I cut off the ends of the original wiring back a few inches to make sure there was good copper wire under the insulation while still leaving plenty of room for a solder splice connection. This allowed pretty good access to the sockets for cleaning. I used a small wire wheel on a rotary tool for this purpose. Worked great. Once the housing was cleaned, I removed the receptacle from the new sockets and slid it into the original sockets. I had to lightly sand the plastic ring to get it to seat down into the original housings but otherwise was a pretty good fit. Soldered and shrink tubed the connection, installed a lamp and tested operation. 

At this point I realized the original reflective surface covered the entire housing bucket so I decided to shoot it all with fake chrome paint before moving onto the second housing.


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

*Day 96.3 assemble bumper*

I forgot to take photos but I also removed the blade terminals from the connectors on the other end of the harnesses for cleaning. Pretty much anything I can clean and check now will help to avoid electrical trouble shooting later when I am trying to test drive the car. Mounted the housings and brackets to the bumper for test fitting onto the car. Don’t forget to install the splash shields and outer snubber brackets since those items have to be installed before the bumper goes on. It was late in the day so I didn’t get to spend much time adjusting the bumper. I got it close for now but I do want it to be a little tighter to the body. Will work on it some more later…


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

*Day 97.1 Preparing for windshield installation*

The factory blacked out the interior portion of the windshield frame since it’s partially visible even after the glass is set and the interior and exterior trim is installed. I test fit the glass one more time to check for any issues. Happily, the fit was very good so I started to prepare the other associated parts so I can install the windshield. The top header bar of the windshield frame gets wrapped in vinyl fabric so I will need to install that first along with new upper trim clips. There are 6 pieces of stainless trim that need to be polished and ready for the glass installation. I want to test fit these pieces prior to setting the glass so I can check the fit and then I also want these items to be polished and ready so I can get them on the car immediately after the glass is set in place. This allows me some time for a slight bit of final adjustment to the stainless trim before the adhesive cures.

For the most part, the trim pieces were in pretty good shape…only a few small dings here and there that needed to be corrected. There was one pretty deep ding that was going to take some work. I spent quite a bit of time working it out….probably 3-4 hours or so. Eventually I was able to tap, nudge, form it back to shape enough to file smooth.


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

*Day 97.2 sand and polish trim*

Then filing process leaves some fairly deep scratches in the surface so they need to be sanded out with 120 grit sandpaper. Then 240 to sand out the 120 grit scratches and so on, continuing up to 2000 grit. At that point I can buff and polish the piece to see how the part looks. Sometimes I see some dents or dings that I didn’t notice the first time and can then rework the part again. In this case it all looked pretty good so I will do another round of sandpaper….this time using a DA sander for the 1500-2000-2500-3000 grits and repolish. That should give me a nice mirror polish without any visible scratches.

Elapsed time since start of project: 17 months.


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

*Day 98 Windshield Install*

With my nephew’s help, I was able to get the front glass installed.

As best as I can tell, the factory installation method incorporated a foam “dam” applied to the inside perimeter of the windshield about 3/8” in from the edge or so. I presume the foam dam serves three purposes….(1) Spaces the glass away from the pinchweld a prescribed distance for the necessary amount of adhesive to make a quality bond. (2) Keeps the adhesive from squeezing out into the passenger compartment. (3) Provides a professional clean look when viewed from the exterior since the stainless molding does not completely cover the bonded area.

I purchased the windshield install kit from Ames which I thought was the 3M Windo-Weld urethane adhesive and foam tape but I actually received some sort of sticky butyl tape instead of the foam dam tape. I didn’t want to use that sticky stuff since it usually ends up looking quite messy and doesn’t really replicate the factory look. After much searching, I found some foam dam tape that would work for this purpose.

Setting Your Glass - Belden Speed & Engineering - window channel rust patch panels, chevelle, rust repair, patch panels, GM a body repair

The link above has a good YouTube video so I won’t go into much detail here.

For 68 convertible….there is a vinyl header cover that needs to be installed first. Also, the upper trim clips for convertibles are different than hardtop clips. I couldn’t find GTO clips but I was able to find clips online for 68 Chevelle convertible and they worked fine. They look different than the OE clips but function the same. The stainless polished up nice enough to create problems for the auto focus on my camera phone. Couldn’t really get a good pic. Looks good in person though…. 


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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Looking sweet S-n-B, what an awesome thread to follow watching your build come back to life, it’s looking sweet, bro !!! I’m getting excited for you and I’m a 1000+ miles from you, lol


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

Starting to think about preparing the under dash items for install since that is coming up soon. The parking brake pedal assemblies were not fully painted at the factory. Only the readily visible portions were painted out black, the rest was bare metal. Bare metal rusts even here in Arizona so I was going to have to find a way to clean it up.

If I media blast....the part will be clean but the surface left behind won't look like bare metal. 

If I use electrolysis, then everything will be black.

White vinegar might work. I soaked the part in a 50/50 solution white vinegar and distilled water for 24 hours. To my surprise, the rust came off with a light brushing from a used toothbrush.

After brushing it clean, I soaked it in a neutralizing solution water and baking soda. Now I can repaint the black and install a new foot pad and should be good to go. 





































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

Looks presentable. Will bolt it in and see how it looks.

























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## Cafr119 (Dec 9, 2017)

Wow, never really thought that vinegar would have that much bite to make it look like that. Nice job !! I’ll have to remember that, Thank you for sharing this !!


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

Cafr119 said:


> Wow, never really thought that vinegar would have that much bite to make it look like that. Nice job !! I’ll have to remember that, Thank you for sharing this !!


Me either. Was fairly shocked when it brushed clean after soaking for a day. I decided to do the same to my heater box. The inside surfaces had surface rust so this should take care if that. I made up a "air sweeper" hose so I can shove it inside the heater box and clean it up after it soaks for a while.

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## cij911 (Oct 25, 2017)

Unbelievable....I just read the thread from the beginning and your attention to detail is just phenomenal. Your skills are equally impressive. May I ask how you learned to weld (a skill I don't have at the moment) ? And body work / paint work ?

I still can't get over how great the chassis looked after stripping and powder coating.

The brake assembly looks amazing. Excellent work

Love the detailed thread!


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

cij911 said:


> Unbelievable....I just read the thread from the beginning and your attention to detail is just phenomenal. Your skills are equally impressive. May I ask how you learned to weld (a skill I don't have at the moment) ? And body work / paint work ?
> 
> I still can't get over how great the chassis looked after stripping and powder coating.
> 
> ...


Thank you and glad you are finding the posts useful.

I work in the sign business. We make neon, fluorescent and LED signs. The fabricators start from scratch and they make some pretty neat stuff. I think I have picked up lots of useful tips just by wandering around the shop and watching how they do things. Most signs are built from steel and aluminum and eventually they get painted in one of our spray booths. It's not cars....but all the processes are similar enough that it helps me figure out things at home. 

I learned to arc weld first. When I first started arc welding....it just looked like a bunch of fire but eventually I was able to recognizing what molten metal looks like vs the protective slag and get to see how the metal draws towards the heat. The rod wants to try and weld itself to the work so I had to use my free hand to hold the rod steady. With lots of practice, I learned how to lay down a decent bead. Wire feed welding is far easier by comparison so that was a fairly easy transition for me to make. My niece wants to learn how to weld so I have her practicing with an old arc machine. She is getting pretty good and should be ready to try MIG welding pretty soon.

The frame did come out super nice. This car was originally purchased in Southern California, relocated to Arizona in 1976 and has been here ever since. As a result, the frame has very very little rust pitting......about 2" area on top of the frame back by where the partial VIN is stamped. The body is fairly rust free as well. Original floor braces, inner and outer rockers, cowl is perfect etc. Starting with good solid bones sure makes a difference. I can't imagine what it would be like to work on a car from the north east and associated rust issues.


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

Small update. Was able to get the glass channel outer weatherstrips (felts) installed. The quality of the reproduction felts are very nice if using the higher quality parts available from Ames (Repops brand). Nearly a perfect match to my originals. I had to trim a little off the stainless bead on the back end of the qtr window piece to fit under the convertible well molding but that was a minor issue.

Now I am ready to install the side glass. 

Does anyone have any tips for installing the vertical weatherstrip molding to the forward edge of the quarter window? I am struggling a bit to get that piece installed. My prior experience with using the rubber tape to set glass in a channel is limited to straight glass. The qtr glass is curved and its fighting me a bit.

Any ideas or suggestions?
















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## 340challconvert (Sep 12, 2018)

That parking brake foot pedal came out great. Good tip


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

cij911 said:


> Unbelievable....I just read the thread from the beginning and your attention to detail is just phenomenal. Your skills are equally impressive. May I ask how you learned to weld (a skill I don't have at the moment) ? And body work / paint work ?
> 
> I still can't get over how great the chassis looked after stripping and powder coating.
> 
> ...


X2. I also have a '68 (hdtp) and have found your tread to be an excellent resto guide for re-doing a '68 GTO. I have bookmarked/subscribed your thread. When you're done, hopefully I can print it out in a form to have a personal guide for working on my '68.Thank you much for all your detailed explanations and great pics.

And best of luck in getting her done before burnout sets in (LOL).:smile3:


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

1968gto421 said:


> X2. I also have a '68 (hdtp) and have found your tread to be an excellent resto guide for re-doing a '68 GTO. I have bookmarked/subscribed your thread. When you're done, hopefully I can print it out in a form to have a personal guide for working on my '68.Thank you much for all your detailed explanations and great pics.
> 
> And best of luck in getting her done before burnout sets in (LOL).:smile3:


Thanks guys!
When I am finished, I can put photos on USB drives for anyone who is interested. Let's get done first and then we can celebrate and work out those details.


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

*Day 101.1 Vent Window Rebuild*

1968 Vent windows are very easy to rebuild compared to 50's and early 60's designs...that is probably why there aren't very many tutorials out there to reference. So, here we go...

The frames come apart fairly easy. 2 large screws and 1 small screw secure the skeleton frame to the chrome A pillar bar. 
With the Chrome A pillar bar removed, the triangle glass frame can be removed. Rotate so the tab on the shaft aligns with the keyway in the skeleton frame and pull it out.
The main rubber seal then pulls off. 
Do not discard yet. You need to remove the 4 retainer clips from the rubber seal since you will need those later.


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

*Day 101.2 Vent Window continued*

The main door glass slides up and down in the vertical channel that is part of the skeleton frame. There is an upper and lower part. Remove the felt from the upper part. This exposes the tabs for the blade seal. Unfold those tabs and remove the blade seal.
The inner stainless (wide piece) slides off easily. I use a large blade screwdriver to move it an inch so I can then grab the other end with my finders and slide it off.


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

*Day 101.3 Vent Window continues*

The outer stainless is a little different. It's hooked over the frame edge and the back side is folded into two holes for retention. Carefully pry the stainless out of those holes and then unhook it from the frame. The lower vertical glass channel has felt inside. If yours is good then you can move on to the next step. Mine was old and dirty so I scraped it all out. I don't want my new glass to get all scratched up if there are rocks or dirt buried in there...


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

*Day 101.4 Vent Windows*

Clean the skeleton frame and repaint if necessary.
While the frame is drying, I polished the stainless pieces. If this is your first time doing one of these then I recommend you rebuild one frame at a time. This keeps a fully assembled frame on hand for reference until you get the first one done. 

I had several sets and disassembled them all so I could pick and choose the best quality stainless for polishing. The inner and outer pieces are the same for both sides so you really don't have to mark them. However, the outer stainless pieces become side specific once they are staked into those frame holes so you want to reuse them with the same side. Only becomes an issue if you are doing both sides at the same time though. Even then....you can flatten the outer stainless leg for use on the other side if needed.

Outer stainless goes on first. Then the large rubber seal. Make sure you use the correct rubber seal....there is a Left and Right side. Compare to the seal you removed if unsure. You can use some lubrication to install into the frame if needed. I just left mine in the sun for a bit and it was pliable enough to press into the channels.


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

*Day 101.5 Vent Window assembly*

Install the blade seal....note how it fits into a pocket in the main rubber seal. Fold over the tabs on the back side.
Slide on the inner stainless and reinstall your glass. I cleaned and reinstalled my original glass. Install the 4 retainer clips...they crimp onto the main rubber seal. Reinstall the chrome A pillar bar...I had mine rechromed prior to reassembly. The vertical channel weatherstrip gets secured with the small screw in the top corner.


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

*Day 101.6 Verticle chanel run*

The reproduction vertical channel felt fit great in the upper part but would not work in the lower part. I could get it in there but there was next to zero clearance for the plastic glide on the main glass frame. You can see how tight it is in the first photo below.

I am not sure what they intended here....possibly could drill out the rivets for the lower V channel and then push the felt into the skeleton frame???

I didn't want to do that since the 'wings' of the frame extend a bit lower then the skeleton frame channel. I figure those wing extensions are there for a reason so I didn't want to abandon that piece....and it just wouldn't be like the original arrangement. So, I searched my supplies and found some window felt material left over from my '55 and '61 Bel Air projects. I selected the thickest stuff I had and spray glued it in place, then I trimmed away the lower portion of the reproduction vertical channel felt that I didn't need. Worked great and is close to how it was originally made.


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

*Day 101.7 Vent window finished*

The vent window is now ready for installation in the car.


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

FANTASTIC "HOW-TO"!! I have to do the same on my '68 when I disassemble the doors for their refurb. I really appreciate the time you took to do this with the great write-up and pictures to guide. We need more members doing this to help us all. Yours is going to be a great car when it is finally done - can't wait to see it in the pages of some magazine or book. :thumbsup:


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

PontiacJim said:


> FANTASTIC "HOW-TO"!! I have to do the same on my '68 when I disassemble the doors for their refurb. I really appreciate the time you took to do this with the great write-up and pictures to guide. We need more members doing this to help us all. Yours is going to be a great car when it is finally done - can't wait to see it in the pages of some magazine or book.


Thanks Jim.
I forgot to mention the vent windows are different between convertible and hardtop cars. The chrome A pillar bar is the unique piece....all the other parts interchange. 

There is a part number visible in the first photo of this write up.....that is a hardtop frame. I was just using it for the stainless parts. Don't want anyone to see that part number and confuse it with a convertible frame. 

PM your address to me and I will mail you some strips of the felt I used for the lower section of the vertical channel since that doesn't come with the reproduction rubbers.

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

*Day 102: Door glass*

I had stepped away from the project for a breather....now I am back into it. Weather is getting a little more bearable so I am becoming a little more productive. Doing things in 105 degree temps does wear on me a bit...

Door latches are installed and adjusted. Locks installed and functional. Outer felts installed. Convertible well molding installed. Convertible rain gutter installed. Door seals installed. Vent and door glass installed. 
Ran out of time to put the quarter glass in. Will tackle that next time I work on the car.

Very few photos to share this time. I got caught up in what I was doing and didn't stop along the way to snap any pics. I do have a few though. First pic is just for fun to show how the paint looks so different in the sunlight vs the shade. Still amazed by that. Also can see the sheets and blankets that I have secured to the rear seat back support. I use them to protect the paint while I am working around the car. 

Second paint shows the vent windows installed. Other photos show the door glass installed.
Last photos shows the car put away until next time. I brought in the folding top frame and stashed it under the rear or the car. Will start restoring that just as soon as the quarter glass is installed. My goal is to get the frame installed and stretch the top before the weather cools down too much.


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Man, that's really looking nice!

Bear


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

*Day 103 Quarter Glass*

In one of my earlier posts I asked about tips for installing the quarter glass seal molding. I eventually figured it out on my own. I tried several methods and really didn’t take any photos since I wasn’t sure what would work. I will try and do my best to explain what worked for me.

The first photo is how the assembly goes together for reference. The glass in that pic is not from my car....I am just using it as an example.

The second photo is one that I stole from the web to show where the roller spring goes. The roller guide in the photo is not correct for a GM A body but the concept is the same. My car was missing the springs on both sides so I don’t have any photos to share. I found replacements online and ordered in a pair….so I have new roller springs but still no photo to show what it looks like. Sorry about that.

To attach the molding to the glass…..I first had to form the reproduction molding to match the curve of the glass. It came with a slight curve but not exactly correct so I would have to adjust it to fit. I did this by hand bending the piece on the chrome bumper of my Super Duty pickup truck (using green tape to protect the polish surfaces from getting scratched). Bend a little and check, multiple times until it fits the curve of the glass. The glass fits into the polished molding with setting tape…..which is basically some thin rubber strips that should come in your kit. 

Another problem with the reproduction molding is the channel was not wide enough for the glass and setting tape. I could get it on the glass but it was a press fit. So, I needed to open up the channel a bit. I did this by pressing the molding onto the lowest point of the glass and wobbling the molding back and forth to open up the channel. I would work a small section at a time until the molding would fit on the glass with a little play. I actually used my old glass for this step just in case it were to break accidentally (of course after verifying it was the same thickness as my new glass). When satisfied, I lubricated the rubber strip with silicone spray and set it in the molding and pressed it onto the glass. After I was satisfied the position was good and positive, then I trimmed away the excess rubber with a razor blade.

The seal slides in from the bottom….I glued mine in place to keep it from sliding around later.
Some not very helpful photos below….


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

*Day 104 Heater box*

Decided I better take Jim's advice and get the heater box installed before I do something silly like bolting on the fenders. The heater box inside the passenger compartment was medium/satin gloss. Eastwood's underhood black was a good match. The cover on the engine side had a little more gloss. I found a good match at Home Depot in a spray can. The photo here shows the painted blower motor housing next to the original heater cover. Matched pretty good to my eye.

The brackets that were bolted to the heater box inside the car were dipped....not sprayed. I left them as original paint....drips and all since I thought it would be an interesting talking point in the event anyone notices the paint drips. 

I am currently on the lookout for a nice set of NOS heater cables. Seems these are not faithfully reproduced. I might have to order the reproductions and then swap them out later if/when a nice OE set is located.


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

*Day 104 Folding top frame*

Working on the convertible top frame. It came apart fairly easy. I was sure to make note of how each bolt, bushing, spring washer etc was oriented so I could put it back together correctly. Tons of photos taken of this part. The last photo is the exploded view from the parts book. Item #54 is the side rail assembly. That part is riveted together so if any part is damaged beyond repair then you will need to replace the entire assembly.


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

*Day 106 Trim Sticks*

There are trim sticks down inside the convertible well….the area where the top folds down for storage. 3 separate pieces (center, left and right), galvanized metal C channels that originally were stuffed with layered fiberboard/cardboard type material. This is where the staples are placed to fasten the fabric. The replacement tack strips are plastic type and work equally well.

Here are photos of what it looks like with the new tack strips glued into the trim sticks. I decided to test fit the sticks so I could measure the space between the ends. The Fisher Body book calls for half inch to three quarters of an inch gap so I was curious what my car was like. The remnants of the previous top showed a different measurement for each side so I wanted a double check. I found half inch on the driver’s side and three quarter inch on the passenger side and I verified those dimensions after test fitting the sticks. It’s not critical what the dimension is….it just matters that you know what that measurement is so you can set the fabric correctly without wrinkles. Adjustment comes by pulling the staples, reposition the fabric and re-staple. I expect multiple removals and installations of the trim sticks to get the top installed. 

20 months elapsed since start of project.


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

*Day 110 Folding top*

I painted and reassembled the frame and then installed it in the car. Checked operation and it goes up and down nicely.
Decided to install the top....this would be my first time trying something like this. I studied the chapter in the 1968 Fisher Body Manual and that was helpful. There are critical dimensions provided in the Fisher Body Manual that you MUST have in order to get it laid out correctly...especially since I did not have the old fabric to get the necessary reference points.

I purchased a 40 page guide book that was VERY useful. I highly recommend that book for first timers. I purchased it from M & T Manufacturing Co 401-789-0472. I think they go by "The Convertible Top Guys" on their website. If you haven't done this before....get that book.

Couple things for 1968:
The rear window is glass. You can get a plastic window but it won't be correct.
The rear bow is fixed. Dimension from stainless molding to center of rear bow is 20 1/2"...but the dimension is irrelevant since the bow is fixed.
The third bow has a specific dimension. 18 1/2" from forward side of rear bow to center of 3rd bow. This dimension is found in the Fisher Body Manual and is easy to misread since it also gives you the dimensions of the B, C, F and Z bodies. Read it carefully.
The rear bow line that you need on the top is 5 3/8" up from the top of the window opening. This is also found in the Fisher Body Manual. If you follow the directions from Kee Tops when installing the rear window curtain then the dimension in the Fisher Body Manual will locate the top so it perfectly follows the top and sides of the glass window. There is only about 1/4" of play on those three sides so make sure you get the glass installed so it's centered and the top of the window is 5 1/8" - 5 1/4" down from the center of the rear bow.

Here are some pics. I haven't glued in the quarter or latch flaps yet. I am going to let the top set like this for a week or so and see if it relaxes any. If so, then I can easily re-tension whatever wrinkles might show up and then glue everything down and install the weatherstriping. 

In the meantime....I think I'll start assembling the engine so I can get it installed in the car.


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Amazing. I don't think I would even consider trying to do my own convertible top installation! That is where I would have to farm it out. :thumbsup:


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

PontiacJim said:


> Amazing. I don't think I would even consider trying to do my own convertible top installation! That is where I would have to farm it out. :thumbsup:


Thanks. 
You could do it though. It is a reasonable DIY thing....just takes a while to figure it out. The labor manual lists 8 hours for this model. Probably about right for a professional shop....with two people doing the work. It took me 4 days @ 6 to 8 hrs per day but I am a beginner. If I had to do it all over again it would probably take me half the time....maybe.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

You're fearless. It looks awesome. I don't know how you'll be able to part with it. I don't think I could with so much sweat equity invested.


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

integrity6987 said:


> You're fearless. It looks awesome. I don't know how you'll be able to part with it. I don't think I could with so much sweat equity invested.


Thanks. Not sure what will happen later. They all are a labor of love....and in the end it's just a car like all the others. 

Like a cloud with a silver lining, this car lost it's original engine over 40 years ago so now I can work the SR engine as hard as I want without losing much sleep. That could be kinda fun after all. 









Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Found your old Willys Gasser! :thumbsup:


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

*Day 113 Assemble Engine*

With the holidays in the past it is time to get the tools back out and build something. I figured it was a good time to assemble the engine so I got started on it. Not going to get into the step-by-step here.....there is plenty of good reference materials available for those that want to build an engine. I have built plenty of Pontiac engines in the past but it has been about 30 years since my last build so I had to dig out my notebook and refresh my memory. Lucky I am one of those people that never tosses out my old stuff for those "just in case...." situations. I was pleasantly surprised with the excellent machine work on the block and crank. The clearances were almost exactly as I requested. I don't know if it's due to the skill of the machinist or the equipment he was using (or both) but he did a very very good job. 

1968 GTOs would normally have 2 bolt main 400 cubic inch blocks with cast pistons and cast rods. This car was ordered with the optional L67 (Ram Air) engine so it would have originally been fitted with a 4 bolt main block, forged pistons and cast rods. The engine I built is 4 bolt main, forged pistons and forged rods. A purist would likely have used cast rods but this is a service replacement engine anyway so I wanted the stronger rods for peace of mind. I did have the rotating assembly balanced...which is something I always do anyway so it should run pretty good. 

In 1968, manual transmission cars received more aggressive camshafts than the automatic cars. This car, being a RA II manual trans would have had the 9794041 camshaft which later became known as a RA IV cam since that is the engine that most people associate the "041" cam with. So, you can stump your friends at your next Pontiac gathering with the knowledge that the "041" was first used in 1968 RA II manual trans cars (GTOs and Firebirds). I ordered a camshaft from Comp Cams that is supposed to be an exact copy of the "041" and it appeared to be perfect. I installed it straight up and it degreed perfectly.


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

*Day 116 Install Engine*

Engine assembled and painted. Moved onto rebuilding the M21 close ratio transmission and getting it all ready for the car. I wasn't able to restore the shift linkage due to a problem with my electroplating equipment. I will have to circle back to that later. The original shifter linkage and levers had the golden dichromate plating....similar to what you see on power brake boosters from the same era. I wanted to get the power train installed into the car anyway so I forged ahead. 

Little trick to keep the crank from rotating when tightening down the flywheel and flexplate is to install some angle clips at the lower bell housing bolt holes. I put the clips on both sides since it's easy enough to do.

I could not find original exhaust manifolds that were in usable condition so I ordered a set of reproduction manifolds from Ames. They seemed to fit very nice. Engines with this style of exhaust manifolds would have a protective tube for the positive battery cable since it is routed behind the manifolds, up against the engine block. Not really ideal, but it's how Pontiac did it....not sure what choice they had though. At any rate, I am using a 1970 SR block cast in Dec of 1969 so it has a couple of extra motor mount bosses that the original 1968 engine would not have had. The unused motor mount boss held out that tube so it contacted the exhaust manifold so the tube had to be "clearanced" on the backside in order to achieve an air gap between the tube and the manifold. I presume the same issue would apply to 1970 RA IV engines, unless they had a slightly different shaped tube? 

Will try and keep more updates coming. It's becoming more difficult to participate on this forum since I have a hard time logging in from any of my mobile devices and it's super duper slow during those times that I am able to connect. My laptop works fine though so I will have to remind myself to sit down and post some updates from time to time.


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## Anderslober (Mar 15, 2018)

Wow! Amazing thread and amazing work. I hope my 68 conv turns out just as fine!


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## Damon (Feb 16, 2018)

Very nice! You wouldn't happen to have a pic of the underside of hood do you? Just wondering how the ram air hood looks for the ram air set up on a '68.


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

Damon said:


> Very nice! You wouldn't happen to have a pic of the underside of hood do you? Just wondering how the ram air hood looks for the ram air set up on a '68.


I believe I documented the hood trimming in some detail earlier in this thread. 1968 Ram Air cars (both RA I and II) shipped with a standard hood, closed scoops and standard air cleaner assembly. The ram air pans and open scoops shipped with the car...possibly in the trunk. Those pieces were installed at the dealership in most cases. Portions of the under hood bracing needs to be trimmed for the hood pan to fit. It isn't too complicated. My original hood was very rough cut....almost looked like they used a can opener in some spots. :surprise: 

The owner was expected to install the closed scoops and standard air cleaner in inclement weather. I doubt anyone actually did that. I can't imagine what it would be like to drive one of these things when it's pouring out. The 4.33 gear set is bad enough in the dry....

Check out those pics....it should tell the story.


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

*Day 118 pedal assembly*

Pulled out the pedal assembly to clean it up for installation. It was simple and easy. All the plastic bushings were in great shape and cleaned up nice. Not sure what I would have done if any of those things needed to be replaced. 

Disassemble
Soak in 50/50 mix of white vinegar and distilled water. 
Gently scrub away the rust with a soft brush (toothbrush etc)
Paint and reassemble

There is a photos when the parts first went into the solution....another photo a hour or so later and then the last photo after soaking overnight. With the rust dissolved away....the witness marks for the black paint was observable on the pedals. It is clear to me that the clutch and brake pedals were dipped in a container of black paint. Same as the parking brake. The parts were dipped prior to building the parking brake assembly or the main pedal assembly. Just a little trivia for anyone who is interested.

The stainless foot pad bezels polished up nice and easy. Love stainless parts....they are almost always able to be restored to better than new condition. 

I lost my photo of the pedal assembly when finished. Sorry about that. I am sure a completion image will appear in a future posting.


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

*Day 119 driveshaft*

New U-Joints in the drive shaft.
Added the color bands per the shop manual. There is a page in there that defines the colors. I guessed on the size and location of the stripes.

Last photo is the bearing separator tool configuration that I used to set the preload on the U-Joint bearing caps. When pressing those on, the cross shaft trunion has pressure on one of the caps. That pressure should be relieved for a nice smooth operating joint.


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

*Day 120 Dash bezel assembly*

My original dash bezel panel was in sad shape so it had to be replaced.

My bezel piece had a notch cut out for the convertible top switch. The reproduction did not have that notch of course so I had to cut my own. I made a tape template as a guide. Worked perfectly.


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

*Day 120 continued*

Thank goodness for the reproduction industry.....sometimes the quality isn't what we expect but at least somebody offers this stuff. In this case, I could not fine any fault with the quality of the reproduction parts....except for maybe the wood overlay would be a little oversize. That would require the user to trim or sand the excess so some people might complain about that. I wouldn't complain....I would prefer slightly oversized wood laminate so I could trim myself. The alum backer piece was dead on. I presume the same cut file was used for the alum backer as was used for the wood look laminate so they should be exact......except the laminate can shrink a little bit, hence the request for slightly oversize.

Application of the wood look laminate is straight forward. I use a solution of soapy water to wet the alum backer panel and the adhesive side of the laminate. This helps me position the laminate prior to setting in place permanently. The adhesive is pressure sensitive so using a squeegee helps to affix it into place. When the laminate is in place, then pre-form the alum to the shape of the dash, peel off the adhesive backing and set it in place. Worked fairly well.

Now to clean up the rally gauges and clock and then reassemble the dash....


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

*Day 121 power steering pump*

My power steering pump was filthy. AutoZone had a re-manufactured pump and reservoir that was an exact match so I just went that route instead of trying to rebuild my pump. I compared the AutoZone unit to my original.....exactly the same in every respect.

My original pulley was heavily rust pitted so I purchased a reproduction pulley from The Parts Place. The pulley they sent was also an exact match to my original....down to the part number and batch code. Nice piece.

The reproduction pressure hose was missing the red stripe.....that was a bummer. I might keep my eye out for a more correct item if I can find it. I will use the hose I have in the meantime.....

The alternator is a correct date coded rebuilt. Even has date coded diodes which is fun.....even if nobody else ever notices. I am not sure if I have the charge wire routed correctly. If anyone has reference materials that shows something different then please enlighten me so I can make the necessary corrections.


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

*Day 122 tidying up...*

Had enough time left in the day to add a few bits and pieces to the engine. Might as well get those parts where they will eventually be needed so I don't have to hunt for them later. Seems like a good time to step back and sum up the progress so far to date. Here are some pics...

Up next is to restore the master cylinder and steering column. After that.....then I suppose I can install the front clip.
I can almost start thinking about firing up the engine soon. That will be an exciting day....hopefully.


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## RMTZ67 (Mar 12, 2011)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> Had enough time left in the day to add a few bits and pieces to the engine. Might as well get those parts where they will eventually be needed so I don't have to hunt for them later. Seems like a good time to step back and sum up the progress so far to date. Here are some pics...
> 
> Up next is to restore the master cylinder and steering column. After that.....then I suppose I can install the front clip.
> I can almost start thinking about firing up the engine soon. That will be an exciting day....hopefully.


 what brand of engine paint. mine seems a little bluer. might turn a slight green when the heat finally hits it. "I can almost start thinking of firing up the engine soon. That will be an exciting day....hopefully" My thoughts exactly. Good luck.


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

RMTZ67 said:


> what brand of engine paint. mine seems a little bluer. might turn a slight green when the heat finally hits it. "I can almost start thinking of firing up the engine soon. That will be an exciting day....hopefully" My thoughts exactly. Good luck.


Thanks and same to you. That 67 engine looks nice! Do you have an extra harmonic balancer pulley? The pulley on my 1967 WZ engine was bent up pretty good....

I used Valspar 227 Pontiac blue metallic. Seemed like a decent match to the original color. From what I remember, these engines changed color after a few heat cycles anyway.


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## deanhickey (Apr 6, 2015)

A quick question, What brand of engine mounts did you use? Have been looking for some quality ones with OEM metal thickness for strength. Fantastic looking car and a very tidy work shop also!


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

deanhickey said:


> A quick question, What brand of engine mounts did you use? Have been looking for some quality ones with OEM metal thickness for strength. Fantastic looking car and a very tidy work shop also!


They came from Ames Performance. Their catalog has a couple of choices....I went with the more expensive OEM style mounts and they were a very close match to what came out of the car. The only thing I had to add were the two threaded holes for the battery cable tube that hides behind the HO/RA exhaust manifold.


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## deanhickey (Apr 6, 2015)

Shake-N-Bake said:


> They came from Ames Performance. Their catalog has a couple of choices....I went with the more expensive OEM style mounts and they were a very close match to what came out of the car. The only thing I had to add were the two threaded holes for the battery cable tube that hides behind the HO/RA exhaust manifold.


Thank you for the info. Buying off the internet is a pain is some respects as you can't tell the quality by the picture in most cases. Keep posting the pics of the rebuild. thanks again.
Dean


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

*Day 123 Rally Clock repair*

The rally clock wasn't working so I took it apart to look inside. I could wind it by hand and it would work but the electro magnet was burned out. Looked like someone attempted to repair it before didn't get it fixed well enough. So, I figured I would give it a try myself. From my point of view, I couldn't really do much more harm at this point...

It is possible to get the coil assembly out without removing the support plate but I didn't feel like struggling with it so I decided to file down the crimped posts so I could pull the backing plate with the coil assembly attached.

From there I could see the coil wires were toasted pretty good. Using a small punch, I was able to tap out the cylinder core and that allowed the whole assembly to come apart. The wire is coiled on a plastic spool. Both wires exit the spool on the back end of the spool. The ground lead solders to a little tab on the end plate and the positive lead routes through a molded tube on the end of the spool and then connects to the threaded stud that exits the back of the assembled clock housing.

I found a local shop that repairs armatures and things and they sold me some fine gauge winding wire. It's copper wire with a polyurethane coating for insulation. I slid the spool over a philips screwdriver to hold it while I re-wound the wire. The little grommets are there to keep the spool from spinning on the shaft of the screwdriver. Worked pretty good. 6 windings did the trick. Reassembled and soldered the ends and tested operation. To my surprise it worked great. I left it running for about 12 hours to check accuracy. There is an adjustment on these things.....not sure where though. I will figure that out if it doesn't keep time well enough.

Now I think I can get back to assembling the dash....


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## O52 (Jan 27, 2019)

As crazy as it seems, the adjustment is just setting the correct time every day. Theory is that if the clock is 5 min slow, you adjust the hands to correct time. Clock will compensate. Next day clock is 2 min slow. Adjust to the correct time. Next day clock is a minute fast you adjust back. Eventually you get the clock running at the correct speed. 
Now with all that being said, these clocks were never intended to keep atomic time but they will generally do quite well for all intents and purposes. A light application of lubricant on the gears should keep it running free.


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

Very interesting. I will give that a try. I left it running for a day and a half and it kept good time....down to the same minute as my test clock (cell phone).

I am glad I was able to repair this thing and the second hand "ticks" along. The quartz movement is a nice option but the second hand sweeps instead of ticks so I wanted to stick with the original movement if possible. It keeps good enough time for me. 1/4 mile at a time...


Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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

*Engine started*

Dash installation went well. Wiring harnesses all in. Fenders installed. Radiator and core support in place. Time to fill with fluids and see if it runs. Primed the engine and then spent the next 30 minutes trying to get the distributor back in there and clocked how I wanted it. Eventually I got it back in there. I filled the carb via the vent tube until the accelerator pump squirted. Cranked the key and nothing. The started didn't even attempt to crank. Checked all the connections....had power in all the right spots but still no crank. I pulled out the wiring diagram and began checking my connections under the dash. For 1968, the under dash harness does not come with the ignition switch connector....apparently it's not reproduced so you have to reuse your original connector....just swap over to the new wire harness. Maybe I crossed up a wire so I checked they all seemed correct. I eventually found a pair of heavy gauge wires and then located them on the wiring diagram. Neutral Safety Switch. However, my car is a manual trans so I don't have that switch so I made a heavy gauge jumper wire. Turned the key to test and the engine fired right up. 

I was quite surprised. I had never had a new engine fire up on the first crank before. I ran it at 2000 rpm per the camshaft break in sheet and the total advance was right at 32 degrees so my rough guess on the initial timing was nearly perfect. Engine ran pretty good. Dropped it down to idle and it sounded like I remember a round port 041 cam engine should sound. It's been a long time since I have heard one in person though....

Now I need to get the steering wheel on, install the master cylinder and front calipers. I just received them back from White Post Restorations. They sleeved and rebuilt them all and it looks like they did a fabulous job. Looking forward to the first spin around the block in the coming weeks. 

Here is a video of the engine at idle if anyone is interested.


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## Anderslober (Mar 15, 2018)

Great stuff. My car is in the paint shop now. Hopefully it turns out as beautiful as yours. Have you started assembling the front light system?


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## 1968gto421 (Mar 28, 2014)

Wow, you're almost there. Please keep us posted, and of course more great photos. Thanks much!


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

1968gto421 said:


> Wow, you're almost there. Please keep us posted, and of course more great photos. Thanks much!


Check him out on the PY site. He has already driven it around the block.


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

Interior all finished. Engine runs nice. Transmission shifts super smooth. Not very torquey at low rpms but tips your head off above 4000 rpm. Pulls strong up to 6500 rpm and I dont have the guts to push it any further.

4.33 gears are fun stop light to stop light. 
Still some stainless trim to install and a few odds and ends. Pretty close though..


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

Few more pics while pumping some go juice...
Still have some stainless trim to install, headlight bezels etc. Always something to do on these things.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

She's beautiful!


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

Here are a few more pics. Nearly complete. Need to install the GTO decals at the qtr panels. I always disliked decals on the GTO......never was a fan of the Judge graphics. I am probably in the minority though....

I guess I will bite the bullet and apply the decals but not until after I enjoy it like this for a while....


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## Old Man Taylor (May 9, 2011)

It looks outstanding.


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## pontrc (Mar 18, 2020)

One of the nicest I seen👍


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## BearGFR (Aug 25, 2008)

Man that's nice!


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Beautiful restoration! Congrats.
The paint job is STUNNING! I can only hope I will make my '69 look that good.

Any updates? You never officially declared it done. Any car shows yet? New photos?


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

roger1 said:


> Beautiful restoration! Congrats.
> The paint job is STUNNING! I can only hope I will make my '69 look that good.
> 
> Any updates? You never officially declared it done. Any car shows yet? New photos?


X10


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

None better!! Will be interested in seeing this March 27, 2021. No Reserve!








1968 PONTIAC GTO RAM AIR II CONVERTIBLE - Barrett-Jackson Auction Company - World's Greatest Collector Car Auctions


Sold* at Scottsdale - March 2021 - Lot #1278 1968 PONTIAC GTO RAM AIR II CONVERTIBLE




www.barrett-jackson.com


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Interesting indeed. I'm a little surprised. I hope it isn't a health issue for the reason he is parting with it.


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## OldGTO (Dec 15, 2020)

PontiacJim said:


> Amazing. I don't think I would even consider trying to do my own convertible top installation! That is where I would have to farm it out. 👍





Shake-N-Bake said:


> *Day 110 Folding top*
> 
> I painted and reassembled the frame and then installed it in the car. Checked operation and it goes up and down nicely.
> Decided to install the top....this would be my first time trying something like this. I studied the chapter in the 1968 Fisher Body Manual and that was helpful. There are critical dimensions provided in the Fisher Body Manual that you MUST have in order to get it laid out correctly...especially since I did not have the old fabric to get the necessary reference points.
> ...


Good article, What is the measurement to the next bow forward?


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

OldGTO said:


> Good article, What is the measurement to the next bow forward?


This is an older post and the car has been put up for sale since it was completed.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

It's a Barrett Jackson Scottsdale right now, the biggest and most high dollar of their shows. Tomorrow is the last day. So we should know soon what it bid to and whether it sold. 
Is anybody watching this on TV? I'm not sure how long it takes for the results to get published.


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

roger1 said:


> It's a Barrett Jackson Scottsdale right now, the biggest and most high dollar of their shows. Tomorrow is the last day. So we should know soon what it bid to and whether it sold.
> Is anybody watching this on TV? I'm not sure how long it takes for the results to get published.


I am really interested in the selling price. It should pull some insane price with all the work that went into it.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Today's the last day. I can't find a thing about the car in the results so far so I think it must be on the block today. It doesn't have a reserve so it will be sold to the highest bidder. I'm going to guess that it will be about $120K.
What do you think Jim?


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

roger1 said:


> Today's the last day. I can't find a thing about the car in the results so far so I think it must be on the block today. It doesn't have a reserve so it will be sold to the highest bidder. I'm going to guess that it will be about $120K.
> What do you think Jim?


I think it will go over $120K as rare and as well that was brought back. I'd say it'll go over $150K as some investor/collector snaps it up and sets it in a warehouse for future money.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

The TV coverage on the History Channel starts at 2PM for me. I set it to record but may try to catch it live.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Well Jim, I didn't just guess close, my guess was right on. Sold for $120K.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Just checked the website and it says the car sold for $132K. Not sure what the discrepancy is.


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## roger1 (Jun 25, 2020)

Buyer's premium is 10% and added to the hammer price.
Since $132K is 10% more than $120K I think this must be the explanation.
Makes sense as it better reflects an auction price of the car.

I hope Shake-N-Bake is happy with what he will receive.


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## integrity6987 (May 10, 2017)

Lot #1278 - This 1968 GTO is the Ram Air II model and is one of 199 built in 1968, with only a handful being convertibles. The Ram Air II package consisted of special round-port cylinder heads, exhaust manifolds and hi-lift camshaft, a close-ratio 4-speed manual transmission and heavy-duty Safe-T-Track 4.33:1 rear axle. This car still retains the original transmission and rear axle components; however, the original engine was damaged many years ago and has been replaced with a correct "SR" service replacement 400ci 8-cylinder Ram Air II engine. It was built at the Arlington, TX, assembly plant on May 27, 1968. It was then shipped to Haskell Pontiac in Coolidge, AZ, for delivery to the first owner. This car has been pampered and remained in Arizona and California for more than 50 years. The current owner has had the car for the last 32 years. The car received a recent no-excuse frame-off restoration completed in the 2019-20 timeframe. The car was completely disassembled and stripped to bare metal, the frame was removed and the entire drivetrain was rebuilt. The body of this vehicle was gone over from front to back and the body fit is laser-straight. Once the body was prepared, everything was given a fresh coat of correct Verdoro Green (code Q) using DuPont base coat/clear coat paint. The frame was stripped and all chassis components were replaced and/or refinished in the correct original factory finishes. In all instances any parts replaced were NOS where possible. While the engine was out of the car, it was disassembled and completely rebuilt. The block was honed, and new pistons, rings and bearings were installed. The crank was checked and lightly refinished. The Ram Air II "96" cylinder heads were checked and given a valve job, along with new valves and valve springs. Everything was reassembled and the entire engine assembly was given a coat of the correct Pontiac silver-blue engine paint. No stone was left unturned, and the black bucket seat interior and convertible top were completely redone, using nothing but the best available correct materials. All instruments and gauges were checked for operation and repaired or replaced if necessary. All wiring harnesses were replaced with new. The restoration on this GTO is factory-correct, down to the correct T3 headlamps and original-style red line tires. The car comes with a complete set of the PHS paperwork and a Pontiac Division Window Sticker. 

$132,000


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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

roger1 said:


> Well Jim, I didn't just guess close, my guess was right on. Sold for $120K.


Good call. Really thought this was going to pull much more following the restoration build on the forum. I don't think there is another that clean, even if the engine is not the original - still assembled to factory specs. I wonder if it had been sold later in the season when the economy hopefully opens up if it would have pulled in more $$.


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