# 1971 GTO Resto



## brock20 (Oct 14, 2014)

Hello all, Im new to the forum and am getting ready to start restoring my mother-in-law's 1971 GTO that she bought brand new in April of 1971.

The body is not in bad shape at all, save and except the hood. There was a small fire in the engine bay and it popped the paint off of the hood in one spot. not sure if the hood is ruined, but i would like to see if i can find another steel hood. This one also appears to be "bowed" in the middle where it meets the middle of the fender (sorry i dont have a good pic of this). Not sure what can be done there.









My questions are: 
Where can i find a different steel hood? What are some reputable Pontiac used parts houses? Is Billions and Trillions Reputable? I would like a list of several to contact. 

Can mine be fixed from the pic shown?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Brock


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## Lemans guy (Oct 14, 2014)

Brock20...Did you try...... American Metal Direct..........near Atlanta...they have a web you can check.... they make sheet metal for classics


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## brock20 (Oct 14, 2014)

I have not. I'll look there. Thanks.


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## brock20 (Oct 14, 2014)

AMD does not appear to have any hoods for this year.


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## Nightshade 68 HO (Mar 11, 2014)

I am not aware of any reproduction of this part. Check sources from the southwest, huge swapmeets ala Hershey or carlise, pa etc.... 71 is my second favorite gto.....

Anthony


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

71 GTO hoods are very hard to find, I would spend the money if you don't feel comfortable repairing it yourself to take to a knowledgeable restoration shop to get repaired. Notice I didn't say body shop. Don't take it to a shop that does insurance repairs on late models, use a shop familiar with classic restoration.

Look for a shop that will take into account the originality of your car, you want to preserve as much as possible and not just start throwing incorrect reproduction parts at it. 

Oh, and Welcome! And post some more pics :thumbsup:.

Forgot to add......check the hood in front of the hinges...you might find some cracks in the inner structure. This happens because the hinges get stiff and pushing the hood down from a full open position puts a lot of stress in this area. From what I can see that hood is very fixable if there is not rust on the inner structure.

Also, gotta add, love the hubcaps. What a cool car, your mother in law had good taste for sure.

Painted roof is pretty rare too, have you gotten the PHS on this car yet? Did your mother in law save the original paperwork for the car? Protecto-plate?


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## brock20 (Oct 14, 2014)

I will look closer at the hood in those areas. Thanks for the heads up. 

The car has very little rust. just a bit on the front fenders. 

The car is numbers matching all original. she does still have all of the paperwork. i have not ordered the PHS yet.

I'm new to the GTO side of things, but this is the first GTO i have seen that didn't have the Rally II wheels, the Firebird wheels or the the Honeycomb wheels. Im not hip on hubcaps, but if they are rare, may have to leave them...

I also didnt realize the painted top was rare... that's also cool to know. I'm very excited to get going on this project.


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## Nightshade 68 HO (Mar 11, 2014)

Upon taking a closer look, I am going to give a second to AlkyGTO. Take that hood to a qualified restoration shop and have them restore that original hood.


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## 666bbl (Apr 13, 2014)

Here's the 1st thing you want to do to that hood. Spray a liberal amount of PB Blaster on every hinge joint of both hinges and get them to work smooth and proper. While that's soaking you'll want to mark the positions and remove the latching mechanism and spring that pops it up. The goal here is to get the hood to lay on it's own in order to determine what repair it needs. If the top sheet metal is buckled you need to find a good metal finisher that knows how to work a shrinking disc. Yes, there is indeed such a thing. I hope that bit of info is helpful. Kool car man...


Ok, a quick edit here. I'd also recommend that you polish all the trim around the top and glass (stainless parts) while they're in place before you remove them. You be able to see how much movement you can use to remove it without bending or scarring any of it by virtue of the bright finish. It's not important to make it perfect, just enough to "read' what you're doing during removal. Good luck with it, and again, kool car.


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## Jared (Apr 19, 2013)

First off I have to say that I love this car. And I love the pics of your kids in it. I owned a Camaro before I bought the LeMans and one of the main reasons for going with a bigger car was to fit the whole family for cruising. You can't fit three kids in the back seat of a Camaro.

Are you planning on bringing it back to original? If so, you could run mags and have the steel wheels and hub caps ready to go back on for originality. I kind of like the hub caps because you never see that on a GTO. Good luck with it!


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## ibarbuckle (Feb 24, 2014)

That is a good looking car. Are those wheel covers PMD or aftermarket? Whatever they are, they look nice. The color, the white ragtop, the wheel covers all give it a great '70's feel.


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## brock20 (Oct 14, 2014)

Thanks for the replys yall! Yes, i am going back 100% original. Im not sure on going back with the hubcaps, but that is a long ways from my mind at this point, lol. Yes they are PMD.

My kids seem to love being around cars. Im very lucky with that!!!

I hope to get it up on the lift this week and start taking lots of pics before I tear into it. Hopefully the project will start this weekend and I can get alot done in the winter months before racing starts back up in April.


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