# holes in a 65 gto door



## outlaw (Feb 17, 2009)

my brother and I are restoring a 65 GTO convertable. Wile sanding down the passengerr door, we found 4 holes runing along the midle seam of the door. It looks as if there was a molding of some sort on it at one time. We are certain that the pasenger door is not oridunal, because the firewall had a nice dent in it behind the fender, and a difrent color paint was visable in places. We have searched for any lemans and GTO's in this year with a door molding and have found none with any moldings on the doors.. 
can anyone shed some light on this?
here is a picture of one of the holes. there are a total of 4 evenly spaced factory looking holes. theese were well hiden with filler.


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## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

Welcome to the forums! As long as your car is torn apart, there was a thread here somewere a guy was asking for help with the attaching bolts for the convertable top, maybe you could help him out? I'll look for the thread...On yours~ The holes surely don't belong there. I would weld them shut and grind them back down level. You are prolly right about being transplanted.


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## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

Here it is, give it a look and I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you could help.

http://www.gtoforum.com/f50/65-gto-roof-bow-bolts-19942/


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## outlaw (Feb 17, 2009)

Thanks for the welcome.

Ill check those roof bolts out when I get home from work. maybe take a cuple of snapshots or somthing.
on the door, yea we planned on filling them and grinding them down smooth. I am just curious as to their origin. We cannot find any gto or lemans that would have a molding or anything their on the internet or magazine. I am suspecting that maybe molding was intended early in the factory but then omited, or maybe a rare limited version had somthing there. either way the holes are geting filled, but any info would be appreciated as to why they are there. The driver side door is oridunal, but we havnt started working that side yet so we don't know if it has holes there too.


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## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

The door could have come from any GM A-Body convert.


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## crustysack (Oct 5, 2008)

looks like your door could have come from this car-65 chevy malibu-- on second look I don't think so because of the body line in the door itself on the gto is different than this one-oh well I tried


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

Aftermarket side moldings to prevent door dings were very popular in the late 60's~early 70's and the holes may be from an ad on.


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

At first I thought what TMP said: that it was an added on door protector strip from the '70's or '80's.....but my vote is that it's a Malibu, Cutlass, or Skylark door. The installation holes would have been way too much work for a quickie detail shop. Now, I gotta go look at some photos! Good call, Rukee....


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## Too Many Projects (Nov 15, 2008)

The pic of the 65 Malibu that Crusty posted rules out that as a possibility. Usually the factory would've had the 2 outer mounting holes on the very leading and trailing edges, like our lower door trim, for screws to be inserted easily. A telltale sign of a non- factory install would be no access hole on the inner frame for a socket and extension to go straight in for a nut driver. The factory wouldn't have wasted time having an employee fish around behind the frame to attach a nut.
For this evidence, I stand behind my assessment of an aftermarket hole.......


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## topfuel67 (Dec 23, 2008)

It was common for the Tempests to have molding there. My 65 Tempest is a post car, but it had molding in that exact spot.


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## outlaw (Feb 17, 2009)

ahh, I suspected a Tempest. looks like we have a winner. Thanks all, and thanks Topfuel for the photo.


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## olde-goat (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks Rukee for remembering my question about the roof bolts. Outlaw if you have the time please send any photos that you have on the roof bow anchoring bolts, to date still have not been able to find any details. Thank you for the help.


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