Update on my latest project - 68 GTO

Body Shop update Feb.9, 2013

Time for final sanding and polishing; should be ready to bring it home for re-assembly by the end of the month.












Bumper turned out pretty good!







Still sanding the hood & fenders







It's starting to look good!

 

It does look really good! Congrats on you accomplishment so far.:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Body Shop update Feb. 25, 2013

The car won't be back before the end of February.
It's painted, but still needs a little more polishing and door adjustments before I bring it home.

I helped fit the front bumper today. It's almost perfect, but we still might do a little more tweaking on the passenger side. The fit on the passenger side looks much worse in the picture than it does "for real"; the shadows on the bumper really amplify the mis-match.







Hard to believe that it looks this good after all the work that was done...(new right quarter skin, new right door skin, minor collision damage in right fender, patch panels in lower left quarter and fender). I think Bob did a great job!















I can't wait to get it home and start re-assembling it.

 

Tweek this, tweek that......looks beter than any GTO I never had

Coming together nice, congrats, happy for ya

 

My my my that looks so pretty. You have got to be pleased!

 

Back from paint!

UPDATE March 23, 2103

The car is back from paint and I have started on re-assembly.

New parking lamp housings are very pricey, so I decided to refurbish my originals. I replaced the sockets and repainted the housings and the silver areas on the lenses. They turned out pretty good and I won't have to worry about poor grounds; I added dedicated ground wires and 3-wire weatherpak pigtails.











I took the shifter apart, cleaned, painted, polished and lubricated everything as required:






Pulled out the old floor insulation and cleaned up some minor traces of rust before installing new deadener.
The orange areas are original primer:








Gardening (knee) pad sure comes in handy when you're doing this task...




Then on to the rear compartment/package tray area. I am installing 3-point belts for the outboard seat positions (front and rear).
Got the complete set from Morris Concepts. Nice stuff!

The rear retractor mounts on top of the package tray. The belt load is transferred down through a bracket that anchors to the pinch weld flange at the top of the wheelhouse, just aft of the rear

seat/trunk partition. The bracket is 316 stainless and about 1/8" thick. We discovered that the Pontiac (Tempest/LeMans/GTO) and Chevrolet (Chevelle/Malibu) body structure is a little different in

the rear wheelhouse area. On a Chevrolet, you can drill the attaching holes for the lower mounting bolts in the pinch weld flange and the back side is accessible. On the Pontiac, there is a box reinforcement section behind the mounting area, so you can't get at the bolts. I installed heavy extruded J nuts for the lower attachments:







The rear retractor mounting brackets fit perfectly; more pics after I complete the installation.



I have not been able to get any outdoor pics due to the weather and the fact that I can't move the car, but here's how it looks in the garage:












Lots left to do, but it's coming along!

 

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NICE car, jmt!!! That rig looks solid all over!

 

Wondering why you(he) painted it in stages.

quarters first then firewall back hood front clip later i always felt the paint would be more consistent if done together.

Looks great by the way!

 

He painted the body shell (roof, quarters and deck lid) at the same time, then the fenders and hood later. Front bumper was done separately when the fenders and hood were off the car.
I asked him about painting it all at once. He said he wasn't worried about variations because this was a basic black without any metallic content.
He would have done it differently if it had been a metallic color or anything with potential for color shade variations.

 

Yea that makes sense.

 

Got a LOT done on the last 4 weeks!!! WOOHOO!

April 14, 2013 update.

It's been about 4 weeks since I posted an update; things are moving right along.

Completed the installation of the rear seat belt retractors:




Then masked and primed the lower dash panel:








Then painted the lower dash:






Installed carpet, shifter, rear seat divider, kick panels, E-brake mechanism and console:










Yes, I know it's a 69-72 console. Someday I'll find someone who wants to trade for a 68.




Then, on to the instrument panel, radio and glove box installation. Unfortunately, the in-dash tach did not owrk when I tested it. I re-installed the Rally clock:










Spent about 4 days getting all of that where I wanted it, including adding a ground terminal strip for the speakers, radio and 12V power port.

Then, it was on to the front end....

Surprise! I found a little area of flaking paint and a little bit of bent metal on the core support while I was installing the updated weatherpak connectors for the turn signal/park lamps:




Straightened up the damaged area at the outboard corner of the core support, cleaned/treated/primed/painted the area:

 

Got a LOT done on the last 4 weeks!!! WOOHOO! (post 2)

Now, time to install the valance panel:






And the headlight doors & grilles:




While I was working up front, I installed the new master cylinder and booster:





And re-finished the sorry looking washer bottle...it turned out great!




Now, I'm picking up steam!
My wife held the rear bumper in position while I bolted it up:




In the last couple of days, I got the front seats in, along with the 3-point belt on the driver's side.

When the sun made an appearance this afternoon, I pulled the car out for a few pics.
Here's what it looks like today (4/14/2013):






In the next two pictures, you can see the "Aux" input and the 12V power port mounted below the dash.
I plan to move both of them into the console, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut the holes in the new console bin liner yet.
Maybe I'll tackle that project later this year...













It looks pretty good in these pics, but it's actually covered with a fine layer of dust. Can't wait to see it in the sunshine after it's all cleaned up!

I've still got a lot of trim and detailing to do, but I'm very happy with the way it's looking so far.

 

Looks great!