1967 Grand Prix Project
 

Since I've started doing work on my 1967 GP I figured it's time to create a thread as a way of looking back on progress.

Some backstory on the car:

A friend of mine spotted this car in a Pick N Pull in Lynnwood, and brought the car to my attention. I am a fan of the 60s GM cars so I was intrigued enough to go look as it, although at the time I wasn't planning on buying it. After looking over the car and talking with a manager of the yard I found that if the car wasn't sold by the end of the month, they were going to crush the car unless a buyer came forward. Even though the car was rough, it didn't deserve to be crushed so the yard made an offer to sell me the car for $900 if I came the next day. I came back the next day with $900 and I became the proud owner of a 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix. My short term plan at the moment is to get the car drivable, and when time comes available I'd like to tackle the rusty bodywork. It'll be a long project but I've come to grow a fondness for this car, so I hope to see it through to the end.

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As of now I've been working on getting the brakes functional and safe so that the car is able to be putted around if needed in between projects. All was going good, until I went to disconnect the fitting at the brake hoses (which were dry rotted of course), and 2 of them ended up being rounded off and seized to which I had to resort to using a pair of Vice Grips to remove the hoses. I was expecting to have to replace the brakes lines anyway, but at this point should I only worry about the damaged lines or should I replace all of them?

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I'm in to follow the progress, love them 67's

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

If the other metal lines are not in bad shape (not rounded off, no rust inside or obvious weakening) then you can likely get away with just reusing what you have and replacing the failed ones. I do this on driver cars that I either need right away or the cars have been running recently enough that I'm not dealing with 10+ year old residue and nasty brake fluid - I also admit to re-using rounded off heads in a pinch too. If you're doing a more thorough restoration to get such a car running for the first time after a long time of sitting\questionable storage, there's no reason not to replace them all. Especially if the one that failed looks in bad shape besides the rounded off fitting.

Rubber hoses always get replaced in my book, too cheap to not and they'll hose you (get it!?!?!) when you least expect it.

BTW if you have drum brakes all around, the Pontiac 8 lugs stop very well and are a bolt-on option. 67 had the late flat hubcap.

http://performanceresearch.us/padgett/cars/67gp.jpg

Thanks Ben, at this point the goal is to get the car movable so I think I should be able to get away with reusing the undamaged lines. Ultimately they will all be replaced but for now it should be fine. Hoses of course will be replaced, I don't trust 50 year old rubber any day of the week.

Padgett, I've heard about the 8 lugs and I do like the sound of them. At this point I don't know if I want to keep the car completely stock or if I want to enhance the car while keeping a period look. Speaking of brake drums, it looks like someone replaced 3 of them and left an original brake drum. I'll have to get a picture, there looks to be junkyard writing on one of the drums that says 68 Catalina I believe, but 3 of the drums definitely look out of place.

Here are pictures of those brake drums that don't match. I only took one picture of the rear because the passenger side is the same. The drivers side front is what I would think a stock 67 drum looks like, but I'm still learning about the Pontiacs. Let me know what you think, ultimately they should be usable for getting the car mobile but would be replaced at a further date.

Driver Side
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Passenger Side
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Rear
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I've seen both varieties on my cars. Factory or not? Who knows, it's been +50 years and most cars have led a hard life. I do have good photos of a mostly original very low mileage '67 wagon with HD drums that someone here bought and posted that I keep as reference.

Cool project! I love the look of the '67 GPs.

Also, hello fellow Washingtonian! Hope to see your GP on the road eventually.

Ben do you have a link to those photos? In my case it would be confirming what I've got, it does bug me that one of the drums is different from the others. At least I should be able to use them for the time being.

Good to see another person from Washington! I know it'll be a long time until the car is complete but my Dad is just as keen as I am to get the car back on the road, I'll do my best to post updates as they come.

The body panels look fairly solid in the photos.

I can't complain, although on a few areas of the car I've found evidence of shoddy bodywork. I'm hoping I don't find more damage lurking underneath everything but overall the car appears to be solid. The car has been on the west coast as far as I can tell, it started life in California and then made its way up to Washington state which explains why the car hasn't completely disintegrated yet.

Hey Johnny! I expected to see your build in the 69-77 Grand Prix TECH section, they might move it for you if you wish but this works.

I see your getting busy with drivability in mind, investigating the odd things, they all seem to have them after a life of general use.

Lots of friendly, knowledgeable and helpful folks here to help, I also noticed your dad has interest in the car as well, very cool.



Frank

'69+ Grand Prixs are essentially A-bodies. The '68 and earlier Grand Prixs are B-bodies and loads of things are very different between the two. Just watch any time people who don't know big cars start spouting off on how to do disc brake conversions on any pre-1971 big car. You find out who has actually worked on one real quick...

Whoops! my bad, I don't know what I was thinkin. I absolutely knew he had a 67, we spoke in the Lobby. Thanks Ben, I'm glad he's in good hands.

I almost bought a Black 69 or 70 when I was 25. Always been a big fan of GP's, performance complimented by luxury all in one nice package.

I'm pretty jealous of him actually, come on man, $900.00? Last time I bought a car for that it took me 3 trips to get it home and still got less...

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...8&d=1625121855




Frank

Thanks Frank! I figured this area would be the best since it's a B-Body, Ben and other members have been very helpful with steering me in the right direction.

Chipped away on the GP today, got some minor things done. The front brakes are assembled with new wheel cylinders and new hoses, I opted to use what I have for the time being to get the car mobile. Within the next couple days I'll work on the rear brakes with the same treatment and then turn my attention to replacing the damaged brake lines. I think what I'm going to do is bend some lines to suit instead of ordering a pre-bent kit, especially since shipping from Ames will take quite a while.

Also is there a better way to add pictures? I'd like to add larger pictures to the text if I can but using the attachments works fine for now.

Drivers Side
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Passenger Side
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If you utilize a website to store pictures or want to post a picture from the net open it in a new window, copy and past the image address using the Insert Image tab.

1st, click in the text box where you want the image to appear, click the Insert Image tab and you will see http://, delete that, paste the web address contents there, hit ok.

If your uploading from your phone or laptop then you likely need to use the attachment tab, you can still enlarge your own pictures by opening them in a new window.

After you have attached them hit preview, now click on the pic, it will open, click it again, it will open in a new window, copy that address and use the Insert Image tab.

Maybe someone is a bit more savvy and knows a better way,
unfortunately that is the extent of my skills, hope this helps.

Drivers Side
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...0&d=1625372007

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1625372034

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...2&d=1625372067

Passenger Side
https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...3&d=1625372096

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...4&d=1625372136



Frank

Thanks Frank, I'll give that I whirl when I've got some new pictures to add. :)