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Black Beauty: 1971 GT-37
Hey everybody! I've posted once in a GT-37 thread in this forum section, but I figured I'd put a thread up to allow people to keep up to date with what I'll be doing with this car, if that's alright.
This car came out of a deal that my parents came up with for me going through college that started with my sister: When she graduated, she was allotted a set amount of money to pick up a project that was her dream car, and with my parents' help, they brought home a 1974 Corvette that needs only a little bit of work to get it back on the road. This same deal applied to me, but with a different car to be picked up. When I was growing up, I knew I liked Pontiacs a LOT, but I had thought that my dream car would be a 1970 Dodge Challenger with a blown hemi and NASCAR steel wheels. Fast forward to my sister's graduation party, where this deal was unveiled, and the reality of how expensive those era of Challengers are, even as a junk heap (Aren't they like that all the time, though? LOL, just kiddin'!!) got me to rethink what my dream car really was. After much thinking and visual comparing with several different cars, one stood out to me above the rest: the 1970 Pontiac GTO. With a side-by-side comparison, I loved how the Pontiac A-bodies blended the rooflines into the rear quarter and rear deck smoothly, and loved the body lines along the side of the body on the fenders, not to mention the Endura front end! While I was still in love with the Challenger's sculpted lines and tough appearance, I found I loved the refined, smooth styling of the GTO. Thus, I found out what to start looking for. Several times, I searched on SearchTempest to find examples of those cars for sale as projects, only to find that the owners of such projects wanted a pile of money for a project that would require a large amount of cash and time to get it done and driveable. This encouraged me to find another kind of candidate to make into a 1970 GTO clone: the Tempest and the LeMans from 1970-1972. Using the same search websites, I came across some projects that may have shown promise, but were asking for too much money up front for our budget. Sadly, many other projects I found were severely deteriorated that were within the price range we were looking for. This would also play into what I wanted to do to the GTO clone to make it my dream car: I wanted to convert it over to a six-speed manual trans with a hopped-up Poncho pulling it forward with plenty of power, and I wanted to make some major changes to the bodywork, such as adding a side-exit exhaust inspired by zoomies from a dragster and Lamborghini exhaust, and flaring the fenders out several inches to give a wide-body stance like Roger Bolliger's T/A, but with more sheet metal placed all along the length of the fenders, starting and ending at their stock points at the front of the fender lines to accentuate the "Coke bottle" styling, allowing for far bigger tires to be stuffed up underneath. Needless to say, it would be better to do this to a run-of-the-mill T-37, Tempest or LeMans than to molest a highly-sought-after real GTO. Finally, during a trip within the last couple years to Norwalk, Ohio for the Pontiac Nationals, my uncle, who was also a Pontiac fanatic and has a 1970 GTO that he built himself, told us about a T-37 someone had for sale not far from where the rest of my family lived in Michigan, and what the owner wanted for it was within a reasonable amount for what we wanted to spend on a project. This is more or less what the car looked like when we went to go look at it while visiting our family for July 4th this year: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4383/...f95b4b95_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4393/...6b66823a_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4348/...9ba9563f_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4338/...e1e8f6f9_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4388/...96f4808c_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4364/...9cf86829_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...a35fffbc_b.jpg While talking with the owner, and after talking with my uncle about it afterward, we found out that the car belonged to a different person, but had it at this guy's property to have him work on it, as well as serve as collateral for a debt he owed him. Sadly, the owner of the car passed away many years ago, and for about ten years since then, the car set on a utility trailer outside in the elements, leaving many panels on the car that weren't touched with primer to rust over. Despite the rust that accumulated on the car, it was still VERY solid, and we thought it would serve as a very suitable base for the project. On July 3rd, 2017, we made a deal with the then owner of the car, and he sold it to us for a few hundred more than my parents wanted to spend on it, with me throwing in some cash to make up the difference. He pulled the engine, a 1966 421, and 4-speed trans out of it, as was part of the deal, and we loaded it up on the trailer to take it back home. But that wasn't all that came with it: There was a treasure trove of parts that ended up coming with the car, from several glove boxes to several sets of interior panels, even all of the glass, a fiberglass nose and a complete 1972 LeMans front end! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4338/...110ea7af_b.jpg It seemed that the only things that were missing would be an engine, headliner, and radio, among some other odds and ends as we piled everything together in the car for the return trip: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4400/...ee31e004_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4429/...52cabda5_b.jpg After getting it home, it didn't take long for me to start removing the rust from the hood and the quarter panel, as well as some other spots along the body using something you may have heard of: vinegar and old clothes. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...28600c35_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4415/...a1a9d37d_b.jpg With having the clothes soaked in vinegar on top of the hood and the quarter panel, the rust started draining off of the car: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...52746a6d_b.jpg After letting it soak in this manner for a whole day, the clothes were removed, and a wire brush and some of the rust-infused vinegar caught in the buckets were used to scrub the whole hood and quarter panel down: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4419/...2cd12966_b.jpg And the process was repeated a second time: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4413/...b1d74c66_b.jpg And a third time: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...1710d000_b.jpg[/url] Things came along a little slower on the quarter panel, as it was far steeper than the rather level hood, and harder to keep the vinegar soaking in the clothes, as it wanted to drain out quickly. This is how it looked after the third time of soaking it, right after peeling the clothes off: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...3d78dd9f_b.jpg And after some scotch-pad and some wire brush: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...ba7fe194_b.jpg Soon after this process was undertaken, Dad and I built some shelves on the upper level of the garage, where we could store the pile of parts that came with the car, along with the parts he had for the cars he was working on: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4390/...15e01e30_b.jpg Up to this point, we had been led to believe that this car was a run-of-the-mill T-37. Thankfully, though, my hand was stayed from the sawzall and other cutting tools to start modifying the car to what I wanted it to be, as my plan was to "restore" it to driving condition and be able to enjoy it while I saved up the truckload of money that would be needed for the parts I wanted to throw at it later down the road. And it was a blessing that my hand was stayed for any major modification, because while I rummaged through the parts to organize them for storage, I came across a potentially project-changing badge: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4429/...860c85ee_z.jpg And it fit perfectly in the holes in the trunklid on the car. Now I had some research to do. Soon after going to Norwalk this year, I placed an order with PHS for the information they had on this car, and sure enough: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4340/...6a734073_z.jpg It was a REAL 1971 GT-37! And not only that: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4353/...96e93c08_z.jpg It was a Triple-black car, with a black cordova top, and the side stripes! How beautiful this car must have looked when it came out from the dealer! Right then and there, the project's end goal changed from a modernized pavement pounder to a full-blown restoration. And the rust removal didn't stop in the meantime: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...0636ccb5_b.jpg I gave most of the rust spots on the car a healthy dose of love with a DA sander my dad had just gotten for projects like this: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4442/...e5372eb4_b.jpg And very soon, after several hours of sanding and five cans of Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...4a09da46_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...892cb044_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4340/...3e1efda7_b.jpg The car's bare metal spots became protected from further harm while I continued some work that needed to be done on my daily-driven 2001 Grand Prix. Now, the list of things needed to get this car closer to putting it back together is to repair the floorpans and the trunk pan, as there are a few patches of rust in both areas. After that, and some patching and re-working of the patches that were done before, as seen in the photos of the bare metal on the quarter panel, the car will be really close to being put back together in driveable shape! |
Wow! Super cool car! Glad you found out more info before digging in any further!!! Always a safe bet to get the PHS to know exactly what you have! Congrats on the cool find and good luck with the resto!!!!
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Congrats on the GT ! Looks to be a very good platform for, a great restoration!
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Congrats on getting the GT-37!
Looks like a great project to do. And thanks for the story. :) |
Welcome to the club!
Being a late year car you got the sword stripe - your car should look like this when done (minus the vinyl top). http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/upl...ac-gt-37-1.jpg |
Boss, that car is beautiful !
Tim john--- |
Congrats on the score! And thanks for not cutting it up!
I'll be following this story. |
I will confess to throwing up in my mouth a little at the initial photos but it looks like you are getting on top of this car.
It will be sweet! |
AW,
Congrats on such a wonderful find! This will be an outstanding build to follow.... So excited for you and watching you move the car from it's present state to Royalty....:eek: Keep posting photos...we all love to look things over....:3gears: |
Thanks to all of you guys for the compliments! I'm really looking forward to getting this thing back into the shape it's supposed to be in. I'm also glad that some have even enjoyed reading the story of it so far. Stay tuned for further developments...
And that's a sharp-looking car, Boss! What a beauty! Does anyone know if you can find out which color the stripes were? Also, while looking through the pile of parts I have for this thing, I found black grills with a chrome strip across the middle with no "Pontiac" badging. Would those be the original grills? I know I've looked up a LOT of GT-37's that had the silver surrounds, but I've only seen one photo of an early year GT with the eyebrow stripes that has these blacked out grills: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4352/...5ef04621_k.jpg Also, I have three gauge clusters and surrounds that came with the car: a 140mph wood-trimmed cluster that is in the dash that is currently wrapped in plastic (Thankfully), a 120mph cluster in another wood-trimmed surround, and another 140mph cluster (Not in a surround) and a blank black surround: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...7819b7b9_k.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4431/...b5298d62_k.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...411f627a_k.jpg Which one is correct? Also, I have two steering wheels, for which I have the same question: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4388/...2d023435_k.jpg And finally, I noticed that the PHS says that this car came with a "cloth" interior. I have done some reading around, for better or worse, and found the term "cloth parody pattern" thrown around once or twice. Here's the pattern on the back seat: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4365/...b5bc1f43_k.jpg Is this the "cloth" they're talking about? Sorry about all the questions all at once; I figured I'd try tapping into the vast pool of knowledge here to see about getting this thing back together the "right" way! Thanks again, guys! |
So, as some may realize upon coming to look at the new post for this thread, I had put up a post in September that may not have been seen until now, as it wasn't approved until just recently (Not a dig on the forum moderators, I know they have lives outside of this site, and I very much thank them for putting the time they do into this site, and can understand that some posts fall through the cracks), but I do have some updates for the history of this car:
We're still trying to piece the history of this GT-37 together, but upon posting the pictures of this car to a group I am a part of on FB, a local friend of our family recognized the car and did some digging for us around the area: As far as we know now, our friend had first seen the car close to the state we found it in, but without all the rust, back in the mid-90's. It had the interior and glass taken out back then as well, meaning that this car may very well have been off the road for a little more than 20 years now. Poor girl! We now know the full name of the man who had the car before who we got it from, and also have heard that the engine that was in the car before the 421 was blown and replaced with said 421 while he had it. However, it is still up in the air what engine may have been blown, because when my dad inquired about the original engine and trans earlier this year, the man who had the car before us told him that only a few years ago, a man came to him (not the owner that died, who had the car back in the 90's) who said he had the original power train that came out of the car. He wanted to buy the car back, but after the then owner told him to show up with cash and make a deal, he didn't come back to buy the car. At least, not before we got to it! Unfortunately for this project, the contact information he had from him had just recently been thrown away, so we don't know who he may be. Stay tuned, guys, as there could be more coming in from our contact in MI sometime. I might even try to do a vehicle history report with the DMV of Michigan to see if I can find who the other owners were. Even if we do or don't find the original engine and trans for the car, I still would like to know the history of the car all the way since new to present. Currently, we only have about half of its life known (~20 years), which sadly for this queen-in-exile, has been mostly off the road. That will change soon. |
From 9/24 pictures & questions: 1st pic, '71 233-235, & 237 series (non endura) style grills. Someone has painted them black, they should be a shade of silver. No Pontiac emblem in LH grille is how the grilles in '71 & 71 1/2 GT-37's were built.
The non AC dash bezels... Pontiac style was used in '70 & 71. The blank style, along with the '72 only style wood grain easily ID as '72 piece. On the steering wheels, the car originally, per invoice copy, had the 2 spoke style, these are often cracked & the deluxe style you have was very commonly ordered on these cars by dealers. Pic of rear seat shows optional '72 grain vinyl out of a LeMans. Parody cloth/vinyl is the base bench seat upholstery style a '70 or 71 T-37 series vehicle. In 72, for the base LeMans, the same vinyl areas were used but slightly different cloth inserts. Both of my '71 T-37 Coupe & 71 1/2 GT-37 have parody cloth/vinyl interiors & have been very expensive to properly recreate.. On my '72 Coupe, it too had the base fabric & vinyl interior, am changing it over to all vinyl, as it is not a max effort restoration. On further up pictures, appears the header panel is stamped steel, '72 used stamped steel along with matching core support. all 71's originally had a fiberglas reinforced plastic (FRP) header panel along with matching '71 core support (front edge of coresupport top is different) Many steel '72 header panels have made it onto '71's & w/o the '72 Pontiac crest on the "beak" would be closer to correct, so holes typically have to be welded up. Hope this helps. |
http://oldcarbrochures.org/index.php...e-Ptrestige-48
Above is link from Old Car Brochures site, shows T-37 interior page from 1971 Pontiac full line brochure. Shows the cloth and vinyl seat. All vinyl was optional. Also, looks like the 3 spoke steering wheel, in the brochure pic. |
I have a Lucy Blue GT-37, they are very nice cars. One of the few cars I did not buy that to this day I kick myself over was a 71 1/2 black on tuxedo interior GT-37 400 car, that is a really nice combo you have there which will be something you will be the only one at almost all but national level shows. My son is doing a 71 Lemans sport right now.
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'71 233's & '72 base 2door LeMans seats had a vinyl section in the middle of the base of the seat to isolate the two seating areas of the front set lower cushion. Below is a web article on Mr Fitch from NM's, 71 1/2 GT-37. Has a lot of good pics. Mr Fitch was an early respondent back in the early '90's, when I ran the national GT-37 Survey, & I provided him a set of reproduction refective stripes which we were the first to commercially produce & market. http://www.oneownercollectorcar.com/...t-37-don-fitch On the black vinyl seat piece, the seat cover outer portions are Madrid vinyl while the bold insert pattern is referred to as Elk grain. This combination of vinyls was used on '72 LeMans with the option vinyl bench seat interior, as well as '72 LeMans with the optional Sport interior which included Strato buckets or a Strato bench seat. |
RAIVJUMB, was the '71 1/2 that got away a factory 400 3spd or 400 4spd car?
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'71 233's & '72 base 2door LeMans seats had a vinyl section in the middle of the base of the seat to isolate the two seating areas of the front set lower cushion. Below is a web article on Mr Fitch from NM's, 71 1/2 GT-37. Has a lot of good pics. Mr Fitch was an early respondent back in the early '90's, when I ran the national GT-37 Survey, & I provided him a set of reproduction refective stripes which we were the first to commercially produce & market. http://www.oneownercollectorcar.com/...t-37-don-fitch On the black vinyl seat piece, the seat cover outer portions are Madrid vinyl while the bold insert pattern is referred to as Elk grain. This combination of vinyls was used on '72 LeMans with the option vinyl bench seat interior, as well as '72 LeMans with the optional Sport interior which included Strato buckets or a Strato bench seat. |
Thanks for info "Pinion", brochures aren't set in stone, just seeing if any help.
Still remember seeing brand new GT-37 on display at '71 Chicago Auto Show. |
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Here are a few picture's of the seat's in my '71 T-37 post car I use to have. Maybe will give you a idea of the seat material and pattern of the seat's? I assume the seat pattern would be similar on a hardtop? Also if you decide to sell that '72 dash insert I would be interested for my '72 Lemans Sport!
Lyn. |
Lynn, the pics you put up of the parody cloth/vinyl interior, do you remember what trim code? Almost looks gold? Or sandalwood, that just looks gold. My HO post car was built mid Dec, Pontiac plant, & has trim 230 (black parody cloth/vinyl) interior same trim code as the OP's car. The only difference I've noted between 2 door Post cars & 2door hardtops on the bench seat is the rear seat is wider on the Post cars.
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