The Hangin Judge Resto
 

Having my dad’s 69 Judge restored after nearly 40 years in the garage. I have never seen the car even with an engine in it, so this has been a dream of mine for a very long time. The car used to be drag raced in the 1/8 mile before my dad bought it in the mid 70’s and I still want to keep it’s heritage and character intact, so we’ll be repainting the stripes and graphics. The original owner bought it new and quickly swapped the 400 out for a Pontiac 428, which we’ve had magnafluxed and cleaned up. We’ll be having it rebuilt to go back in along the process (almost as exciting as the car itself imo). I am no mechanic, so the work will be done by a reputable car restoration place in the Finger Lakes area, NY. Anyway, thought I’d share the progress along the way for anyone interested in this stuff!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...02dfdd24e5.jpg
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We practically live for this stuff! Great car and story, wishing you success with the project.

That's awesome!
Get her together and on the road. Your dad has waited a long time.
Best of luck in your resto
Steve

It looks like it's in pretty nice shape...Have you considered leaving the exterior as is (just clean it up and fix and blend any issues you can't live with).

Thanks it did have some rust-through at the bottoms of the quarter panels and fenders. The flower stripes are actually decals that we want to actually paint on. I will say that we since polished up one of the quarters and it came out nicer than I expected. The underside is actually in great shape since being indoors the whole time and I think had been oiled for some rust protection.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oops! Mobile. Thanks for the heads up.

Very cool car and story! Keep the pics coming! Good luck!

The full-size pictures are perfect on a desktop.

Subscribed. Good luck on your project!

Too cool! Thanks for sharing ...

Car looks to be in surprisingly good shape and might clean up better than you think. Regardless, it's a great build and tribute to your Dad. Pics are perfect size on my phone btw.

What a cool GTO and backstory... (popcorn moticon)

Scott70 was actually able to find some old pics of the car back in its race days. Dan Miller was the original owner/driver at the time and I think that's his name on the fenders but can't quite make out the rest of it. I never knew the guy but I think it fitting to put his name back on it. It got super faded over the years so I never knew what was in some of those spots.

No effing way! super cool! I wish you the best.

Such a cool project!

Do you have the 4th Hurst wheel ? I see 3 on the car .
Do you know how valuable and rare they are ?

Would get them off the car immediately so they don't get "lost" or stolen while its at a shop for work.

Your car also appears it may have been one of the early built Pattern Judges .

Pictures fit the screen on my tablet no problem.

Thanks for the heads up. We do have the 4th Hurst wheel and I did not know that... I'll have to see if they can be cleaned up.

I believe it is one of the early ones. It came with the trim behind the rear tire and does not have the Judge logo on the dash. I sent the VIN to the Pontiac Historical Society to get the original dealer order sheet a while back also.

Uploading a few disassembly pics from earlier this month.

That is great!
It has to be restored as close to as raced as possible - it is just too cool not to.
You have to research it as much as you can - did it win any major races? Set any records?

And have to agree with BVZ - take the wheels off and store them

Wasn't able to find any history or anything like that. Used to race at New Oxford Dragway in Maine though. Definitely going to get it looking close to like it did. Trying to identify the decal on the front bottom of the quarter panel if anyone knows that that is (not the Schiefer one). Also racking my brain trying to think of what the words around "Dan Miller" could say on the fenders.

Edit: Also never knew it had a hood with that air scoop at one point. Probably going to keep the Ram Air scoops and hood mounted tach though.