[iceman411]

I bought this car in 2002 in Warren Michigan and have been working on it since then. I had to get it road worthy and it had plastic race seats in it, a mega shifter and new polished Centerlines with BFG drag radials and sportsman front runner on it... Drove like a bread truck. Had a '68 400 that was mostly stock with a holley 750 vacuum tied to a stock th-400 and a 10 bolt peg leg with freeway gears. I put the interior back to stock with parts I had around and drove it for a few years and got bored pretty quick. The goup I hang with likes going pretty fast so in 2008 I pulled the trigger...
I built a 455 with aluminum heads, solid roller stroker motor. It had a manual body 400 with a 4000 converter behind it to a 12 bolt with 3.55 gears and the car was a blast. It ran 11:20's at 119-120 in the quarter in street trim as I cruised it. No roll bar...
I added wood wheel, tilt column, hideaway's, rear spoiler, am/fm red dot radio, and a few things I can't think of right now... Here's some pics...

[iceman411]

Two years ago I got diagnosed with Leaukemia and obviously my life changed and going fast wasn't as important. The car mainly sat and this year alone I don't think I ran 10 gallons of fuel through it... I put rally II's on it and tried to sell it.... No luck. It's a fun car on the street yet with the drive line in it, I feel it was too stout and chaces folks away... Well, since the drive line in this car was long gone before I bought it, what do you do? I still want to sell it because a convertible is what I would rather cruise in. So, in goes the stock 400 motor, I have a correct 4 speed set-up for the car I've been piecing together, a 10 bolt with 3.55's and a complete body redo is in order with a high level of detail. The body panels are out of alignment due to the monster driveline and no roll bar... Time to take it down and a fresh coat of PPG base/clear in it's original color, Liberty Blue. All the factory stainless is very nice and will polish up great. All the chrome will be replaced or rechromed as is needed and I will convert the lights back to the fixed set-up and add power steering and brakes. Here's some more pics...

[iceman411]

This is a very early '69 car and it still has all it's born with body panels... Note the stamped hood tach hole... No hole saw here...

The dash is still soft and crack free


I replaced the trunk floor in 2007 with a 3 piece kit from our site sponsor

All the edged and seams are to die for

[iceman411]

Here's some current pics...
This is an example of what stupid people do to get to the rear control arms...


New panel in place... Only took a little over 4 hours to cut-out, weld in and seal...

Door is coming in nicely


Nasty bezels... I'll post up pics of the new pot metal one's I just got

This panel will be next... I need to weld up some drilled holes...

Original?? Yup!

I need a pair of these, please...



This was prolly the biggest dissappointment so far... Wasn't that bad when I got the car in 2002...

Mike...

[iceman411]

This is a close up of the 'major work' that it needs...

Mike

[Simple Man]

Nice ride! Always loved Liberty Blue.

[JVM225]

Had a liberty blue 69 back in the 70's. Always my favorite color.

[robz]

Yes Liberty Blue is Drop-Dead Gorgeous! (Coming from a guy with 2 RED '69 GTOs).... I would however, keep the Hideaways since you already have them...All my '69s had them as I find they complete the front end so well....

[1969GTO]

WOW that was bad ass looking on the trailer

[Andretti]

Good to see you're back on your feet and enjoying the hobby again. So your LeMans Sport will soon step up as your main cruiser or are you planning on looking for another car? ...as if you need another one!
I too am a big fan of Liberty blue.

[Judge273]

Looks killer with those hideaways! Was it hard to change over? Looks like great progress.

[iceman411]

Thank you for the replies. Yes, this car will be sold soon and I will be on the hunt for a 69 GTO convertible. My 77 Trans am will need a new home at the same time as I'd rather have a 74 Trans am like I had in high school. Right now it's all about what I'd rather have than what I currently have right now. I am pretty fortunate though....

[cuz68]

That was is one great looking 69.

[demonic68]

Love it really good looking car for sure

[iceman411]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Looks killer with those hideaways! Was it hard to change over? Looks like great progress.

I wouldn't call it hard, yet tedious, maybe. There's alot of little parts you will need and the only Repo parts I bought were the door actuators and the springs and those came from our site sponsor. All the other parts were GM originals-even the headlight switch. I see Inline tube offers a hose/line kit that I could have used yet went on the cheap and bought like 50' of vacuum hose and it worked out great. What I did find interesting is even with a very wild solid roller cam, the doors worked pretty good. I found a factory diagram online that showed where everything goes and it rather self-explanitory. I foolishly sold the fixed set-up years ago and just recently bought a complete set-up and paid way more than what I sold mine for, yet I recieved really nice parts! The bezels I got were better than the one's I sold 5 years ago. .... Since I do plan to replace this car with a convertible and not sure if the car I purchase will have hide-aways, I decided to shelf this complete set-up until I get the car I'm wanting and see if I need it. As tough as it was to locate(be the highest bidder on the bay) and the total cost involved of going as much GM parts as it took(there is a difference) I don't feel it will add a favorable amount to the car sonsidering it didn't come with those. Funny, I do plan to add power steering, brakes and a 4 speed to it.... If you are considering adding this to your car, go for it! It gives the ultimate muscle car the ultimate front end treatment. I wish all '68/'69GTO's had hideaways...Glad to help in any way I can!! Mike

[iceman411]

After checking out some bubbling around the rear wheel openings with a sanding/stripping disc, the car will be getting rear quarters. The passenger side as shown raised some suspision, and further removing the paint from these areas revealed some extensive sin.... Now, I am a very good body man by hobby(check my facebook page) and I was pretty taken back....I knew something was going on there yet I wasn't expecting to find what I did... If you do the "rear quarter check" that we all do when looking to buy a car and check it for filler, it felt 'right' in the wheel opening lip... Removing the paint revealed something entirely different. The whole contour of the wheel opening was sculpted to shape and who-ever did this, did it very well... I kind of applaud this person for the act of illusion to thinking it was all metal and not all filler and even I was tricked...Now, I could just put in the patches around the wheel openings and the lower quarter behind the wheel that our site sponsor offers and call it good, yet it's hard to make it look 'right' from inside the trunk. Therefore new quarters are in the works. I do plan to work around the vinyl top as I'd like to keep it on the car as it's in great shape. Pics to follow...Caution... they are tough to stomach...LOL...Mike

[nh68gto]

Nice project. Vinyl does look good but, looks like from the pics you have some rust bubbling under it...

[north]

On the PHS it looks like the paint code is F for windward, maybe just a chipped key or the offset is so bad it hides the bottom of the E. What code does your trim tag have? Chances are it must be Liberty since the PHS does not show the extra cost for Windward.

[robz]

Yeah John, looks like an E, as compare it to the E in CPE to the right, it is typed at the same height...

[iceman411]

Originally Posted by nh68gto

Nice project. Vinyl does look good but, looks like from the pics you have some rust bubbling under it...

True yet I can peel the vinyl back, fix the rust and glue it back down... If it was in any other place on the roof, I'd pull the top and may not consider putting it back on...? Mike