[Satyr1966]

When I was replacing my '66 GTO body mounts at a friends shop, he also had a '66 chevelle on a rotisserie. The GTO has 2 mounts on each side on the front where the chevelle had only one per side.

[Nicks67GTO]

Got a little work done today...

I had a hole in my frame for no good reason. It looked like someone used a cutting torch and cut it out years ago. I'm not sure why someone would do this? Anyhow I got that cleaned up with some 1/8" steel....

[Greg Reid]

It's a lot of fun to weld something like that after doing sheetmetal for a while, huh?

[Nicks67GTO]

The last few weeks iv'e been limited on time. This frame boxing takes forever. I bet I have 20 hours in it at this point. Tack and move, tack and move. Anyhow Iv'e been making progress. I'm about 75% done welding and iv'e done some grinding to clean the fluxcore welds up. It should look pretty clean when i'm done. You can see some of the spots where the welds are clean vs where they are raw yet. The fluxcore welder seems to be working out just fine but there's no denying the welds are ugly. I can lay a row of dimes with it.... but they are some dirty/spattered looking dimes...haha

[Nicks67GTO]

Well I got my rear rails pretty much finished. They really didnt turn out too bad for an old fluxcore welder and a 4.5" dewalt angle grinder! Ive got a little bit of clean up to do yet but ill be ready to finish the front frame rails this weekend.

[charles bledsoe]

Frame's looking real good! Should turn out real nice once painted. Please continue to post pics of your progress.
Thanks!!

[Old Blue 66]

Based on the pics, the new pieces look like they were made from the factory. I think you should give yourself more credit. Its looks great!

[old66tiger]

I had my frame power coated and it is the way to go. The guy that did it, blasted the frame and powder coated it inside and out. absolutely fantastic.

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

I had my frame power coated and it is the way to go. The guy that did it, blasted the frame and powder coated it inside and out. absolutely fantastic.

That's the plan. There's a shop in Cedar Rapids {45 min south} that does really good powder coat work. Iv'e seen their frame work first hand. They quoted me roughly $375 to get it blasted and coated??!! Seemed like a no brainer. They must have some kind of wand they stuff in the frame to get the insides?

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by Old Blue 66

Based on the pics, the new pieces look like they were made from the factory. I think you should give yourself more credit. Its looks great!

Thanks! Unfortunately I started looking really close at the cleaned up weld areas and I was taking too much off with the smooth hydroformed look. I went back over all of it leaving the welds exposed and only cleaned them up a touch. Oh well no one will ever see them unless they're looking too hard. Too bad too.... I like that clean/smooth frame look.

[Nicks67GTO]

Truth time....it takes me forever to get anything done on this car. I'm 31 with a wife and a kid that are priority 1 ....and I work nights many times 6 days a week. It takes me forever sometimes. I just looked back and realized it took me 6 weeks to get this done. When I was single and in my early 20's it would have been done in 2 days...LOL. Oh well.

So i'm finally done welding up the frame and making the crossmember perches. I decided to leave the welds raw and semi-unfinished. I cleaned them up a bit but left most of the weld in place. I hated to do it but no one will see any of them but the welds by the gas tank and I didn't want to compromise the strength just for a nice look that no one will really see. I took it to the powder coat shop about an hour away yesterday. They re-quoted my frame for $325-350??!! That seems CHEAP! Iv'e seen the work they do and its very nice. In fact there was another 67' GTO convertible frame sitting there, done in a semi gloss finish and it was beautiful. Iv'e also seen their work after 5 years in the weather and it still looks brand new. I decided on satin. I also took some time off in March so i can swap everything over to the new frame, get my new SC&C/SPC chassis pieces in and order up my new wheels.

[Nicks67GTO]

Here's a few pics of a sweet 67' GTO with the Billet Specialty Mag G's Ill be ordering this spring. Ill be running a bit taller tire profile to fill the wheel wells and probably a touch higher ride height than this guy but you get the idea.

[Nicks67GTO]

As for tires i'm going to go with Nitto555's in 245/45/18 front and 265/50/18 rear. This should give me the extra tire height to give it that old school full wheel well look and still allow me to run the larger 18" wheels for the added 13" front brakes and modern tire quality advantage.

The GTO below has 245/45/18's in front and 275/45/18's in back. Too bad 275/45/18 is not a more common size or I would probably go that direction but only a few companies make them and they are horribly overpriced. I'm talking $350+/tire....no way. For reference the 275/45/18's on the back on the 67' are 27.7" tall. Pretty close to the 28" commonly used 275/60/15 like I have right now.

The Camaro below has the 265/50/18's in back that I like. Super full looking wheel well and a nice tire profile/rim size proportion IMO.

The 245/45's are 26.7" tall and the 265/50's are 28.4" tall. So about 1.7" difference in overall wheel/tire height should give it just a touch of a big/little look as well. Hopefully it makes for a nice blend of pro/street bing n little, old school gray wheels, and pro touring 18's? Its kind of what i'm going for.

[old66tiger]

Hey Nick. It looks really good. Are the cross member perches in the factory locatuon? If you ever decide to run a TKO or a LGT 700, you may want to consider making these perches about 6 inches longer to accommodate the relocation of the cross member.

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[old66tiger]

I have 275/40-18 in the rear and 245/40-18 in the front and it looks good that way. Popular sizes and the profiles are consistent.

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[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

Hey Nick. It looks really good. Are the cross member perches in the factory locatuon? If you ever decide to run a TKO or a LGT 700, you may want to consider making these perches about 6 inches longer to accommodate the relocation of the cross member.

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

Hey there. The perches are back from the factory location to accommodate the Richmond 4+1 5 speed I have in the other frame now. I think I had to move it back 4 inches from the stock muncie location to make it work. There is room for another few inches if I had to move it again for an LGT700. I also set the pertches down a little bit below stock height so I have room for spacers in case I had to mess with my pinion angle some more. Available adjust-ability is never a bad thing!

[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

I have 275/40-18 in the rear and 245/40-18 in the front and it looks good that way. Popular sizes and the profiles are consistent.

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I'm still kicking around sidewall profiles a bit and I don't necessarily mind the lower 40 series profile but my personal preference is a touch taller on the sidewall profile. Iv'e got several reasons. The biggest of which is that where I live the streets are horrible, so is my header clearance, and I daily drive my car a lot. A bit more on the profile will keep me a touch higher and allow for a bit better ride I think??

[old66tiger]

No matter what the profile on a short sidewall, it will be a firm ride. I like the Ridetech shocks. They are top notch and with the setting turned down, the car rides pretty decent.

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[Nicks67GTO]

Originally Posted by old66tiger

No matter what the profile on a short sidewall, it will be a firm ride. I like the Ridetech shocks. They are top notch and with the setting turned down, the car rides pretty decent.

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Are yours the single adjustable or triple adjustable? Iv'e heard a lot of good things about the Ridetech dampers. The HQ smooth body shocks are definitely on my radar. Its either them or the Varishock.

[old66tiger]

Singles. Ridetech didn't try to up sell me on the deal.

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