[2manyponchos]

Anyone else on a crash course to frantically put a car together to drive for the summer?

I sold my 70 Lemans Sport convertible last fall and would not have hesitated to drive it across country. Was a good driver that showed well at local cruise-ins and the family had a good time in it. My wife was less than pleased when I sold "her car" to pick up a GTO convertible that had pretty much been in a barn since 1993. Not near the car in her eyes, but who couldn't see the potential in a Matador Red/hideaway/400 auto/3.55/wood wheel car? It wasn't much of a decision for me. Sold the Lemans vert to PY member simb52 who owned the car during the early to mid 80s and dated his now wife while owning the car the first time. She left him buy it back for their 20th wedding anniversary! Picked up the GTO vert from PY member Hooter. I promised my wife that we would have the GTO vert in shape by summer and that we wouldn't be without one...let the fun begin.

Spent about 2 weeks on the GTO vert back in the fall making it run and drive. This included fuel tank, sending unit, exhaust, rubber fuel lines, front to rear brake lines, axle lines, soft brake lines, and sorting out a bunch of wiring from an aftermarket alarm. Put about 500 miles on the car realizing that I had a lot of work to do...then an ever so slight bottom end noise...and more work to do. Car pretty much sat till current day with no attention.

It is now June and we are heading to Wichita on June 30th for the GTOAA convention. With baby number 3 on the way, we figured this may be the last opportunity to travel west in a ragtop easily as a family (if you call a 5 year old and 3 year old travelling with the top down easy), but I suppose easier than trying to do it with 3 of them...

Started procuring parts a couple weeks ago to build a correct YS code 62 head GTO engine to replace the 73 400 currently in the car. Been ordering parts for about 2 weeks from several vendors as they pop in my head. Did order the seat covers and door panels from Legendary back in March so the long lead time item is taken care of.

Anyway, officially started yesterday. It is not going to be pretty from an exterior standpoint, but the plan is to attack the mechanical items and then tackle the interior. It will be on the road for Wichita in 2.5 weeks! Pulled it in the garage at 2:30 pm yesterday and as my 5 year old commented..."let's destroy that car" (think he has seen too many extreme home make over shows).

After a good day of help from my newest mechanic, here is the progress:
-interior is out except for dash (not sure on pulling this yet or not)
-engine accessories all removed and evaluated
-hood off
-engine ready to pull except for 2 motor mount bolts
-rear brakes and axles pulled to inspect gears and wheel bearings (found a bad right axle bearing and needs a limited slip diff - gotta have 2 black marks on pavement)
-all four tires removed (sons first time using an air ratchet, pulled the lugs off of 2 wheels himself)

Been a good first day and looks like I have a young gearhead in the makes. While going to bed, he told his mom all about the car and what we did. Makes a father proud to say the least! Of course he wanted the car done in one day also so was a little disappointed.

Wish me luck!

[2manyponchos]

Start of the day.

[robz]

Great work and help, 2many! I guess I should let my 6 yr old help me more...Always afraid to give him too much at that age as he may just go ahead and do some while I'm not there...:-)

[GTOBOB]

Doug, I hope you took a vacation day and aren't doing this at work in the parking lot!

[mike nixon]

Doug, You know I'm doing this also, Mine's just a bit ahead of yours tho. I'm hoping to do a good shakedown run this weekend.

That GTO looks like a great start and I'm glad to hear the Lemans went back to a good home..

Glad to see the boy involved, Mine and actively showing interest and if there's time this yr We'll be throwing a Blazer together for a driver.

DRIVERS RULE!

[JLHarper]

Doug,

The body looks great on the 69! Based on the pics posted.

Had the seller been working on it or it sat as it shows?

Nice find! Good luck on the project.

Jeff

[2manyponchos]

Originally Posted by robz

Great work and help, 2many! I guess I should let my 6 yr old help me more...Always afraid to give him too much at that age as he may just go ahead and do some while I'm not there...:-)

He can't hurt much on this one! Good place for him to start to learn and be part of it. The old Lemans vert I was always on pins and needles about them scratching or denting it. While they are learning respect for vehicles, if something happens to this one...it's not painted yet and we will learn from mistakes so to speak. Many coworkers suggested that I check torque on the wheels for all my other vehicles since he now knows how to use an air impact...=). Luckily he is not strong enough to couple it to the air hose!

Originally Posted by GTOBOB

Doug, I hope you took a vacation day and aren't doing this at work in the parking lot!

Doing this one in the garage at home. While not as convenient, don't have the room at the shop to pull another one in for destruction!

Originally Posted by JLHarper

Doug,

The body looks great on the 69! Based on the pics posted.

Had the seller been working on it or it sat as it shows?

Nice find! Good luck on the project.

Jeff

Hooter put an engine in it and had the trans redone. Car was last registered in 1992. He also cobbled some exhaust on it to move it from a-b. He procured a lot of correct parts such as the dual snorkel and carb, but never got around to really working on the car as the racing bug bit him hard. He is building a full tube chassis 63 Tempest and let loose of this one to further the racecar. It is a fairly solid and straight car, however the paint is coming off in sheets and pulling back to clean metal. Looks like whoever painted the car back in the early 90s used some type of caustic stripper and never properly prepped the metal. Been afraid to power wash it because there might not be any color left!

[2manyponchos]

Monday and Tuesday, Sarah and I had prior commitments in the evenings so no real progress to report other than cataloging parts and figuring out what I need to order.

Last night was a little different story. Finished disassembly of the rearend. Car had a bad vibration at highway speeds and an open diff so I felt the need to check into the rear. Still appears to be fairly original and unmolested. Found the "WH" code stamped in the left axle tube identifying it as the correct 69 GTO 3.55:1 open differential which agrees with the PHS. Right axle bearing needs replaced, likely going to do the left also. Both axle seals are leaking and seals are brittle. Front pinion seal leaking so decided to disassemble further and check it all out. Bearings and races all looked original with slight debris scratching/pitting. Backlash measured .0085" and the factory ring/pinion had good pattern and looked perfect. Pulled the carrier and pinion. Then the first step in putting it back together!

Removed the factory ring gear and installed on a new EATON limited slip diff along with new carrier bearings. Removed the inner pinion bearing and pressed on new while keeping the factory shim so pinion depth should remain unchanged. Need to change the pinion races in the housing and ready for reassembly.

Also located the correct axle bearings at the local NAPA, but the had to order the axle seals which will be here Friday. Will then be able to button up the rearend (other than brakes) and everything should be fresh along with the necessary need to spin both back tires. 2 black marks on pavement!

Machine shop assembled the pistons to rods yesterday and a friend machined the valve spring shims inner diameter to fit over the factory valve guide boss (couldn't find the correct ID/OD combination available) so I now have everything in house to assemble the engine other than pushrods which I will have to measure at once the long block is assembled.

Going to be against the clock on this one, but think we'll make it. More to come after t-ball game tonight!

[tigercars]

Good luck on the built and I hope to see you in WV.

[The Boss]

Nice work Doug, keep us posted!

[mike nixon]

Good deal Doug.
I've got about 200 miles on mine and I thought I cut it close by getting it together this late. Will do another 200 on it tomorrow.

Just a hint, check those wheel studs over closely. The ones on my Prix were brittle and wouldn't hold 50 ftlbs of torque.

Question does this car have two peice rotors on it or one?

Mike

[2manyponchos]

Originally Posted by mike nixon

Good deal Doug.
I've got about 200 miles on mine and I thought I cut it close by getting it together this late. Will do another 200 on it tomorrow.

Just a hint, check those wheel studs over closely. The ones on my Prix were brittle and wouldn't hold 50 ftlbs of torque.

Question does this car have two peice rotors on it or one?

Mike

Will do...it has one of each! Needless to say replacing them with a matched pair. 200 miles for a shakedown?? I will probably be changing the break in oil at the first stop for fuel!

[2manyponchos]

Finished rear disassembly by removing pinion races in the housing. Once housing is cleaned up thoroughly time for reassembly of the rear diff.

Moved up front and removed calipers, shocks, and front springs. Suspension was redone before the car was parked back in 92, but the car sat in the weeds...so time for new springs. Bushings are poly. Upper and lower ball joints are tight, but lower dust boots are dry rotted and gone. The lower ball joints have had moisture and dirt in them from lack of a dust boot so going to replace them. Also need to replace the control arm bumpers. Tie rods and center link appear relatively new and are tight. Only piece that needs replaced in the steering is the idler arm so going to get one of those on order. The caliper brackets and dust shields are plenty aged and crusty so likely going to replace them with pieces out of disc brake change over I bought for my 68 Tempest. Will put the dirty and aged pieces on the 68 as it is a "survivor" of sorts. They will blend right in. Ordered new wheels for the 69 so need to have fancy clean brake parts in view =).

Decided to do a little engine work after disassembling the front end. Measured pistons and bores to check all machine work. Deburred the lifter valley/oil drain back in the block and heads. Blended the 3 angle valve job into the ports on the intakes and smoothed the sharp machined edges in the combustion chamber. Trial assembled a couple valves and checked installed height. Needed .015 shim on the exhaust and .030 on the intakes. Have to get a couple more shims...

Called it a night at that point and hit the bed about 1am.

Tired of running parts around the tri-state to be cleaned. Picking up a much needed solvent tanks today for my home garage.

Attached pic of the new wheels. 15x7s. I think they will look good with Matador Red exterior. Planning on 215 70 R15 fronts and 255 60 R15 rears. WIll keep around a stock height tire and have plenty of rubber on back!

[2manyponchos]

...but no time to post about it! Hope to download some pictures and narrate a little at work tomorrow.

[mike nixon]

Gotta give Doug a big atta boy for getting this old girl roadworthy in time to drive her out to Wichita. He's on the road west and I hope he's enjoying the ride, the pics looked great!

[2manyponchos]

I will have to take a step back to update this thread and post some pics. Long story short, after 40 sleepless hours and help from a lot of friends and family, the old rag ran 1600 miles round trip to Wichita and back (along with a few miles on Historic Route 66). Pretty much performed flawless on the trip and didn't have to do much besides put fuel in over the 1600 miles. Have some bugs to work out. Had a great time and it was worth the effort to get the car roadworthy as seen in the below pictures. Ended up taking the GMC to Charleston as I had to deliver 2 skids of parts for a vendor. Otherwise the rag would have been there as well. Might have it at Norwalk unless I take another car to race. More to come.

[2manyponchos]

Some has been mentioned in the above posts. Decided to go ahead and remove the housing from the car as I was not going to be able to pull the crush sleeve down in that confined space. Thoroughly cleaned the housing inside and out and cleaned the axle tubes of the 40 year old grease. Inspected the counter bores for the inner/outer pinion bearings and installed new bearings. As previously mentioned, decided to reuse the factory gears with a new Eaton carrier. New pinion bearing pressed on the pinion gear with the factory shim. Assembled pinion, bearings, crush sleeve, and yoke. Pre-load came at 25 inch-lb if I remember correctly. First dropped the new carrier in with the factory cast shims, but backlash was way out of spec. Pulled apart many times, measured, added, and subtracted shims as necessary. Finally was able to find the right pre-load and settled in on .009" backlash (measured the used gears at .0085" on disassembly). Pretty happy with how everything went together to this point. Cover was cleaned, installed, and rattle canned with some Rust-Oleum. Note picture of the visible "WH" stamp on the left axle tube. Upon cleaning also noted Yellow paint splotch around the fill port. Now the headache....

[2manyponchos]

So the new axle bearings and seals showed up from the local NAPA. Cut the collars off the factory axles and pulled the bearings off. The right bearing had been spinning on the axle and gauled the shaft. So I pulled up the Summit website as I had seen they were offering 2 OE replacement axles. One made by Superior Gear and the other Alloy USA. The Alloy USA axles were a little cheaper with the same material characteristics so I ordered them along with new wheel studs. Axles showed up next day and I pressed the new bearings/collars and wheels studs in. Installed new axle seals in the rearend housing and attempted to install the new axle assemblies. Splines would not engage the carrier. WTF? So I tried them in the old carrier...still no go. Counted the splines, measured the OD. All was the same, so what's the deal? Started looking closer and noticed that the root of the spline was not as deep on the new axles. ID was .040" bigger than the OE axles. This was June 26th, so what do I do now? For the hell of it while lacking sleep and angry, took a 10 lb sledge and tried to beat the axles into the old carrier, only engaged about 0.25" and was ripping material out of the spline root the entire way. Decided to try and massage the root with my dremel tool and was not successful. Just wasn't going to work. Called Alloy USA customer service on Monday morning and they of course had never heard of such a problem, and were back ordered on 200 axles so they could not send me any more, but would refund my money for the axles (was stuck with the new wheel bearings and studs that I installed). Guess I should have trial fit the freaking axles before putting $60 worth of bearings on them (should have been tipped off with the made in India sticker on them). Surprised I didn't give up by this point, but kept focused on trying to have the car roadworthy by the 30th. Anyway, ordered Superior Gear axles on Monday the 28th, had them Tuesday along with new bearings. THEY FIT PERFECTLY! I had previously put the rear back in the car on Sunday evening with new Moog CC501 springs and KYB gas shocks, sans the rear axles and brakes.

[PontGuy]

Wow, a 1600 mile road trip after the mad rush repairs and only a 200 mile break-in, I have to agree with Mike on the atta boy. Your successful trip is a testimony to your skill (or maybe blind luck?) but either way well done!

As for the axles, I am also learning that its a good idea to inspect and test everything before assembling these days- its hard to believe how many bad parts there are lately.

[2manyponchos]

Originally Posted by PontGuy

Wow, a 1600 mile road trip after the mad rush repairs and only a 200 mile break-in, I have to agree with Mike on the atta boy. Your successful trip is a testimony to your skill (or maybe blind luck?) but either way well done!

As for the axles, I am also learning that its a good idea to inspect and test everything before assembling these days- its hard to believe how many bad parts there are lately.

200 mile break in was nixon. My car saw about 10 miles in town before hitting I-74 and heading west!