64 Pontiac GTO - Basket case to beautiful (I hope)

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everyone –

I thought since I intend to be hanging out around here for a while, I would start a build thread to show those interested the restoration of my goat. The plan is to build a nice driver with some period Day 2 modifications. The metalwork is being done by pros – but I am going to be doing the filler work, sanding and primer shooting, as well as the mechanical, electrical, and upholstery work. This is going to take a long time since I am not a wealthy person. This is also not my first rodeo. I’ll begin with a little history and then catch everyone up to where we are now.

The car is a documented ’64 GTO which was built July 27, 1964 at the Pontiac, Michigan plant. She was factory-equipped with the 348 hp. Tri Power engine, limited slip, quick ratio steering, HD suspension but few other options. Oddly, the buyer didn’t upgrade the transmission – so the car was delivered with the base 3-speed manual. It was ordered in Saddle Bronze (S code) with a light Saddle (216) interior.

The goat was delivered to Schappe Pontiac in Madison, Wisconsin – but judging by the lack of rust, couldn’t have stayed there long. I know that it was registered for the road in Adams County, Colorado in 1986. And was purchased by the previous owner in Southern California in 1987. I bought the car in Las Vegas, the perfect town for such a gamble. (Anyone out there recognize this car?)

The car was taken apart and the restoration started by the previous owner around 1987, but that restoration stalled. I found it for sale on Craigslist and after some back-and-forth ended up buying the car. Other than boxes of parts - this is what we started with:

The PO had removed the passenger side quarter and most of the trunk pan. He said that the quarter was too stretched from previous work to be repaired and that the trunk pan had rusted out due to someone storing leaking batteries in it.

You can see the damage from a collision in the outer wheel well, although it isn’t too bad and didn’t get into the package tray area. Combined with the damage to the roof (coming up), our best thought on what happened is a collision with a small pole or (I think) a fence-line. I would bet the backend came around on someone and the car slid into something that wasn’t solid enough to wipe-out the quarter, wheel well and package tray – but was solid enough to take the quarter and trunk lid and got up onto the roof where the damage continued. It is also clear that the car took a front-end hit at some point – but based on the good quality bodywork associated with that and the horrible work at the back end, these were probably separate incidents.

At the time I got the car full quarter panels were not available – and the supply of good, clean salvage metal was all but used up. Finally, AMD introduced a full quarter panel for the 64-65 GTO. About this time, I was hunting for a shop to hang the quarter and fit the trunk pan. Based on a recommendation from a friend in ended talking with Cam at Imperial Kustom in Boise. After a little wait for a spot with him I dropped the car off to start the metal work.

Prior to dropping the car off though we (me, my wife, and a friend) took it up off the frame and installed new body mounts on it. We also installed the front end sheet metal correctly and gapped it to the doors to make sure the quarter ended up in the right place. This gave me a chance to get some pictures of the firewall.

Once I organize a few more pictures - I will show the continuing repairs starting the with trunk and quarter panel. I hope you enjoy following along.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

As soon as the new reproduction AMD quarter panels came out I had one delivered. I had purchased an OE salvage quarter (the best one I could find) but it turned out to have some hidden damage that made using it labor intensive. Cam installed the trunk pan and braces and hung the new quarter panel. The wheel well area straightened out nicely.

Here is the wheelhouse brought back to rough shape and the three piece Goodmark trunk pan being installed.

And the quarter panel hung...

The quarter panel fit well through the pillar area – but was pretty far off at the rear of the car where it joined the tail panel. To be fair - these AMD panels have had good reviews for the fit, I don't know if the problems with mine were the result of it being one of the first in the country, or just my bad luck.

You can see here how far the fit was off based on the cast quarter panel extension.

The quarter was short in both the vertical dimension and in the horizontal. To address this problem, Cam grafted a portion of a salvage quarter to the trunk lip area and split the new quarter, reworked the profile and welded in a new piece. He likes to gas weld, generally without filler and then planish the weld.

In the next installment I'll show that final work to make the reproduction quarter ready for final body/paint.

Thanks for following along - I hope everyone is enjoying the build.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

To finish off adjustments to the reproduction quarter Cam made a new piece for the end of the quarter where it meets the tail panel. This was done to get the fit to the cast quarter panel extension as nice as possible. Those of you who have experience with these kind of cast pieces know how they tend to be misshapen and warped. He also crisped up the body line that originates at the door seam so that it looks like the one on the OE quarter.

Next up...the horror show that was the roof. I hope everyone is enjoying catching up on the restoration of the goat.

 

[dhutton01]

One of my favorites. I built one several years ago.

Don

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Thanks Don for the comment and thanks to everyone for the likes - I am glad people are checking out this thread.

It was love at first sight for me with the '64 GTO - even though it took years for me to finally get one. I have always liked how the '64 looks back at that earlier styles (like the '62 Catalina). Also, I've appreciated how they tend to be the no-frills hotrod of the GTO.

Now for the next step on our process with this car...I knew the roof was a bit of a mess when I bought the car. I just didn't realize how bad it was. Cam had to show some serious metal shaping chops to get this roof into shape. You can see from the inside that the roof was in some seriously bad shape especially in the rear driver corner. Cutting into the bondo on the top of the roof showed that it was more sculpture than bodywork.

Like so many things on this car, no roof skin was available. I began to hunt for a salvage piece locally, but in pretty short order Cam suggested he just make the portion we needed on his wheel. Initially we thought that we could just replace about a quarter of it. But after the bondo was stripped the new panel ended up covering about 2/3 of the roof. The rest was worked back into shape with hammer and dolly.

Here is the first panel which we thought would be enough to allow the rest of the roof to straightened. That was before all the filler was stripped and the extent of the stretch in the panel was clear.

Here is the final size of the panel off the car.

This is a series showing the fit-up and finishing. Total variation in the panel is about 1/16". The center panel seams were gas welded and the perimeter seams were made with the MIG since the backside of the welds wasn't accessible.

Something I find kinda cool is some graffiti inside of the new roof skin - under the primer/paint the signature of the craftsman will remain...

Thanks for following along. I hope everyone is enjoying the process as much as I am enjoying showing it. More to come...(and eventually some SPI content).

 

[dhutton01]

Nice work! Wish I had those metal shaping skills.

Don

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Don -- Those aren't my skills...but I'll pass along your compliments. (My metalworking skills are just about limited to finding the right guy to hire). Although, I did get to hold the dolly on the roof because it was too far for Cam to stretch and use both the hammer and dolly. It was cool to watch the shape change.

 

[elwood]

Wow.

 

[1A Rock]

You were lucky to find someone with this kind of skill set, they're not everywhere. Cam is a craftsman!

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

I definitely known how lucky I am to have located someone with such excellent metal working skills. I won't say that he thinks my project is child's play but...Currently he is grafting two '41 Dodge truck cabs into one crew-cab, and recently built a factory appearing tailgate for a '68 El Camino out of aluminum.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

The final finish on the roof and quarter repairs was the leading of the sail panel seams and two small areas at the end of the roof repair patch where it joined the structure. These small areas couldn't be worked from behind - so they were leveled from the top and leaded.

This photo shows the leaded areas at the front where the gas seam joined the roof structure.

I know that many people no longer favor the use of body solder for this type of thing - but Cam and I both liked doing it this way. The leading is an interesting process - involving a fine balance between keeping the sheet metal hot enough and the solder just short of running. Here are a few photos of the process.

Following the completion of leading - all the bare areas up to this point were shot with old, leaded, DP40 - to protect it from any rust/corrosion. (You may also notice that I found a new deck lid...which was a lucky find being a one-year-only part that is rare as hens teeth).

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

I know some of you will recognize what comes next. After this much work you get the “might-as-wells”. In this case, I decided that since Cam is so skilled and everything else is so nice that we might-as-well do something with a previously installed lower quarter patch. And as always happens when you do this it turned into more work than expected.

Here is a picture showing the interior flanged patch panel.

Exploring the filler and the weld seam...I need to get a weaker magnet - because I didn't think it was this thick.

Some layout fluid and a long board...

Cam fabricated a patch to eliminate the top portion of the old patch panel and straightened the bag-of-walnuts surface of the quarter, re-establishing the profile of the quarter in the metal rather than using filler.

So...This post catches us y'all up to where the project is at currently. The driver quarter should be finish straightened soon. On the bright side we are running out of panels to straighten. Hopefully soon - I can put the body into SPI epoxy and start the filler and blocking work.

Thanks for following along.

 

[Strangersfaces]

Like the “might-as-wells”, and know exactly what you mean.

I worked prepping used cars for sale as a teen, bought and drove a 66 GTO once I got my license. 20 or so years later I got the hankering for another 64-67, but balked at the prices they were bringing. Love seeing yours get the care it needs...

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the project progress,

Lance

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Strangersfaces -- the pricing of these cars kept me out anything but a basketcase. I am glad you are enjoying following along on the progress.

And I do have some progress to report...Cam is back at it and working to finish up the driver's quarter before moving on to the next things (because we know there is always a next thing).

We had a wicked low spot at the back of the wheel opening - so to address it Cam cut out a portion of the wheel house allowing for access to the back and now the metal is moving back into a good shape. So on it goes -- a stretch here and a shrink there. It is gonna be nice when it is done...Enjoy the pics.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Hi Everybody -- I hope people are enjoying following along with this build.

A little more progress on this project - getting closer to shooting some SPI epoxy. The quarter has been brought to the point where the shape and profile is pretty nice. And the area of the quarter near the door post - which had a section that oilcanned easily has been worked to put some strength back into that area. A little more work - especially below the body line and we should be ready to move on to the doors and front fenders...Thanks for following along.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

We did a very quick exploration of the doors and front fenders - just to see what was waiting in those pieces. In general the news was pretty good, just the usual door dings and small dents. Lots of unnecessary fill in some places.

The driver's side is about the same - except the lower fender which is pretty mangled and was built out of mud. Cam has fabricated a patch to replace the bad metal.

Sorry the pictures are so bad. My phone camera was struggling for some reason.

Thanks for following along.

 

[fishingfooltim]

Wow is all I can say. Cam does some amazing work. I am loving following your build.

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Thanks...Glad you are following along. No doubt I was lucky to find Cam - he is an amazing craftsman.

To update this thread - here is some of Cam's handy work (and his hands) on the mangled lower fender on the driver side of the GTO. The patch panels available for this area are really poor quality so Cam fabricated the patch.

The patch shown below was made in two pieces - one was the wheel arch section and the other was everything else. Thankfully the passenger side was in good shape and could act as a mirrored template.

This section was then joined with the other fabricated section to make a patch panel.

This was then joined to the fender - it still needs some final welding, planishing and trimming but this gives you a good idea of the final product.

The weld gap looked like this...

Thanks everyone for following along. Making some progress - it is a marathon not a sprint....

 

[1_Wild_Cat]

Yeah....SPI Epoxy ordered today. Somebody tell Logan - Thanks for the help.

We had a bit of a break in working on the goat over the last little bit. But it is back to getting the attention it needs - and Cam is finishing all the more detailed stuff now.

There turned out to be one spot of rust on the car - where the filler neck comes through the areas that the floor and the tail panel meet. Here is a look at the rusted panel.

Sorry for the poor pictures. Here is Cam's patch being installed.

The patch panel on the fender is finished too. He just has a few smaller dings to work out and the holes from the lemans/tempest nose badge to fill. This fender was a replacement - probably when the car had the front end collision that can be seen in the repairs to the core support. Some pics...

Thanks again everyone for following along. Hopefully soon you will see pictures of her in fresh Red Oxide SPI...

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Excellent metal work.
My thoughts are that the car was rear ended at some point. This would explain the wrinkled metal on the left quarter panel, roof and the poor fit on AMD quarter panel at the rear of the car.
You obviously chose the right guy to get this work done. The car will look better than new when done.