1968 Pontiac GTO - Mr. Gadget's Goat

How an electrical engineer built his ultimate GTO for the street

By Thomas A. Demauro

Artists will add excitement with a dash of color, and the writer will do so through carefully chosen prose; the engineer makes his mark by trying to further improve what was engineered in the past. Such is the case with this 1968 GTO.

Harold Murray is an electrical engineer/business owner from Oakland, N.J. who decided to illustrate his talents for analytical thought and application through a 1968 GTO project. The Pontiac in question was not destined to be a paint daub correct restoration nor was it headed for drag strip exploits as a fulltime race car. No, this Goat would be a street car that blends new and old but also exhibits very interesting trim and gadgetry that has been seamlessly incorporated into the 34-year-old legend.

From its outward appearance, you'd be easily convinced that Harold's hot rod was simply a nice restoration with a body color a few shades more brilliant than stock. However, a look on the inside will prove you wrong since everything from the engine to the interior has been modified in ways that only an engineer could envision and have the skills to turn into reality.

Let's begin at the beginning. A refugee from the street wars of days gone by, the $2,500 hulk of what once was a 1968 GTO was dragged home by Harold back in 1996. The owner readily admits that he paid too much for it. "After getting it back, I discovered that everything that wasn't Bondo was incorrect," Murray lamented. "The GTO was originally equipped with a bench seat, a column shifted automatic trans and A/C. When I got it, the bench seat was gone, a cast-iron case Saginaw 4-speed trans was installed, junkyard-swap-style, and the front end was put together with spacers and tie wraps." A bent frame extension, found and fixed later, solved the spacer/tie wrap mystery.

All was not lost, however. The GTO did come with a solid non-stock 12-bolt posi rear, a steel flywheel and a tried and true 400 engine of 1970s vintage and, best of all, it was a real GTO. With matching numbers no longer a concern, Harold decided to build it how he wanted it.

Frame-off would be the only way to go. Also soon to go was the Mayfair Maze hue with the tan Cordova top. Jim Duffy at Car Care, Inc. in Honesdale, Pa. handled the exterior transformation from abused yellow musclecar to DuPont Chroma Premier Blue base/clear coat street machine. New quarters and fenders were part of the equation.

In the meantime, Harold got to work making his 4-speed GTO actually look like a 4- speed GTO by welding in a factory trans tunnel hump. This process was not without its drama, however, as Harold lit the undercoating on fire with the welder. Such is life.

Beneath those flaming floorboards Harold looked to the aftermarket to improve handling from 1968 standards. Along with a bunch of replacement front-end parts, in went a set of Polyurethane bushings to reduce deflection during hard cornering. Hotchkis rear control arms were fitted and the stock 1-inch front stabilizer was augmented by a like-sized piece of bent steel in the rear, to cut down on body lean in the curves. A quartet of KYB gas shocks assures jounce and rebound characteristics commensurate with a stout street car. When it came to wheels and tires, the choices were more stock in appearance with 14 X 6 JA code Rally IIs up front and larger and later 15 x 7 Rally IIs in the rear. Though not known for ultimate stick, Goodyear's Eagle STs (front) and GTIIs (rear) offer a compromise between the vintage raised white letter look and the performance of a modern radial street tire.

Of course improved handling is great but what about stopping? In Harold's case, Stainless Steel Brakes Corp provided a disc kit that places a 1970 style GTO system up front to work in conjunction with factory 9.5-inch drum rear brakes.

So now the stage is set: this 1968 GTO will have an eye-popping hue and a suspension system that will keep up with many so called sportsters. Now, let's consider the motorvation.

Built by Haledon Auto down under and finished by the owner up top, a 400 block is the basis for this street engine. A pump-gas compression ratio was mandatory and a complete Edelbrock top end was designated to lighten the load, increase octane tolerance (10:1 compression on 94 octane) and add some glitter. Starting at the bottom, the 400 block was punched .060 and fitted with a stock crank retained by 2-bolt caps with Clevite bearings. Swinging off the crank are Eagle forged steel rods and .060 forged flat-top TRW pistons. Harold installed a Comp Cams stick with 232*/237* duration at .050 and .481 lift, which directs the orchestra of 16 (2.11/1.66 inches) stainless steel valves in the fully assembled as-delivered Edelbrock heads via Manley pushrods and Comp Cams roller tip 1.5:1 rockers. The heads were not ported but the oil returns were drilled out. A Performer RPM intake distributes the mixture drawn from the 750 CFM box stock carb. Fire is provided by an HEI, an ACCEL coil, an MSD 6AL with a timing computer, MSD wires and Champion plugs.

Sure, the engine can take in a lot of air but how will it clear its throat? A set of Jet Hot coated Ram Air IV manifolds usher the fumes into 2.5-inch head pipes with an X crossover courtesy of Doug's Street Shop in Fairlawn, N.J. Dynomax mufflers tune the tones and 2.5-inch tails introduce the hydrocarbons to the atmosphere.

With all of this power up front, it just wouldn't seem right to not have a Muncie transfer it all to the 3.55 posi rear. So a 1969 M20 4-speed was bolted in along with the aforementioned steel flywheel and a Centerforce clutch. A driveshaft loop was installed to catch the shaft should the U-joints fail.

Okay it's got the looks, the handling and the power to be a real street hero, so what do you do with the living quarters? Well, you upholster it with acres of white Morrokide from P.U.I., lay down a carpet from A.C.C. and then meld some personal touches with all of the goodness that Pontiac provided.

Points of interest to those who enjoy tasteful modification are the aluminum custom dash panel; the shift light and buzzer box mounted where the driver's visor once was; and a completely hidden stereo system and engine hour meter in the glovebox. The custom dash fascia project began with the use of a reproduction woodgrain dash applique to create a Solidworks (computer program) 3D model. It was then transferred to a CNC output file. A piece of .040 aluminum was punched out according to the CNC specs on an Amada automatic punch by Ace Metalcraft in West Paterson, N.J. Once done, the aluminum piece was treated to a manually-brushed finish with a Bridgeport to match the stock steering wheel spokes. With the dashboard removed from the GTO, the aluminum panel was attached to it, using adhesive. Since the dash is slightly curved, a custom jig was employed to press the flat aluminum panel onto the curved dash and hold it in place overnight, allowing the adhesive to dry. All of this took tons of hours to conceive and execute--typical, from an engineering mind. Owner fabrication does not begin and end with the interior, however. Under the hood, custom brackets and a fan shroud were made to contain the Be-Cool aluminum radiator. And since the GTO was originally equipped with A/C, the box had to go. So instead of using a factory non A/C heater box and welding the firewall up, Harold fabricated a custom job from mild steel and had it Jet Hot coated..

With $29,000 spent over five years and "six billion hours" of labor, according to the owner, this '68 GTO is a sight to behold and contains many hidden treasures for the gadget junkies among us. Harold says, "My GTO blends elements of stock and modified features to produce what I imagined the ultimate GTO to be. It's fast, handles well, runs on pump gas, and sounds and looks great." We couldn't have said it better.