The refreshed Ram Air IV engine retains the original WW-code block. Induction, ignition, and exhaust are all correct. Its Ram Air lower pan and lid are reproduction from Ames, but the upper pan and flapper doors are original. The only points taken off under the hood at the GTOAA Nationals in concours judging were for the upper radiator hose, for style, an antifreeze leak at the water neck, and a ding at the top of the radiator tank. |
In the obligatory before photo, you can see the overall body condition and that the front clip is missing. |
Here is the frame, stripped bare and ready for paint. Despite a serious traffic accident, the frame was repairable. |
David had his work cut out for him inside as well. Note the rusted-through front floorpan and the condition of the wood wheel and upholstery. |
First David tracked down the original owner. Purchased in March of 1969, the GTO had been built as a racer with very few options and was used as such until 1980 when it was parked. It was around then that the original owner's son went for a ride that ended in disaster for the Goat. Involved in a front-end collision, the Pontiac was decimated, and even the frame and firewall felt the brunt of the hit. That's why the front sheetmetal was missing at the time of purchase. With the finer historical details of his Poncho uncovered, David proceeded to gather parts for the restoration.
Given the GTO's rarity and worth, he decided on a concours restoration that would bring it back as close to factory as possible. Over the next six years, he scoured the swap meets, Web, shows, and junkyards looking for the missing pieces to his Pontiac puzzle. But not just any old replacement part would work. David wanted the correctly coded stuff. "I found an original date-coded carburetor, alternator, waterpump, manual steering pulley and brackets, and distributor," David says, "To find much of it, I had to wait until after the restoration began." But thankfully, he was a bit of a packrat and had been buying N.O.S. parts since the early '80s. He had items to trade or sell to get the parts he didn't already have.
With the correct-parts pile growing, the restoration began in 2003 when he took the GTO to his friend, Dan Finkenbinder, of Pontiac, Illinois, and it was fully disassembled. The body and frame were separated for the first time, and the chassis work began. Locating another '69 GTO, which he actually purchased for its N.O.S. front sheetmetal, Dave had something he could work from to resurrect the rare GTO core. "I paid a bundle for it," he says, "but it came with N.O.S. parts galore!" Dan handled any remaining frame issues and repaired the firewall damage.
He then cleaned off all the paint and rust with a good sandblasting. After the prep work, the entire frame was shot with PPG DP90 in two coats, followed by three more of DAR9000 black chassis paint, combined with DXR80 hardener and a DX685 flattening agent for a factory look.
With the frame ready for its suspension components and since David had already laid down the rules of this game, stock and N.O.S. parts were bolted on; the original 1.00-inch front stabilizer bar paired up with a stock centerlink and tie rods, N.O.S. control arms, spiral shocks, spindles, and drums. Eaton springs and replacement rubber bushings were employed as well.
Supporting the whole assembly is a set of HF-coded steel rims wrapped in 14-inch Firestone G70 reproduction redlines. "I first thought the wheels were supposed to be blue to match the car, so we painted them that way," David recalls. "They looked fantastic, but when I learned they needed to be black, black they became."
With the entire project aligned towards the way Pontiac did it back in the day, the '69's WW-coded 400 engine was freshened with a .030 overbore and stock parts wherever possible. The factory cast crank was refurbished, stock cast rods were resized and TRW .030-over forged pistons were employed.