The 335-horse 400 has been...
The 335-horse 400 has been treated to an original Pontiac Ram Air pan, an H.O. cam, and H.O./Ram Air exhaust manifolds. Note the ultra-rare California emissions system.
A Plan For Building It His Way
When contemplating the restoration, Bill decided to "build the car the way I would have ordered it new in 1967; sort of a re-creation of the very rare convertible Ram Air cars." So in went a tilt wheel (code 504), a vacuum gauge, a power antenna (code 341), and complete Ram Air system, including original-issue H.O./Ram Air exhaust manifolds and Ram Air pan.
Also added were the reclining passenger bucket seat (code 578) and headrests (code 571), power-trunk release (code 492), a N.O.S. tissue dispenser, and mirror and lamp packages. Red plastic fender liners (option code 522) were part of this upgrade as well. Bill describes the result as a restored GTO with options that were either factory installed, or were available as factory or dealer installed on this vehicle.
The Resto
In April 1995, the GTO was media-blasted to bare metal and prepared for painting. Wherever possible, dents were pulled by tack welding a copper wire to the dent and pulling it out rather than by drilling holes in the body. A two-stage urethane base/clearcoat by PPG called Deltron DBU was employed and the color was pigment-matched by a device that scanned the original overspray at the lower "A" pillar. It was applied by Jack Cantrell, a former painter from the Fisher Body plant in Flint, Michigan.
Bill says that the Goat probably has about five coats of color over DP90 primer. After wet-sanding the color coats, two or three coats of clear were added, then it was wet-sanded again with grades up to 3,000 before buffing with a foam pad.
A host of options were included...
A host of options were included in this Goat's original build. Bill has since added even more.
Black Morrokide interior (code 223) was restored by Bill with the help of Thompson Upholstery in Allenville, Missouri, using original material from SMS Upholstery in Oregon. Phil Thompson hand-cut the pattern from a set of original covers and stitched together each section of material to make up the entire bucket-seat upholstery. SMS did the dielectric embossing of the center panels.
The chassis was also prepared by Bill and is factory stock throughout. Safe-T-Track 3.90:1 gears spin bias-ply Firestone F70-14 Redlines mounted on factory 14x6 Rally I wheels. Brakes are stock 9.5-inch drums, front and rear.
It isn't known who built the original California code WW (400 335-horse, manual trans with A.I.R.) engine, as it was done prior to Bill's purchase of the Goat, but he tore it down, checked, reassembled, and resealed it. It appears to him that the block was bored 0.030 over, and the reciprocating assembly was balanced. The bottom end uses cast pistons connected to stock rods and a cast crank. Bill upgraded the engine with a Crane replacement "068" cam featuring 288/302-degrees duration, in an effort to improve performance over the stock 273/289-degree "067" cam, but maintain a higher idle quality than the Ram Air 301/313-degree "744" cam. The cylinder heads are the original 670s with 2.11/1.77 valves. A Q-jet carb delivers the mixture, a points-type distributor lights it, and the Ram Air manifolds dispense with the remains through aluminized 2.5-inch mandrel-bent pipes, Flowmaster Delta Force mufflers, and original-style chrome exhaust extensions.
On The Road
Bill drives his Plum Mist prize less than 500 miles a year, mostly to local car shows and cruises, and trailers it to national Pontiac events. It has garnered over 40 First or Second Place trophies since it was completed in 1997. It was recognized as one of the top 40 cars out of nearly 300 entries at the fall '05 Cruisin' Tigers Indian Uprising show and repeated with a First Place award in the '06 edition of the same show.