1968 Pontiac GTO Convertible - Judge-Meant Day

Neither was JS Automotive going to give up. Its bodymen surgically removed the rotted metal, leaving only the skeleton of the body shell, then welded reproduction and donor sheetmetal onto it until it was rust-free once again.

Meanwhile, Kenan had plans for the engine compartment's look. He asked the body shop to remove the heater core and its hoses, and smooth the entire firewall, except for a 11/2-inch hole near the distributor. "I don't like the look of wires and envisioned a chrome tube coming out from the firewall, which would hide the engine-bay wiring harness," he said.

After metalwork was complete, the techs at JS Automotive applied a light coat of Dynatron body filler where needed, and sanded to smooth the body. Multiple coats of DuPont Euro 40 primer were sanded with grits up to 320, and then wet-sanded with 400-grit to get the body ready for paint.

To duplicate the bright hue Kenan found so alluring on the '69 Judge, JS Automotive applied six coats of DuPont ChromaBase in Carousel Red, followed by five coats of ChromaClear. The paint was wet sanded with 1,000- and 1,500-grits, and later buffed to a high-luster using 3M products.

Engine
The GTO's original YS-code 400 was long gone when Kenan bought his convertible, so he sent an orphaned YH-code 428 to Pontiac-expert Nunzi Romano of Brooklyn.

"Nunzi was in the process of retiring after so many years, but he said he would do all the machine work on the motor," he explains. That included boring the 428 0.030-over and using a blueprinted, nitride heat-treated, 4.21-stroke 455 crank.

Kenan assembled the motor, using Crower forged 6.625-inch connecting rods and TRW forged, flat-top, oversize pistons. The resulting displacement is 455 ci.

Nunzi is known for giving engines a more aggressive personality than they left the factory with. This included porting a pair of 6X heads, equipping them with his own brand of 2.11/1.66 valves and Crower 1.65:1 roller rockers, and treating the motor to one of his 2043NHL cams with 244/252-degrees duration and 0.553/0.550-inch of lift.

For the fuel, spark, oiling, and header systems, Nunzi had a very specific grocery list for the owner: a Holley 950-cfm Double Pumper, a port-matched Edelbrock Torker II, a Pertronix HEI distributor routed with ACCEL 8mm wires to ACDelco 45TS plugs, a stock-replacement 60-psi oil pump, a Nunzi 7-quart oil pan with modified windage tray, and Hooker Super Comp ceramic-coated headers with 1.875-inch primaries and 3-inch collectors.

Chassis, Suspension, Brakes, And Drivetrain
Kenan stripped the rolling chassis to its frame, sanded it bare, and applied Eastwood Rust Inhibitor, followed by the company's Chassis Black. He painted the front and rear upper and lower control arms Carousel Red, and swapped in replacement front and rear coil springs and ACDelco shocks. The GTO had oversized 1.25-inch front and 0.875-inch rear sway bars when he bought it, so he cleaned them up and painted them before reinstallation.

Next, came a braking upgrade. "The original drum brakes weren't enough for me because all this power on the streets would be dangerous if the GTO wouldn't stop," Kenan said. Accordingly, he sourced factory front-disc brakes from a '69 Grand Prix and a rear disc-brake setup from Master Power Brakes of Mooresville, North Carolina, featuring 11-inch vented rotors, and Cadillac single-piston calipers with a built-in E-brake. "It bolted up with no problem," he says.

Reinstalling the drivetrain followed, including, in addition to Nunzi's 428/455, a TCI 3,500-stall torque converter; a Turbo 400 automatic trans with a shift kit; a modified, seamless driveshaft with a heavy-duty yoke; and a 12-bolt Pontiac rearend with Safe-T-Track, Richmond 4.10 gears, and Mark Williams 30-spline axles, courtesy of Farks Supercars in Brooklyn.