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Here comes the Judge, my 69 GTO

Daved_XB

Ok, so as you may have seen this car in the back ground of some of the Pics from either my Challenger or XB threads, I hadn’t planned a build thread on this as I don’t plan on a rebuild any time soon…. But I figured why not share anyway, this thread is lifted from some other forums I’m on, so ignore any references to things I’m about to buy or do… it’s all done now ….

Anyway I have added another car to my little Muscle car collection, to give you an idea of the timeline I bought this late last year… so here is my all original 1969 Orbit Orange GTO, it’s a 3 speed Auto with the 400ci (6.6 ltr) V8 & the big 12 bolt rear end.

It’s not a concourse show car, but it’s in really good condition for its age & has all of the original bits with it, still had the original build sheet under the rear seat (this is now framed)

I had to play garage Tetris to fit her in for now, but she’s in… a second hoist is now on my letter to Satan this Xmas, as I clearly don’t have enough space to add another car

Now, this thread will not be me stripping the car down to a million pieces & doing a frame off restoration….. (well it won’t be yet anyway), the plan is to just do the minimum to make it a nice cruiser for the summer here to enjoy some time out of the Skunk Works away from smacking the other 3 with hammers, once the others are finished then I might go mad on this on too… right now I just need fix a few things that she needs done to get her up to a level so that she’ll pass an Australian roadworthy inspection…. From my brief looking she needs:

The brakes sorted, they are real spongy right now & don’t give any confidence at all

The headlights have an earth issue & they don’t all work all the time, I’ll also swap the old 1969 sealed beams out for some fancy new H4’s or maybe even LED ones

The GEN light (generator or alt light) is constantly on & only goes out after about 30 minutes of driving so I think that either the Alt or the regulator is stuffed

There is no windshield washer bottle

There is a leak from the rocker cover gasket that drips oil onto the exhaust header on the passenger side

The passenger side header has a leak, not sure if it’s loose, cracked or if the gasket is gone

There is a slight leak from the power steering box

Once I’ve done the above list I’ll take her to a testing Engineer & see what other things they say need to be done, but hopefully my list is everything…

There are also some non-roadworthy issues that will go onto the fix soon list, they are:

The hood mounted tacho doesn’t work & as this is such a cool feature this must be fixed soon

The plug leads are way too long & wrap around the engine bay

The bearing in the pulley on the aircon compressor is on its way out & squeals like a pig & the gas needs to be replaces with non-planet killing stuff.

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Daved_XB

Today was indeed front brake install day… first step was to install the new wheel studs into the billet hubs

The hub is drilled so it can be used on either Pontiac or Chev wheel bolt patterns, so I screwed the studs in by hand & then tested them on a wheel before committing to some red Loctite & a whack of the torque wrench, sadly the new studs are a different thread pitch than the stock studs in the rear axles, so I may have to swap them out, for now it will mean having a different set of wheel nuts front & rear

IMG]https://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq330/Daved_XB/The GOAT/IMG_8154_zpso80kkle5.jpg[/IMG]

These Wilwood brakes are a multi part piece of kit, so next job was to bolt the brake rotor to the adapter plate

Then the rotor/adapter plate assembly is bolted to the hub

Then I packed the inner bearing & installed that & the dust seal into the hub

Daved_XB

Next step was to install the caliper bracket onto the spindle, these have to be shimmed to fit as the engineering on these cars isn’t exactly too NASA levels of exactance…. So I went with a guess of 4 shims for the lower bolt as you can see from the 2nd pic

Then you install the rotor assembly & then you can measure the top & bottom gap from the bracket to the disk & either add or remove shims as required until you have the same gap from the bracket to the rotor top & bottom

Once you have that sorted then you can put the split pin in & screw on the billet cap

Then you install the caliper & again measure the gaps, this time left & right of the rotor faces to the caliper wall so you can shim the caliper so that the rotor is in the middle of the caliper

Then you install the pads & you are done

Daved_XB

They give you a wheel spacer in the kit too as some wheels won’t clear the caliper

I test fit a wheel on mine, not that I ever even remotely thought I’d need the spacer to clear my 17’ wheels… I was correct spacer not needed

The next step was to reattach the steering arms

Job done… very very happy with how they look

I won’t be in the Skunk Works tomorrow… I need to spend some time with Mrs XB & some friends.. but the jobs for next week will be to figure out how to replace the AC condenser at the front whilst removing the minimum amount of panels & parts to do so…. Once that’s done I can install the new front sway bar & then make up any new brake lines I need… then I’ll clean up the rear chassis & install the new fuel tank & run the new fuel lines.. so stay tuned, same bat time.. same bat channel

Daved_XB

I have a new fuel tank to go in the car, an aeromotive setup with an in-tank pump… the kit is pretty good, comes with the correct OEM shaped tank as you would expect but with a recess cut out to take the new pump outlets

They supply the correct -8 (& -6 for the vent line) connectors

The fuel pressure regulator & inline filter

They also supply the correct pressure gauge for the regulator & the 3 x -8 connectors that you need

The one way ball vent for the tank vent line

& finally the wiring kit for the pump

I then went out panic bought a heap on AN fittings & some braided line so that I can make up the whole system once I’ve given the rest of a chassis a quick clean & paint

Just need to decide where to mount the regulator in the engine bay, you mostly see them mounted off on the inner wing

Daved_XB

Another option I have is to place it on the firewall, there is an old external regulator that was for the old 1969 alternator as they didn’t have internally regulated ones back then, if you’d read this thread from the start you’d know that I replaced the ALT not long after getting the car so this part can be removed & added to the pile of old unwanted parts I’m building

I think I’d rather have it mounted here if I can

Daved_XB

Everyone on the interwebs who knew told me that you cannot remove the AC condenser without taking the front panels off… can’t be done don’t try, I really didn’t wan to do that… so I spent a long time looking at it whilst having a beer & figured I could do it by removing the drivers side bracket & then gently twisting that bracket out & then pulling the actual condenser out thru the engine bay

Take that interwebs… got it out without damaging anything at all.. now that’s out I’ll clean up the space behind the nose

I have a brand new condenser to go in, it’s silver & whilst I know there is little to no real thermal benefit to black vs silver I think that the silver will stand out too much behind the grills so I’ll paint it flat black

Daved_XB

The new AC kit I bought came with everything except a drier I found out when I opened the new condenser box.. so I pulled the old one off

Test fitted it

Then thru it in the bin & have ordered a brand new one.. it should arrive next week.. then I took the brackets off the new condenser & painted the whole lot matt black

This is now ready to go in & yes I have remembered that the drives side bracket has to be removed to get it in, but keeping it all together means I can’t lose any bits… I want to buy a external transmission cooler & install that in the nose in front of where the condenser goes, so that’ll go in first when I get it

I am also replacing the battery tray as acid has leaked onto this over the years & it’s badly corroded.. I have a new one on a shelf somewhere here in the Skunk Works as I know I bought one not long after getting the car

I’ll also clean up the area under the battery tray before installing the new one

Daved_XB

I’ve decided to fit a remote trans cooler to the front of the car since I have both the radiator & condenser out, I’ve decided to bypass the radiator & it’s only job being cooling the engine. I bought a PWR cooler that has AN fittings & not the usual barbed ones that use hose clamps to hold the hose on

I’ve bought straight & 90 deg -6 AN connectors as I’m not sure how the mounting will be up front yet

I’ve also painted this stealth black too

I’ve also gotten the correct ¼” NPSM to -6 connectors for the Turbo 400 transmission, as I plan to run -6 braided lines instead of making up new hard lines

This means that my stock pile of -6 & -8 AN fittings & braided hoses are building…

Daved_XB

Spent a bit of time mounting up the trans cooler, I installed the new AC condenser so I could see exactly how much room I had to play with…

One of the two horns will be an issue & will need to be moved

For now I just moved it to the other side of the core support

Then I hung the cooler in with some cable ties so I can sit back & have a good look at where it would sit

Pulled the AC condenser back out again to give me room to work now that I know the cooler will fit nicely in front of it without fouling on anything other than the horn that I’ll move

Daved_XB

I can’t just leave the horn flipped onto the other side of the support like I have now as its in the airflow & I don’t want that

The bracket on the back of the horn is molded into the horn & can’t be removed without cracking the horn case, so I carefully spent some time heating the metal & gently folding it into the new shape I wanted

That works… the horn mounts to the original holes & is now out of the way of the cooler but still out of the airflow too… now to make up some brackets for the cooler

The cross bar at the top is a square section so I can’t drill a whole & push a bolt thru, so I’ve welded a pair of screws on to mount the cooler hanging brackets

Not happy with just the two vertical brackets even though they’d probably be fine, so I made a horizontal brace too

Then I painted them both black

Daved_XB

With the paint dry & the cooler installed, I’m pretty happy with how it sits

I can’t finish up the install of this cooler until the final AC part the drier turns up & then I can get the front 3 x rads in & move onto something else. I went to make up the brake lines but I had the wrong parts to fit the rear hard lines into the Wilwood calipers so I’ve had to order some new fittings that hopefully work… but I did get the fronts finished

Daved_XB

I’m trying to spend an hour a night now out in the shed working on stuff, it doesn’t sound like a lot but it does help progress things along. The AC drier turned up, it was again bright chrome so I’ve painted it black to match the rest of the AC parts up front behind the grills..

I decided to clean up the gearbox crossmember, man was it caked in crap on top

It took a while & it was a messy job, but as with these types of jobs it now looks great painted in the same black coating as the rest of the chassis

Also painted up the fuel tank straps.. hopefully this weekend I’ll get the tank installed & the new fuel lines run

Daved_XB

Speaking of fuel lines, the new aeromotive in tank pump is set up to use -8 AN fittings as I’d said, so I was looking to see if I could easily remove the existing factory hardlines without cutting or bending them… simple answer is no, the body would have to be unbolted off the frame to be able to get them out in one piece undamaged

So I’m simply going to route the new -8 braided lines down the same route but on the passenger side of the chassis, I made up a length of clear hose I had with one of the -8 AN fittings (that I wrapped in tape to protect the finish) so that I could do a trail run to ensure that I could feed the hose where I wanted it to run & double check that it doesn’t rub on anything or get crimped at any point

Daved_XB

Next was to work out where to mount the inline fuel filter, it needs to be easy to each to replace & also out of the way.. I looked for spots above the diff close to the tank but none of these really looked good to me

In the end I think that midway along the chassis rail where there is a vertical brace is the best spot, it protects it, keeps it out of the way & is easy to get to when I need to replace it..

quietsailor

This is going to be a practically new car - like Triggers broom

Daved_XB

quietsailor wrote: »

This is going to be a practically new car - like Triggers broom

maybe.... for now I'm not pulling the body off the frame & doing a bare-metal restore of it.... so lets call it a mechanical freshen up for now

CoBo55

Daved_XB wrote: »

maybe.... for now I'm not pulling the body off the frame & doing a bare-metal restore of it.... so lets call it a mechanical freshen up for now

Freshen up? Jesus that's some money on a freshen up!!

Daved_XB

CoBo55 wrote: »

Freshen up? Jesus that's some money on a freshen up!!

Have you seen my other threads on here..

Daved_XB

Wanted to finish the install of the trans cooler, so I decided that rather than trying to measure the lengths I though I’d need I’d install the transmission back in & measure that way..

So I swapped out the existing hardline connectors with the correct NPT to AN adapters

Then fitted the two 45 deg AN fittings

Then I placed the trans back in the car connected to the crossmember so it is exactly where it will be when the engine goes back in

Then I fitted the cooler end fitting to the -6 hose & ran the hose exactly the way it will be routed when installed & that gave me an exact measurement of how long the hose needs to be. For the trans fluid they recommend that I used a Teflon lined hose, so unlike normal rubber lined braided hose that just uses press assembly, the Teflon core needs a soft metal olive or ferrule as some call them

Daved_XB

With that done I then I removed the cooler again to give me as much space as I could get to install the AC condenser

Installed the new drier before installing it into the car

What happened next was an hour of me inventing new swear words… no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the new condenser into the car, turns out that it’s 3mm too tall to fit in at the very front on the condenser so I ended up having to trim a 45deg angle off the top of the condenser frame to get it to fit

After that I won’t say that it went in easy but it went in…

Then installed the trans cooler for hopefully the last time

Then installed the grille

Daved_XB

Then decided that I didn’t like the fact that I hadn’t painted the mounting screws & felt they would look better black so removed the grille again, painted the screws black & reinstalled the grille again

I also swapped out the old sun beaten GTO badge with a shiny new one

Bought a trans temp gauge & gauge holder to mount in the car & this one has a sensor that I’ll tap into the actual trans oil pan for the most accurate reading

Daved_XB

Then it was time to install the new fuel tank, unlike the old one the filler neck is not part of the pressing here & needs to be added, also hooked up a vac line for the fill vent that will run across the top of the tank & connect to the original vent tube behind the license plate

This “simple” task also turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as this new tank is a little wider than the old one that was taken out

Finally managed to get the thing in… I think that with 2 people this would have been a lot easier or if the diff was still out it would have been easy… but its in

Obviously with the tank fully installed I can’t get to the AN fittings on the top of the pump

Luckily the tank braces allow me to lower the front enough so that I can wire up the pump & connect the lines without the tank falling on my head

Hope to get an hour or two one night this week in the shed & get all the lines made up & installed

Gremlinertia

Wow its coming together so well, a great project to follow thanks..

Daved_XB

Gremlinertia wrote: »

Wow its coming together so well, a great project to follow thanks..

Thanks... it is a nice feeling to be knocking jobs off the todo list as fully finished.. just hope that my engine builder is still working thru this lock down or who knows when I'll have it back on the road

Daved_XB

The next task was to make up some braided lines with the correct AN fittings to plumb in the fuel tank, now I have experience in making braided lines & my underlining memory from that experience is almost bleeding to death from the thousand tiny dagger stabbings I got working with the cut ends of the braid as I tried to push the AN fitting ends on..

Wanting to avoid that I bought these little tools awhile ago

These are some simple & work so well… you open them up & put the hose end of the AN fitting inside

Then put the tool in the vice to hold it & the tapered opening of the tool is just slightly smaller in diameter than the opening of the AN fitting

Meaning you just push whilst slowly twisting the hose & it just slides in with no catching or bending or bunching of the braided hose cover & most importantly (for me at least) no chance of stabbing myself just under the finger nail with a timy sharp steel dagger or 10!

Then just use your soft vice jaws to assemble the AN fitting

With the lines attached to the tank & run as neatly as I can get them the tank end of the install was done & I could bolt it in place

Daved_XB

I’m running the lines the same route as the factory hard lines really just on the other side of the frame

The fuel filter I’m mounting in this little protected section

Now that the tank & lines are in I can install the rear sway bar & officially say that the rear suspension install is done

The very last thing that I have to do at the rear is make up new rear hard brake lines to run from the distribution block on the top of the diff pumpkin to the calipers.. I have the correct fittings to make the caliper side of the lines, but I’m still waiting on the other fittings & a roll of the actual hardline to be delivered

I also have a complete new wiring loom for the rear end & once I’m finished under the car I’ll rewire the rear of the car

Moving onto the front, I’ve installed the new battery tray

I’ve installed the new radiator for now… yes yes I know it needs to come out again to put the engine in, but I also need to do a shed tidy up this weekend & by installing it I achieve two things, it’s one less part box taking up space & it’s in the safest place.. unlikely to be damaged sitting in the car

Next up, I’ll install the new front sway bar & mount up & plumb in the fuel pressure regulator & then I’m kinda out of parts until the engine arrives, I have some things to do inside the car too but I’m waiting on some parts to rock up.. getting close

quietsailor

That must be a pleasure making up those braided lines now without ripping your fingers off

Daved_XB

quietsailor wrote: »

That must be a pleasure making up those braided lines now without ripping your fingers off

I can't express how much easier this previously dangerous task has become.. my new fave tool for the weekend for sure

Daved_XB

Installing the sway bar was pretty simple, hung it in place & then simply installed the new torque plates as they seem to call them

Then the end links to the lower control arms… no rocket doctoring needed here

Right well that’s all of the suspension installed finished then…

Decided on the install location for the new fuel pressure regulator in the engine bay on the firewall

Then it was time to try & work out what way to route the fuel lines, as you’re looking at these pics the inlet on the left, the return is the bottom & the Carb feed is on the right. My preference is to have the inlet a 90 deg bend & the return the 45 deg, but I’m not sure if the lines will interfere with each other too much.. I have to use two 45 degs for both inlet & return

I decided to make up the return line end & fit that as I know that that will be a 45 deg either way, rather than pull the hose all the way out I was able to slide the table I’d been using to make install the AN fittings after I measured the lines & cut them to length

Daved_XB

After trying both the 45 & the 90 on the inlet I was happy to see that I can use the 90 as I had hopped, I think that this is the neater of the two options that I could have gone with

That’s the fuel system done now until the engine is in & I can make up & plumb the line from the regulator to the carb itself

I’m fast running out of jobs for this car now… tomorrows plan is to do my annual shed tidy up & then I’ll probably start back on the Challenger & the XB again