'66 Mighty GTO

[pacificustoms]

Here's a GTO we're just finishing up for a guy. There are a few different styles in the car, but it's exactly what the owner wants! The car used to belong to the owners Mom and she used to drag race it while he was growing up, he was even taken home from the hospital in the car when he was born. The car is pretty much to the extreme which is the theme he's going for, He says he's going to have 1500 H.P. out of a Pro-charged Pontiac engine, it has full built headers and 4 inch stainless exhaust and a frame thats about as rigid as can get. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Here's Carters Rendering:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/PCC_GTO_darkbluefinal.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/PCC_GTO_S2.jpg
The car:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1363.jpg

[pacificustoms]

When we got the car it was pulled from another shop who hacked it up badly and never finished anything that was started, so we had a lot of loose ends to tie up.

Started out by boxing the stock chassis and then adding numerous feet of round tubing to strengthen the car. The owner wants the car to appear farely stock with the exception of the wheels, tires and brakes, which is the reason we're working off of the stock chassis and not building our own.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_0926.jpg
Tied together with a "x" member that un-bolts to make working on it in the future easier. Trans crossmember can also be seen here:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_0991-1.jpg
The exhaust is actually ran through the floor of the car so the floor has been modified to fit the exhaust and mufflers and we had to modify the stock back seat to fit the new floor but still be able to be covered with a stock seat cover.

[pacificustoms]

One more photo I forgot to add:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_0997.jpg

[DOOM]

That looks awsome!! Carter is the man:hail: Can't wait to see it finished . Carter is doing a rendering for me of my nephews 67 GTO. Its great to see these GTO'S get some love
Mario

[pacificustoms]

I don't know where all of the build pics went (I guess I never took any), here's the finished chassis and exhaust system. We also built the fuel tank as well.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1274.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1272.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1288.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1286.jpg

We mounted everything off of the chassis, that way all you have to do is assemble everything, put the body on, wire it and go. The fuel tank and exhaust is able to come off with the body on as well though to make ease of working on it in the future. Its always nice on the stress meter to have ease to work on a finished vehicle!

[pacificustoms]

That looks awsome!! Carter is the man:hail: Can't wait to see it finished . Carter is doing a rendering for me of my nephews 67 GTO. Its great to see these GTO'S get some love
Mario

Thanks! You're right, Carter is the man! He always amazes me time and time again, speaking of that I've got to call him!

[pacificustoms]

We tried to tuck everything up really tight to the floor so that nothing would hang below and look tacky, I think we succeeded!
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1368.jpg
Here's a detail shot of where the round tubing ties into the stock chassis. At the rear we cut gussets to tie directly to the lower control arm mount:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1372.jpg
After everything was put back together, the tank looked a little plain, so we added a couple small fins to it:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1373.jpg

[waynieZ]

Very nice work.
Wayne

[Alex396ss]

Awesome, more pics please!

Alex

[XcYZ]

Awesome. Love the TIG work on the tailpipes. More pics, please. :cheers:

[pacificustoms]

Its definately a tight fit in the rear where the exhaust is. We had to put in tunnels through the floor for the exhaust to run up into.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1377.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1374.jpg
Another cool little thing, some of you may have asked where the filler in the tank was going to be. We solid mounted a spare tire in the trunk, and the filler is inside...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1378.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1379.jpg

[CarterHickmanDesigns]

Robbie, that filler is awesome. You are so full of ideas!!!!

[pacificustoms]

Here's some pics of some firewall modifications to accomodate the engine being set back in the car a couple inches. *The filler work was done by the previous shop and will be fixed when we get ready for paint (it's pretty thick)*

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1386.jpg
We also modified the firewall around the hydroboost unit to make it look a little more like it was meant to be there:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1387.jpg
We also modified the inner fender to clearance the brake lines a bit and also removed a couple factory dimples and holes to make it look a little cleaner but still original:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1365.jpg

[pacificustoms]

Here's a cool mount we machined here at the shop. Its pretty fancy for what it does, it holds the remote reserviour for the power steering...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1115-1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1117.jpg
Had to make it a two piece design to be able to bolt up properly.

[pacificustoms]

The owner has plans for a huge stereo in the trunk and asked if we could fit a battery hidden away in the front engine compartment somewhere, so this is what we came up with:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1138.jpg
The actual hold down still hasn't been fabricated in this photo yet.

We formed the stock inner fender to clear the pro-charger and started building templates for the mounts that will then be water-jet cut from 1 inch aluminum:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1103.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1102-1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1100.jpg

[speedfreak68]

Wow! You are doing some amazing work on that car!!!

[MarkM66]

I'd like to see some pics of the floors and the truck, with the tunnels for the exhuast.

Looks great.

[pacificustoms]

I'd like to see some pics of the floors and the truck, with the tunnels for the exhuast.

Looks great.

I'll try to get you some in the next week or so, I don't have any on the computer and the cars loaded with all of the parts to it.

[gearheads78]

I love this build...Please keep sharing

[waynieZ]

Wow Alot of great ideas, I like the gas fill. Keep the updates comming.
Wayne

[98ssnova]

Is it ok to mount the battery on it's side like that?

[Huxsol81]

Awesome Car!!!!! Gotta love the GTO lines!

[pacificustoms]

Is it ok to mount the battery on it's side like that?

KINETIK's are sealed batteries and can be mounted in any direction, even upside down.

[rlplive]

INSANE! Nice work.

[COYBILT]

NICE WORK
I never saw this car, cant wait to see it done and out there showing off some true pontiac power.:thumbsup:

[pacificustoms]

Thanks for the compliments guys! The car should be tearing up the streets by the middle of 2009!

With the lack of mounting locations on the Pontiac block and since the owner wanted to run solid engine mounts, we went ahead and mounted the 220 amp alternator off of the chassis down low. The plan is to when you open the hood the only thing you see is the engine and pro-charger, we're trying to keep everything else down low.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1364.jpg

[pacificustoms]

Here's an upper radiator mount/radiator support cover we're fabricating. We had to open up the frame horns a bit to run an over-sized Ron Davis dual pass radiator. The sheetmetal piece spans the width of the car and really cleans up that first impression when you open the hood.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1132-1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1135.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1139-1.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1140-1.jpg

[city_ofthe_south]

just plain amazing. Some of the ideas are brilliant.

[pacificustoms]

I see it's been a couple years since I put any photos on here. After we were done with the fab work on the car, the owner took it and decided he would take it apart and have it painted and then put it back together and plumb it and wire it himself. It's cool he wanted to be involved and have something to do with the build, but putting cars like this together can be harder then most people think. I think he's regretting his decision now...

Here are some of the fab work when we were finishing things up that I forgot to post years ago...

We machined all of the pro-charger mounts:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1590.jpg

Front panels all formed up, we also modified the lower portion of the radiator support to fit the biggest radiator we could and also the large intercooler:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1597.jpg

This was for the transmission cooler:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1591.jpg

Since the battery is extremely hard to get out, I made a panel with some terminals in it to service and charge the battery.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1602.jpg

The under-hood all finished up.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/IMG_1604.jpg

[RyanG]

Very nice GTO

[gracin7]

Awsome fab work !!! Is the air cleaner aluminum ?

[pacificustoms]

Yea it's all made of aluminum, we made it to look somewhat like a normal old air cleaner since the owner wanted everything to look fairly stock. We also machined pieces for it to where it's all o-ring sealed to hold up to the pressure of the pro-charger.

[Tiger]

That s a very nice GTO and you gave me some good ideas for my Chevelle as well.

Did the owner ever manageto finish the car?

[pacificustoms]

The car did get painted, the frame and all got powdercoated and the owner got it to a rolling car. He brought it back down a few weeks ago for some panel alignment and to have the bumpers put on and a few things he needed some assistance with. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nice car, just not as detailed as I would have hoped for.

We had to machine some hardware to cover up the large area where the front clip was put on but didn't fit correctly at all, the grille's wouldn't even bolt into it. The car has pretty nice gaps all the way around now and everything fits as it should.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0068.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0039.jpg

The owner did get most everything put together under the hood. There's probably some plumbing I would have done a little different and the placement where he mounted a few things.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0041.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0036.jpg

The underside turned out nice.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0032.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0030.jpg

[pacificustoms]

Here's the car now. I sent a glass guy to the owners house to re-set the windshield (the first time it sagged and the trim wouldn't go on). I'm trying to motivate the owner to get the mechanical wrapped up for Pleasanton next month since the raised the year cut off.

Turned out to be a really good looking car!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0028.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0026.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0025.jpg

[gto4jesus]

beautiful car. what is the brand/color of that paint job?

[pacificustoms]

The owner never managed to finish up the car, but he did manage to work tons of overtime and get enough money to have us finish the car up. So, it's back in the shop and we have it all torn apart to put back together. The car will be at SEMA this year!

[pacificustoms]

beautiful car. what is the brand/color of that paint job?

So I'm about a year late answering the question, I'm not sure the brand of paint, probably PPG. It's supposed to be the stock color that the car came in, I'll have to ask the owner what the name of the color is.

[pacificustoms]

If you notice in some of the last posts the car had/has a chrome heater box. The heater box is really sentimental to the owner as he remembers when his Mom took the car apart to have it chromed so he wanted to keep it in the car. He did realize that it clashed with everything under the hood as the chrome just wasn't fitting in very well. Also, on top of that, he doesn't even want a heater (I'm not sure why). So I came up with this aluminum cover that most people would probably think is the actual heater box. I also made it a little long to cover where the hoses would have hooked up to give the firewall a cleaner look.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0147.jpg

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0145.jpg

We also pulled the procharger and all of the brackets off to clean up a lot of the plumbing and wiring. We also had to repair the idler and adjuster that wasn't installed correctly.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0148.jpg

The owner had bought some big Moroso breathers and they looked a little tacky, so I put them in the lathe and turned them down a bit and gave the tops the same look as the hardware we machined for places under the hood. I also machined the large piece in the picture to cover the filter on the breather canister. Now I just have to route all of this huge hose somewhere that looks half decent.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g124/pacificustoms/DSC_0163.jpg

[tones2SS]

Very nice Robbie. Great looking build.
That exhaust looks killer!:thumbsup: