70 GTO convertible

[mutt511]

My brother and I are in the process of completely restoring this classic. My family has owned it since it had about 15 miles on it. I am looking for any information on parts/parts cars. If anyone has any info please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Mutt

[MrPbody]

The two following companies are the best Pontiac-specific suppilers in the country:

Ames Performance

Performance Years

Both of these are Pontiac ONLY, and will not sell you Chevy parts just because they "fit" (like Year -1 will).

Where are you located? What engine/trans combination?
The '70 GTO is among the more popular and sought after. The ragtop makes it all the more desired. If you do this right, the car's value will be more than 10 times the oiginal purchase price.
Avoid the temptations to modify it or change the color of the body/interior. When we do a restoration engine for one of these cars, we reduce the compression ratio to under 9.5:1 so it can run on 93 octane. We also upgrade the cam to a modern grind, more suited to the lowered compression. The idle quality and low-end performance are restored, and a little high-end to boot!

Lastly, don't trust just any body shop iwth the bumper. Make absolutely sure they KNOW what they're doing with Endura. Endura is the "legal" name of the material. Use the name and fish for reaction. They SHOULD know immediately, what "Endura" is.

Congrats on the GTO! Many are envious!

Jim

[mutt511]

Thank you for the response Jim. The car is originally a 400, 3spd manual car, however, my father took the 3spd out and replaced it with a four speed over 30 years ago. Both transmissions are long gone at this stage. The motor is original other than it is now about 600hp and will turn 8000rpms after many efforts to find out why pontiac motors spin rod bearings at high rpms. We are trying to put the car back as original as possible. In the end however, it does not make that much difference to us since we will never sell the car. Been in the family since it had like 7 miles on it, why would we see it now?
Thank you for the parts suppliers, I am trying to locate them. We live right outside of Kansas City. We are also looking for someone to dip the body for rust and paint removal. This project will take a few years to complete but we are in no hurry.

Thanks,

Craig

I know a place in PA does this, but i'm sorry to say I don't know the name, and last I knew it changed names.

The dip is a great Idea, it will save you hours of work. I would look on Ebay for lots of the parts you need, last month I seen the chin air dam or spoiler for a 1970 that was new in the box, yes a GM orignal part!

As for the engine, I would send it to a shop that does Pontiac engines, not a Chevy shop that doesnt own Pontiac mounts for it's Dyno.

Many good engine places are around, KRE and Butler come to my head first. Do your home work, pick a well known Pontiac builder, not Chevy lovers that look down on Pontiac engines, but build Pontiacs anyhow, make sure the builder knows what a GTO looks like, if your builder has no idea what a 1970 GTO looks like, he may be trying to play or FAKE being a Pontiac lover.

Choose a well known Pontiac builder!

Good luck with your rebuild, I did a 72 GTO for the ground up, and if I can be any help let me know, as the cars are allmost the same.

Have fun and take pictures.