Donny's 1969 GTX

[Donny]

Man, I keep forgetting to post this reference chart, I will do so ASAP!

I spent all day building the prop shaft tunnel, fabricating the bellhousing end, the old area was too badly rusted to be of any use. However, the crown of the tunnel is original GTX metal! The entire thing is going to be butt-welded into place on the new floor pans, no other type of weld will be allowed. Butt welds take longer, are more difficult, but when done right it's all just one piece of continuous metal.

For one picture right now of today's tasks, go here https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.p...09475726151.2032796.1506474455&type=1&theater otherwise I will post some up perhaps tomorrow?

I was thinking wtf have I done? I mean I am insane to tackle this project! However, I have another one in the works; a customers 65 Chevy Truck; rusty, pretty bad too! Lucky he found another bed I will use as donor. I am not sure I will start a thread here on this vehicle, most likely keep any interested folks up to date on that vehicle thru my media blasting facebook page which is linked in on my home page.

Cheers all!

 

[Donny]

Here ya go!

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[SGTPaul]

Thanks a lot Donny! This will help a lot. I just need to construct a baseline.

 

[Donny]

NP SGTPaul!

I media blasted (finally) the outer roof skin of the GTX yesterday. I had extra plastic in my hopper after my Asteroids video game frame/structure (remember that game) got blasted, so, I did the skin. Man, this thing has no holes (surprising) but there's rust in there under the paint (no surprise) and the plastic did nothing to the roof rust (never does). So, tomorrow I'm hitting it with a more aggressive mixture to kill that rust. Gotta say over and over again that the Q5 Seafoam Metallic color that this car came in from the Los Angeles factory is way too beautiful to NOT paint it back in that color.

I can't wait to get to the point where I can finally see that color go back on! Getting there slowly, but surely. In between paying jobs and when I have the time and materials I do my own stuff.

I'll take some pics of the roof skin in the next day or two and post 'em here, just to keep this thread from dying! lol!

 

[Donny]

After this roof outer skin, there is no more stuff to media blast on this GTX, in fact, just assembly from here on out, no more rust, all's been fixed, most all of it (except the roof) has been painted in epoxy primer. The next 'biggie' for me is acquiring full qtrs, and associated stuff with them; hang 'em, and put this car together!

 

[Ron 73]

Bet your glad all thats over with.. assembling it should be exciting getting it to a finished deal, Good luck Donny, You've really done a job on this.. cant wait to see it!

 

[Donny]

Here's perhaps some pics that are recently posted in this thread, but, if so, at least you'll have some cool Satriani to jam to as you listen! There is new pics in this video, I promise. This video is a tangible measuring stick for where I am right now on this car, as I get 'there' in chunks where clear and measurable progress is made, a video will be created! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2pVyMVbfRs

 

[Joe Mopar]

Looks like it will be a beautiful car when finished, keep up the good work on it.

 

[moparstuart]

aren't you dont yet LOL

 

[Donny]

A rare side by side shot of both cars!

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[SGTPaul]

nice stuff Donny. kool video!

 

[Greg68RR]

Very Good!

Donny, nice work! I had my RR in the same shape (metal removed) as your GTX about 10 yr ago, except for the floor pans & roof skin. Nice work on your body jig to keep alignment. I also butt welded sheet metal instead of lap joints. Takes more time but, like you said, leaves you w/ a flat piece of metal.

Great video! I'll have to get my daughter to educate me on "how-to" with putting such a video together! Neat!

Yes. You got me to thinking about my next car project. I want to make myself a 69 RR A12/six-bbl clone in Orange, that was similar to my old high school car (except it was 383, not A12). A couple of trips to San Antonio to get Dr. Blast to handle the dirty chore of grit blasting would be in the cards!

Anyway, you've done a hell of a job w/ your car & keep up the good work!

Greg68RR

 

[Donny]

Thanks Greg, appreciate it, you do great work too my friend. Media blasting beats sanding discs and grinders on all fronts, media blasting will find the bad metal whereas the other way won't, and getting in tight corners, forget it. However, it's always a toss up; the cost for media blasting vs. the time to do it yourself, then, wonder what your time is worth? I know, I've been down that road myself, but, respect anyone doing this insane work! At least I have some sanity; I went out and bought a new Challenger RT, the old cars never ever can compete with the new stuff.

 

[Donny]

Finally got the roof skin completely blasted, painted in self etch, and tomorrow will get it in Epoxy Primer, along with the 65 Chevy Truck bed I shortened from 8ft to 6 ft, and a few other small parts from the same truck. Got to weigh the paying jobs with the personal fun stuff!

I will post pics later this weekend. Small progress is what it's all about, but, regular progress is what I've been lacking! What I need to get and acquire is a copper strip to install on the bottom of my shift tunnel to complete the Butt weld joints -because the gaps in a few areas are rather large.

 

[roadrunnerman]

hey donny,good to see you get a little time to work on your own car.have to ask this question cause sometimes i'm not the brightest bulb in the box(and that flickers on/off sometimes) but what/where is your datum line?Was looking over your chart.

 

[Donny]

Good question, Datum line; Floor, but better being the work table the car's on.

 

[roadrunnerman]

thanks donny.

 

[Donny]

Hit an impasse today on my customer's 65 Chevy Truck, he needs to buy a new cab as his is totally garbage. So, while I wait for this newer cab to be found and bought, I got busy on my GTX! I managed to weld in the entire transmission tunnel; butt weld the entire thing, talk about time consuming! Jeesh, I have my hands full! I started to plug weld my floors down, took my finished and media blasted hood in epoxy primer and layed it down on the roof webbing, also the cowel layed it in there, both need to be set in better; i.e. lots of vise grips and sheet metal screws to re-attach these items. Glad to get back busy on my GTX!

 

[Donny]

Here's the VIN, need some help figuring if it's an early 69 or late 69, RS23L9E121020

I've decided to take this to as close OEM as I can, and not get too **** or crazy about what's OEM. I will paint the underside, I won't have overspray on the negative battery cable, etc.

So, my question is this; I'm on the lookout for a 69 440 HP, I'd LOVE to find the original engine for this car, but I have about a snowballs chance on the sun finding that! And, based on early/late model, what color was this engine? It's an A/C car from the factory, something is telling me it was a light blue engine, not sure why, but in all my research I learn this is a L.A. produced car, and something tells me it's an early one too. Any ideas?

 

[detmatt1]

You should find a date code stamped on the front of the engine k-frame, provided it is original to the car, this will tell you an accurate date for the build. It'll be a 4 digit code like this, 2658, or the 265th day of `68. Pretty sure about that but if not it can be decoded using the 10,000 day calender.