1969 Pontiac Gto Resto Mod, Pro Touring, Judge, Ls2, $110,000 Invested on 2040-cars

1969 Pontiac GTO Resto Mod/Pro touring/LS2

If you don’t want to read everything below, here is the gist of it. It’s a 1969 GTO frame and body, the interior and drive train are from a 2006 GTO. A little over $110,000 invested. If your still interested, read on.

Work began on this in 2008 and was completed in 2011. It started with a mostly rust free 1969 GTO that I drove around for a year or so before beginning work. The majority of the work was done at Corbett’s Auto in NC. I bought a wrecked 2006 GTO with 21,000 miles on the clock to use as a donor vehicle. Over the next few years Corbett’s conducted a frame off restoration while transplanting the LS2 and T56 6 speed transmission as well as the 06 GTO brakes and added a brand new Moser rear end with 3.73 gears. They also transplanted the 06 Firewall and floor pan, installed a new trunk pan and rebuilt the suspension. They repaired the minor body rust the proper way, and painted the car.

From there the car went to JNG creations, a top of the line award winning custom interior shop in NC. The 06 GTO interior was grafted in with tons of custom pieces. When I picked the car up, the owner told me he had badly misquoted the price on the work, and would normally charge about $20,000 for something like this. He was a man of his word and stuck to the agreed upon price.

The car then went to National Speed in NC for a Dyno Tune and custom wheels and tires. Over the course of the restoration, nothing was left untouched, everything was replaced or refurbished.

Major Components

Rear End: Brand new Moser posi-traction unit with 3.73 rear gears.

Engine:  Stock LS2 straight from the 2006 GTO. The only modifications are a cold air intake, full length headers and a dyno tune. I believe it was 376 RWHP. That translates to 450HP at the crank.

Transmission: Stock T56 straight out of the 2006 GTO.

Suspension:  A new Unisteer power rack and pinion kit was installed. There is a drip of power steering fluid that is leaking from the steering box, It has been weeping for 5 years, I have never added power steering fluid and it still is not at the add line on the reservoir (The steering gets used a lot, I pull the car in and out of the garage and move it around on a weekly basis, leak has never gotten worse). An all new Edelbrock suspension kit with Eibach springs was installed front and rear. The only stock part that remains is the A-Arms and they were refurbished and have new polyurathane bushings in them. The wheels are American racing rims with brand new Hankook tires.

Body: The body was put back to new by Corbett’s Auto. The car has a beautiful pepper grey paint job. This is not what you will see in other adds described as “driver quality” or “a good 10 footer”. There are some smaller than hairline cracks in the paint on the endura front bumper. Anyone who knows anything about endura knows it’s impossible to get perfect. You can’t see these unless you put your face right next to them. Its 5 years old and still looks like it did when they first finished. If you know about auto paint, than you know if the car was hiding anything it would have surfaced long ago. The inside of the car was rhino lined along with the bottom to prevent any corrosion, again, its 5 years old and still looks like it’s supposed to. Nothing to hide.

Interior: This is my favorite part of the car. The 06 dash was heavily modified then recovered. The gauge cluster is from the 06 with a working check engine light for piece of mind. The rest of the lights and central information screen were covered up because it just told you the airbags were malfunctioning (of which there are none) and that the ABS (that the car doesn’t have) wasn’t working. The speedometer is incorrect, I don’t know whether that’s from the new gears or not. It has the original power front 06 GTO black leather seats. The rear seats were modified and recovered in new factory black leather to match the front. A custom rear deck was installed with the working 3^rd brake light from the 06. Custom rearview, interior door handles and dome light were milled from aluminum. Door panels, rear panels, kick panels, and headliner were made from scratch.

Misc: The car has the Retro Electro Hide Away Headlight kit to replace the vacuum actuated headlight system.  The car has all four windows controlled by power window switches in the center console. The front windows need a little help when they get to the top because the new window seals are still very stiff. Silicone spray or something might help that. The car has electric locks but the 06 GTO key FOB is just for looks. If you want them to work you need to go to chevy and order a new FOB and let them program it to the 06 GTO computer in the car. 

If I were keeping the car…

I would put a stereo in it, JNG creations said the CD player didn’t work. I never tried it, the radio works fine and I don’t own any CDs so I just left it.

I would also have the Hide Away headlights re-wired to work with the headlight switch on the dash, right now it’s wired to a separate switch that hangs under the dash.

I’m selling the car because I don’t drive it. I’ve had it finished for a few years, the engine that had 21,000 on it when I bought it, now has 22,000 miles on it. I had the car built because I loved the look of my GTO, but not the fact that it was hard to start, stalled sometimes, and was always an adventure when I took it out. Sometimes you just want to go somewhere and have fun doing it, no adventures, no problems. After it was done and I realized how much it had cost, I couldn’t bring myself to drive it. So it just sits in my garage collecting dust, which is not what the car deserves.  I’m in the military and I’m deploying soon, so now is the time the car goes away.

I have done a little research, I found one GTO like this that had a stock interior, an LS1, a 10 bolt rear end, and regular headlights sell for $59,000. Another that was more like mine, sold for $90,000. This is one of those deals for someone out there, the ones you always hear about and are in disbelief over. I’m not saying this car is perfect, it’s not, but it’s as close as you would want to get on something that your actually going to drive around. I have the receipts for almost everything. I don’t remember what they total up to, but it’s 90 something thousand. That doesn’t include the price of the 1969 GTO or any of the shipping costs, or most or the little “here and there bits and pieces” from the local parts store.

The car is currently receiving a new rear end gasket to stop the rear end weeping and a new fuel tank because the last fuel tank (also new) had a small crack in the filler neck. I welcome serious buyers to ask questions, come see it or have an independent inspection done. I have absolutely nothing to hide with this car.

The car is being sold as is, where is. A $1,000 deposit is due immediately after the auction ends. I will work with shippers or buyers to get the car moved.

The Reserve price is FAR below the buy it now. Bid with confidence, you will not be disappointed.