SpeedRacer

Hey Here Comes Trouble - I have Dunlop D65 Touring P205R70’s installed up front and P225R70’s on the rear. If they were 1/4" larger in diameter they would not fit. Under full torque the right tire just rubs a little undercoating off the front of the wheel well. Since the rims are very wide the tires look great installed and look like they match the car - i.e. not to wide but not to narrow either. Dunlop supplied the original GTO tire but the tread pattern was much different than these. However, the tread pattern is pretty normal and doesn’t get anyone’s attention. Make sure you check the actual size of the tire you are installing because they vary from one manufacturer to another as well as one series to another.

Gotta watch those island tin worms - leave your Z parked to long and they will devour it!

See if you have a Gas Tank Renu dealer near you. I had them do my tank about seven years ago and they charged me $175. They did a great job and they have a lifetime warranty.. http://www.gastankrenu.com/

Wow, your car looks absolutely amazing Chelle. It looks so much different, and so much more like the original, with the longer nose, reworked hood and trunk. Love the extras on the BMW engine as well – Ferrari emblems on the intakes and Fram oil filters upside-down in front. The interior looks great as well but I have to ask – are you going to use those gauges or switch to more GTO like ones? Good catch, I used to live just North of Detroit but when I retired last year we built a new house on a lake down here in East Tennessee. Awesome weather, gorgeous scenery and some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere! Oh yeah, and no state income tax.

I used 8" front and 10" rear Dayton wire wheels on my car with Dunlop P205R70’s on the front and P225R70’s on the rear. They don't stick out but they sure fill up the wheel wells. It's hard to measure backspacing on the car but the front's are around a 5.5" deep dish and the rears are 8". Sorry for the confusion. I should have said the fronts have a negative offset of about 5.5" and rears have negative offset of 8".

Yeah, I'm listing mine as well. So when do we get to see the latest pictures of your awesome ride Chelle???? Is it done?

Looks like it's going to be a nice car but $79,000 - yikes. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Replica-Kit-Makes-250-gto-replica-collector-custom-kit-car-ferr-ri-look_W0QQitemZ300107215176QQihZ020QQcategoryZ7251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've seen 700R4 automatics as well as T-5 and T-56 manual transmissions behind a Cadillac NorthStar engine at many hot rod shows. Maybe these guys can help. http://www.chrfab.com/ BTW, a blown NorthStar looks pretty cool and sounds great!

I would use a nodular iron flywheel - the weighed in around 14+ lbs. Check out the chart on this page http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1986-Up-SB-Chev-Nodular-Iron-Lightweight-Flywheel-12-75_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33732QQihZ019QQitemZ8030219432 for the right correct part number for your application. BTW, get the casting number off the engine and then use the chart at MorTec http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm to figure out what engine you have.

BTW - Although I used the Painless wiring kit on my car, Ron Francis http://www.wire-works.com/ wiring kits are probably the most popular. There are literally thousands and thousands of Hot Rod/Street Rods running wiring kits from Ron Francis. Very high quality, each wired labeled, great instructions and excellent support.

The problem with alcohol, glass cleaners, etc. is that they don't do anything about any silicone. I suggest you try PPG Acryli-Clean DX330 or something similar that your local automotive paint shop recommends. It is designed just for that purpose and will not leave a film behind.

I used the 18 circuit Painless kit on my car and it was easy to use and I am glad I did it. The wiper motor was a bit of a challenge and the only original wiring left in the car is part of the steering column.

Since it is an '83 TransAm V8 it should be a small block Chevy. Get the casting number off the block (check here for the location http://www.mortec.com/location.htm ) and then check Mortec casting info for to determine what block it is http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm

http://www.hondamarketplace.com/zerothread?id=1940980 That thing must really haul!

Before you guys spend a lot of time and money turning your GTO's into low riders take a look at the real GTO. Hard to go see a real one in person but check out pictures of them sitting still. Note that the exhaust ran down the outside of car just inside of the rocker panels - so.... a stock GTO could not and did not sit very low.

The common Tri-power setup for the small block Chevy is much like the ones on the old Pontiac GTO's. It doesn't really need tuning (except jetting) since it uses progressive linkage and runs on the center 2bbl. carb most of the time. The front and rear carbs don't even have idle circuit. They just have an accelerator pump and main jets. Vintage Speed http://www.vintagespeed.com has some interesting combinations for the SBC and so does Larry over at Automotion http://www.hotrodcarbs.com/home.php. If you don't mind spending the bucks you can call Mickey over at Inglese http://www.inglese.com

Whew - unless my screen name was changed to "Anonymous" I didn't post in that thread. I also don't remember reading it so, while a may have a few senior moments here and there, this was not one of them. I know my kit is bonded to bare steel but I do not remember the name of the aircraft adhesive that we used. It was difficult to use on vertical surfaces because it would run off so the doors were removed and laid flat on saw horses while skins were being bonded. A small amount of chopped fiberglass was added to keep it from running off areas like the rear quarter panels.

Wow, I must have had another senior moment! I don't remember recommending that the bare metal be primed and I can tell you that was not what I did with my car. BTW, I checked on Metal Ready and it is a zinc phosphate metal etching product just like Metal Prep so it sounds like the right thing to use. Also, rubberized undercoating was originally developed to be a superior rust proofing product because the old type of rust proofing would chip and fall off when stones hit it under the car and in the wheel wells. The 3M stuff has the capability to migrate so it should work very well inside the doors where you can't get into every nook and cranny. It's OK for sound deadening but there are better products.

Can I get one Duuuhhh!! Of course you are going to bond the fiberglass panels to the outside of the doors so using metal prep on the outside would counter productive. I ground the outside of my doors with a really coarse grit sandpaper which left a lot of deep grooves in the metal. The object was to enhance the bonding capabilities of the adhesive. So far it has worked since I have not had any delamination problems.

Zerrari – Sorry I missed this thread but I did get your message. My knowledge in this area is a bit old (like me) but was developed by GM to deal with the rusty Vega’s. First the part(s) are media blasted to remove the old paint and rust which you have already done. Next apply a zinc phosphate coating like Metal Prep http://www.halonmarketing.com/mall/Rust%20Away%20&%20Metal%20Prep.php You can usually pick it up at your local automotive paint supply store. A Zinc phosphate coating should be used on both the inside and the outside of the doors. I would spray it on and make sure you get it in the seams of the metal because it will help prevent rust in the future. I would then spray the inside with a rubberized rust proofing like 3M Underseal. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3MAutomotive/Aftermarket/Products/Product-Catalog/?PC_7_0_53BC_root=GST1T4S9TCgv&PC_7_0_53BC_output=html&PC_7_0_53BC_bgel=19MNFMCQP3bl&PC_7_0_53BC_gvel=6DTWTJQPBBgl&PC_7_0_53BC_vroot=GSLPLPKL4Xge&PC_7_0_53BC_node=1WGT0QN08Sgs&PC_7_0_53BC_theme=en_US_aad_portal&PC_7_0_53BC_command=CustomizePageHandler Rubberized rust proofing will actually move around a bit to help seal all the voids and any nicks you get in it during assembly. I hope this helps. Speed

Zerrari – Sorry, I guess I should have provided some additional info. Yes, that's the same Jim Simpson who owned Blue Ray Engineering and used to sell the GTO kit which he called it a "Rhino." I even have a picture Jim sent me of a Blue Ray Engineering Rhino GTO in front of a Rhino the animal. Anyway, Jim sold his molds to Tom Edwards over at Scorpion Z car http://www.scorpionzcars.com/ Tom has since sold the molds to OMS Sports Cars in England but the have the rockers as seen here http://www.omsportscars.com/Gallery/gtz_basic_kit-800x600.jpg I would check with Tom and see if he will sell just the rocker panels at a reasonable price.

Duke - My rear tires are 27.1" tall so a 25.7" tire is good sized but its not going to quite fill up the huge rear wheel wells on the GTO. However, that's not the biggest problem - the offset is. The rear wheels on the real and replica GTO's have a very large offset. I do not know exactly what size mine are without taking the wheels off the car but the rear rim is 10" wide. The best I can tell while measuring them on the car is that approximately 7" of that is on the outside and 3" on the inside of the wheel. A 7" dish is very deep and unusual on today’s cars. To each his own but I have to say that modern 18" wheels look out of place on an old GTO.

I haven't seen the B&M covers in years. An ex-GM guy had mine made for a kit he used to sell called a VIP. It was a replica of the original Ferrari Testarossa. They are very wide cast aluminum and four of those Allen screws go all the way through the inside to the standard holes in the head to fasten them on. Mickey over at Ingeles has some that look like DOHC covers but they are a bit on the expensive side. http://www.inglese.com/inglese_products.htm Machine off the "Inglese" and replace it with the Ferrari emblem and they would look pretty good.

Zerrari GTO - The Simpson (Blue Ray) rocker panels do not look like the ones posted by the Boy for OZ as they are very angular. They do tie into the rear quarter panels but not the front fenders so you can still unbolt the front fenders if needed. And yes, if I had a buck for everyone that's asked about those rocker covers I'd could have built another car! Darth V8r - The rocker cover haven't been produced in years and the guy that made them is out of business. Sal Versaggi - Eagle Engineering designed and made the molds for Joe Alphabet (Alpha 1 GTO) who, I think, started selling the kit in 1984 or at least that's when the ads in kit car started. I bought mine kit from Joe in 1986 so, I might be wrong, but I don't think your kit was the source for the Alpha. Joe Alphabet ran a Ferrari restoration business so when the Ferrari lawyers showed up and asked him to stop selling the kit he sold the molds to McBurnie. How about posting a picture or two of your car? Speed

Hey Mike, the Alpha 1 GTO kit never had rocker skins. They just blended the rocker into the glass. Check the old pictures of the original cars and you will see that it didn't look very good. I bought my rocker skins from Jim Simpson and I think he charged me $75 for them (and probably made them for under $20). You should check with Tom @ Scorpion Z Cars and see how much they are since he has Jim's old molds. They are very simple but not what you would expect. It's hard to describe but they are not rounded like you would think. I would say they look like a [ (channel) only leaned over so the top angle is less than 90 degrees and the bottom angle is greater than 90 degrees. Super simple to make if you knew the angles and width of the three sides.