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SD44
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 562
Location: Mississippi |
Have you checked the codes to see if this is truly a GTA car? Look at the 5th digit of the vin#, is it an "S"? I'm afraid you may have an XL or even a 500 car that someone tried to make a GTA clone out of before you had it. It appears to have rocker panel chrome, which was not on GTA's. The grille is also not blacked out in the billets, GTA's usually had that part blacked out.
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Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:25 am |
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gear jammer
Member
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 70
Location: Clinton, IN |
The vin does have an "S" in it. Wich according to Woody's decoding shows it is a GTA. 335hp 390 4v.
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Mike Wyatt 66 "Strictly Business" Fairlane 429/4-spd
Make it 3 yards mother f***er and you've got an automobile race...
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Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:57 pm |
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SD44
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 562
Location: Mississippi |
quote:
Originally posted by gear jammer:
The vin does have an "S" in it. Wich according to Woody's decoding shows it is a GTA. 335hp 390 4v.
hmm, never seen anyone go thru the trouble of putting rocker panel trim on a GT car before.
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Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:11 am |
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gear jammer
Member
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 70
Location: Clinton, IN |
Hard tellin, the car was loaded to the gills with options. The only thing it didn't have was disc brakes.
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Mike Wyatt 66 "Strictly Business" Fairlane 429/4-spd
Make it 3 yards mother f***er and you've got an automobile race...
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Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:05 pm |
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knavekid
Member
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Orlando, FL |
I performed the same conversion in 1979 when my '66 GTA towers rusted and the drivers side upper A-frame rotated forward when I hit the brakes hard one day. No one would repair it so I picked up a rust free 500XL with a 289 as a body donor. See photos here:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/66fairlanegta/
The things I remember having to modify:
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Radiator opening had to be enlarged.
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Transmission support rails didn't go back as far. I had to slot the rear transmission support and drill new holes in the rails.
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Full suspension, brakes, and steering swap. The GTA front brakes had wider shoes and the springs and stabilizer bar were stronger.
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The XL body trim was removed, holes filled, and new holes drilled for the "
F A I R L A N E
" on the rear quarters. I used '67 letters as they had nuts on each letter rather than the '66 press in letters and the foam protection strip inside the trunk.
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My GTA has power steering and the XL did not. The blind mounting hole to attach the power steering ram had no nut behind it on the donor car.
That is all I can think of off hand. Good luck with your project.
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-- David
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:11 am |
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gear jammer
Member
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 70
Location: Clinton, IN |
Thanks for the info.
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Mike Wyatt 66 "Strictly Business" Fairlane 429/4-spd
Make it 3 yards mother f***er and you've got an automobile race...
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Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:24 am |
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SD44
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 562
Location: Mississippi |
quote:
Originally posted by knavekid:
I performed the same conversion in 1979 when my '66 GTA towers rusted and the drivers side upper A-frame rotated forward when I hit the brakes hard one day. No one would repair it so I picked up a rust free 500XL with a 289 as a body donor. See photos here:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/66fairlanegta/
The things I remember having to modify:[list]
[*]Transmission support rails didn't go back as far. I had to slot the rear transmission support and drill new holes in the rails.
knavekid, I'm about to run into this problem as well, putting a 390/C6 in a 289 car. So you didn't have to weld any extensions on your support rails? Would you happen to have any pics how you did yours?
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:06 am |
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knavekid
Member
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Orlando, FL |
It's been a long time and I don't have any photos. The car is currently on blocks in my garage and I will have to look to see if I can get a good photo.
As I recall, I didn't realize there would be a problem until I dropped the engine and transmission into the car all at once. When I crawled underneath the car to install the rear transmission support, it simply did not line up. I slotted the support first, and that didn't quite do the job, so I drilled new holes in the rails. This combined with the slot allowed it to line up.
If I would have noticed that the rails were different early on, I might have tried to swap them from my original car, depending on the difficulty of the job.
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-- David
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:46 pm |
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SD44
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 562
Location: Mississippi |
quote:
Originally posted by knavekid:
If I would have noticed that the rails were different early on, I might have tried to swap them from my original car, depending on the difficulty of the job.
This is what we were considering doing, just cutting off the rear sections on both cars and welding the BB rails onto the SB car. But if the SB rails will work by simply drilling new holes and slotting the crossmember, that's pretty tempting...........
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Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:02 pm |
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knavekid
Member
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Orlando, FL |
quote:
Originally posted by SD44:
So, here where you have the support bolted.........you had to drill this hole in the transmission frame rail for the support to bolt to?
Good question! I honestly can't remember. This work was done about 29 years ago! 
You should be able to determine this by looking at the bolt position on the transmission rail of your 289 body and comparing it to my photo.
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-- David
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Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:42 am |
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