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66 GTA project

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gear jammer
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Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 70
Location: Clinton, IN
66 GTA project

My buddie just bought a pair of 66 Fairlanes in a package deal. The pics below are of the 40,000 original mile GTA doner car. The other one is a 66 XL rolling shell with no title. The plan is to build a GTA out of the rust free Arizona XL shell. I'll post pics of the XL in a few days.


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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...

Post Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:18 pm 
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SD44
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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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Post Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:25 am 
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gear jammer
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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...

Post Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:57 pm 
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SD44
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Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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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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Post Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:11 am 
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gear jammer
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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...

Post Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:05 pm 
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knavekid
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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:


  • Radiator opening had to be enlarged.
  • Transmission support rails didn't go back as far. I had to slot the rear transmission support and drill new holes in the rails.
  • Full suspension, brakes, and steering swap. The GTA front brakes had wider shoes and the springs and stabilizer bar were stronger.
  • 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.
  • 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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Post Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:11 am 
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gear jammer
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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...

Post Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:24 am 
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SD44
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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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Post Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:06 am 
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knavekid
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Joined: 04 Dec 2007
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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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Post Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:46 pm 
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SD44
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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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Post Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:02 pm 
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knavekid
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Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 62
Location: Orlando, FL

Here are some photos of my transmission support installation. As I thought more about it, I remembered that I had to drill new holes in the center of the support where the transmission bolts on as well (third photo). The photos turned out pretty good considering I simply held my camera under the car to capture them.






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Post Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:22 pm 
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SD44
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Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 562
Location: Mississippi

quote:
Originally posted by knavekid:
Here are some photos of my transmission support installation. As I thought more about it, I remembered that I had to drill new holes in the center of the support where the transmission bolts on as well (third photo). The photos turned out pretty good considering I simply held my camera under the car to capture them.




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?
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Post Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:30 am 
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knavekid
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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! Very Happy

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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Post Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:42 am 
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