Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

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71_bronze_gtx
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Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:06 pm

The attachment GTX arrives home 002 reduced.jpg is no longer available
After 20 months of body work in my garage, and a month or so in the community college body shop, my formerly Autumn Bronze '71 GTX has morphed into Lemon Twist. It's a numbers matching, 440 with auto, but without fender tag or broadcast sheets, and was hacked on a bit by the previous owner. So, I took the liberty of changing the color. Not that I didn't like the bronze. I wanted something bright and loud. You know - high impact.

Of course it need more sheet metal work that I had expected. I wound up putting on new quarters, a new driver side rear wheel housing, lower-rear-fender patch pieces, plus numerous home-made patches for the doors, cowl, inner fenders, headlight buckets, and fenders, and a made-from-scratch passenger side outer rocker.

I did all the mudding and sanding. In May, I took it to my county's community college to be painted in their summer project class. One of the class techs helped me clean up some sanding in a couple places. I, another student, and the class tech did the painting-mostly the tech. Cost me tuition and the cost of the paint and supplies-about $3,000. Then I paid a former student to do the cut-and-buff.

This was my first attempt at auto body restoration. I'm very pleased with how it came out.
Attachments
yellow-a$$ car reduced.jpg
October 2018
yellow-a$$ car reduced.jpg (143.66 KiB) Viewed 25085 times

71_bronze_gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:13 pm

Not sure why the "before" pic got left behind.
GTX arrives home 002 smaller.jpg
March 2013
GTX arrives home 002 smaller.jpg (156.05 KiB) Viewed 25084 times

steved
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by steved » Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:23 pm

I was partial to the bronze...but that's just my opinion.

Looks like it turned out great!

sjd
1971 GTX, GY9 Tawny Gold.

rradar71
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by rradar71 » Thu Nov 01, 2018 3:58 pm

Nice job. I like the yellow (like the bronze also). Think I would have preferred black stripes though. Now you have to change your name.

71_bronze_gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:27 am

Probably easier to get another bronze car or repaint mine again...........

71Beeper
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71Beeper » Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:28 pm

I love the color!
White stripe is fine by me.... :beer:
Congrats!

71_bronze_gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:23 am

Been a busy boy since my last post. Lots of time spent replacing head gaskets in my winter-beater 3.0 L Mazda Tribute. Man, that job kicked my a$$.

Got the 440 out of the GTX, Started prepping the engine bay for lemonade. Tore the engine down to just crank, camshaft, and chain.

No shortages of surprises with this car. The heads turned out to be 915s (closed chamber from 1967). The valve stem guides and seals were shot, as expected. Took them to the machine shop. They told me they measured chamber volume of about 80cc. Data on the web says they should be 73.5cc. I asked them to check again. They came back with 77cc on one and 80cc on the other. Huh? Had them recondition them and mill the 80cc head to get it down to 77cc. All new valves, guides and seals.

Found out the pistons had been replaced with TRW low compression pistons - right around 8:1. Huh? Took out the pistons. All the rod bearings were lightly scored, and were .020 undersize. New pistons for about 10:1 compression forthcoming. Probably new bearings without machining the crank.

Took off the #4 main bearing cap. No scoring, but maybe uneven oil clearance. Or possibly started without oil. Also .020 undersize. I'll be looking at the other bearings over the next 3 weeks. The engine is going to the local community college mid-January where I will reaasemble it. Same place it got painted last summer. What a great resource.

Way too much work to get the brake booster out, so I'm going to figure a way to paint around it. Undecided about the wiper motor at this point.

mclean03
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by mclean03 » Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:07 am

Old thread but I'm curious about the paint code of the new color.

71_bronze_gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:56 pm

Y2 (PPG 2211) Lemon Twist

71_bronze_gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71_bronze_gtx » Mon Sep 02, 2019 9:01 pm

It seems to change hues depending on the lighting. It's not metallic. Best in bright sunlight.

71440 gtx
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71440 gtx » Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:18 am

:beer:
71 gtx 440 4speed air grabber blue on blue with white vinyl roofOption cassette player


Plymouth's gonna getcha!
There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, & slant 6

71440 gtx
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Posts: 1036
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Re: Turning Root Beer Into Lemonade

Post by 71440 gtx » Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:33 am

hi in 1967 915 have too heads 440 4bbl and 440 4bbl hp the 440 hp has 208 174 and 440 208 160 not hp :beer:
71 gtx 440 4speed air grabber blue on blue with white vinyl roofOption cassette player


Plymouth's gonna getcha!
There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, & slant 6

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