1989GTA

Looks great. I think the leather idea is a good one.

darksider

Thanks for the comments. I am going to clean it up and repaint the black recesses on the console top.

Andrew, did you mean mount the shifter boot to the top of the console?

LQ4-E39

iTrader: (7)

the Goat looks great! love the way the motor sits right in the engine bay like it's factory.

good to see a local guy. I'm over in North Buffalo. hope to see the car out on the road this summer. i'm putting an LQ4/T56 into my '01 5-Series right now. GTO engine covers as well.

darksider

Thanks man!

Your car's going to be bad ***! I hope to run into you this summer. I'm in Wheatfield.

sprinkfitter

Mike what did you use for wiring harness and where did you get your PCM flashed I am sticking and 04 gto ls1 into my 66 lemans with the T56

darksider

My cousin redid the harness and Speartech reflashed the ECM. They did a great job, no check engine lights and it started right up.

sprinkfitter

Thanks I might try the same thing I will search for the info on pinouts.

darksider

I modified and painted the console and put it in the Goat the other day. I'm really stoked about it. It looks great in there. The second picture has the boot in it also.

I was going to take the paint off of the ribs, but I like the way it looks black.

The vacuum gauge works also, pretty cool.

krwyellowZ28

iTrader: (10)

You cut up and made an awesome old muscle car even better with modern drivetrain?!?! How dare you!!!

Just kidding, your car rocks. That modified stock console turned out great.

darksider

Thanks man, yeah destroyed a classic, blasphemy! Lol. Nice build you have going with the Judge.

oldgoat69

I prefer to think that we are improving upon a concept. My guess is that the engineers that originally designed these cars would heartily agree.

darksider

Hello all,

My name is Andy, and I'm darksider Mike's son. I stumbled upon this thread while browsing the internet for information about putting VintageAir into this GTO. What a walk down memory lane reviewing all the work we did so many years ago.

Now for the unfortunate news, Mike passed away from esophageal cancer in November of 2015. I always knew he had a thread going detailing the build and utilizing the many knowledgeable people the internet is so kind to provide, but stumbling upon the thread literally by chance, I couldn't let it go un-updated.

My brother Mike and I have been carrying on continuing to work on the classic cars we own, and I hope to update this thread with all our future endeavors with the '65 GTO. Hence, my frequent internet searches about VintageAir!

Not much has changed with the GTO, besides for being our primary trip car. We take a trip every summer with other local classic car enthusiasts. Lately, it has been short, week long trips around NY State, but the GTO did make a Power Tour back in 2014. This summer, the trip we're planning ends up in Colorado, and we've decided it's time to finally make the car truly comfortable for long trips and bite the bullet for AC!

Before I jump into the AC install, which will be occurring over the next couple of months as time allows, I do have a question/recurring issue while on our long trips. While cruising at a constant speed, or while in the same gear for a long stretch (more than 10 mins), the clutch is extremely hard to push. But just for one full press. Any presses after that return to normal stiffness. Regardless of the gear (4th thru 6th), this happens every time.

Thank you guys for all your help throughout the years, and I hope we remember to take enough pictures during the upcoming install!!

-Andy

G Atsma

Andy, first off my sincerest condolences on your father!
Welcome to LS1Tech! Both you and your brother! It will be good to see continued reports on this cool car.
I haven't read thru the thread, so if you could refresh us on the clutch setup it would be really nice.
Linkage, cable, or hydraulic?

darksider

Here's a quick snap of what clutch components we have. It is the hydraulic set-up from the '04 GTO.

Used an F-Body clutch slave, couldn't find a GTO part and the Camaro one was $30 cheaper!! Just had to change the GTO's hydraulic fitting to the Camaro slave.
Camaro clutch master cylinder, I had to change the fitting on the clutch slave back to the Camaro fitting so I could use the Camaro hydraulic hose. (taken from the build thread)

Hope this helps!
Thanks

Andy

darksider

Welp, the time finally came. After acquiring the proper kit from VintageAir (super helpful guys, were able to customize a kit to work with the body of the '65 GTO and the LS1 engine seamlessly), we decided to take a Saturday and tackle the majority of the installation!

Before the major disassembly

We decided to tackle it systematically, starting with removing the air intake, cooling fans, and draining the coolant from the radiator. Next, we installed the condenser under the top core support, as shown below (you can just see it peaking out under the core support)


After much deliberation and consideration between removing the hood/fender etc, or just attempting to remove the inner fender, we decided to try and remove the inner fender only. Boy, what a challenge that became. After locating and removing all the bolts holding it in place, we also had to loosen the lower fender mounts, remove the chrome side trim, and massage/finesse it out of place. All of three hours work to finally achieve this:

In progress

Finally free

Thankfully, we were able to maneuver it enough to get access to the bolts holding the heater core and blower motor in place.

You can see how much clearance we obtained

All the old stuff removed!

Next, we systematically started installing the various block off plates provided by the kit.

First plate in place

Then, it was time to tackle some bench assembly of the unit itself.

Hoses all attached and ready to go

Continued removal of the old ducts, including the defrost vents, and control system (which will be re-utilized)




Now for an even more aggravating part than the inner fender removal. With all the hoses attached, the unit has to be mounted while simultaneously feeding the hoses through two different panels. One inside the car where the fresh air intake used to be (passenger side footwell), and another under the hood, through a plate that fills the hole where the blower motor was.

Hoses fed through passenger kick panel

Where the blower motor used to be under the fender

All tucked away under the dash!

Our final goal for the work day was to be able to tuck the inner fender into its home! Along with that, we finished installing the block off plates, and buttoned the fender back into place.

Upper block off plate in place

Inner fender re-attached

That was enough for our work day! 10 hours in the garage, and feeling super accomplished, we put the rest off for another weekend.

Left to do: Install compressor and belt, connect all hoses, all wiring, under dash ducts, re-configure fuse box/computer mounting locations, drive in total comfort!

Thanks for reading, more to come soon!