The GoatBoat: 2006 Pontiac GTO

[Tyler.M]

Braided SS lines are in. Now I'm wondering if I should just do rotors and the other slide pins while I'm at it.

Since I'm on brakes, any reason to do a higher temp brake fluid or just stick with normal stuff?

Put the lines on, put fresh DOTwhatever fluid from Advance in it, and stop worrying otherwise. Replace rotors when they're too thin, warped enough that the car shakes, or cracked. No need for high-temp unless the car is going to see a bunch of track days.

Only thinking about rotors since they have a massive amount of surface rust from not moving in like a year but I'll hold off. Thanks though, you've made my wallet happy. My garage is at the point now where I'll have random supplies laying around if I look hard enough, just found a container of fluid that I most definitely didn't buy. I understand why my grandparents hoard now, it's like christmas all the time

[Jake]

Only use that fluid if it's not opened. Otherwise pitch it and buy new.

Rotor rust will come off after a few stops.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

[Tyler.M]

Brakes are done and bled. Score, I taught myself something new this week. I also cut a few bolts and tightened up a few things. You know you're done with a project when you start shopping for hood emblems, lug nut caps and window switches. She's just a DMV trip and a call to Geico away from being roadworthy.

Now that everything is back together and I'm not seeing any leaks, it's time to start thinking about some other things I had planned awhile ago. Next up: suspension. Pedders is an old vendor of Australian goodness that disappeared for a few years but made a resurgence in the states last year, and h/t to ScottyB for directing me to them in my first build thread post. The stuff is pricey but usually the go-to for anything Holden. It may not be surprising but the GTO forums aren't nearly as active as they used to be so most people used a frankenstein solution with a lot of different parts from various companies to refresh their suspension for the past several years when Pedders pulled out of the US, meaning feedback on the Pedders stuff is from 2006-2012. Everything I've read says the quality is the same now as it was then, but people also love the frankenbuild suspensions too. I'm going to just get a pedders package and do it in one shot. This will include some extras too, like a front and rear sway bar, diff insert and bushings throughout. This is about as comprehensive as you can get, really, and after being under the car for the past year, it needs it. I really hope none of the bushings are as bad as my M3 RTAB were because those were the devil to do without a press (my favorite youtube video on the process for M3 RTABS involved a glock).

The only real big decision I have is traditional springs versus a more adjustable (and expensive) coil-over set up. I discussed this earlier in this thread last year and there was some good counterpoints to going to coilovesr. More research to be done, I think. The coil overs I want are Pedders as well (I'm a sucker for matching parts), remote reservoir and should be decent for my application, but I'm not sure if they'll be too big of a departure, comfort-wise, from the stock set-up. Any feedback or guidance is always appreciated. Other options are just traditional springs and struts but that sounds boring and I'm kind of interested in trying something new since I've done struts and springs before.

After that? SUPER-CHARGE... Nah just kidding. Summer tires.

I'm satisfied with using the stock wheels and BFG A/S for winter duty. The 4Runner will be mostly driven anyways. Come this spring, I'll probably shoot for a slight upgrade and try a 275/255 staggered setup on a more aggressive tire (Nitto makes a tire that everyone runs on the LS1GTO forums). That's about the widest you can get before you need to do extensive modification to bodywork. VMR is a pretty popular company to pick up wheels from but I'd like a lighter wheel than stock that also doesn't look like shit and cost me bajillion dollhairs. I'll keep shopping around for that.

Going to pull the rear seats and get them re-covered or try to repair the stitching myself in the next month or so, too. I used to sew back in the day and might be able to coax the leather back into place with some TLC.

I need to get you guys more pictures, too dammit.

[JPolen01]

I thought you were selling this to your dad. Why are you spending so much money on suspension for him?

[Senor_Taylor]

I thought you were selling this to your dad. Why are you spending so much money on suspension for him?

Yeah, I don't know what's going on anymore. This looks like one of my build threads at the moment.

[ScottyB]

unless you need wheel-to-strut clearance and/or plan on raising and lowering the car at least twice a year, i would doubt coilovers are worth it. a good set of springs and well-valved struts should make the car feel excellent. if not Pedders, there has to be some kind of koni/spring combo that is established for that platform.

[Tyler.M]

dad is noncommittal, I initially thought it was more of a sure thing. if it doesn't go to him im just keeping it. either way, it'll need suspension and even if he gets it I'm doing it for him. Dave said last year that this is like an expensive tuition and that's how I'm treating this. I like wrenching and I'm learning a lot through this process, and want to learn more.

I agree, I think springs and struts make more sense. I'm going to shoot for a slight drop.

[WRXtranceformed]

Phew and they say Subarus are a money pit

I met a guy at ProDyno that used to have a GTO, he got rid of it for a Mustang due to not being able to find a good suspension setup and the stuff that he did find was trash, the shocks kept breaking. He also said other parts were nearing impossible status to find. Hopefully you have better luck than he did

[GTBrandon]

Am I the only one whose seen pictures of this thing?

Here, I rehosted one for you, man.

Where can I buy this immediately, must have been the inspiration for my car

[GTBrandon]

Not to open an old wound by what warranty company were you using? Sounds like they’re a real POS business and the reason most don’t go the route of 3rd party, but I just want to know who not to recommend to anyone who asks about companies to look at

[.RJ]

unless you need wheel-to-strut clearance and/or plan on raising and lowering the car at least twice a year, i would doubt coilovers are worth it.  a good set of springs and well-valved struts should make the car feel excellent.  if not Pedders, there has to be some kind of koni/spring combo that is established for that platform.

Ageed... This is what i'm doing for the E91

[Tyler.M]

Not to open an old wound by what warranty company were you using? Sounds like they’re a real POS business and the reason most don’t go the route of 3rd party, but I just want to know who not to recommend to anyone who asks about companies to look at

A company called Easy Care. They are a pretty widely used company, I bought my GTO in Sheehy Ford of Warrenton and that's the one they used for almost everything. The claims process sucked and there was little/no communication about why I was denied until I pushed for it. They approved having a local dealership take my car apart and then sent an inspector to deny the claim after it was in pieces. Then they had the audacity to call me a few months later and ask me if I wanted to renew. Check their BBB and you'll see lots of similar stories.

---

unless you need wheel-to-strut clearance and/or plan on raising and lowering the car at least twice a year, i would doubt coilovers are worth it.  a good set of springs and well-valved struts should make the car feel excellent.  if not Pedders, there has to be some kind of koni/spring combo that is established for that platform.

Ageed... This is what i'm doing for the E91

Sounds good to me , I think standard springs and struts will work and make this easier to deal with in the long run. Suspension is something I haven't done a lot of research on in terms of the set up I want and what sort of adjustability I'm looking for, so I'm still shopping. I'm really not rushed at all at this point, the car has been off the road for long enough that another month of research and shopping around for deals isn't going to kill me. I"ll just do some cosmetic stuff in the mean time. 

Headlight restoration and a nice wax/polish next week are on the schedule. Then some pictures and cleaning out my garage so I can park it in there for the winter.

[Tyler.M]

Slight excited to have the majority of the major stuff done on this. Even cleaned up the garage and put the car in for the winter. 

Next step is detailing and such. I'm saving for the suspension refresh and budgeted that for next year, so now I can just do fun stuff like recondition the leather, get a big dent fixed in the side where a shopping cart rammed into me in a Kroger parking lot and a few other scuffs and things.  I did a headlight restoration using a Rain-x kit and it's mediocre but better than before.

Replaced the gas cap door gasket (the door and gascap is like at a 60 degree angle with no drain; it fills up with water every time it rains, absolutely stupid design) and ordered some new badges since the originals were turning yellow. Also got some new lug nut bolt caps and a new window switch console since the old one got chipped somehow. I still need to get that damn driver's side exhaust gasket on but the bolts are seized and it's tough to get proper leverage in there. I may have to drop the whole side of the exhaust from header to cat-back so I can properly wrench on it. That's next week though, no more work on it this week.

Check out the driveshaft by the way, such a big difference from the old one beside it. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but... it's huge. I had to grind down 2 seat belts bolts and a smaller screw in order to get it to spin freely in the tunnel. The old piece fails at the carrier bearing pretty frequently so I decided to upgrade since it was about the same cost as an OEM. This is from Hinson, they rate it at 800hp which is marketing jargon for "prolly won't break on you...maybe". I'm gonna expect less smooth power delivery and probably more vibration but that's okay, it's what I expected.

[img]<a href=[/img]" />
By the way, are still having to use a third party image hosting site to upload pictures? It's only letting me attach 1 .jpg file at a time. I actually have pictures now 

Edit: How bou dah?

[Senor_Taylor]

That image doesn't even work for me. Does the web version allow uploads? I know tapatalk hosts them if you upload on the app.

If you're using the desktop site, just use imgur. There's no reason not to.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Tyler.M]

Alright, I'm just lazy and also peeved at the photobucket fiasco and don't want a repeat with another third party being lame. To imgur it is.

---

Might as well do some other pictures. Fun fact, I really don't take a lot of pictures when I'm working on stuff. I need to get better at that. 

When the motor was first pulled, End of April 2016. Note the pudgeyness and lack of knowing what the eff i'm doing. 
[img]<a href=[/img]" />

Where the car sat for a good 8 months. Note the SUV like wheel gap in the front wheel well. Turns out missing 400lbs of aluminum block does wonders for ground clearance. I call this "lawn ornament phase".

[img]<a href=[/img]" />


This is post engine install (which I didn't take any pictures of) and pre transmission install. Took me at Matt a good few afternoons and some borrowed jackstands, but we got it done. You know how in the matrix Neo learns Kung-fu and gets all excited about it? That's exactly how I felt when we finished this. I KNOW HOW TO INSTALL A TRANSMISSION AND DRIVESHAFT. 

[img]<a href=[/img]" />


This was this past tuesday. Headlights came out decent but still a little too cloudy.... Notice I'm repping the office here as Dwight could possibly be my spirit animal. Points if you get the reference.

[img]<a href=[/img]" />

Where she sits now. Bumper off for some detailing and such. I love silver, you'd have no idea how freaking dirty it is but the color hides it in pictures. Lifehack, if you find someone with a silver car, good chance is they're lazy or what to maximize free time by minimizing time spent washing  cars. Both of my cars are silver so that means I'm essentially Mark Zuckerberg. Also, I put up lights throughout my garage it probably pisses off my neighbors with how bright it is. 

I often forget how much space I have for activities; I even have space for my bench and weights still. There's some muscle while I muscle meme in there but it's 2:00pm and I'm hitting my post lunch sleepies and don't feel like being clever.

[img]<a href=[/img]" />

[Senor_Taylor]

Half of these images are still broken.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Tyler.M]

on tapatalk? heh I don't use it. it's okay in chrome....

[Senor_Taylor]

Might be a tapatalk issue.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[GTBrandon]

There’s a broken link above every picture so maybe Tapatalk is just double posting pics and one is broken and the other is working?

[Tyler.M]

She's back on the road finally, insured and registered. It's almost exactly two years to the day that I first thought I might have some issues with the motor and took it in to a shop thinking my third party warranty with EasyCare would take care of it. It didn't, and in the ensuing two years since, I've put in more money and time than I was really anticipating on a car I initially only had a passing interest in. My original plan was just to buy a simple muscle car (since I've owned an example of every other sort of enthusiast car), drive it for a year or so and see if I liked the style/power and then save up for something a bit nicer. The car gods had other plans though and I'm hitting the four year ownership mark on the car this year, breaking commandment 6 of the car enthusiast "thou shalt keep thine garage door revolving"). It hurts to type out "four year ownership".

I have to say though, it's a pretty fun platform and fairly easy to work on. I've learned a whole lot and I'm oddly grateful as this happened, as it forced me to really learn and complete a project as opposed to just letting it sit. Yes, this has taken an exorbitant amount of time and a lot of frustration (both self imposed and from external factors), but I can't say there's been a dollar wasted. The thousands I've put into this I look at as tuition towards the development of skills that I was sorely lacking in. Thanks to everyone that has offered advice and listened to me rant, and huge thanks to those that came to my house and helped me put the thing back together. Work keeps me from being super active in MM, but I appreciate that even 5 years after I graduated, I still have a network of carbro's that are willing to help me out. Anyways, no more sappiness.

Motor seems to be okay and after driving my 4Runner for two years, the GTO feels like a rocket ship. The new clutch and flywheel feel much better than stock and the one piece drive shaft makes the car feel much more responsive than it did with the two piece. It's in need of a tune though and I can tell it's running a bit rich. I'm getting some squeal that I can't quite identify yet, but I believe it may be belt related as belt dressing seems to take care of it for a few miles before it comes back. Maybe pulley related? Not sure yet. It's only on mile 40 of the break in so I'm not too concerned yet.

Keeping in line with this car being GTO University, I'm going to start pricing a suspension overhaul and plan to do it during the summer. I've talked about it before but the car really needs it. I know there's a certain amount of roughness that I'll never really be able to get out of the car but looking underneath I can see that there are several bushings that are pretty bad and need to be replaced and tire wear was a huge issue when the car was on the road two years ago. Shocks and springs will be part of that too and possibly swaybars. I went back and forth on coilovers but I don't think that's really something I want for this application; it'll make the ride way too harsh for what my usage scenarios will be and way too expensive too. Bushing replacement sucks so I'll have to see if I can find a shop in town that's willing to press bushings in for me if I run into any issues. Everything else I plan to do myself.

After that, the car will be mechanically perfect nose to tail. Hopefully.