Fixer Upper: GTO; Part 1
Although our 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado Fixer Upper is still moving slowly we jumped into a second project and we are going full speed on it. This Fixer Upper is a 2004 Pontiac GTO. We originally picked up this wrecked GTO for the drive line components but after playing with it a little in the farm yard decided it was too good to cut up. This is the first year of the GTO redo and I must admit when they came out I really bad mouthed them for their weak design. I never gave them a chance. Let me tell you that was a big mistake.
This car is fantastic. It is like a four seat Corvette. My daily driver is a 2001 ZO6 Corvette that I purchased new and I prefer to drive the GTO. Don’t get me wrong, the design is still way weak for a muscle car especially one with GTO badges, but it is a great driver.
We picked this up at an auction as a salvage vehicle. The only damage to it was the front and rear caps. The airbags never deployed so it had to be a light hit. There is minor damage to the rear inside trunk area and the front radiator support. We are going to need all new front and rear lights, hood and rear bumper cover and repairs to the front cover plus a new grill.
We will use a local body shop to pull the damaged trunk and radiator support areas back into the correct locations. Some of the parts will be sourced from a junk yard, some from eBay and others as we can find them. We got into the car for under $5,000 and will not go over $10,000 when completed.
