65 4-Speed Restoration

[Mark Ascher]

There are others who have traveled this path before me. I'll post a few pics, and make comments where appropriate.

Here is my 65 GS 4 speed as purchased in April 1991. This is a Fremont, CA built car. It has the 4 speed, positraction, radio, optional trim, and chrome wheels. I added power brakes during the restoration.

[Mark Ascher]

I drove it in the summer months, in 91 and 92. I started the restoration process in 1993, but wasn't sure what I was ultimately going to do to the car. My original objective was to paint it, rebuild the engine, and do the interior. I met Loren Alexander in 1991, and he was a huge help in letting me know what I had (I knew little about these cars when I bought it) and steering me in the right direction.

First thing I did was remove the rear bumper for rechroming, and stripped/straightened and primed the deck and quarters. We needed to strip the old paint off, as it had a cheap west coast repaint that was peeling and flaking off.

[Mark Ascher]

Another photo of the car when I purchased it in 1991.

[Mark Ascher]

I drove it to Speed Week - Bonneville, August, 1991.

[Mark Ascher]

A shot of the original interior.

[Mark Ascher]

Original engine bay.

[Mark Ascher]

I peeled the front sheetmetal off and sold it. The car had been wrecked in the front in the past, and most of what had been replaced wasn't fit to restore. So I had search out all the front sheetmetal. The fenders and inner fenders all came from the west coast. The hood and core support came from midwest cars. I also removed the doors and had them stripped and straightened.

[Mark Ascher]

I then pulled out the engine and transmission so rebuilds could get started. Thus far I had been working in a one car garage. A move in the mid 90s to a house with a dedicated shop was huge. Lots more room - storage space - and heat.
This shows the car when I was disassembling the front suspension. You can see the a-arms are nearly all bare metal with the greasiness removed, and there is still factory paint on the frame.

[Mark Ascher]

Things then got out of hand. The decision was made to remove the body from the frame.
It was only way to do the restoration right. I knew the time and money commitment would change drastically. It turned out to be much more than I thought.
Here's the frame being lowered down to slide it out from under the body shell.

[Mark Ascher]

The body took up residence on a concrete blocks and 4x4s for a time.

[Mark Ascher]

I was able to borrow this body cart with wheels from another guy locally who had restored a 65 GS 4 speed car, which was great because it fit the a-body specifically, and I could now move it around.

[Mark Ascher]

I got cracking on the frame right away. Here it shows it in bare metal just before paint, and back in the shop.

[Mark Ascher]

I was careful to clean parts looking for any markings before refinishing. I didn't find many, but the rear axle showed a number of them. These pics show the green stripes around the axle tubes, an orange mark to the left of the center section, and on the bottom, a blue "E", or maybe it's a "W" in the web section. There was also a white mark, not seen in these photos.

[Mark Ascher]

It took about a year to collect all the parts, and restore and paint everything so the frame could go back together. First photo shows the front suspension almost complete, and the second is the frame rolled out into the sunshine in the spring of 1998.

[Mark Ascher]

The body work was an odyssey that spanned roughly eight years. The first was the initial work I had done in the early 90s. Then when the original objectives changed, so did the body and paint. After it was pulled off the frame, the shell sat for about three years while other work went on. The shell went into the body shop for a near two year span to have more of it stripped in order to do the bottom and top of the floor pans, jambs, dash and necessary interior sections painted black, etc. I cleaned the bottom of the floor pans myself. 95% of the factory black paint was intact after I finished. Too bad I didn't take one picture of it that way!