This 1965 GTO was built the 3rd week of June 1965 at the Freemont California plant and shipped to Stableford Pontiac in Austin Texas. It was produced with a 4 barrel 389 and a 3-speed manual transmission. The car came with manual steering and no air conditioning. The original color is Cameo Ivory with a blue interior. The car was partially disassembled for restoration in the mid 1980’s and was never restored. It sat like that in a warehouse for over 30 years. Loose parts were packed away in boxes with newspapers dated 1985. The frame off restoration began in 2017 and was completed in 2020. The car had not been wreaked and there were no rusted out areas. All the sheet metal is original to the car. All new glass was installed. Original parts were used as much as possible. the car was built to be comfortable to drive with automatic transmission, power steering and air conditioning. The car currently has a street performance 428 coupled to a TH350 automatic transmission that has heavy duty internals and a shift kit. Electronic ignition is used to supply the spark. The rear axle is original to the car and rebuilt with a Yukon posi-trac and 3:55 Richmond gears. A Vintage Air heat and air system was installed along with a Cold Case radiator and dual electric fans. A close ratio power steering box was added and the brake reservoir upgraded for safety. Restoration pictures show the serial number on the bare frame that matches the vin. The rust free body is shown also. The picture of the engine clearly shows the smooth ported and polished ports on the heads and the blocked cross over. I have the original 389 engine for this car. I do not have the 3-speed transmission. A lot of emphasis is put on the term, numbers matching. The definition generally means that a particular car still contains its original major components. Major components include the frame, engine, transmission and rear axle. If that is important to the buyer, the only missing major component is the 3 speed transmission. Other parts original to the car but not installed will go along with the car.
ENGINE:
The engine is a 1969 428 4 bolt main, bored .030 over. Ross forged pistons and Eagle forged rods were used in the rebuild. Compression was lowered to 9.3 :1 for 93 octane pump gas. The heads are number 62 big valve, screw in studs that have been ported and polished. The crossovers are filled. They have been rebuilt with stainless steel valves, hardened seats and street performance valve springs. Other parts: Crower street performance cam, competition cam lifters and roller rockers, butler pushrods, edelbrock intake, factory cast headers, 800 cfm quadra-jet carburetor, high volume water pump, tuff stuff alternator, high torque starter, electronic ignition, cold case radiator, dual electric radiator cooling fans.
