Hi everyone need some advice looking at a 1973 pontiac gto body looks clean has a 350 in it i know they came stock with 400 or 455 my question are there anything i should be looking for that was bad for the 73 model . THANK DENNIS
The most significant bad about these cars is the fact that it is a one year only body style and therefore reproduction parts are not made, even when they are they are so very expensive. The 73 GTO represents the low point in GTO production with 4,806 produced, only 231 produced here in Oshawa. It is a very difficult car to restore. Luckily Firebirds and Grand Prixs offer some parts interchangeability. As for bad parts of the body I have noticed in the three I have owned that the rear windows usually leak which can ruin the window channel as well as trunk floor, rear wheel openings on the 73 have a lip that is prone to rusting out and this quarter panel is a one year design, wheel opening mouldings are literally impossible to find although reproduced State side now, the front fenders behind the wheels rust out rather commonly and the doors are so big and heavy that hinges and strikers are usually required in any restoration. Restoring one of these will cost significantly more that you could ever sell it for because they rarely break the mid teens on the open market.
The Good is you get to own an uncommon car that very few people will know what it is let alone ever seen.
Welcome, Dennis ! As Ray says, you have taken on a challenging project, commonly referred to as an " Orphan". If, as he says, you have the temerity to complete the build[ restoration] you will indeed have a unique automobile. In other words, "You ain't gonna meet yourself coming down the Queens highway any time soon."
For clarity, this body style was produced from 73 to 77, but the 1973 in particular has a lot of one year only differences, the most significant of which is the rear quarters which Ray mentioned.
The other point is that I help maintain a list of reproduction parts for these cars: users.boardnation.com/~abodysite/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=10386 . Ray is helpful when he says some parts are not reproduced - this is no "restore it with a credit card and a catalog" car. But, to be devil's advocate, there's a heck of a lot of parts that are repopped, and new ones are appearing such as the wheelwell moldings that Ray mentioned.
One last thing - the 73-77 Colonnade body style has mostly been looked down on for a long time by the car community. I've seen some change in that attitude over the past couple years, but to be honest I doubt if the 1973 GTO will ever reach the mainstream. Buy it, restore it and drive it because YOU like it. By the way these are great driving cars!
Posting links is easy. The best way to do it is first type the words that you want people to click on to go to your link. I use:
CLICK HERE. Next highlight those words. To do this left click your mouse and drag the cursor over the words thus highlighting them. Next click on the little photo of the chain link in the above menu:
After you click on the link the following will pop up:
Type or paste the website you want to link. You can also click on the the little down arrow in the "Target" area and choose if you want a new window to open when the person clicks or if you want it to open in the same window.
Hope this helps!
Todd
Bob F wrote:
I give up on posting website links on this site...
Adding my two cent's here, I've owned about a dozen of these car's over the last 27 year's. I've owned by '75 Grand Am for the last 26. These car's aren't that hard to locate, you just have to be willing to spend some time looking, same applies to finding part's. I will say that NOS part's have dried up unless you know someone who has collected part's over the year's. Base models should be passed on unless they yield part's. Higher end and car's that are loaded with option's are the way to go. As Bob mentioned these can be very nice driving car's. You will likely be the only '73-'77 Pontiac A-body at a car show, that would also included the other GM division's as well. People stop me at the gas station, parking lot's, cross walk's and of course car show's to talk to me about my car. There are just too few of these around, in any condition! Great way to meet and make new friend's. I have met Ray and Bob because of these car's. These car's are starting to get popular, buy one now! A '73 GTO is a good choice but as mentioned, your not going to retire selling one of these.
Dennis; have the VIN checked out for authenticity of the car being an actual GTO before spending loads of cash on a restoration as well. You can obtain the GM Canada documentation to be sure, otherwise you won't really know what you have to start with.
