🔧 BUILD IDAFC21's 2004 GTO

General Information

Being that I have a thread for my ST that I was able to start on Day 1 of purchase and keep updated as I've modded the car, I realized, I never really made a single thread for the GTO to keep track of it's progress in the almost 8 years I've owned it now.

Never too late to start I guess! I've made it my kind of unofficial goal of 2016 to focus (no pun intended) more on my GTO again, and it starts with this thread. FAIR WARNING!! This will likely be very long winded. It's kinda hard to summarize 8 years of owning a car in one quick post. :rofl: I'm doing this mostly for myself because I just want everything contained in one thread for easy reference. Especially since all my old threads contain dead tcg upload links and I need to reupload all my pics anyways. :rant: So here goes.

If we're gonna start from the beginning, we probably should start with the before time. When I drove an 02 WRX. It started life with me purchasing it like this in 2004:

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And 4 years later it left me like this:

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Had a lotta good times with the car, but in those 4 years I did just about everything I wanted to do with the car, so it was time to move on to something new. There's nothing like a turbo AWD car.......but there's also nothing like a RWD V8 car. My first car I had when I got my license was an 88 Monte Carlo, and while it may not have been a fast car, it was a fun car. I needed to get back to that feeling.

After weighing all my options, I determined a GTO would be right about in my price range. V8, RWD, nicer interior than an f-body, I figured that would just about fit the bill. I still wasn't comepletly sold on the GTO looks, because I absolutely hated them when they first came out. I couldn't even fathom that GM would call that thing a GTO. But then again, I was almost physically ILL when I saw my first bugeye WRX in person, and it's now one of my favorite cars of all time :rofl: But it was clear I would have to find the right GTO if this was going to work.

I kept an eye on the classifieds, looked at a few that interested me, but nothing really wowed me that made me feel like I had to jump on THIS one right now. I was in no rush really since I didn't NEED a new car, so I could afford to be picky. I was also scouring forums and such for for sale threads.....and one day while surfing LS1GTO I found a for sale ad, and these pictures were inside:

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YUP. That was the one. It wasn't local, but it was only about a 3 and half hour drive away in Cali. So I started chatting with the owner. He was the 2nd owner of the car, and he was actually from Australia, which is why he did the Monaro conversion. He was also a Detailer, so there was no doubt he kept the car in immaculate condition, because that was his best advertising. His reason for parting with the GTO? This was about the same time the first G8's were hitting the road, and he wanted to be one of the first owners, as he was wanting something with a little more cargo space for when his family from Australia came to visit, and also, silver cars don't really make for great billboards when you're trying to show off your sweet detailing skills :rofl:

Car that was well cared for? Check. GTO that didn't LOOK like a GTO? Check. I needed to see this thing in person, so I made the drive out. It didn't take long for me confirm what I already felt. I had to have this car.

So I gave him a deposit to hold the car while I worked out financing, drove back home, and about 3 weeks later, on 3/30/08, drove back out with money in hand to pick up my new ride. :D As I drove away I couldn't get the grin off my face. I stopped at a gas station to top off before I hopped back on the freeway, and there is where I got my very first "Hey! What kinda car is that???" Not even 5 minutes into ownership. That's when I knew i'd made the right choice.

A few hours later, it was at its new home.

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It wasn't completely stock, but being that it was a Cali car the previous owner didn't want to get too crazy with it. When I bought it, it had an intake, jba shorty headers with the stock catted mid pipes, the custom dual split exhaust with an x-pipe going into magnaflow mufflers, and a B&M short shifter. It was a pretty decent sounding setup. And would hold me over...for awhile.



Now it must be said that I still owned the WRX as well at this point. I would have loved to have kept both cars, but at the time I still owed some money on the WRX, and was really not in a position financially to be able to make payments on both cars, and also selling the WRX would help me recoup my bank account from the GTO purchase, and maybe even help fund some mods :naughty: So the WRX had to go. But for a couple months, it was great being able to drive both cars. They were both so different from each other, but still great in their own ways.

It took a few tries, but the day finally came where a competant buyer could take the WRX off my hands, and before he showed up to drive it away I took these final pics.

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IDAFC21

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It was a bittersweet moment, but I was ready for it, and did not (and still dont) regret it. With the WRX gone (and some money in my pocket), I could put my attention into the GTO. which is why a couple months after that, all these suspension parts somehow showed up at my door :D

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I settled on doing suspension first because I figured it would be better to get that part squared away before I decided to throw more power at the car, plus there are certain issues on GTO's that just need to be addressed, aka collapsed strut mounts, and bad radius rod bushings. But I wanted everything firmed up, because after driving my WRX for so long, which had springs/bushings/sways etc, the GTO just felt a little too comfortable for me :rofl: So around August 2008 (around 5 months into ownership) in went the hotchkis sway bars, koni yellow adjustables, pedders springs and strut bar, and then various pedders bushings. [MENTION=5]Mook[/MENTION] was there for the install. And some of these pics are courtesy of him. I was very pleased with how it all came together and made the car feel like it should have been from the factory.

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With the suspension squared away, it was power time. I didn't want anything crazy, because 1. I just didnt have the money to go for HUGE power, and 2. it was after all my daily driver, so blowing up the car would not be that smart. At the time, I wasn't really planning anything, but one of the local shops threw out a special package deal for an Ed Curtis cam, with all the supporting components, install and tune, for a price I just couldn't pass up. So the cam I ended up settling on was the "Hellfire" cam, which had specs of 230/232 .630/600 111lsa. I was assured that would give a nice power bump while still retaining a very streetable manner, and i'd get a decent lope out of it as well :) I placed my order, and also had them order up a set of Pacesetter longtubes, because this isn't Cali, and I wanted the car to breathe. So around February of 2009 that install was completed, and this was the result.

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I was very pleased with the results, as that was pretty much exactly what I expected to come out with. I had them dyno the car before the install, and you can see it put out 308whp on the mods I bought the car with. Typically LS1 GTO's dyno around 300whp bone stock, so you can really see how much those sweet jba shorties were helping the car :rofl: I was also very pleased with the noise my car made now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bdtX-mdEOo

So within almost a year of ownership, the car was already pretty much where I wanted it to be :rofl: Exterior mods were good from the go, suspension was kosher, and it had just enough power to be quite fun when you wanted to put your foot into it.

Satisfied with the car I was content to just drive it and enjoy it. And then one day, 8 months later in October 2009, it happened. Was driving to work in the morning. Started off in first, went to shift to 2nd, put the clutch in, and then something let go. Thankfully I was able to coast it to a side street where I could stop and evaluate what had happened. And what had happened was, it seems my stock clutch had finally said :fu: to the 80+ extra hp i'd been putting thru it for the past 8 months. So my GTO finally got to have its first tow truck ride!! It's a proud moment for any car owner. My WRX was no stranger to tow truck rides either after I had 2nd gear blow out on me one night as well. So it was towed back to my house where I could figure out what the next step was going to be. I determined that next step to be an LS7 clutch/flywheel. It was an affordable option, and from researching I felt like it would be plenty capable to handle the meager amount of power I was putting out, especially since I don't beat on the car or race/drag it. So I towed it back to the shop, and thats what went in. I also had them throw in a speed bleeder for the clutch fluid while they were at it. And I can say its one of the best mods I've ever done to the car :rofl: Makes it so easy to flush the fluid out. So once again the car was mechanically sound and revived better than it was before.

I'm not sure where this next mod fits into the timeline as I don't remember when exactly I put this in, but I decided to replace the factory head unit with a more capable one. I went with this Eclipse unit for a couple reasons. 1. I liked that it wasnt fully touch screen, because I do still like having a volume knob I can reach down and turn with out having to actually look down at it, and 2. The screen was detachable, so you could bring it with you and use it as a handheld GPS unit outside of the car as well. This was still well before google maps had the presence on every phone that it does today, so handheld gps units were still rather desireable. Of course I never did use it outside the car, but hey, it was an option :rofl: I did the install on this myself, which surprised the hell outta me that it actually worked, because I am not great at wiring in electrical items, especially audio components.

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I also managed to wire it up so it would play dvd's while the car was moving :s00ls:

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And I discovered you could customize the startup screen, so of course this went in. :D

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Fast forward to about February 2012. Big mod! Got my windows retinted! the tint on my front windows was starting to discolor, so I had everthing in the car stripped out and redone.

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April 2012. Not much new to report, car still runs great, except now IT IS PAID OFF! :nannerpunk: For the first time since before I bought my WRX, I could finally know the joys of having no car payment......for awhile...

August 2012. 4+ years of daily driving and sandstorms have not been kind to my engine. The previous owner would probably cry if he saw these pics.

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I needed to take action. So I bagged up everything I didnt want to get wet.

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And went to work with a foaming degreaser, a brush, and the hose.

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A little dressing to make the black parts shiny again.

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And shes good as new! This is also when I decided the GTO frc's were not necessary, and they have not been back on the engine since.

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Fast forward again to about September 2013. I was leaving work at the end of the day, as I am one to do, backed up, shifted to first, started to pull away, shifted to 2nd, and then THIS happened.

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My B&M shifter finally did what B&M shifters do, and snapped. So I did the only reasonable thing there was to do, and ordered up an MGW-P shifter. :bigthumb:

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But as these are not readily available to ship at the drop of the hat, I did have to wait a bit for it to actually arrive, which was very interesting, because I still had to drive the car. I found the only real issue was trying to pull the shifter back, because it would just pivot back. So I found that as long as I was pushing it forward, it was fine. So this meant that for a couple weeks, I had to drive the car using only 1st, 3rd, and 5th :rofl: It was a very interesting time. It finally did arrive tho, and I set off installing it.

It wasn't difficult to see how much of a better unit the mgw is. Its crazy how thin the post is on the B&M. Thats USUALLY what breaks on those.

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And complete.

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Definitely worth the price/wait. shifts great, feels great, looks great.
 

IDAFC21

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And then, sometime in early 2014, I don't remember when it happened, but I started thinking I was getting bored without having a car payment :rofl: I'd been daily driving the GTO for almost 6 years at this point, and in that time, it's really only left me stranded twice. Once when the clutch went, and again when I was dealing with ignition lockup problems that plague these cars. I felt like it had earned some rest. So after much deliberation, I did something I thought I'd never do, and I bought a Ford :rofl: And in March of 2014, my GTO got a friend.

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There are a number of reasons I went with that car, which I won't go into here, but the important thing was that I could finally have the best of both worlds again like I wanted when I first got my GTO. And from March of 2014, rest the GTO has. My attention shifted somewhat to my ST any time I had some mod money in my wallet. :rofl: My GTO does get out at least a couple times a week/weekends, but it has definitely achieved garage queen status now. But every time I take it out and put my foot in it, 8 years later it still puts that same grin on my face that I had the first day I drove it home.

So its now 2016. Whats next? Well I'm not sure. I do still have things I would like to do to the car, but being its a 12 year old car now there are a lotta little things Ive neglected for a while that need to be taken care of. Just minor annoyances. I'd also like to get it to an actual detailer who can do a COMPLETE detail on it. Exterior, interior, engine, etc. I keep it claybarred/polished/waxed, but that can only go so far, and it doesnt matter if I park at the complete back end of a parking lot, I always manage to come home with another scratch somewhere on the car :rant: So I'd love to just get it back to its former glory when I first picked it up.

On the other end of the scale, things that might not necessarily happen this year, I'd like my next major mod to be a rear diff rebuild with aussie 3.91 gears. I feel that should wake the car up nicely and make it a little livlier on the street. Beyond that, my ultimate goal will be to finish out the engine w/ a new set of heads and maybe a fast intake and bigger TB. Im fine with 380whp, but 4XX would be pretty great. I know this poor aging LS1 has no chance of keeping up with today's V8's unless I go FI, but I'm not trying to keep up with anything, I enjoy driving the car for exactly what it is, and thats exactly what I'm gonna do. :)

I think that is about everything. If you actually read all this, then :bigthumb: to you. I will say keep an eye on this thread for some updates in the coming weeks as I have already set some things in motion for the one part of this car that's never been touched. I will be updating this thread once I hopefully have all the parts. :noes:
 

IDAFC21

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Looking good Paul! How much of a difference was the suspension from stock?

Stock wasnt BAD, but it just felt a bit too soft to me. I liked how my WRX felt but after 4 years of driving it, it was starting to feel a bit too harsh for my liking. So I just wanted to find something that was a nice balance in between, but thats why I went w/ the adjustable Konis. Have them set at about medium harshness and it was perfect.

The thing I'm finding now, is that the steering ratio on the GTO just isnt quite up to today's standards for sporty cars. I never had an issue with it until I bought the ST. :rofl: The ST's steering is so quick and short, now when I get in the GTO i feel like I'm steering a bus. I wish pedders still made their quick ratio steering racks, but those things are getting impossible to find now, and if you do find one, its usually a fortune.
 

IDAFC21

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Everything there is from amazon. :rofl: its quickly becoming my go to source for car parts. Youd be amazed. One of those items i was going to order from another site because it was quite a few bucks cheaper than amazon, but then i went to checkout and saw they were gonna charge me 63 friggin bucks for shipping. NOPE. Went back to amazon, placed my order there, free shipping, and i didnt get charged tax on this particular order, so i still came out like 50 bucks ahead vs the other site.
 

dberz94

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Everything there is from amazon. :rofl: its quickly becoming my go to source for car parts. Youd be amazed. One of those items i was going to order from another site because it was quite a few bucks cheaper than amazon, but then i went to checkout and saw they were gonna charge me 63 friggin bucks for shipping. NOPE. Went back to amazon, placed my order there, free shipping, and i didnt get charged tax on this particular order, so i still came out like 50 bucks ahead vs the other site.

Cannot beat amazon prime free shipping. I feel like they make some items more expensive to compensate with the amount of money they spend to ship it freely.

I could be very false, but I've heard if you revisit some items maybe a week or two without purchasing them the price could increase. Its maybe due to the website traffic on the item you're interested. That's why I don't kick myself when I see a good price on an item, I just buy it within a couple days of research. I've never really bought anything expensive off amazon but I am intrigued to see what you're gonna do. Sub to this thread fersure.
 

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