1968 Pontiac GTO Pro-Touring Build

This 1968 Pontiac GTO was built by the crew at MetalWorks Classic Auto Restoration in Eugene, Oregon as their personal shop car.

The first recorded history of this GTO dates back to the early ’80s when Rick, a customer of MetalWorks, purchased it for $2,500. After about three years of ownership, Rick had a blue velour interior installed since that was the style at the time. After a while, the GTO was sold to a guy, then to another guy, until Rick eventually lost contact with it.

Then one day, Rick heard of a GTO for sale in the area. He went and checked it out and the blue velour interior tipped him off to the fact that it was his old GTO. He bought it back and after a few years of collecting dust, he convinced Jon Mannila of MetalWorks that he should buy it. He did and decided he didn’t want to bring it back to stock.

This new direction would allow MetalWorks to build a car the way they wanted to build one and to show people what is possible.

An Art Morrison chassis and a new GM Performance LS1 were ordered, but the build soon began to snowball, as many builds tend to. The LS1 was used as a mock-up engine, but a custom build LS3 by Wegner Motorsports had already been ordered, running a stage 2 cam, and pushing 600hp.

Then, before the LS3 was installed, it was topped with an MSD Atomic LS fuel injection system and coils. Initial thoughts of an automatic were replaced with a TREMEC 6 speed manual gearbox.

While the guys were hard at work on the chassis and driveline, the body was stripped, then sent to MetalWorks’ acid-dipping facility. They applied several coats of “MetalWorks Red” paint and buffed the body to mirrored perfection…

1968 Pontiac GTO Pro-Touring RestoMod Specifications

• Engine: Wegner Motorsports 6.2L LS3 (600hp) with MSD fuel injection, coils, starter
• Transmission: TREMEC 6-speed manual
• Chassis: Art Morrison
• Wilwood Brakes
• Budnik Wheels
• Dakota Digital Gauges