Customer Reviews

Pontiac GTO Restoration Guide, 1964-1972 (Motorbooks Workshop)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I have found this guide to very helpful in some instances, there does not seem to be any consistant flow to the text and diagrams. If systems and diagrams are compatable from year to year acknowledge that.. I am an engineer and yet I still found it hard to follow. At times trying to comprehend which years and which systems the text and diagrams correlated to was extremely confusing. Now to the real source of my irritation. I sincerely do not comprehend why they were so negligent when it came to the '68' GTO. My review may be biased by the fact I am restoring a '68' convertible and that the information on this car is sorely lacking. Perhaps this makes me a bit myopic in my view but the guide is not up to the expectations generated by it's advertisement as the "GTO BIBLE". My overall impression is that they were developing a manual for '65' through '67' and adding '68' on was an after thought. I would highly recommend the guide for the early years but for those who need '68' forward look somewhere else.

This book is not really a restoration guide, it is more like a parts catalogue. There is very little info on how to restore a GTO. Instead it is just a book of endless part numbers with some exploded diagrams. Also the chapters are confusing, they should be divided by the year of the car. Instead the chapters include all years on the same topic. You can be on one page reading about a console for a 67 GTO and you turn the page and all of the sudden you are looking at a dash board for a 72 GTO! A very poor efort.

I have had the GTO restoration guide for almost 10 years now. It is a useful book, but it does have some short-commings. An index would be nice, since it is so disorganized. Some part numbers I have found have been wrong, or not complete. The information that is available for the Corvettes makes the GTO Restoration guide look like a joke! We need a more complete and accurate book for us Pontiac Lovers.

I would have to agree mostly with the comments from the person from Locust Grove. The book makes a real attempt at naming all the part numbers but thats it. The organization was terrible. The blow up diagrams are helpful (if you have a magnifying glass) and it can be real confusing matching pictures to their proper years. If your seriously going to restore a GTO, buy the car first and then buy the original shop manual, wiring diagram parts list and so on. You can get it from Llyod's website which is linked under DealsonWheels.com. It'll run you over 200 bucks but its well worth it, it covers the specific year and some of the manuals come printed on oil resisitant paper, A nice touch.

Give me a GTO over a women anyday, at least the "Goat" won't talk back to you......

I would have to disagree with the previous review of this book. I attempted to restore my GTO without the benefit of the 'GTO Bible' (actually the edition available at the time I carried out my resto, only had info on models up to 1970) and alot of information I needed to do things 'correctly' were simply not available from other sources. Thus without having had the benefit of performing a restoration prior to this, many things on my GTO are not 'as they should be'. When the second edition (which now includes the 1971-72 models - my car is a 72 hardtop coupe) appeared I snatched it up. After reading through it, I realized how much closer to 'factory' I could have gotten, had I possessed this info. Granted, some of the information is a little 'out-of-sync' in certain parts of the book. But for the most part, I found the information fairly clear. Remember, 'resto-guide' type books are just that, guides. All good restoration projects should have a 'plan-of-attack'. If some information is lacking, then you will have to do some research. That is what POCI, and other Pontiac/GTO enthusiast clubs are all about! To the authors, I thank you for providing all GTO enthusiasts/owners with a reliable and comprehensive guide for keeping our vehicles in factory condition (for future generations to enjoy). I am already thinking about re-restoring my 1972 to factory concours condition (after all there are not alot of these cars left). Thanks for the chance to comment

This book is not a perfect guide to restoring a GTO but it is an invaluable aid in that effort. It does not read like a how-to book, however, and if that is what you're after you might look at a number of other excellent guides along that line. But you will eventually most likely wind up getting this book anyway simply because it contains so much information. Sometimes it's hard to find, some of the illustrations were not well reproduced and some of the material infers what you want to know as opposed to outright statement.

But, and this is a biggie here, considering the myriad years, models, and variants of the GTO over its too-short lifespan a comprehensive detailing of all information for all possible equipment would require a forklift to move around. For more practical uses, this is an excellent choice although, as stated earlier, you will probably find it works best in conjunction with other material as opposed to being a single-source reference.

I have found the book very helpful on many occasions and if you have a GTO you care for you'll probably find it similarly helpful. If you have a GTO you don't care for, seek help, it's probably still okay.

Very disappointed with Amazon having a secondary publisher company handle their inventory. Ordered book in August and 29 days later the book finally arrived. Called the secondary company as they no longer respond to email inquiries and was quickly told that I would have to wait a full 30 days to request a refund. They said they had no tracking info either. Poor company to deal with. Suggest Amazon review their policies and how they handle customer disputes on their behalf.

Happy with the book but not the headaches associated with this transaction. Amazon itself has always been very good.

As said, this book is mostly a list of part numbers and exploded drawings to show where parts should go. It does not have alot of descriptions explaining how to do alot of stuff. Great for the guy that wants to restore the car to completely original to look up accurate parts.

Paul's passing as of today (Feb 4 2011) sent me to Google, of course, to look up his name and read of all his accomplishments to the classic car world. He has done a lot and was always a great source and eager ear to those of us in the hobby. Thanks Paul.

As far as this book i have to agree with most of the posters in that it is not "The Bible" for the GTO restorer.
This book is great for certain things but it's a crapshoot whether you will find what you need. It may have a great breakdown for the wiring of a center console with floor shifted automatic trans on a '67, but there might not be anything of use for a '68 console.
In fact, there is no one book that captures all the needs of someone trying to restore a GTO. In restoring two GTO's in the late 80's - early 90's, i used several print sources, including this one, and at any given stage may have had 2 or 3 books open at once trying to piece together a particular part or section of the car. The most valuable sources would be original service and master parts manuals. Pricey these days but if you are going to invest thousands in your restoration, a couple hundred for these manuals is worth it.
That was before the internet.
Now, the world has opened up to restorers and those willing to share their findings and experiences. It has relegated books like this to status of bookshelf filler that is fun to pull out and peruse on occasion but not much more.
My 3 stars is for the effort it must have taken to put this together by Paul Z and Chuck Roberts. It was written when a publisher of such a source would have to spend hours upon hours photocopying old manuals, charts, diagrams and taking dozens of rolls of pictures of "correct" cars. This was when these guys were limited to what was available at the time, which wasn't much.
But your best bet is to keep a laptop on your workbench in the garage and Google ready to work for you.

If you own a Pontiac GTO, this book is an absolute must. I thought I knew quite a bit about my car until I bought this book. It is worth every penny !