1965 Pontiac GTO Convertible - Billy's Goat

Bill Howell of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, likes to build stuff. As the owner of Howell Construction, he makes his living by turning someone's vision into a reality. Similarly, Bill is also a car guy and as such the thing that really lights his fire is seeing his vision of the perfect car go from concept to asphalt. Bill's last car was a fully restored and numbers-matching '69 Camaro, but it was a chance visit to the Pro-Touring.com Web site that made him realize that there is more to life than protect-o-plates and chalk marks. Knowing that his prized Camaro was far too nice to cut up, he decided to sell it off and make room for a new, more modernized project. Bill is also one who likes something different, so it was his lucky day when he saw that a fellow board member, John Lakoski, had his '65 GTO convertible for sale. Since Bill had owned one 20 years ago, he instantly knew that this was the car for him. After getting the thumbs up from his understanding wife, Melinda, a deal was made and Bill drove down to Texas to pick up his new Goat.

Now that Bill had a car, he needed a plan. He wanted to update the classic Pontiac, but at the same time retain the classic lines and brightwork that made the car so cool in the first place. Most of all, he wanted the car to be road ready since he felt that driving the car was the whole point of owning it. Bill received tons of input from the members of Pro-Touring.com about ideas for the classic drop-top. Overall, the car was pretty straight and in great condition considering its 40 years of life on the road. Bill had gotten to know Frank Serafine of Prodigy Customs in Orlando, Florida, and knew that he understood the whole idea of a Pro-Touring car and what Bill was looking for, so the car was shipped down south and Frank got to work massaging the vintage steel and performing a complete rotisserie restoration. Bill also knew the value of having the right paint scheme. The big Pontiac begged for a two-tone paint job and Bill contracted Kris Horton to render a concept drawing for the car and help him nail down the perfect design. The plan came together down in Florida when the now mini-tubbed GTO got shot in its GM SSR red and GM silver paint. In addition to adding the mini-tubs to hold the massive rollers, Frank also dropped in some new floor and trunk pans.

Bill didn't want a trailer queen and knew that he wanted to enjoy driving the car even more than looking at it. With this in mind, the car had to have the performance to back up the killer looks. A-body performance parts are hard to find, but a quick call to Kevin Doyle at Global West gave him exactly what he was looking for. To keep the GTO stuck to the asphalt Global West upper and lower tubular control arms, custom spindles, and rear tubular control arms work with a complete QA1 coil-over system. A Global West 1 1/8-inch front sway bar keeps it all on the level. With the handling set, it was now time to make sure that the braking system was up to the task of stopping on a dime and leaving Bill some change. Six-piston front and four-piston rear Wilwood brakes clamp down on slotted two-piece rotors. For rolling stock, Bill was teased with the Forgeline Web site by his friend Allen Ortega, and before you could say "Do you take credit?" a set of custom three-piece forged wheels were being milled. Once the 19x9 front and 20x12 rear wheels arrived, they were wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero 255/35R19 and 345/25R20 tires, respectively. To facilitate such wide rear wheels, the Ford 9-inch posi rear end (with 3.75 gears) was narrowed a total of seven inches.