Just a little update for today. With the holidays and the blizzards there isn't a huge amount to update on... plus we're waiting for a few key components to move forward.
The first pic in this set is of a stainless bracket for the detent cable, the next pic is spark plugs and 10mm Taylor plug wires. The next pic is new "bumperettes" the first thing that gets hit on the front bumpers.
The next series of pictures is of parts for my braking system.
The next pic is of some of the stainless fuel lines I ordered. All of the coolant lines and fuel lines are being replaced with stainless variants.
The next few pics are of the inner fenders being finished. They look awesome.
The next 2 are of the custom driveshaft I ordered for the car. It's from Denny's and it's a beast. It's their 3.5-inch "nitrous-ready" shaft but in my case will be "boost-ready" :)
THe next pic is the wiring nightmare that Ken's pulled out of the dash. There was a Greddy boost controller and some intricate alarm system (with antennas?!?) that was all pulled out. The wiring harnesses were returned to original condition.
The last few pictures are the start of the interior. The headliner, carpet, steering wheel, etc, are all new. The seats and stuff will be cleaned up but they wanted to get everything in place to make sure I had it.
I didn't have a map/dome light so I ordered that, and the shifter panel had a few holes in it but luckily they're pretty common so also pretty cheap.
GN December Update
Monday, December 14, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
November Update (what they did in November...)
The car is really coming along and I've been ordering some of the final touches on the car (interior pieces, battery, etc).
The entire driveline is mounted, the engine, transmission, driveshaft, etc. is all ready to go. The intercooler, radiator, etc is also mounted. The turbo is mocked up on the engine but they did run into a snag. I had ordered a downpipe with external wastegate but it hit my headers and the frame. I have real ATR stainless headers and ATR stainless exhaust for the car, and unfortunately ATR is no longer in business so their products are becoming increasingly rare. The downpipe I bought ended up being a Chinese product with a cheap wastegate anyway. Some of the trusted vendors out there sell some real crap and offer little to no help.
So I had to find another company to make me a downpipe for my situation. With this downpipe I also had them put an oxygen sensor bung on it (for the FAST engine control system) a Tial wastegate, and I'll be using an AMS boost controller.
My wheels came in from CCW and they look spectacular.
This update shows the Spal cooling fans and then some of the front-end components being painted.
The next few pictures are the guys mounting the engine. You can see a few of Ken's other projects in the background.
After the pictures of the door hinges being painted is the pictures of the hood. The original hood I had must have got bent up during one of the times it was moved over the years or something because it didn't line up at all with the header panel. I found a guy that I bought another hood from. He ran a body shop and said that the hood was pretty much perfect and ready to go. Needless to say the pictures following show the massive amount of junk that was used to make it look good and how bad some people are at body work.
The bumpers are shown in the next few pictures. They were bumpers from the parts Regal. Pretty much every person I ever talked to said that you can't use the Chrome bumpers and turn the black. Well Ken's did and they look absolutely awesome. The bumpers were sent off to be de-chromed and then finished at Ken's.
Next few pictures are of the stainless fuel lines, stainless oil coolant lines, etc. Any lines in the car are being replaced with stainless steel lines.
The next few are of the complete set of GM NOS Emblems I found from a guy on the forums.
The next few pictures are of the FAST engine/fuel management system that I got from Hartline. It was put on someone's car but never ran. I'm not sure if he didn't pay his bills or what happened but I got a good deal since it wasn't "new". All of the needed Caspar's harnesses and everything else is in the boxes. It also came with a data logger so you don't always have to have a laptop in the car to log data.
The front dash panel was cracked a bit and pretty gross so I picked up a new one.
The next few pics are of the deep tranny pan I bought. It ended up being a prototype that was shipped to me on accident. It's on it's way back and the correct one is on the way :)
The next pics are pretty close to the current condition of the car. The trunk lid has been painted and mounted and the back end of the car is pretty much ready to go. The doors have been hung and are ready for paint. The front fenders were mocked up. The passenger side fender was a NOS fender and is perfect but the driver's side must have been in a wreck at some point. It was about 5 pounds heavier than the other side and didn't line up right. The fender from the Regal parts car wasn't acceptable either so I had to get another one on the way.
The windshield was replaced and looks great.
I'm starting to see the end of this project in sight, which is a little disappointing. I really love this whole process and I'm sure this isn't the last car that I'll have Ken's build. Most of his customers are repeat business and I know why.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Small Update on the GN
Here is the latest update from the restoration company. The car is really coming along.
The first pictures are of the front fenders down to bare metal. You can see how one already has the GNX style fender vent cut out. The other one still has to be cut.
The next pictures are front and rear shocks. I went with Bilstein because of their reputation and honestly, their availability. A lot of other shocks I was looking at had lead times of months.
Next few pictures are of headliner clips and the driveshaft loop. Next few is some pink stuff on the doors and fenders. Notice that the other fender vent has been cut.
Next pic is a teaser of the car being wetsanded/polished.
The next few are just some parts I ordered. All NOS GM. Cam sensor, Coil pack, and various other sensors.
The next few are of "Skinny" (one of the shop guys) working on the paint of the car. They actually sent me a bunch of pictures by mistake of some of the '57 Chevy's their working on, and one of them snuck into this gallery.
Then to finish up, a few pictures of the car outside after preliminary wetsanding and polishing.
The paint will be absolutely stunning when it's done. This restoration company has won hundreds of awards for their PPG-Certified restorations over the years.
And don't worry about the wheels/tires. I have ordered a set of CCW LM20's. They're custom wheels, the same brand as on my Z06. They will have anodized black centers and polished lips. 4" lip in the back. Badass :P
Frame Assembly, Paint, and Parts
Quite a huge update on this DVD of pictures from the restoration company.
The first pictures are of the rear end and rear end parts being primered and painted. The next few pictures are preparation of the random plastic pieces being worked. Other various parts of the car drying after paint are next.
The next few pictures show how they finished the tub of the car. They used a coating similar to truck bed-liner. It's super strong, and looks awesome in person.
The next group of pictures show a few stages of completion in the installation of all of the suspension, brake, and other components on the now finished frame. The also redid all of the brake lines and things like that.
It's like a work of art in person.
Next pictures are of the doors and hood being stripped and readied for paint. The work on the hood was actually a waste since this hood is warped pretty bad. I'm picking up a new one next weekend.
New bumper strips were ordered and that is the next picture after the inner fender pic.
The shell of the car was painted and some pictures of it the next day outside follow. This is before any polishing or wet-sanding of course.
The next set of pictures is a huge load of parts that were delivered.
The first 4 are stainless tanks for power steering fluid, coolant overflow, and washer fluid. The next few are trunk carpeting and underhood carpeting.
The next few are of the intercooler. It's a PTE front mount. It's been powdercoated gloss black.
After that, a picture of the transmission mounts, custom fabricated.
One of the dipsticks I ordered came broken... replacement on the way.
The next picture is the radiator. It's a Charged Air Systems (CAS) custom piece. Polished and clear powdercoated.
Next pic is an NOS grille emblem. Walbro fuel pump is next, and the next few are various wiring harnesses from Caspars.
The next few is of the Razor's Alky kit, dual nozzle, that is going in the car.
My favorite piece so far is in the next pictures. The PTE Billet Dual Ball Bearing turbo. Should create some serious horsepower.
Next up is some beautiful ARP Stainless Steel headers, custom coated in Ceramique chrome.
Next few pics are a loaner intake that we'll be robbing some parts from (fuel rails, vacuum lines, etc)... New air conditioner compressor and condenser are next. After that is the turbo-saver which relocates the oil filter and feeds fresh oil to the turbo constantly. The next picture is the turbo oil return line that goes back into the block.
The set ends with the custom coated intercooler piping, the computer, turbo oil lines, ARP stainless intake bolts, and the new rear end cover.
Finishing the Frame and New Suspension Parts
The next set of pictures is the restoration company prepping the frame and finishing it. They sandblasted it to remove any surface rust and then primered it.
The next few pictures are of the suspension components that I chose to put on the car.
After that are some pictures of the sad condition of the fuel lines and sending unit. I purchased a brand new fuel tank, sending units, gas lines, etc. A new high-performance Walbro pump will be used with a Caspar's Electronics "Hot-wire" kit that bumps the fuel pump wiring to a much higher gauge.
The next pictures are why we decided to replace the frame. You can see it has some serious problems in it and in a restoration of this quality there's no way they wanted to use it.
There are a few pictures of the rear end and then the frame being painted. The last pictures are the frames, new and old, next to each other for transplant.
Sorry It's Been So Long
Sorry it's been so long but I've been pretty busy and pretty lazy about updating this thing but I've had some requests to update it further.
I'll make multiple posts but do them in order of the pictures that I have.
The first pictures I had from before but didn't ever post them. Basically it's a few pictures of the frame that they'll be using from the parts Regal I bought. Also a few pictures of the car in a stage of primer.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Grand National - "State of the Union"
So it was a Saturday morning earlier this year (around April I guess) and I was really bored so I was looking around on Turbobuick.com. I went into the cars for sale forum just to check out how the Grand National pricing was holding up in this bad economy. The market has gone down a little, but not much. I wasn't really ready to buy a GN just yet but one of the first posts was for a GN "roller" in Wisconsin. Basically a mostly-complete car minus the engine and trans. It was a 1987 and the body and interior were in pretty good shape. I figured it would be a cool project for the summer, something my dad and I could work on. That idea kind of died off because both my dad and I were way too busy to conquer such a project. So I ended up enlisting a restoration company to build the car. They send me pictures once a month and I'll share those along with other project milestones along the way.
The first set of pictures is from when they took delivery of the car. I have to warn you, they document everything.
The next set of pictures is the parts that I gave them with the car. A lot of the parts came with the roller but I bought some new parts:
- Door seals, truck seals
- Front and rear bumper fillers
- Upper and lower door panels
- Steering wheel, trim ring, horn button
- Dual gauge pods for A Pillar and Console. The car had an A pillar single gauge but it wasn't installed right and was the wrong color.
- Billet door escutcheons
- Window switches, lock switches
- Door handles
- Ball joints
- Tubular front control arms (we put them on already)
- Shocks
The next step was to get the engine and transmission to them. I bought the engine and tranny from the same person I bought the car from. The engine:
- RJC Racing Billet block girdle kit, powdercoated oil pan
- ARP Main studs, #2&3 billet main caps, neoprene 1-pc rear main seal
- ARP oil pan studs, extended oil pickup for girdle clearance, all main caps machined
- Stock crankshaft machined .010/.010, cryogenically treated and micropolished, rolled fillets
- Stock rods resized, shot peened, polished shafts with ARP rod bolts
- J&E Forged 3.820" bore custom turbo pistons, 8:1 comp. J&E lightweight pins and file-fit rings
- BHJ Racing balancer with reluctor ring, JW "The Wheel" Flywheel, both SFI approved
- Complete rotating assembly balanced and assembled by C&S Performance
- Crane 214/210 custom grind turbo Billet roller camshaft, Crane hi-rev roller lifters, rollmaster dual roller timing chain, hardened chro-moly pushrods
- Elgin high-volume ported front cover for impoved oiling with Melling high volume oil pump
- Clevite 77 Race Serices rod, main, and cam bearings. Brass freeze plugs
- Complete assembly by C&S performance. Balanced and blue-printed, Extensive machine work for girdle installation. Caps machined, align-honed, block zero-decked, etc.
- Champion GN1 14-bolt aluminum heads. Brand new castings. Full race port by C&S Performance. Gasket matched and ported to custom intake. Crane roller valve springs installed with titanium retainers and hardened keepers. Upgraded valve seals, with C&S 5-angle race valve job. Stainless Champion intake and exhaust valves. Cometic multi-layer composite head gaskets with Hylomar seal applied for assembly. Scorpion 1.55 Roller Rockers.
- ARP 120,000 PSI head studs, ARP stainless polished intake bolts, Fel-pro 1200 intake gaskets
- Stock intake with extensive race porting by C&S. EGR welded closed, EGR tower milled flat and smoothed, matched to GN1 heads and Fel-Pro gaskets. Intake powdercoated argent silver and clear-coated by Classic Coatings in Sheboygan.
At this point they had already began to strip the car. Some things they pointed out to me in this set of pictures:
- The lack of rust on the body of the car, even when stripped to bare metal (a really good thing)
- A few tiny problem spots, one on the trunk that I knew of
- How crappy the paint was on the car when they started. They took a picture of how it chipped off like old lead paint.
When they got deeper into the car they noticed a few things. At some point the car must have been through a ditch or something. The frame under the driver's door was damaged badly and there was a huge "rip" in the steel where it looks like someone had pulled the car out. There were some sizable rust holes in the frame behind the trunk and a few other spots. It wasn't worth fixing the frame and we agreed not to want to use a questionable frame so I bought a 1986 Regal to use solely for parts. Gino (who sold me the car, and engine) found it for me. He's been a great resource. The car has an awesome frame, and they'll also use a lot of the little bolts and brakets here and there. It was a 307 V8 car, and the transmission actually looks pretty good. I'll probably scrap everything we don't use but who knows...
The bumpers are off already but otherwise the car is pretty complete. I had the car on my trailer and at a gas station I had a few guys wanting to buy it from me... hah.
Over the last week they stripped the body off of the parts car frame, and also got the body of the GN in primer. Here are the pictures of their progress the last few days.
Since the body will be completely off of the frame I went ahead and ordered all new body bushings and mounting hardware from Energy Suspension. I also ordered a complete Hotchkis suspension setup. They'll start installing all of that on Monday.
My car history
I've always loved cars and most specifically I've loved a few different types of cars. It all started with my dad and his Corvette. He had one of the first C4's made and I loved that car. I remember we'd go driving in it (back when I was 5 or 6 years old) and I would love how it sounded, I loved how it looked, the interior was crazy for it's time (completely digital dash) and even though it wasn't the fastest thing ever, it was the fastest thing that I had been in and my dad wasn't afraid to open it up.
By the time I was 16 I already had 2 cars. I had a 1992 Camaro, 25th Anniversary Edition, Black with Red stripes, T-Tops. Of course I couldn't drive it in the winter so I had a 1989 Buick Park Avenue to drive in bad weather. My brother had a 1987 Camaro and a 1988 Buick Estate Wagon, my dad has his Corvette and his truck, my mom had her Cadillac STS, and my oldest brother Brian had a Nissan Maxima. That's 8 cars for 5 people, but Brian was in college and we could fit both Camaros and the Corvette in one stall of my parents garage so it wasn't a big deal.
My first car...
For some reason or another, a lot of my friends started getting trucks so I had to follow the bandwagon and sold the Camaro and the Park Avenue to buy a truck. I ended up getting a 1993 Chevy Silverado, it was a step-side short bed, non-extended cab, with a 350. Exactly what I wanted. I was working at CSK Auto at the time so we put a small lift on it, 33" Mud Terrains and rebuilt the 350. It ran strong and served me well through my senior year and in college. I sold it to Greg (my current roommate) for next to nothing and we still beat the crap out of it to this day. It will sit for months on end, get woken up to haul something heavy as hell or when the weather gets really bad, then sit some more. I had put 3" exhaust straight piped out to dual 4" stainless tips but time took it's toll and Greg had to cut it off since it was all loose.
Here's a picture from 2001 (I think).
So once our business started growing I started looking for a new car again. I wanted something sporty but also wanted a sedan. I wanted an Acura TL, but I wanted the version that you could only get in Southern states. Up in Wisconsin, all of the Acura TLs you see now are lame. They're pretty much all automatics, with shitty brakes, shitty winter climate package, no ground effects, and now they're common as hell. I took a one-way flight down to Texas and bought a sweet TL. It was a 2004, Parchment leather on Black pearl metallic, 6-speed manual, Brembo brakes. I did a fair amount of mods and it was a badass car for a few years.
At this point I had the TL and my green truck but the green truck was on it's way out as far as a daily driver was concerned. The A/C stopped working and I went into work on a Saturday in June. It was the first really hot day of the year and then it started raining. So it was hot as hell but pouring rain. Needless to say I was either sweating my ass off from the heat or getting soaked driving with the windows open. This was the green truck's last straw. I really liked the new style Ford trucks so I went to the dealership and they had a 2004 F150 FX4 Super Crew cab there that was only a year old. It was owned by a lady that did crafts and she had a hideous topper on it and plastic that covered the back seats. I met her when I picked up the truck a few days later, she was taking delivery of the same truck, just a 2005. Apparently she gets a new truck every year. Of course I can't keep any vehicle stock so I put a mild lift on the truck, tint, and full audio system. Winter tires are 35's on the stock rims and the summer tires are 325-60-18 Nittos on black rims. I drive my truck the most out of any car and I just turned 100k on it.
So in 2007 a guy at work wanted to buy my TL and I really didn't drive it that much so I sold it to him and started looking for a Corvette to buy. I always have loved Corvette's and wanted a Z06 really bad. The C6's had only been out a short time and I didn't want to buy a new one so I ended up finding a 2006 Z06. It is C6 Corvette VIN #00000551, which makes it one of the first Z06's ever made. It's now Katech Street Attack serial #7. Katech Engines Street Attack Package. Scroll down a bit past Stage 1 and Clubsport if you want to see the package. It's a fun yet scary car. Here's a picture I took with my dad giving my mom a drive after dinner one night. She's not a big fan of the car. The cam lope at idle freaks her out I think.
Next came the really high gas prices of the Summer of 2008. My truck gets fairly poor gas milage, which is too be expected, but it was costing me about $100 a week in gas. I drive a lot and have a tendency not to baby the gas pedal... oh well. I was at Ballweg's in Middleton for a Corvette event and got talking to the sales guy that I liked. I had heard a lot of good things about the then new Cobalt SS's (the turbocharged ones). I put a deposit down and ordered one. I figured it would be a good gas saver but also fun to beat on. A month goes by of GM saying, it will be there tomorrow, it will be there next week, it will be there tomorrow, etc. The dealership was on my way home so I'd swing through when I saw a delivery truck, but my Cobalt was no where to be seen. We checked the order status and it had to go from factory to factory, back to the original factory, then got hailed on so it needed a new body, and basically looked like it would never show up. At the same time, one of the service techs was thinking of trading in his 2006 GTO that he just bought for a new truck. They had great deals on trucks, and 0% financing, because with gas at $4.70 a gallon, you'd be an idiot to buy a big truck. I've always liked his car so I cancelled the order on the Cobalt and we wrote up the sale for the GTO. It started off at 400hp stock, and I left it there for the summer. My standards on gas mileage are low so I was loving the 22MPG. Long trips I can squeeze 26 running in 6th gear at about 80MPH. The winter brought Kook's Signature long tube headers, X-pipe, full Borla stainless exhaust, a Volant intake, and most importantly an LS2-edit license and a few tunes from tuning god Jim Hall of Halltech Systems. Also has the standards, tint (excessive tint according to some state troopers...), Eclipse DVD Navigation deck, 2 JL amps powering a single W6 and Focal K2 Power front stage. It serves as my daily driver in the summer.
And now for the real purpose of this blog, the Grand National! I've always loved the G-Body cars. I think my first experience made me a fan. When my dad and I were looking for my first car we went and test drove a Monte Carlo SS. It had been slightly modified and was in great shape. It also had some transmission work done and I remember my dad stopping out on a country road to see what kind of power it had from a dig. I was only 15 and didn't even have my learners permit yet so I was in the passenger seat of course. He stomped on it and it spun a little but launched nicely. The shift into 2nd was hard. Really hard. The tires let a loud chirp out and did it again into 3rd. At this point I knew I wanted a G-Body. I don't exactly remember why we moved on from the Monte, it was either too expensive or the guy had another offer or something else. We bought the Camaro a few weeks later and I was happy, but every time we went to Spring/Fall Jefferson (big car show here) I would look at the Monte Carlos. I would also long for the Grand Nationals there but they were (and still are) ridiculously priced.
So that brings me to the beginning of this year....
Blog I guess
I was looking for a good way to document and keep track of the build of my 1987 Buick Grand National. I have a lot of info and pictures but had no way to make it look nice so I signed up for this blog. So I guess I'm blogging. I'll update this as I get more pictures and get parts and stuff.
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