Grand National Aerocoupe! It's happening...

Ha! Well, a little over a year ago I posted some "photo-chopped" pictures of a Aero glass on top of my Grand Nationals trunk. It caused quite a stir here at the Turbo Buick camp! The GN Aero project was suppose to have been done during 2009 but instead I focused on restoring my 87 Turbo Regal instead and put off this project until now.

Anyway, these are REAL, unedited, NOT photochopped, bonafide pictures of the Aero glass sitting on the rear of the GN!







First thing first...remove the rear window and trunk lid. Remove the torsion bars from the hinges and then take some measurements. To get the package tray to lay flat in between the Regals fenders is to bend over the trunk seals lip.




While I had the factory window and trunk lid off, I dug out some of the seam sealer (which was cracked) so the aero package tray could fit tightly in place for proper measurments. I'll be sandblasting the surface rust and applying new seam sealer in the future.




Now that the tray could fit snug, I can get a better idea of how it will all fit together. In the picture below, the red marks are there to show you where I'm going to add some metal to the Aero tray so it will fit snugly in between the Regals fenders. It will make it look like it's made for the Regal plus give it some more support.




Here are some pictures showing how the Aero tray ends at the Regals quarter panel...just where it needed to end!




Here is part of the upper tail section of a Monte Carlo. The trunks seal on the Monte is in a different place than a Regal. I'm going to have to graft the upper section of the Monte onto the Regal body.

Right now all I'm really doing is gathering lots more info about measurments and actual fit before I started cutting and welding the stuff together. So far, it's REALLY looking like it's fitting extremely good.

Now that it appears the tray will fit pretty good I need to check out the trunk and how it's going to fit. Here are some pictures of my silver Turbo T with the aero package on it. I was just test fitting the parts when I was restorating the Silver Regal.

These pictures below show similarities of the Regal and the Aero trunk. This part of the project is still unknown until I get the tray where it needs to be fitted to the car. After that I can start weighing my options on how I need to modify the trunk lid.
Option 1 is to re-skin the the Aero bracing with a Regal skin. However, option 2 might be better to just install the whole Aero trunk lid and extending each side to fit the width of the Regal. If I do that I'll have to graft on the very back of the Regal's skin starting from under the rear spoiler area. I need to check if the GN rear spoiler will fit the Aero trunk... MORE TEST FITTING IS GOING TO BE REQUIRED!

More progress with video's!


YouTube - Grand National Aerocoupe - TEST FITTING 1.mpg

YouTube - Grand National Aerocoupe - TEST FITTING 2.mpg

YouTube - Grand National Aerocoupe - TEST FITTING 3.mpg




I checked to see of the Monte's trunk lid could accept a GN rear spoiler...no. It's slightly less rounded at the rear than the Grand National so I guess I'll be re-skinning the Monte's inner trunk lid frame. Soooo, here is the trunk inner frame with the Monte "skin" removed. The frame is bolted to the hinges to test fit it to the Regal's body. The lower section of the Monte trunk lid will have to be cut off as shown in the pictures.







Here is how the body lines appear while the trunk lid frame is bolted down to the hinges. It looks like the Monte and the Regals quarter panels both have the exact same "slope". That's good! It also appears that it ends (almost) in the same place as the Regals trunk lid. This will make it easier to "re-skin" the Monte Aero trunk frame with a Regal outer skin.








Another point I needed to test is to see if the trunk latches were in the exact same place on both the GN and the Monte. Yep, they were! The aero trunk lid actually latched perfectly on the Regals locking bar






This pretty much sealed the fate of me installing the Aero package in the GN. Looks like it can be made to work. A professional body shop person could probably pull this project off within one week, IMO. Since I'm no professional, it's going to take me a little longer just due to the fact I'm a Auto Technician and not a paint and body man. I have limited tools with metal working and go with my gut instinct and near calibrated "eye-balling" technique...lol! SO, this will probably end this thread for the time being so I can focus on getting the car torn apart and prepped for paint. I'll be bringing this thread back to the top on occasion if I have any updates. Also, I'll be posting more pictures on my web site during the restoration process located here.


HAVE AT IT........

Looks cool. They should have made them.

This is going to be an interesting project. Keep us posted.

I first cringed when I started reading this BUT I have to tell you, it looks pretty cool. Looks better than the Montes and Pontiacs. That takes big balls to do.:biggrin:

As Mark said, that takes a pair to actually do. And I initially thought "Damn... Really? That isn't going to look too good". But I actually like it. Very nice work so far. I am anxious to see the finished product.

This will have guys scratching their heads as you go by :biggrin:

wow that looks cool cant wait untill its done.

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Why not a T-type and leave a GN alone? Looks cool either, but just asking for those who wont. I will follow this thread, and I agree with GRUMPY, this will cause a few arguments in a bar some night...."Guess what I saw??? Your full of S*&T!!! They never made one..." I can hear it now.

Coach

I think the aero coupes are ugly as all get up, but I give you credit for doing it the way you want. I can defineatly appreciate the work you put into it even if it's not something I would want to own.

Can't wait to see more progress.

Thats real Hot Rodding right there! Way to think outside the box!

Definitely Cool. I like it.

Cool project and thanx for posting progress pics. Good friend has 2 Pontiac 2+2's and I never got into the look of them but black helps that alot.

If I had the time,money,and skill I would do one.

Interesting for sure..an abomination of sorts!..Lots of guts needed to hack into one for panel replacement, much more needed for hacking and hoping it looks half right..I hope it does..thats allot of spot welds. Looking forward to seeing the end result!

GC

This is what the end result will be...