turbofish38
Le Pétomane
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2002
Well not wanting to hi-jack Chavo's thread http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/turbo-lounge/228123-interesting-article-82-1-2-gn-not-t-type.html
so here is another 82 GN story. It's not exactly a barn find but still one of those great stories that I know you guys like to hear about.
I'm the type of guy who has found it easier to buy an entire car just because I needed something like a gas tank or transmission. This was fairly easy for me as I bought quite a few dandys from the lemon lot of the dealer I worked for. After I parted them out the rusting hulks were loaded onto my car trailer and carted off to the crusher. One day while I'm sitting on the scale I notice what was a Regal with a turbo hood parked off in a corner. Well I just about jumped out of my skin with excitment when I saw it was a two tone gray 82 GN. This was back around 92 maybe 93 when this happened so the history of the first GN was a little hazey. All I knew was that it was a turbo and I wanted it. I asked the lady running the scale whose car it was and she told me it was one of the tow truck drivers. Turns out I knew the guy. He had picked it up from the impound yard and wanted it for the T-tops and alloy wheels. He said make me an offer and $250 and a couple of hours later it was sitting in my parking lot waiting for it's return back to a life of glory. It also turned out that the impound yard he got the car from was owned by one of my friends Grandfather and if I had bothered to look there I probally could have picked it up for the $25 tow bill. It had been abandoned on the street and the cops had it towed in. Well it was as rough as a cobb. The original carb-turbo motor was gone and replaced by a NA crate motor with an Edelbrock intake and Holley 450 along with a set of crappy tube headers. It also looked like somebody left the T-tops off and it rained and snowed on the interior. I vacuumed out what seemed like a trash bag of leaves to give you an idea. Well Omaha Nebraska was also in the salt belt and the entire floor pan was rusted away. The only thing keeping my feet from hitting the ground was the insulation under the molded carpet. You could feel the water splash it when you drove through a water puddle. Well all of the 82 GN stuff was still there and surprisingly the steering wheel was in mint condition. It was a skinny rim version of the leather sport wheel used in our cars. Quite unique in other words.My plan was to find a rust free T-top Regal tub and swap over the parts and VIN tag. I must have looked at 6 or 7 good candidates but I was either a day late or a dollar short. I did get it up and running and used it for a DD for a couple of years. The rust really took its toll on it. One cold January the T-tops almost flew off while I was on the interstate. Man was that a cold ride home. It turns out that some girl who was in our local Buick club knew the original owner of the car. Her husband and this guy owned a buisiness together. He was an alcoholic and junkie and drank the buisiness into bankruptcy. She said the original motor was yanked because he wanted more power. I was supposed to be stashed in his mothers garage so we trucked on over there expecting to find some buried treasure but it turns out somebody beat me to it years before. Well the word was out that I had some rare car and one day this guy that was pestering me to sell it to him convinced me to sell it. It was just to far gone for me to save it. Maybe if I had the money it would have been a different story. I never saw that car again. It probally ended up back at the same salvage yard I discovered it. Just like in life everything comes to a full circle, even if its a car.
BTW That brick building in the background is my old HS. Class of 78. It was used as the HS in the movie "Elections" with Mathew Broderick and Reese Weatherspoon. I was supposed to have a bit part in it but they edited my scene out.
so here is another 82 GN story. It's not exactly a barn find but still one of those great stories that I know you guys like to hear about.
I'm the type of guy who has found it easier to buy an entire car just because I needed something like a gas tank or transmission. This was fairly easy for me as I bought quite a few dandys from the lemon lot of the dealer I worked for. After I parted them out the rusting hulks were loaded onto my car trailer and carted off to the crusher. One day while I'm sitting on the scale I notice what was a Regal with a turbo hood parked off in a corner. Well I just about jumped out of my skin with excitment when I saw it was a two tone gray 82 GN. This was back around 92 maybe 93 when this happened so the history of the first GN was a little hazey. All I knew was that it was a turbo and I wanted it. I asked the lady running the scale whose car it was and she told me it was one of the tow truck drivers. Turns out I knew the guy. He had picked it up from the impound yard and wanted it for the T-tops and alloy wheels. He said make me an offer and $250 and a couple of hours later it was sitting in my parking lot waiting for it's return back to a life of glory. It also turned out that the impound yard he got the car from was owned by one of my friends Grandfather and if I had bothered to look there I probally could have picked it up for the $25 tow bill. It had been abandoned on the street and the cops had it towed in. Well it was as rough as a cobb. The original carb-turbo motor was gone and replaced by a NA crate motor with an Edelbrock intake and Holley 450 along with a set of crappy tube headers. It also looked like somebody left the T-tops off and it rained and snowed on the interior. I vacuumed out what seemed like a trash bag of leaves to give you an idea. Well Omaha Nebraska was also in the salt belt and the entire floor pan was rusted away. The only thing keeping my feet from hitting the ground was the insulation under the molded carpet. You could feel the water splash it when you drove through a water puddle. Well all of the 82 GN stuff was still there and surprisingly the steering wheel was in mint condition. It was a skinny rim version of the leather sport wheel used in our cars. Quite unique in other words.My plan was to find a rust free T-top Regal tub and swap over the parts and VIN tag. I must have looked at 6 or 7 good candidates but I was either a day late or a dollar short. I did get it up and running and used it for a DD for a couple of years. The rust really took its toll on it. One cold January the T-tops almost flew off while I was on the interstate. Man was that a cold ride home. It turns out that some girl who was in our local Buick club knew the original owner of the car. Her husband and this guy owned a buisiness together. He was an alcoholic and junkie and drank the buisiness into bankruptcy. She said the original motor was yanked because he wanted more power. I was supposed to be stashed in his mothers garage so we trucked on over there expecting to find some buried treasure but it turns out somebody beat me to it years before. Well the word was out that I had some rare car and one day this guy that was pestering me to sell it to him convinced me to sell it. It was just to far gone for me to save it. Maybe if I had the money it would have been a different story. I never saw that car again. It probally ended up back at the same salvage yard I discovered it. Just like in life everything comes to a full circle, even if its a car.
BTW That brick building in the background is my old HS. Class of 78. It was used as the HS in the movie "Elections" with Mathew Broderick and Reese Weatherspoon. I was supposed to have a bit part in it but they edited my scene out.
