HUGE BARN FIND ****TWINS****

williambavila

William Avila (The Buick Guy)
Joined
May 11, 2010
I will start off by saying a majority of you guys know me (William Avila). Recently someone tagged me in a post about 2 1986 Buick Grand Nationals in a small western Oklahoma town. I thought nothing of it because the guy was asking nearly $200000 for the 2 cars. I decided to call the guy and found out that he was willing to let me come take a look after jumping through all his hoops and whatnot. So myself and my best buddy Shawn Mathews decided to make the drive and see how flexible he was. After a 3.5 hour drive we had finally reached our destination and met up with the seller. He took us to a old house and raised the garage door and to our amazement low and behold there were not 1 but 2 1987 (not 1986) Buick Grand Nationals sitting there. Dust covered, leaves surrounding them and the look of 2 rear ends and faded rear bumper fillers stared back at us. We looked at each other in amazement. Now sharing this experience with anyone other than Shawn would quite possibly have been a let down. At that very moment I think Shawn realized why I do what I do for these cars.
Once we gathered ourselves up and stopped the drooling we were given permission to walk in the garage and inspect the cars. I will set the stage for you. 2 car garage open with about 3" of loose leaves and 2 beautiful 1987 Buick grand nationals facing away from us sat there dust covered and waiting to be rescued. Upon inspection we noticed the vin numbers which are consecutive and the option code sticker on the rear deck lid were 100% identical. "They were the real deal" I said to him with a huge grin on my face. Shawn was sitting there in aw and probably had the same emotions going through his body I had.
I spent a good hour or so going over each car with a fine tooth comb as Shawn and the owner spoke about selling/buying the cars. Upon my inspection I noticed the car on the left as we are looking in had been kept shut all these years not a cracked window or a popped trunk. It was 100% perfect minus the sagging headliner. The car still smelled of new car scent. It has 592 miles on it, every document in the car and even has the little package with the front licence plate bracket in the trunk as it came from GM.
Moving along to the 2nd car I noticed the interior was a little bit dirtier than the other and overheard the seller tell me this is the one he drove once in a while.I inspected this one even more. There was a sagging headliner and what looked like cat piss in the rear seat.The rest of the car was in perfect shape,including the engine which I turned over by hand. Shawn and the owner have been hashing out the money part of it. I assumed Shawn would have just paid the first number the guy had said but that is not how it wend down at all. Without letting emotion get the best of either of us we decided to leave and we talked about the 2 cars all the way home and for the next month. Meanwhile Shawn was working his magic on the seller to come up with a fair and reasonable price on the 2. Finally we both were about ready to give up all hope on the cars when Shawn decide to retract his offer and buy a Mustang. You may ask yourself "Why a mustang?" Well as long as I have known Shawn he has been a huge mustang fan, in fact he still has a 1996 cobra convertible with only 19000 or so miles on it. I know because I have to go jump start it 1 time a month in the spring and summer.
At this point I assumed all hope was lost and these cars would end up being sold separately to someone that just wanted a Grand national and didn't have the money to keep them together. I will back up just a few to the point I said they were consecutive vin numbers, This tells me they have been together since day 1 in the factory, together on the truck to the dealership, and together in storage for all these years. They are truly TWINS. They have exactly the same options and there is not 1 single thing that is different other than the miles.
It was Tuesday March 28th when I received the call saying "you wont believe it buddy but they Twins are coming home with us" I about died when Shawn called and said that. We decided the best day to go get them was Friday. Friday couldn't get here soon enough, once it did we hit the road on our 3.5 hour journey. We arrived at the house and immediately inspected the cars making sure no one had touched them. As myself and Paul Messmer (mutual friend of ours) inspected the car the seller started to get upset and said this is how this is going to work. I will get my money before you touch the cars if you don't like it then leave. After a 10 minute stand off we finally agreed to have Shawn and the owner/seller drive to the local bank and do the exchange. Things took about 4 hours to finally get the guy paid and once he was paid we began to load the cars and get out of town.
The cars are still together in Shawn Mathews possession and will more than likely never be sold.They are safe and sound tucked away awaiting some minor work that I will be performing to get them back to their former glory. They will be perfect when we are done. They will be at local shows and always be together and referred to as the TWINS. Here are some pictures of the journey we made to get them and preserve this amazing piece of Buick history. ENJOY!!!!
P.s I want to thank a few people for letting me be a part of this. 1) Shawn Mathews 2) Paul Messmer 3) those that tagged me in the post 4) Jennifer Mathews I want everyone to know she probably stressed more than Shawn put together 5) Amanda Avila for putting up with me being gone.
 

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Hope you got them for considerably less than $200,000. How many miles were on the 2nd car?
 
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Subscribed... Very cool but 200K? Maybe in another 30 years? I hope you got a good deal. Any pics after clean up?
 
Both cars were purchased for less than 1/4 of the asking price. The 2nd car has 807 miles on it
 
Big congrats on the find. This is the kind of stuff we only dream about. And, the story's not over yet. Keep us in the loop on the restoration. Take lots of pics along the way.

Happy Spooling. :)

Mike Barnard
 
A friend alerted me to your story. These are the same cars we went to look at almost exactly 11 years ago (991 & 992). There were 7 or 8 other cars in the showroom but the GN's were definitely the "finds". At the time we offered 25k each for them, but he wanted 50k each... so we left. Had a couple of conversations with him over the next few months but he wouldn't budge. He was kind of a grouchy ol' guy - LOL. He wouldn't even meet us at the showroom, just told us how to get in on our own. I remember thinking how easy it would be for someone, anyone, to steal those cars because the building wasn't even locked, didn't even have a door on the back side. At that time one of them had 401 miles, and the other one (the cat pee one) had 834. Anyway, congrats on your purchase. Very cool!!
1gn5.jpg
 
A friend alerted me to your story. These are the same cars we went to look at almost exactly 11 years ago (991 & 992). There were 7 or 8 other cars in the showroom but the GN's were definitely the "finds". At the time we offered 25k each for them, but he wanted 50k each... so we left. Had a couple of conversations with him over the next few months but he wouldn't budge. He was kind of a grouchy ol' guy - LOL. He wouldn't even meet us at the showroom, just told us how to get in on our own. I remember thinking how easy it would be for someone, anyone, to steal those cars because the building wasn't even locked, didn't even have a door on the back side. At that time one of them had 401 miles, and the other one (the cat pee one) had 834. Anyway, congrats on your purchase. Very cool!!View attachment 301155

So It had the cat pee 11 years ago too? :vomit::D
 
Awesome!! Congrats on your find. I'm sure they will be in a good home. Thanks for sharing the story & the pics.
 
I can't help but wonder why someone that cared enough to buy them and put them away wouldn't care for them properly.
KID
 
besides being put up on a frame lift or jack stands, they look to be very well cared for. unfortunately, one had a cat want to claim one , but the dust doesn't bother me one bit. It means they have probably seen very little water, which is a plus, also, probably little wear and tear on the already thin paint. I don't think they will need much to get them show ready.
 
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