Not just another Turbo Lou thanks.

marcus jul

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2015
When I was 19 years old I was lucky enough to be able to buy a brand new thing called a Grand National. I went to the Buick dealer where there was one on the lot, but not one salesman would help me. They thought I wasn't serious about the car. I went in and found a guy behind a desk and told him, “I want to buy that car". He chuckled at me and said “Do you know how much that car is? ". I said “Yup". This was about 8:30 in the evening. He said “Do you have any money?". I told him, “I have five grand cash and the pink slip to my car at home". He told me, “I can't hold this car for you without a down payment", so I said I would go to the versa teller (before they were called an ATM). I got 100 bucks out and put that down. Next morning I get a call from the owner of the dealership, “I have two guys down here ready to bid on it but I can't sell it, my dumb ass salesmen took 100 buck deposit on it from a kid. If you’re not down here in an hour, with the cash and the car, I will sell it". I was there in 30 minutes. Those guys just walked out.

I drove the car for about six years and had to park it for what I thought would be a short time. Well, two kids, tuition and a mortgage that short time became 20 years. Finally, I was in a position to get my ride rolling again about three weeks ago, but had really no idea where I could get her done at. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so I got on this forum to see who the best was. Nothing sounded too promising. I've heard about cars sitting in shops for months, losing parts and not getting done so I needed the right guy. I found him his name is Turbo Lou Czarnota.

I call him up and tell him about my car and how it has been sitting since 1995 and how I would like to get her going again. He begins to tell me about all the stuff that can go wrong in these cars when they sit that long and how he had never worked on a car that had been sitting this long before. "You break the record" he said. I set up an appointment for October 19th and towed her down to Lake Forrest which is 300 plus miles away.

After just one week I had my ride back, within budget and with a turbo Lou Czarnota motor and she is running hard. The analogy I use is - when I put her in the garage she was a nice lil teenager, now she is a mean bitch!! The whole time he and Mario, his assistant, kept me informed about everything that they were doing with calls, pictures, and texts. Lou understood what this car means to me and treated it like it was his own. He is truly the one guy who can tell what’s up by the way it smells. Lou is a no nonsense kinda guy. Tell him what you want then get out of the way and you will be very happy. I am! Thanks Lou and Mario for the patience and love you guys show our cars. Guys like you two are few and far between. I’ll be keeping in contact and saving my pennies for the next upgrade.

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Great story! Good to hear another one is back on the road. Thanks for sharing.
 
Great story !!
One of these days I hope to make it out there and meet him and a few others out there. Then go hang out with The Fool !!!
Enjoy your car ...
Bryan
 
As they said. Great story!! That's too cool that you bought it new! I had a deposit on one in Febuary of 88, but the insurance was just too much for me. Here I am almost 30 years later and I just found an 11,000 mile one owner car. So I'm pretending the first owner was just storing my car for me LOL.
Anyway Great Story!!
KID
 
Wow.... I agree -- a very good story with an even better outcome. Makes me want to move to San Fran.
 
SF is shit, smells like it to(that and piss). Another one of them sanctuary cities, but with a crazy homeless problem. I don't go there unless I have to. Have you checked the housing prices or tried looking for parking? Not just that, but you got small 1 bedroom studios, asking over $3k a month, and getting it. It's only a matter of time til this latest tech bubble bursts.
What does this have to do with anything in this post? Has a bad experience in SF did you?
 
Your car looks awesome! I love the wheels! They just look perfect on our cars!
KID
 
SF is shit, smells like it to(that and piss). Another one of them sanctuary cities, but with a crazy homeless problem. I don't go there unless I have to. Have you checked the housing prices or tried looking for parking? Not just that, but you got small 1 bedroom studios, asking over $3k a month, and getting it. It's only a matter of time til this latest tech bubble bursts.
I don't live in the City, but I don't think they would like you either.
 
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