...That this car lives again??
I know it looks like an archeologic find but that's really only about 3 years worth of dust at my shop in Costa Mesa. History goes something like this:
I heard thru a friend of a friend in about 2009 that a spine surgeon in Florida was moving his practice and had to get rid of some cars. One of his cars was one of those black Buicks that I fell in love with when I saw my first one in 1986. I was fresh outta high school and in the Navy home for a couple days of leave when I saw a GN cruising low and slow thru Hillcrest park in Fullerton. I had to talk to the guy about it because I'd only read about them in the magaizines, guy was cool and my love affair with turbo Buicks was started. I've always been a turbo Chrysler guy and have owned dozens of FWD 80's Shelby Dodges but since the guy was gonna sell his collection off cheap I could maybe afford the price of admission to the club. After some very short talks with the guy(always busy, no time to send pics, nonsence like that) He said the car was on ebay and I should just check his auction for pics. So I did and it was really hard to imagine that he was selling the car so cheaply that was so nice!!?? Weird but I with a little help from his friend of a friend he ended the auction early and I sent him funds. Having never bought a car sight unseen off Ebay (never will again BTW) I was a bit uncomfortable with how it went down and the lack of communication from the seller. Oh well, it's on the truck now being shipped from the right coast to the left. I think it was $1200. IIRC .
Took a few days but I go the call from the carrier that they would be dropping off car at about 9pm. I drag my brother out to the shop we share for the grand unveiling. As soon as the back of the truck opened I know we had a problem. there were multiple puddles under the car, gas, trans fluid, engine oil, coolant, even brake fluid! WTF?? This car is a mess and looks nothing like the auction pics( Took a day or so to get in touch with seller but guess what, the auction that I looked at was a different car in Florida, I'd never even seen pics of *THIS* car
Not a scam mid you, just a miscue from friend of a friend and an uncomunicative seller and now it's not and ebay auction and I've paid for the car and to have it shipped! Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches...
So the car is much rougher than described, sure, I can see where he spent money (he said he put $20K into the car) and if you pay the wrong shops to do everything for you, this is what you end up with. Runs like a$$, leaks every conceivable fluid and not the car I was expecting. Oh well, I had one now and though this car has substantial cosmetic upgrades (ebay auction I looked at was a stock bodied T top car, not this tribute car) like fender vents, wheel flares, round SW gauges, black leather seats from a Porsche Carrera(they are nice and fold completely flat!) it is rough but a beautiful black turbo Buick under all that.
My bro and I did a host of things to fix the worst of the problems, replaced the fuel tank/pump, brake lines, a caliper, radiator etc etc. We got it running and driving decent and I did a coule meets/shows with the turbo six crowd but it was pretty clear that the motor is tired and its using coolant. About then I answered and add for an 87 T Type for sale in Sacramento area, add was poorly written and project was poorly described but basically the guy was selling the T Type for a friend of his who died on hjis motorcycle 8 years before! It's been sitting in friends yard ever since! Guy said every time he blew up[ the trans or motor, he would have it rebuilt stronger the next time and pour more money into it. For $4500. for the 'parts car' (bill of sale but no title) it seemed too good to pass up. We fetch the car, drive it only a little but it does run strong at 16PSI(but kinda rough as well) We pull it into the shop and pull the plugs, porcelain missing on three of them. Great, now motor has gotta come apart or at the very least the heads gotta come off. So for the last 3 years life has gotten in the way, I've been thru an expensive divorce(yeah I know, it's expensive because it's F'n worth it!) two or three turbo Chryslers needed to be built up etc etc but now it's time. So about 8 months ago we dropped the motor from the T type off and JVG's in Upland CA and told him just to work on it in his spare time, no rush. So he didn't But what he did build was a fantastic little iron motor. Basically the only thisngs worth saving from the donor was the crank (its .020/.030 now) block, pistons, intake etc. Both heads were trashed, rods were ovaled on the pin ends, bearings down to the copper. More money thrown into the project-seems to be a theme here... There's a complete build on a 67 Ford F100 (crate motor, trans, crown Vic suspension, modern posi rear end/brakes from and '04 F150,. etc etc) that has to leave our shop before we can get serious on the dusty black car but we will soon. And I'm gonna need help from you guys here because I know very little about this platform, love it but I'm a NooB. Get ready for lotsa dumb questions as the build progresses...
I know it looks like an archeologic find but that's really only about 3 years worth of dust at my shop in Costa Mesa. History goes something like this:
I heard thru a friend of a friend in about 2009 that a spine surgeon in Florida was moving his practice and had to get rid of some cars. One of his cars was one of those black Buicks that I fell in love with when I saw my first one in 1986. I was fresh outta high school and in the Navy home for a couple days of leave when I saw a GN cruising low and slow thru Hillcrest park in Fullerton. I had to talk to the guy about it because I'd only read about them in the magaizines, guy was cool and my love affair with turbo Buicks was started. I've always been a turbo Chrysler guy and have owned dozens of FWD 80's Shelby Dodges but since the guy was gonna sell his collection off cheap I could maybe afford the price of admission to the club. After some very short talks with the guy(always busy, no time to send pics, nonsence like that) He said the car was on ebay and I should just check his auction for pics. So I did and it was really hard to imagine that he was selling the car so cheaply that was so nice!!?? Weird but I with a little help from his friend of a friend he ended the auction early and I sent him funds. Having never bought a car sight unseen off Ebay (never will again BTW) I was a bit uncomfortable with how it went down and the lack of communication from the seller. Oh well, it's on the truck now being shipped from the right coast to the left. I think it was $1200. IIRC .
Took a few days but I go the call from the carrier that they would be dropping off car at about 9pm. I drag my brother out to the shop we share for the grand unveiling. As soon as the back of the truck opened I know we had a problem. there were multiple puddles under the car, gas, trans fluid, engine oil, coolant, even brake fluid! WTF?? This car is a mess and looks nothing like the auction pics( Took a day or so to get in touch with seller but guess what, the auction that I looked at was a different car in Florida, I'd never even seen pics of *THIS* car
Not a scam mid you, just a miscue from friend of a friend and an uncomunicative seller and now it's not and ebay auction and I've paid for the car and to have it shipped! Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches...So the car is much rougher than described, sure, I can see where he spent money (he said he put $20K into the car) and if you pay the wrong shops to do everything for you, this is what you end up with. Runs like a$$, leaks every conceivable fluid and not the car I was expecting. Oh well, I had one now and though this car has substantial cosmetic upgrades (ebay auction I looked at was a stock bodied T top car, not this tribute car) like fender vents, wheel flares, round SW gauges, black leather seats from a Porsche Carrera(they are nice and fold completely flat!) it is rough but a beautiful black turbo Buick under all that.
My bro and I did a host of things to fix the worst of the problems, replaced the fuel tank/pump, brake lines, a caliper, radiator etc etc. We got it running and driving decent and I did a coule meets/shows with the turbo six crowd but it was pretty clear that the motor is tired and its using coolant
. About then I answered and add for an 87 T Type for sale in Sacramento area, add was poorly written and project was poorly described but basically the guy was selling the T Type for a friend of his who died on hjis motorcycle 8 years before! It's been sitting in friends yard ever since! Guy said every time he blew up[ the trans or motor, he would have it rebuilt stronger the next time and pour more money into it. For $4500. for the 'parts car' (bill of sale but no title) it seemed too good to pass up. We fetch the car, drive it only a little but it does run strong at 16PSI(but kinda rough as well) We pull it into the shop and pull the plugs, porcelain missing on three of them. Great, now motor has gotta come apart or at the very least the heads gotta come off. So for the last 3 years life has gotten in the way, I've been thru an expensive divorce(yeah I know, it's expensive because it's F'n worth it!) two or three turbo Chryslers needed to be built up etc etc but now it's time. So about 8 months ago we dropped the motor from the T type off and JVG's in Upland CA and told him just to work on it in his spare time, no rush. So he didn't But what he did build was a fantastic little iron motor. Basically the only thisngs worth saving from the donor was the crank (its .020/.030 now) block, pistons, intake etc. Both heads were trashed, rods were ovaled on the pin ends, bearings down to the copper. More money thrown into the project-seems to be a theme here... There's a complete build on a 67 Ford F100 (crate motor, trans, crown Vic suspension, modern posi rear end/brakes from and '04 F150,. etc etc) that has to leave our shop before we can get serious on the dusty black car but we will soon. And I'm gonna need help from you guys here because I know very little about this platform, love it but I'm a NooB. Get ready for lotsa dumb questions as the build progresses...
