1ST POST general questions about GN's

[NOCOOLCARS]

I'm a young guy that wants to purchase and restify a 87 GN. I kind want my restoration/ restification to be a on going hobby. I want to actually learn how to work on cars and what not. What kind of ADVICE can you give me. How much should I expect to pay for a GN. Also, how hard is it to find a GN?

THanks

 

[68Mustang]

Well, a restoration might be hard to come by - most of these cars, even if raced, have been well cared for. On Ebay right now there are 12 GNs, ranging in price from 950 bucks to over 15k I believe. You should probably go with a Turbo Regal if you don't have a lot of cash to play with, they run 5 or 6 thousand in good running condition. A show condition GN will be around 13 to 15.

There is a Turbo Regal on Ebay that is a restoration project. Reserve hasn't been met, but its at 950 (I think). And it runs and drives right now, it just needs work.

Props on picking a good car.

Now, as far as advice goes...

Once you get your car back to original condition, you should look on www.gnttype.org for recipes. You should be able to get 12s with minimum investment. Get a Postons catalog (http://members.aol.com/ideapage/poston/) and look through it to see what you can do with your GN/TR.

 

[MeanBuicks]

Welcome aboard!

Start here: http://www.gnttype.org/general/buyguide.html

As far as how much $, look at the Cars for Sale forum here and the TRader on gnttype.org

Good Luck!

 

[Two Lane]

Read Up & Ask Questions

Welcome to probably one of the best messageboards on the net.

There are lots of great people routinely posting, eager to help wherever possible.

 

[UNGN]

At this point, restoring a GN doesn't make much sense. You will never recover the money you invest in it, vs. buying a low mileage, original.

You can still buy very low mileage cars for $14,000 (25K miles)

If you buy a 150K mile car for $6K or a rustbucket for $4K, you could very easily put $10K in paint, bodywork, engine rebuild, transmission, replacing broken and missing parts, etc. Now you have a 150K mile car with $14K in it.

The other drawback to building a car is you can't get your money out of it while you are building it. If something comes up and you have to sell your project before its finished, you get about 10 cents on the dollar for work and parts invested, because no one wants a 1/2 finished project. Everyone wants a low mileage T-R.

If you don't have enough money to buy a nice car, get a loan. Or, buy a 5.0 for $1500 and restore that. Sell it for $6K to a ricer when you are done and buy a T-R than needs that much less work.

 

[Drew L]

I agree UNGN. Spend the money upfront and save a ton of aggrivation. The one aspect that gets swept under the rug is that we forget about the TIME that is put into these cars. If we payed ourselves fore the time it would easily be in the thousands. Time is one commmodity that we cannot buy. Buying parts is one thing but the time is half again as important as the parts money. Drew

 

[salvageV6]

He is young, has lots of time, wants to learn to work on cars, he can afford to learn from his mistakes.


Buy a running mostly original 5-6K car with little or no rust and get to work.

Your first one should be the one you learn on, you will get tons of satisfaction out of your accomplishments, then when you get old(er) and cranky pay someone else to do the work.

Just my .02 and I still get much more enjoyment out of driving salvageV6 the WE4 rather than the GN.

Just my .02.

PS: If you have no clue how to work on a car at all they probably aren't the best "first" car to own. Something less forgiving in a V8 would be better IMHO.

 

[svtnos]

welcome! i know of a lady that lives close to me that has a 86 GN that she is selling. the bottom of both doors are rusted and the driverside rear fender was hit. the interior is clean. the car has like 50k miles on it... its bone stock car too. i believe she is asking 6 grand for it. she lives in Skokie, IL. the car isnt advertised any where.

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Drew L
I agree UNGN. Spend the money upfront and save a ton of aggrivation. The one aspect that gets swept under the rug is that we forget about the TIME that is put into these cars. If we payed ourselves fore the time it would easily be in the thousands. Time is one commmodity that we cannot buy. Buying parts is one thing but the time is half again as important as the parts money. Drew

While I agree that spending a little more upfront is best, I would like to comment on the time spent thing...

I treat my cartoys as a hobby. The time that I spend on them is much more enjoyable than if I were working another job, working on the house etc. It is also much more productive than playing golf (which I don't do), watching TV (which I do occasionally) or sitting around drinking beer (which I probably do too much )
So, after spending a year or two on a car if I added up my time vs time I could have wasted or spent on any other hobby I have no trouble justifying time spend on cars. AND, if you do a good enough job and ever sold the car (NEVER!) then you would recoup at least part of your investment. When was the last time you got any money back for green fees at the golf course?

Just my .02

Welcome to the board, I'm pretty new myself but have found this to be one of the best forums on any topic!
Jeff

 

[motorhead]

dsfgdfdsgh


If you are going to treat it like a stock... well spend the $14k on a low mileage unit.

As long as you don't treat it like an investment... you'll be fine and enjoy yourself.

If you plan to mod it, buy someone elses hard work and bolt-ons already done... you'll save a tonne.

& Non-GNs are usually quicker