kirban 2 cents worth:
First, I appreciate the various posts that plug my company. I disagree with the one post about a comfy ride. most turbo regal owners probably agree Buick did little to the suspension to handle the low end torque our cars routinely deliver. In many cases on the 1986 Turbo Regals I found they forgot to install the last lower body bushing on the cars. I know having installed missing body bushings on over 300 of these cars I sold.
The other four lower missing ones makes you question why when Monte Carlo models got them. The post about the GP having a rear brace is correct I seen it. Appears Pontiac engineers where a tad bit smarter....even though the GPs are the least sought after G body models.
We duplicated the Monte Carlo bars when GM ran out of them. My son designed the cross brace that connects them All our bars are powder coated.
We also sell the GNX style one. The under the hood ones really don;t do much per say but other G body cars had them so my kid made them also years ago.
My car is a hardtop and I did all the braces years ago.....its super tight which is what you want in a performance car. Go back to the 1960s convertibles in most cases had frames that boxed frames.....heck years ago Pontiac discovered rear control arms where twisting so they issued a brace to correct it we made that brace for the GTOS sold many many of them. The 1968 and up GTOs it was part of the suspension. This was ONLY on the four speed cars.
My point is had Buick kept making rear wheel drive turbo power Regals I am sure some of the upgrades now made today would have been incorporated into production besides a useful full useful gauge package and eliminated the T-Top option. Ford was smart enough to eliminate it late in the fox body production. T-Tops and low end torque lead to problems period.
As far as braces go the biggest seller is the rear seat brace set (4).....it makes a difference you will notice within a few miles.
denniskirban@yahoo.com