Museum quality GN with 5100 original miles

[dhauser]

The whole car.

 

[lonestar50th]

Sweet!

 

[GNBRETT]

WOW! Sweet!

 

[okboo]

Great looking car. How come the fender emblems are so low though?
Good luck with your sale

 

[lonestar50th]

So, I've seen one other '84 GN with a hood ornament--but all others have not had them. For you Hot Air experts what's the story? The '84 marketing stuff I have from Buick indicates that hood ornaments were not available on GNs. A guy in our BCA chapter had an '84 years ago and people told him that the car had probably been in an accident and had the header panel replaced. He insisted that the car came that way from the factory (he did not know the original owner though to verify this). The car did not appear to be have paint repairs and was very straight up front so we just concluded that it came down the line in Pontiac and received the wrong header. What say y'all? Of course I guess we'll never know.

 

[S2V6RACER]

I personally don't have a problem with the hood ornament. I am partial to them.

As far as the add, I give him a two thumbs up. He tells it like it is, if any of you cheap a$$'s are out there you will think twice before wasting this guys time with a bunch of Q&A's then the typical weasel clause "It's more than I thought".

 

[dhauser]

Great looking car. How come the fender emblems are so low though?
Good luck with your sale

Like most black TRs, this one has been repainted (to show quality standards no less) and thus perhaps the emblems were reattached slightly lower than original. Personally I never noticed and they look spot-on to me.

 

[dhauser]

So, I've seen one other '84 GN with a hood ornament--but all others have not had them. For you Hot Air experts what's the story? The '84 marketing stuff I have from Buick indicates that hood ornaments were not available on GNs. A guy in our BCA chapter had an '84 years ago and people told him that the car had probably been in an accident and had the header panel replaced. He insisted that the car came that way from the factory (he did not know the original owner though to verify this). The car did not appear to be have paint repairs and was very straight up front so we just concluded that it came down the line in Pontiac and received the wrong header. What say y'all? Of course I guess we'll never know.

I did some research into this and there is an option code called "BX1" which is called "Special Ornamentation frt end spl" which is the code for the hood ornament. This car has that code on the RPO sticker. Thus, GNs could in fact come with hood ornaments, although I'm sure most of them didn't. Just one more thing making this car unique and special.

There is also a thread on the board somewhere which discusses this.

BTW, for those wanting a more interactive experience, I put together a comprehensive pictorial of the car along with narrative that you can see here:

PhotoShow | Doug Hauser's PhotoShows

It is set to music and includes about 80 photos. Music can be turned off. You can also blow up the show to full screen size, although for some reason the high res photos lose some of their clarity when doing this. It's a photoshow issue I can't control. I also can't control which picture it chooses as it's cover photo. Not sure why that is, but that explains why a pic of the chassis is the cover photo...

 

[Napper]

Looking....i don't know were to start..so 15,500.00

We'll intercool it no problem....hows her seals anny leaks?

Car is awesome.... i was looking for a Sy but this may do.

i use to collect too.. gotta get rid of my Turbo i'm to old for that car no matter how fast and v8 embarassing it is.

 

[dhauser]

Sent you a PM.

 

[wordy1]

May I say, one of the best presented car ads I've seen, the pics should speak for themselves.. The new owner of this car is going to get one really SWEET ride.

 

[dhauser]

Thanks. It's an amazing car and was deserving of an ad like this. You're right, someone is going to be very happy with this one.

 

[wordy1]

I'm wondering if repainting this car to such a high standard was worth it for a car with 5100 miles.

I'm willing to bet you would get the same price for the car either way. And irregardless, there's no way you'll get your money back for the cost of the paint job vs. leaving the original paint.

The paint job shown in the pics is definitely worthy of being called "show quality", perhaps a bit too nice for those GN purists out there.

Granted the factory paint jobs were sub-par to say the least, but there are those collectors out there who love seeing that hideous factory orange peel ::tongue:.

I recently was debating re-painting my 83 Monte for the same reasons, and it was REALLY nice, looked factory new, but instead of dumping 5k into it, I decided just to sell it and most likely got just as much with the crappy 80's GM paint job. But I guess a Monte is much different than a GN in terms of collectibility, so not sure if that applies here, but I can guarantee you there are many people scratching their heads.. If you painted it to keep it, fine and dandy, and if you bought it this way, well I guess its not your fault, just an observation.

I hope you'll find someone who'll be willing to appreciate your car... and appreciate the fine paint job it now has..

 

[Boost231]

nice looking car. this would make a nice 11 sec hotair

 

[PaCemkr86]

that car does look brand new !! bump for ya

 

[lonestar50th]

I did some research into this and there is an option code called "BX1" which is called "Special Ornamentation frt end spl" which is the code for the hood ornament. This car has that code on the RPO sticker. Thus, GNs could in fact come with hood ornaments, although I'm sure most of them didn't. Just one more thing making this car unique and special.

There is also a thread on the board somewhere which discusses this.

Just to start this post off positively (it'll end this way too)--this car is SWEET--the nicest '84 GN I've seen since they were new.

Now, about BX1. This RPO became a pretty hotly debated topic earlier tonight at my local BCA meeting where a number of other GN owners and I chewed the fat on this over some coffee and such at the local eatery that puts up with us taking up way too much of their parking lot.

One of the guys brought his RPO book (published by GM in 1990) that covers G-bodies across all GM lines and other platforms too. The full desription of BX1 is "ORNAMENTATION, EXTR FRT END, SPECIAL EMBLEMS." The concensus was that BX1 refers to the Grand National emblems on the front fenders. My '87 GN has RPO BX1 on the Service Parts Identification Label on the underside of the decklid-- the car doesn't have a hood ornament, nor do the other three GNs (2 '86's and 1 other '87) that were all parked together tonight--yes, with BX1 on their SPI labels too.

So, does this make any difference as it relates to this beautiful '84 GN. Most likely not if there are no signs of front end damage (core support pull or replacment, frame horn damage, etc.). Myself and one other fellow BCA member have seen another '84 GN (about two years ago--another low mile car--different VIN) for sale at a dealer in Houston--same outfit trying to sell the 9 mile GNX for $110,000 on eBay now for 6+ months. It too had the ornament and a lot of people doubted the car's originality because '84 Buick order guide info. notes that the hood ornament was not available on the Grand National in '84. The GN Facts and Figures Book II, page 135 shows two profile diagrams of the Regal, one "Regal, Regal Limited-Sedans" and the second "Regal T-Type, Regal Limited-Coupes." In the lower (second) diagram it reads "Stand-up hood ornament (std) (N.A. on Grand National).

So again, this and a cup of that coffee we all drank tonight will buy you an opinion. If the car shows no signs of collision damage it was probably an inadvertant assembly line "special treatment"--mistake. These happened--just grab the wrong header (with a whole for a hood ornament) before the part sequences to the paint department and what you get is a car that actually has more collector appeal as it was faster to put an ornament in that hole then to move the car over to repair at the end of the line. If the previous owner has pictures of the car when new that would really document things nicely.

Net/net, the heck with it. Someone's gonna get a great GN with nicer paint than any of us orange peel lovers!

 

[dhauser]

Nice post. Sounds like a couple other possibilities could be in play here. Looking over the car, I could not detect even any distressed or mismatched paint, chassis black or undercoating that might indicate a repair or replacement. Very strange, but interesting.

BTW, here is the ebay auction for the car. Enjoy all the high rez pics with no blurry action. Car is such a stunner.

eBay Motors: Buick : Grand National (item 110202888700 end time Dec-12-07 20:40:59 PST)

 

[dhauser]

One day left on ebay. Last chance.

eBay Motors: Buick : Grand National (item 110202888700 end time Dec-12-07 20:40:59 PST)

 

[dhauser]

Less than 5 hours. Car is going to sell. 5100 miles, guys.

Going.........going........

 

[dhauser]

Still for sale, but probably not for long.