This has got to be the Holy Grail of all Hot Air TR owners

[TR Custom Parts]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Buic...iewItemQQcategoryZ6137QQitemZ4589146559QQrdZ1

Nice car but no one has bid on it yet. $20K starting bid.

 

[BandAid]

Give me the seats and the Dark colored dash ,then send that Hot Air to its grave :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[FlyinGN]

Its a shame its a hot air for sure. No one wants it. Its like the red headed stepchild. Id buys it and put an IC drivetrain in.. Now that would be cool

 

[Grumpy]

no posi !!! not goin to buy that to piece out

 

[Pronto]

Do '84 GNs have a hood ornament? I thought those were on T's only. How about the rear, are they debadged on the trunk lid or was this baby painted? I do like the seats.

 

[Waco84GN]

Couple of things

The car has obviously been VERY VERY well maintained, but there were no hood ornaments and if it was an 84, the car would not of had the long 86- 87 style hood insignias. It would of had one about 4-5 inches long on a solid plastic base. The trunk would have had a grand national badge as well. Some minor details wrong on what the seller calls a "perfect" car. I'm knocking the car becasue it would beat my car silly in a car show, but it is not completely original. Man the paint has some "bling" you could find door dings in your other cars by looking at them in the reflection. Some of the best paint Ive seen on a GN in a while.

Just my .02

 

[Shane]

Ummmm, where's the intercooler

 

[Cme2fly]

Intercooler or no intercooler, that thing is super clean..Someone in the market for a hotair would appreciate this car..

 

[phillyturbosix]

Mark lend me the 20K I want it! That is one hot air I would drive. Pefect the way it is! Like Frank said.. it's the red headed step child the poor hot air cars. But I want that one! :biggrin:

 

[GNBeswick]

The car has obviously been VERY VERY well maintained, but there were no hood ornaments and if it was an 84, the car would not of had the long 86- 87 style hood insignias. It would of had one about 4-5 inches long on a solid plastic base. The trunk would have had a grand national badge as well. Some minor details wrong on what the seller calls a "perfect" car. I'm knocking the car becasue it would beat my car silly in a car show, but it is not completely original. Man the paint has some "bling" you could find door dings in your other cars by looking at them in the reflection. Some of the best paint Ive seen on a GN in a while.

Just my .02

I agree the car would not have a hood ornament...but what are you talking about "long 86-87 hood insignia"? Also....as far as I know, 84 GNs were not equiped with badging on the trunk.

 

[Rhinospeed84]

I agree the car would not have a hood ornament...but what are you talking about "long 86-87 hood insignia"? Also....as far as I know, 84 GNs were not equiped with badging on the trunk.

He is right about the logo's and the ornament.

I loved my 84, It was my first car and I drove it for 3 years without a single problem, if I had the 20,000 I'd buy it.

 

[Buick From Hell]

I must also ask--WHAT hood insignia are we talking about? If you're talking about the "3.8 SFI TURBO" emblem, sorry, but mine is identical to the one on THAT car! And I've owned this car for 22 years, so I'm pretty sure I know what it looks like!

Hood emblem, I've known of a few '84 GN's that have them...could be because a new header panel was installed sometime in it's life. They crack with very little effort when cold (I put a knee thru mine once) so even if it DOES have a new header panel, doesn't mean an accident did it. And remember, these cars were assembled by American humans that have never been famous for their ability to build flawless cars! () And in all these years, I've never known ANYONE who knows for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN that NO GN'S came with hood ornaments. Seems highly likely to me that a few GN's may have slipped thru the first year with hood ornaments...

Same thing applies with the trunk emblems. They were just stuck on with double sided tape, not too inconceivable to believe that at the factory some were put on the wrong side, some were maybe left off...whatever...

 

[Buick From Hell]

Found some pictures that might dispel a few rumors...

These are pages from the December 1983 issue of Motor Trend's test of the new Grand National!

--a hood ornament (highlighted in one picture!), and DOES NOT have a trunk ornament...

 

[GNBeswick]

Ah..interesting, thanks for the pictures. That hood ornament is a surprise, but so is the grill with the small "buick" in the corner. At least I was right about the trunk emblem :tongue:

 

[troGNman]

This is the perfect oppotunity for Herb to pick up a replacement for his much-loved '84!!!

I'm not digging the "GN" side badge placement.....looks a little too low to me.

 

[TurboJunky]

Granted, the factory made small errors during production however I don't believe this car passes the sniff test....here's my analysis why;

- A factory GN was never supposed to come off the line with a hood ornament. Could it have "slipped by" sure but doubtful something this obvious would have. The one in the article is presumably a test car and very well is a mish-mash of parts from other cars. It's very common for test cars to be custom built and re-vamped many times both mechanically and cosmetically.

- The eBay GN is missing the BUICK emblem in the grille. The test car shown in the thread photos shows a grille emblem which doesn't look like a BUICK emblem either.

- The 3.8 SFI Turbo emblems on the hood are correct BUT in the wrong place. They're centered front/back but run along the bottom crease of the bubble and aren't supposed to (look at TRUE original cars and see). They're supposed to run along the TOP edge.

- The Grand National fender emblems are grossly out of place. My research revealed Buick was VERY particular in emblem placement down to the 1/16". These emblems (though no longer have posts that align them with pre-drilled holes) were installed with jigs to ensure correct placement on every production unit.

- It was my understanding all 84-87 GNs had the trunk emblem.

In my opinion the front fascia has been replaced with an incorrect T fascia and something caused the emblems to be removed and reinstalled. Maybe it's only had a paint job + fascia cracking but something COSMETIC is amiss.

Before I have to put my flame suit on let me explain. My family worked in GM plants here in Michigan during the production of the GN and Monte Carlo SS, both of which went down the same assembly line at the same time. One of my family members was in the quality control unit and explained a lot about "oddities" that slipped by. Usually the oddities that were missed were VERY minute or cars that were damaged at the factory and set aside for repair later. There are just too many cosmetic problems with this car to say it just slipped by QC.

 

[Rhinospeed84]

TT/A1233- you are definitly right about almost anything. I thought the hood badges looked weird but couldn't place it.

There was no badges on the trunk however, I Owned one with paperwork and pictures dating back to the showroom and it never had one.

I agree that it must of been hit or something in the front end, there is just too many descrepancies. We should e-mail him A question and see what really happened.

 

[TurboJunky]

TT/A1233- you are definitly right about almost anything. I thought the hood badges looked weird but couldn't place it.

There was no badges on the trunk however, I Owned one with paperwork and pictures dating back to the showroom and it never had one.

I agree that it must of been hit or something in the front end, there is just too many descrepancies. We should e-mail him A question and see what really happened.

Ok, gotcha. The trunk emblem was the only one I wasn't completely sure about. Thanks for the correction.

I tried to look as closely as possible at the hood ornament to see if it says "3.8 SFI TURBO". Standard Regals had the same ornament but was a tad shorter and did not have the turbo moniker. It appears, though I'm not 100%, that it may not be turbo ornament.

 

[Rhinospeed84]

Shot him an E-mail, we'll see what he says.

 

[TurboJunky]

I'm only guessing but think you'll get one of two responses:

1.) None

2.) A convoluted explanation saying they're not the original owners and can't verify 100% the history of the car.

I'm betting on #1.