What kind of TR is this?

[TylerDurden]

Went to a car show last weekend and saw what I thought was an 84/85 GN there, ALL body/wheels appeared to be as such. As soon as I asked the guy what it was it tells me its an 83 and he's done a lot of research to claim as much. I look at the engine, straight up hotair....so i write down the vin and brought it home and compared it to gnttype.org (my buick book is packed)
well its inconclusive! the engine code is an 8....there is no 8 listed on gnttype.org, BUT,the model year code is a D which is 1983...so then I gave up and decided to write here....the other odd piece is the grill, its not the standard TR grill, it says BUICK in the center on the top in indended grooves. I can only assume thats a pre 84 grill of some sort, also it was painted all black....

so my guess is its an 83 regal or ttype that they put a hot air motor in....but that engine code is what still gets me....it should be a 9, not an 8.....for turbo, other wise a 4 or A, or V for non turbo...

can someone please double check thier buick guide for me
here's the complete vin

1G4AK478ODH90237 THE "O" is suppose to be a check digit....

 

[Joe Cancer]

The 8th digit of the vin# is the engine code.
The engine code for a 82-83 turbo regal is 8
The engine code for a 84-85 turbo Regal is 9
The engine code for a 86-87 turbo Regal is 7

 

[gofstbuick]

Something is wrong with that VIN number, it is missing a digit. the VIN is suppose to be 17 alpha-numeric characters long. There are only 16 digits in the VIN you provided

 

[b4black]

The missing digit is in the sequence number, so not much is lost.

5th K is T Type, 8th 8 is turbo V6, 10th D is 1983.

Looks like this:

 

[gofstbuick]

I was just wondering if the check digit was correct and if the VIN sequencing would provide legitimate info.

 

[TylerDurden]

Yeah I thought it was missing a digit too, only 5 in the sequence i gave, should be 6, but thats not really an issue, I think the question has been answered, it is an 83 Ttype that has been converted to look like an 84/85 GN with all the correct badges, also the interior is the lear sigler leather, which I also believe is 84 GN right?

Sucks I have to give this guy the bad news that its not an original car.

 

[bishir]

I saw the car too with Dan. It does look like an 83. My guess is someone painted it black and went through the trouble of installing GN interior pieces. It has a worn but complete leather GN interior like you'd see in a 84.