Your three top irritating pet peeves about your Turbo Regal

Nasty Wendy said:
I have moved. This problem follows me. I'm convinced that it is the GN's fault.
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Everywhere I go people are sticking their thumbs up at me. I'm not sure if they're saying "cool car dude." or "can I catch a ride?"
 
One big gripe of mine that hasn't been posted.

Half the bolts on the car are standard and half the bolts are metric. Honestly, I don't care which one they should have picked. I have both types of tools. But, just pick ONE! :mad:
 
I guess that I've got two more gripes coming.:D

For #2, I'll whine that the speedo on Americas quickest production car only indicated 85 mph. :eek:
Crap! even my old 72 VW bus optimistically goes to 90.:confused:
 
kirban again

years ago actually in 1995 we did two different T shirt designs based on the top ten reasons....which kinda goes with the theme of this thread I started...for those that may not remember those quotes here they are:

For the T-Type

I was told my insurance would be cheaper
its lighter therefore faster than a GN
I can buy tires whoesale
I'm on a first name basis with the local police
my wife says I need a spending outlet for my money
I love beating out the newer cars from a traffic light
I was told these cars are never stolen
They are rare than any 1986-1987 GN
I have spare time to keep the stock wheel clean
the faster I go the quicker I get to work

here are the ten for the GN shirt

I was extremely impressed with the black paint job
I wanted to learn more about the powermaster brake system!
The salesman said black was easy to keep clean
Bad to the Bone sounds good on the radio
(the rest duplicated what I did for the T-Types)

A shame GM makes it tough to get T shirts licensed....nobody has GM licensed Buick Turbo T-shirts available that I am aware of. We had over a dozen different designs back in the early 1990s.
 
The fuse box location - who thought to put it there and who approved it ?:rolleyes:

It would have been so much easier if they had put it behind the glove box so that when you dropped it down. The fuse box would be right there and you could see it head on right in front of your face and not have to crawl up under the dash in a cramped location to see it. :)

I know they didn't take into account anyone was ever going to actually have any reason to touch the fuse box.;)
 
GNRick said:
My Metro weatherstrip is actually too thick at one point, preventing the window from closing completely with the door shut. This is on the vertical side, along the quarter glass area. A piece of vacuum hose would be counter productive in my case. After adjustment, my window seals tight when I put it up with the door open. Passes the dollar bill test along the entire window. So what I did was park the car in my garage near the wall and wedged a shower rod between the wall and the car window. This helped form the channel in the weatherstrip so the window would go up properly. So far it improved the seal quite a bit. I think the wind noise that my car suffers from is from the wind buffeting against the windshield, not the wind actually entering the car. On my driver side I have a small gap between the window and the weather strip at the very front. Will adjust the window when I put on the new weatherstrip in a day or two. Didn't mean for this to morph into a weatherstrip installation thread.
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Installed the driver side weatherstrip. Fits just like the p/s. I need a four foot C clamp so I can squeeze both Windows in at the same time.
 
A few more for the list...

-The fact that our cars don't have air bags and didn't come equipped with or at least made optional, body bags. The GNX came with a jacket. But how cool would it have been to have had a turbo 6 body bag come with every TR? Vendors take note(I expect a royalty).

-No more ATR or Poston

-That it's damn near impossible to find more of these shirts
 

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rodruckus said:
A few more for the list...

-The fact that our cars don't have air bags and didn't come equipped with or at least made optional, body bags. The GNX came with a jacket. But how cool would it have been to have had a turbo 6 body bag come with every TR? Vendors take note(I expect a royalty).

-No more ATR or Poston

-That it's damn near impossible to find more of these shirts
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Few bits about the 2 T shirts you pictured. The one was the very last T shirt we was selling before that companies contract with GM ran out. The other one entitled Bad Medicine was probably oneof the very first ones done featuring the Grand National he also did lite wight jackets that we used to carry around 1988-1990 time frame.

The company that did them was located near or around Lancaster PA I first met up with him at Carlisle. That designed proved quite popular....I think I convinced him to also make them on ash grey t shirts as the e arly ones were done on
white T shirts....

As for ATR and Poston you can did Bowling Green Customs to that list referring to the original Bowling Green Customs as the later version was not a good company by any means.

Also you can add Quality Engineering to the list as they did the very first GNX style dashes...we used to sell them located out of Michigan. later called AVC

Kodiak West was another early source did machined turbo shields and various engine caps very expensive stuff.

We seen a lot in the 28 plus years

Don't think anyone touched on this pet peeve the inside door pull straps....can't imagine how they best tests of staying tight...they come loose and they crack that plastic molding that is quite costly....example of a poor design.

denniskirban@yahoo.com
 
Oh yeah, almost forgot...

-The fact that investing in nos parts while still available, would've been smarter and safer than the stock market
 
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For my third and final gripe:
The fact that they ran the crossover pipe directly under the leak prone rear main seal. Ahhh. I just love the smell of oil burning while at a traffic light. :yuck:
 
stage1gn said:
3)Wish they put astroroofs in the GNX's , would have been sweet . Can't believe they thought it would hurt structural integrity , as look at all the astroroof/T-top cars out there for years now pulling hard 60' times with slicks and they're just fine .
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GNX #530 has an astro roof....or a ASC one since the switch says ASC on it. The original owner stated that he bought it new that way from the dealer. Maybe the dealer got ASC / McLaren to add it during the GNX conversion?? Truly a cool car because of that.
 
Dennis Kirban said:
Don't think anyone touched on this pet peeve the inside door pull straps....can't imagine how they best tests of staying tight...they come loose and they crack that plastic molding that is quite costly....example of a poor design.

denniskirban@yahoo.com
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I did not put mine back in when I got new door panels for that very reason. I may end up putting them in one day as they would secure the upper panels in much better. I will just make sure to JB Weld a nut on the inside of the metal and use machine screws. Or...I could weld a nut to a 1/8" steel plate, cut a larger hole where the screw goes through for the nut to recess, and tack weld that to the panel for extra strength....hmmmmm. Project for next year.
 
BuickMike said:
I did not put mine back in when I got new door panels for that very reason. I may end up putting them in one day as they would secure the upper panels in much better. I will just make sure to JB Weld a nut on the inside of the metal and use machine screws. Or...I could weld a nut to a 1/8" steel plate, cut a larger hole where the screw goes through for the nut to recess, and tack weld that to the panel for extra strength....hmmmmm. Project for next year.
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Use Rivnuts they're basically threaded rivets. You'll never have to worry about telling your passenger to avoid the pull strap before they pull it out of the door

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/tired-of-my-door-pull-straps-coming-loose.291328/
 
My biggest pet peeve is a double edged sword...I'm not mechanically inclined and I'll own that, I don't have the time to learn how to do it myself but I can afford to pay someone else to do it. I can do basic preventive maintenance but for major repairs I have to entrust it to an expert and those are hard to come by unless you're fortunate to live near one. Competent and (most importantly trust worthy/honest) TR mechanics are a dying breed. I realize that once you decide to take a 25+ year old car from 250HP to 600HP+ you're inviting problems, but I've now gone through 3 motors in 4 years with over $20K spent just for the motor. The first two were the fault of the builder and he took responsibility for the first but not the second, the third is yet to be determined but I'm not liking how things are unfolding and what has been discovered as it's being looked at now. And I don't beat on it, it's a weekend warrior show 'no go garage queen...I'm really frustrated with it and I hope this is the last time I have to have someone build me another motor.

The next would be the limited vendor pool for aftermarket parts, but when you drive a car that was built in limited numbers for limited years...you're stuck like chuck. I miss ATR, Kenne Bell, and Postons. But we're fortunate to still have vendors like Highway Stars, Mike McCoy, Full Throttle, RJC, Champion, GNS, Caspers, T/A, Old Buick Parts, and Kirbans.

The ASE and metric parts are annoying.

That other people lose their shit and forget how to drive when they pull up besides you because they're so excited by the car...it's annoying, but at the same time it's also rewarding when people react that way.

The window motors used to bother me until I put in a harness upgrade from Kirban's along with the faster window motors he used to sell (or may still sell).
The power antenna used to bother me, but Kirban's power antenna saver kit was some good insurance.
I guess I'm fortunate that I don't have wind noise or interior water leaks.
 
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