Early 88

[2reattas]

I found an early 88 #900142 with these seat covers, my other 88 has the suede on the sides, is there a remote possibility these came from the factory 

[Barney Eaton]

Interesting find..........don't believe it is original that way.

(1) the info I have shows 900142 was built with tan 16 way leather interior.

(2) the last car built with cloth was 900098.

This is a very good reupholstery job OR someone got their hands on a pair of the original cloth seats.

There is no indication that any of the early cars built with cloth were shipped with them, the seats were either changed or many of the early cars were scrapped, but we have no records to indicate which cars were scrapped.

If someone has access to Carfax, they could enter the early vin numbers and see if they were ever registered, if not they were probably scrapped.   Last I heard, Marck was using Carfax and gathering Reatta data but he has yet to publish any of his findings.

 

Below is a portion of the 1988 file which includes 900142 and notice that 900130 & 900133 are the first cars I can find that went to a dealer.

 

2848	1G4EC11C1JB900127	900127	EC97	11	16384	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	38300	40	989
1831	1G4EC11C3JB900128	900128	EC97	11	16424	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	42320	40	989
1910	1G4EC11C5JB900129	900129	EC97	11	70125	GENERAL M0TORS CORP AND S	WARREN	MI	70125	40	989
1904	1G4EC11C1JB900130	900130	EC97	11	46625	ROYAL BUICK COMPANY,INC	TUCSON	AZ	46625	40	989
2722	1G4EC11C3JB900131	900131	EC97	11	16424	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	42435	40	989
4694	1G4EC11C5JB900132	900132	EC97	11	16474				47540	40	989
2739	1G4EC11C7JB900133	900133	EC97	11	33435	BRUSTOLON BUICK-PONTIAC,	MYSTIC	CT	33435	40	989
4448	1G4EC11C9JB900134	900134	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	16002	81	986
4329	1G4EC11C0JB900135	900135	EC97	11	16423	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	42530	81	986
4403	1G4EC11C2JB900136	900136	EC97	11	16413	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	41335	81	986
4412	1G4EC11C4JB900137	900137	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	16002	81	986
4399	1G4EC11C6JB900138	900138	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	16002	81	986
1470	1G4EC11C8JB900139	900139	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	16002	81	986
4664	1G4EC11C4JB900140	900140	EC97	11	16404	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	40360	81	986
1427	1G4EC11C6JB900141	900141	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	76000	81	986
4695	1G4ECl1C8JB900142	900142	EC97	11	16423	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	42505	81	986
1212	1G4EC11CXJB900143	900143	EC97	11	76000	AGIP USA INC	NEW YORK	NY	16002	81	986
2444	1G4EC11C1JB900144	900144	EC97	11	16384	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	38410	81	986
3086	1G4EC11C3JB900145	900145	EC97	11	16424	GENERAL MOTORS CORP AND S	FLINT	MI	42210	81	986

Edited May 25, 2016 by Barney Eaton (see edit history)

[jscheib]

Interesting note.  I see #133 went to a dealer here in CT, Brustolon. Wonder where that one is?

 

John

[KDirk]

I dunno Barney, that is an extremely precise upholstery job. Won't say it couldn't have been done as a one-off, but could be the [never seen by the buying public] cloth seats swapped in. I got my hands on some parts from an 88 donor car at a trade school that was dismantled via Chuck Kerls (thanks again for that, Chuck) a few years ago, so maybe these seats came from a donor/non-titleable car in the same sort of arrangement. Am I correct in thinking that some of the early unsold production cars were donated, or were they all likely scrapped? I beleive that is what Chuck told me about the car he gave me the parts from, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

 

 find it interesting that the seating surfaces are suede-look or velour type cloth but the skirt and back are factory correct vinyl. Were the early production cloth seats all cloth, or part cloth and part vinyl as seen here? Never having seen them I don't know.

 

That said, the early leather/suede production seats were ALL leather, no vinyl at all which is another interesting historical tidbit. I gather the skirts and back went to sierra grain vinyl simultaneously with the ending of suede bolsters but don't think I've ever seen that documented.

 

[2reattas]

Having never seen the cloth seats, I was wondering that to. If it is a custom job it's a real nice job, Accordingto the list Barney posted 142 went to gm corp, could it have received the swap.

[smithbrother]

Trust me,,,,,,,there are a lot if interior shops that can and do better jobs than the original.

 

Just attend one of the large car shows, EXAMPLE: Lousville, Ky nationals, and see for yourself.

 

Paul Aikins name comes to light, there are MANY more,

 

Dale in Indy 

[KDirk]

Oh, I know there are shops that can do that and nicer. The question is how many Reatta owners would drop $2000 on new upholstery versus finding a decent used set of seats or cheaping out with seat covers? There are probably a few owners who would but the Reatta is not (yet?) the sort of car that gets that kind of money invested on upholstery given the total value of the car. That's almost a paint job, and most owners I know would more likely pay that for paint than new upholstery. High end cars worth $50k+ get that kind of upholstery work routinely, but I'd be surprised to see that on a Reatta in most cases. And, it's cloth. I have a hard time seeing someone paying big money to do new upholstery in cloth of all things. Eh, who knows. Anything could happen I guess.

[waltmail]

9 hours ago, KDirk said:

Oh, I know there are shops that can do that and nicer. The question is how many Reatta owners would drop $2000 on new upholstery versus finding a decent used set of seats or cheaping out with seat covers? There are probably a few owners who would but the Reatta is not (yet?) the sort of car that gets that kind of money invested on upholstery given the total value of the car. That's almost a paint job, and most owners I know would more likely pay that for paint than new upholstery. High end cars worth $50k+ get that kind of upholstery work routinely, but I'd be surprised to see that on a Reatta in most cases. And, it's cloth. I have a hard time seeing someone paying big money to do new upholstery in cloth of all things. Eh, who knows. Anything could happen I guess.

Oh if only I could find 2 used seats 12 way seats down here. Mine are shot and the upholstery shops want more than the car is worth. Sadly there is a person who owns an '89 very close to me. It is a red w/tan interior. The car has set in his driveway for at least 5 years undriven. The exterior is going to hell , but miraculously the interior is almost perfect. I have left messages,cards,notes etc. He is one of those guys who will restore it someday. The tag expired 5 years ago. Oh well. Since I want to sell mine I am trying to make him one helluva deal by selling him mine and swapping out the interiors as part of the deal. He gets a daily driver in very good condition for a decent price and I get a parting out vehicle, but he won't return my messages. I will continue trying.

 

BTW, has anyone installed a decent set of seat covers for a reasonable price and do you have any recommendations?

Edited May 26, 2016 by waltmail
added a question (see edit history)

[Barney Eaton]

While only a possible explination........since was assigned to GM, it could have been used there for whatever their function required.  Then it probably is returned to some motor pool and depending predetermined status of the vehicle it could have been put on the "for sale" to employees posting.   I have never been an employee of an auto company but I understand it is common to have such a list posted almost continually.

If that was the case the employee buyer, may have had access or known where the early cloth seats went, and had the seats.   The question then would be why would he take out leather and switch to cloth?

Since these cloth seats look really good, maybe the exchange did not happen in 1988 or 1989......the seats could have been is someones garage for a street rod project and got exchanged in 2005.......we will probably never know.

If 2reattas would tell us where he lives that could be another clue......my guess is he is in Michigan, but as we all know some of these Reattas have been in several states during their life.

Last comment......the early plan for Reattas was cloth seats standard and leather was an option.  Wirewheel hubcaps were also the original plan.  To my knowledge, I have never seen a factory photo of a Reatta with cloth seats.  If anyone has a picture that would be of interest. 

[2reattas]

I found the car in Austin, tx

[KDirk]

^^^ Did you purchase this car, or simply find a listing for it online? If the former, did the seller give any insight on the unusual seats? Just wondering. Oddities like this catch my attention and it is nice to get clarification whenever possible.

[Barney Eaton]

That is spooky.....I live just north of Austin......it would be nice to run a Carfax to see where it has been.

[2reattas]

I did purchase this car, saw it on Craigslist then it was gone then reappeared, nice looking car first time on cl, 2nd time not so nice looking but didn't show whole car, must have used another car pic, but anyway Im looking for a parts car and thought I'd go look at it and then saw it was 142 and had cloth seats and I thought hmmm, that's when I posted, I asked the guy about seats, he said they were original, but I don't know how many po's there are, he was suppose to call today but didnt, yes it would be nice to see where it's been.

[padgett]

Looks like it either went to Buick Headquarters or GMI (both in Flint) In either case anything could have happened. We used to do all kinds of strange things at the Experimental Engineering building on 109 in Anderson.

[Guest Click]

Hey Folks, I'm the (sort of) proud owner of an 88 model I believe to be the first six months of production. I'm having a heck of a time finding the right parts for this car. See thread below.

 

 

 

Thanks for any help you can offer

[tbenvie]

I also had a very early car plus bought parts from an even earlier car. There were a number of differences from the other 88s that i believe I documented on this site. If you are going to part this it may be helpful if you take a lot of pictures. Two big things I remember from them is they both did not have a screw holding the escutcheon in place where the shoulder belt comes out of the upper panel, and the real early one had carpeting under the storage lids in the back. One of the early Buick data books actually shows these lids with carpet underneath.