jbeary
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Posts posted by jbeary
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I pulled a console today. Pm me your email addy and I will send you a scan. If you need it to be a specific canvas size or file format, let me know that too. There's little detail left in these so most likely all you'll have is the correct template size. I agree with Mc_Reatta, reproducing an overlay would probably take at least three layers and would be difficult to correctly reproduce. Although if you have access to a Roland versastudio, I may have some specific requests.
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Yo Kdirk, y'all's rollin in style, fo shizzle. I'd be all up in dat mah self if'in i didn't have me two o me own. Check this, if I brought home another hoopty, it better be comfy enuf to sleep in fo sho. Try in' to keep mah shortie happy up in da crib, if'in y'all know. Two g's can bring out the happydizzle dance when it be new shoes or sumptin other than another Brrrureck. Sposin' I need to sell one byb grl be fo I go an be buyin another.
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Ya Kdirk. If you want to make a few hundred bucks on your recent 91 purchase, I think I could swing $2k this month.
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Sorry... First name is Jeff. I use jbeary for everything, sometimes to my disadvantage! Kerry is my wife. I have a book that came out about 1989, which I think was the first of the Grand National books. It documents everything known to that point about Grand Nationals but focuses on the last Grand National made which went to the author who I recall lived in Louisiana. My car came from a New Orleans dealer who brought it to auction as a trade in. The only GNX I know that sold in BAton Rouge was from Gerry Lane. These cars were plentiful elsewhere but scace here. I will post photo's of the book as well as my trunk option RPO's. The only year I know for sure offered leather was 1984. Other years did not on the WE2 option coded cars. MANY people will show leather in a 87 car on eBay. Also I see MANY 86's being passed off as 87's. With as many cars as were built I guess that's easy for a rube to miss.
Walter... the 78 Regal Sport Coupe was/is very rare. Possibly optioned this way to compete with the 78 442 Cutlass of the same time. SUPER nice but very underpowered. Would really like one of those now! I absolutely loved this body style and we had a nice 78 Cutlass that I thought was super "cush" at the time. First car to have the headliner drop and that was it's demise! Could see why many of these still roll with them 24" dubs..
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Will check this out and let you know.
I was under the impression (probably from the FSM) that GM hadn't standardized the option acronym list until after 1995, when ODBII was introduced. Possibly this is why I've been thinking that you had to go back to GM and find out your info. Is there any relation to their standardization of option codes and the introduction of ODBII?
I know that the ALDL of my 87 Grand National can't tell me if it came optioned as a WE2 and without the RPO sticker I probably couldn't sell the car as a real Grand National because people have swapped these or created their own copies. The only way I know of to tell what any GM car was optioned with is to match up the VIN with the RPO sticker in the trunk and then look up the codes. I don't think Compnine does that specifically but it probably get's pretty close. Here's a good example: The 84 Grand National could be ordered with leather seats (trim code 995), and that was the only year they were offered, yet you see many "87 Grand National's" with leather seats where the seller is stating they are original to the car.
My guess is that GM does not want to have to pay to do the one to many collation but maybe could help with a dump of raw data if that does in fact exist. Not just what were the RPO's of any given year, but having the VIN to RPO relationship could be very revealing (probably the same data Compnine uses). And then, if someone at GM could verify what you (we) think are very standard packages against anomalies (outliers) of handful of VIN's with whatever internal RPO lists, that information would be very useful.
Wonder if GM has a research department that can be contacted? Maybe through the GSCA???
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Hi Harry,
Yes... It looks, at least to my untrained eye, that the exhaust valve is a little lower than the intake valve. I kind of thought that the spring could be weak so I swapped the intake and the exhaust which seemed to help at first but when the car cooled it went back to missing. This is a dead miss too. The plug looks completely brand new on this cylinder but I smell the gas and know I'm getting good spark and fuel. The engine does not consume oil but with an original radiator and obvious evidence of prior cooling issues I have to think the seat or valve itself is bad.
I have another sender I could try and will start a new thread on what I feel are head issues, but still would like to know if the oil pressure itself could be affected by a momentary increase in crankcase pressure. I mean I know that this is what the PCV valve is supposed to do, right? I did change the PCV valve if that matters. What if the PCV is clogged? Would that change the oil pressure?
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Can you PM some pics??? Wondering if you have rust issues...
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Hi Padgett,
I know that I probably have an issue with my sensor, because my oil pressure fluctuates between 40 and off the scale high. I also know that I have a problem with the exhaust valve in cylinder 5. I don't know if the valve is burned or if there's a problem with the lifter. I plan to get a kit from Harbor Freight to do a leak down test so I haven't done that yet. What I have done is to take the valve cover off and while #5 was TDC I pulled the springs and neither intake or exhaust were stuck. However, after putting the springs back on and running the car until hot, the misfire on #5 disappeared and my pressure remained normal. When it cooled down it was back to the way it was before. I don't know what constitutes a sticky valve, but I still don't think the exhaust valve is closing all the way because I can hear it popping through the tail pipe. I had a z-28 with a worn cam lobe and that exhaust valve was stuck closed and you could hear it popping from the carb so this seems like its the reverse and this valve isn't closing all the way. Changed injectors, plugs, wires and ICM/Coil to no avail. Would a situation where there were gas and spark happening while a exhaust valve was stuck open cause the oil pressure to fluctuate wildly? I'm thinking pressure from the ignition cycle pushed through the crankcase could also cause a temporary increase in pressure. Is this possible? Car also shudders when locking into 4th gear and I think that means I'm lacking torque.
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I signed up for a Compnine temp account before I bought my 91 Polo green coupe #1429 and it matched for the most part. I'd have to go back to review, but from what I can recollect, Compnine did not show that the trim was also painted. Makes sense the trim is painted but then I guess it could have been done afterwards too. If Compnine can generate a list of options based upon vin numbers, I'd be surprised but it'd surely make paying for the service worthwhile.
Correct me if I'm wrong here Barney, but didn't you start your database with data supplied directly from GM? Not that you can go back to the same people now but have you tried to recently contact GM to ask if they can spend some time verifying the data you've since collected? Maybe that's a better path, I don't know.... One thing I can say for sure, if you are in GM's upper management, I'm sure you could ask for and get whatever you wanted. If you worked at the Craft Center and had management approval, I'd bet you could build the car you wanted to as well.
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Hi Nic,
Here's a few more pics of the horizontal band of underlayment. This is the grey piece running under the seat as well as the plastic wire channel. I don't know how the 91 compares to the 89 with regards to this but I do know that the plastic channel (the black thing with wires sticking out for the console and power seats) is most likely the same from what I've read in other posts. This carpet was never pulled before and you'd have to remove both seats to remove the carpet entirely and if you removed only one seat then this piece would be about half of the 60" length you describe. I mean crossways the car is about five feet wide from sill to sill and there's no other pieces that came out from under the carpet that was only 10 1/2 " wide. The black plastic channel actually sits on top of this grey flannel piece so start measuring from one side on this to the vent that's under the seat. If you pulled the vent piece along with the footwell piece, this maybe where the confusion starts.
Please let me know if this helps. I may be pulling the interior of an 89 this weekend if I can get help at the yard and can take pics then if the backing is different. Or perhaps you can post a pic of what you're seeing?
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That's good info Daniel. Thanks and will PM you about the chip. I should have posed the ECM question differently; will a Buick ECM work with a Pontiac engine? I know that many of these parts are interchangeable between makes and maybe that's the adapter you mention.
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Hi Nic,
Here's a couple of pics that show where the rectangular pieces are placed in my car. I know that the vertical pic is very blurry but hope you can see the beginning of the passenger rocker at the top. It's been raining on and off all day today and this is the best I can do at this time. I hope to get better pics if it's clear tomorrow.
The horizontal pic shows where the pad abuts the center console and you can see where the seat power comes from out of the plastic channel on the left. The drivers seat is in the car now and you can't see that so these lack some good perspective.
If this helps, great. If not I hope to get better ones up soon.
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Thanks guys. There's a few seemingly complete supercharged 3800's at a local pull a part. They charge a base price no matter the engine type or size. None of these I saw still had a ICM and coil pack and while I know one was in a Rivera the other two were in Pontiac's. I know Daniel has done a lot great descriptive posts on this subject but without having to pour over these now can you all let me know if the best option for a swap would need to come from another Buick or could the ECM come from a Buick and the engine come from a Pontiac? Also, there's a base price for the engine including the transmission or just the engine itself and if bought separately these would cost more than if they were bought together. My preference would to buy both at the same time. Is this wise considering that the tranny bolts to the engine cradle? Seriously considering building one of these up but would need to know what to tell a machine shop or just go as stock as possible. Could never go as in depth as 2Seater has with his but would love more low end torque from my 89. The 91 I have seems almost perfect.
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Awww man. There goes my summer vacation plans. Any experts want to comment on the development cycle of the 2 liter that Buick is using in this new CXL? Anyone know the most recent 3.8 liter that generated at least 285hp & 295 ft lbs of torque stock?
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I know that a 3800 with a supercharger isn't exactly plug and play for the Reatta. Considering the trouble it'd take to make modifications to the cradle and electronics, what engines (makes/models/years) make the best candidates for conversions?
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Appreciate your efforts Dave. I tried pulling the front leads from the 89 I'm picking over now and stopped because they seemed impossible to pull up without breaking the outter case. While the wire itself is cracking I have some very light weight coax that I wanted to try your suggested repairs with. If anyone has suggestions on how to pull these without destroying the plastic body please let me know. If you have any sensors that test good with an ohm meter where the wire is frayed, please pm me. If the price is right, I'd like to have at least one to play with.
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Hi Nic,
I just pulled the carpet from my 91 and wish I could send or post pics but can't until next week. What I think you have was stuck together because there's no separate pieces that run along the sill's. The ones that fit and are cut like the footwells are actually two pieces glued together and the long rectangular piece (sounds like what you describe) runs horizontally across the middle and partly under the plastic wire channel. This is the channel that houses the power seat wires and runs under both driver and passenger seats. It sort of abuts the shifter mechanics. If I can correctly recollect, about an inch is tucked under the wire channel and the rest fits perfectly in front of a raised cross member. Take it out of the sill area and flip it to run across the car from door to door and you will probably be able to see what I mean.
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I tease my wife about her Subaru, calling it the "Ragin' Wagon" but have to admit that its 3 liter makes it a really fun car to drive. I was sold on the brand when my cousin brought home a WRX STI but my wife's prior Outback, a '97 with the same base engine, a 2.5 liter, was just plain anemic. Although, and no condescending slight here, I have a friend in town who's rabid about his VW Vangon and came by the other day to show me his tricked out version of a dual carb Subaru 2.5 liter engine swap. That thing has some get up and go and reminds me of that Chrysler Town and Country that you could order with a 2.5 liter turbo which probably wasn't as fast as I remember but I do recall freaking out because that thing could spin the front tires all the way down the street. Having lived in Manhattan for several years I can say the Crown Vic's you see thousands of are purely for the turistas. If you need a lift from the airport you'd order up a Lincoln Town car but if you're in the city and for some reason need to take a cab, I'd always hail a van because it's just a better ride (albeit just more utilitarian especially if you were taking the groceries home from Fairway rather than having them delivered).
Yet I became pretty excited when I recently saw that Buick was offering a Regal GS with a 2 liter turbo "CXL" AWD with a six speed automatic. The thing about the WRX STI was the manual tranny which I've never been a fan of. And not to sound like a disparaging nitwit here, having driven around with some Chinese friends, and fearing for my life, the thought of riding around Shanghai with a Chinese driver having 285 hp with 295 ft lbs of torque at their disposal is dreamy. While it's just the wife and I with no kids, I think this new Buick could be the only 4 door I could feel good about driving.
If you have to be like everyone else, buy a Benz or an Acura to avoid the "Ragin Wagon" stigma. And having owned a 78 Jeep Cherokee with a 401, I can attest these were far more destructible than IH Scout that I owned and could not beat to death even though I tried my best. While I don't have a time machine, I tend to believe that new Land Rover 110 Defender, which may be twice the price of any Jeep, this beast probably has three times the utility, fun, safety, and indestructibility of any Jeep too. Lose the hitch, sell the boat and buy one of these and then run over every H2 left on the road.
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I think I read somewhere that Bushwack had his steering wheel rewrapped. I had the one in my Grand National done a log time ago and it was about $200 then so the price could very well have gone up or maybe gone down...
And I agree totally with johnemac. I think you'll find people out there who also would say the same about Leatherique. There's a huge leap of faith to take when you buy something really expensive that just does not seem like there's any way it could work.
And like I was saying, the process is just batty. Leatherique recommends slathering this rejuvenating oil on by hand, "massaging" it in and then letting your car sit with the windows rolled up on a hot day. What you are left with is a sticky mess which you use the "prestine clean" to remove. Actually, this will come off with a little soap and water but like most leather freaks, using protein based soap on leather is a huge no, no. However, if you're not some leather freak and know little about caring for leather like someone like me, there's a very easy way to determine if your wasting your time with Leatherique, Lexol or any other product made to do anything other than act as a surfactant. I had to ask the guy at Leatherique but this test can easily be verified by a quick search on Google.
If you put a drop of water on your leather and it beads and runs off, then you have some bi-cast or coated leather. Leatherique or Lexol will do nothing for this type of leather unless you remove the coating. If it sits and eventually soaks in slowly, then you have split or "corrected" grain leather, (probably semi-aniline dyed). If it soaks in right away then you have full or top grain and pure aniline dyed leather. There's a pretty good explanation of this on the Leather Magic website here: http://www.leathermagic.com/Pages/leathercare.html There's also some contradictoray information on this website too and I disagree that most auto leather is top grain leather. At least my seats are definitely split grain, corrected leather which is semi-aniline dyed and then pigment coated. European leather is top grain leather and I can see and feel the difference between the seats in our Subaru which originated in Japan. It's just better leather and when it get's a scratch, I see pigment underneath so something like Lexol works great and make the seats in the Subaru look new with a simple wipe.
Probably johnemac had a similar issue that I had which was my seats were coated (with SEM paint). I think many people used scotch guard or some other protective coating on these seats and maybe even this was put on by the dealership, I don't know. But what I do know is the seats in my 89 which are blue are not coated and if they were the coating was rubbed off a long time ago. The 89 seats will soak up a drop of water no problem and have a similar pearl or buffed like finish like the seats in our Subaru while the seats in the 91 were glossy as all get out. I had to sand off the SEM paint that was on my seats with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper before the Leatherique did anything at all. Once I did that, my seats went from feeling like cardboard to feeling like leather but I still have to patch the PO's repairs and then use crack filler on the cracks so the driver's seat is still far from perfect.
I will try to post some pics on a different thread and let you all see what I am talking about. If you need to cut a swatch, I don't know the best place to remove even a 1x1 square, maybe the headrest? There's nothing extra left over from what I can see and I've practically removed the entire seat bottom and back covers. All of the cording is vinyl so if that's cracked (mine is) you are just SOL and all you can do is to use crack filler which isn't a permanent solution even with a good topcoat.
Speaking of which, I can't be the only person who thought they maybe could swap seat covers from a good passenger seat to the drivers seat am I? I'm not going to do that but it sure seems like an easy and inexpensive alternative since I can find much better passenger seats than drivers seats. And I'm not talking about just swapping seats because I've already done that so I can drive around when I'm working on the drivers seat.
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I'm working on my crappy seats now using Leatherique products. This includes a leather cleaner and moisturizer which they call prestine clean and rejuvenating oil. I bought these with a kit that also includes a prep, water based dye & crack filler. These are labor intensive products and even if they can't spell all that great I've seen some pretty good results thus far. Having said that, the entire shebang was about $180 with color matched dye. This stuff is revered by many Mercedes and BMW groups and there's many people who will help as well as attest to the performance and color matching. There's another company, leather magic who also sells a water based dye but I haven't used their stuff, they also do color matching. My research indicated that a water based dye will attain the absolute best results when you dye or redye leather originally dyed using a semi-aniline process. Most us auto makers up until 1991 used this dyeing process but due to restrictions now use a solvent based paint process much like SEM. My seats were painted with the SEM leather and vinyl dye and you can have this paint mixed locally for about 1/2 the price of the full kit I bought from Leatherique but you will need to also buy SEM's prep to get their paint to really stick to anything flexible. I recommend using the SEM paint for any plastic or vinyl but this stuff did nothing but make what were dried out and cracking leather seats much worse and worse yet it's a pain to get off so I can do the job right with a water based dye. Best thing I can say thus far about Leathrique is their products do what they are advertised to do and my drivers seat now has the elasticity of new split leather. SEM paint would be great for newer bi-cast leather and that's about what every us car maker uses now. I am blown away by the quality of the leather seats in our 08 Subaru compared to even the best new us cars with leather interior I've been in. You can buy a steering wheel kit from both Leatherique and leather magic but for about $200 you can also get your wheel rewrapped with the same color leather and it will be like brand new. The blue in Reatta is pretty widely used but maybe Ronnie or Barney can correct me if I'm wrong. I had a hard time with the three shades of GM beechwood color (medium is correct) and had to have the correct interior color codes to have both the. Leatherique and the SEM paint mixed to the right shade. I had the steering wheel in my Grand National rewrapped and it was well worth the trouble of doing a "restoration". Since it'd be at least a couple thousand bucks to have new seat covers made, I'm trying this Leatherique stuff out. I figured I can't mess these up much more than they already are.
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That's a really beautiful car. Even if it had 61k miles, $5k is an excellent price for a '88 from California.
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Ronnie, I think you're seeing a horn of some type. It looks like an Ooogha horn and yeah the wiring is atrocious.
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Is it wrong of me to agree whole hearted with Keith because I also own a Subaru Outback L L Bean H6? Bushwhack makes a good point, that everybody drives a used car. This is also supported by Padgett. And while Harry makes a good argument, law of average suggests there is a best of everything. We probably all own the cars we own because of some personal preference. Even if I had all the time and money and flipped cars as a profession I'd certainly still have a favorite or best car. And of course that would be the car exuding the highest level of ownership. Having never attended a car show myself, I'd expect a car like that to beat out any number of similar cars even if it were by fractions of points. So I get what Jon is saying. Take any given number of 2008 Outback's to be judged solely on condition, detailing and cleanliness, one will rise to the top and there's a good chance, given many of them, it won't be the car with 1500 miles on it in five years of ownership. For the sake of Pete don't go into a critique with preconceived ideas because you will probably be proven wrong and Keith is right, a car contest needs to be about what would perpetuate the hobby no matter how high the stakes could go. Yeah, people get into the hobby for the money that's in it because we all know how much having and keeping something like a car actually costs us. And there's nothing preventing me from selling my cars if the right offer came along (but believe me you don't want my cars).
Without the guilt of hijacking yet another thread with a lengthy boring diatribe, allow me to pose zoltanb's question differently: Do you guys who judge feel the prices realized at the recent Lambrecht Chevrolet dealership auction we're completely outrageous? I think time or timing will eventually effect value but scarcity trumps that every time. C'mon guys, Lambrecht was an accumulator of cars and not a collector. No way he and Jay Leno compare. Both Jon and Keith judge actively it seems so please tell me you guys, would you rather a 1958 Chevy pickup that's got 20 original miles but will still need a ground up restoration to make it more than a huge paperweight, or that GS stage 1 prototype listed now on eBay for $90k? The truck sold for $140k so is it better? And if Corvanti and Padgett would care to comment their opinions about these new car chaser shows or possibly your feelings about what a show like grease monkey garage has done to change what a "restomod" means, that would be great. Back when I was seventeen the kids who were modding their cars didn't have the internet, there magazines and books but these kids were learning from the guys who made up the "gasser" culture and these were the guys who collected cars and parts and traded more than they bought but they all had super nice cars whether they turned wrenches on all of them or were just constantly working to perfect one that was close but never perfect. When I was a kid, my friend who owned a 67 mustang with a 427 lived down the street and he came by one day in his beautiful car, I mean this would easily be a $30k car today, and we get in to ride down to Baskin Robbins and he's like, "I put a shift kit in". And I was like, well what's that do for you, and he's catching seconds all the way there. This was a guy who freaked when a leaf hit his car but here he was doing what he could to burn up the tires. When he sold that car, I guarantee no one cared about the shift kit. That car was way more about how it looked and drove and the fact that people could say, "that's just like the car from Bullit" and know they were riding around in one of about five of these that we knew about in our immediate area.
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Power steering leaking up front is probably from the cooler or a line nearby. You can get a replacement from Ronnie or just search Amazon for the currently least expensive transmission cooler and generally you can find something suitable for less than $20. If you don't find the leak and stop it you will not only burn up your pump but your rack and pinion will be wrecked too.
Bought an 89 with same the intention. Lots of rust on this car will eventually make it a parts car but for now it's my second car after the 91 that I ended up buying as a daily driver because the 89 is simply a complete mess. Like you, I honestly would have driven the car around with bad brakes and not have a second thought but my wife's reasoning along with the problems (you'll also undoubtably find) with the fuel lines will prevent you from driving it for fear of dying in a flash fire. Yes, I'd rather run into a tree or even over a small child before I get trapped in a burning car.
There's a switch that controls the brake accumulator motor and sometimes these are bad but you can jump the switch to find out if that's your problem. The failure of the accumulator is pretty predictable but generally you can tell if that part was ever changed out because an original one would never charge and the pump motor would run until the wires started smoking or a breaker is tripped. The switch turns the motor off if the accumulator reaches a specific pressure and it leaks when it's bad. I think I've had three accumulators on my Grand National which has less than 90k miles, so the nitrogen eventually leaks no matter. And that's why I'd be surprised if you have an original accumulator. The pump motor would have burned up a long time ago if that accumulator wasn't changed at least once at some point in the 180k miles or 25 some odd years it has.
It took the better part of eight months for me to replace all of the brake lines, the calipers and hoses, and this included a tear down and cleaning of the entire Teves (master cylinder, pump, accumulator, etc) to get this car past inspection. Also put on a new fuel tank, straps, fuel lines, sender, pump, and neck so I wouldn't come out of the store to find the car ablaze or die trying to get there. I also put new struts on the back which I kind of regret because of the cost but this made major differences in the cars driveability . Seems to have a bad injector or a burned valve, or cracked spring or bent push rod because it's missing on #5 regularly. And I can't drive it now because the seat belt buckle just jammed. But when I can drive it I seem to enjoy it more than I do driving the 91. I just think the 89 was built better but what I have found lately is that the 91 was probably stored too hot for years and all of my rubber is effected and then a PO jumped a curb on the front right tire because that control arm is loose. So the 91 really needs all new rubber to make it right.
My my advice is to do what you can to enjoy the car while it's untitled and uninsured and if you eventually do make it a daily driver, you probably will still have whatever parts you originally wanted. You can spend $8-10k on a car that seems perfect and still be left with a $4500 car, so why not $1200 on a wreck that you drop another thousand bucks into that you know you'll get back when you have to replace a windshield. Fortunately the 89 I have has perfect original glass and a really nice albeit faded interior. Lastly, I've had real good luck with Leatherique but that leather honey stuff works pretty well too. I just got better results from the Leatherique myself.
Window switch bezel picture needed
in Buick Reatta
Posted
Kdirk, there was an earlier post you'd made about a jobber you had in mind who could make up the metallic decals with the text perforated. See:http://forums.aaca.org/showthread.phpt=349924&page=2&p=1162778&viewfull=1#post1162778
If you need camera ready art I can do that, pm me the requirements. Also interested in what you're trying at home so please fill us in.
I was was a little surprised to see these are electroluminescent. I thought the gear shift inset was the only thing like that on the car recalling a post about this in 2013.
These are much different than a vinyl decal. This is made of thin foil with the text perforated and then glued onto a electroluminescent panel. The panel is mounted on Mylar with copper conductors for the power supply. Pretty cool design and considering the inverter would be yet another specialized part, I now see why GM went bankrupt. I know the IPC is a unique phosphorescent display, but this type of display is often used, I guess maybe as much as led's. What other cars had these electroluminescent decals? They really are a snazzy design because 99% is what you don't see unless your decal is torn like these below.
Anything that could laser etch foil could do the font easily. And I don't think obtaining the correct font would be hard. I also think you could make hundreds of these an hour but it'd take five times as long if you expect to create an electroluminescent panel to stick the foil decal over. Panel info is here: http://electroluminescence-inc.com