ol' yeller
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Posts posted by ol' yeller
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Am I crazy that I'm still looking at Reatta ads???
Everyone knows that I am crazy and I'm still looking at Reatta ads 5 months after I bought mine, so.....
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Harry, Here is a link to the Reatta Owner's Journal site that has the info you requested. How To Flush & Bleed Brakes - Reatta Owners Journal
Good luck! BTW I find the search function in the blue bar at the top of this page which starts out with AACA Forum, AACA Home, etc.
Greg
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I am a big fan of Maui blue but my current vert is white. Congrats and welcome to your new obsession!
Greg
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OK, I agree. The '88 is not a $500 parts car. In my defense I just read his description of the car, major dings in several panels, a ruined rear window, AC work needed, and brake issues, I didn't look at the ad. I still don't think it is really a car worth considering, especially at the asking price due to the issues. I have seen several cars in much better condition for the same or less money. Small issues like antenna repair and cell phone antennas and headlight repair are cheaply and easily fixed. Windshields, bodywork, paint, brakelight issues, AC repairs and upholstery are not.
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I don't know what your budget is but the car you looked at sounds like it would barely pass for a $500 parts car. There are lots of cars you can pick up for under $3K and even closer to $2K in much better shape. Just a few cautions, If the AC doesn't work deduct $1,000 even if they swear it only needs a recharge. If the brake lights are on, pass or plan on spending a lot of time and money getting it right. If the windshield is bad, pass. If the weatherstripping is bad, pass. You should be able to get a nice running car with no big issues in the above price range. Minor issues like lazy door windows or bad headlight mechanisms are not a reason to run from a car. Mileage above 160K doesn't leave a lot of life in major components. 1990's seem to be a lot more prevalent for some reason.
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How did you rebuild it? It sounds like a crank arm going bad.
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As a child of the 60's, I was taught to apply the power brake without putting yourself through the windshield by keeping your heel on the carpet. That way you apply "toe pressure" not "foot pressure".
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Not Mine.
Buick : Reatta Base Convertible 2-Door in Buick | eBay Motors
Red with Gray interior and top. Ad claims original paint. I've never seen this color combo before. Interesting.
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Contact your local chapter of the Buick Club of America. I'm sure someone would be happy to come and look at it and give you an idea of what it is worth. They may even be interested themselves. That should give you a starting point for pricing. If you are in the Northwest, I'd be pleased to give you an appraisal and even some ideas for selling it. I wouldn't be an interested buyer though. It isn't worth big bucks as it isn't a GS and the market for collector cars is very soft right now. If it is as clean as it looks in the pictures, runs, stops, and handles well, and everything works, you should be able to get a decent price. Too little known at this point to get more specific.
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WINNER! Total cost of repair was $3.49 for bolt and washer at my FLAPS. I ran a thread chaser down the battery bolt hole to clean up the threads. It appears that the PO didn't seat the washer all the way into the plastic around the cable end. That left just a thread or two holding the cable into the battery and eventually they stripped and would no longer hold the connection. Now it is good and tight, no more engine whine through the radio and my headlights no longer dim when I step on the brakes. Thanks for everyone's help.
Greg
What do you mean by 'stripped'? If it is just the bolt that goes into the battery, those are available at any auto parts store. -
Really? I didn't know that. I'll check it out tomorrow. Thanks!
What do you mean by 'stripped'? If it is just the bolt that goes into the battery, those are available at any auto parts store. -
Thanks Ronnie. The Reatta Store was the FIRST place I looked.
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Are these just NLA? I could use a little help on this. Thanks.
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I too purchased my '90 convertible in early August. I have also piled up about 2,000 miles in the few months that followed. We had an incredible Indian summer here in the Great Northwet so it was a great time to own a convertible. There were also several shows that I just had to take in this year. I don't drive much anymore but it will still be exercised as much as possible even during the winter but garaged when not in use. I am now at 89K miles and counting.
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Mine is stripped. Any available new anywhere? Good used is my second choice.
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I read the other day on this forum something about Reatta prices & how they seem to be going down, Bad news....for all of us interested in selling. I know my asking price of $6500 is a bit high (although I have more $ in it) but I thought I'd leave some negotiating room. Where would you think this car would realistically sell?
I bought my Vert in August. Originally it was listed for $6,800 and it was for sale at that price for over a year with only 1 person coming to look at it prior to me. They dropped the price over $1,000 and got me to come look at it. It had a lot fewer miles, 87K, than yours. While it was in generally excellent shape it needed a new top, an AC charge and a headlight repair. $1,500 later, all that was fixed like new. It was a one owner car and garage kept. As a kicker, the car came with documentation that it was originally a Pace Car for the 1990 Great American Race. The color is white over garnet with a white top. I paid less than their asking price and I was the only one to call or come look at it in the 3 months after they dropped their price. Given your mileage and the overall condition from what I can see my guess would be $3,500-$4,000 tops. There is no shortage of Reatta verts for sale and there are plenty low mileage garage queens for sale as well. In the NW right now (I know you are in PA) there are 2 with less than 50K miles and they have both been for sale a loooong time at $21,000 and $14,000. If you want to sell, you have be at market price and unfortunately for sellers this is where it is. OTH it is great if you are a buyer!
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I have had a couple cars painted by Maaco. There is a reason why their prices are low. Labor is expensive so if they can take a shortcut on the prep work, they will. The person operating the spraygun usually has lots of experience laying color as they shoot a lot more cars in a day than the average body shop. My solution to this is to do my own prep work, get everything perfect first, then take it to Maaco and have them shoot it. I have yet to be dissapointed with the outcome and the price is reasonable. If you have them do all the work, you will get a passable job but there will be flaws and it probably won't last long term. Bottom line, you get what you pay for.
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very nice!!! :cool:
i've been reflecting today, on my daughter's 22 birthday.
seeing this, i recall the many times i strapped her into her "car seat" and took, or picked her up from her "day care" center. the 1st song i ever heard her sing was accompanying a cd of "Queen": "We will, we will rock you!".
she was close to 3...
thanks for making that "brain synapse" active!
I have 2 daughters, 31 and almost 35. Both are married to the most wonderful men. I have been blessed with one amazing Granddaughter who is the absolute apple of her Grampa's eye. At the age of 57, two years ago, I came very close to becoming a memory instead of an influence. A heart attack followed with a heart rupture almost took my life. I have recovered a lot from where I was but I still deal with the damage from this event. Daughters especially need their Dads and that was brought home to me in the most forceful way. Hug your daughters and take care of yourselves. We are important and needed.
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She wasn't that deprived. Gramps still took her to preschool in Big Ol' Brown Betty, my '99 F250 Superduty. Rube would have been proud! As for cheaper, all it cost was $62 total including paying shipping twice because I hadn't changed my address at Paypal.
A smiling picture will be forthcoming but top down weather is fleeting here now in the Great Northwet.
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I just had this done to my car at 87K. The condition of the coolant leads me to wonder if it was ever changed. It took several machine flushes to get rid of all the accumulated junk in the cooling system. At this point, I am somewhat concerned still about the internal condition of my heater core and radiator. My mechanic suggested we run this coolant for a year and then flush it again. I have never seen such rusty congealed muck as what was in my cooling system. Funny thing is that the temp gauge never went above the midpoint. My point is to make sure YOU (all) don't neglect this aspect of vehicle maintenence.
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I only have one Grandchild, my precious Jadie who is 3 (“ana half”). She has yet to ride in Gramps’ new Reatta convertible due the inability to install a car seat safely in the Reatta. At a Dealership I was able to score the seatbelt to hold the car seat to the seat but the hardware to install it was NLA. With the help of Marck from NCreattas I finally mounted the seat in my car.
<o:p> </o:p>
The first item to procure was a seatbelt tiedown which I got from a Buick buddy from a ’65 Skylark. (The green piece)
Marck was kind to provide me with some seatbelt parts which I had sewn locally to the seatbelt tiedown. I then mounted the assembly behind the bolt that held the seatbelt to the sidechannel. I routed the piece up through the cover and terminated it just past the plastic cover.
I used another seatbelt part supplied by Marck and cut off the seatbelts and used the male metal piece to snap into the inboard seatbelt. One end of the Buick supplied seatbelt snaps onto this piece.
I thought the hard part was going to be the tiedown for the top of the seat but it proved much easier than I thought. My only mistake was trying to route it under the slide channel. When I tightened it all up, I snapped off a piece of the plastic. A little glue should fix this problem and the strap doesn’t need to be in the channel.
With the seat removed all that shows is the maroon strap coming out of the seatbelt retractor assembly. It doesn’t interfere with the operation of the lap/shoulder harness in the least. Now I can safely transport Jadie and any future grandchildren in class with Gramps.
The last pic is of the inboard attachment with the end out of the seatbelt recepticle. I somehow added this and can't get rid of it ...... so enjoy!
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Padgett, it is funny you mention the tin foil fix. I used it just last week on a household repair with good success. I'll give it a try. As I get older, I find that hammer fixes are best used as a last resort. I now find that thoughtful consideration is better than brute force. Thanks for the memory jog!
Greg
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I paid less than that in August for my 87K mile, White 90 Reatta vert. Mine has the original leather seats in good condition and a very nice steering wheel that doesn't need a cover to hide the damage. Mine did need a new top and an AC charge which would take my price to slightly more but I think I got a much better buy. Mine was a 1 owner car that came with full documentation and a complete owners portfolio. Mine was also a pace car for the Great American Race and came with the decals that were on the car during the race.
Fortunately for me, (unfortunately for sellers) now was a perfect time to pick up my dream car for a very reasonable price. I had a couple of other options to buy locally here in the Great Northwet. Others were a '90 Maui Blue (my favorite Reatta color) Vert in Portland for $14K and 48K miles and a 91 red Vert with very low miles for $22K. All of the other cars I was considering are still for sale 2 months later. My car was for sale for over a year before I came along.
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Resolution! I finally had time to troubleshoot this today. It was getting progressively worse. The radio was picking up an engine whine that changed with the RPMs of the engine. All fingers were pointing to a bad alternator. Today I started with checking the grounds and found both battery cables were loose at the battery to the point where the positive lead fell off the battery as I began poking around. The negative lead I think is slightly stripped as I had a problem getting it to tighten. After getting both to tighten, the flashing headlights and whine all went away. It was an easy fix that didn't cost anything. I think I may have to get a new battery if the negative comes loose again.
I have only had this car for a couple months and PO had this car as part of large collection. I assume he took the leads off to save the battery and didn't do a good job putting them back on. In his defense, he was 82 years old! Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.
1990 Buick Reatta Motor Mounts?
in Buick Reatta
Posted
Some good reading here: http://forums.aaca.org/f116/engine-shocks-323427.html . It appears that some effort was made to get these reproduced or a replacement part is available but this discussion was before I had my current Reatta. Maybe one of the posters could let you and me know the status of the search.