Over the last few months, we’ve seen some wild Buick Grand National finds, none more off the wall than the pair of new-in-the-wrapper cars discovered in a dingy garage. Those were likely unobtainable for most of us, which is why this recent garage find Grand National here on eBay may be a better place to start. Although it has some rust issues, the repairs seem to be limited to the floors and rear decklid. The seller has it listed with a $7K Buy-It-Now.
This is claimed to be a one-owner car with just over 108,000 original miles. While far from being a bubble car or even one that’s been carefully driven, there’s always something appealing about a collector vehicle in thoroughly average condition. The owner likely enjoyed driving this turbocharged GN, which offered 245 b.h.p. and 355 lb. ft. of torque in 1987. Note the rust blisters along the edge of the trunk lid and heavy window tint.
Inside, the interior is no time capsule. Are those seat covers keeping the original Grand National buckets in mint condition or hiding torn up upholstery? The door panels look a bit pillowy, as if the fabric is pulling away from the backing material. You can see what looks like some other panels sitting on the rear floor; any guesses where those came from? Gas station air fresheners always make me nervous, but at least it’s a patriotic one.
No word on the health of the engine or whether it spins freely. The registration sticker on the front glass indicates this Grand National was last stickered in 2002, so form your own conclusions about what it will need to fire up again. More disconcerting is the seller’s admission that it needs new floors but no photos are included showing the extent of the work required. Given this Grand National is located in New York State, a region not kind to old sheetmetal, those pictures are important for assessing the fairness of the $7K asking price.
Looks like it lived a rough life. 20K to set it right?
Well lots will not agree with me,but when a floor or frame is rusted I have zero interest in the car. I would never purchase a car that the floor was repaired. There is too many good cars out there worth buying to dick around with floor work. I would rather a car with a bad engine,shot interior or light hit on front than this car.
Agree, generally speaking. That said, these G-Bodies are body on frame, so as long as the frame’s good, replacing the floor metal is pretty easy and safe. Add the relative rarity of a factory Grand National and this might be a rule breaker for me.
You mentioned shot interior, we’ll look again. Seat covers are probably gone. Door panels are sagging. Steering wheel is covered up. Carpet,,well you know the floor story. You get your wish here. And the engine looks rusted over as well. Was it kept in a swamp ?
I ordered a new GN in the summer of 86 and got it in Jan. of 87. It really is weird to me to see one in this condition now more than the time capsule ones.
Everything is how memory serves you I guess.
Show the bad floors!
I luv blind purchases 😔
Was it common for the decklid to rust out like that? I remember seeing on on my commute “back in the day” (around 95-96) that had a rusted out decklid like this.
As I recall the owner had bought some stick-on letters from the local hardware store, you know the big gold and black house letters/numbers, and spelled out “Satan’s Machine” on the rear lid.
My thought was that the car was rusting in rebellion.
I owned one of these in the early 90’s. Fun in a straight line and had lots of street cred, but build quality was marginal at best. Pudding on a cloud-type handling wasn’t for me.
One thing that I noticed is that the tail pipes are wrong. The original owner must have put Monte Carlo SS tail pipes on it. Gran Nationals had the tail pipes exiting behind the wheels. Not a big deal though. He might have liked how the Monte SS tail pipes looked. Wish he showed photos of the floor.
Show the floors and half the price. It still might be a good project.
As a teen of the 70s/80s, I actually quite like the look of these. Sadly it’s yet another one we didn’t receive in Australia. This may sound a little odd (and if you knew me then that wouldn’t surprise you!) but one of the things that I really like are the rims, which I assume are standard on these. They just look seriously tough.
Seats have cheap covers, paint is shot, generally used and abused. Needs to be rebodied and get a complete soft trim overhaul………………in other words, skip it and buy a nice one. You’d be money ahead.
It might be hard for the younger people out there to comprehend this, but the idea of buying a brand new mid sized car capable of running in the low 14’s in the 1980’s was absolutely shocking. Unseen since the days of big cubes and high horsepower.
Here’s another rough one. last driven and tagged in 1996. 71k on the odometer and the (almost) original owner said it had a dealer factory replacement engine installed which would mean this engine only has 20k on it. Any opinions????
Even 7k is too much. Looks like any Monte/Regal/Cutlass you’ll see at your local Wal Mart. All it needs is a pine tree air freshener and a jug of anti freeze in the trunk.
This would make a great donor for a few ideas I have wanted to build. Who wouldn’t love a Turbo 3.8 in a Chevette, Vega or AMC Pacer?
t-top car is why the intier. is shot. i have a t-top 86 monte and in the witer or when it is raining or damp the inside glass of the t-tops is dripping water off of them like a frig. with the door left open. every t-top car i’ve owned did it that is what kills the inside and the floors. no time to dry out. my t-top daytona i kept an electic heater in it to help dry it out but the rear floors rotted out of it anyway
“Needs floorboard” is usually code for “needs everything”.