Brad Conleys GSX comparison.

What are all the differences between Brad Conleys GSX show car and production GSXs? Is there any stuff on his GSX that did not make 70 production but may have been added in 71 or 72? Were there more than one pre-production GSX? I dont know if this has been a topic in a former thread, if so I have not found it.

 

Hans,
My company reproduced the interior for Brad's car while it was at Dave Kleiner's shop being restored. Here is a text of an article I did on Brads car. it should answer some of your questions.
Duane


THE GSX SHOW CAR, BRAD CONLEY, and ME

I first met my friend Brad Conley when I attended the 1988 GSCA Nationals. It was my first GS Nats, and I was really excited. The previous year I had started my company, Classic Car Interiors, and began making GS interiors. At that time I only had 69 and 70 seat covers, and was in the process of locating patterns for the other year interiors. It was also the first showing for the 69 & 70 interiors and they sold like hotcakes.

Anyway getting back to the story, on the way to my first day of the Nats my father and I stopped for breakfast at Shoneys on Scottsville Road in Bowling Green. The place was really packed and in line directly in front of us was two guys wearing GS jackets. We started talking about the show and decided to sit together. As the introductions went around the table we introduced ourselves as Duane and Roy Heckman and they introduced themselves as Brad and his father Marvin Conley. A few weeks earlier I had talked to Dave Kleiner from GS Enterprises and was told he was doing the restoration of the GSX Show Car and he wanted me to do the interior. Once I heard who this guy was I said, Well, Im going to be doing the interior of your car. Brad said, Well, who are you, and how do you know you are doing my interior? I said, Well I own Classic Car Interiors and according to Dave Kleiner I am the only one that he will let touch it. Brad then comes back with, Well if thats what Dave said its good enough for me. So thats the story of how we met.

Years later when the interior showed up at my shop the real fun began. The following description gives you an idea of how the Buick Engineering people achieved the look they were after. The interior pieces were made up of a series of black and white squares with an off centered set of red and orange racing stripes. The entire interior was leather, including front and rear seats, door panels, rear armrests, steering wheel, and shifter handle, but there was a problem. The thing you need to keep in mind is this, when Buick turned this vehicle into the GSX Show Car it was designed to be a display model only, and was not built for everyday use. All the leather colors were painted on, not vat dyed like regular production cars. That meant that when we took apart the panels to make patterns everything stuck together, the paint glued the pieces together. This also made it harder to find un-faded pieces from inside the seats for color matches. You also cannot use steam to iron out leather pieces to make patterns, like you can with vinyl. If you do the leather shrinks and your seat covers wont fit. Another problem was the plastic bucket seat pieces. The car originally came with a Pearl White Custom bucket seat interior. When the Buick Engineering people built the Show interior they used the original white plastic panels and painted them black. These black painted panels were starting to crumble and everywhere the paint flaked off white showed through. They were a mess, and had to be replaced.

The method Buicks Trim Shop used to create the seats was amazing. For the front seats the raised beading was trimmed off the headrests with a razor knife before being installed in the down position. Next a layer of padding similar to the white filter elements in home air conditioning units was installed over the seat cushions and headrests. This assured a smooth surface beneath the seat covers. The front seat covers were then installed over top of the headrests, thus creating the illusion of high-backed bucket seats. The rear seats were different also; here they wanted to make the illusion of rear bucket seats. To do this they cut out the center part of the top and bottom cushions and added padding to the remaining areas until they resembled the front seats. In the center cutout areas, and at the sides of the rear seat tops, they hand carved blocks of wood, Maple I think, and covered these in black leather. (See the attached pictures.) The rear shelf board was covered in black vinyl and had a long tongue that came down between the rear seat tops. Once installed the center section was recessed in relation to the seats, finishing the bucket seat look. The front and rear seat covers themselves were not installed like traditional automobile upholstery, with wires and hog rings. Instead they were installed like covers on antique furniture. They attached long pull cords to the covers, pushed them through the seat cushions, and then tied these to the seat springs.

The door panels were another story. They were leather covered and padded at the top with black carpeting at the bottom. The center section was the interesting part. It was the pair of original fiberglass molds used to make the production molds for 1969-70 Riviera front armrests and had a vacuum molded skin on it. The armrests were then bolted to the door panel boards. The GSX door emblems were also unique. At first glance it looked like they took original production GSX grille emblems and cut off the edges surrounding the letters. This left the letter G as a separate letter from the SX, but heres the cool part, the emblems were not cast from pot metal but were made of chrome plated brass and were thicker then standard emblems. The reason these were thicker was so they could be drilled and tapped for the thin all thread rods used to mount them to the door panels. (You can easily see this on the picture of the reverse side of the door panels.)
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Other unique interior related items include the outside sport mirrors, steering wheel, dash veneer, dash emblem, and seat belts. The mirrors were the design study pieces used to create the 1971-1972 sport mirrors we know today. They were solid cast pieces with the mirrored glass glued in place. These mirrors were not movable; therefore both mirrors could not be adjusted and were non-remote. They were also so heavy they split the outer door skins. For the steering wheel they used the existing 16 Black Rallye wheel, covered it with a layer of foam padding, and wrapped it in leather. The dash assembly, console lid, power window bezels, and rear ash trays are covered with a machine turned metal veneer instead of the normal wood grain. The dash emblem is also unique; it is a large rectangular brushed metal emblem with GSX by BUICK cut into it. The seat belts look more like something from a jet fighter then an automobile and are labeled exptl. Belt. (Short for experimental belts.)

From the above description you can get a good idea of how the engineering design process evolved. They did the same thing designers do today, they used parts that were available to them, and altered them to fit their needs. The goal was to build an automobile with a large Wow Factor. That way everyone who saw it would remember it and want to purchase that car. That was their job.

When it came time to reproduce the interior my employee, Alan Wance, and I were very careful when making the patterns, we only had 1 shot at this. I even had Alan make a front seat cover from vinyl scraps and install it on the cushions to make sure it would fit. We did this before we dared to cut one piece of leather. We built the entire interior exactly like it was for the show circuit, with a non-remote mirror, no front door speakers, and no rear shelf speakers. Once the seats, door panels, and rear shelf were finished it left the steering wheel to reproduce. Brad told me that originally you could see the finger grip ridges on the reverse side of the leather wrapped steering wheel. He also stated he wanted that look retained if possible. Well it took a while but I found a material that created the same look, the only problem was to put a leather wrap over it. We tried time and again to make a wrap that was tight around the outside and not bunched up in the center, probably 10 times. Finally I got one that worked. For the next 3 nights my wife Beth and I punched small holes around the perimeter of the leather wrap and sewed the cover on by hand. It had to be really tight to work and by the end Beths hands were bleeding in several places, but our part of the interior was done.

One thing I want to say is this, I was proud to do this interior. I wanted to help bring back a piece of Buick history that will be enjoyed many years after I am gone. When it came time to charge Brad for doing this interior I did it for cost. I know he saved for over 10 years to do this restoration; he even paid for the leather when it came in because I could not afford to put out that much cash at the time. I just didnt feel right making anything on it, I wanted it to be my gift to the hobby. We kept track of the time and materials spent on the project and even at cost it was 3 times more expensive then any other interior my company ever produced.

I also helped locate or reproduce other parts for the car, like the turned metal dash veneer and the Ram Air foam seals, but thats another story.

It is amazing how few of the original Design Study cars got out of General Motors and are with us today. Many were destroyed in testing. Many more were destroyed because they didnt meet current safety standards, and could not be sold.

If you want to bring things full circle, and try to understand the fervor cars like Brads caused when new its easy. All you have to do is look at the response Buicks new Blackhawk Show Car is causing today. They built a hand-sculptured body and put it on a current Corvette chassis. The passenger compartment is based on a modified Riviera interior with custom touches. Again they used existing pieces they had in inventory and modified them to fit their design needs.

With the Blackhawk, Buick has done a complete 180 from its current line of automobiles. They are comfortable sedate cars that are dependable and good for everyday transportation. The Blackhawk, on the other hand, has a body that screams for attention. With a full leather custom interior, a retractable top, and a modified 455 big block that just wants to go. It is a complete divergence from Buicks accepted way of thinking. Exactly the same can be said for the GSX Show Car that was built over 30 years ago. Thats what makes these two cars so special. Seems to me that history is again repeating itself.
Duane Heckman

 

Duane that was really interesting.Do you want to do another? :grin:
I would like to see the photos.Did you forget to insert them?Thanks for posting that,I was always curious about that interior.Tom.

 

Great informative post guys. I always assumed it was a long laborious ordeal to get the car back to show state but never realized quite the extent of it. Awsome job Duane , Dave and all involved. Brad, as a member of the Buick community I know I speak for all of us who truly appreciate the time and expense you have sacrificed to allow the rest of us to enjoy this holy grail of Buick muscle. Enjoy and preserve. :beer

 

Thanks Duane and Brad for the story and the photos. :TU: . I am at work right now but I will read the story at home tonight. I must say that there were more differences from production GSXs than I thought. Now I know what you mean in another thread that the Conley GSX is not a prototype but more of a show car. Absolutly stunning car Brad and it shows all the super craftmanship from everybody involved in the restortion. :TU: . Hope I will be able to see it live one day.

By the way Brad, how were able to get hold of the car? Do you know the whole story before you aqquired it?

 

Brad,
Could you post a picture of the front of the hood? I was thinking of modifying a fiberglass hood for better airflow to the carb. This looks like the answer. More air and definite Buick heritage.

 

^why not just mold a Stage II scoop into the hood?

 

Brad, I'm curious; if it's not a prototype but a show car, why does it say prototype in your signature? You've probably answered this before so forgive me for asking again. It's magnificent no matter what it's called!

 

Too Cool

How cool is it to be able to just slide out the garage and grab a couple of shots of some serious Buick history. Everytime I see pictures of that car it gets better. I see something new I missed before. I have not had the thrill of seeing the real thing but I will definitely remedy that one of these days. Brad, Thanks so much. I am loving this thread......

 

I have a thread about this. I do not like the looks of a Stage 2 scoop. No disrespect to those that do.

Besides why do something the easy way when you have an oportunity to beat your head against something hard and unmoving o No:

 

Cant agree more Chris.

Brad, do you have a few pics showing the hole car? Front, side and rear. Would love to see them.

 

Thanks Brad! And thanks for sharing the pix, I can never get enough of them.

 

Speaking of scoops, what's the scoop on the GNX Prototype? I've not read or heard much about it. Sorry, I don't mean to hijack the thread.

 

This is the first time that I think I've noticed that they put the GSX decal on the front fender in the usual GS/455/Stage1/BMD emblem location.

Boy that silver/gold pearl almost makes it look silver in the one picture!