Im not certain if George wants me to reveal the whole story, so I will leave some details for him to explain. . . Nevertheless, I am starting the thread now and writing it as I have been told... however, please dont shoot me :blast: or render me liable for incorrect or miscommunicated information/details, K? :Brow: A deal was struck twixt George Lanoue from San Jose CA, and Bill Van Steen of Vancouver BC sometime in 2006 ish. The car was partially restored ie: Engine/tranny was freshly rebuilt. Paint and bodywork was pretty~much completed. Chassis was frame off restored. The car, a 1972 GS 455, along with 137 boxes of parts, loaded on a car hauler and heading onto San Jose for completion. There was a ton of stuff that took place twixt the day of purchase and SOME YEARS LATER (I will let George explain) as the car was still sitting in the INcomplete stages, the frustrated George began asking around the Buick Community, looking for someone to take over the restoration. George Nenadovich saw the request and initiated a conversation with GL (George Lanoue) and myseff..., asking if I would consider takin on the task. Well, I had a few opportunities to just stay out of it...but NnnNNnoooo. Me and my big fat mouth. :Brow: January 4th, early afternoon in 2011, GL pulled up in my driveway... Drove all the way from San Jose to Tampa Bay pulling his 32 foot trailer loaded with 137 boxes of pretty-much unidentified Buick parts and his partially restored 1972 GS 455 STUFFED with more boxes. I KNOW GL will prolly NOT want ALL this revealed but, on his cross~country journey, he became a Convict, he was cash~poor, sported a cheap Walmart pay as you go phone and was obviously exhausted. Ya, as I stood there looking at the packed trailer... somehow I just didnt feel it would be appropriate to mention to George who was drop dead tired, beat and worn out that I really wanted to change my mind. ou: Anyway, this is how the story begins and here are a few pix starting the same day George Lanoue's 1972 Buick GS arrived in my front yard: Story updates & tons of pix will come as I find time to write..... stay tuned.
Oh NOOOO!! You've reverted back to the teeny-tiny blue text. :error: uzzled: :eek2: :rant: o No: I started to read your post but I had to stop when my eyes started to bleed.:grin:
Glad you didn't change your mind, car turned out GREAT As a matter of fact I'm on my way out there to drop my 72 Skylark off:laugh:
Nick in response.... about a week ago, some person got on me for using huge text.. size 3, so I wondered that maybe I had been using the wrong size text all along and nobody mentioned it to me, so I kinda felt I should reduce the size back to #2. ou: Cant win. JUST FOR YOU Nick... Im going back and try to UP the size type font IF it will allow. . . . :TU: PROOF: you can please SOME of the people some of the time, but not ALL the people ALL the time...sheeesh. :moonu: Wheelz, Tampa Bay
If I had not been plodding and bleeding cash thru the Suncoupe resto I would have bought this car when he was selling. Should be a very nice car when finished
Haha, I think all of us have had that "big mouth" moment!! Looks like a challenging fun time in the making..
FYI... the car IS done!! :laugh:... shipped out TO SAN JOSE via Reliable Transport this afternoon... but you all gotta wait for the REEEESSSST OF THE STORY... :bla: ... to be continued
STORY PART TWO: It took me about 10 days to sort thru and somewhat 'organize' all the boxes and identify what~was~what and laid all the boxes out in some orderly fashion in Georges trailer. I also had my trusty clipboard to jot down notes of stuff I knew I would need as well as stuff that was packed that were NO WAY parts to a Buick... o No: George had purchased many new, restored and original parts/pieces over the years as the car sat in waiting. The actual 'work' began by January 16th or so. It was nice working with nice clean parts for the most part. SOME of the restoration that was done BW... (ie: Before Wheelz) had to be undone for various reasons like INCORRECT non a/c firewall pad slapped onto an A/C firewall?? ou: and heat/defrost/AC actuator doors couldnt open or close because padding jambed the up... ya know, little stuff like that. The foremost importance was electrical system... HAD TO get anything electrical completed first. The original dash instrumentation besel was restored by Mr' G;s. The GS originally had gauges and George wanted to add and indash tach. He and I also discussed installiing a considerably BETTER SOUND SYSTEM than what Buick offered back then. Being a 'purist' who likes to keep originality, I really had no idea how to put together and aftermarket system, so I contacted a local AUDIO GURU to assit me in that challenging option... The objective was to keep the car ORIGINAL APPEARING yet developing a much better sound... know whut~I~mean?? After several weeks of conversing, changing, planning, developing and engineering a working system layout, We opted for an INDASH, KenWood Experian receiver, with the latest technology Pandora/Bluetooth compliant, a compact Cerwin Vega 800 watt amplifier, 2- liq tweets, 2-4x6 100 watt midrange, 2- 150 watt 6x9 for a total of 6 speakers AND. . .a set of 150 Watt BASS SHAKERS mounted to the floor under each of the front bucket seats.... The audio system was perhaps the most time consuming and the challange to make it all 'fit' was on! JON on this board gratiously donated many hours of his time regarding the ~to-dos and NOT to~dos when installing hi powered systems. THANK YOU JON! Yes. .. you see Dynomat, and I used plenty throughout the interior for sound deadener and heat insulation. That was certainly another challenge I'll tell ya. Sliced hands and fingers, black goop on all my clothes..etc.. FYI: I have taken the liberty for the sake of NOT BORING you with EVERY LITTLE DETAIL....so understand I have condensed and re-aligned some timeframe details of everything I put into this audio project for your sake... However, IF you have questions about what you see, feel free to ask! FWIW, I am an electricial contractor and I worked as many evenings & nights as I could muster-up n r g for... sometimes I just couldnt drag myseff out into the heat of the night to work.. WEEKENDS were a totally different story.. 12-14 hour saturdays were not out of the norm... Overall, I felt the progress/assembly of Georges 72 GS was moving along fairly well. Enjoy the pix. . . more to come soon, I promise!
PART THREE. Ok, so the previous post was all about electrical, dash, instrumentation, audio system... harness, etc. . . and now that I am confident the electrical is pretty much complete on the inside, my next big venture is the ENGINE COMPARTMENT... fuel lines. brake lines and master cylinder & booster, A/C components ~ fan box, distributor, wires, harness, a/c-alt- upper & lower brackets, carb, vacuum hoses, belts, exhaust stuffs, etc. I know. boring. The engine, trans, posi were rebuilt by someone in the Bill Van Steen camp. I am only guesstimating here but, prolly around 2003, 04? Almost 9 years ago & NEVER RUN. hmmm. I accept the challenge. :Brow: MANY weekends of sorting thru boxes, cleaning, painting, assembling, on & on... you guys know what Im talking about. Not heavy work, but VERY TIME consuming. Details always are, Right? The carb, dist, plug wires, fresh oil, temporary radiator support, coolant, temp straight down pipes as an exhaust system, etc...the 455 motor was ready for its maiden test run. 8 gallons of 110 OCtane fuel in the tank.. (not knowing FOR CERTAIN WHAT the motor specs were...didint want cheap ethanol flex~fuel in the new motor... NO WAY. AND ALWAYS, since I can ever remember, I have at least 3 WORKING, certified fire extinguishers SITTING CLOSE BY on ANY and EVERY startup project. Can never be TOO safe, ya know. SO now the oil pressure was built up by manually pumping pressure via distributor tool I made,..I CERTAINLY did NOT want to crank up a tight FRESH motor that has been dry for nearly 8 or 9years, right? Hit the key . . . the motor fired up inless than a half turn! YAY! Watching the mechanical oil pressure gauge I had on the engine, as soon as I knew I had mechanical pressure, I leaned over inside the driver window to see if the gauges I installed were operating as well... THE SOUND..of that rumbly-bumpy-rappity-bitty-bap-rythym sound of the fresh 400+ horses sounded AWESOME thru those straight pipes...! I, thought nothing of my feet getting hot only because, those short straight exhaust pipes dumped right over my feet as the exhaust headed out under each door, kinda. I watched the oil pressure gauge, and the temp gauge closely...and as I pulled out of the position and away from the driver door to manually advance the RPMS at the linkage, FLAMES came up the door, and thick black smoke rose into my ASTONISHED FACE...!! FLAMES??? yep, just like the SONG...THIS> CAR> IS> ON> FIRE!!!!! QUICKLY SHUT the ignition off. ran around and yanked the battery cable off. Grabbed one of the 3 extinguishers and got as far underneath the driver side of the car as possible and let-her RIP! Soon white foam covered the garage floor, the underside chassis, the gorgeous paint... and my feet.... yes, my shoes were on fire as well! When I was certain the fire was out, I sat down on the garage floor, out of breath. Out of my mind and not even the slightest resemblance of intelligent thinking whatsoever...... I found myseff very close to tears. Here I am staring at this ALMOST completely restored Classic 72 BUICK GRAN SPORT 455 sitting half in half out of my garage, with black soot all up the door and chassis, the tops of my tennys were melted to my sox that were melted to my feets... and white extinguisher gunky all over the place... I must've sat there for a good 45 minutes to an hour. Heart POUNDING... Sweating like I've never sweat before... horror all over on my face. Total Disbelief. I wanted to know. and then again, I didnt want to know. I stood up. Once again made ABSATIVELY POSILUTELY certain there were no signs of possible flareup or hot areas under the car, battery still disconnected, . .I slowly closed my garage door, entered my house and peeeeled melted shoes with burnt pieces of cotton sox off my feets.. I strugged for the next coupla days, over the fact that I HAD ALMOST MELTED this mans PRIDE and investment that HE entrusted me with. . . , couldda BURNT MY GARAGE TO THE GROUND and definitely ruined a pair of good tennis shoes,. . . and yet, found myself reluctant to go back out to that PLACE I call my garage, . . . floor covered in white goop and smelling of burnt paint and rubber. WHAT THE HECK DID I DO WRONG to cause this? I was a mess for almost a week.
Good guesses guys.. close. As the days slipped by and my curiousity finally got the best of me, I found courage and nerve ou:,. . to step back into that place now called 'PYRO-MANIAC-MAN CAVE'. I swept floor. washed and wiped the floors clean. . . and as I VERY RELUCTANTLY I may add, took a soft cloth and began wiping down the black sooty smoke damaged drivers door and rocker.... ALMOST expecting to see blistering, paint lifting and who-know-what else, under that blackened area. . .:ball: I was prepared for the worstest. As the black wiped clean with 'formula 88 cleaner" imagine my delight as I could NOT SEE any damage to the paint WHATSOEVER. :beer I wiped several times. And in fact, I grabbed my TRE Wax, (FOUR SEASONS product, pure carnauba Boat wax I have used for many years on my Donzi's) Anyway, I waxed-ON a few coats on the door, and along the rocker and did not find a single BLEMISH. :TU: I assume that as little as another 20 seconds from heat and flames would have done some real damage. :Smarty: Blessed. Yes, I admit, I've never been a totally righteuous person and certainly UNdeserving of any blessings, but I was definitely Blessed on this one. After rolling the car out to the driveway so I could jack up and slide under... I wiped down the chassis and floor pans of powdery substance and goop. I could see THOSE AREAS did not fair so well. Considerable blisters and burnt paint. However, it was obvious just WHAT caused the FIRE. WHOMever, did the chassis restoration, while they DID install NEW hoses, stainless brake & fuel lines etc... they simply FAILED TO REPLACE rubber fuel line hose connectors just under the driver side door. . . ugh. I mean, REALLY? they installed new lines but reinstalled the OLD ORIGINAL cracked hoses?? a $2.38 investment???, caused me to almost BURN DOWN my garage and destroy this mans CAR? really? Scenario ASSUMED: 110 Octane fuel spurted out the crack in the hose, and filled the chassis channel....and a slight, simple little exhaust spark ignited the explosive liquid. ya $2.38. TOTALLY ESCTATIC at this point to know, all this was NOT something I did... but still, something I blame myseff for not checking out... Lesson learned. Replacing this hose and completely checking out ALL OTHER RUBBER CONNECTION hoses on this chassis, I gathered my courage once again and fired the motor up... WITH fire extinguishers again close by.. :Brow: This time, I ran it long enuf to break in the motor with no real issues other than a few water leaks and timing adjustments etc. No fire. No fuel leaks. NO NEED for extinguishers this time. :TU: :bglasses:
WOW! I was recently 'gently reminded' and encouraged to continue with this story after a few months of forgetting to do so. Sorry. So,... engine running, leaks fixed, electrical completed, it was time to begin assembling the engine a/c brackets, a/c components, power steering, shifter cable adjusting & tweaking, etc... and at the same time, weather stripping, seals, rear bumper with guards & new trims etc... My wife is finally letting up a bit on WHEN she will get her screened in back porch ~ back... its been over-stuffed with 47 boxes of Georges BUICK Parts for over 13 months, 26 days, 2 weeks, 15 hours and 34 minutes. Dontcha know I was reminded of it by the minute... ..gosh I love that lady! :Brow: Yes, it was finally coming together and beginning to look like a Buick GS! ..more to come...SOON.
NEXT came the front end... core support, headlite harness, headlite buckets, adjusters, standoffs, ground wire connections, hood latch brackets & latch, testing electrical components, lights etc...
...meanwhile, I began cleaning the ORIGINAL INTERIOR, which was in pretty nice shape considering... so I cleaned and washed and scrubbed, and degreased and dried for several days, then coated the entire interior with SEM white... Piece by piece, the installation of the interior... came to life.
