This thread is awesome, it's like a novel that you can't put down at 3am and you work at 6am. Keep pouring out the info, pics, docs and stories fellas. Don't go to the grave with it (no insult intended) and leave the next generation buick guys clueless.
i think John Chamberlin about a gsx wth a vynle top he prolly enrdrd up with moat of Bruse Amrstong cars,i 2 gsx and 2 converts,Bruce went to Fla and bought Bo,s red convert and drove it back to minnsota,he had a 4 speed x with a vynl top on it that was on or when he got it,the only thing is it had triangle shaped emnlems on the rear sail panels,could have been added we nerver fidured it out,but ithad been on ot longbr4 he got it,this was in the 80,s so back then thinkgs werent picked apart like the cars are 2day,ke had a gsx ogs,Bos red covert,a statomist blue restoed convert,with a ton of 70 nos parts,he was in with a local bog dealership that would seatch for parts for hom and when ever thry got the dicontinurd patr sheets he bought them all
i have never spoken with nim,my btother has so ill ask nom what his name is,he was a shop teacher in st paul,a guy trsded a 70 gsx into Burkle buick in 71 as he didnt likr it,this shop traecher bought it in 1971 still has it,not ener mogified,i thonk its a sg ,4spttd but he told my btother ot has 342 gears,oll ask my bro more whrn i talk to him,of any of u giys lnow Loern Alexamder hr aso knows him,i gurss he runs a 65 site
Wan't to ask about Brads car. Did your car still have the modded air cleaner and to what looks like screen in the scoops were they in good shape when you purchased it?
Yes, all still there and just needed refinishing. The foams were worn and were replaced with some "custom" foams supplied by Duane.
Yes, Kleiner sent me one of the metal bases the Design Studio made for the base of the air cleaner foams. I used that to make a pattern, and Brad sent me 4 center pieces from a GTO ram air foam set. (The pieces you throw away after you install the Ram Air foams.) Brad wanted 2 sets back and I only had 4 pieces, so I practiced on some other foam that was laying around before I cut his pieces. You could only get 1 air cleaner foam out of each piece. I had a cutting machine that could cut vinyl up to an inch thick or so. or foam up to 4+inches. I would draw the patterns on the top sheet of vinyl, for whatever seat covers we were going to make, then put up to 20 or so sheets under that, and cut them all out at one time. This was the only way to make interiors economically. For the most part the side skirts of the 68-72 GM Strato Bucket Seats were all the same, the only thing that is different is the faces of the seats, so we would cut just those pieces out in volume, and often sewed them up, so we had a head start. Then once we got the orders, we would make up the various faces of the seats needed, and turn those skirt pieces into Chevelle, 442, GS, GTO, Lemans, and other seats. Anyway, to cut the centers out for his foams, I had to take the machine apart, remove the base, then pass the machine through a small hole I cut into the foam, put it back together, and cut out the centers. Once that was done I pulled the machine out, put the piece I cut out back in, so it stayed somewhat rigid, and cut the outside to the correct shape. My practice piece worked great, so I cut out the 4 pieces he wanted, boxed them up, and shipped them, the original steel base plate, plus the pattern I made, to Kleiner. They were completed only a week or so before the car was scheduled to go to the GS Nationals for it's first showing after being restored. If you look at the video of Brads car, that was posted earlier in this thread (post #69), there are some good shots of the foams. I thought they turned out great. Duane
I'm a bit confused, is Kleiner a man or company that worked on this prototype back in the day and still had a extra metal plate from that day and you reproduced it? Also wondering how todays laser cutting machines would work on cutting foam that thick? You have to have a laser cutter by now?
The Buick Design Studio created the metal base plates for Brad’s car when they designed the special air cleaner and hood for the car. Dave Kleiner was the guy that restored Brad’s car to the condition it is today. I just helped with the interior and a bunch of parts. The name of his company was GS Enterprises. As far as my upholstery shop, I had a small shop of just 5 employees plus myself, and we cranked out a bunch of different interiors. We made seat covers and sometimes door panels for 64-73 Mustangs, including the front bench seats, 65-69 Shelby seats, including the 68 center console covers with the “Shelby Cobra” embossed on it, Fairlanes, 64-66 Galaxie XL’s, Talladega’s, Falcons, 64 Ford T-bolts, Thunderbirds from 58-70, Mercury Cyclones, 67-73 Cougars, including the Cougar XR7’s and Eliminators, 65-72 Buick GS, one or two years of Wildcats, certain year Chevelle’s, Camaro’s, some Corvette’s, 69-72 GTO/Lemans, and some Mopar interiors. At one time I was making the Buick seat covers, plus making the 70-72 door panels for myself and Legendary. Marty and I were both making our own seat covers, but I was making the door panels for both our companies. Alan and I both worked at another company with Marty, before we split up and created the 2 other companies. Marty built Legendary and I made Classic Car Interiors. Originally Alan went with Marty, but once I opened up my shop he came down to work with me and stayed there until I sold the business. By the time I sold the business I was making over 9800 exclusive items, when you figured out all the colors and designs, front bench, buckets, coupe and convertible patterns. We were too small of a shop to have anything like a laser cutter. The reason I sold the business was it started turning into big business and I didn’t want a partner. I had developed, or should I say “re-discovered” a method to re-grain vinyl electrically. This allowed me to use the side skirt vinyls, in the correct colors, and change it into the different grained insert materials. That allowed me to create all kinds of interiors that no one else could make, plus all the vinyl matched in color perfectly and my interiors looked good. This eventually caught the attention of some of the big interior reproduction companies. They could not stand having a small company of only 6 people do things they couldn’t, so eventually one of them stepped up to the plate and bought me out. So now you have another piece of the puzzle. Duane
There are people here that are new to Buicks or are into the big cars or newer cars, and never interacted with him. Duane
Not really. I have installed some covers on seats and assembled door panels for friends, and for my own cars, but that’s it. Duane
Wow. I never knew the story behind your old business although somehow I thought there was a connection with Legendary.
The original idea behind Legendary was all three of us, Alan, Marty and myself were all going to be partners in forming Legendary. Marty wanted to build it in NY, and I did not want to go there, as I was tired of all the snow in central PA and didn’t want to add to that with the lake effect. So I dropped out and Marty & Alan became partners. Eventually Alan became just an employee, and Marty was the sole owner. I even thought up the slogan for Legendary, “Making cars legends in their own time.” Marty wanted to use that, so I told him to go for it. He was not good with that and had a lawyer draw something up, so I signed it, and sent it back. While this was going on, I was working at the interior company that Alan & Marty left. I knew I wanted to leave that area, so I started collecting patterns, seats, etc, to start my business. By the time I left the company I had a spare bedroom that was completely packed with stuff to make patterns. Later I left the company, went back home, and started Classic Car Interiors. Soon after that Alan gave me a call and wanted to leave Legendary, so he came down to the Philadelphia area to work with me. Duane
I also did not want to go into direct competition with my old company, so I started specializing in a bunch of Ford interiors, and only added the Camaro & Chevelle interiors as customers wanted them. Back then everyone was making Mustang interiors, so they were fair game. Later I will tell you about when I sold my business. That is a good story. Duane
I owned specialty manufacturing business as well so I'm definitely interested in that part! You can tell me when we talk next if you don't want to post it publicly.
I had no clue either but in honesty I just got back into tracking Buicks a a couple years or so before I joined this V8 forum in 2016 after life brought me in a different direction. Have to say I learned more in my first 6 months here that I ever knew from age 15.
Here is some more about my business, although this might be Buick GS history, it is a bit off topic for this thread. I was digging seats out of a junk yard for patterns and I came across a door panel off some old Datsun pickup truck. The thing that intrigued me was it had a section of rough grained material in the middle of the smooth grained door panel vinyl, and there was no seam where the two different grains met. It had been made that way out of a single piece of vinyl. So I bought the door panel and took it home. I just kept thinking about it and kept wondering how they made it. The door panel had a company logo stamped on the back so I started looking for the company that made it. Now this was years before anyone ever thought of the internet, so I went to local libraries and started the search. Finally we found the company. They were a small firm that was in Northern NJ, just outside of NYC. I called and asked about the door panel. They still had the machine that made it but it had not been run for over a decade and was going to need a total revamp. I got with them, they made some die’s for me, and I was able to completely change the graining on a piece of vinyl that was large enough to make any insert or door panel. This is what allowed me to make the 70 and 71-72 GS seats and door panels, and the sweet part was for the added cost of less then $10.00 per interior, I could sell these for three times the price I was getting for the Mustang interiors. The other great thing about this was it made making a small amount of interiors affordable. If I made a mold up for a different grain, I could make just a few interiors and the mold was paid off. Otherwise you had to buy 1500 yards of material per grain and per each color. That meant only the Large companies could afford to do certain interiors. That is they were all big companies except me, and I could do interiors that no one else could make, including them. Everyone was getting what they needed, I was selling them for a fair price, I could afford to expand my business, and everyone was happy. More to come. Duane
