Buick Grand Nationals

Hey, welcome to Horsepower. Where today we gotta hold Melange of American Muscle for you. Later in the show, we're gonna take you to an event that features one of the most underrated factory hot rods ever made.

Yeah, it's the 25th annual bash for diehard Buick boys who are out to prove their grand nationals and Grand sports can rule the quarter mile strip as well as the concourse. Meanwhile, it's payoff time for our latest horsepower project car. Now we call it project stink rate. But after today,

that name may no longer apply. It all started when we rolled our director Don Ketter,

sorry, 76 Corvette into the shop and started turning this piece of junk

into a jewel. We first filled up a 383 Stroker short block with new cylinder heads,

valve train

and intake before dropping it between the fender wells.

Then we bolted up a turbo 350 transmission.

We made sure it'll breathe better with a set of headers and the high flow exhaust.

We even replaced the stocking mission with a new street race piece

and we swapped out the worn out brakes and suspension with more high tech set up. Of course, none of that improved the look. So our next mission was a trip to a place where even the stink ray could get a fantastic facelift

before hauling it away though, some important prep work like removing emblems

mirrors

the nose that's getting replaced and that stuck rear panel or should I say, what's left of

the new nose piece is a direct replacement from year one.

The new rear panel came from Eckler.

Then after testing the new Harwood hood that's also getting painted

time for a trip to Chattanooga.

Now to find David Turner's paint shop, you've got to look way behind this house and back to this garage with almost no signage.

Yeah, it's a low profile place that doesn't need to advertise to attract high end paint and body projects from around the region.

What state today?

David Turner doesn't get in a hurry like he did when he was a firefighter in his past career.

He and his staff take their time to do the job right to the point of being well, persnickety.

It's no magic. This, it's all labor intensive.

The more you put into it, the more you're gonna get out. No preparation, shoddy repairs and everything is all gonna show in the end and it's gonna give an unsatisfactory job, especially to the customer.

Of course, if you're just trying to please yourself, you,

you'll let little things slide

after sanding down all the plastic and fiberglass filler.

It should be ready for paint but not here.

David wants more filler, more prepping before he's ready to wipe the vet down and lay down that first coat of primer.

Obviously, he's instilled the same pride of painstaking workmanship in his employees. I love it.

It's in my

blood.

After primer, there's guide co to lay down to find the slightest imperfections in the finish.

Well, next, David can mix the paint in the stink race case. A PG, light gray base coat.

Then David gets ready to apply the PPG darker gray that Don had his heart set on.

Not all shop

on food, good, you know, doing good quality paint work and body work. So they're getting few and far between.

Of course, there's alternatives to everything and, uh,

but here I try to use the best products that, uh,

that I can buy and afford,

uh, customers can afford.

Finally, it's about ready for clear coach

and the stamp of approval from this master of body and paint work.

Well, satisfied, well, satisfied.

Here's what we wound up with and I know what you might be thinking, not a typical color for a Corvette. Right. Well, hang with us. We got a theme working here and we're far from finished.

Yeah. And in keeping with that stealthy look, we're after we decided to change directions with our wheels and go with these classic Krager Sss. Now, of course, they do look good right out of the box, but check out what we did with the little black paint, a

two tone treatment that's sure to make a mean statement out on the street.

Well, those things are gonna make a big difference. And so will the goodies we got from year one,

they've got this new catalog for 53 to 82 vets and we ordered up everything from replacement door panels to weather stripping

all kinds of trim pieces for the exterior and interior. And of course, carpeting our first order of business today. Not so fast. We still have a little bit of work to do when I took out the old carpet and sound dender. I found that the floor pan had a hole in it big enough to put your foot through.

That might work for Fred Flintstone, but not for Don.

We gotta put a patch on this problem.

First, I'm using the cut off wheel to remove the nasty paper, thin, rotted out portion of the pan,

then grind the edges down until they're clean and smooth.

When you order a replacement floor pan, this is what you get. Now, since the seat area in the Corvette was still in pretty good shape. I'm just gonna use the front half.

Once the replacement piece is cut to the shape we want it,

I can start tacking it in a wide spaced out pattern to prevent warping

and fill it until it's fully welded.

Well, now we can start installing carpet beginning with the sound deader that also acts as a heat shield.

Of course, it goes in pads side down.

Here's a tip for you. If you leave your carpet out in the warm sun, a while it will soften up and be a lot easier to install.

This replacement carpet uses the same nylon rayon material mix the factory used.

It even has the original vinyl heel pad here

and since it's cut to fit, it should go in with little or no trimming

carpet is always a good way to start dressing up your interior. And we've got a few more tricks to show you right after the break.

Hey, welcome back to the grand finale of Project Stink Ray.

We're gonna have to come up with a new name for this thing.

Yeah, we're wrapping up our build up on the 76 vet with a beauty treatment. Thanks to some reproduction parts we got from year one. Now we got the carpet laid, got the door seals down. What do you say? We move on to the console

now with all the pieces of the console in place, check out the difference in our new shift plate in this piece of crap. We just took out

before we install the door panels, we have to outfit them with all the trim. Now, the cool thing about this stuff is you can order them in a bunch of different finishes.

One of the smartest purchases we made for the interior was this kit that includes all the correct installation screws and washers for every reproduction piece from the kick panels to the A pillar.

Now, there is one replacement part we didn't get from year one. After 30 years of wear and tear, the stock steering column is well, really loose and sloppy and the ignition switch here is totally shot.

So with that in mind, we're gonna replace it with this much better looking brush steel piece from I did it.

Of course, it's got the built in ignition switch too.

There are 12 wires to deal with and they're all color coded for an easy installation.

We just slide the shaft into the coupler spine,

then bolt up the bracket under the dash,

tighten down the bolt on the coupler

and finally, we can wire it up

next, using a grant installation kit. We slide a spacer over the supply and shaft, followed by this custom hub.

Then the post cover goes over the hub,

followed by the steering wheel adapter.

Then after securing it with a nut, we're ready for the wheel

and we're going with this grant 14 inch collectors edition wheel that's wrapped in black leather with polished aluminum spokes.

Here's about the only thing we don't have to replace on project stink Ray's interior, the seats. Now they're still in pretty good shape and you know how the old saying goes, if they ain't broke, don't fix them

Well, here's why we had to fix that rusty floor pan, rotted out weather stripping. Now, this replacement stuff is also gonna keep out wind noise and definitely pump up the appearance. Now, they make replacement pieces for everything, including the tet top here that has these little plastic pins that pop right into place.

Ok. The vet formats are in place and that's it for the inside job. Now, the fun part, the exterior,

this generation Corvette is notorious for hood latch problems. So we're adding a pair of Barroso hood pins to make sure this one stays in place. Besides, we kind of like that racy look.

We're reusing our old headlight bezels, you know how every vet you see on the street, they all have black ones. We thought it'd be pretty cool to paint ours the same color as the car.

Ok. Time for the icing on the cake. Now, if you think the badges and trim pieces improve the looks, wait till you see this.

That is totally wicked.

Now, be honest, when you first saw this color scheme today, did you think it was gonna work? Well, I had my doubts too, but now all I can say is what an amazing difference.

It's got new, power, new performance and now a new attitude. So how about a new name? Project Stealth, right.

It was pretty nice on the straight away.

I tell you so far this thing runs and handles like a new one.

But before I turn the keys over to Don,

I gotta let my partner wail on this thing a while,

man. This thing feels awesome. The suspension is working great.

The motor's got tons of power. This 76 bed is bad.

Ok. Ok. I think we found the limits of the corvette and uh maybe the driver too

will finally see time for the owner, our crotchety cranky hard to please director

Di,

How does he feel about his car now?

Translation mission of

C

we'll be right back.

Hey, welcome back. You know, you gotta love these weekend events where hot ridders come out to show and race their favorite muscle cars.

And for the ones here in Bowling Green, Kentucky this weekend,

hey, the only way to go is in a beautiful bad ass beauty.

Mhm.

They're sleepers. And that's, I guess one thing in common that all of us enjoy here with the Buicks is the fact they are sleepers and there's not something that everyone else has.

Not. Every car has a 25 year tradition like the Gs Grand Nationals where Buick lovers reunite to share their passion for the unsung heroes of muscle car culture,

not your dad's boring buick. He drove on his way up to a Cadillac. These were built for speed as well as luxury.

We'll just ask the owner of this rare 1970 Gsx stage one. These cars were uh considered the fastest four seat production car ever made uh through the documentation of the different magazines over the years. And to me, it's just a thrill to have one. If I had a checkbook here, what would it take to get this thing? You know, you'd have to put it back in your pocket.

In addition to the Grand Sports and Gsxs, a few Wildcats made the show

along with some outrageous Rivieras.

Hey, how about the headlight design in this 65 model? Remember this?

Of course, Buicks enjoyed a second muscle car era when the Grand Nationals hit the scene in the late seventies

of them, only 547 gnxs were built in any color as long as it was black, it was the look. And then when I got my chance to drive one, I was hooked,

you know, it was just like, like

it was like taking off in a plane, it's slow and then it puts you back in your seat.

Those that didn't bring the cars had dropped the turbocharged V Sixes into other cars from Rx sevens to believe it or not Cobras.

Now, here's the coolest Buick GM never made

a 2000 black Hawk.

It starts with a 1939 grill and features vendor and such from road masters of the forties.

The GSN

is also about tire smoke

at these muscle machines on the quarter mile strip. These cars respond so well. So that's what gets people addicted to racing. These cars you know, they get the car and

they put an air filter on it and it drops in 4/10 of a second or whatever. And man, you're hooked right away. We all work together and

share our secrets. You keep one or two in reserve. But uh for the most part,

we lay it all out there on the table and just go have fun,

more tire twisting, fun with the buick boys when we come back.

Hey, welcome back to horsepower right now. We're gonna get a little sample of what the buick boys all call going fast with class

back in 1970. The third quickest American production car was not the Camaro, not the GTO. It was the buick Gs

today. The need for buick speed is as insatiable as ever.

Even with younger hot rodders like John Soda,

whose race ride of choice is an old Skyhawk with a 494 Stroker makes about 740 horse and 680 torque. So it goes pretty good. And your quickest time. Uh 8 58

100 and 63. What's this thing feel like on the draft? It's a blast.

Nobody's ever been faster than this car. The

one

Billy Anderson gets no argument from me. His highly modified brand national spins up 26 pounds of boost to consistently run in the mid seven S. It's a 274 inch

PO V6 with

a Liberty clutches 5 ft.

The car is 2600 pounds

and it's about 1300 horsepower and we've been taking a clutch out and power out of it all weekend just to try to make it that attractive.

I think we got it in the window, no doubt.

And how sweet it is to see these muscle machines battle it out for bragging rights in several classics.

Now, while fun and camaraderie are the main motives. these buick diehards are also out to make a statement

and that is when it comes to classic looks and awesome power and performance.

It doesn't get any better than a buick.

In fact, like they used to say in the old TV commercial, all of us really would rather have a buick.

Everybody wants performance at a good price. And if you're looking for a way to feed your high output street or race motor, this could be your best value.

It's Barry Grant's mighty demon car with bullet metering blocks and base plate. Plus it has high capacity fuel bows with side glasses and streamlined air entries. Now you can get them in different sizes and each one comes out of the box with a competition tune up.

If you're up for buying one of these prices start at about 500 bucks,

you don't have to be a racer to know where this goes on your head when you're going down the track. But where does it go in between rounds? The Wrench works has a simple solution.

This aluminum helmet tray that mounts conveniently inside your trailer.

Now, it's available in white or black powder coat like this one and it's the easiest way to keep your helmet out of the way when you're at the track. Now, by the way, this is one of many Wrench works gear head accessories available on their website. Well, a helmet will protect your head, but this stuff will protect your radiator. It's royal purple purple ice formulated to reduce radiator temperatures help your antifreeze, prevent erosion.

That it also promotes heat transfer and even lubricates the seals in your water pump to seal the deal on some of this stuff. Just go to your local parts store, man. We had a lot of fun with Project Stink Ray, I mean Stealth Ray this weekend and you know, this is one corvette that GM should have made but didn't.

Yeah, but we did and we'll have some more fun stuff for you next week. Why don't you join us?