My friend in NC called about an 87 gn he saw for sale with a red interior. The guy was telling my friend he saw online that the last 200 GN's got other interior colors as they ran out of grey??? This GN has red interior. My friend thinks it could be a T-type that someone made into GN. How would you tell for sure? 75k miles, no t-tops, the guy wants $10,500 said he traded a camaro drag car for it ....blah blah... Any help is appreciated. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Hi Ken - You might get more info at a GN site like: http://turbobuick.com/forums/content/ or http://www.turbobuicks.com/forums/ - Bill
ALL 86 & 87 Grand Nationals had the GREY and BLACK BUCKET seat interior. T-types and Turbo-T's had color and seat options. EASIEST way to verify TRUE GN is the trunk label codes and cowl tag. All GN's have several UNIQUE to GN codes on them. Trunk tag MUST have WE2 is GN unique and VIN must match on cowl and trunk labels, and certain other locations and papers from factory; WE4 is the code for the black 87 Turbo T with Grey buckets PACKAGE; WO2 is the code for the blackout trim package on NON Grand Nationals.
Rich is correct. The sticker in the trunk will tell all. The RPO for a Grand National is WE2. Doesnt say WE2. its not a GN
Also, the later 1987 GN's were a "carryover"; they were built at same time as 1988 Monte Carlo's and other G body cars; Buick was making the 88 Regal Front Wheel Drive, and didn't want the confusion of earler years when they made the Regal Somerset (rear wheel drive) and the Somerset Regal (front wheel drive). TOTALLY different cars.
Thanks guys. Is the trunk tag in an obvious place? Are they easily removed? Just wondering if I can tell my friend where to look for the tag if it's not in an obvious location.
Yeah I've had an account over at turbobuick.com for like 15 years but suddenly it no longer recognizes who the heck I am or any of my email addresses or passwords or any of the many user ID's I enter. I emailed the system admin and no response. Life's too short to give a crap about it, I'm not opening a new account over there because I know I already have one, because when I type my name in for the user ID (the same one I have here) it tells me that it already exists and I cannot use it again. Something's flaky over there. I knew I'd get the answers here anyway as I always do. I love this place. :beer
What's the code for a non WE4 Turbo T? In other words, if they kept the original red interior in the car and just painted the car black. What would the code read?
Trunk sticker (if still there) is in plain sight and is mostly a chart of all the option codes. These vary a little by year but the important ones have already been mentioned above. The vin will be printed there as well for verification. Theft recovery might explain the interior but NONE of the production GNs had red. I would look for signs of other changes also
I dont know if this is true or not ... but the following IS true I had a very late production '87 Turbo Limited I bought from the original owner - it was ordered with, and on the window sticker stated, that it was a leather bucket/Big Console car also with Twilight sentinal. Buick contacted the dealer/buyer with two different documents one stating the big consoles were no longer available so it was being built with the cloth/small console; and the second letter stated that no more twilight sensors were available so the car was being built without it. It was however built with the twilight switch in place ... ... not that this means anything about your car in question, just that it confirms wierd things were in fact being done at the end of the '87 run.
Yeah, there were shortages all the way back until February: My turbo Limited had to have the passenger visor mirror, and could NOT get blue factory mats with carpet inserts. But I was able to get them at the dealer AFTER delivery. But the GN became a "special option package" car during the later part of the model year, take it or leave it. Package 1SA, 1SB, or 1SC. Early 87's were "Regal Grand National" on sticker and could be ordered with options as desired, with certain "value option package" (groups of options that tended to go together); Late 87's were "Grand National" on sticker, these were the "package" cars.
Also, there was a restriction on the black paint with blackout trim in 1987 production after December of 1986 (1987 model production) when Buick created the WE4 Turbo T. In other words, you could NOT get a black paint (19L) car with the exterior sport package (WO2) with a build date in 1987 (from the drivers door jamb sticker). Any time from August of 1986 through December of 1986, yes, it was POSSIBLE to get one. A friend of mine has one of those cars, but because there is no "special" package recognition technically associated with it (like the WE4), and it MAY have all of the options that the WE4 has, it is just another 1987 Turbo Regal. That is like the designer series (WH1) T-Types in 1986; People think that it was rare, it actually accounts for 541 cars out of 2,384 total. (23% of T-Types) Considering there were 11 color choices available, having a 1986 T-Type that was NOT a designer series (WH1) would be the rare car.
Make sure the RPO code LC2 is present to at least verify it as a factory turbo car. The LC2 was available on just about any trim level Regal.
Seems the seller has a good imagination and made up a good story (unbelievable) to try and sell the car.
Which part? The GN info from Buick Grand National, T-type, and GNX, The Facts and Figures book, by Steven L. Dove; chapter 6, The Last Grand National, (Car was built on December 11, 1987; VIN 1G4GJ117HP465288). it was the FINAL car built at the plant. A WELL documented event. I Am not 100% certain as to origin of the Somerset Regal and Regal Somerset info, but the front wheel drive SOMERSET had the Regal trim option, and the rear wheel drive REGAL had the Somerset trim option. The RWD Regal early Somerset was a HIDEOUS (IMHO) color combo (TAN and BLUE Paint) available on the Limited back in 1980 or 1981. Later, GM came out with the 1984 REGAL Limited with the Somerset trim. It was specific to a very few color choices (two tone brown was one choice), and had bronze color plastic trim inserts on the interior panels, not the usual woodgrain or shale grey. Understandable as to why to limit the color choices with the bronze color inserts. I've only seen ONE Regal Somerset in my life. The Somerset was a sales failure, and the name was dropped to become just the Skylark. The Somerset Regal was just a high end trim package, similar to how the "Limited" trim was. Source for REGAL Somerset info was 1984 Buick Dealer sales book Somerset option was Y59; includes Special Designer's Accent paint in dark brown with light brown paint, Designer wheels with light brown accents, dark brown with beige accented seats, Brushed bronze instrument panel and doortrim plates, and cut pile carpeting
