Thought I would share some pictures of the the paint and general cosmetic restoration of my '83 Grand Prix. I bought the car from the estate of the original owner via ebay in the spring of 2020 and put it into storage until this past spring, when we (my uncle and I) finally started on the repaint. I'll share some of the back story on the car as I add pictures.
GRAND PRIX 83 Grand Prix freshening
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So here is how it appeared in the ebay listing. The car was in Ft. Meyers Florida, and I'm in Michigan....and at the time we were locked down due to COVID so I couldn't inspect the car in person. But the guy managing the estate answered all my questions and took some extra pictures, so I was reasonably confident I knew what I was getting. The paint was completely shot, but it appeared to be straight and solid.
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Pics of the interior from the ebay auction. The seats had been covered in towels and looked perfect, and it had all the right options. The trunk looked like it had never been used. There was the typical fading on some of the interior plastics, and it had some junky clear plastic floor mats and a bunch of "old man" stuff in it....newspapers, cleaning supplies, remnants of a CB radio antenna.
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Getting the car shipped is a story unto itself, but after a bunch of issues I was finally able to get it shipped to my uncle's shop in Connecticut (which is where I'm originally from). That was April of 2020, and then it was 2 long months before I finally got out to see the car in person for the first time in June. I wasn't able to drive it at that time, but I was able to go through all the paperwork that had been included. Up until this point I really didn't know anything about the history of the car.
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I was hoping that the car might come with some documentation. When I had talked to the guy managing the estate, he said he thought there might be paperwork for the car somewhere and he would include anything he could find. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when the car arrived with everything you could hope for - all the sales records, letters from Pontiac, odometer statement, warranty booklets, service records, every registration slip since 1983, and even the original temporary license plate.
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Once I was back home in Michigan I started going through all the paperwork in more detail and organized it into a binder, and then I started doing some research on the original owner(s). It turned out that he was an Air Force veteran and as found out later, a mechanic at Al Gallman Pontiac where the car had been delivered brand new. Unfortunately, there was no extended family that I could find - Connie was an only child and never married. And Al Gallman Pontiac is long out of business.
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But I was determined to dig up more information, so on a whim I searched for the name of the salesman who sold the car, John Gallman. He had a Facebook account and it listed "former salesman at Al Gallman Pontiac" in his profile, so I reached out to him. I explained that I had bought this car off ebay and his name was on the sales sheet, and asked if he could help me fill in some of the story. He turned out to be the nephew of Al Gallman, and he was very gracious with his time. We chatted quite a bit, both about the car and previous owner, and about selling new Pontiacs in the early 80s.
John filled in the part about Connie being a mechanic at Al Gallman, and told me he had special ordered the car for his mother Imogene which explained the two names on the title and paperwork. Apparently Connie's daily driver was a black '65 Bonneville which John remembered having a really loud exhaust. John was also able to solve a mystery about the radio as well. The car was ordered with an AM radio, but it has the top of the line digital ETR Cassette deck in it. John explained that it was cheaper to buy the good stereo over the parts counter with his employee discount than it was to order it from the factory, and that lined up with the parts department receipts that had come with the car - one for the new radio, and one for the parts department buying back the old AM radio. I'm not sure what that stereo would have cost as a new car option in 1983, but even with the employee discount it was still almost $400 over the counter - more money than any other option on the car except for the t-tops.
John filled in the part about Connie being a mechanic at Al Gallman, and told me he had special ordered the car for his mother Imogene which explained the two names on the title and paperwork. Apparently Connie's daily driver was a black '65 Bonneville which John remembered having a really loud exhaust. John was also able to solve a mystery about the radio as well. The car was ordered with an AM radio, but it has the top of the line digital ETR Cassette deck in it. John explained that it was cheaper to buy the good stereo over the parts counter with his employee discount than it was to order it from the factory, and that lined up with the parts department receipts that had come with the car - one for the new radio, and one for the parts department buying back the old AM radio. I'm not sure what that stereo would have cost as a new car option in 1983, but even with the employee discount it was still almost $400 over the counter - more money than any other option on the car except for the t-tops.
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In August of 2021 I was back out in CT and had a chance to give the car a wash, install the replacement center caps, and I finally got to drive the car for the first time...14 months after I bought it! Just a quick 20 mile cruise, but you couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Then it went back into storage for another 6 months.
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By April of '22 my uncle and I had come up with a game plan and a schedule for my trips out to CT to work on the car. First step was to strip off the vinyl top and opera lights, which I knew from day 1 I wasn't going to keep. To do conversion correctly, we'd also be replacing the quarter glass and rear window. More on that later.
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