"What-if" cars. Building a dream Gbody. Play along!

[billyjack]

Back in the 80's I had a Buick Century Sport Coupe. It had aluminum bumpers, buckets, power windows & locks and the best suspension available in that era with a 305 SBC. I swapped in a 400 SBC, which made it a nice driver, but never finished it. Due to acquiring a "needs TLC" house, it had to get traded for a pickup. I'd like to do it all over again in 80's IMSA style, with bumped-out fenders, "whale's tail" spoiler, lots of rubber and a monochrome paint scheme. Nobody would ever guess it was originally a Buick.

Bill

 

[DRIVEN]

^^That's cool.^^

I've kind of taken a liking to that body style. I know most would say it's an acquired taste, but I like what I like.

 

[Oldsmoletick]

Malibu wagon "Safari Edition":

This one takes some rule-bending:
-1984 Malibu wagon with roof rack
-6.2 diesel
-700-R4
-NP208 transfer case
-8.5" with limited slip with 4.10 gears
-S10/Blazer front suspension and differential (I know, I know. But they are close cousins and it has been done.)
-15x7 steel wheels with LT tires
-Heavy duty cooling system.
-High output charging system to support aux lighting
-Tow package
-Code 61 Doeskin Tan paint
-Vinyl interior and rubber floor mats. Did GM offer a rear facing 3rd seat for the Gbody like in the Bbody

I know if I were to just substitute the diesel for a 250-6 it's essentially a Jeep Cherokee :lol: . Who's next?

Correction, cherokee had a solid axle up front, vs the blazers ifs, what you describe would've have been gm's answer to the AMC Eagle , I like it.

Let's swing a 4wd 87 el camino (keep the ford f150 raptor in mind here).
1/2 ton independent front suspension, 8.5 diff, torsion bar set up (ok so it didn't surface til 88, but I bet the parts were there).
454:
rule bending:
non ccc quadrajet and HEI.
Turbo similar to that of the early regals.

SM465 transmission
NP241C tranfer case (basically a heavy duty 231).
B-Body 8.5 (for the wider stance, and 5 on 5 bolt pattern)
B-Body wagon springs for a little extra height, travel, and rate
15x8 truck rally wheels, wrapped in the latest (no idea) offroad tire of the time.

 

[bill]

A true dreamer would be any 2dr GBody w/a 5speed box from a T/A or Z28 and MPFI on a hi output v-8 .....those woulda been really fun cars.....

 

[Poncho61]

I made the mistake of starting to read this thread on the third page. I had all kinds of visions running through my head. Some were actually car related. LOL Anyway, then I made a bigger mistake and decided to read the first two pages. Man was I disappointed when I read the parts had to be same year as the car. With the third page read first, I was invisioning MY 80 GP dressed the way I wanted it. After seeing the rules on page one, I started realizing that my dream was never gonna fit the rules of the thread. I just can't bring myself to bolt anything other than a Pontiac under the hood. I have no problem with the thoughts of bolting a Pontiac under the hood of any other make either. I can't bring myself to crossbreeding my Pontiacs tho. I know, the factory did it, but...........not for me. 1980 was a pretty sad year for Pontiac power. Gone were those 400s, 455s, anything with real Pontiac performance in mind. No, I got that power house 265 with almost zero Pontiac interchangeability to work with. 301?? Better, but only marginally.

I guess to stay within the spirit of the rules most of the dream will involve cosmetics. A TA shaker, Some TA fender vents, and some bigger snowflake wheels with the widest rubber I could fit inside the wheel wells with a rolled fender lip and maybe just a bit of pulling on the quarters to make it a tad wider in there. I'm sorry I'm not up on suspension interchangeability, but I'd use the fattest sway bars and stiffest springs that would fit. A manual transmission backing up, sob sob, a turbo 301 motor. The high back buckets from a TA, cloth, and maybe even the TA rear seats in the back. Blacked out grill, Bumpers narrowed and tucked into the body a bit and painted body color. I guess paint is OK, so I'd probably go with a nice black interior, black exterior with 69 GTO side stripes painted on. Paint the centers of the snowflakes black and polish the offsets for just a little bit of flash. Scrap the sound deadener, remove the trunk lid inner structure and pin the lid on.

 

[Clutch_Grabwell]

This thread petered out over a year ago but the topic resurfaced yesterday on the Hemmings Blog. The author of my HMM article gave me a heads-up as the blogger clearly remembers my car. 8)

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...licing-the-best-that-the-factory-never-built/

 

[DRIVEN]

Cool article.

 

[ssn696]

I searched, but can't find a post from the past. The red El Camino with the 79 Monte doors and front clip. That's sehr kuhl!
Also, I had ideas for about 15 years to splice a coupe and a wagon together - forget welding the rear doors shut.