Your Gbody"s history....

[85GPLef41]

So lately I've been trying to get my 87 Cutlass Supreme Brougham ready for next year's cruise season and have been reading about the wheel lock BS I've been going through... :| Here is a pic of the Cutty as she sits!

so in looking for the wheel lock I ran across the vehicle's literature manual thingy.. I looked through it and it contained some pretty cool maintenance info dating back to when it was delivered to the original owner with 50 miles! The odometer reads 199*% now and the service history reads to the last time it was" religiously" maintained at 73,286 miles! the owner before the kid I bought it from redid the brakes front and rear prior to installing the "problem" child wheels... :lol: so 30k miles or so of maintenance are missing but nonetheless its cool to know your G body's history.. I Know i'm a dork.... SO it has over 119K miles and still looking good!!

Olds 30 YR anniversary note pad?

pics of a the carb by a mechanic...

meticulous IMO service history

 

[85GPLef41]

Purpose of this thread who else has the History of their G Body? When rebuilt my GP I found 2 birth sheets from the factory and thought that's cool!! BUT one from when it was new to now pretty awesome! So If you bought yours new then I will give you that but the mystery is when you buy them used!! :wink:

 

[pencero]

You are not a dork. Researching the history of my cars lead me to uncover fascinating stories I would rather not tie to past cars online but lets just say they motivated me to keep wearing my seatbelt and drive sober, and sometimes a re-carpeted trunk and a bullet hole in a ceiling covered up with a brand new vinyl top is exactly what it looks like it might be implying that it is, but I don't let the bad vibe bother me. It's my reminder not to make the same mistakes in life. Two previous owners indicted feds for narcotics on 1 of my cars; Who would have thought? It explained the two new bolts to the panel under the steering wheel and the taped ignition wire under the dash easily (powering a wiretap before) lol

 

[85GPLef41]

You are not a dork. Researching the history of my cars lead me to uncover fascinating stories I would rather not tie to past cars online but lets just say they motivated me to keep wearing my seatbelt and drive sober, and sometimes a re-carpeted trunk and a bullet hole in a ceiling covered up with a brand new vinyl top is exactly what it looks like it might be implying that it is, but I don't let the bad vibe bother me. It's my reminder not to make the same mistakes in life. Two previous owners indicted feds for narcotics on 1 of my cars; Who would have thought? It explained the two new bolts to the panel under the steering wheel and the taped ignition wire under the dash easily (powering a wiretap before) lol

When I sold my 79 GP I got a call about a yr later from some impound yard in OK to see id I wanted to reclaim it... Guy I sold it decided to drive it down to Texas and pick a few Kilos.... never put it it under his name!!! got caught and was serving time... **** that I deciced to let it go... :?

 

[pencero]

Yes a Cadillac I traded in to a dealer was diverted to a service lot across the street and the dealership salesman who took the trade-in actually came back later and stole that Cadillac. The guy drove drunk and crashed into a garage because he took a turn too fast and a rim caved in so he smashed into two collector's cars destroying them. A year later I got a call to come get the car and I was like 'what are you talking about I traded it in. It belongs to the dealership' and the office was basically begging me to come down and get it like 'they never transferred the car into the dealership's name because those two guys came back and stole the car later. The dealership doesn't want the car can you come down and get it?' I was laughing like why would I want the car either lol. durrrr. So I asked if I could have the rims back and they said only if I come get the whole car. What a joke. They sent a pic to my phone at the time, the car looked like a pretzel... The law is so silly sometimes lol

 

[ssn696]

The baggie of paperwork that was in the glove box of my new (to me) 1980 Malibu saved the day. The previous owner left some maintenance and registration papers in the envelope containing the owner's manual. I looked up the name and address and found a phone number on the Internet. Still lives at the listed address. His wife answered, sounding a little concerned why someone wanted to talk to her husband. I explained that I bought his old wagon, and would he be willing to answer some questions about it. "Give it here!" came from the background, and he proceeded to tell me the car's whole story. He bought it new in Nebraska and drove it all over the country while in the Air Force in his career as an electronics specialist. About 14 years ago, he had someone do a very clean swap, putting a crate 350 in place of the 229 V6. Then he had the car repainted. It had been treated by a 'Ziebart' equivalent, so it's underside and door bottoms are about as immaculate as you can get for a GM product from 1980. We traded tales of our military services; he was gratified someone who appreciates it ended up with it. He had traded it in on a new Buick, and the car changed hands twice before the dealer in Colorado Springs advertised it on EBay. I bought it with some help from my wife, while I sat in Dallas Love airport awaiting my connecting flight. On my way home from this business trip, I rerouted to Denver, took a bus to CS, and picked it up in the morning. There were some adjustments needed, but I drove it the 350 miles home (and took it apart - my wife is still razzing me...) Now the best part of the story:

Tucked into the owner's manual was the original dealer's copy of the window sticker. While it would have been cool to find that window sticker, this one piece of paper was critical. New Mexico insists on a two-VIN confirmation when bringing in a car from out-of-state. The door sticker had been peeled off when the car was repainted, so all that was left was the cowl tag on the firewall to back up the VIN tag on the dash. You may have noticed on your G that these two numbers do not match. The cowl tag is a body number, and the VIN is the chassis number. The dealer receipt showed both numbers - and the Motor Vehicle inspector accepted this paper as validation of the vehicle identification. Wheeeew!

If I ever part with this car, this packet plus all the build receipts will stay with the car, like a champion's pedigree.

 

[rustyroger]

Great stories you guys.
There was a link on some car forum to a guy being reunited with his first car after something like a 50 year gap. If I find it I'll try to post it up.
Nothing Dorky about authenticating your cars history, it will probably help if you ever want to sell it. Anymore than restoring an old car is for Dorks.
Demolition derbies, dissing other peoples rides, anything that is talking the talk but not walking the walk, now that's for Dorks!.

Roger.

 

[johnson350]

Wow, some really interesting stories.

Now when my dad gave me the car a few years back, I had no idea that there was a full manila envelope full of service information that went with the car until my mother was looking for a certain file and happened to run into that folder with the name "BUICK" written on the front.

My Buick has the most average life story. Bought brand new from Adcock Buick in St. Petersburg, FL by an old lady (really old, I think in her 70's), who only drove it to church and the grocery store once a week. This lady lived at the other end of the street where my parents used to live in St. Petersburg. When my dad bought the car, I believe it was 1997 and the car had a little under 50k on it. He bought it for 1200 cash, a bargain considering the car was fairly young with low miles, and that the car had been bought new for about 10k. I do remember my parents had told me that the old lady loved that car and was upset that she had to sell it, but was too old to drive anymore.

The old lady said it had once had a minor parking lot accident back in the 80's, but there is no paperwork on any body work done. From mile 0 to about 50k there is almost full documentation (lots of pointless work done, probably why the car is still around) up until my dad bought it. Although he did rebuild when it blew up around 80k in the early 2000's (like 02 I think), and modify the original v6, he didn't keep any receipts of anything. So since about last year, I started keeping all the receipts for the parts that I've put in it.

When I got the information, it had the old ladies name on the original paperwork. I looked her up and found out she had passed 2 years ago. It would have been nice to call her up and talk about it, and let her know that her car was in good hands.

So its now 2014, here it is 30 years later at 135k, needs a paint job pretty bad. In the past 2 years I've done so much work to it (can't even name it all). But just about everything except the rear axle has been gone through/touched on the car. The drivetrain is still matching numbers (slightly modified, just so its not so "grannyish").

 

[RustRocket]

My car has a questionable history. I say questionable because every time I dig into the car I seem to find another thing that I don't understand why it was done.
For example, why was the the engine rebuilt with the entire rotating assembly and valvetrain replaced, at only 55k miles? Why does it have a limited slip rear?
The computer was removed at some point, due to "locking up the torque converter" and now without the computer it runs like total crap. The carburetor has obviously been messed with, all emmissions equipment is gone, a/c is gone.
The car seemingly doesn't exist between 1986-1995, then disappears again in '02, then surfaces for new tires in '06, and a new driveline and u-joints in 2013 which is, to my knowledge after the car had already been parked.
I bought a basket case project car with more questions than family stories or paperwork could ever answer

 

[jacobdavis1979]

Well my Malibu was actually bought brand new by my uncle Richard in 1980 with like not even 100 miles on it. I wont get into to much detail as im writing this from my phone. Stock 267 it had the oil changed every 2,000 miles he kept a service record. Hand washed it at least once a week even in the winter guess he is less of a wuss than i am lol and paste waxed it once a year and never pulled it out of the yard if there was salt on the road. He died in 2001 then my dad got it and kept the same routine he did until parking it in the garage in 2006 then i got it in 2008 and this car was mint still looked brand spanking new from the factory i was in love with it!! Then i blew it up. Yea leave it to me a car taken care of that spot on. Then i put a 350 in it. Drove it until 2010 where i wrecked it and blew a headgasket on my new crate motor in the same year lol LUCKY ME RIGHT!!! Then thats when the hot rodding started. So a car taken care of so spot on for 30 years i ruined lol i felt so god awful about it

But i guess i should be grateful because no one would wanna take a car as mint as that one and make it a hot rod. So i had to improvise lol