24 West Street, Building # 4 - Middlefield, Connecticut 06455  Ph. 860-349-4570

1987 Buick Grand National Collision Repair

 Here was yet another opportunity and... ahem, challenge; that I just couldn’t pass up when I was on the road as a paint rep selling to body shops.  Glancing around one of the shop yard, as I often did (and what car buff hasn’t), always looking for that diamond in the rough, I stumbled across this 1987 Buick Grand National.

The car from the front looked like a black diamond with low mileage but the rear had been accordioned by a tractor trailer right up to the rear window.  OUCH! After a heartfelt discussion with the body shop manager, I found out that the owner of this vehicle would never drive her again.  Once he had his insurance check and a repair he would surely put her out to pasture. Imagine that, tossing out one of GM’s premier Turbo charged 6 cylinder go fast cars for a mere fender bender! I couldn’t allow this to happen. I was quickly on the ground under the car like one of my relatives doing the shout at my Aunt Flo’s wedding doing my version of damage reconnaissance.

Realizing that the hit had completely missed the rear frame rails I knew the Grand Nash and me were soon to become garage goombodies! I contacted the customer and put together a deal that worked for him and me and still left me enough money to call the local bone yard and purchase the entire back half of a Buick Regal.

After a quick trip to the frame shop to make sure she was straight she was off to my house for some extensive surgery. Cutting up two cars and making one is more fun than you can imagine when it all comes together, especially if you do it so no one can tell how or where you did it. The end result after a month of careful body work and much block sanding, several coats of PPG High build primer for perfect straight blackness, was the best gift anyone could ever give to their wife for Christmas. The only problem now is having to constantly remind her that the Chevelles in the family are still the boss when it comes to cruising to the car shows, but at least now she keeps up!