87 GN as a DAILY DRIVER

[Just One 87]

Hi guys I've been wanting to get an 87 grand national for a long time, and I think i might finally get one. What i wanted to know is what do you guys think of it as a daily driver. I drive about 1,000 miles a month, mostly city driving. I'm at the point where i only want one car as a good daily driver. I used to have a 64 impala, and a bike, but i recently sold both. The car im using as my daily is a 2 seater manual car, it's pretty small. But 30mpg and liability insurance you can't really beat it for the price. Anyway the grand national is pretty much the only car that i see out there that meets my criteria. 4 seater, automatic, rwd, that's not like everything else on the road, and 20mpg.

So anyway there's one down the street from me that I can get for 7,500. Here are the specs on the car.

1987 grand national hardtop. Clean title. Power everything. AC/Heater
Mileage: unknown, has 140mph speedo

Disc brakes all the way around with upg brake booster.
Original wheels.
Tinted.
Amp and sub.
Adjustable front and rear suspension don't know what brand.
Interior is clean, everything is there.
Headliner is good.
Bumper filler is good.
No leaks no smokes no weird noises.
It has hooker headers, bigger injectors i think. It has some kind of chip.
Also the previous previous owner was a kid and ran over a parking stop.
So the current owner took it to a frame aligning shop, forgot which one, i remember it was a reputable shop. Spent like 3grand on making sure the frame was lazor straight, has all receipts.
The car's body is pretty straight, not rust, but it does need a paint job.
I'm thinking I can have a pretty nice car for under 10,000.

Anything else i need to be looking for specifically?
I'm going to just be using the car to cruise around but i'm sure ill step on it every once and a while. Is there a lot of maintenance or repairs im going to have to do putting a lot of miles on the car under stocks or fairly stock conditions? Am I getting myself in over my head trying to make a grand national my daily driver?

Please let me know what your thoughts are.

[The Radius Kid]

As a daily driver,they're great.
15-17 mpg city and 24-26 highway is none too shabbly.
That's where the V6 with the turbo shines.
keep an eye on the Hooker headers and at the first sign of trouble,ditch them and get a set of stockers/aftermarket w/ down pipe.
A GOOD alarm system is a MUST.
Make no mistake about it.
There's a lot of thieves who'd love to grab one of these.
Otherwise enjoy.

[pwr6kid]

+1 I drive mine very day. Its a blast and you will not regret it, but one you start making them faster its worse then crack. lol

[Just a Six??]

There are a few Must have items to add to your budget like a modern chip, scanmaster, fuel pressure guage, fuel pump hotwire kit & some spare sensors are a bonus as the cars are getting old. You should also be mechanically inclined & own some tools. If you have that & are willing to do lots of reading so you can diagnose & fix the car yourself you will be a happy camper.
They are great cars but can be a bit quirky at times. Thats why you have to be handy with tools IMO.
As mentioned they are a Target for Thieves so insure it well with an agreed payout price.

[Just One 87]

Thanks for the replies. I live in socal so the security system is the first thing i get on any of my cars. Through reading here i was planning on getting a TT and scanmaster. I would say I am somewhat mechanically inclined but no master mechanic haha. The thing that I am worried about is I have never owned a turbo car before. Also I have uhh lets say limited garage space to work on the car. But I don't think I would have a problem trying to diagnose problems and read up on this board. I have been reading here off and on over the past 2 years. Once I get the car I'm sure i'll be doing a LOT more reading here.

[salvageV6]

If you get T wheels take the center caps off if they are stock, worth too much money and easily stolen to use them, there are decent looking replacements out there that can be made to work well.

A.R. $100 rims are relatively lightweight and look okay and are strong so save the stock wheels for shows.

Any mechanic that's worked on G bodies in the 80s can fix the easy stuff like brake lines, calipers, drums, C-clips frozen bleeders, front end stuff, ball joints etc. All typical G body stuff.

Most know enough about OBDI and cam and crank sensors and modules as well for diagnosing typical no start problems and the like.

Tuning you can learn yourself but a TT chip is pretty foolproof these days.

Kill switch, column guard, locking lug nuts (good ones you don't break like I did ) and other things like that may keep the car around long enough to enjoy it.

The more rust and dents on a driver the better.

Get the paper version of the service manual for about $120 from Helm Inc.

And figure about $1K in parts and diagnostic stuff on hand if it's gonna be your only car.

[motorhead]

s

Whatever you do get one before 3 Apr 09... F&F4 is going to kill the market for these cars (and MANY other muscle cars) once it hits theatres.

[The Radius Kid]

Originally Posted by motorhead

s

Whatever you do get one before 3 Apr 09... F&F4 is going to kill the market for these cars (and MANY other muscle cars) once it hits theatres.

Good point,if the trailers for the movie haven't done that already.

[Just One 87]

I saw that, not everybody knows about these cars. That's about to change very shortly.

[salvageV6]

The F+F crowd barely have enough $$$ to afford the movie tickets.

Most will be watching on bootlegged DVD's on 19" computer screens.

Everybody knows a little something about our Monte Carlos.

In today's market you can get a very good car for a reasonable amount.

Cheaper than a newer Camry beater that's for sure.

[joncarr]

When I first got mine I just had to drive it everyday to work and High school, drove it everyday for six months. then I started driving a Chevy Duramax to school and work because I racked up 10,000 miles in 6 months. So it's been sitting in my climate controlled garage for about 5 years now only being taken out to get modified by Berral Auto, or to a car show. And with the new "The Slow and the Incompetent" movie coming out in April, I can see the theft rating going up, not the price.

[turbofish38]

Originally Posted by motorhead

s

Whatever you do get one before 3 Apr 09... F&F4 is going to kill the market for these cars (and MANY other muscle cars) once it hits theatres.

Didn't kill the market for Chargers,Yenko Camaros,Challengers('Cuda?) or Mustangs why would it with GN's? I think any GN owner who gets worked up over this dumbass movie has a screw or two loose.....or just plain stuck on themselves. Why jump for joy when some abortion of a TR is used in the TV show Life and than do an about face when an equally aborted GN is used in this movie? Some of you guys never heard of a double standard I guess.

Go for it. The streets are clogged with plenty of 22 year old junkers. You don't hear them poor bastards whining on some message board on how the POS didn't start or left them stranded on the interstate somewhere. I've always gauged the worthiness of a DD by my ability to keep it running. I wouldn't hesitate to drive my 86 GN anywhere whether that would be 20 miles to work or 2,000 miles across the country. And you won't catch me hauling around a trunk load of spare parts. That's for the paranoid IMO.

[salvageV6]

I keep most of my spares in the garage.

One, well the only module failure really pissed me off, left me stranded for 4 hours, and I didn't like that too much, then again it was 16 years old and just died.

So I keep a spare in a bag with the fire extinguisher and registration and flashlight, and crank sensor, and cam sensor simulator, and my meter.

Full size spare is nice to have, if all or most of your tires are the same size.

Come to think of it I've never used any of that stuff yet, got a ride to get a module when that failed and put it in in a parking lot, and now I have AAA I've never used either.

Damm reliable old 11 second beater.

I have blown out all the brake lines on it and a couple of fuel lines have rotted, most of them racing, so make sure you check those closely on the car you buy.

Good luck with your purchase.

[motorhead]

Originally Posted by turbofish38

Didn't kill the market for Chargers,Yenko Camaros,Challengers('Cuda?) or Mustangs why would it with GN's?

You are talking about $30,000-1,000,000 cars vs $5,000-25,000 cars in our case. I don't feel it is apples to apples in this instance.

[yamla_jatt806]

Originally Posted by motorhead

s

Whatever you do get one before 3 Apr 09... F&F4 is going to kill the market for these cars (and MANY other muscle cars) once it hits theatres.

I would think it's the opposite and the value of GNs will go up as a lot of new people will want to buy them. Demand drives up value when quantities are limited.