Knucklebuster's Garage Web
The violent storm that passed through the Kentucky and Tennessee on April 16, 1998 did massive damage to the area. Luckily, there was no loss of life in our area but sadly, others were not so lucky.
The damage to our area was mostly from strong winds and baseball (YES, BASEBALL) sized hail stones. All the cars where inside the garage and the door was down, but the poor 1994 GMC pickup truck was outside with no room in the garage. It sustained a broken windshield, massive dents to the hood, roof, driver's door, driver's fender and driver's bedside. Pictures appear in the Pictures/Storm section here.
As one who now needs glass, the local shop told me that it will be two weeks before they can call me about a windshield replacement.
Houses with vinyl siding look like they have been shot with automatic shotgun fire. Buy a brick home!
The 1993 Buick Skylark tipped the 80,000 mile mark. That and being 4 years old, and the fact that it had been tagged earlier in the year made me not want to have it around. It was still a good car but it wasn't one I wanted to have any more. So, we sold it to my mother and started looking for a new car.
We started looking for used Blazers, Jeeps and the like. Boy, are they expensive! After looking for a few months and seeing only high-priced, miled-out junk at near new prices, we decided to take the plunge and look at new sport utilities. While not really wanting a Honda, we stopped at the Honda dealership to look at a Jeep that was there and wound up test driving a Honda CRV. The rest is history. It's red of course, pictures will be posted soon.
Now, it isn't MY car, it's the wife's so this is not that important, but it is a little anemic. Other than that I can't find a single fault with the thing.
A Gran Sport is a name used by Buick to denote sportier models. The name was often abbreviated to GS. The first GS was introduced in the early 1960's. The name vanished after 1975 only to be reintroduced in the late 1980's on the front-wheel driven Regal. I'm no fan of front wheel drive these cars have little or no relation to the old GS other than name.
The Buick Gran Sport was a sporty car, not the kind of car Buick was know for producing. I'm a Buick fan and as a teenager in the late 1970's, there were few fans of muscle cars, especially Buicks. Gas was expensive and they consumed it at an enormous rate. But Gran Sport fans are extremely loyal.
These cars were often under estimated. The same engine as "grandma's" land yacht also fit nicely into the much lighter GS. Right off the showroom floor these cars held their own against anything produced at the time. As a matter of fact, they are one of the 10 fastest production cars ever made.
To this end, the Gran Sport has been somewhat neglected. This is an attempt to show the GS for what it really was, a fast car with sleek lines and good manners.
My father was a Buick dealer for 22 years and it is in my blood. My first car was a '71 Buick GS 350. I acquired my current 1970 Buick Gran Sport with a big block Chevy under the hood. A friend and I swapped motors, his was a Buick 455. After that, I built a tamer motor for it. Now it has a 1970 455 with stock parts with the exception of a Competition Cams 268, Edlebrock B4B intake and Mickey Thompson reproduction headers, 3" exhaust pipes, complete with mandrel bent tailpipes (3" also) and Dynomax mufflers.
It still runs a stock quadrajet & bottom end although I did beef up the mains with studs and an improved oil pump.
The transmission is a Turbo 400 from Kenne-Bell with a switch pitch converter. This is a very cool item that allows a real low stall speed for cruising and a higher stall for traffic lights. I get 1200rpm when cruising and 2200rpm at stop lights from the shifter mounted line-lock type switch. It's shifted with a Hurst autostick shifter.
In the back is the nitrous bottle. Yeah, I know but I've had nitrous since before it was cool. It's a kick and it is only a 125hp kit from the early '80s. It runs a set of 3.73's in a Chevy 12-bolt. It isn't original but it is easy to get parts for.
I traded a 1987 Grand National for it. Don't ask, it was a strange mood that struck me. The Miata was fun but I traded it for a '94 GMC short bed. It was a 5speed, posi-trac, without many other options. Can you see a trend here, red cars?.
Growing up in the late 1960's around my dad's Buick dealership, I was always in the shop. When I was younger, working on my bicycle I would be adjusting the seat or handle bars and the wrench would slip and BAM! the skin on the back of your hand was gone! The mechanics in the shop would say, "That looked like a real knucklebuster." The nickname didn't stick but the term did.
Bowling Green, KY is in south-western Kentucky, right on I-65. It is about 60 miles north of Nashville, TN and about 120 miles south of Louisville, KY. Bowling Green is the home of Holley, manufacturers of carbs and various speed components. We also have Beechbend Raceway where the NHRA Sports Nationals are held. Last but not least, we are the home of the only automobile plant in the world that makes the Chevrolet Corvette! The National Corvette Museum is located near the plant.
Potholes are those annoying cracks in the pavement that make driving less than a pleasure. They are also the place set aside to talk about those things that make driving more difficult. Email me with your favorite 'pothole' and I'll add it to my list, giving you credit.
