This is the story of my green grand prix. And how it came to be in my possession and care. It all started about 1987 when I was working for a well known Japanese electronics manufacturer here in the heights. Me and my buddies were all into old cars, my friend Paul has a 1965 mustang fastback, and Kyle drove a 1987 grand am(loaded) he also had a 1970 G.T.O. and 1977 Can Am and a 1978 Trans Am, all I had was a 1971 Chevelle. Well almost every day for lunch we would go out after we ate and drive through the heights looking at all the old cars. The theory behind this was that the heights being an old neighborhood and a lot of the people being older there were a lot more old cars to look at. We saw many cars and asked about many of them, like are you going to do anything with this car? Most of the time this would be enough of a push for some of them to actually start some work on them, because we always checked back on them from time to time. This brings us to the first time I saw the grand prix we were cruising through Timbergrove manor and there she was under the trees with no paint on the hood tree sap every where so we asked the lady working in the yard if it was for sale, she said no, so we went on our way like so many times before when we were declined the opportunity to help someone relieve themselves of an eyesore on they`re property. Most of our rounds as it were fell into a pattern of about once a month we went back to the old ladys house and low and behold there was a for sale sign on the grand prix. At the time my two buddies were not able to fund a purchase of another auto so I was the one who was left to purchase my first soon to be show car. The Reynolds had owned the car from day one, it was her car (the old lady). A 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ with a 428 375hp motor. The original mileage at the time was 65,000 miles. It started up and ran good, but at the time I lived in Katy. First thing was change the oil and fluids and get her home.What I didn't know is the little she drove the car she never really got the motor really hot so the oil inside kind of solidified and stuck to the insides of the motor, and when I started driving it out to katy I got it plenty hot and all that sludge started coming of the sides of the motor and eventually clogged the oil pump, which then led to the start of the restoration process. A few years and a lot of dollars later I have won some trophies and heard a lot of stories about peoples parents who have had one like it, I am just glad to preserve a piece of our automotive history and be able to drive the original(kick ass) luxury performance car. |