New paint on 87 GN

[Barry Wingard]

The body shop is finishing up the paint work on an all over on my 87 GN, and is at the point of painting the small parts. Were the key entries and door handles body color from the factory? Headlight and tailight bezels: gloss, semi gloss, or flat? Any other gotcha's to be wary of? I would like to keep the paint job close to factory.

Many thanks,

Barry

[kenmosher]

Originally Posted by Barry Wingard

The body shop is finishing up the paint work on an all over on my 87 GN, and is at the point of painting the small parts. Were the key entries and door handles body color from the factory? Headlight and tailight bezels: gloss, semi gloss, or flat? Any other gotcha's to be wary of? I would like to keep the paint job close to factory.

Key locks and handles are pretty close (my key locks and handles are black, but look almost anodized which may just be aging)

Headlight bezels are kind of a semi-gloss black.

Taillight bezels look to be the same.

[Barry Wingard]

Great information Ken, just what I was looking for. Thanks much!!! I notice you are making a lot of HP with your GN, and you also have a lot of toys! Is the 650 HP at the rear wheels? Mike Kurtz built mine and it is making 457 HP at the rear wheels on pump gas with the stage 2 transmission that Mike also built. It is pretty hairy, cant imagine what 650 is like!

Barry
87 GN
68 GTX 440 3x2 4 speed (no match for the GN)
69 Chevelle SS 396 (current project and my first frame off)
71 Volvo 1800 E
2000 Porsche Boxter S with 15,000 miles
2011 BMW 535i
2015 1500 Ram Eco Diesel

[kenmosher]

The 650 HP is actually a low reading from the engine dyno (we had one peak of 675 HP) but it had a FLAT torque curve. This is the Recipe car and pretty tame combo. This was also using 104 octane unleaded gasoline.

I've owned the GN since I ordered it from the factory in '86 and it's been tweaked and played with over the years.

Tranny has been through several iterations and incorporates my own "blend" of Mike Kurtz's parts (the extra steels and shims and the hardened shafts and so on) and some bits and pieces from various learnings over the years.

According to the calculators, it should be somewhere in the 530-550 HP at the wheels at race weight to be in the high tens with my sixty foots (1.5x avg).

Thanks for the reminder ... have to update my "toys" list Just bought some this weekend!