Grand National Aerocoupe! PROJECT - Page 1

 

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Grand National Aerocoupe

 

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Back in 2008 I posted some "photo-chopped" pictures of a Aero glass on top of my Grand Nationals trunk. It caused quite a stir on several internet forums. The GN Aero project was suppose to have been done during 2009 but instead I focused on my 87 Turbo Regal instead and put off this project until 2010.

 

 

 

Below are REAL, unedited, NOT photochopped pictures of the Aero glass sitting on the rear of the GN!

 

 

 

BEGIN PROJECT:

Now that you have a vision of what the car will look like when done, I'll begin posting actual pictures of the conversion progress.

In 2008 I stumbled upon a 87 Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe in the "You-Pull-It" salvage yard with everything I needed! My heart pounded from my chest (so it seemed). I couldn't leave without buying all the stuff. I was armed with a minimal amount of tools but I got what I needed. I got everything you see in the picture below for $75...that's right 75 dollars!

    Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe

 

First thing first...remove the original rear window and trunk lid from the Grand National. Remove the torsion bars from the hinges and then take some measurements to fit the package tray from the Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe. To get the package tray to lay flat in between the Regals fenders, the trunk seal lip had to be bent over to lay flat..

 

 

Now that the tray could fit flat and snug to the Regals body, I can get a better idea of how it will all fit together. In the pictures below, the red marks are there to show where I'm going to add some metal to the aero tray so it will fit snugly in between the Regals fenders. It will make it look like it's made for the Regal plus give it some more support.

 

The picture below shows how the aero tray ends at the Regals quarter panel...just where it needed to end!

 

Here is part of the upper tail section of a Monte Carlo. The trunks seal on the Monte seals on the trunk lid in a different place than a Regal. I'm going to have to graft the upper section of the Monte's rear end onto the Regal body. The red shows the Monte Carlo's rear...

 

 

Here is the trunk inner frame with the Monte "skin" removed. The frame is bolted to the hinges to test fit it to the Regal's body. The lower section of the Monte trunk lid will have to be cut off as shown in the pictures.

 

 

 

Another point I needed to test is to see if the trunk latches were in the exact same place on both the GN and the Monte. Yep, they are....the aero trunk lid actually latched perfectly on the Regals locking bar.

 

 

To get the Monte Carlo Aerocoupe's package tray to fit between the Regals rear fenders, I've extened the tray out to match the width of the Regal. This gave it more support as well as getting rid of all those spot weld holes.

 

 

 

I've done some cutting on the Grand National! I've cut the rear section out so I can weld in the Monte's rear section. I made a scribe mark on the original sheet metal while the quarter extensions and the tail lights were still installed. I then cut the section out so the Monte's tail section would fit. However, The rear section of the Monte must be modified so it will appear to be stamped out from the factory to fit the quarter extensions and the Regals tail lights.

 

 

Here's the GN's setion cut out. It's really not that big...

 

 

Both sides cut out.

 

Here's the aero tray and the rear section of the Monte placed on the rear.

 

 

Hmmm....lines up pretty darn well and closed all the gaps...JUST RIGHT!

 

I left about a foot of the original trunk sealing edge so the Monte's rear section could be easily clamped down.