photos by: the author
Cleaning up the Look of our Grand National, with Spoolfool Productions’ One-Piece Rear Spoiler
It’s certainly been a while since we’ve last heard from our boosted Buick – no, not Sleeper Status, but our long-term ’87 Buick Grand National project. We launched the build last Autumn with a front and rear bumper filler upgrade from our friends at Spoolfool Productions, and followed it up with Kirban Performance’s jumper box – after a long Winter hibernation managed to suck the life from our battery.
Now it’s back, with plenty of upgrades coming from GBody Parts, Precision Turbo and Engine, Jet Hot, Kirban Performance, Full Throttle Speed and even Pypes Exhaust. But first, we’re going to add Spoolfool’s latest cosmetic piece to the recipe, his one-piece rear spoiler.
Recently, our buddy Mike Barnard (aka Spoolfool), released his version of the rear spoiler originally found on the ’82 and ’84-87 Buick Grand National and GNX. When these cars left the factory in the eighties, the rear-mounted spoiler came in three pieces; the center section attached to the trunk lid, and two end caps – one on each side – mounted atop of the quarter panel.
The result was a spoiler that looked great, from a distance, but managed to irk many owners with the lines that made them three separate pieces. Actually, Spoolfool has done two things; first, he’s replicated the OEM unit with a high-quality fiberglass replacement and second, he’s taken it a step further by also offering a smoother, cleaner, one-piece replacement piece to fit all ’81-87 Buick Regals. We decided to order the latter.
So what we’ve done, was ring up Mr. Barnard, place our parts request and cover the install step-by-step for our readers at home. Even if you’re the least-bit technically inclined, you’ll be happy to know that the Spoolfool Productions spoiler can be installed in your driveway using simple hand tools (and no instructions) in under an hour. Which is exactly what we’ve done for you in the photos below. However we should note that if your car has a flat trunk lid (i.e., non-GN or GNX model), you’ll have to take some extra time in measuring, drilling holes and mounting this piece.
We did a side by side comparison of the OEM 3-piece spoiler and the Spoolfool 1-piece unit. The Spoolfool kit includes the six mounting nuts and four bump-stop cushions (more on those in a minute).
Popping open the trunk lid reveals the six 10mm nuts that we have to remove in order to replace our spoiler.
Using a 10mm socket, we removed them accordingly, starting from the ends and working our way towards the center, for ease of removal with the center nuts being the trickiest to access.
We grabbed an extra set of hands when it came time to actually pull the center section. With the awkward dimensions and the steel mounting bolts being in direct contact with our paint, we didn’t want to take any chances. However, as you can see, years worth of gunk had built up under our spoiler since the piece isn’t exactly air-tight against the trunk lid.
With the center section gone, we turned our attention to the spoiler end caps that mount to the quarter panels. In order for us to access the two bolts that will separate the spoiler piece from the end cap it self, we had to remove it as one unit.
You also have to loosen and remove all of the plastic wing nuts that hold the taillights in place. Super easy, just twist counterclockwise…
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- With wing nuts separated from the taillight housings…
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- …and with all of the bolt out of the end caps…
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- …you’re able to access the two nuts holding the spoiler section to the end caps.
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- A simple 10mm socket removes these as well.
With the end caps and taillight housings back in place, you can immediately reinstall them in reverse order. But before we installed the new rear spoiler, we wanted to take the opportunity to clean up the gunk and grime that had polluted the Buick’s body for what apparently has been decades. So we broke out our Driven Race Wax detailing spray, that made mincemeat of the crud attached to the end caps and trunk lid.
Here’s what you’re left with if you have a GN or GNX once the end cap spoiler is removed. If your car didn’t leave the factory black or you have a WE4 Turbo-T, you can skip this step entirely as the bump stops aren’t needed.
The Spoolfool supplied spoiler bump stops not only fill in the holes left behind from our previous spoiler’s end cap sections, but also prevent potential contact of the new spoiler meeting the quarter panel. While it’s highly unlikely that would happen, either way, you don’t want four new open holes in your car…
Our guy Brain carefully aligns the Spoolfool spoiler onto our trunk lid, using the existing mounting holes as guides.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, Spoolfool includes the necessary six 10mm nuts to mount the rear spoiler.
Remember that center nut we mentioned earlier that gave us trouble? Part of the trick includes the removal and reinstallation of the trunk latch.
The finished product certainly lends a cleaner look to the rear of the car. Although we decided not to paint the new spoiler (at the moment) you can certainly get away with not doing so if you have a black car like ours. However, if you’re sporting a T-Type or Turbo-T, this will certainly lend a bit of attitude to your non-black Turbo Buick!
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
