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Keeping the dream alive

Some people are into certain manufacturers, others into particular models, while others just like cars from certain eras, however for Brian Suter he is into a certain chassis type. Take one look around his property and his newly built incredible garage and you’ll find this out immediately. Brian runs the aptly named Classic GBody Garage where he is dedicating his life to keep 78-88 Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick cars on the road where they belong! Gbodies have always been on the fringe in the collector car world however with their time in the sun just beginning, Brian is at the forefront of the GBody movement.

Brian started at a young age around his dad who he credits 100% with the addiction to cars. Brian stated, “he was always into cars, building, repainting,” always taking Brian with him to car shows indoctrinating him into the car world early. His father was into Oldsmobiles and took him to all the national Olds shows. Brian was brought home from the hospital in a 71 Cutlass (still in his fathers ownership), and is no surprise why now Brian’s first love is for classic Olds. Brian’s first car was a GBody, some may say ABody, a 1980 Olds Cutlass that he’s owned for almost 30 years and sits in pristine condition in his garage! This is also a great spot in the podcast where Brian explains the confusion between the A an G body cars and gave me a first class lesson. At 17 years old Brian knew these cars would be special one day and went to junk yards to pick parts every weekend. At that time the parts were plentiful and cheap and if you’re reading this at the time that the podcast is released then you know parts are neither plentiful nor cheap any longer.

Classic GBody Garage got its start way back in the internet automotive forum days. If you’re too young to remember or new into the car scene this was the repository for car guys to go and show off their builds as well as trouble shoot problems and write up how-tos. Brian started on a Malibu message board under the name “Classic GBody” while posting videos and pictures however the forums couldn’t support the large file media needed for longer format recordings. Brian then decided to move to YouTube where he added “Garage,” to his name and started posting longer format videos on cars he was working on, all based around GBodies. GBody owners then started asking Brian to start shooting instructional videos and how-tos so that they could to a little DIY in their own garages. YouTube is what Brian is most famous for however he was starting to see the popularity of these cars and the value of the parts. Remember all those parts Brian pick as a teenager, well he decided to start an eBay account and get rare and needed parts to the people. All of this became too much, so Brian thought that Facebook would be the next move where a community, not just one person, could help each other and take some of the pressure off himself. As Brian put it, “I don’t know everything about these cars…so if someone has dealt with something I haven’t, then ask a question and someone will help you out.” Last he saw the value in Instagram and created his own page to tie the whole idea together. All of his social, commerce and how-tos are branded under Classic Gbody Garage which is no coincidence as Brian’s day job will tell the story.

Brians favorite car is the 1980 Cutlass purchased by him from a neighbor that owned it from new. Brian originally wanted a 79 Monte Carlo, however he noticing the Cutlass and just so happens when he turned 16 the neighbors car came up for sale. After his dad talked him into going to look at the car he struck a deal and has been with the car ever since. Brian purchased the car in 1992, drove it through high school and dropped a new motor in it in 1995. The car was then painted in 1996, draped in Dark Claret Metallic, think of a gorgeous deep Burgundy, showing off the boxy design of the cars from that era. The doors and bumper have been replaced because these cars were notorious for rotting especially in the rust belt. These are also hot parts for all GBodies as ALL of them tend to rust out. Brian goes into detail during the podcast on how this car was painted and put away for 8 years before he ever started putting the car back together.

The interior is all original that matches the exterior color, and the plush seats still look like the comfy soft couch seats these cars were known for. It sits on the chrome rally wheels that I think are one of the best looking factory wheels ever made. They give the car a little attitude and a flash of prestige. This can also be said for the hand done pin striping down the side of the car exactly like factory. All of the trim has been replaced with NOS parts and shine like it came out of the showroom. Needless to say this car will never leave his life.

The car that Brian is most famous for is the “Scrap National,” that he featured on his YouTube channel in conjunction with Pull-A-Part. The 1987 Buick Grand National was sent to a scrap yard for disposal in one of the Pull-A-Part southern locations. After speaking with Brian about possibly using this as a promotional car to boost the attendance of a GBody car show that Brian and Pull-A-Part were putting on, they commissioned it to be built by Brian. After the verification of vins for authentication Brian started building the car up to tell the rags to riches story of a scrapped vehicle. Brian thinks that the GN was scrapped due to a faulty break booster system, which on these particular cars is very complicated and only used for 2 years. This was one of the first problem areas addressed and if you get on Brian’s YouTube you will find the entire build from start up until today. While is still is in shake down, there are a few items on the list to be fixed.

Unfortunately Pull-A-Part gave it a quick respray before getting to Brian which looks great from 20ft away however the cheap quick work can be seen close up. Brian wishes they would’ve left the patina as it would have made the story more believable. On the inside is a factory interior with slight wear on the driver seat further showing the originality of the car. I will not go through the build in this article because it is so much better explained on Brian’s YouTube page.

Brian is in the middle of building out a 3000 sqft garage on his property to continue building the Classic GBody Garage empire. With the original business starting on eBay, fueled by the original picked parts, he was one of the few that would stock pile parts for these cars in an era where everyone wanted 68-72 muscle car parts. As these cars got older and junk yard parts started drying up people started moving toward purchasing entire cars. This is how Brian has now acquired a property full of parts cars and restoration candidate cars to keep the GBody enthusiast fed. The ultimate goal for Classic GBody Garage is flipping and restoring cars on a full time basis. While Brian is not interested in working on customer cars he does want to save as many GBodies as possible and keep these chassis on the road. With the rise in their popularity over the past few years and the wealth of knowledge already stored, I’d be hard pressed to find a better resource for anything regarding these cars.

As if Brian wasn’t doing enough, he also hosts a yearly GBody only car show coming up on its 5th year. This year it will be held on July 30th at the Pull-A-Part Cleveland location and has gone from a handful of vehicles to now hundreds travel as far as Minnesota to take part in the celebration. This year Brian and Pull-A-Part are giving away a 1986 Cutlass that, similar to the Scrap National, was brought into the junk yard but was too nice to crush. Brian is currently going though the car to ensure it is running and driving reliably before giving it away at the July show. Brian is hopeful the show continues to grow and already plans for a 2 day event held at multiple locations around the Cleveland area.

When Brian isn’t working on cars he is the brand manger for a product that nearly all of the DIY guys use…automotive spray paint. To be more specific he focuses on the Dupli-Color VHT line from Sherwin Williams and if you’ve ever resprayed a motor or under hood pieces you have used his product! With a background in Marketing and a passion for cars this is a job that he really enjoys. You have probably seen the El Camino build Brian spearheaded that has been featured twice by the VHT line.

I cannot thank Brian enough for allowing me to come and check out the Classic GBody Garage. If you’re looking for a great resource for Gbody cars go find Brian everywhere on the internet. You can find him on YouTube @ClassicGbodyGarage, Facebook Classic GBody Garage, instagram @classicgbodygarage, on eBay classic_ gbody_garage or his website www.classicgbodygarage.com. Brian’s goal is, “Preserving these cars, building community, doing whatever I can to grow the culture and awareness of GBodies.” We need more people like this in the car community, leaders that are taking on large scale projects like preserving chassis and genre of cars. I look forward to seeing him continue to grow the business, his car show and watching the GBody community increase in size as these cars are finally shown the respect that they deserve!