Feature Vehicle
Norm and
Sandi Biggar, Oakville, Ontario
1972 GMC Sprint SP
Vehicle-1972 GMC Sprint Custom SP, VIN
#5D80W2B501342
This “truck” was built in Baltimore MD
on April 17, 1972, for export to Canada.
It was shipped to Kerr Pontiac Buick GMC
Ltd., which is still operating today at a different location in Oakville
selling the same makes of vehicles, including Cadillac.
The original owner of this car was
Thru-way Cartage and Leasing of Mississauga, Ontario.
In January 1974 I
was driving through the used car lot of Kerr Pontiac, checking out the
inventory as most guys at the age of 22 often did. I’m not sure if it
was the color, the bodylines, or the 454 emblem on the black grill that
got my attention first, but this Sprint sure caught my eye. I talked to
a salesman about the price, and, yes, it was available. After convincing
my Dad and myself that I really needed this vehicle, I signed the deal
on January 7, 1974 and traded in my 350, 300 hp and 4 speed 1970 Chevy
Nova SS. Needless to say, I wish I still had that Nova today too, but at
least I kept the Sprint.
The Sprint was my
daily driver in those early days and I even had a set of G60 x 15 snow
tires on the rear in the winter. My buddies and I were into snowmobiling
in the winter and this car even came with a rear hitch that did a mean
job of hauling around my double snowmobile trailer. The Sprint had a
dealer-installed new rustproofing product on the underside of the body
that was supposed to keep the effects of the road salt used in our
climate from rusting the vehicle. Boy were they wrong! I was already
starting to see rust perforating the right rear quarter by 1976. I made
the decision not to drive the Sprint in the winter months any more, and
that’s what happened in 1977 and 1978. I used a pickup from the family
farm for transportation when the Sprint was not on the road.
Meanwhile, there
had been a few issues other than the rust, which tended to chew the
lobes right off the GM camshafts. After the second GM camshaft failed, I
installed a Crane hydraulic cam that seemed to hold up well. In 1975 I
had joined the family farming business in a partnership with my Dad, but
at this point in my life I wasn’t taking much money out of the farm in
order to buy larger and additional equipment for the expanding grain and
oilseed business, so any major repairs on my Sprint were financially out
of the question. With the rust finally slowed down due to no further
winter driving, I made the decision to store my Sprint in an equipment
shed on our farm after the summer of 1978.
What follows is
just another variation on a common story we’ve all heard before. In
1982 Sandi and I got married, and one year later we were three, after
the addition of our first child, Stacey. In the fall of 1985 we moved
into a new house that we built on a lot at the home farm, following the
arrival of Lianne in our family in April of that year. Meanwhile, the
Sprint sat neglected in our shed surrounded by farm machinery and
2500-pound sacks of bulk soybean seed at certain times of the year.
Every so often I would run into old friends at parties or reunions and
the topic would come up. Everyone would ask me whether I was ever going
to fix that old Sprint, and my answer was always “Yes, hopefully
someday.” Our third child Natalie was born in February 1988, and she was
the last of our family additions.
In 1990, one of the
organizations that I was involved with on the county level was the
Ontario Wheat Producer’s Marketing Board. Our county was one of five
that comprised district six. The district director at that time passed
away due to illness, and via a conference call, all the county delegates
tried to “persuade” one of us to just fill the spot for three months
until the annual March conference. Well, yes, I foolishly agreed to
their requests; this ended up being a 13-year long second job. It wasn’t
until I retired from the board in 2004 that I was finally getting to a
point in my life where I felt the Sprint ought to be restored, or at
least sold to someone who would take care of it.
Ray Pineau, a
friend who is also interested in cars, kept urging me to fix the Sprint.
I knew that to complete a restoration such as this would require a lot
of time I don’t have, as I’m still operating a 1500-acre farm with the
help of Sandi and our employee, Steven Kelly, so Sandi and I decided to
have the work done by professionals in order to spend more time driving
and enjoying the car. We settled on Muscle Cars Plus in Stoney Creek,
which is on the outskirts of Hamilton Ontario, about 20 to 30 minutes
from our home, to handle the restoration. The Sprint was put on their
waiting list in March 2005 and we got the call that they had an opening
in August 2005.
The first two weeks in the shop
at Muscle Cars Plus were devoted to dismantling and tagging all the
pieces that were removed. The body was sent out for acid dipping and the
frame got blasted and then powder coated. We knew from the start that
some panels, such as the right quarter, would need replacing or
repairing, and after dipping there were areas of the floor that had
pinholes, so the decision was made to replace both rear quarters and put
a new floor in the cab.
At this time I
also hooked up with Will Nash of Nash Total Performance in Binbrook, who
was to be the builder of the LS-5 engine. I wanted to keep the Sprint
looking stock under the hood so that we could preserve the originality
of this rare unit, so we decided to retain the stock intake manifold and
carburetor as well as the stock exhaust manifolds. Due to my concerns
about the camshaft failures in the car’s early life I decided to go with
a Comp Cam hydraulic roller cam with roller rockers. The block was line
bored and decked, and then we added an Eagle steel crank and stroker
kit, which was then balanced. Stainless steel valves in the heads, fluid
harmonic balancer, gear drive on the cam, and a 2500-rpm stall converter
completed the rebuild. The engine was finished in November and was
sitting in the frame by mid December. The original TH 400 transmission
was rebuilt and a shift kit added before mating it to the engine.
Reassembly of the
chassis was done in late January and the paint on the body was also
finished. The body was reunited with the chassis in February and the
task of putting together all the pieces and reinstalling them continued.
All the original glass was reused with the exception of the windshield.
New carpeting, reupholstered seating, and new headliner, door panels and
sun visors finished the interior. We retained the original dash pad and
instruments. I had purchased a fiberglass tonneau cover from Gaylord in
California, so that we would have a large “trunk” to carry items to
cruise nights and car shows. The tonneau arrived in time to be painted
at the same time as the body. Muscle Cars Plus custom fabricated a
stainless steel exhaust system. New bumpers, door handles, grill, light
assemblies, and vinyl roof completed the exterior restoration. By
mid-June, 2006, the car was ready for firing up and test-driving.
We had the Sprint home long enough to attend
several local cruises prior to the Northern Chevelle Gathering. Sandi
and I headed out on Friday, July 7 for the Holiday Inn on Grand Island,
our first major trip with the Sprint and our first trip to this area.
There was a forty-minute line-up to cross the
border from Ontario to New York; it was a hot day, and, yes, the engine
began to overheat! We made it without any mishaps, though, and, wow.
What an impressive array of cars were attending the show. Things were
going well until Saturday afternoon when I tried to start the car again
and heard that “lump in the throat” grating sound that usually goes
along with a worn-out ring gear.
A small group of helping hands gathered and we
began the process of sorting out the problem. There was lots of power at
the battery, the connections were all right, and Glenn Lever didn’t even
hesitate to crawl under the Sprint to use his own tools to rotate the
crankshaft to a fresh spot, and, failing success, to loosen the starter.
Nothing seemed to work, however, so we booked an extra night at the
hotel and Jamie from Muscle Cars Plus came to our rescue Monday morning
with a new starter. The nose of the starter, which had been brand new,
had broken right off! With the new starter working fine, we headed for
home with a short stop in Stoney Creek to diagnose a faulty clutch fan
and arrange for a replacement, which to this point in time has solved
the overheating problem. Thanks again to all those CanAm club members
who didn’t hesitate to lend a hand; unfortunately I don’t know all your
names. We hope to see you at next year’s gathering, if not at a cruise
in the local area before then!
I applied to GM of Canada in
October 2004 for the documentation on this vehicle. This information is
available for a fee for any vehicle that was built and destined for a
Canadian dealer. It is listed as follows:
Vehicle: 1972 GMC
Sprint Custom SP
Vin:
5D80W2B501342
Trim: 704-
Black Vinyl Bench
Paint: 933
Production Plant: Baltimore,
MD
Production Date: April 17, 1972
Shipping Date: April 17, 1972
Model Number: 53680-pickup
delivery
Engine: 454 CID
270HP 4bbl Invader V8
Dealer:
Kerr Pontiac Buick GMC Ltd.
Oakville, ON
Number Imported for Sale in Canada:
(Same Model NO. Only) 309 (V8 Sprints)
OPTION
DESCRIPTION
AV3
THREE POINT SEAT & SHOULDER HARNESS
A01
GLASS-TINTED-ALL WINDOWS
A52
BENCH FRT SEAT
B84
BODY SIDE MOULDING
B93
DOOR EDGE GUARDS
C08
EXTERIOR SOFT TRIM ROOF COVER
C60
AIR CONDITIONING MANUAL CONTROL
D33
OUTSIDE REAR VIEW MIRROR-LH-REMOTE CONT.
F40 H.D. FRT & RR SUSPENSION
GY2
REAR AXLE-3.31 RATIO
G80
REAR AXLE-POSITRACTION
JL2 DISC BRAKES-FRONT SINGLE PISTON
J50 VACUUM POWER BRAKES
K19
AIR INJECTION REACTOR
K30
SPEED & CRUISE CONTROL
LS5
ENGINE: 454 CID-4 BBL CARB HI-PERF-V8
L08 ENGINE EMISSION CERTIFICATION
M40
3-SPEED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION (THM 400)
N33
STEERING WHEEL – TILT-TYPE
N40
HYDRAULIC STEERING
PM7
F60-15-B (2+2) TIRE-HWY-BB-WHITE LETTERS
T60 HEAVY DUTY BATTERY
U14
INSTRUMENT PANEL GUAGES-TACH & CLOCK
U69
RADIO-AM/FM PUSHBUTTON
U76
WINDSHIELD ANTENNA
V30
BUMPER GUARDS, FRONT
YE7
SP EQUIPMENT PACKAGE
ZK8
TIRE PRESSURE STICKER
Z14 AIR CONDITIONING (ALL WEATHER)
Z49 MANDATORY CANADIAN BASE EQUIP
MODIFICATIONS
I have heard the
exterior color described as Saddle Bronze, Burnt Orange or Burnished
Copper. We repainted the vehicle in a base/clear of the original color.
As far as production numbers, I have referenced Dan Carr’s web site and
his production numbers show 114 LS5 Sprints produced in 1972, 70
equipped with the THM 400 transmission.
We also own another
muscle car, a 1968 Oldsmobile 442 convertible we purchased from a
gentleman in Owen Sound, Ontario in February 2005. It was a great
Valentine’s gift for us (That excuse worked well)! It has had several
owners in Ontario and started its life on the west coast of Canada in
British Columbia. It is not a #’s correct car as the 400 engine was
blown up and replaced with a 455 from a Toronado. I spent some time last
winter replacing a few items such as door handles, cleaning and
repairing the door latches and other small areas that needed attention.
It is fun to drive and is a bit of a hot rod with an Edelbrock intake,
Holly carb and headers with a THD 400 and shift kit. It is a driver and
hopefully we will be able to refurbish the body, paint, interior and get
a new convertible top in the future.
