I had to have her - '65

I am new to this forum and just had to let you guys know that I acquired the car of my yearning today. She's all original with 117K on the clock. A California car that got relocated to Arizona about 5 years ago. The paint is well worn and the interior needs work but drives like a dream with NO RUST and the body has one small ding on the right front fender. I checked all of the areas of concern (thanx to this site) before the purchase.

Steve

Congratulations!

Nice....You made a great choice.

nice car!

nice- always loved the styling, don't understand why my wife doesn't like them....and a California/Arizona car has to be solid!!

Congratulations! Looks like a nice straight unmolested car. What options does it have?

Sweet looking Riviera! Nice Find

I am new to this forum and just had to let you guys know that I acquired the car of my yearning today. She's all original with 117K on the clock. A California car that got relocated to Arizona about 5 years ago. The paint is well worn and the interior needs work but drives like a dream with NO RUST and the body has one small ding on the right front fender. I checked all of the areas of concern (thanx to this site) before the purchase.

Steve [ATTACH=CONFIG]188662[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]188663[/ATTACH]

nice score... thanks for sharing!

Very nice. I would much rather buy one like that, than one with a "fresh" paint job covering things up. Congrats, and how about some engine photo's, and interior photo's.

I am new to this forum and just had to let you guys know that I acquired the car of my yearning today. She's all original with 117K on the clock. A California car that got relocated to Arizona about 5 years ago. The paint is well worn and the interior needs work but drives like a dream with NO RUST and the body has one small ding on the right front fender. I checked all of the areas of concern (thanx to this site) before the purchase.

Steve [ATTACH=CONFIG]188662[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]188663[/ATTACH]

Yep, that is definitely a keeper. Now, join the ROA and bring it to the meet in Colorado Springs next year.

Looks fine the way it is - better than my rusty-floored one. Great find and I dig the plate.

Mike

Straight and rust-free, that's all you want.

Well done finding her. ENJOY!

Very nice. I would much rather buy one like that, than one with a "fresh" paint job covering things up. Congrats, and how about some engine photo's, and interior photo's.

We're on the same wave-length on the paint, Rob.

I took these photos this morning; too much shadow on some, but......

Not sure on all the accessories but it does have A/C (works good) and tilt column. The PO gave me some parts for the arm rests, the original radio, the spare with a General Tire still on it and another wheel.

Steve

Nice find slosteve ! Solid west coast examples or rust free cars from anywhere are hard to find anymore. We all know what restorations costs are these days so starting with something solid is the only way to go. I just purchased a '65 Gran Sport, unfortunately for resale. The present economy and a recent divorce prevents me from keeping this car but if I were going to keep one this would be it. Very, very low mileage example that had been well stored for the last 40 years. It's gonna kill me the day this one leaves my driveway !

Looks like a nice, solid car. Looks like Champagne Mist with the Saddle Custom vinyl interior. BTW, your HVAC system in missing the muffler.

I picked this one up a year and a half ago. It was a 100% original, non molested, solid car. I am now doing a complete nut and bolt frame off restoration. I have a thread on my build. I need to update it soon. Here are a few pics the day she was delivered.

Restoration in progress.

Rob..are you restoring the car with the engine compartment pictured here? Are the other pics of the same car?

Tom Mooney

BTW, your HVAC system in missing the muffler.

Restoration in progress.

The PO included the muffler with the car; he had the system changed to R134 with the rebuilt compressor and said it didn't need it(?).

You restoration looks absolutely first class.

Steve

Congrats on your new toy !! Good Choice !!

Rob..are you restoring the car with the engine compartment pictured here? Are the other pics of the same car?

Tom Mooney

Yes Tom, the car I'm presently restoring is the white car I pictured, and yes that was it's engine compartment as it was the day I received it. My engine is rebuilt finally, so I'll be posting up some pics of it when I finally get it all painted up and detailed out. It's been a bit slow lately due to personal and work issues, but I'm still trucking along as I have spare time.

So much for 'rust free' car that I boasted of in my first post.

I've started working on a few 'small items' that I wanted to complete in order for me to drive & enjoy this car for awhile. To me, this was a MUST DO as the influx of water would continue to damage the car, and with the new seat upholstery I also purchased a new package tray cover that is too expensive to ruin.

Anyhow, a friend helped me in removing the rear glass without breaking it so I could get a better idea of what is going to be needed to repair this. At first it didn't seem too awful but after wire brushing it I discovered that it had been repaired once already. Notice the flanges protruding from the bottom of the shelf; I thought they were part of the original sheet metal but turns out they were pieces of right angle sheet metal that had been welded over some rust holes.

So I proceeded to remove these to get a better scope of the damage and guess what! More rust holes.

So this is the point that I have to relinquish this phase to someone with more skills than I currently possess. I have found another shop that has prior experience with this kind of repair and am waiting for an opening in his schedule. The first shop that I contacted last Nov. about doing this repair was supposed to start work on it in May (when I first removed the window) but has put me off too long due to another project he's working on.

I had high hopes of driving the car to Colorado for the meet when this was done.

I have also been doing some other work on the car but have not posted as when I finish for the evening I'm just too darn tired. But today I am recovering from 'overdoing it' in the garage with an inflamed hip & back so this is part of my 'recovery'.

Steve

Welcome to the "More Rust Than I Thought" club Steve. Its a very popular club with many members. LOL. Hopefully the floors and trunk are solid. With rust like that around the window it is inevitable water got inside at some point.

Do you know what process your shop plans to use when they repair it?

Hey Steve, besides welcoming you to the "More Rust Than I Thought" club, welcome to the "Been There, Done That" club. I bought what I thought was a decently rust free '64. An Arizona car. It sat in my garage for some time and I'd see it everyday. Little did I know what was lurking under new paint and old Bondo. My car too had some amateur attempt at solving the rust problem around the base of the rear window. Rather than try to fix it by patching that area, I was able to find a really good complete rear valance panel. I removed it from the donor car by drilling out the spot welds, and coming up with a piece that looked like the original piece from the factory. I then did the same thing to the car. It was pretty easy to fix some minor pinholes in the new part and easy enough to set the new piece in place. It looks a whole lot better than if I were go have tried to patch everything. Contact the CTC Auto Ranch and ask if they don't have a good piece you could weld back in using the factory seams.

You are in the 90% club. 50 guys would trade their rust for yours.

With rust like that around the window it is inevitable water got inside at some point.

Do you know what process your shop plans to use when they repair it?

I did my 'due diligence' by checking the truck floor when I bought the car and there's nothing but surface rust there. That's why I was surprised to find the window bottom in such bad shape.

This shop I plan on using has the metal bending & shrinking tools needed to fab. the pieces to replace just the rusted areas back to where there is good metal to weld to.

I like Ed's idea about a new section but have heard that most of these cars had a problem in that area & thought a good one might be difficult to find. I just tried calling Larry Daisy to see if he has anything but the phone # he has listed is no longer his. I guess I'll have to E-mail him; his Riv Ranchero is about 30 miles from my place.

Steve

The piece I found was good along the straight part but I needed to fit new corners to it. After taking it apart at the spot welds, I can now tell why these cars developed the rust they did where they did. Two straight pieces with a corner section spot welded in - but not sealed. Best bet to keep it rust free - any time you wash it or it rains on it, take your air hose to it and blow the water out of it so the water just doesn't set there.

Ed

Congratulations ....... I like the Champagne Mist with the Saddle Interior ..... I've had my Grans Sport for about 10 years and get lots of compliments on the color combination.

Paul

Welcome to the "More Rust Than I Thought" club

Do you know what process your shop plans to use when they repair it?

Being a member of said club myself I am interested to hear what your shop will do too. My windows will be coming out soon & I am anticipating the worst.

David

Seems to be the norm on most rear windows, water stays in the track and rots out, just like the sail pannels passenger side floor board under seat and trunk that leaks to bottom rear quarters.

I would never say i had a rust free car unless i had taken the frame off myself and chemically dipped it. It seems like today more than ever people love to paint over rust, and i mean just regular paint...not even rust converter. I had a local paint and body guy come by the shop the other day and give me tips on what he would do,etc. I'm not even going to repeat what he said out of respect for my elders, but to say my jaw dropped would be an understatement. There are shady people out there and it is a shame. Charging $8500 for a paint job while just scuffing it up and giving it the Maaco treatment, painting over rust, etc.

Here's a couple shots of the rear window frame after rust repair. The next 2 challenges are how to paint/coat the bare metal underneath the repair and get someone to count the number of those little 'nailhead' looking things that the molding clips attach to. Mine has 2 on the drivers side 'vertical', 3 on the pass. side, 2 on the bottom horizontal and 6 across the top horizontal part of the frame. It seems that none are spaced evenly. I've got screws to install where needed if someone has a un-windowed frame they could look at & tell me if more are needed.

Steve

You should be able to reach that from inside the trunk. While you're in there, smear a bunch of seam sealer around that area. If I don't work tomorrow, I'll take pictures and count how many / where the holes should be. I haven't looked for them yet, but I think the hardest thing to find will be those shoulder head screws that go into the holes and secure the clips.

Ed

Hi SloSteve,

With the help of Joe B. (JWB65) on this board, I was able to remove my rear window on my '64 Sunday evening. On my '64 I show 8 screws across the bottom plate spaced approximately as follows (starting from the center):

1.5", 8.5", 15.25" and 21.6125" (that's 21 and five eighths).

Again, my numbers are from a '64, so I'm only assuming they're the same as your '65. The 1.5" measurement is from the *center* of the window, so if you lay out the measurements to the left, and then to the right, you should be very close to original.

In the spirit of of measuring twice and drilling once - I would wait for Ed to come back with his information to ensure they are similar to mine.

The new frame looks great.

Good luck.

In the mean time, I found the screws. They're on the PDF page 62 on Mr. G's Enterprises www.mrgusa.com at the bottom of the page. BUT I don't know which of the three screws shown is the one we need. Open the fasteners link.

Ed

On a riviera the areas of rust are rear window, sail panels inside to out, rear botton rocker panels from water getting into trunk and passenger side front floor boards. looks like the water gets in from vent wing window trickles down inside interior panel and ends up on the floor board.

If I don't work tomorrow, I'll take pictures and count how many / where the holes should be. Ed

I took some pictures with a tape measure laid across the back panel and here's what I came up with. Disclaimer: The tape measure wouldn't lie like I wanted it to, and the pictures I took were not all that good; too close for a flash and too dark for no flash. What I could make out is this. 8 holes. Measuring from the left. Now these are not exact - see disclaimer. 2", 9", 16", 23" 25", 32", 37" and 46" This puts one close to each corner, two in the middle close to the ends of each molding piece, and others spaced about 7" apart. I don't think this need to be rocket science. All you're trying to do is get the molding to lie flat. On the side, I could only see three holes. One close to the bottom, one centered, and one closer to the top but not on the corner because this piece is curved and fits both the side and the top. I didn't get a look at the top. Matt was working on the dent by the lock and the trunk was open. I had to get the measurements I did from inside the car. Luckily the rear glass is out. Hope this helps. It's the best I can do for now. As I said above, Mr. G's Enterprises had the clips and the clip mounting screws. (Special screw with a shoulder.)

Ed

On a riviera the areas of rust are rear window, sail panels inside to out, rear botton rocker panels from water getting into trunk and passenger side front floor boards. looks like the water gets in from vent wing window trickles down inside interior panel and ends up on the floor board.

Good points to know - thanks. This will help others when looking for possible rust during a presale inspection.

One more thing to look at is the braces under the floor boards. They're not sealed against the elements so dirt and water will get in them even if the inside seals tightly. When they're full of dirt and the dirt gets wet, the rust will work its way up. The bolts for the front seat bracket go right into this bracket so lots of times the seat hold down bolts will be rusty as well. Same with the cups that connect the body with the frame at the front of the trunk. This area in the trunk gets it from both the top and the bottom. The rear window corners will corrode and let moisture in through the top; there are holes in the body mount cup that collect dirt and moisture in the same way that the floor pan braces do.

Ed

In the mean time, I found the screws. They're on the PDF page 62 on Mr. G's Enterprises www.mrgusa.com at the bottom of the page. BUT I don't know which of the three screws shown is the one we need. Open the fasteners link.

Ed

Ed,

I looked a Mr. G's web site and I think you're right about the screws. Part # FA 3037 A is most likely to be correct since I just checked on of the original screws from my clips and it is a 24 thread count, which matches the thread count on the 3037 part number.

When I look for the actual molding clip that matches those on my '64 I think that FA 612 (at the top of page 60) is the one. Is that the way you see it? The link to Mr. G's windshield clips page is here: http://mrgusa.com/pdfs/60-62wsclip

Someone recently posted a part number with picture of some clips they used which were in stock at their local NAPA store. You might search for that to see what they look like.

I printed the picture of the bag with the part # but it's at the shop with the car.

Ed

I don't think this need to be rocket science. All you're trying to do is get the molding to lie flat. Hope this helps.

Ed

Thanks much for all of your effort, Ed. It is very helpful and much appreciated. The PO had used some sort of adhesive goo on the molding and now I know why. The top pass. side corner was lifted up at least 1/2" and I don't want that happening again.

Steve