Silver Arrow clone.

Hello, I'm new to this sight. I have a 64 Riviera that I've had for 20 years now. I bought it as a clean rust free car with 86,000 miles . It was driven daily for a couple of years before I started in on making a clone of Bill Mitchell's show car, the Silver Arrow. The car will be a close interpretation of the first car built, with the 65 style grill , and wire wheels.

The cars been sitting for about ten years now. I'm back at it ,and getting it back on the road. Here's some pictures of it. I have more pics. that I need to scan and post.

Rivieric.

I notice this is your first post; welcome.

Kool car. I like the pancaked hood and rear nerf bars. A friend of mine has picture of SAI posted in his shop and is working from them to re-create some of the SA I features. I'm sure he'd like to know more about how you pancaked the hood. Did you lengthen the front fenders as Mitchell did? Nice touch on the exhaust as well. Tail lights?

Ed

Thanks for posting the pictures. There was a time, before the internet, when pictures of the original S-A were hard to come by.. Over the years my car could have morphed into a copy as well, given some inspiration.

It ain't over yet and here is a stash of reference pictures (some duplication due to resizing): http://brockportinternational.com/xjs/Dir5/Riviera/Silver%20Arrow/

Bernie

Hello, are you from Ogden, Utah?

I have always been tempted to try to make one of those steering wheels. I know we could make the hornbar and probably the horncap. The mounting hub is OEM. It's the third spoke in the steering wheel that would be the kicker. Not so much building it, but getting it chromed and getting the simulated wood back on it.

Now that I look at it....it looks like real wood and there is an interior seam.

Rick, there is already a line for the items you make. If you did these, another line would form. I may have to get in that line. I like that wheel.

Thanks Ed, I didn't extended the fenders, but I will be welding in a piece on the lower fenders. Kind of what Buick meant to do by the way the lower running lite housing is cast. The tail lights are 63 Corvette. I figure sense the 63 StringRay was designed by Mr. Mitchell it would work.

Thanks for the pics. I'll have to go through them .

No, Northern California.

Few more pictures. This is what the car looked like when I bought it. I had a set of 72 spoke Zenith wires made for it . There 15 x 6 standard with the back spokes triple laced. I used two bumpers to make the roll pan and bumpers. The exhaust ports are 2.5" exhaust tubing with 2.250" stainless tubing for tips.

I filled the cowl and will be welding scoops to the back of the hood. The cowl will be welded to the fenders as well.

I build model cars as a hobby as well. Here's a model of my real car that I'm working on.

truscale?

truscale?

That's me.

Welcome! I see you finally made it over.

-Raise Up

Nice work! Keep the pics coming. Always thought that would be a cool car to mimic. Subtle yet wild.

Mike

Have the hood scoops fitted in place and ready to weld in. Once there welded I'll get the cowl fitted ,and weld it as well.

Started on the lower light housing tonight. I'm making it look like Buick meant it to look, by the way the piece was cast. Everything is roughed in at this point , but you can see what I'm shooting for. A friend made the lower metal pieces I'll be welding in place.

Thats right the silver Arrow had a slight 1 1/2 inch chop to it also, no wing windows , boy is your work cut out for you, no pun intended. How are you going to figure out the front grill that opens with air flow when speed pushes it up.

Where could I get ahold of those rear wheel ribbed rockers. The GS should of had that added to the rocker kit IMHO.

Have the hood scoops welded in. Need to grind the welds then fit the cowl and weld it in.

Also started on the head light housing. Have the .125" rod tacked on . Now I need to trim the lower fender piece and tack it in place.

Very nice work, keep the pictures coming!

The Wheel on my 65 is made by Grant….it has three spokes which closely resemble those on the GS option any the wheel is real mahogany. I think someone with fabrication expertise could mill out the slots in the spokes and construct horn bars out of two broken sets (we all know there's a few of those laying around) Attaching them to the hub so they are operable may be the most challenging part, but they would look great as dummies. Still can't figure out how to post pics, but you can see one on ebay or on Grants' website. Drew

Heres a suggestion and only since its a close interpretation of the SA, for the door handles try using 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix. If I wasnt going to shave the handles, I had these in mind, they look so cool.

Haven't posted in a while. Have the front clip removed , ready for engine and tranny removal . I have a disc brake conversion , and front end rebuild to do after some pressure washing, and painting.

Also mounted inner door frames to mock up one piece window channels and motor.

Also mounted inner door frames to mock up one piece window channels and motor.

Welcome back, wondered what was happening on your car. If you could, post some pictures and details about the one piece window. The guy who's doing some of the work on my '64 also has another customer's '63 Riviera in the shop and wants to do a one piece door glass for it.

Ed

The window work looks to be easier that I expected. I've just did a quick mock up last night. You have to use an after market power window kit, bought this kit from Yogi's Inc. For the channels, take the back channel ( the one by the door latch mechanism) form a left door and use it for the front window channel on the right door, and the opposite for the left door. I need to make mounts for the front channel and power window mechanism, then make a pattern for the glass.

Light surrounds, hood scoop, and cowl work.

Found some old pictures of my Riv. The picture with the daisy mags is what it looked liked when I bought it. I first put reverse chrome wheels on it , then TruSpokes , and now it has Zeniths.

The pictures of the car in urban camouflage is right after I got it back from getting chopped. The one in white primer is how it looked last time it was on the road back in the 1900's(1996).