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New Owner 63 Riviera


Guest NiceCaRiviera

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

My name is Mark Duhon, I live in Houston and I have recently purchased a '63 Riviera. I had never seen this 63 model car in my youth, but when I saw this car online I was always drawn to it. After flying to Dallas and seeing it in person and deciding to buy it I immediately jumped in it and drove it to Houston. I barely knew what half the knobs were all about. By the time I was half way to Houston I had encountered a rain shower (the wipers and blades worked fine) and I was cruising 75 mph with all the vents open on that hot August day in Texas. By the time I got home I was in love with this car.

Since then I have pampered this car, mainly to clean ans detail the engine plus restore the original paint with polish and lots of time. I've noticed this car is radiant when its all polished up. It has some problems with the AC vacuum lines and some sun damage to the trunk and a few hail dimples on the hood. Nevertheless I consider myself fortunate to be restoring this beautiful car to the point where others just look at me as I drive by, they just roll down their wiindows and all say 'nice car'.

I am sure I will have lots of questions in the future, but the first thing I did when I got it was buy the Buick service manual and register with ROA. I have a picture of it in a parade from last week, it stole the show in my hometown parade. Ilove the diplomat blue color it really has a deep gloss that contrasts so well with the mouldings and rims.

I check out this forum most everyday. I must say this is the coolest forum, so many genuinely nice people here that love the Riviera and want to show these cars off to the masses. People just love this car, it's so weird to experience. My daughter thinks this is the coolest car on the planet when we ride around in it.

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Mark,

Welcome to the forum and the world of Rivieras. You're correct in everything you say about the folks on the forum, and the attention your car will draw. Most everyone here is a big tire kicker so you'll want to post some pictures pretty quickly or you'll be inundated with requests for pictures. Ask questions when you have them and share experiences as well.

Ed

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

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These are some of the pictures of my car, on the left lining up for the parade last week, and the right pic was the side view from the dealer's site.

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

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Thanks Ed,

Here are some more pictures on the left a friend wouldn't get out my car until we took a picture of him with his arm hanging out the window. The right side is me driving some high school classmates around town, just gathering all that attention.

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Welcome, Mark, and as you already know, this is the place for invaluable advice that you will soon find saves you not only untold dollars, but untold hours should you be tracking down a challenge in a 50+ year old car! It's very cool that your daughter appreciates the design and presence of these early-generation Rivieras - my son and daughter do as well! Ask us about anything and everything, and if you haven't already, join the Riviera Owner's Association. They publish a high-quality magazine and support a broad core of vendors who help keep our rolling works of art on the road and in good shape. I have a '63 as well, so welcome to the fold. It certainly looks as if you have a nice example so enjoy it! I like to say that you may be the current owner, but also remember that you are also a caretaker so others may enjoy these great cars as well! IMO, the early Rivs, and quite a few of the later-gen models, were truly a bright spot for GM, especially as they work through today's challenges.

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Greetings Mark,

Welcome to the forum and ROA. Congratulations on your purchase! As you learned immediately after purchasing your 63, its great just to own a Riviera but driving these fine cars brings a whole new experience and pride to ownership. I am glad you are enjoying your car. It is a beautiful color and looks like a very nice example. Thank you for posting photos.

Good Luck with your car.

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

I little of the history on the car. It was purchased in Henderson Tx and "built expressly for Mr & Mrs H A Hargis by Buick" and the guy later gave it to his son. That nameplate is still on the vinyl on the console. The passenger visor mirror has a 'Buick is a beauty too' logo for all the wives to read while they apply their lipstick. The inside rearview mirror has some silvering that has disappeared and it has a 2 tone look but that is worth keeping as is. The clock doesn't work yet. The backseat leather seats are just excellent, rarely ever sat in. The rear window rubbers were a little dried and brittle but all the rubbers perked up when I put a dab of leather conditioner on them.

The son of the original owner sold it about 10 years ago to a doctor from Dallas who rarely drove it too, I figure. It has an oil change stickers from 1981 showing only 38k miles then, and now it has 48k when I recently bought it. I am putting about 200 miles a month on it, with an occasional out of town trip when the weather is nice. My main project goal now is to see if I can get the AC running by next summer, the problem there is my vacuum lines are either off, misrouted or too brittle to work the diaphragms on the air flow. Everything just blows to defrost vent for now.

This has been a Texas car all its life, so no rust but it does have a little sun and hail damage. This is what a Texas car has to live with I guess. It was in a garage mostly but spent some time under a carport.

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Your problems are very typical for that era Buick. If you search the archives, you'll find information on getting the clock to work. The clock runs off of a mechanical mainspring. The main spring is wound when it winds down to a certain point that causes a set of points to send a millisecond of 12V to the mainspring and rewind it. Usually a good cleaning and filing of the points is all that is needed to get the clock going again. There is also info in the archives about removing the clock. Check out my thread on "Must have tool."

Air to the defroster only sounds like a vacuum problem. There's no vacuum moving the air door from the defroster to the a/c outlets. One of the first things you'll want to do, if you haven't done it already, is to acquire a chassis manual. They're available on eBay as originals, reproductions, and on CD's.

Ed

Ed

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Welcome to the group! Diplomat blue is an awesome color! I never liked blue cars until my Son and I got our Riv. Now I really like Blue cars! LOL. One thing that is neat is Diplomat Blue looks black sometimes! I was new here about the same time last year and I will agree this is an awesome group and VERY helpful! Post more pics of your Bitchin' car! Be careful, the Riv will ruin you for other cars!

Here is my Sons Diplomat Blue 63:

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Tim

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

Tim,

Your son's car is very nice. You have a nice ride. I noticed you have been to a few car shows looking at Rivs. I read here that some guys masked off their grille chrome and painted the grille either argent silver or some have used black to make their grille pop more, depending on the body paint.

So I am considering the same technique but using the diplomat blue can paint as a background rather than the argent silver. Have you or anybody seen this and can give your opinion if it brings out the front end appearance to any degree. Also my car has a black bug screen that is very good at hiding any radiator elements through the grille holes.

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Tim,

Your son's car is very nice. You have a nice ride. I noticed you have been to a few car shows looking at Rivs. I read here that some guys masked off their grille chrome and painted the grille either argent silver or some have used black to make their grille pop more, depending on the body paint.

So I am considering the same technique but using the diplomat blue can paint as a background rather than the argent silver. Have you or anybody seen this and can give your opinion if it brings out the front end appearance to any degree. Also my car has a black bug screen that is very good at hiding any radiator elements through the grille holes.

Thanks!

I would stick with silver. I think when you start to body color stuff it makes the cars look more contemporary and less classic. I saw this one at Goodguys, they also painted the lower bumper blue and the park lamp grills. I prefer the stock look but do what you like, it might look great! Really only you have to like it! LOL!

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Tim

Edited by Kaber (see edit history)
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Guest NiceCaRiviera

Thanks for the picture Tim. This give me an idea how the grille would look. I think i will leave it alone, and for sure I'm not going to paint the bumper and signal grilles. Painting a chrome bumper..what was he thinking?

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I'm painting the lower bumper on my '64 but I've filled the holes and will not be mounting the license plate surrounds. The very bottoms of the turn signal housings will also get painted. That will give the painted lower bumper a fender to fender sameness. I bet that you'd be surprised at how nice it will appear; just one single chrome bumper across the front. The rest of the turn signal grills will remain stock (or I might look at painting the parts between the ribs a darkish grey color and tinting the turn signal lens to match.) Time - the first of the new year? - will tell.

Ed

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There was a local guy who had a mild custom Early Riv with the treatment you refer to Ed. It was painted an orange sunburst type color. It looked pretty nice, with the thin chrome bumper "wall to wall". Maybe the lighter color worked better for me or something. Can't wait to see what yours looks like!

Tim

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There was a local guy who had a mild custom Early Riv with the treatment you refer to Ed. It was painted an orange sunburst type color. It looked pretty nice, with the thin chrome bumper "wall to wall". Maybe the lighter color worked better for me or something. Can't wait to see what yours looks like!

Tim

How about an early sneak peak? I will do this when I paint mine as well.

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

I can't wait to see what your new look front ends look like guys.

I really like my chrome bumpers so I will stay stock on them. I live in Texas and have a single antique plate, but others from this state will need the front license plate too, that detracts from the lower bumper area.

I dressed up my front end immensely by purchasing a mirror finish stainless Buick novelty plate with the Buick logo and the letters in a gold translucent plastic. It is the same luster as my polished lower bumper, and really is what I was looking for.

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Welcome to the Forum, Mark, and welcome to the ROA. You are lucky to live very close to one of the club's '63 Riviera experts. (That would be me! :cool:) We have an active local ROA group in Houston.

Enjoy the car. It sounds like you got a great one.

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

Thanks Jim... I'm not even a shade tree mechanic so I feel safe having you nearby.

I was intending to make the ROA meet in Cypress, but had my class reunion that weekend and also had the car in the small homecoming parade. I know for a fact now they like my car in Louisiana too. If possible, I will make the spring meet and bring my car with me.

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Guest NiceCaRiviera

"Thanks Jim... I'm not even a shade tree mechanic so I feel safe having you nearby."

But I did improve my gas mileage from 2 mpg to 13 mpg by tightening up the loose screws on the bottom of my fuel pump.

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