53 super back from paint shop

Finally, after 14 months in the paint shop the 53' super riviera came home. Beautiful job though, and worth the wait.

For those that are interested, this car is modified, not by me, but by the cars first owner since being a barn find in Emmet Idaho. He is now a pro rod builder, but before selling it he had installed a Buick 455 V8 in a 1979 firebird front clip with all the running gear from the 1970 Buick Electra. When I bought the project it was totally in the rough, rusty, and greasy.

As you all probably know, you have to build up a project twice, once in the rough and dirty to make sure everything fits, then pull it all down and start building it up pretty. I got the project when it was in the 3/4 built up rough stage, and as with anything you modify, you change one thing and then you have to change six others because of it. The car is a 56R which was originally a hard top.

I so badly wanted a convertible, that I went a step further and re enforced the chassis with the convertible mounts, installed chassis strengthening and cut the top off. I had researched the ancient art of the Carson top and decided that was the option I would be happy with. I built the Carson top frame per an old street rod magazine article written by a CA rod builder. I can have the frame on or off in less that 5 minutes, and it will look just like the convertible when it's either on or off. I did however retain the nice s/steel window trims and seals for the top. I don't have it covered yet, that will be the last thing I do on the project.

I just got the 455 back from the engine builder and ready to install it. It has a turbo 400 transmission. Should be installing it all in the frame next weekend if it's not too cold in my shop.

My inspiration for the build I have to say is the 53 Skylark, I can never afford one, and this will never be like one, but I saw a Skylark in a movie, then during my research saw a Riviera and thought it was equally cool, thats what got me started on this. It was only ever going to be a driver, then as time went on the build quality kept going up, now here I am 4 yrs down the road and countless thousands of dollars more out of pocket than I expected to be, but it's turning out beautiful and it gives me great pleasure to see it come together.

I tried to download some photos, had some trouble, so hope they show up in my album.

I would like to hear from anyone with a similar interest, I think it's the only car like this in town so I have no other reference for the build.

Ian

No photos in the album either. I have found that smaller files are more likely to work. Resize to 1000 wide x whatever. That seems to always work for me.

Sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing the photos.

Wow, sounds interesting Ian. Would love to hear and see more. May I suggest you start a thread in the Me and My Buick Forum about your car and with pictures. http://forums.aaca.org/f163/

Let me know if you still have a problem with posting pictures.