J3Studio
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Posts posted by J3Studio
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On 9/23/2021 at 12:07 PM, EmTee said:
A consolette car!
Am I correct in thinking that wasn't very common?
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I'm worried that this search is going to make me have to sign up for Facebook …
😉
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On 9/16/2021 at 8:54 PM, EmTee said:
I like the color and the interior looks pretty good...
The color meets my specs—the mileage is just a little higher than I'd prefer.
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Thank you for the photos.
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1 hour ago, EmTee said:
I thought that was an odd color combination -- paint code "Z" is Riviera Silver Green Poly.
Which would have made it a far more distinctive and interesting car. But, folks seem to like repainting the second-generation cars in black.
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19 hours ago, EmTee said:
The Snipe hunt resumes!
LOL!
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The 1985 Corvette has been sold and I am far less "defective" than I was back in March/April/May. So, making another run at my picky spec—which none of the 12 1996-1999 cars listed in the current Riview meet.
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There's a lot of discussion out there in general publishing about the relative merits of footnotes versus endnotes. What are the thoughts amongst automotive historians?
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8 hours ago, MasonLucas said:
The final year of the truly big and heavy (4,000 pound plus) Rivieras—in a very attractive color combination. At this point, my research tells me that 1976 was an all-time high for the amount of available individual options on the Riviera, with that number sitting at about (gasp!) 90. It would be an interesting exercise to count how many of those options this particular Buick has.
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1 hour ago, Pat Curran said:
The fender skirts were standard equipment but there were two styles to chose from, the full skirt or the mini skirt. The sweep spear side molding was optional however.
The shorter skirts were sometimes called "High Profile wheel opening covers."
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On 8/20/2021 at 3:40 PM, RivNut said:
Why did the US Air Force use twin Buick nailheads in the start carts for the SR-71 Blackbird. TORQUE.
This amazed me when I first read about it. Details:
https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Engines/starting-the-sr-71-blackbirds-j58-engines-ag330-start-cart-
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On 8/17/2021 at 2:19 PM, J3Studio said:
1970 Buick Riviera GS coupe on Bring A Trailer. Regal Black (original color was Silver Mist Metallic) with a black vinyl top and a black front bench seat.
Located in Toronto and currently bid up to $6,500 with five days to go. A few BaT commentators have noted where it departs from stock. NMOC.
Sold for $18,058, with 16 bids. According to Hagerty's Valuation Tools, that's between #3/Good and #2/Excellent money.
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3 hours ago, awk409ak said:
His bid was 22K, right, but he had to pay Mecum too. Mecum makes money off the seller and buyer.
$22,000 includes the 10% buyer's premium. Hammer price was $20,000—car was sold with no reserve.
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On 8/17/2021 at 2:19 PM, J3Studio said:
1970 Buick Riviera GS coupe on Bring A Trailer. Regal Black (original color was Silver Mist Metallic) with a black vinyl top and a black front bench seat.
Located in Toronto and currently bid up to $6,500 with five days to go. A few BaT commentators have noted where it departs from stock. NMOC.
Now bid up to $13,000 with two days to go. According to Hagerty's Valuation Tools, that's almost #3/Good money.
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26 minutes ago, jframe said:
Maybe I've been asleep, but this is the first I have heard of this book. Looking forward to it's publication; can't wait to read it!
Thank you for the kind words—still not sure a) when it will be done, b) what it will be called, and c) what avenue I will choose for publication.
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3 hours ago, jj5794 said:
The 1979-1985 Riviera was one of the last vehicles styled directly under the the supervision of William Mitchell, General Motors Vice President of Design. He was personally invested in the 1979 - 1985 styling, very proud of its execution, and without whom there would in all probability have been no Riviera after 1978.
William Porter, who also worked for many years under Mitchell, was responsible for the eighth generation 1995-1999 Riviera as chief Buick designer at that time.
An expansion on what @jj5794 has said, from the still very unfinished Riviera Project:
QuoteOnce again, Buick emphasized the first generation Riviera as it attempted to sell a brand new Riviera. They had a powerful ally—Bill Mitchell was determined to exit his position as Vice President, Styling Section on a high note, and he decided that the forthcoming trio of E-body coupes could sing that tune.
Design work on the new coupes actually began in late 1973 but progressed slowly; press coverage initially suggested a 1978 model year release. In fact, the future existence of all three of GM’s prestige coupes was called into question by the first OPEC oil crisis and its aftershocks.
All three of the coupes were designed in the same studio. Many years later, designer David North would recall that Bill Mitchell seemed to care most about the Riviera.
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The new Riviera may not have been beautiful, but it sure was handsome. At the time, it seemed that Buick had somehow tricked Cadillac and Oldsmobile into making their cars look quite similar, but the story is actually more nuanced and interesting. Nevertheless, the Riviera got all the differentiation within the E-body platform. Car and Driver’s review in their November 1978 issue reinforced this opinion “… the Riviera somehow manages to make the others look like rather plain sisters.”
Some contemporary sources believe that William Porter was also responsible for the seventh generation (1986-1993) design, in addition to that of the eighth generation.
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2 hours ago, EmTee said:
Thanks for that chart - I remember you posting it awhile ago as well. Two things stand out to me: (1) the 3rd-gen basically resulted in 'no gain' sales-wise (presumably due to the love/hate styling) and (2) 6th-gen is the all-time sales winner. The success of the 6th-gen doesn't surprise me at all; those were really the right size at the right time and the styling was really contemporary and classy.
You are very welcome—the chart is a) a little prettier now but b) still looks better in print. The sixth generation was immensely successful, with average sales of about 53,000 a year—representing fully one-third of total Riviera sales between 1963 and 1999.
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5 hours ago, RivNut said:
I read something a long time ago that the sales of the 1965 Riviera slipped because GM brought out it’s new fast back stying in 1965 - Buick Wildcat, Chevrolet Impala, etc and the 65 Riviera was behind in keeping up. Buick came out with the fast back in 1966. 1965 production figures were around 35K then jumped to 42K in 1966 and climbed steadily through 1969 then took a big drop in 1970. It all has to do with being the first kid on the block with something new.
This is a great observation. What many Riviera fans now think of as the ultimate Riviera actually looked a little dated in 1965. Buick updated the first generation by cleaning up the styling and adding the hidden headlamps, but the basic design was from early 1960—and it showed.
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17 hours ago, EmTee said:
1970 was a strike year at GM, so I imagine that tended to put a lid on the number of cars built that year (except of course for LS6 Chevelles...).
Sales slipped almost 30% from 1969, but I wonder how much of that was the strike and how much of that was the general aging of the second generation platform, the arrival of the next generation Thunderbird, and (perhaps) the brand new Monte Carlo. Sales of the Eldorado actually increased significantly—and all of GM was on strike. Buick did still manage to produce 37,366 1970 Rivieras.
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31 minutes ago, EmTee said:
In my case, never... That said, aside from Gettysburg, I could count on one hand the number of 1970 Rivieras I've seen in person.
There weren't even that many 1970s at Gettysburg, though there were a ton of second generation cars.
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1970 Buick Riviera GS coupe on Bring A Trailer. Regal Black (original color was Silver Mist Metallic) with a black vinyl top and a black front bench seat.
Located in Toronto and currently bid up to $6,500 with five days to go. A few BaT commentators have noted where it departs from stock. NMOC.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-buick-riviera-gs/
[Another Weird Question] When Was The 264/322 V8 First Referred To As The Nailhead?
in Buick - Post War
Posted
I'm having trouble narrowing this down—when was the 264/322 Buick V8 first referred to as the nailhead? Was it common parlance when the 364/401/425 came along?