mhnova65

Rob, the panels listed in their catalog don't exist? I have not had a chance to call them yet but that seems odd.

Hi Gents. Has anyone tried these patch panels from CARS yet? If so, any thoughts or pictures of them? Thanks, Mark

Ditto on Lasse's sentiment; "The bushing from hell". Did this bushing a few weeks ago and it requires some creativity for each car as some are easier than others. Mine.........not so easy and the outer shell of the bushing was nearly fused into the hole due to minute surface rust between the bushing and the hole (which I found out after I removed the sleeve). If you are working under the car, it makes it that much more challenging. I have the whole front end off the car and the motor out.....just frame rails hanging out there...........and it was still a pain even though I was able to get at it from all directions. I used a long 1/4 drill bit and kept drilling holes between the outer bushing and inner sleeve to remove some of the rubber and make it easier to get the center out. I made up a device similar to Lasse's using 1/2 inch threaded rod with a heavy washer and nut at the pushing end (rear of bushing)and a large socket at the pulling end (where Lasse used the pipe). Put another large washer on the socket with a nut and had at it with my impact gun. Pulled the center out nicely......but that was the easy part. After the center is out, you need to get the sleeve out. I used a triangular shaped chisel with a pointed end. Once you get it started between the sleeve and the frame, it starts to shear the sleeve. At about half way through the sleeve, enough pressure was relieved and the sleeve popped out. What a PITA! Mark

Rob, I just finished doing this to my drums as well. I have cast iron drums in the rear and aluminum in the front. Sand blasted all of them and put on two coats of Duplicolor's Cast Grey (very impressed with how this stuff goes on and levels out). I won't have the drums on and in service for quite a bit of time so I can't attest to the longevity of the paint film although Duplicolor states it is good to 300 degrees. In the past, I've used VHT's brake paint and that stuff works phenomenal. I did a set of drums on my 63 VW bug 20-years ago and the paint is still going strong. Just be sure you sand blast them first as it will give you the best base for adhesion and longevity of the film. Mark

Macc, I just removed these last week. I too used the 12-ton press from Harbor Freight to remove all my rear suspension bushings including the rubber on the track bar. After removing the rubber, I clamped the track bar in my vise (just below the loop) and used a chisel to wack out the pressed ring. Sit the chisel vertically with the end just catching the lip of the steel sleeve. Give it a couple of wacks, which will begin to move the sleeve (and the chisel will start to cut into the sleev). After it moves a bit and gets some bite into the sleeve, you can get a better grip on it and wack it a bit harder. Just keep at it until if finally just pops out (and the chisel goes flying across the bench:D). Let me know if this description helps. If not, I'll see if I can scrounge up the parts from the garbage and stage a photo for you. Mark

Rubber The Right Way sells it by the square foot. You can also take a look at McMaster-Carr.

Has anyone had any further luck on this topic? I'm in the midst of pulling the rear end out of my 64' and will be replacing the bushings. $500 for a set of bushings seems like insanity to me. Plus, Rare Parts recent 50% increase in pricing just seems like they are being pigs about it! Energy Suspension makes a rear control arm set (in Poly) for less than $100 but it is listed only for the 65. Will it fit the 64' or are they different? Couldn't find any part listing out of Moog either. Anyone??

Kevin, C2C is out of Michigan. Either way, I feel you are getting a good product based on my experience regardless which source you get it from so long as you are prepared for the work (which isn't easy reagardless of which way you do it). As for which way you go, that's personal choice. I'm not building a concours car for Pebble beach, just a nice weekend cruiser for taking the family out for ice cream. I'm not worried about what the pan looks like from under the car so long as it is solid and we are not riding in Flinstone style. If you are going for original and can salvage your floor by patching it, all the more better (and easier). If you do have to replace the floor and don't care for originality, the C2C pan fits the bill. No, it doesn't have the drain plug but do you need it? Just another seam to collect water and a future site of rust development. As for the grooves, they are only their to reinforce the long span of sheet metal, prevent flex and provide rigidity to the structure. What's on the C2C pan is sufficient to take care of all that. Great thread, guys. Good info here filling that void on rusty floor replacement.

I restored the air cleaner on my 64' this summer using the VHT wrinkle paint and LOVE it. Easy to apply and a wicked finish. I'm doing an all black motor with a little shine on the valve covers but wanted to make the air cleaner pop. I sand blasted the air cleaner first, hammered and dollied the dents and dings and than applied the VHT in 3-coats per the instructions. The key is following the instructions and being patient. Three seperate heavy coats with about 15-minutes between coats. Each coat goes in a different direction; verticle, horizontal and diagonal......then just sit back and be patient. The paint goes on very thick and smooth; almost like a watered down latex paint. It sticks to the verticle surfaces and doesn't run (well, if it does, you are way too heavy) Again, I did this in the summer here on Long Island so the temp was about 80 degree's or so. For the next three days, I took it out and let it sit in the sun to really bake off the solvents. As you flash off more solvent, the coating wrinkles more and more until you get an awesome finish. Topped it off with a new silk screened aluminum emblem and Viola!...........sweet. Not a great picture (cell phone) but it gives you some idea. ....................now if only the rest of the car was done so I had something to attach it to.

See the "Floor Pans" post from last week. Mark

Just finished the pan today and i'm super happy with the results. The pan looks great and fit well over-all but again, needs a decent amount of love to complete the task. It took between 16 and 18 hours to complete the install but I had some other repairs that needed to be made to the floor along the way which accounts for some of that time. Here's the long story..... I bought my Rivi after looking it over to death. Checked every nook and cranny to make sure it had minimal rust.......but it's the stuff you can't see that get's you. After I took apart the front end, I discovered the first bit of rust on the cowl. No doubt due to that fiberglass insulation in the kick panels that falls off and sits in the bottom like a sponge. The more rust I cut out the more I found. This all started on the passenger side and led to multiple patches/ repairs on the cowl, rocker and ultimately the floor and outrigers (that's what I call the support that comes out from the rocker and supports the floor). That took some time, but I much prefer to patch than cut and replace panels. After I finished the passenger side floor, something told me to just give the driver sides a glance. So I pulled up the carpet and Viola!! .....the previous owner did a number on me! He had two thin rubber floor mats under the carpet covering a rusted hole between the floor and the outrigger and went as far as painting black under the car to blend it all in.....never saw anything like it before. This led to the replacement of the drivers side floor with the C2C pan. The lip coming off the toeboard where the floor panel gets spot welded was so rusted that i couldn't drill the spot welds out. I ended up cutting the floor right at the lip and taking the lip off with it. I replaced the lip first as well as the rear edge of the outrigger (where the hole was) This was rusted through and needed to be cut out and replaced in order for the floor to sit flat and be able to spot weld to it again. In addition, the bulge in the floor that mount the ball-studs for the gaspedal also needed repairing so i cut that out and replaced it at the same time.. The floor was then trimmed and after having the pan in and out of the car a bazillion times, it was finally fitted and ready for final placement. Spot welds hold it in along the rocker panel, toeboard lip and along the entire edge of the outrigger and the rest is butt-welded to the existing floor. As I said before, great pan but be prepared for lots of work to trim, fit and install. ..............now off to chase more un-expected rust.

The floor pan is definitely made for the Rivi (not Universal) but it just requires some finess to make it fit the contours properly. Just keep in mind that this is not a stamped piece of sheet metal so there is a limit to how much the piece can be formed to it's true shape outside of a metal brake and general forming tools. If I was a betting man (and I'm not), I think CARS and OPGI source there pans from C2C......I can't see them making their own. Also, if you check the pics on their websites, you will see it is the same hand formed part (not a stamped steel piece). As for the rear section under the seats, I haven't had to replace that. Their was a response from CTX-SLPR on the "What parts would you like to see made...." thread which he states this section is worthless. Maybe if he see's this thread he can offer some furthe insight or post some pics of the piece he received and why it didn't work for him.

Hi Kevin. I'm in the middle of replacing my drivers side front floor pan with C2C's pan as we speak. I bought it from Rock Auto (the cheapest source at $52) and it was shipped direct from C2C and at my front door in 2 or 3 days. I was planning on doing a write up on it along with pics after I was finished but here's where it stands right now. It's a great pan but I think there is a pretty big distinction in what people expect from aftermarket sheetmetal. The cars that are restored in greater numbers (Camaro's, Mustangs, Bel Air's, etc) have a nicer selection in sheet metal since most of it is stamped and is more of a drop in replacement. As for the rest of us, it's too expensive to have a stamp made for cars that don't command as much volume in terms of units sold so they are mostly hand made. this process works fine and can produce a great product (as the C2C pan) however, you don't get the molded inside and outside corners that you would get with a stamped product. In the case of the C2C pan, the corners are sheared in such a configuration that it allows you to form the corner, trim the excess sheetmetal, and weld the seams shut to form the corner. Out of the box, this pan definitely requires some bending and tweaking to sit right in the car. I've had to massage the left side of the pan a bit to get it to fit the right contour of the rocker panel as it seems to be bent at almost a 90 degree angle out of the box. Also, I have some hammer and dolly time invested in the right side to curl the edge up in order to meet the curve of the transmission tunnel. Again, all in all it's a great pan however, it takes much more fitting, trimming and time to install. If you are looking for more of an OEM look and a drop in replacement, your best bet would be to find a solid donor car, drill out the spot welds and cut the rest of the pan out for a donor pan. Here's a close up of the pan from C2C as well as where I'm at currently. The pan is about 85% fitted with a bit more finess to go, then i can start welding it into place. Mark

JB, I agree with you on the information regarding this topic. A lot of people have shared some very valuable information to help us all decide what we would like to do with our Rivi's. What I think might be helpful on this thread is if we can get some of you all back here and post some side profiles pictures of your Rivi's with a brief description of your drop so that we can get a good idea of what to expect between overall look, rake, and ground clearance. This includes those with stock suspension set ups as well who've used springs from various manufacturers. It would be interesting to see how a stock set up from coil springs vs. Jamco vs. others stacks up against one another. Although they might be rated for the same vehicles, differences in materials and processes lend themselves to different (albiet slight at times) results. Thanks again to all who take the time to add to this. Mark

Thanks, Eric. As my Dad always said, "Work smarter, not harder". If the funds are the budget, why not source a new part and save the time. But when the tools and parts are in the garage.............and the labor is free......well.......what's a few Saturday afternoons tinkering in the garage!

Hi Gents. Just finished my battery tray restoration so I thought I'd add my 2-cents on the experience. The rust on my tray was pretty decent to where the previous owner had tried to glue it all back together with fiberglass and polyester resin (found out these sins when I sand blasted the wheel tubs). First, the tray is held in place with a crap load of spot welds to I abandoned the thought of removing the tray and just stuck with fixing what was rotten. Pretty much the front of the battery tray was where all the damage was (which effected the surrounding areas as well. I marked up the area where i could make some clean cuts and started cutting. After removing the offending parts, I made a lot of measurements and made a cardboard template for the replacement parts. In total, three seperate pieces were made to complete the repair. All parts were made of 17 gauge sheet metal which I was able to bend with a cheap ($50) bench top sheet metal brake bought from Summit Racing......worked pretty good but 17 ga. is definitely the limit for it. After a bunch of dry fitting, grinding and placement, each piece was assemble and tacked in place. The welds inside the battery tray are rough because the battery tray was pretty well pitted so try to weld to it was ugly. The only way to accomplish this was to lay one tack on another and form a chain along the seam. Since it was going to be under the battery, I didn't bother with grinding it down and making it look pretty. When all was said and done, I sealed the deal with 2-coats of Chassis Saver. To get in all the crevisis, I bought some shoe dye daubers and tack welded them to a wire coat hanger.........got right inside and beneath the battery tray to seal it all up. All in all it took about 8 - 9 hours to for this project (alot of work) but I as pretty happy with the results.......it's ashame I have to cover it with a fender, headlights and a battery!

Again.....playing catch up on my posts tonight. Bill, I went with your recommendation first and added a few items to the front of the car to add weight (see pick)......they included: 2 bags of play sand for my blaster 1 roll of lead sheeting 2 Riviera front tires and wheels from said car 4 tires and wheels off my wifes Scion XB (no, her car was not left on blocks...those are her winter tires:)) Pretty decent amount of weight.....but it still didn't prevent the car from coming off the jack stands when I was compressing the spring with the jack. I figured it might be close enough so I loosened the upper ball joint, wacked it with a hammer and broke the joint lose...as I losened the nut, the spindle followed it. I wasn't going to take the chance having it pop off the jack stands not knowig how much energy was left in the spring once that bolt rolled off the last thread. Back to square one......took off the "weights", compressed the the spring until it just lifted the frame off the jack stand and then figured a way to get my spring compressor up through the lower control arm. Snugged the compressor just a bit, removed the ball joint nut and lowered the control arm. i stopped when there was a 2-inch gap between the lower control arm and the jack. i don't feel comfortable unwinding all that loaded up energy on an interal spring compressor as they have been known to twist of the spring coil and let go......ugly. After losening the compressor till the control arm touched the jack, their was no longer enough energy in the spring to lift the frame off the stands. I removed the compressor and lowered the jack all the way and then pryed the spring out. I hate spring work.....never liked it and never will. Gut wrenching not knowing what can or will happend with so much stored energy.....especially on a heavy big block car. When I had my race car (drag), we used to use "trick" springs for the front end to help shoot the front end in the air off the launch to load the back tires for traction. This was achieved by using a smaller gauge coil but you needed more coils. since the springs were longer than stock, you really had to compressed them before you could even get them into the car and start thinking aabout using the jack against the lower control arm. ........i used to do this with a motorcycle helmet on. Mark

Sorry for the delay on following up with this post. I'm just getting around to downloading my pictures and playing a little catch up. After some experimenting and a lot of thought, I decided to go through the painstaking taske of masking the chrome surfaces of the front trim and then spray the them.........it was a decent amount of work but I was really pleased with the results. I used the 3M vinyl masking tape that is used for doing paint graphic masking as it's thicker and easier to handle in small pieces. Plus, it streches nicely around corners without giving you any bleed through or rough paint lines. I used a small file to clean the pitting that occured between the fins on the marker covers and grill (that was a PITA....my wrist still hurts from all that filing!). Then I used a small fine wire wheel chucked up in my air die grinder and and ran it through the middle of the fins as well as the back to clean up the metal for paint. oh...prior to all of this, I had a couple of stud mounts that snapped off from the back of the headlight castings so re-set them with JB weld....held nicely. The Krylon Dull Aluminum as my paint of choice. I used the Rustoleum Professional version of their Dull Aluminum..............well, the first piece was done with the Krylon.......before i read the can and found out it was not recommended for outdoor use.....wasn't taking a chance. The reason i went through all the work with the masking was I knew it would be hard to get in all of those crevises so it was going to take multiple coats to get everything covered. With the masking done, I could just randomly shoot without having to worry about removing it later. When it was all done, i let it bake in the sun for the afternoon and then removed the masking.....nice. I then cleaned it all up with 0000 steel wool dipped in some paste metal polish as lrlforfun had recommended.......WOW.......that REALLY works...what a shine....as good as they will ever get without rechroming. As for the headlight housings, I used the liquid Satin Black to fill in the areas arond the headlights using a small detail brush and a steady hand. Unfortunately, I was downloading the "after" pictures but they were from my cell phone do not have a compatible file.....I'll have to get back to you on those. Thanks again for the tips!!! Mark

Well she's all done...... I ended up going with the holes for the water cross-over in the front and back of the heads. I chased the threads with a tap so I could utilize the as much threaded area as possible and then attached the chain with grade 8 bolts and large fender washers. At first I just snugged the bolts down and once I put some tension on the chain with the hoist, I tightened them up to eliminate any twist or force on the bolts. She pulled with no issues...........and so the project continues...... Thanks again for the input. Mark

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the input. Jason, thanks for the heads up at V8 Buick....I completely forgot to even look there. (water cross over pipe.....now I know what that thing-a-ma-bob is really called) and by the way.....I like sicilian pizza best. Mark

Rob, thanks for the input. I've never really been a fan of the carb lift plates. Bad experience long ago where a bolt pulled right out of an aluminum manifold and - blamo- the engine went right back in the car. Thankfully, it was only up a few inches and was just a small block chevy coming out of a Nova. That was enough for me not to want to lift anything up by the manifold anymore. I'm more of a meat and potatoes stick a grade 8 bolt in some heavy iron kind of fella. This is my first big block car and that alone is enough to make me want to anchor into the block or the head.

Hi All. I'm pulling the nailhead out of my 64 this weekend as I continue my front end teardown and restoration. Where have you/ where do you recommend mounting the chain to the engine? I'm thinking the best place it to remove the upper housing where the thermostat mounts and use the front and rear mounting holes on the head. Just wanted to be sure that that area was plenty strong for pulling this beast without letting go. Thanks for your help. Mark

The service manual states on page 3-11 that "no gaskets are used in the entire exhaust system"...........however, I recently removed my exhaust system and there was a gasket between the choke stove and exhaust manifold. Albeit, badly deteriorated, it was of the compressed asbestos/ steel type gasket that are usually found in exhaust systems.

Finally got those little buggers out. The threads are pretty worn down so I think I'll have to drill them out and heli-coil them.........but does anyone know where to get the proper replacement studs? I believe they are 1/2-13 x 1/2-20. The drivers side is 2 3/8 long while the passenger side is 3 inches long to accomodate the choke valve. Can't seem to find anyone that has these..........and I thought getting them out was the hard part! Thanks for the input. Mark

Thank you, Gentlemen. Those are some great ideas and I'll put them all to use with the restoration of these parts. Looking forward to trying it out this weekend so long as I can get out in the garage. Mark