Bleach

The way I see it, it'll be the right car at the right price at the right time.

Will do. I'll be on the lookout for more now that I know there's a thread for them.

Sure it probably doesn't but I'm looking out for '54s in my neck of the woods. I'm also looking for a fairly decent one that wouldn't need more than cosmetics and mechanical work. I don't have the talent to repair rust or for that matter paint a car. I've also rekindled an old interest in first gen Rivieras. I've owned one before and I've gotten very nostalgic about having another one. Decisions, decisions, decisions...

I've always thought that by keeping our old cars on the road is less of a carbon foot print than what it takes to recycle them and make new cars out of them. I also feel that new cars are actually less environmentally friendly because of the modern materials used in them like the plastics, some exotic metals and hybrid batteries for example. It takes some very sophisticated recycling methods to correctly recycle these items as well. The old cars we cherish so much were mostly made of truly biodegradable natural materials given the appropriate amount of time can return to the earth from which it came. The modern cars of today are so full of synthetic materials, that could easily considered as toxic waste, that could take millennia to fully degrade, if it will at all. And now back to our originally scheduled topic.

That's a far cry from the $3K I paid to have most of the stainless and chrome plated and polished on my '51 Cadillac in 1986. You can thank those @#%! environmentalists for that.

I've done it this way and it does work but the fumes the coating creates from the flame is horrible. Also care must used so the metal does not warp from the heat.

Another step toward unobtainabilty for your average Buick fan.

I often have multiple tabs running simultaneously on my browser and I switch back a forth between them. This site is always one of them. I often leave my laptop running throughout the day as well.

From what I think I remember there weren't even holes in the inner fender where the tank would have mounted and the booster was still original. I'll have to try to dig out the photos of the car and see if there's a photo of the engine bay.

Makes total sense. No power no turbo. A smaller turbo on one hand will spool up faster while larger ones take more RPMs to spool up. I imagine whatever turbo you decide on will have full pressure oiling on the bearings. An EGT gauge and boost gauge are necessities as well. An intercooler would be good too. A tip for driving with a turbo is that you need to idle for while before shutting down for the turbo to cool off, otherwise you risk coking up the bearings.

C'mon, there's no such thing as an ugly Buick of this era. OTH, the Buicks they make now are effin fugly.

Now that's a sight for sore eyes!

It can still be restored.

Too bad this car is so far away. Looks very nice.

Yes my car had power brakes. Maybe the one I had was even earlier than this one?

Mine had leather seats so I'm not sure what that option would have included. I'm learning a lot of things about Rivs just by following this thread. I'm kind of confused about one thing. It has the vacuum tank on the drivers side engine compartment. I thought only A/C cars had it. Mine never had one and it was a non A/C car. The mounting area still had the divots in the inner fender but they were never punched out.

Or make you really miss the Riviera that you once had. I'm curious if it has the door release handle that is accessible to rear passenger on the passenger side door. It was the first time I saw that feature available on any car I've ever owned. I wonder if it came standard on all Rivieras or if it was an option.

Very interesting idea. I kind of cringed at the idea of that tiny 4.1L under the hood of a huge car like that at first but I warmed up to it after watching the videos. It'll never have the generous torque of a good running nail head though and you've experienced what it takes to get up a hill with your current engine. You might want to think about a VVT type of turbo or going for a dual stage set up that will get some lower RPM power. I'm curious what your fuel economy will be like. Either way don't junk the old 425. You might want to rebuild it and put it back in the Riv.

Thanks Tom, yes, I recall mine were painted but I don't remember what color they were. They might have been silver since my headliner was silver but the rest of the interior was black.

Here's a few from my home town of Downey CA. They used to have a Cadillac dealer there from 1952 to about the mid 90's.

I've found it on the rear quarter of 55-57 Bel Airs.

The front photo shows the emblem upside down. Looks late 50's as a quick guess.

Whoever said never cry over spilled milk never had Mr. Adhor for a boss.

Yes, the story about the prototype Vette split window should be taken with a grain of salt. I've seen various photos of clay mock ups of the Vette that were done in about '59 or '60 called the XP-720.