RockinRiviDad
-
Posts
1,268 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Forums
Gallery
Events
Posts posted by RockinRiviDad
-
-
Super cool car…congrats…& welcome from SoCal
-
-
3 hours ago, 65VerdeGS said:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for sharing what you paid for chroming. As others have said, you got a pretty good deal. You say some of your new chrome looks a bit 'foggy' - well I've seen that before and wonder what it means. You'll probably find the fogginess or blueish cast is most visible under artificial light. I had a similar problem on another car I had chroming done on.
Hello,
Funny u mention “artificial light” cuz I first noticed the foggy area while in the garage before installing bumpers. I told myself “it’s gotta be my fluorescent lights”. Once installed I went for a cruise & foggy area can be seen only in direct sunlight. Any kind of shade or no direct sunlight & u would call me crazy, foggy area disappears.
I stopped at bodyshop (middle man for chrome shop) yesterday to show off my car. I explained I never had anything chromed before & asked if the foggy area was a concern? He said yes. He tried to polish it out with no luck & said they need to be redone. I’m glad he said that. I was just gonna live with it with hopes that it wouldn’t get worse.
Keep u guys posted
-
My AC/heater vents never stayed in place. They always flopped around & rattled. I was planning to take this project on if/when I got around to installing a modern AC system. This probably won’t happen anytime soon.
I recently attacked the renewal of my gauge & glove box plastic surrounds. So it only made sense to address the vents now.
I was kinda excited that I figured out a fix on my own without thinking to look on the forum for direction & counldn’t wait to share my journey haha. Just as I went to start this thread the voices in my head said “try the search function”…haha
Of course, someone already address this. Additionally, I just went to a junkyard for a fuel gauge yesterday & noticed felt falling out from all the Rivi vents. That, plus the thread I found made me happy to know I did it right. So here are the steps I took & pix to go with it.
My original felt was long gone. I had no idea what was used to keep the vents from moving freely. I thought felt was a good option & went to my local fabric store for some. I planned on cutting strips & spraying them with contact cement. Then I found they had these felt sticker sheets & literally laughed to myself about how cool this find was haha.
These vents can be broken down into 3 separate parts by loosening a set screw & removing the wire from the vent closure. We’ll call these parts the front half which holds the vent closure knob, the chrome ball vent & the back half where the actual air duct attaches. Once apart u can see where felt would fit nicely on the inside edges of both the front half & the back half. I simply cut strips of felt & applied them to the two halves. Sorry. Forgot to snap a pic of front half process
I cleaned, masked & rattle canned everything visible before applying the felt.
The two halves sandwich the chrome ball vent sooooo nicely now. The set screw allows for adjustment if u want a tighter or looser fit. This was one of those stupid simple but rewarding projects. I really like the outcome…maybe someday I will actually be able to use these vents haha
Herw is the link to the other thread
-
2
-
-
Someone posted a pic of a tool in the link I posted. That tool will help u take all the measurements u need to figure what wheel will work.
The pic shows a pro model tool. I believe it was priced as such too. When u do a google search u can find cheaper versions that are made more for us DIY home garage guys.
-
Yes…thank u…I got a kit too…doesn’t come with CD’s anymore
-
On 2/16/2019 at 6:54 PM, kreed said:
shipping expense
BUT I didn't have to ship them either way
try getting stainless polished and cleaned up ! They charge by the inch !
Tried to do some myself - big mistake. Looked worse than when I started . It's a real art that requires lots of patience and expertise if you want quality .
I didn’t have to ship mine out either. But now that I cruised my car in the sunlight with the new bumpers & I can see blems in the chrome. Best discription I can give is that it looks “foggy”…they may have to redo them
sorry to hear about your stainless. I must've had beginners luck when I tried mine. I didn’t know what I was doing. But I borrowed this bitchen polisher & two different rouges (white & green). It turns out I didn’t need the white rouge. After all, my stainless came out way better than what is was when I started.
-
Any one wanna buy the replacement gauge I came home with haha
-
Thx for the prompt replies brothers.
I came home with a replacement gauge & the tiny mounting screws off of a 65 for $50
I mention “tiny mounting screws” because (believe it or not) that was my fuel gauge problem…who woulda thunk.
Speedo repair shop used longer screws to mount my gauge causing metal mounting tabs in the cluster to separate from circuit card film…most expensive tiny screws I ever bought haha
every step I take I find some kinda issue with this build haha
Glad it worked out
-
Any help is appreciated
-
U probably already read this…good info
-
My gauge cluster is now looking better than ever after I gave it a makeover. I am happy with the outcome. After putting it back together I went for a 25 mile cruise & my fuel gauge never moved…WOW…my EFI must be saving fuel haha.
NOT…it turns out my fuel gauge is not working haha…always something right?
With the help of one of our forum brothers (Alini) we were able to narrow it down to the actual gauge. I have a lead on a replacement used one tomorrow. Fingers crossed that one works
If not, is there any other GM (Buick/Chevy/Pontiac) fuel gauge that will work in our First Gen Riv’s? I would like to try a brand new gauge next if the used one I get doesn’t work.
-
13 hours ago, jsgun said:
I've heard of guys spending 5K+
😳
-
58 minutes ago, jsgun said:
That's surprisingly cheap, I was expecting around $2500 and higher. One reason I bought my 64, was that the bumpers had been rechromed, and very well.
Cheap? Really? Wow! Ok…now I don’t feel so bad…cool. Thx. U made my day haha
They do have a couple of blemishes tho. Nothing I’m crying about. They turned out better than I expected.
-
3 hours ago, 65VerdeGS said:
Those bumpers look awesome!
Dare we ask what it cost for the triple-plating job? Was the rear more $ than the front?
Keep the updates coming - nice inspiration for the rest of us to get our rides in shape for spring!
Thank u…
I’m sure “shopping around” would have rendered a cheaper outcome. But I liked the examples this shop produced. Plus, I was stalling out on my forward momentum…so I pulled the trigger at the cost of…make sure your sitting down…don’t want u to fall & hit your head…you’ve been warned haha…$1100 😳 haha
Rear was $600…I only had the one main section of the front bumper done for $400…the two left & right pieces that sit to either side of rear license plate were $50 each.
I am trying…my updates & comments like yours help me keep going. Again, it’s nice to know a few guys like the direction I’m heading.
-
-
I recently had my bumpers re-chromed & taillights obviously needed some attention. Here are pix of what I was dealing with & the steps I took
The one dent below the driver side taillight bent the taillight bezel enough to crack it & broke the taillight lens. I was gonna try to salvage the taillight lens with a lot of plastic polish & epoxy. But quickly decided to buy new ones instead.
Bezels cleaned up pretty good with a little steel wool & acetone to remove oxidation & adhesive from old gasket. They are not as nice as I hoped for due to them being pitted pretty badly. I would love to get new ones. But at 500 bucks for a set I think I'll pass for now. Maybe I’ll revisit this issue if/when I decide on bodywork/paint
Old reflective paint was flaking off on the inside of the housing & oxidation was taking over. Cleaned, sanded & painted housing. The paint I decided to use was called Dupli-Color Universal Chrome. The can had a pretty chrome cap & had me envisioning how good that would look on the housing haha. Sales gimmick got me good haha. The paint was simply silver. NOT chrome haha. The housings definitely look better than before. But that “chrome” paint is now in the trash haha
I haven’t been home to see the taillights illuminates in the daylight. But all jokes aside, the silver paint seemed to do the trick. Lights look bright enough in the dark (see last pic). I did place an order for LED’s...I may not need them after all
Taillight Review:
New taillights I purchased from James Kehr at BestOfferCounts look 1000 times better than my original ones. Timing was perfect. I called looking for good used ones & he had just received the first set of re-pops he is having produced. His explanation over the phone was that they are NOT for the Concourse build guys. There are blemishes & scratches in the finish. $235 gets u 2 taillight lenses, 2 reverse lenses & 2 gaskets for taillight lenses from Rubber The Right Way + 17 for bezel gaskets ... not cheap but a good investment to help from getting rear ended
I could not get good pix of the blemishes. But once its all put together u can hardly tell there were any blemishes to begin with. I tried polishing lenses to get scratches out. That didn’t work. Although, the scratches are not very deep they seem to be part of the mold or something. There were a couple of spots which totally looked like a finger print where the person checked to see if the plastic had hardened enough?? Oops haha. They didn’t polish out either.
The lenses have ALL the same markings (lettering) in the face of the lenses & all the same locating tabs. They may pass on a show car...but not a Concourse car like James explained.
Products always ship promptly & well packaged. Overall, I like the lenses. But u saw what I started with
-
3
-
-
Where in LA?
LA is gi-normous
-
One piece of advise I was given was to clean & paint the backside of the bumpers when they come home. I was told chrome shops don’t really pay much attention to the backside.
Either this shop does great work, I simply got lucky or this was part of the triple plate cost I paid for??
Whichever it is, the backside of these bumpers look frigin awesome too, compared to what they looked like before.
U can clearly see how many dents this bumpers had in the before pic. The front wasn’t any better.
-
I have never sent anything out to get chromed before. I have no clue what it takes to get them straight. I’ll have to look up some videos to check out the process. From what I’m told, it sounds interesting.
Apparently, due to the thickness of the metal, they use some sort of power hammer to take out dents. In areas that are not accessible (like behind a mounting bracket) they simple cut the bracket, bang out the dent & reweld the bracket. In the case of my front bumper, the bracket was rewelded incorrectly…I could not get my square head mounting dammit!!
Chrome shop was gonna send out his mobile guy. But I told him I would give it a shot. I busted out my trusty ole HF die grinder & wha-lah!!
-
Oooooooh man!! Talk about car porn!!
I finally got my bumpers triple chrome plated. Or, at least, that’s what I was charged for haha
-
2
-
-
On 2/7/2019 at 3:49 PM, frenchy51 said:
That is very cool! Could you tell me the Holley part #? Is it 550-511 (EFI 4150 4--Barrel Self-Tuning Master Kit?). I found in Speedway catalog-their part #425550511K $1,259.99? I'm very interested in converting my '64 Riviera NailHead. Have you checked gas mileage compared to stock? Many Thanks-great pictures and information
Your welcome
Yes, the Master Kit is what I bought. Kit #550-510K
I have no clue what stock gas mileage is. My car was parked for way too long to remember. Sorry.
-
On 2/6/2019 at 4:27 AM, oldy65 said:
Can you tell the difference between before/after conversion to the Sniper EFI, in fuel consumption in mpg, throttle Response and engine Power.
You know any other guy, he goes with a modern Injection on a old nailhead like you.
Toni
Welcome to the forum Toni.
Sorry. I do NOT have a comparison of my fuel mileage. My car was parked for over 13 years. Then when I finally got her running again I was having all types of issues with my carburetor before I switched to EFI.
I had issues with throttle response. Then I discovered it was a linkage issue. So I fab’d up a linkage plate. I provided pix in this thread.
My carb was 600cfm. This TB (throttle body) is 800cfm. Engine power? YES!! I can sure tell a difference. Me likey haha
-
On 2/6/2019 at 5:02 PM, 65VerdeGS said:
Your dash work looks awesome - keep your updates coming!
On 2/7/2019 at 2:13 PM, Seafoam65 said:your hair is on fire again.........and in southern California that could be a dangerous thing!
On 2/7/2019 at 5:25 PM, whitewatersky said:I'd sure appreciate the help, but I'm in Australia...
I'm in LA every year or 2
i'll hafta check your ride in person if ever up Ventura way !
Thx for the feedback fella’s. Even tho this build isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it’s kinda nice to know some folks are enjoying my journey haha
@ whitewater, hit me up when your in town. Burgers, beers & burnouts haha
1965 Riv glovebox door adjustment
in Buick Riviera
Posted · Edited by RockinRiviDad (see edit history)
I’m working on my glovebox door now. Fixing the broken hinge mount. Will start a thread on that soon.
My 65 glovebox door is definitely NOT plastic. It’s heavy like pot metal. That’s probably why I can’t get the damn door to stay open haha. 50 year old springs probably tired too haha
edit:
went to visit my buddy whose car was featured in Leno’s Garage…he has two 65 Riv’s he built. Both his glovebox doors are made of heavy pot metal like material too. Maybe 63/64’s are plastic?