RockinRiviDad
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Posts posted by RockinRiviDad
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Recent talk of restoring Rally wheels got me inspired. I didn’t actually “restore” mine. But I half assed it by cleaning off the rust, polishing what was left of the chrome, masked & painted webs, bought Coker 1” white wall tires, pushed rear wheels out with 1” spacer & topped wheels off with new center caps from Mitch Romanowski.
Now I have the best of both traditional & hot rod worlds just by swapping wheels.
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Order your center caps from Mitch Romanowski. Super nice guy & amazing workmanship at a reasonable price.
Here is a pic of the 65 caps I bought. Beautiful!!! & they fit super tight.
http://buickcenters.com/riviera.html
http://buickcenters.com/riviera.html
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Cool pic Ed. I’m assuming u posted that for illustration purposes. Because I don’t see pistons, rods & all the other stuff Tom mentioned.
Do machine shops actually do the balancing when they put the engine together? Or would I have to ask. I would think that a machine shop would done it knowing it’s an externally balanced engine
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I would take the clamshells off. Especially, if u are reusing them on the new fenders. Handling these fenders is awkward. Taking off clamshells will reduce the weight & make handling easier
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On 3/29/2019 at 8:59 AM, petelempert said:
A finely tuned balancer is life and death critical on a high revving nitro methane burning dragster. On a low revving nailhead, not so much. PRL
Let’s not turn this into a driveline topic. But I am chasing a vibration like a few others on this forum. I’ve tried ALL the normal stuff with no luck. This thread has me thinking it might be my balancer???
I bought a replacement harmonic balancer from Larry Daisey years ago. I don’t think the balancer I replaced was original to my car either.
So, how do guys like me get the engine balanced with the replacement harmonic balancer??? -
I have heard that trapped air in the cooling system can cause overheating issues. Maybe your problem is that simple?
good luck & SWEET ride 👍🏼
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Nice 👍🏼 Where can I rent one of thems 🤣
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8 hours ago, DDDDDan said:
Just did my instrument and speedo
does your headlight switch dim the LED lights in your instrument & speedo? -
Took everything apart too. But not that far apart haha. Your idea of using rubber tape “should” work. My first thought was to buy a thin sheet of rubber at your local hobby shop, use the old ones as a template & cut new ones
as for lube, i used both spray lube & white lithium grease. I can remember if I used silicone or WD-40
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The blacker the berry…the sweeter the juice 😆
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Congrats. I was gonna point u to my EFI thread. I struggled so much with getting my switch to work right that I almost gave up. Like u, I didn’t & it worked out
I know it can be a pain in the butt. “BUT” can u post some pix of what u did. I’m sure someone, somewhere is/will be dealing with the same issue. Pix always makes things easier to learn from…well at least for the visual learners like me 😬
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Nice write-up of your troubleshooting. Your description sounds logical. I “think” u have the pathway correct.
I can say for certain that u CAN service your kickdown switch because I did it to mine. It was soooo simple but I had help. A transmission guru friend made a house call to help me sort this out.
The switch body is made of a soft type of metal. U can see that on the back side of the switch where the circuit board is mounted the edges of the switch body are folded/bent (there is a better term for this but I forgot it haha) over creating tabs to hold the circuit board in place. My buddy had me pry those out of the way. Two tabs played nicely & I had to take my Dremel to the other two tabs. Then the switch simply pulled apart, we inspected it, all was in good order. We cleaned, lubed with dielectric grease, reassembled, bent the two tabs back into place & created two new tabs with a small tipped screwdriver & small hammer which I had removed with my Dremel
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15 minutes ago, JJ62 said:
They found a place in California that had 3 of the 1 1/4 inch long bushings that I need sitting on a shelf since 2003
Interesting. I wonder if this place in Cali is the same place that I suggested u call. -
My tailshaft housing had a paper gasket. So I replaced it with a new paper gasket. No leaks.
Call this guy. This is where I got my bushing. Sounds like he was right, not many people/sources have the right part.
I don’t know where u live. If u are not in SoCal maybe he’ll ship it 🤷🏻♂️
Good luck
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9 minutes ago, arnulfo de l.a. said:
You are welcome David. Wondering if you got the horn working also
Yes. The wider horn bar I have now works the horn as good as the stock horn bar.
The narrower horn bars out there need the 3 mounting screws to be loosened/backed off in order for horn to work.
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YES!! Finally!! I have the cool wood wheel AND elusive horn bar on my car. I can hardly believe it!! The faux wood (still in need of repair) was given to me 6 years ago by @arnulfo de l.a.. Thank U kindly sir 👍🏼. I didn’t think I wanted to go thru the struggle of finding a horn bar. But this quarantine has me doing crazy things 🤦🏻♂️
In my hunt for a horn bar I found their are two types of repop horn bars. I learned that the hard way. One is narrower than the other. Guys who have them for sale didn’t even know this. Not a big deal, both are still cool horn bars. But I wanted the wider one & found one. Now, on to the faux wood repair…stay tuned 😝
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I was gonna suggest products from that same company in the link K-Man posted. But places like craft stores may have what u need
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I gotta get one of those
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I’ve had my cowl on & off more times than I want to count. I read this thread a week ago & I thought “what the hell, lemme take my cowl off again” haha
I bought a 1” thick foam pad from McMaster Carr a while ago for this very project. But I never got around to it. Now is a perfect time.
I saved the old petrified “air damn” pieces that where under my cowl when I took my car apart 8 years ago. I dug them out of storage to trace a pattern onto the 1” foam. I went bigger on the pattern thinking the originals probably shrank. I was able to cut out the patterns with a razor. A longer razor would’ve probably worked better. My new foam blocks look hideous. U can laugh. I am haha. But they work.I used a small piece of this same foam to jam into the end of my steering column where it sticks out of the firewall to keep hot air from climbing up steering column.
Hope this helps someone 🤷🏻♂️
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Whoa!! Me likey!! So we can simply slap those on our wheels?
I’m so in!! where do we get those rings??
Edit: wait a minute. I vaguely remember something about having to weld a wider lip welded on??
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18 hours ago, kreed said:
Any secrets to painting over chrome ? Rough it up first and the prime ?
I’ve never done it. But I’m guessing that a little scuffing with a red scotch brite pad follow by a primer then paint would work???
hopefully someone chimes in with real life experience
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Sorry for the delay. I didn’t expect to hijack this thread with so much interest in my wheels. Sorry @kreed
On 5/11/2020 at 11:37 AM, RivNut said:Are the rally wheels that you have the 67-1/2 and later ones? The earlier ones will not clear the caliper.
Not sure what year wheels I have. I meant to ask this Q on the other “wheel” thread where guys talked about the stampings on the rims outer edge. All I did was test fit my wheels over the front disc brake rotor & it seemed to clear caliper but the register ring was the hinder
On 5/11/2020 at 11:53 AM, Barney Eaton said:I think Ed answered correctly..... clearing the rotors is not the problem, the rims need to clear the caliper.
If the ring on the rim is the problem, I would machine the caliper before doing anything to the rims... I suspect the caliper has excess metal that could be removed.
As of now, yes, the ring is the problem. I will take a closer look but I may not understand what u are suggesting. I dont see how clearancing the caliper will solve the problem of my register ring not slipping over rotor hub
On 5/11/2020 at 12:04 PM, RivNut said:What disk brake system did you install? When I bought the Scarebird brackets, they were suggesting that you use the rotors from a 76 era Riviera. Those rotors originally worked with the same era wheel but those wheels did not have a register ring.
I will have to dig thru receipts to see what disc brake system I installed. I too bought the Scarebird brackets. But I didn’t follow their shopping list for parts. I ordered a complete kit thru a local Hot Rod shop
On 5/11/2020 at 7:34 PM, Turbinator said:The burning question is in your restoration are you having the wheels chrome plated and the web powder coated? Is that it?
Do you they check the wheel for true spin.?
Turbinator
I have aftermarket wheels on my car, which I enjoy. But the traditional/stock look has crossed my mind often. I still have my Rally wheels in the shed. At this point I only chimed in on this thread to see where guys are sending their wheels now.
That Texas shop sounds promising
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While chasing down a vibration I found my 65 tailshaft bushing was worn badly. Lots of slop in the dshaft. I bought the parts, I took my tailshaft off & the parts were wrong 😞
So I took tailshaft to a trans shop that only deals with old transmissions. He claimed very few people have the right bushing 🤷🏻♂️. He sold me the right stuff, he removed the old seal & bushing, pressed in the new & sent me home…all for $35…I was happy…but my vibration is still there 😩
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My 65, another build to follow
in Buick Riviera
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@kreed thank u sir. I’m still building up the courage to take on the steering wheel repair. That may take a while haha that’s why I’m still here…8 years later 😩😆