Seafoam65

the price it's worth is totally dependent on whether the pot metal is pitted or not. Not even worth zero dollars if it is pitted.....if the chrome is perfect with no pits......worth at least 350.00. The condition of the silver paint is irrelevant.....very easy to respray the silver.

Not to fret.......when that car got crushed the value of your intact Riviera just went up.......the ideal situation for you would be crush them all till only yours is left.......it would be worth at least a million dollars at that point. Stuff like that used to bother me until it dawned on me that that's why my car keeps going up in value. All you Riviera owners out there....please either crush your car or resto mod it with an LS motor or make it into a lowrider. You have my permission and my encouragement!

Yes, 66 was the last year with the nailhead.

The 63's had color co-ordinated pedals. 65's were black on all the cars. I'm not certain on the 64 models.....I'm sure a 64 expert will chime in.

I've been thinking about the crazy prices at auctions vs. the reality of the regular marketplace and it dawned on me what is going on.........extremely wealthy people go to the auctions to buy their cars because they like to get out there and show off to others how much coin they have.......the cost of the car is irrelevant to them because they have millions of dollars in their bank account, but they can only really show off their wealth in an auction environment and they get off on outbidding all of their fellow rich competitors for the car in question. Kind of like two roosters showing off in front of the hens. All it takes for crazy prices to ensue is too filthy rich guys who are interested in buying the same car.....the actual selling price is irrelevant to them as long as they come out on top of the other roosters in the barn.

I have no idea how much someone would pay for it but that part is totally unobtanium, so to a guy with blue pedals that needed one it should be worth big coin, but the market for this part since it is blue is extremely limited. As rare as it is I can't imagine selling it for less than 200.00 if it belonged to me. Too bad that it isn't Red......you could put it on your car.

When these engines flood that badly it is always either the fuel pressure regulator has a blown diaphragm or the engine coolant temp sensor is telling the computer that the temp is -40 degrees F.or the oxygen sensor is telling the computer that the exhaust is lean when it is not. I've never seen it be anything but one of those three things when it floods that badly. since you have already changed the fuel pressure regulator, change the 02 sensor and the coolant temp sensor.

It puzzles me why someone would go to an auction and get fleeced when they could just buy the car for half price a couple of months before the auction. If I was in the market for a 65 GS Riviera an auction is absolutely the last place I would look for one.

I'm in the car repair business and sometimes I have to drive the car for an hour to get rid of power steering pump whine after changing the pump, gearbox or rack and pinion. It takes a while for all the little air bubbles to work their way out. If you find that the air bubbles never go away, that means there is a leak on the suction side of the pump that is allowing the pump to suck air.

That looks like it might buff out!

One big aspect of all this that is going on right now is the explosion of people putting LS engines and late model style chassis in 63-67 Corvettes. Art Morrison makes a frame to stick under the 63-67 bodies that is set up with late model Corvette suspensions with LS mountings and rack and pinion steering. One reason a lot of people are doing this to mid year Corvettes that need restoration work is the incredible dollars they are bringing at auctions like Barrett Jackson. From what I've read, a lot of people are building these cars and then selling them for 100,000 dollars more than they cost to build. In my opinion in ten years all the small block mid year Corvettes will have been converted to LS powertrains. I think the 427 cars will remain stock at least for now. A lot of shops are using a business model where they build these mid year Vettes and immediately sell them at a huge profit. One of my friends built an LS7 powered 67 Vette roadster with the undercarriage off a rollover wrecked Z06 Corvette and he's been offered 100K more than he spent on the build,, which he totally farmed out and paid others to do.

Ed, it's my understanding that putting an LS in an early Riviera requires extensive frame modifications thus it is much more expensive and difficult than putting one in an A-body.The ones I have seen in magazines that were done to early Rivieras were done while the body was removed from the frame. I would like to hear from someone who has actually done this swap to chime in on what specifically is involved.

Tom I had one of those bulletproof early LS motors in a 2003 Silverado i bought new.....it sent a rod through the block at 45,000 miles when a cracked head caused the engine to hydrolock when starting it up one morning. I sold it after putting another engine in it and bought a 1999 Ford Expedition with 241,000 miles on it's original 5.4 engine. 12 years later the original engine has 350,000 miles on it and I know of an early Expedition with 581,000 miles on it's original engine.....THAT is my definition of "bulletproof".

As edinmass and Tom T point out, the purpose to LS an old car is to have massive horsepower. This is how the hobby has changed........the emphasis used to be on preserving the past for enjoying motoring the way it was back in the day........now it's about where can I find an old car to restomod it into a late model car and will your early Riviera run 9's at the drag strip? My guess is that in ten more years it will be pretty much impossible to find an original restored 60's automobile, as the restomod trend is just exploding right now and once an old car has been modified to that extent it will never be stock again. Even Hemmings is jumping on the LS everything in sight bandwagon.......that's pretty much all there is in Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine now. Recently there was a feature where a guy put an LS motor in a very nice original 375 horse SS396 Chevelle. It is amusing how the writers of these features always put in a paragraph about how it just had to be done because the old heap was literally undriveable the way it was built from the factory.....so slow it couldn't get out of it's own way, brakes that made the car impossible to stop, and the car was unable to go around a corner without flipping over! According to these writers, these mods had to be done or the car would be too slow, dangerous and unreliable to actually drive it on the street. As I said earlier, I hope every old car other than my old cars gets an LS swap so I can sell my cars for 150K each in ten more years. By the way I drive my stock restorations on the street so beware if you see me and give me a wide berth because my cars won't stop or go around a corner without crashing, and i don't want you to get caught up in the carnage!

Has anyone else noticed the huge increase in people putting LS Chevy motors in antique cars of all makes........a lot of them aren't even GM cars. This was unheard of in the Riviera hobby 5 years ago and now they are everywhere. I'm not complaining mind you because each time this is done my car increases in value.......but I think that one thing that is causing Riviera Grand Sports to rocket in value the last couple of years is that they are starting to become the only nice stock 63-65 Rivieras out there for sale......all the regular Rivieras have been highly modded, lowered, and stuffed with LS engines. People are even buying real Gran Sport 425 4 barrel cars and putting LS motors in them. If you read the newsletter that the Australian Riviera group puts out, they are converting all their Rivieras to LS power as fast as they can....it's spreading faster than Covid 19. As a car repair shop owner by trade, and as someone who sees LS engines blow up all the time at very low mileage, I would never own an LS powered vehicle if: (1) I had to pay to fix it or (2) I cared if I arrived at my destination or not. The LS motors GM is building right now are seeing catastrophic hydraulic lifter failures that fill the whole engine with shrapnel at as few as 4,000 miles on the odometer. I will stay with my 57 year old, fuddy duddy, running perfect nailhead thank you very much!

Nope, you would need to use the entire 65 front clip setup or none of it. The front fenders on a 65 are not compatible with the grill of a 64 or the 64 park lamps.

You are correct.......HEI distributors are a nightmare of unreliability......probably the most unreliable ignition ever designed by anyone.........Pertronix conversions however are quite reliable and troublefree. As a side note, back in 1979 my Dad bought a brand new 79 Camaro and the HEI failed the second day he owned it.....had to be towed in.

Having been in the old car hobby and the car repair business for 47 years, I have installed more Pertronix units than I can count including on all my own cars decades ago and have never experienced one single failure.......I have however been left stranded on the side of the road by a points and condensor set that was a week old........so no there is NOT a consensus among the experienced folks on this forum. The only reason a Pertronix ever fails is that people leave the key on without starting the engine. This is easy to avoid as there is no reason to ever do that in the first place. With a Pertronix the dwell is always dead nuts perfect as well as the timing. Once it is set, you are done for the rest of your life with dwell and timing checks, and you can toss your dwell meter in the trash can.

I didn't use any adhesive, but I did put vinyl down on the floor area to protect the new material from soaking up any tar or sealer material present on the trunk floor. The whole kit just plops in and stays(the cardboard holds everything in place)

Eric, judging from your list of cars owned you have extremely good taste in Automobiles.

The suggested maintenance interval for changing out the coolant by Buick was replace it every two years. the previous owner of my Riviera of 45 years who was a mechanic at the dealership it was sold at always changed the coolant every two years and I have continued the practice......this works because my car still has the original non leaking heater core and original radiator that is spotless inside and has never leaked either and never been out of the car.

You may be on to something.........I agree that it is hard to believe that there are so many of these nice GS Rivieras out there for sale given the low production number.......I think there must be a lot of clones out there. It is my guess that a lot of them are Frankenstein cars where they take all the GS stuff off of a rusted out heap in a junkyard and install the rear end, trans and engine into a regular 65 Riviera. Also VIN and body tag swaps are likely taking place. In the Pontiac hobby, this has been done to GTO Judges in large numbers........I personally know of about ten gorgeous frame off Judges that are in reality tag swap cars. Same thing with 1970 LS6 454 Chevelles.......more for sale at any one time than were actually produced.

It already pretty much looks like the same condition as the Road House car......all you need to do is get it running, bash in the left front fender and install a Stop sign and pole in the middle of the windshield, bend the antenna 90 degrees, and get the clams working, then use it to visit your local watering hole while keeping your BMW stored under a car cover. When dealing with a potential buyer for the car, I recommend be nice until it's time to not be nice.

That sounds like a typical OPGI story.........I believe the part will be very nice when or if it becomes available.....I have one of their dash pads from the same manufacturer in my 70 Chevelle and it is beautiful. It is my guess that the dash pads are on a Chinese boat in Los Angeles harbor waiting around to be unloaded. You are correct in pointing out that they are a PITA to deal with.

Just google search "new dash pad for 63-65 Riviera" and they come right up.........I just noticed however that they are temporarily out of stock and expect to have them available again in March.