Seafoam65

There are normally two places to look for a partial VIN on your 3.8 supercharged block.....Look on the side of the block above the starter, and look on the front of the block below the water pump. On my 2000 Grand Prix GTP it was above the starter.

I've had probably 30 60's radiators recored over the years, only had two that ever came back on me with a leak, and they were fine after the second attempt, but if you want a new one that is copper and looks very close to original, the best deal I've found in searching is the one that Original Parts Group sells for 637.99 plus tax. Other brands of copper radiators that look pretty correct are 750..00-1075.00. Aluminum radiators are way way cheaper, but look totally out of place on a car like Mark's 65.

There is no reason that your original radiator cannot be repaired to last for many many years..... I would let the guy who did it last year fix his mistake. You can't buy a new one that has correct appearing tanks.

My opinion is that the 65 Rivieras have been so sought after by people wanting to build Led Sleds and Lowriders and very expensive customs that there just aren't hardly any nice unmodified ones left, that plus there were a lot more 63-64 models built to begin with. In addition to that, a lot of people bought the 63's and 64's to collect because they were such a landmark car, but by 65 they were old hat, so they were driven and discarded, or traded for the swoopy new 66 Rivieras. I can tell you that it takes a long time to find a mint original low mileage 65........took me five years of looking to find mine, and that was 11 years ago. There is no doubt that they are thin on the ground compared to the 63's and 64's. Another reason is if you own a 65 Riviera that is nice, why in hell would you ever sell it before you go out horizontal? It is the ultimate 60's car in my opinion and a keeper not to be flipped. Another factor has to be that back in the day, if you had a front end fender bender in your 65 Riviera, it was a nightmare to fix it what with those delicate hideaway headlamp assemblies......a lot of them probably went to the junkyard in the 70's and 80's because of that.

Normally the top of the gas tank will have ribs on it with valleys in between the ribs. This is the case on all 60's GM fuel tanks. Normally the wire is routed to where it's sits in a valley between the ribs so that it won't be pinched, and an insulation mat sits on top of the tank. To keep the wire from slipping out of the valley one can secure it to the tank with electrical tape.

Agreed..........non top tier gasoline will reek havoc on your engine. Here in North Texas, everything is top tier except Race Trac, Costco,Sams, Walmart and grocery store gasoline stations. All the gasoline in a given area comes from the same vat at the fuel terminal but the non top tier gasolines don't receive the detergents in the small vat next to the big vat at the terminal. The additives are put in the fuel when the trucks are loaded.........and they add about 10 cents to the gallon to the price at the pump.

For passenger cars, 35 psi is usually the recommendation on radial tires, but published pressures are arrived at considering a smooth ride as a factor. I always have run my tires at 40 psi and don't ever let the tires get lower than that and I never have tire failures and have gotten as many as 75,000 miles out of my yokahama tires, which are the best tires out there in my opinion. Yokahamas never pull, never get out of round, never crack, and will outlast any other tire there is in terms of miles of use before they hit the treadwear indicators. Running your radials at 40 psi will help your gas mileage and will cut down on cornering wear.

The 401 in my 65 Riviera has never had any engine work other than a new timing chain and gear set. The engine has 61,000 original miles on it. The only premium I can buy in North Texas is 93 octane fuel with 10 percent alcohol content. The alcohol free gas for sale in North Texas is 87 octane only. I use that in my old cars designed to run on regular fuel. In the Riviera I use the 93 octane fuel with the timing set to original specs and the engine runs great with no pinging. The original Ram Air 3 400 engine in my 69 GTO absolutely would not run on 93 octane fuel without horrible spark knock, even with the timing retarded. What I did on that car is build a 455 Pontiac engine with 71 GTO 400 heads, making the compression 9.5 to 1. This engine is more powerful than the 10.75 to 1 original 400 and runs fine on 93 octane with no pinging. My 1970 Chevelle SS 396 also would not run on pump gas. I installed a 396 engine out of a 72 Chevelle SS and it runs great, lots of power, no pinging and I run alcohol free 87 octane regular in that car.

367.00 plus tax and shipping.........Makes me really love my battery topper

The problem with these is that the top of a modern battery does not look like tar. The tar top battery toppers actually look like an original tar top battery.

Yes, but the Corvette used a 24 series battery instead of a 27. You can buy a tar top battery topper for a 24 series battery but not a 27, as the the 27 is slightly longer. The 24 series tar topper is produced for the Corvette and GTO guys.

The originals were group 27 tar top Delco batteries with yellow caps with black delco letters on the caps. There were no stickers on the batteries, but as I recall the Delco name was molded into the plastic on the side of the battery. I believe you can spend a lot of money for a repro tar top battery that will boil acid everywhere and ruin your battery box..... but for 100's less you can buy a flat top 24 series battery from Oreilly's and put a tar top battery topper with yellow caps on it. These toppers have the Delco lettering on the caps, but for correctness you just take black paint and paint the raised letters on the caps black. With this setup you will never have acid corrosion to deal with and when you need a new battery you just swap the topper over to the new battery. It's a no brainer.

What I use on my 65 Riviera is a group 24, which allows me to use a correct appearing tar top battery topper. These toppers have yellow caps like the original batteries had. As Ed stated, the positive post needs to be next to the radiator.

To add insult to injury,some of the washer fluid for sale out there is nothing but colored water that freezes at 32 degrees. I have bought several bottles of the phony colored water at auto parts stores that freezes at 32 degrees.

If the button just recently fell off, it's got to be in the car somewhere.....find it and glue the old one back on. The metal backing is still tied to the seat....it should be easy to glue it back on.

It's not going to be a switch problem or wiring problem other than the bat cable connections. These items are not affected by engine temp and you state it always starts when the engine is cold. It is the battery, the starter or the battery cable connections.

I'm pretty sure that you have to remove the console from the car and flip it over to do the job you are trying to do. Since there are no visible screws holding on the metal section they would have to be located on the underside of the console. Try removing the rear ash tray and shine a flashlight in the hole and you will be able to tell if the fasteners are accessible through that hole. If not the console will have to come out.

There is a guy who advertises in the Riview magazine that claims he had Bilsteins made that fit early Rivieras and that he sells them.....they are pricey as I recall.

Just so you know........a battery that checks good on a load test can do what you describe as your problem. What actually happens is that there is an intermittent connection breakdown inside the battery between one of the posts and the plates. This doesn't happen where the problem is intermittent very often but it can and does happen sometimes. I've seen it in my car repair business maybe twelve times. This is dangerous because when they lose connection to the post internally they can arc at the post internally and cause the battery to explode. Again not common but I have seen it happen about five times over the years. Usually batteries that have this intermittent start symptom are old batteries........4 years old or older. Because of the explosion risk if I suspect it may be the battery I just go ahead and disconnect it and replace it because I don't want to be standing over the battery checking juice at the post when it could possibly explode in my face.

Bad springs will not cause the car to bounce too much, only shocks can cause that. The symptom of bad springs is incorrect ride height. Agree on the Bilsteins......the only way to go.

Make sure that you have clean tight connections at the battery posts. If there is no problem there, it is either the battery or the starter in all probability. If the battery is old, I recommend you just go ahead and change it out. If the battery is not very old, it is probably the starter. If it is the starter, most likely if you had somebody with you to help check it out when the problem happens, in all probability it will turn over when the starter is banged on with a hammer while the key is being held down. If banging on the starter makes it turn over you will know for certain that's what's wrong. If you have a helper with you when it happens, you can check to see if it's the battery by hooking a voltmeter up to the top of the battery posts and checking the voltage while the key is being held down when it won't start All that being said, the most likely cause is a bad starter.

I would just leave it loose......no glue

Problem solved!......good job Ed!

That looks pretty darn good........if I owned one of these cars I would stock up on that one from Amazon.

Also there is supposed to be a circle cut out that is centered on the air cleaner wing nut stud. I don't recall what the diameter of the circular cutout was. Perhaps someone else could chime in.