OldGerman

The manufacturing capacity limited the Riviera to a 40.000 vehicles per year. That is possibly the reason it was outsold by other models like the T- Bird. I don‘t know anything about the marketing of both company’s back in the 60th. but wasn‘t Buick more attracting older generations ? I personally like the Early 60-63 interior space age design and the low stance, but was never a fan of the exterior styling.

Jim, the old design has the door hinges bolt to the door from the inside. You need to remove the door skin to reach the bolts. This makes it difficult to adjust the doors. Ed mentioned the cool idea the drill a hole trough both, the hinge and the door before disassembly. Later you can use the hole as perfect adjusting reference by inserting the drill bit.

My Plan is to drive out the pins and bushings without removing the hinge from the body. If it is required to drill larger holes in the hinge to install larger bushings, I will remove the fender on passenger side as well, as I have the bumper currently off anyhow. It will be a pain for me to get the right drill bit size here in the land of metric System.... Thank you all for your input. Found a complete pin and bushing kit at bestofferscount and contacted them already.

thank you Ed. Any recommendation for a good source of new pins and bushings kit ? I will do a Google search, but will be thankfull about a good tip.

Hello Ed, yes I mean the upper and lower hinge bushings and the pins ( not bolt, sorry I used the wrong wording). Is it possible to drive the pins out ( of course with the door wide Open and Supported) without disassembling the fender ? Which way they do drive out ? ( upper pin downwards, lower pin upwards ? ) I had the driver side fender off and I saw it would be easy to Hammer the Pins out that way, but just wonder if it would be possible on the passenger side without removing the fender. picture shows driver side hinge with fender removed. Thank you. Frank.

I need to replace the door hinge bolts and bushings on the passenger side of my 63. I have no idea why only passenger side door is sagging. Is it possible to replace both, bolts and bushings, with the fender mounted on the car, or do I have to remove fender or the door skin to get access to hammer out the upper and lower bolt. What works the best ? Thank you.

I aggree with Jim. When I bleeded my new single master I did the mistake to just push the piston in as deep as possible. the piston overtravel a bore and fluid dripped out the cylinder. I think I ruined the Innern rubber seal Lippe that way. The brake pedal creates a limited travel of about 1“ at the push rod. The next time I did the bench bleed, I‘ve limited the travel by adding shims over the screw driver, to limit travel to max 1“.

Is it correct that the flattened side of the front coil spring comes up as shown in the photo ?

While the coil spring is out , I took the oportunety to press out the old lower control arm bushings. self made tool worked out well.

I found some insulator and shims sind the www. Standard non Automotive parts, not made for the Riviera. I Hope it will fit and work.

Sorry, I did not measure the rotation on the steering Box, I did not had it out of the vehicle. I have counted on the steering wheel only. Disconnecting the tirod ends will provide same result, as on the bench. The difference is maybe not a full rotation, but The steering gear Box will allways provide more travel/ rotation than what is needed/ restricted by the Suspension. Some gear boxes do not like to be forced into the limits of Travel. They need an solid stop by the suspension to be protected. An large offset between left and right tirod adjustment can also lead to a damage of the gear box when it comes to it physical stop before the suspension travel restriction is reached. GM steering gear boxes are maybe not critical, But I don‘t now this for sure. I do not have taken all the measurements, but what Tom T. Measured on the bench (4 1/4) and Tom M. (3 7/8) at the wheel sounds right to me. Just want to say do not compare apple with pear when it comes to comparing steering gear ratio by counting rotations lock to lock. There are two locks in the steering gear and linkage system.

That 3 7/8 turns is what I can confirm for a Standard 63 Riviera counted at the steering wheel. This number of turns is provided by the suspension stops. The knuckle movement is limited by the lower control arm. The steering gear box on the bench will provide some more rotation from its lock to lock. I guess both values are right, but were measurements taken at different places.

The suspension coil springs are pre-tensioned when assembled. If the space available for the spring is reduced by inserting a shim, it is further pre-tensioned and thus lifts the vehicle against its own weight through the spring force. How far the vehicle rises depends on the spring rate of the coil spring used or it's age/weakness. If it is very strong, the vehicle will lift more than with a low spring rate. If all the information about the installation situation were available, it would even be easy to calculate how far it will lift with a certain shim size. Since the vehicle is sitting on a spring at every corner, they are all in balance. This means that if the spring at the front left becomes weak and the vehicle sinks at this corner, this also affects the other three corners. The vehicle rises a little at the front and back on the right. Since the front of the vehicle is heavier due to the engine, the rear section in particular is raised more on the right.

I have found an insulator on one side made from a tire side wall. This piece of rubber is heavily reinforced by the cord. So it was in a good shape. That could be a Self made Solution as well but it is hard to cut a tire. What size of shim do I have to add to lift the front at the driver side by approximately one inch ? Thank you Best regards Frank

I‘m concerned that this coilover shock carries the weight of the car instead of the coil spring resting on the lower control arm. Maybe I’m completely wrong and please correct me if so, but I think the complete front weight of the car is now sitting on the two small screws Attaching the shocks to the lower Control arm. What I‘m missing here ?

That is a good idea. The aftermarket part offered by CARS and OGPI is a simple flat rubber shimr at a cost of 25$. From the illustration the NOS part Looks more like a molded Part made in a shape which fits the upper coil spring end.

My 63 Riviera front sags a little bit on the driver's side. The front spring is probably a little tired, but the rubber insulator over the spring is also missing. I think that will make a big difference. Does anyone have the rough dimensions of the insulator on hand for me? Maybe I also have to fabricate a shim to be in line with the passenger side ride hight. I guess the shim diameter would be similar to the insulator outer diameter. See illustration attached for reference. Thank you all for your input.

They are 12“ Outsider diameter. If the casting would fit Buick inner brake liner diameter and width, it would be easy for the manufacturer to drill additional 5 on 5“ lug holes for the Buick folks. It‘s too Bad they just make them for Ford Hotrods.

737 Esslingen, Germany.

The pre bend lines from inline where the correct fit on my 63, but I was not able to assemble them into the car with engine and radiator assembled and my car sitting on jack stands. This is maybe easy with the engine out or liftet, or you have to dissassembly some other parts to get access and to make final adjustments to the bendings. I ended up in cutting the lines in two pieces and added short hydraulic tubes to Get it into the car. I can’t get a flaring tool and fittings in that tube size in the metric world here in Germany.

Just removed the driver side door skin on my 63. the window did operate up and down easy, but it feels loose and did rattle in the channels. I found the previous owner already removed the Most likely broken window guide arm. Some nuts of The window channel assembly were loose and the felt lining in tracks is worn. Is there a source for new channel felt lining ? Does anybody has dimensions of the guiding arm, to fabricate a repro?

Used gear ? I bought this set TS576 from CARS. I think the surface marks are left from the machining, but there was no surface treatment like grinding. It is not a high precision part, but that is maybe not required. I‘m thinking of leaving this part in the box and order the TA performance chain set. This is not the first time I buy things twice....

I also used just one of The 3 Mr. gasket 98 steel plates. I need to grind a small cutout on one side to clear the choke or carb Linkage. Plugged the intake holes in addition as I will not use the car as a dayly driver or in cold climate condition.

Good Morning, read a discussion in this forum about water pump replacement and timing gear set replacement. This time I started a new Topic before intruding in an existing one. Has anyone made experience with the timing gear and chain set from CARS ? I purchased one a while back and brought it with me to Germany. Still not installed, and from visual inspection, it seems the gears did not went trough any deburring process and no heat treatment. Maybe I’m wrong with the heat treatment. I know now there is much better quality parts available ( See second pic.) but now this set is already on my bench. It has only one small hole in the larger gear, while others sets have two small bores of a different size. Would you use the set and what kind of deburring treatment should I do ( no tumbler available for me). What is the second larger bore for in the second Photo ( this is not the CARS kit I have) ? thank you.

I agree to the risk of damaging fender if there is just a small hit on the corner. With the bolts and washers uninstalled, I saw the bumper ends shaking when car ran in idel. (Ok, you may say I have to fix an issue on my ignition or engine first , 😂 ) I also noticed both brackets were cracked from continious bumper vibration. Is this a common problem with or without the outer bolts installed ?