Mozzie

Ahh thanks for pointing that out Telriv. The first time I put these together I forgot to connect the handbrake, not realising it's not possible to do so without everything disassembled. Having never done drums brakes before I was obviously frsutrated by then and didn't pay attention. The stupid thing is I knew from the start to take note of which way the brake shoes should go and printed photos to copy. There is a lot you can get wrong doing these... Anyway I went out and fixed it this afternoon - not much else to do. Took me 2 hours but it's all correct now. I'm going to remove the picture so no one else sees it and copies it (you never know where pictures can end up). I didn't bother taking another picture as it's cold and raining outside and generally not a great place to be.

It's been a long time since I posted. The project sat around for quite some time (mostly because I bought 2 other cars) but last year I got stuck into the chassis/driveline side of things. I ended up building a spray booth and painting parts myself in 2 pack (mostly using Valspar Industrial which is the black satin chassis finish, this is a very hard finish). The end result is all new suspension, brakes, bushes and front end. New A/C compressor, rebuilt power steering pump and box and a whole lot of other parts. Engine and trans did not require rebuild but I replaced gaskets and water pump etc. I found the painting okay but it can be tricky with gun settings, temperature etc. A number of things had to be redone due to paint too dry or runs. The Valspar satin cannot be sanded and buffed so it has to be perfect straight from the gun. There were other thing such as using a sand blasting cabinet (Cheap Harbor freight one which is a POS) and blackeneing hardware etc. Shocks from Jamco didn't fit and had to be modified. The Pro6ten AC compressor had to be moved forward on the bracket due to interference with the pulley bolts. This required some bushes to be made. The front end bushes and the prop-shaft were also a pain. Most of the work however was cleaning, blasting and painting. Next up is the body which I've decided to have professionally resprayed. I was originally going with the factory color but I've decided to change it to a custom color.

It seems to me most people on Craigslist are either incredibly lazy or don't actually want to sell their cars. Most of them say don't email or message me which I can understand but like it or not when you sell something you have to make an effort.

Someone spent a lot of money on that restoration - far more than they'll ever get back. Good on them - it looks amazing.

With torque like that a spring / lock washer wont be doing anything. Once you torque the bolt to be under tension the washer is redundant.

Different clip but I think the application is the same:

I found on my 64' the channel behind the glass was rusted through in multiple locations. The screws that hold the moulding clips were also rusted away. From the outside there was no evidence of rust behind there at all. The parcel shelf however had a good about of surface rust on it. There is a good video on youtube showing how to remove the mouldings (I don't have the link but a search on GM moulding removal should find it). Once you see how, it's fairly easy and the tool from memory was nothing fancy. You can buy replacements from OPGI but they are very expensive and only available for the rear screen (front are shown as available soon but they are actually still in development). So for me, resealing the window is the least of my worries. As others have said, covering all the channel with a fine but neat coat of sealant should protect it. Interestingly someone had previously patched mine with clear silicon and in those areas there was no rust at all. So there is something to be said for modern sealants and protecting the surface. For glass removal I just used the old wire trick however at one point the glass had somehow fused to the metal and needed a bit of force - the glass is pretty strong fortunately.

I bought one for my 64 Riviera just recently and noticed the exact same thing. Like you I also thought about prying off the original to replace the new one. I haven't done anything yet so I'm no help to you. Just thought you'd feel better knowing it's not just you. One thing I'd also like to know is if it's possible to match the new door locks I bought with the ignition. You can't buy all three with a matched key which is annoying.

Hi Larry, The clips are pretty basic - you could just about make them with the right kind of metal strip. Many places like OPGI sell clips that are similar but in most cases they are just cheap universal clips that don't really match the originals at all. What I have noticed is that all the clips on the fuel lines appear to be much the same. I can't remember the orientation of the hoses from the fuel lines to the tank I'm afraid. I do know that the hoses are each about 8" long so they may well bend back on themselves with a decent radius. OPGI and other places sell the two fuel lines pre-bent to fit the car in stainless and natural. Be warned though that these actually have extra, large radius bends, to fit them in boxes so you'll have to bend them back straight (seems rather pointless).

Hi Larry, Not sure if this helps but this is the underside of my 64' near the gas tank. I took these with the car on it's side on a rotisserie. You can see where the clips are:

I bought one from http://www.oldbuickparts.com/ for $129.50 USD however it's still about a month off arriving so I can't tell you if it's a true replacement. Obviously you'll be looking at more like $250 AUD by the time you get it. Prices here being what they are I usually don't even bother checking for a local solution as they are always absurdly expensive. One local mob wanted $700 AUD for a compressor that I bought for $340 USD.

It's been a while since I posted any progress. I've pretty much stripped the body completely now and fortunately didn't find anything else bad. Everything is photographed, bagged and tagged except for the obvious stuff. I've also ordered about 6.5k USD worth of parts which is going in a container next week for delivery to Australia. It's an expensive process getting it all here and I decided to do it in two lots. The next shipment will include all interior and any remaining small stuff to finish it off. This order was for all air con, heating, suspension, front end, rubbers, muffler and various other parts to finish the rolling chassis. Todays job was to finally get the body off the chassis and onto the rotisserie. Being a full chassis this is tricky as the front rotisserie mount needs to go where the engine is. In the end I bought a gantry crane to lift the front up and half the rotisserie to lift the rear. I jacked up the back under the diff, put axle stands with wooden blocks next to the chassis mounts and then lowered the chassis down leaving the body with enough room to fit the rear brackets. I took the rear wheels off for this part to get a bit more room. The front half I lifted with the gantry and put some wood packers under the sills to distribute the load a bit more evenly. The rotisserie in the fully extended position gave only about an inch clearance from the rear suspension to the floor to roll the chassis out of the way - lucky. I used the trusty Subaru to pull the chassis out of the way as there were only two of us for this job. Then we mounted the rest of the rotisserie in place. I haven't tried rotating it yet but it will probably need a little extra adjustment. It all went quite smoothly with no damage to anything. The brackets for the rotisserie were modified with angle welded on to use the chassis mounts. Obviously the rear suspension chassis mount position is not supported with this set up but I'm thinking I might put some stands with lengths of wood at those points so when I'm not working on it the body is fully supported as it would be on the chassis. Next part is to restore/paint the chassis and everything on it. A job made much easier without the body in the way. The body will be going off to get blasted and will be primed in epoxy with the underside fully painted before it goes back on the chassis. After that I'll do some more work before it goes for the rest of the body and paint.

18k is expensive compared to what exactly? An un-restored car? I would have thought 18k is actually pretty cheap. It depends on how good the work is and how good it was to begin with of course but you'd spend at least half that just on parts. Add paint, chrome and everything else and you'd be close to 30k not even including the original cost of the car.

Very nice. I can't stand POR15 though. Originally they were body color underneath and when I see POR15 it just seems like a lazy effort and a great way of covering up a multitude of sins.