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.

That's what ultimately made me decide on a 64'. The lack of side vents in particular took it from being something of a muscle/luxury appearance to a straight out luxury car. In fact the front and rear to me says late 60's, almost 70's in character. I prefer the earlier period styling of the 63/64. I know most people see the 65' model as the ultimate though so each to their own.

I notice that all the prices across the full range go up and down at the same time by the same percentage. Seems to me it's probably just a simple equation of the total values of cars divided by the number and then a multiplier is added for condition. I checked out a 64' Riviera and their values are pretty whacked - 46k for a concourse car. A 62' Lincoln convertible on the other hand seems spot on... I wonder what happened in 2013? Maybe a presidential limo sold...

I hate those shows with a passion. Taking classic cars and turning them into junk. I also hate shows like counting cars which are obviously staged and not based on any form of reality. Jay Leno's show is good though. There is also a show in Australia called Man & Machine which isn't bad.

They can make stainless with thinner wall material and therefore it's lighter. Whether they actually do or not I guess is up to the manufacturer. To me it comes down to cost, how long you want it to last and appearance. I used to mess around with a lot of Jap turbos and no one would ever buy an aftermarket exhaust for one of those in anything but stainless.

Thanks Bill. What I was after is actually the pull through grommets (also known as bumper rubbers as that's what they are often used for) used to hold the boot itself together. I didn't have any photos at the time as my camera batteries were all flat. I don't have one of those smart phones... What I eventually found was not quite the right part but does the job and still looks 90% right from the outside. Unfortunately it won't be much help to most of the fellas here as I got them from a place in Australia called 'Clark Rubber'. This is somewhat comical because Clark rubber is a big franchise store that you wouldn't expect to sell something so specific. Out of the five pull through grommets they had on their website this happened to be almost right. The correct size is roughly 12.5 x 2mm head for a 4.5mm hole. What I got was a 11 x 3 head for 4.5 hole. The 'panel thickness' is a bit small but as they stretch it still worked. The step on the outside is also a tad small. Below is the original broken part next to the new one. I've also installed a spare to show how it looks. Link for Aussies is: http://www.clarkrubber.com.au/pull-through-grommet.html

I'm guessing you're talking about the green connector to the motor? I think we all have this problem. There is a replacement that appears on ebay from time to time. It's got a white plug instead but otherwise it's the same. Here is a link but for some reason it has an utterly absurd price against it. That said, they are never cheap - usually around $20 from memory... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cadillac-Buick-Chevy-Pontiac-Olds-Power-Window-Lock-Wiring-Plug-Pigtail-Harness-/121549825390?hash=item1c4cef256e:g:J30AAOSwWKtUwCct&vxp=mtr

Hi all, I'm after the rubber bumpers that fit the wiring loom boots/covers on a 64 Riviera. This is the rubber cover that fits over the wiring loom between the door and door jam. It's held together with small rubber bumpers. These are almost impossible to remove without breaking. Lots of people sell these in all shapes and sizes. Mr G's being one of them. However no one seems to have the right size for this application. I'm sure they're out there but the problem is trying to find the right one is like a needle in a haystack.

One comment that people have made previously is they don't believe you can see the passenger mirror properly because of the vent window frame. I suppose it's because of the angle you are looking at it from the drivers seat. I'd like to know if anyone actually has one and if this is true. I'd like to put one on my car as I'll be driving a LHD car on the left side of the road and a right mirror is invaluable. But there's no point if it's obstructed...

Don't you need the right compressor to go with it though? One with a clutch?

Classic Auto Air said they could sell me an alternative valve for around $50. I didn't bother to find out what it was but you could ask them what they can do for you - I imagine it's not particularly factory looking. They said they needed to know if it was a push or pull to open - by my understanding it's push to open as it sits in the engine bay (at least according to the photos I took).