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telriv

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Posts posted by telriv

  1. I know of one '63 that had the 2x4 on it. It was purchased by a lady as a parts car for another '63 that she was restoring. I think that ultimately she restored this one over the other because it was SO unique. This was at an ROA meet in, I belive. 2000 in Pa. It was probably a "Mule" car that Buick put together to do some testing of the 2x4 before introducing the 2x4 for '64. Many of us, including Tom Mooney I believe, Tom definately remembers this car,  went over this car as far as date codes, numbers, etc. & feel it was legit. Dennis Manner does NOT remember having this car built expressly for a test car, but it WAS built by Buick. Dennis ws even looking at it. Correct carbs, distributor, had a BO TH400 trans., ( haven't found that BO code in any listings) a '64 rear end with the flange & all date coded correctly for the build date of the car.  Which I believe was 04 or 05B. A mix of '63 & '64 consoles. Left hand threads on the left side. '64 drums & axles on the right side. Everything matched up. So at least ONE was made. There are others as well as myself who crawled around & under this '63 to document what we were looking at. MANY more experts than myself only. Not saying I'm an expert on anything.

     

     

    Tom T.

  2. '65 resistence is 90 ohms. '64 & earlier are 45 ohms. Look in Hemmings there are a few that rebuild them. Basically the most common problem is the copper/brass strap breaks/corrodes. Just clean it up & solder back together. You can take the actual sender apart also. Pry back the 3 clips & slide the cover back. Check the resistor wiring for any breaks & with an ohm meter. Clean the wire that's wrapped around for the resistor. Do this carefully as these are very delicate. Clean the point contact surface & very slightly bend the arm to make the contact with the resistor a "little" tighter. The float also goes bad, but very seldom. When you pull the sender check to make sure, if the float is brass, that there's no fuel inside. If it's made of a composite material it will be heavy because the outer barrier has worm away & soaked up fuel. Feel the weight with your hand when you remove it & then let it sit for a few days until dry & weigh with your hand again. If it feels much lighter than it was when you removed it then it's soaking up fuel. Just about anything can be used for a float as long as it "Floats".  In the olden days these were made from a piece of cork that had a coating over them to help keep from soaking up fuel & becoming heavy & sinking to the bottom. Before installing in car. Hook it up & run the sender through it's range from one end to the other & look at the fuel gauge at the same time to see if the gauge now works. Don't forget to hook up a ground wire.

     

     

    Tom T.

  3. The cables sticking is what causes most of the problems with broken parts. Especially the cables under the hood & specifically the one for the heater control valves on '63's & '64's. As the cables get harder to move it puts undue stress on the parts that they were NEVER designed for. Powered grahite works well for the sliders & also the cables. The cables that have the wire wrapped around them. I remove the plastic covering then slightly stretch ( not enough to distort) the wire cable & apply the powered grahite to the open areas & continuosly slide the cable back & forth it's entire length as far as it will go & usually the cable will free right up & move effortlessly. On the plastic cables I will spray with Brakleen, blow dry & soak in a bucket of oil. Hang the cable up & let the excess oil run out/off, usually a couple days, then wipe down with a rag. Not much dust/dirt under the dash & up on the top where the cables run.

     

     

    Tom T.

  4. Everyone tries to pull out the clips & they end up breaking. If you look in the back of the clips you will see that if you squeeze the ends together they will come right out. As for the rubber on the aprons. the originals on my '64 Riv. look like they were cut from an old inner tube with the lines & all. I know they are original as I have owned the car since new & other than removing & cleaning have NEVER been replaced.

     

     

    Tom T.

  5. A Th/SP400 is NOT a bolt-in swap. For the most part it is as in replacing/R&R parts. Even consoles are different for all 3 yrs. I have the crank adapters in stock as well as the Mini-Starters that I designed & have been selling for 15yrs.

     

     

    Tom T.

  6. I spent ALOT of time with Clark's, probably 10 yrs. ago now, in getting them to use a NEW source for the foam padding. An original supplier to GM, Ford & Chrysler from Wa. state.  The correct listing wire, amoung other things. One of the reason's Clark's has the interior products that they do. Clark had a '64 Riv. & was surprised that the Riv. had materials similar to the Corvair. That's how Clark's got started making stuff for our Rivs. Maybe not the least cost of $$$$, but the quality is there. The package shelfs that they make today are made from the pattern I sent which was a Proto-type that was made in Germany & had a tag on it with the date of, I think it was 2/62. From the 3 pre-production pieces they made none of them fit correctly to the curve of the rear window. So I actually cut the COMPLETE metal shevling on the rear deck to send it to them. They finally got it as close to correct as possible.  I received this from Bill Mitchell himself. I don't know if he owned a summer home in the town I worked or if he visited friend's there every year. Anyway, he bought it in one summer as he always saw my Riv. parked out front of the shop I worked at & thought I may be able to use it someday. To bad, in the real early 70's, I really didn't know who Bill Micthell was at the time. Unfortunately my loss.

     

     

    Tom T.

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