Racer-X-

I take care of two of these cars. They're drivers (with Chevrolet drive trains), not museum pieces. We're doing a suspension rebuild/renewal and our rubber bushings are dry rotted, cracked and falling apart (already mostly fallen apart for some of them). The metal flanges do have some information stamped on them. The lower wishbone bushings (8 per car) are marked "Metalastik 13/775" and also show a patent number 622514. The upper fulcrum pin bushings at the outer end of the damper lever/upper wishbone are marked "Metalastik 13/781" and show a patent number (possibly the same patent?) that's unreadable on the ones I have here now. I have a company that can "recoat" these with new rubber after cleaning up our metal cores. I'm not sure if that's the best solution, unless it's the only solution. I'm concerned with getting the dimensions right, and ours are in such poor shape that it's going to be very difficult Here's a pic of one example of each.

@Joe Cocuzza, I'm definitely interested. I've replied to your DM.

It's a Custom Sedan, if that matters (I don't think it should). The current headlight buckets and seats are put together with drywall screws and sheet metal screws. Even the adjuster screws are lost and replaced with drywall screws, so getting them adjusted is basically impossible and entirely hit or miss. Also, the little machine screws that hold the trim ring/bulb and optics retaining ring are missing and have been replaced with sheet metal screws. I have good headlight doors (the outer trim ring), but the buckets that mount to the body work are hacked and the adjustable seats are trashed. We eed both sides.

And an accomplished impact wrench operator/parts swapper can still be neither a technician nor a mechanic.

LS Swaps, or any other engine swap does require some forethought and planning. I've done about a half dozen Chevy V8 swaps (4 were LS based swaps, 2 were earlier Vortec 5.7L truck engines swapped into other vehicles). Every one I've ever done started the first time I turned the key and cranked the starter. There were a couple times I stopped short of turning the key when I remembered leaving something important disconnected. And my habit is to have the OBD-II Scanner hooked up and check everything when the key hits the "on" position, before turning it to the start position and cranking it. But when I hit the starter, they start. To me, "build" isn't such a derogatory term. But I do think it's more a resto-mod or hot rod term than a serious "all original restoration." There's something to be proud of pointing at a hot rod or a resto-mod with a drive train swap and customized suspension and the whole nine yards and being able to say, "I built that one, and that's the only one like it."

Answering my own question with some additional data points. https://www.automobile-catalog.com/tire/1947/2062490/desoto_custom_4-door_sedan_tip-toe_shift.html That site shows the original tire size to be 7.60x15, which seems large to me. It's suggesting a 215/80R15 for a replacement, or a 205R15, or for wider, 225/75R15. From what I can see, none of those will fit without clearance issues on this particular instance of the vehicle. Coker tires shows 670R15 and 205/75R15 sizes when I select this vehicle on their "Shop by vehicle" selections at the top of the page. That actually seems to be more reasonable. I think I'm going to have to look more closely at the exact wheels I have, and also look at the rear axle to see if perhaps it's been replaced with something wider than the original. This car has a bit of a sketchy history. It lived in Cuba for much of its life, and underwent some heavy modifications when it returned to the USA a few years ago.

The car is a resto-mod, not original at all. It spent most of its life in Cuba, and when it returned to the states, a shop in Miami did an awesome job on a custom interior and also rewired the entire car for 12V and installed a LS1/4L60E drive train. It's currently running on some Chrome Smoothie wheels which seem to have too much backspacking (offset too high). There's a stack (more than one) of thin wheel spacers behind the wheels and the ends of the lug studs are recessed in the lug nuts by 3 to 4 threads. Plus, one front wheel is now bent, so it needs replacement anyways. It's on 215/75R15 tires which barely clear the fenders at the rear, and rub on the brake line brackets where the flex hoses join to the hard lines at the front. It's had a disk brake "upgrade" (from "Brakes by Bubba") which I'm currently going over and redoing many parts of. I do plan to relocate the hard line and that bracket. The bracket is bolted/screwed on, and it looks like there are already holes in the frame inboard from the shock absorbers that are made for that bracket. If I relocate the lines there, I get more clearance for the front of the tires, and I can use a shorter, more direct flexible brake hose to connect the caliper to the hard line, so that's a win-win all over. All that said, I'd really like to have wheels/tires that I can rotate front to rear, with all 4 tires the same size. If I have to use wheel spacers to get the needed clearance at the front, I'd rather run the bolt on "adapter" style spacers, which start at 3/4" thick and are more common and fit better with 1" of spacer thickness. I was thinking 205/70R15 or maybe 195/75R15 might be a better choice than the 215/75R15 we have now. But I haven't weighed the car yet to see what the load is going to be like. It does seem to be a heavy car, and will need a tire adequate for that load. The one requirement on this is that whatever size I put on, it has to be available with white walls. Either wide "gum wall" (preferred), or at least a solid white stripe on the sidewall.

Quoting someone from redit (I don't remember who, and I can't find it now): Most Cavaliers will run like crap longer than other cars will run, period. I used to love to take things with really weird shifters to restaurants and other places with valet parking. Usually, the car doesn't move until I get back. In the mid 1980's, I had a neighbor with a Hurst Olds with the lightning rod shifters in it. See the video. We'd go out for dinner every few weeks to someplace in Buckhead (Atlanta) with valet parking. The valet attendants would take one look inside and just walk away. That one was "normal" if you ignored the extra rods and knobs, but the valet guys rarely made it that far. Later, around 1990, I had a 1975 Cutlass Salon with a Lenco transmission and shift levers in it. That was even wierder, with 3 levers that you pulled back for the forward gears, another lever for reverse that you pushed forward for reverse, but was locked out unless the 3 forward gear levers were pushed forward (which was neutral), and a separate knob you pulled for the mechanical parking/trans brake. I've never driven a Ford Model T or any other pre WWI cars, but I've been told that if you take those to the valet parking, they'll always be right where you leave them.

Generally, I also recommend replacing any seals that are exposed while you have the flywheel off (rear main seal on the crankshaft for example), and any transmission input shaft seal(s) that are exposed and easily replaced while it's apart. It really sucks to get it put back together and have an old seal leak oil or gear lube all over your brand new clutch and shiny new flywheel.

I use parking lights a whole lot. They aren't for when the car is parked. That would be "parked lights," which is what the Germans do with the one side only lighting. I use parking lights while I'm parking, IE, driving around a parking lot or driveway at night, when I don't want to be shining headlights in the direction of pedestrians or into peoples windows. When I pull off the street or road into the parking lot, I'll tun off the headlights and put it in the parking lights position. When I'm pulling out, I'll drive to the street or road with the parking lights on, then when I'm about to pull out onto the street or road (or rural highway), I'll hit the headlights.

Humor, and no, I didn't originally post that, I'm just pointing it out.

Your question is like asking the difference between a "hood" and a "bonnet" on a car. To an American, they are tail lights, and they operate from the "running lights" circuit/fuse. To an English person (from England), they are position lights. Also, English have "indicators" where Americans have "turn signals." Adding to the confusion, to a German, "parking lights" are the position lights on the traffic side of the car (and it must only be that side) that must be left illuminated when the car is parked on a public street or road. Unfortunately, in European countries where amber turn signals are required, and the inspectors check that, reverse lights are also required, and the inspectors check those as well. However, I do like your solution even if it requires adding one or two clear/white "reverse lights." I think add-on afterthought "reverse lights" would be less ugly than added amber turn signal lamp assemblies. An amber bulb may be enough, or the clear (stock) reverse light lens might have to be covered/wrapped with the appropriate amber color. No offense to the OP, but the French (especially the inspectors) are very persnickety about the lights on their cars. Almost as bad as the German inspectors at the TUV. But the French do make the absolute best headlights available, so there's a positive side to that.

Anything older than 1980, and anything from the 1980s up with flat tappets ( "slider" cam(s) ) gets Brad Penn. There's not enough ZDP (Zinc) in modern oils to protect older engine parts from wear. This is especially a problem for older camshafts and valve train components.

RockAuto.com has Genuine GM (may come in a "AC/Delco Original Equipment" box) D1456C for $45.xx plus shipping. With a few other choices for a bit less money. Any GM $tealership should have it as GM part # 26033390, list price is $102.08. They come with a lock cylinder and a new matching key installed. Usually, Step 1 of installation is to take that lock cylinder with the new key that fits and the old key that matches the car to a locksmith and have the lock re-keyed for your current key. It's not uncommon for those assemblies to trigger the anti-theft system because the slug in the new key that comes with the lock either doesn't have the anti-theft resistor in it, or if it does, it doesn't match the key(s) the car is paired to.

I'm not sure what year Riviera you have. Most GM cars from the late 1950's through the 1970's had a long single row connection for the turn signal switch on the column. The traditional (usual) wire colors are white, green, yellow, purple, brown, dark blue, light blue. The brake signal to the turn signal switch is the white wire from the brake light switch. You'll want to cut that wire and feed that as the power to the brake light filaments. If you're installing separate amber signal lights on the back for turn signals, you'll route the wiring from the 1157 bulbs in the red stop/tail/turn lamps for the turn signal to your amber signal lights. Use a wire from the white wire from the turn signal switch to power the brake light filaments in the 1157 bulbs directly from the the white wire from the brake light switch. It sounds like you're trying to just join the amber signal lamps to the brighter filaments for the 1157 bulbs. That won't quite work the way you want. This document is from a universal kit that uses the GM column switch and mostly follows the GM wire colors. It also shows how it's wired for stop/turn signal on the same bulb, and how to change it for separate amber turn signal lamps. https://smhttp-ssl-87263.nexcesscdn.net/media/productattachments/files/92972292_510489_IN_0.0_1.pdf I hope that helps.