ADDvanced

I think there was some miscommunication, there was not Riviera GT, but GT stands for grand touring, and imho the riviera is in the class of GT cars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_tourer Even though it's FWD, the attributes of these things are totally GT oriented. Quiet, comfortable at high speed, decently powerful, luxurious etc.

It was not bad, I just followed the FSM. You basically remove both endcaps from the dash by unsnapping them, the pass side has a screw in the glovebox area, then you remove the dash pad, which was a few fasteners. Then once the dash pad is out, you can remove the whole front dash panel that goes around all the gauges and vents and stuff. Then you have access to it. I will be doing a video on it at some point.

Yeah, GT meaning a vehicle designed for touring; high speed, long distances. I've had a GT car before, but haven't had one in quite a while. All my cars are either hot hatches, econoboxes, sports cars, or vans. Pretty relaxing to cruise around at 80-90mph in silence with nice ride quality and premium materials. I'm liking this car, I don't know if I'll keep it but for trips over an hour long, this is what I'm grabbing the keys to.

Hey boys, so after beating my head against the wall and trying to solve the weird random volume skyrocketing or all the way down and failing, I decided to lobotomize the factory deck and install one that I have in my lifted AWD astro van, that I've been very happy with. It's a Pioneer DMH-1770NEX, and I've had it in my Astro for over a year, and I love it. The screen is capacitive touch, which works great, the carplay works awesome, Waze is invaluable for avoiding speeding tickets, and it sounds awesome. It also has options to play movies if you bypass the parking brake (I only do this in nebraska at night), the option to install a backup camera, bluetooth phone calls, and if you have an android you can do mirroring. Anyway, here is the link; brand new they are $300 but for $200 you can get a factory reconditioned unit, which is what this is and it looks brand new: https://amzn.to/4acvDyn I'll post pics as I get it installed, today I just wired up the adaptor harness (link: https://amzn.to/3TUGEyr) and wired everything up using these quick easy solder connectors (link: https://amzn.to/49d8tqe). Nice thing is, idk about other years, but I read that the HVAC buttons will no longer dim with the rest of the dash, but in my 95 anyway, it works fine, so that issue is avoided. I am now looking into getting the steering wheel controls to work, it looks like there are a few adaptors so I'll be exploring that in my next post. Update: Ordered the Axxess ASWC-1 steering wheel adaptor, installed it about 30 minutes ago. Install was easy, it was 2 ground wires, a power wire, and tapping into the factory harness in one spot. I just used one of those vampire taps, worked perfect. Setup was easy, just turned the car on, then held the volume up button. That's it! So now the Volume Up/Down works, and the next/previous buttons work, and the temp button does NOT work. It instead acts as a "mute" button, both temp up and temp down. What I don't understand is that the factory harness was never cut, so you'd think the temp function would still work. On the left, there is the program/band button, and it does nothing. This thing is programmable, but I'm not sure what function I'd want that button to do, to be honest. I ordered an antenna adaptor to hook up the antenna, and I am planning on installing 2 rocker switches under the dash, one to disable the power antenna, and the other to trick the deck into thinking the parking brake is on. More later, cheers!

So this my dad's 95 Riviera, and unfortunately, he doesn't have much more time on this rock... it will soon be my 95 Riviera. To be totally transparent, I'm not sure how I feel about this car yet, but we do have some history together. He picked this thing up at a dealer auction when it was a couple years old, and when I was 12-17 or so, my dad and I would travel all over the country to go to boat races, so a lot of highway miles and road trips. Days spent on the road were rarely tiring, and we covered ground quickly and silently, with what I remember to be a nice stereo. The Good: The car has only 98k miles, and it's been garage kept it's entire life. He bought this thing used in 1997, and has put about 60k miles on it. The car is pretty clean, it does have some light scratches but overall the paint is in nice shape, and I'm confident that some wet sanding and polishing would make it pretty nice. The car accelerates nicely. It's not fast, but it's not slow. It's sort of amusing to accelerate the way it does in something so floaty. The interior is clean, no tears or major flaws. The Bad: ELECTRICAL GREMLINS LIKE CRAZY - Traction control light is stuck on - Cruise control was working, but when I hit accelerate on the stalk while on the freeway, I felt a 'pop' and it hasn't worked since - The steering wheel controls do not work, ever, but what I believe is connected, the VOLUME ON THE STEREO RANDOMLY GOES ALL THE WAY UP OR ALL THE WAY DOWN and turning the knob on the unit itself does not fix it. I believe this is a wiring issue in the column, and right now this is one of the main things I want to fix on this thing, because regardless of keeping the car and enjoying it, I cannot possibly sell it like this either. It has to get fixed and it's super annoying. - AC quit working, I guess it has been through a condenser already and my dad was saying he couldn't find a NOS version, because GM was sold out since they're apparently turds that don't last long. Are some brands of condensers updated to hold up longer? - Front 12v cig lighter isn't working - The suspension is original. I hit a bridge on a curve and the car felt really unsettled, and I'm not sure how much of this personality is BUICK and how much is worn suspension. This car was babied it's whole life; there is no steering slop, and the majority of it's miles were just highway cruising. I know typically struts only last 60-70k, but given this thing's state of preservation I would assume they'd be good? I guess I'm not sure how to tell what it's supposed to be like. - The last time I drove it, I was stuck at an ATM, and the car started lurching. The revs were just going up and down and up and down while I was in drive, with my foot on the brake. It hadn't done that before, not sure what that was about. The IDK: - I'm not sure how much is worth fixing. I did some research on values on these cars, and honestly I'm kind of shocked how low they are. The design was pretty dramatic, and I remember them always seeming like a concept car when I was a kid. They've aged pretty well, it's still a very long proportioned car, and that shoulder where the horizontal surfaces intersect the vertical surfaces is really cool and unique. That said, you can get crazy low mileage version for cheap! It looks like ones with 50-70k are barely above $5k. This makes me wonder how much I should actually fix before I make a decision on this car. Me: I build things and tell stories. My career is in industrial design, which is the creation, design, and production of everyday objects that get mass produced. I've worked at powertool companies, motorcycle companies, marine companies, etc etc etc, and I was professionally trained in design, so when I say the Riviera is a striking design, there is some weight in that. It looks like nothing else around, and it has a very concept car vibe, which I appreciate. When covid hit, I started putting more time in my youtube channel, and tackled restoring/rebuilding my old 911. I have 40+ episodes on that thing, all how to tech videos on what I've done so far. I've also built a few race boats, a lifted AWD van, a school bus that works as a cabin, homesteading on off grid land I purchased in the mountains, snowmobiles, other cars, it hops all over the place. Just search YT for "addvanced", it'll show up. Back to the Riv: The #1 thing I must fix immediately is the electrical gremlins that affect the stereo and the HVAC. They're obnoxious and they make driving the car a chore, and not sellable even if I do want to say goodbye to it. The only thing connecting both systems that I'm aware of is the steering wheel controls, o far, I have pulled the steering wheel airbag to remove the steering wheel controls entirely to eliminate a variable. Didn't work! So then I started trying to see if it was the clockspring with the steering wheel control wiring, so I disconnected that where it plugs into the chassis wiring. STILL DOES IT! So then I decided to keep pushing ahead, so I tore apart the dash so I could access the back of the factory stereo itself, to hopefully just eliminate the volume doing whatever it wants issue. Unfortunately, no such luck. I can unplug one connector, and the sub goes away. Another, the Am/FM and only the CD player works. The other, and the radio works but the CD player doesn't communicate. Really frustrated. Looking into replacing the stereo with a modern carplay unit so I can put the car back together, because it currently looks like this: The car does accelerate nice, and it's very comfortable at high speeds. It's weird to think about, but this definitely fits in the GT category of cars imho. Highway bomber for long distances while ignoring the speed limit. The body styling holds up, it's got a concept car vibe, and the taper of the rear end is wild to see in person. Very dramatic. To be continued....