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I don't have a Riviera, but like to read the Riviera forum because my 62 Electra has a lot in common chassis-wise with the early Rivieras. Has anybody here used J&G Relining yet? I have been fighting a brake problem with my Electra that I think is a front drum problem but I haven't had time to verify. I have thought about doing the front disk conversion, but I also remember that when I first bought my Electra 17 years ago that the brakes were just fine and stopped the car just as well as a newer car with disk brakes.

I got my 62 Electra out last weekend and drove it around the neighborhood...if that counts. I have brake problems that I haven't had time to figure out and am nervous about driving outside of the neighborhood.

I found a website for a company that sells reproduction parts for some of our old Buicks. I thought they might have a trunk pan for your Super. They don't list it on their website, but they do list other parts you may need. classicfabrication.com your on-line source for floorpans for your classic car

They are known as "Donks". I don't know much about them. I see some around town here. I don't really get it. Anyway, here is another "work of art" to admire/lament depending on how you view it.

This is the first I have heard of a disc brake conversion kit from Kanter. Does it use off the shelf parts (rotors, calipers, pads) so the parts are easier to find if they need replacing down the road?

You're welcome...I can't help much around here, but every once in a while there is something.

It is also known as a strut rod bushing.

I wonder how a person even comes up with an idea like that. I can see the person who thought of mixing orange juice and say vodka, but Tang and Spam...where is a barfing smiley when I need one?

Thanks for all the comments! I forgot to mention that the blue isn't exactly stock. It is originally Glacier Blue and Arctic White. The white seems to be close to original if not original. The blue however, is definitely newer. When they repainted at some point they didn't bother with the jambs, so you can see the original color in the door jambs. The rusted body mounts I had replaced a few years ago when I came home from Iraq. My next project is to figure out what is wrong with the brakes and replace the shocks. That will go a long way toward making feel safe driving it.

I forgot these pics.... A couple from WI after getting it washed and waxed. And a couple of pics of the rust behind the rear wheels in the body mount area that I think was caused by driving it down that gravel road years ago to put it in the barn for storage. And one last pic for now... A pic of the car in my garage in CA in 2007. Before getting it shipped out, I thought the garage was plenty big. When I got the car in there I realized I only had a few inches between the back bumper and the wall and only a few inches between the front bumper and the garage door. :eek:

Continued... Last year I relocated again, this time to SW Georgia. I had a quite a time trying to get the car shipped out of CA. Part of the challenge was a month a half gap between when I was scheduled to leave CA and when I was supposed to be in GA. I finally was able to ship it to a buddy who was already stationed in GA. He kept it in his driveway until I got to GA, found a place to live, and got moved in enough to have room for it. All together, he had it in his driveway for about 2 months. Here is a couple pics, the first showing it on the truck in CA all chained down and ready to go to GA, and the second showing how dirty it was after the cross country trip and sitting outside for two months. I have since gotten it washed and polished up, so it looks a lot better now. I have a nice big garage in GA where it fits nicely. I'm hoping to get a break from the near constant TDY trips this summer so I can get some work done on it to make it a little more road worthy.

Even though I have posted numerous questions over the years about my Buick, I don't think I have ever bothered to post anything about it here. I have had this car for quite a while now, almost 16 years now. The car has spent nearly half that time in storage though, due to financial aspects related to being in the military for all but a couple of months of the time that I have owned it. Hopefully I can dig up some older pics of the car, but for now, I am going to share some of the pics that I do have now. This first pic is of the car when I had it in storage in the late 90's. My father-in-law was nice enough to let me store it in his garage for the first couple of years I was in the Marines. In '97 or '98 he worked out a deal for me to store it in one of the neighbor's barns. The car stayed there until 2003 when I was relocated close to home to be a recruiter. A good friend from high school had a truck and trailer that would work to bring it to WI from my in-law's place in MN. The car needed some work after nearly eight years in storage. When I got it to WI I noticed that the years in the barn hadn't been completely kind to it. The barn was good, but to get it there originally I had to drive it down a wet and kind of muddy gravel road. I wasn't able to wash it real good before storing it, so that crud that was kicked up I think caused some rust behind the rear wheels. I have some pics of the damage later, which I got repaired a couple of years ago. Here is a pic of it in my driveway in WI after getting it out of storage in MN. I drove the car for a couple of years while in WI, taking it to some car shows and using it as an ice breaker to talk to kids who might be interested in the Marines. In 2006 I was relocated again, this time to CA. I wasn't sure of what I where I was going to live, so the car went back to my father-in-law's short term until we got settled in. In 2007 I got the car shipped to me in CA. The funny part of the next pic is that the driver really thought my car was cool and took real good care of it. The white BMW 3-series in the background on the trailer was below my car for a while and well, you now how well old Dynaflows keep their fluids in.

Lamar, thanks for sharing this. It was interesting to see those old cars (although they weren't old then) getting driven hard.

Here's the 401 in my '62 Electra...Pete, your's looks a lot nicer than mine. Unfortunately I can't take mine out today since I am in Wichita and my Buick is at home in Georgia.

This sure is a timely thread for me. While I don't have a Riviera, the trunk of my Electra looks a lot like the pics the OP posted. I have been debating what to do with it, but now I think I have my answer...patch it the best I can and keep it on the road. Thanks guys!

It sounds to me like you got a good deal. I definitely would make sure the tires are good. Then make sure all the fluid levels are good. Once you got all that I would hit the road. I tried the U-Haul trailer thing too. They didn't like the idea of my 62 Electra on one of trailers being towed by my Silverado.

The engine in my 62 Electra is a bit grungy in this pic, but you can see the original color on the valve cover. My car is an 85k mile unrestored car. As far as I can tell the engine is basically untouched, except for the water pump which must have been replaced at some point because it is red.

Welcome John! Feel free to ask any questions you have. There are plenty of people here who know a whole lot about Buicks. I may be able to answer some questions too, since I have owned my 62 Electra for nearly 16 years now.

I'm 37 and have had my first and only Buick for about 16 years now, a '62 Electra 225. I have been a classic GM guy my whole life, but as far as newer cars go I will drive just about anything.

I can tell you for sure that I would have been a lot cooler this summer in Location: San Diego. . Talk about a shock to the system...going from the comfortable coastal SoCal weather to hot and humid GA. You talking about the one and only Mr Earl? I am hoping to make a pilgrimage to his location to check out his collection at some point during my tour in GA.

My name is Brian, I think I introduced myself a few years ago, but I don't post much so here I go again. I grew up a Pontiac fan, but a little over 15 years ago I ran into a '62 Electra four door sedan that spoke to me (not literally) and I bought it. A couple months later I enlisted in the Marine Corps, so the car went into storage. I probably should have sold the car at that point, but my father-in-law had a place for me to store it (which I did for about 8 years). Eventually I got to a point in my Marine Corps career where I could afford to get the car out of storage and bring it to where I was living and even do a little work on it once in a while. Now, I'm living in Georgia, have the car in Georgia with me, and am (very) slowly working on it. BTW...I'm interested in any '62 Electra information that people are willing to share. My Electra seems to be a bit of a "stripper", a term that sounds odd when connected with an Electra.

Plus...I'm waiting for the '62 full-sizers to get featured in the Bugle and if they go to 6 issues a year I may not live long enough to see it.

What is the big deal here. $50/year is less than $1/week...I spend more money than that on gas when I start up my Buick.

Thanks for the replies. NTX, I'll measure the spare this weekend and see what I come up with. Maybe I'll even have time to get it out and check the accuracy of the speedometer. Sounds better than mowing the grass or doing the other yard work that needs to be done. Pete, could it be possible that I have a weird low option Electra? I am in my 30's, so all memories of Electras have been as the top or near top of the line Buick with all kinds of things as standard equipment. I don't know how things worked in '62, but mine if it wasn't for the aircraft carrier like length could be mistaken for a entry-level LeSabre. Maybe it is because it is a 4 door sedan and not a hardtop?

I have a question about tires for my 62 Electra. Driving recently with a handheld GPS I noticed that my speedometer was reading faster than the speed shown on the GPS. Since the error increased with speed my gut feeling is that the tires on it are shorter than stock. I have what appears to be the original spare tire in the trunk, a US Royal 8.00-15 "Low Profile" bias ply tire. The research I have done on the internet shows a 8.00-15 to be the stock size tire for a 62 Electra. All this has brought up a couple of questions. 1. What size radial tire do you guys use to replace a 8.00-15 tire? (I'm using P225/75-15 tires now) 2. The spare tire I have is a blackwall tire. Was it normal back then to have a blackwall spare when the rest of the tires are whitewalls? Or, would my car originally have had blackwalls? Don't worry, I have no intention of using the spare as a spare, I just don't have the heart to get rid of what appears to be an original spare tire from 1962.