60FlatTop

We are armed and dangerous on this one. I specialized in wiring when I serviced collector cars in the 1990's; those fussy expensive ones with Lucas smoke in them. When my nephew was going to mechanic school I fed him mechanics text books from the 40's and 50's to learn along with the modern stuff. He got his practical factors in with high end Japanese stuff. I had a method. The 3800 SC swap is also a popular one with the Fiero guys; same brain vintage. We are reading through a ton of swap and brain info on Penock's Fiero Forum. Next week I he should have the subframe dropped and I will take the Riviera to his garage to drop that subframe as well. Side by side and nice and open for those little modifications. I will be driving it in a few weeks. Bernie

John, Thanks for the comment. Here is the '95 Riviera I bought for $700. It has some rust in the unibody on the passenger's side. I licensed it about 5 weeks ago and have been driving it. It is going to be hard to make it a donor, but there are lots of little things that need fixing.

I have attached some pictures of the PA convert leaving home for a few weeks stay at my nephew's. I bought the car a couple months ago with a knock in the engine. Turned out to be a bad bottom end. I did two things about it. I bought a correct 1986 3800 long block. I bought a 1995 Riviera Supercharged. Devious mind at work here. Don, the nephew, is going to drop the subframe, engine, tranny and all and we'll look things over. Putting the riviera drive train sounds interesting. I like modified cars but I have always bought Buicks and Cadillacs. Their was not a lot of sense in swapping cars like that. Even Straight 8 Buicks are fine and powerful drivers. Of course they were always rear wheel drive with large engines in the correct location and orientation. Now, this little convertible probably does need that supercharger and all the goodies that go with it. What the heck, someone cut the roof off already. Anyway, he will detail the subframe during the job. Anyone like the idea? Here she goes for the transplant:

I have attached a picture of my car taken a couple of years ago. I have done no paint or interior work. It has 72,000 easy miles. I bought it with 60,000 or so in '02. It was always used and maintained fairly well. It did not suffer from long disuse. I just put on its second set of tires, $900. Did the brakes and hoses, $800. Rebuild and replated the brake booster, $250. Sleeved the master cylinder, $120 + kit. Did minor engine work. New exhaust $1000 +. Repaired and detailed rear end, $700. Recored radiator, $250. Rebuilt carburetor. Cleaned and re-undercoated the under body, $400. Lot of consumables. Lovingly detailed, cleaned and polished every nook and cranny. I guess if he has done stuff like that $11,000 would be OK, maybe more. Or did his price just kind of come to him in a vision? Bernie

So you are wondering if two cars that need lots of work are better than one car needing lots of work? Owning the car is the "entry fee" everything else costs pretty much the same. Rust repair on a T-Bird cost about the same as rust repair on a Plymouth. Brakes; about the same. And on and on. with one car you only have 300 $100 jobs to do. The T-Bird is a bit of and icon, you know.

Join a club! Join a club! Join a club! The members of the club will be happy to guide you to a really good purchase. If you do it alone there is a good chance you buy a car and THEN join the club. At the first meeting they will say "Oh, you bought THAT car."

If you are planning to use the hose clamps I have found that using the die for the first step of a double flare fitting makes a nice "bubble" similar the factory fuel and vacuum lines. Then you have a raised section of the steel line to help retain the hose and clamp.

My Great Uncle was a machinist for Chrysler when the new 1928 Plymouth was introduced to compete against the Ford A and Chevy 6. He said that was the first major use of the Hotchkiss rear end in the US (open driveshaft). He also told me that Chrysler was a little short of cash to roll out the new model. they could afford the production machinery but not the building. So they set the machines on pads and used large circus type tents to house them until funds for the building were available. He had a picture of himself in the tent next to a rear end assembly in an old automotive trade publication. When he passed away one one could find it. I think I had first seen that pic and heard the stories when I was about 11 years old. 1928 was only 30 years before that. Kind of like talking about things we did in the 1980's today. Time flies!

A long time ago I had a clicking noise in a LeSabre I owned. It turned out to be a dry distributor cam and the points were noisy. A finger tip with a little grease cured it. I have never had it happen again or heard of it, but it is something to check.

You might want to put a new dimmer switch in, just for general principles.

Tell us about your helper.

It's morning here and I just took a second look at the black '65. I am pretty sure the engine compartment picture was taken when the right front fender was off the car. And the car might be yellow or white.

That black '65 is a rough old gal in fresh paint. I'm in New York and I don't need to go to Seattle. $22,500, I wonder how they arrived at the price.

I still remember buying my 1964 Riviera 32 years ago. I had know about the car for at least a year and always figured it would be there when I wanted it. Then one Saturday morning the owner told me he was going to list it in a collector car auction that was coming to a city near me. I had a panic attack!!! The banks were closed. The car might go away forever. I had to have it. It was the only car in the world for me at that time. My breath was short and I couldn't stand up right. I took delivery of it on Tuesday afternoon. I have bought many cars since then and I avoid the objective purchases for collector cars and pretty much my daily drivers as well. It might just be me, but if you can take the time to objectively post questions about this purchase maybe it is not the car of your dreams. If the juices aren't flowing and your breath short worrying about someone else buying it.......... what will happen when the car that really does it for you shows up, and you have this one?

Bryan, I don't remember the numbers for our 2005 Nationals in Batavia, something between 400-500. But it makes a good excuse to show off a few pictures:

I had a 1956 Olds 88 with a 4GC carb. I went to a junk yard and picked up a 1974-ish electric choke element. It looks just like yours and has a wire connector. I bought a GB terminal and ran the wire to the hot side of the coil. When the key was on the heater in the choke element is energized. It worked great. There are two versions of heater, a 4 minute and a 6 minute. they are not marked and it really doesn't make a difference. Bernie

Hi Jim, Here is a source, Ebay #200607719377. They also list 2 1/4". Bernie

I am in Brockport, New York. It will not stop raining. This is getting to be like the year moss grew on the north side of our car.

From memory I had a 1955 Patrician and did quite a bit of studying on the car and it's parts. I found that the Senior cars of that vintage used mostly GM parts; Delco and the like. The Junior cars had Ford components; Autolite. I think the Senior's had ball joints and the Juniors had king pins, as well. The different suspensions put 5 inch wheel bolt diameters on the Senior and 4 3/4" on the Junior.

I only use Westley's to clean mine. I have a bucket of water and a spray hose. I dampen the tires first then circle the car spraying the Westley's. I return the the first tire using a fiber bristled hand brush to work up the Westley's and then liberal amounts of water to rinse. I also keep a folded piece of 800 grit "wet or dry" sandpaper in the bucket. After the first wash, I spray the Westley's lightly and use the sandpaper to bring up the whiteness. I'm pretty happy with the results:

Take her to the top one more time. Might not show up again until the estate sale..... mine. Bernie

I bet I could make a pretty close copy with the chassis for this 1913 Inter-State.

I have a Robert Bosch horn from the early 1920's. This is the brass body horn that was an accessory on high end cars. It is complete and not damaged. The top cover does have a rust hole and the tip of the contact point fell off. Located in western New York. Price is $95 shipped. 585-797-7421 Thanks, Bernie

Last year I had my '60 Buick rear brake shoes relined. It seemed pretty simple. But my drum would not go back on. After a phone call where the vendor blamed everything from my locating pins, lack of lubricant, and my Grandmother smoking Chesterfields I took the shoes in to their shop. He immediately saw they had installed the wrong thickness lining. It was too thick. I imagine that if too thin a lining was used it would take up the travel of the wheel cylinders and give the problem of poor braking at the wheels. Something to double check.

Just kind of hanging out. It stopped raining in western New York. I drove the Riviera through town and took the '60 Electra all the way into the next county for lunch.