Jim Cannon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Riviera66</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Well, according to Buick's 1963 Assembly Manual, dated 6-29-1962, the plan was for all Wildcats and Rivieras to come with the 425 as standard equipment. There must've been a lot of problems that caused them to so thoroughly back away from that plan. Darwin Falk </div></div> Darwin- In Detroit in that era, as I understand it, often times the Marketing Dept. would have sway in areas such as this. They always had multiple year views of how models would roll out. Pure speculation, but consider this: Marketing had already laid out a plan where the '65 would get the clamshell headlights and rear stop light placement treatment down in bumper. They also knew the '64 model would look much like the '63 model, little external or internal change. Perhaps, to preserve something "new and better" for the '64 model, they held back offering the 425 as the stock engine in '63 and stuck to the existing 401. The new Riv already had a lot going for it and did not need the 425 yet to sell it. The '64 would have little else new -- so make the bigger, higher horsepower engine the new thing, the differentiating factor. Original advertising from the '64 model year might shed some light on that. What did they point out in '64 as selling points? I only have a few examples of '63 ads, no '64 ads...

For some years (I don't know if '54 was one of them) the style of the key for ignition (octagonal key head) and trunk/glove box (round head) was different. One of those keys would not even slide into the slot of the other. The grooves were on the wrong side of the key. This allowed you to give your ignition key only to a valet and keep them out of trunk and glove box. You will never get this setup to all work with one key. If your '54 is like my '63, one key slides into everything and can potentially work everything. Any competent locksmith can key them all alike for you. Easiest (for him) is for you to take all the cylinders out and bring them to him for him to work on. I don't recommend you have him remove the lock cylinders. Too easy to mess something up. Better for you to use your shop manual and familiarity with the car to remove them all safely.

It is hard for me to tell from that exact picture, but I know my '50 Special with Dynaflow had a transmission cooler on it with heater hoses that ran back to it like this. The Dynaflow does not need to get warmed up, it needs to have heat pulled out.

yea, all them... plus a different cam.

This is cool! Thanks! I ran across something similar for searching across multiple or all Craig's List sites in the country. It is totally free format and the search fields directly mirror all of the Craig's List fields. If you are familiar with searching Craig's List, this will seem a very natural extension to you. http://www.crazedlist.org/ Your search is more broad, jaXed, across more places with cars/parts for sale. This "Crazed List" search will search for anything at all, but only on Craig's Lists.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Bronie</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hey guys, Was thinking of converting to an electric fuel pump for better efficiency. Does anybody have any experience with this type of conversion and if so, what make and model of fuel pump was used? John 1965 Buick Riviera Custom. </div></div> I'm not sure what "better efficiency" you are after here. A properly functioning stock mechanical pump works fine for most situations. It does not consume significant energy and it is designed to deliver fuel at a good pressure for the old style carb with needle valves. If your engine needs fuel in larger volumes or at higher pressure than the mechanical fuel pump can deliver, you might need an electric pump. I have seen instances where the high pressure of an added electric fuel pump actually reduced fuel economy and made the engine run poorly, until a pressure regulator was added to reduce the fuel pressure going into the carb. My dad used to leave our '63 Riviera parked for months at a time between driving it. He added an electric fuel pump to that car to fill the carb back up with fuel when he wanted to start it after a long sit. Then he did not have to wait for the mechanical pump to refill the carb with engine cranking. (The battery usually had little juice left in it after sitting all that time either, so cranking for very long was not an option.) Adding the electric pump made sense in that case. He wired it up to a push button switch and only ran it for a minute or two before starting the car. He did not leave it on all the time the engine was running. The mechanical pump pulled fuel through the electrical pump just fine. I removed the electric fuel pump years ago because I don't need it; I try not to let the car sit for long periods between drives. I recommend you not add one. You don't really need it.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RivNut</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hello Jim "Carnac" (Tim, you'll note the spelling, and thank you for the sir)Cannon. What do you think? Does your register have cubic inch info along with the other data? Ed </div></div> No, Ed, I don't have any info to be able to predict when you might find a 425 in a '63 Riv. I mainly try to narrow down when specific design details changed on the '63, such as when did the spare tire get moved from the trunk floor mount up to the shelf mount, as it is in all '64 and '65s, or when did they add the "ribbed metal facade appliqué" to the dash. That sort of thing. Since there was not a complete switch from the 401 to the 425 at a point in time, and then all cars after that point had the 425, it is not something I can predict.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: vinnyfl</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Jim-- you are correct 07A. What is that? </div></div> Body was built the first week (A) of July (07) 1963.

Cool, Vinny! Say, on that same data plate, what are the numbers/letter in the upper left corner? I would guess 07A.

This is cool, isn't it? We encouraged the guy that worked this all out to write up an article for the Riview, including the parts list. I sure hope he does! He placed a single linear actuator under the hood, in front of the radiator, to replace the original motor. Limit switches built into the LA are used to control how far the unit moves on open and close.

The bulb number is in the shop manual, in the Electrical section. There is a complete list of bulb numbers for each location on the car.

David- I used to own a '50 Buick Special 2 dr fastback coupe. (Black lacquer -- a real beauty.) It had a light- to medium-grey wool upholstery with some fine stripes spaced about 1/2 inch apart. The stripes were about 1 or 2 threads wide and as I recall, and they were different colors. Any nice wool upholstery like that would be close. Sorry, I have no photos.

Just found this information on the ROA web pages: <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Schedule of Events Monday June 23 3:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M., Registration, hospitality, refreshments and vendors Tuesday, June 24 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 P.M., Registration, hospitality, refreshments and vendors (closed for meals) 9:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M., tour to Field of Dreams, Evers Model Car Company and lunch or Tour of historic downtown Galena 7:00 P.M., Rally and Refreshments Wednesday, June 25 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 P.M., Registration, hospitality, refreshments and vendors (closed for meals) 9:00 A.M. – 11 A.M., Technical Q&A 12:00 - 2:00 P.M., luncheon on a riverboat, followed by your choice of Mississippi River Museum and/or Casino 7:00 P.M. – annual membership meeting, followed by fun and refreshments Thursday, June 26 9:00 A.M. - 2:00 P.M., car show, judging, vendors and barbeque 6:00 P.M. – cocktail hour and awards banquet </div></div> Sounds like fun!

Good directions are in the shop manual. Front springs sound similar to what you did to your Vettes. Rear springs are easier. Remove the rear shocks and lower axle while you hold car up on frame. Watch brake hose! Either disconnect or remove locking clip and let hose come loose from frame. Read the shop manual.

I removed my hood totally, then the hinge. I was replacing the wiper motor, so I had to disconnect the motor drive from the wiper linkage. Once the motor was out on the bench, all the washer stuff was easy to get at.

Ed is correct, the plate must touch the base of the carb to warm it. If warming the carb throttle body is important to you (to prevent carburetor ice, caused when you drive in cool, damp conditions) make it touch the carb base. If it does not touch base of carb, though, at least it keeps exhaust gases out of your fuel intake stream (which makes it run really poorly -- guess how I know!). As soon as I replaced my plate (previous owner tossed away) it started to run correctly again.

Offset? Look on some of the custom rim and wheel supplier web pages and look at their pictures.

Yup, that's what they all think, until you go to actually try to do it. Then you discover the crankshaft is not quite right and the balance is wrong and before you know it, you have a big job on your hands...

If the carb cleaner spray does not do it, I suggest replacing the condenser on the distributor. They go bad with age and heat. Does it backfire out the carb or out the exhaust pipe? Out the carb is very lean; out the exhaust pipe is very rich or no regular spark.

Trust me, everyone runs into this at one time or another on an old car. Unbolting the valve piece from the manifold is a good place to start. Then you can play around with it up where you can get at it more easily, without hurting something or yourself. You can try applying heat. You can try soaking in kerosene. Or you can just cut the butterfly off and stick it back in. Problem solved! Unless you live in a cold part of the world and you plan to drive the car in winter. Then you want one. If you can;t get that one loosened up, get a used one that is not frozen and bolt it in. I don't know what other cars the spring will cross with. I suspect all full size GM vehicles of the era. I took my butterfly off. It does not get that cold for that long down here in Houston to need it.

Back off adjuster the same for a turned drum as you would for an original drum. It's the same. Adjust out snug and then back off number of clicks from there. Use the number given in your shop manual for your car. Make sure the shop that turns your drum has a machine that is big enough for these large drums. A shop that does full-size pick-up truck brakes would be good. I've seen too many automotive brake shops now that have small lathes for today's drum sizes. They don't have what it takes to turn a large drum properly.

Reading the last reply reminded me... My '50 Buick had a 7 lb. pressure cap. I don't know what your car has. It might still be non-pressurized. It would not be good to put a full modern 14 lb. pressure cap on that old radiator, if it is stock. My 41 Chrysler had a non-pressurized radiator. The overflow was separate from the filler neck. that made it easy to put an overflow on it. You just connected the overflow tank to the end of the overflow line on the radiator. As long as you had a good air-tight seal on the radiator cap, you were good. On the 50 Buick with the 7 lb. cap, I added the gasket under the radiator cap to make it air tight and then it sucked the liquid out of the overflow tank (as I described in the previous post). So I guess we need to know what what kind of overflow and radiator cap you have.

Here's the guy: http://www.wonderbarman.com/ I will warn you up front, he is an artist and that makes him a bit touchy about what he does. Read his web pages and you will see what I mean. But I'll tell you, my radio sounds great, and that's what you're paying for. I had a "line in" added while I was at it, so I can plug my mp3 player into it. It sounds great. The radio was with him for about 8 months. He keeps them in the box that they are received in, in the order received, and he moves them up to his bench in lots of 5 units. When those 5 are done and shipped out, he moves the next lot of 5 up to the bench. I put an AM radio in the hole in the dash while he had the AM/FM. YMMV.

After your annual dues to the ROA, the money you spend on a factory shop manual that is correct for your year car will be the best money you ever spent. Here is the page: Fig 9-4 - Parking Brake Mechanism 4700 Series(1963) Good luck with it.

Jim- You are right, there is a flat metal plate that pivots on one side of the X-frame. The cable from the parking brake pedal pulls on that, on one side. From that plate, there is a link back to a round piece that the rear cable passes around. This acts as an equalizer between the two rear wheels. There is a drawing of it in the '63 shop manual (Fig. 9-4, pg. 9-4). You need to contact people who part out '63-65 Rivs to get this.