RivNut

My chassis manual for the 66 has illustrations of each scenerio. Let me know what you need and I'll scan a copy and post it for you.

Brakes come from an elbow out of the intake manifold on the driver's side. PCV from the front of the carb (under the fuel inlet). Transmission modulator comes from the manifold on the passenger's side. There are a bunch of different scenerios for 49 state or California cars depending on what other vacuum accesories you might have. i.e. vacuum door locks, electro cruise, vacuum trunk release.

I live in Shawnee. I'm about 20 miles west of Kansas City, MO. I acutally live south of Bonner Springs and North of Olathe. You're out there in astrounat country aren't you. I grew up in Hutch and my brother still lives there. My sister lives outside of Moundridge. I'm familiar with your area. If you enjoy doing things with other Riviera Owners, Galen Shields is the ROA Regional Coordinator for Central Kansas (ROCK - Riviera Owners of Central Kansas) He lives in McPherson. If you're interested, I'll give you his email address and phone.

Ed, Where abouts in KS are you located?

Here's a link from Coker Tires website that has a conversion table on it. http://store.coker.com/pages.php?pageid=18 Ed

The article was written for the benefit of both 200R4 and 700R4 transplants. They both work on the same principle.

How about a 1978 LVXX Silver Anniversay edition? Black and silver two tone exterior, grey leather with black piping. Needs some TLC, it's been sitting for quite a while; it would probably need a really good tune up, wires et al, and all hoses, belts, tires, and other rubber replaced. I know a guy in St. Louis who's trying to help sell one for an older woman. contact me at eeraner@yahoo.com for more details and names.

Factory sizes for 1st gen cars were 7.10 x 15 standard and 7.60 x 15 optional.

I pasted and copied this after Googling in TV Cable 200R4. From all the literature I've collected and the trans people I've talked to I understand that if the TV cable is not connected correctly one of the first things that will happen is that you'll burn up your trans - big time, "Like replace the whole trans, Dude." Here's a portion of what I pasted and copied. "Chances are good that everyone reading this has either done it or knows someone that has installed a 700R4 or 200R4 into an older car or truck and has not been happy with the way it shifts. The most common complaints are that it shifts too hard, shifts too late, or won't downshift more than one gear. In a lot of cases, they were told to back the cable off to soften the shift, but then they would lose the multiple-gear downshift and cause the trans' pressures to drop--resulting in shortened trans life. All these problems are the result of the TV cable not being set up properly. We cannot stress enough the importance of the relationship between the carburetor and the TV cable. Just simply bolting on a bracket that holds the cable is not enough." If I were you, I'd not drive the car until I had the correct parts in place and set up by someone who really knows what they're doing - seriously. Get on the internet and read everything you can about how a 200R4 operates from the pressure applied by the TV cable. There are aftermarket parts available to make sure that you get everything synchronized and working properly. IT's an art to get the tension of the TV cable adjusted properly. If you need some leads on carb adapters, base plates that go between the carb and the manifold to hold the cable properly, let me know and I'll send you some links I have stored. I'd have written this a long time ago but I figured that Bob knew what he was doing, perhaps not!!!! Ed

good idea Randy.

Phil, Darwin, et al. From what I've learned from you and after reading the old articles by Leonard Scott and Sean Keegan, I think there is a need for the wheel identification issue to be addressed again in an article in the Riview. It takes some information from both articles, along with Phil's and Darwin's articles to have it all make sense now.

Carl, There are a couple of articles in some old Riviews that state it's not safe to drive the early model cars with the late wheels if a spacer is needed. If you'll look at Phil's thread on tri-shield wheel covers, there's some facts in there on the wheels you're asking about.

Phil, The rally wheels look in the pictures look like the 71-78 vintage to me. In the article I read, the description of the wheels - Rally II-DB - said the only difference was on the back side to allow for the disc brakes. Then in 71, the wheel was redesigned to accomodate the disk brakes by changing the backspacing. To mount this later wheel on the early brake drums, you need a spacer. That's another reason that I think the wheels you have are late model ones. I have an article from a Riview that tells you how to decode the stamping numbers on the wheels. If you're interested, I can scan them and email them to you directly, I'll need your email address for that. Keep your eyes open for a set of 64/65 or 66/70 wheels that have the correct back spacing. You won't need to use spacers to make them fit. If I remember correctly, Rich Romanowski is reproducing wheel centers for Wildcat Rally wheels. I'll have to do some research on that. Ed

Phil I don't know where you got the information about 1965 wheels being "one of a kind," but if I were you, I'd do some more research on them. I think that the wheels from 64 - 70 were all about the same except for the center caps. I going to recap some info on wheels that was first posted by Leonard Scott in Sep/Oct issue of the Riview. He states that all wheels 64 - 70 are basically the same - in other words, they look the same when on the car. A measurement of 3-1/2" from a straight edge laid across the rim to the highest part of the hole for the wheel stud will tell you it's from the 64 - 70 era. 64/65 rims have a 2" center hole, and 66-70 rims have a 2-1/8" (2-3/16") center hole. Depending on which wheels you have and which medallions you have, you might have to enlarge the hole in the center of the hub to make your medallions work, or you could have the small medallions and the larger center hole; a spacer of some kind would be necessary for that application. If the wheels you have have the retaining ring in the back of the hub and won't fit over the hub on your spindle, you can knock out the retaining ring with a cold chisle without hurting the integrity of the wheel. I did that when I put rally wheels on my '63. Don't use the later 71 and up wheels on your 65. These later wheels measure 2-7/8" from the straight edge to the lug hole. They don't provide the proper backspacing you need and they definately look different. The painted "inserts" on the 64-65 wheels is really a dark charcoal. The paint that The Eastwood company sells with their Rally Wheel Restoration kit is a dead ringer for the correct dark charcoal used on the 64-65 wheels. A little #0000 steel wool, some SOS pads, a can of paint and some masking tape, and you'd have yourself a great looking set of wheels. I think that you can make what you have work fine, the wheels you have with the 66 center caps would look at least as good as the wrong wheel covers. Just keep you eyes open for a couple of more of the correct center caps. When you find them, you'll be in business.

Phil, The covers you're looking for were very common so you shouldn't have any problems finding a set. You may or may not know this, but in 1964, the Buick Rally wheel was introduced on the Wildcat; it wasn't available on any other Buick, including the Riviera. In 1965, you could get them on the Wildcat and the Riviera. Rally wheels would look really good on your Wildcat. One note though, they have their own center cap. You'll find these for sale often on eBay. Ed

Thanks, That's me sitting behind the wheel of Silver Arrow III; the pictures was taken at the annual meet in Flagstaff last year. Ed

Phil, You'll have to talk "toomuchvinyl" into getting the correct ones for his 64 Riv from me and then getting the red/wht/blu ones from him. :-) Ed

I've got a set of both - Silver on black tri-shields for a 63, and the Riviera R on the black back ground for a 64. As Dick said, the red/wht/blu trishields came on everything else with 15" wheels as an option; but NO Rivieras had red/wht/blu tri-shields (except the hood ornament on a 63.) I'm going to be listing those along with some other things on ebay in a couple of weeks so look for them.

Dave, Here's a link to the Buicks.net website that shows you all the paint codes that were available for 65. http://buicks.net/years/65/65paint.html Personally, with a saddle interior, I'd go for the burgandy previously mentioned or a Dark Green.

Dave, In the first generationn cars, you only got a fan shroud as part of the a/c package. Nothing to protect you from the blades on the non a/c cars.

Bill, I have a MP34 WPA wireless FM transmitter I like for the same thing you looking for. You plug it into a cigarette lighter, or an aftermarket 12V source, and plug your ipod or cd player into it. It transmits to an FM station you chose and you can play your music through the original FM radio that's in the vehicle. In our case, the FM is mono, not stereo. You can probably update to a later FM radio to get stereo sound and not have to destroy your face plate, but you'd have one speaker in the front and one in the rear, not two right and two left. I know quite a few guys who have a 5" or 6" round speakers on their Riv's door panels and have put a couple of 6"x9" speakers in the package tray; which will require some modifications you may or may not want to do. I've always thought that the sides of the rear arm rests might be a good place for a couple of speakers but I've never tried it. I once bought an NOS Motorola 8 track player off ebay for about $10.00. I took the face plate and glued all the knobs, switches, etc. to it. I then could remove it from the frame in which I installed a new FM/CD player and put it under the dash. The old face plate was just a false front for the new radio. I did this on my '70 Skylark and it just looked like a period 8 track player under the dash. I've also seen it done with OEM tissue dispensers. Not as easy on a Riv with the center console.

Clarks Corvair www.clarkscorvair.com also has them available. I don't know from whom Clavin gets them, but if he's as quality conscious about these as he is his reproduction seat covers, you can rest assured they'd be good ones.

Joe, The ebay auction that Al sent to you looks like a really good deal. I sold an '84 convertible last summer for about $2,000 more than this buy it now price. Mine had about 96,000 miles on it. I had completely gone through the interior and put a new top on it. Mine had the optional T-type rally wheels, but I added them. Two things I notice: 1) The radio is on the low side of the options. GM has a really nice AM/FM Cassette with a built in 5 band equalizer; it has a great sound; that would be a easy swap. 2) It's not mentioned in the ad, but the car is also equipped with an electric rear window defogger; the switch is on the dash just to the right of the climate contorl. Perhaps nothing was said about it because it doesn't work, or the rear glass was replaced and didn't come with the grids. The one thing to be sure to ask about on cars equipped with the automatic climate control is "Does it work?" If not, they're a bugger to fix. I'd make sure the a/c works too. Still, it's a really nice looking car for what's being asked. My two cents worth. If this car is as nice as it looks, I'd have been money ahead buying it rather than buying the one I did and then sinking some more into it.

You might also check out "Red Rocks West" with Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper. Black boat tail and a train. A boat tail has a small part in "The Last Boy Scout" with Bruce Willis. He baits the bad guys to shoot the lock of the trunk which he's rigged with some c-4. There's a good action shot of the boat tail rolling over and over going down a hill engulfed in flames. ARGGGGH. Ed

Brian, Great comments. I too like the "non" feel of the dynaflow. I know the gas mileage sucks and it's an inefficient transmission, but when needed, the car can still do 120 mph without whimpering. I have thought of looking into the possibility of adding a Gear Vendors overdrive unit to it, but haven't researched it yet. Anyone you know of done anything like this? Ed