Hello to All! My Riviera and its future

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

I've been an off and on ROA member for almost 6yrs now, mainly coinciding with when I own a Riviera or not. I currently have a white on white '64 Riviera with most of the available options. I bought the car from Colorado back in 2006 with some rust repair and a primer fender with 89k miles. By my count its missing a vacuum trunk release, dual quads, cruise control, guide-matic headlights, wood wheel, 4 note horn, or the pop up rear armrest. It does however have power vents, a posi, and the deluxe interior. I took it on 2/3rd of Hot Rod Power Tour 2006 with basically adding a CD player, fixing my seized AC clutch, and some sound deadening. I took it the whole way on Power Tour 2007 but it blew a waterpump and seized a carrier bearing despite my efforts to get it in better shape by rebuilding the front suspension, adding a TA 2.5in exhaust system (the only one they made to work with stock manifolds after much hounding on my part), Dave's Smallbody HEI and a coolant overflow. After this the engine was just plain tired and had lost most compression on #1 and it was time for a rebuild.....

Nope, not a rebuild. I've been building a 4.1L Buick Turbo6 for 5yrs in my garage with lots of custom and quality stuff on it and you guessed it, its going in the '64. The engine has a full forged rotating assembly courtesy of Eagle, K1, and Diamond. Full roller valve train courtesy of Comp and T&D. The engine wears Champion ported 8445 heads and is topped by (for now) a stock intake but will be getting a Champion ported intake. The tricky stuff of getting it to fit in the space a Nailhead once lived involved running Poston steel headers, cutting an ear off of the accessory bracket, and cutting down a '64 LeSabre 300 oil pan to clear the steering linkage. Paul Ferry at HR Partsnstuff made me some custom motor mounts to get it attached to the frame and I built my own crossmember out of some form of Chevy truck crossmember scavenged from the junkyard and plate steel. Oh I guess I should mention that the transmission is a '67 Wildcat BT code SP400.

Now to run all of this I'm experimenting with the L67 supercharged 3800 V6 ECM and harness and I'm currently in the middle of fitting the harness and plumbing into the car in hopes of being able to drive it in March.

Whew.... but better to tell it all at once than string it out in pieces.

See ya'll at the GS Nats or BPG next year if you don't make Power Tour 2009