71GS Riviera hood "R" logo

[George Buick Riviera]

Hi folks,

anybody know if there was "R" ornament logo attached on the top of the hood for Riviera 71GS ?

Or it is add-on form the owner ?

Thank you

[BadgerRivFan]

Definitely an "add-on." Boat tails did not come with hood ornaments from the factory...

[George Buick Riviera]

Definitely an "add-on." Boat tails did not come with hood ornaments from the factory...

Thanks for prompt answer. I was thinking like like that, but wanted to ask the community. So I will have to remove it :-).

[bob71GS]

Al is correct, none of the boattails came with a hood ornaments. It does not necessary mean you have to remove it. If you like it, keep it, remember it's your car. You can do whatever you want.

Bob Bonto #277 ROA

Technical Advisor 71-73

[RivNut]

Too bad they didn't put the "hood" ornament on the "hood." It doesn't look bad, but that's a great place for it to get broken while you're working on the engine.

[George Buick Riviera]

Al is correct, none of the boattails came with a hood ornaments. It does not necessary mean you have to remove it. If you like it, keep it, remember it's your car. You can do whatever you want.

Bob Bonto #277 ROA

Technical Advisor 71-73

Yes - of course, but I prefer to keep the car as original as possible. However when I will see her "live", I will make up my mind. She's on the way and should arrive in next 2-3 weeks.

Few pictures below:

Picasa Web Albums - Buick Riviera 71 GS ...

[WWS]

My 73 has a hood emblem and it was not an add on piece. The hole where it fits is punched out on a press when the front panel was stamped, and not drilled like you would expect for dealer installed item.

Edited October 6, 2010 by WWS (see edit history)

[rivgs]

I also owned a 73 with a hood ornament and the header had punched mounting holes.

[George Buick Riviera]

OK guys, then I will check how the "R" logo is mounted at mine car, but as I wrote before, after she will reach me. She's still on the way ....

Thank you all for the feedback.

[Guest 75RivGS]

74 was the first year (after the boattail era) the Riviera had a hood ornament again.

The one on your Riviera probably is from a 74 (same front clip as a 73).

The chrome base of a 75/76 is much longer.

On this Riviera I can imagine a hood ornement; there's a Riviera logo and the letters spelling RIVIERA, but on a 71-73 you would look at the Riviera logo twice:

[bob71GS]

I think a few people here are getting confused. In 73 there was a "R" on the header panel from the factory. What the discusion here has been about the spring loaded "hood ornament" that is on the 74. Once again, NONE of the boattails came with a spring loaded ornament. :confused:

Bob Bonto # 277 ROA

Technical Advsior 71-73

[WWS]

Bob,

My 73 GS HAS a spring loaded hood onament mounted on top of the panel, plus the chrome R diecast emblem on front of the header. There is no confusion on my side, as it is there. You are welcome to look next time your in my neck of the woods.

I removed the spring mounted emblem last fall when I was detailing the car, the hole is a factory punched hole for this piece. It is not drilled or ground out. It has been re-installed. Over the years, I have owned several boat tail Rivs, this is the first one I had seen.

My car is a very low milage triple black GS that to my knowlage, or that of the previous long time owner has not been wrecked or rebuilt.

In the land of GM, anything is possible

I have pictures of it, but they are too big to post

Edited October 6, 2010 by WWS (see edit history)

[George Buick Riviera]

Bob,

My 73 GS HAS a spring loaded hood onament mounted on top of the panel, plus the chrome R diecast emblem on front of the header. There is no confusion on my side, as it is there. You are welcome to look next time your in my neck of the woods.

I removed the spring mounted emblem last fall when I was detailing the car, the hole is a factory punched hole for this piece. It is not drilled or ground out. It has been re-installed. Over the years, I have owned several boat tail Rivs, this is the first one I had seen.

My car is a very low milage triple black GS that to my knowlage, or that of the previous long time owner has not been wrecked or rebuilt.

In the land of GM, anything is possible

I have pictures of it, but they are too big to post

Hi Mark,

please consider to use Picasa 3: Free download from Google - you have gmail account, so another service from google should not be a problem...

I think all of us are interested to see what you have.

And when I will have possibility, I will make the detailed pictures and I will post them as well. However I think Bob71GS is right, this was not officially available in 71-73 Riv.

[bob71GS]

Mark,

I'm not doubting that your 73 has a spring loaded hood ornament. What I am saying that NO 73's came with them from the factory period! and I am standing by that. Buick did not have spring loaded hood ornamaents until 74. If your 73 has one, it was put on after it left the factory.

Bob Bonto #277 ROA

Technical Advisor 71-73

[rivgs]

Rob,

Yes, it is redundent to have the two "R"s on the front. If you have a copy of Chris Wolfe's book " Buick Riviera 1963-73 " there is a picture of a 73 with the hood ornament. I wish I could find some paperwork showing this was an option in 1973 ( perhaps midyear? )

[WWS]

Bob,

Let me ask you a question. You state pretty emphatically that NO Rivs left the factory that way.

As I stated, the hole on top of the header panel of my car is a factory stamped hole, so how could a dealer do that? Doesnt make sense to say it never happened. If someone wanted the emblem added to the car, would a dealer dis-assemble a car to add a factory stamped header just to make it look right. NO, they would have drilled a hole and screwed the piece down and shoved it out the door.

I know that I cant say for sure how it happened , I wasnt working the assembly line, and I am pretty sure records are not available to document each specific piece on a car. But its there, and tell you the truth, I like it, and I quess that really is all that matters.

But consider this, saying this never happened is like saying that no mistakes ever happened in the plants, or in one case, no Chevies ever were built with Buick upholstery. GM was in the business of selling cars and at times I have to believe that protocal may not have been followed perfectly. I have a GSX, that has items installed from the factory, that clearly in the dealer books was a NO NO, yet it was built with the items and the build sheet verifies it. SCO #703.

I'll take pictures tommorow, then post one up and we can all scratch our heads for awhile. Theres is an answer out there.

Edited October 7, 2010 by WWS (see edit history)

[WWS]

The mystery Riviera.

Since we will never have an exact answer as to why this is on this car. we can just say it is what it is.

On the plus side, if it is so rare an option, it should be worth double the money if I ever go to sell it.

[Guest 75RivGS]

Mark, maybe the part# on the hood ornament can bring some light in the darkness??

A 75/76 panel looks like this and is no where near a 73/74:

A 75/76 hood ornament (part# 1248121), Chrome base is about 5 1/2":

[WWS]

That may not be a bad idea. Its going to take a few days to get done, as my schedule this week is tight.

[Guest 75RivGS]

forgot to say: that is a beautiful 73 you got there (wide rocker panel moldings...). Of the boattail years I prefer the 73. They don't look as fragile as the years prior.

[WWS]

Thank you,

Of all the cars I have owned, or currently own, this one is by far my favorite. It rides and drives just like a new car.

[George Buick Riviera]

1946 Super Sedanette

1963 LeSabre Coupe

1968 GS 400 Convertible

1970 Skylark convertible

1971 GSX

1973 Riviera GS with the mystery hood ornament

:D:D

[WWS]

George,

Got to have some fun in life , right.

BTW, very cool website you put togeather with your Buicks, and I assume your wedding.

Looks like everyone was having a great time

[Guest wildcat62]

Mark, not only do I still love that 73...now I also love your garage! Lookit all that extra space in there just waiting for more cars....

[George Buick Riviera]

George,

Got to have some fun in life , right.

BTW, very cool website you put togeather with your Buicks, and I assume your wedding.

Looks like everyone was having a great time

Thanks,

The wedding was one of my friend, and this was great time indeed.

My page is amateur and I have not so much time to update it regularly, but at least there is something :-).

And yes - I love your garage - mine is currently under construction - I must finish it before winter :-(

[WWS]

Thank you, That is the front section of the garage, its 4000 sq ft total

Theres room for one more, I would like to find a nice Wildcat coupe 62, or 65-66

[Guest 75RivGS]

Maybe the front end panel part# will give an answer:

73: 1241314 (with holes for the Riviera monogram: part#1242396)

74: 1246346 (with holes for the R I V I E R A letters and holes for the spring loaded hood ornament: part#1245037)

[WWS]

I'll be heading to the shop this morning to do some checking, and I will bring the camera

[WWS]

Ill have to down load pictures sunday, but here are the numbers off the back of the hood emblem

#1245081 and 12604-3

Rob, I looked for part numbers on the header, No luck. But if you look at the picture above, I have the "R" emblem on the panel, and not the lettering. What I have is a dual emblem, the standard, plus the upright "R"

Edited October 10, 2010 by WWS (see edit history)

[WWS]

Pictures of the car and emblem plus a tad bit more of the garage

[George Buick Riviera]

Pictures of the car and emblem plus a tad bit more of the garage

Great garage. Some flipper from Williams is missing in my opinion ;-)

[Guest 75RivGS]

Buick : Riviera: eBay Motors (item 320609195186 end time Nov-14-10 18:00:00 PST)

[Guest papaw]

Yep, another 73 with the sping loaded R on the header panel. I like it and wish mine had it.

[George Buick Riviera]

Hi Guys,

finally she arrived few weeks ago, but I had no time before to post the pictures I took.

But what I've found out, I'm the 3rd owner, so I will try to contact the previous one - maybe he will give us some informations about the mysterious logo....

[George Buick Riviera]

Well Folks,

here are some news. I'm including complete email reply text, with some additional answers to my other questions, but the hood ornament story is described there.

Hi George, I have owned the car since 1982. I was a Body Shop assistant manager at Carol Buick in Evanston Illinois when I bought the car from the same dealer. I was the second owner of the car. When I bought it, it had about 53,000 miles on it. I was in charge of ordering parts for the body shop. The factory options I added are the fender monitor lamps , driver mirror (with thermometer, passenger door mirror , compass and the hood ornament. These are factory options for that year. The power antenna and alarm and rear speakers are not factory. They are aftermarket parts. The radio is aftermarket. It had just an am/fm radio. Unfortunately I threw the orginal radio away. (I wish I would have kept it.) There are used factory radios listed on a web site called car-part.com.

I do not have the orginal vehicle sticker. Maxi trac did work, all it does is reduce the engine RPM's to prevent the rear wheels from spinning. I plugged the heater core coolant line because the automatic air is not working. It is stuck on heat all the time. I unplugged the fan because with automatic air, the fan would run all the time. (this is why only 1971 models have the louvers in the trunk, it was called flo thru ventilation.) It got very hot inside the car in the summer. The vehicle has been repainted. When I worked for Buick, the front end and doors were repainted in Laquer. This is the factory color. When I worked for Cadillac, I replaced both doors because they were rusted on the bottom. The used doors I got were from Texas with no rust. These were also painted in Laquer. When I worked for Ford, I reworked the left 1/4 and deck lid due to rust. That was painted in laquer (hence the rust again). When I worked for Nissan, the right 1/4 was repaired and refinished in enamal. The hood ornament did not come on the vehicle, however it is a factory option for 71 thru 73 models. I sold her because I rarely ever drove it. We wanted to buy a new boat, and decided to sell the car. Send some more pictures when its restored. If you have any questions, just email me.

--------------------------------------------------

Edited:

>> -----Original Message-----

>> Sent: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 3:28 am

>> Subject: Re: Riv 71 GS

>>

>> Hi Kevin,

>>

>> I'm very interested about hood ornament, as here is a big discussion about it: http://forums.aaca.org/f177/71gs-riviera-hood-r-logo-289899.html

>> Technical advisor from ROA is saying that this was not available. Now you are saying that it was.

>> Are you sure it was ?

>>

>> George

>

>> George, I wi;ll put out my GM Buick parts manual from 1975 and look it up. I will scan it and send it to you soon........

>>

>>

>>

> -----Original Message-----

> Sent: Fri, Dec 3, 2010 1:05 am

> Subject: Re: Riv 71 GS

>

> OK Dave, thank you - but you wrote about scanning manual from 75.

> This was mentioned at the discussion board that for this year ornament was indeed available.

> But what about 71 ?

>

> George

>

> George, the hood ornament was not a factory option for 71 thru 73 models. I looked it up in the parts book. It was for a 1974 and 1975 model. I must have liked the look of the hood ornament. It was over 30 years ago it was put on...............................

Edited May 20, 2022 by George Buick Riviera
Typo (see edit history)

[Baker1]

Hello.
I remembered your conversation about the ornament on the front of the 71-73 Buick Riviera.
Almost 15 years have passed since George's post with his question.
My knowledge and conclusions about the "R" ornament;
- the embossed holes actually had to be done on a press before painting the body
- the ornament was in models 71-73
- the base of the ornament perfectly fits only this Riviera model, and could not be adapted from another model, as evidenced by the angle of inclination.
I drew my conclusions based on the four pieces of Riviera I have that have these ornaments. One of the Riviera is, among others, your WWS, two others had ornaments because the holes show it.
I don't know if there is any connection, but all of them were GS and three of them were 3 x black.
I managed to get the original ornament that I was missing because one Riviera has a plugged hole and I plan to restore it. Apparently someone damaged it and had trouble refilling it.
  
Greetings to all Buick Riviera owners.

[George Buick Riviera]

Still here, together with her 🙂