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My Riviera Hunt - Kansas City to Australia


whitewatersky

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well, You've no doubt been bored my my incessant questions about Rivs, but I thought I'd post a bit of a "diary"

I had been THIS close to buying the silver GS outta LA, but baulked at the amount of money. but to be honest, had I been able to catch the owner's Pops on the blower, I'd have bought it at $25k

Well, luckily all I succeeded in doing was calling and leaving messages.

Cos, within a day or two, I found this listing:

CListAd.jpg

Yep, officially excited !

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:eek:

Love the colour and trim, so worth a look.

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so In quick time Ed was kind enough to go check the car.

I had emailed the owner who was kind enough to to go into great detail about the car. i was feeling confident. a bit wary - nothing against the seller, but how often do u send thousands of dollars overseas to someone you don't know.

APlowrightBuickRear.jpg

001.jpg

001a.jpg

002.jpg

in had received these pics, so after Ed told me it's a nice example, i was hooked. no time to waste. on the phone (without checking the time in KC) and we agreed to a price

Edited by whitewatersky (see edit history)
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so last weekend we had this festival in my town:

index.ews | Wintersun Port Macquarie

Tony, Barb, Klaus and Wendy - friends from the ROA were up here. and with all the awesome cars around, I was so relieved to have found one of my own. but I still hadn't paid for it. I hadta stake my claim or risk missing out.

so I jumped into my online banking and shot the $$$$ over cyberspace. hope it would find it's destination. nice to be seeing a healthy exchange rate for once !

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so during this time I had contacted the shipping people and the company who were picking it up from KC to take to LA/Long Beach

the truck was booked and it was just a matter of ensuring the money transferred OK, cos understandably, the seller would probly wanna know they'd been paid.

So come Tuesday morning Aussie time, I was hoping to hear that the money had cleared. But alas, since I had sent the money thru internet backing (rather than a "wire transfer") it's called 'ACH', or Automatic Clearing House. This is routed through the US Federal Reserve, then on to the destination bank. Thus, is different from a direct bank wire transfer. There is a delay of two to three business days for an ACH money transfer, so it looked like funds wouldn't be available till Weds. at the earliest.

And the truck was sposed to be there Wed. YOWZAH !

well, we'll so what happens.

Then Wed arvo our time, I got the advice it was cleared. All good.

So after all that, she was loaded onto a truck, heading west:

Truck2.jpg

so we shall wait and see how long it takes to get here.... hope the truckie doesn't get hit from behind !

more pics after arrival... oh, I'd better update my Signature to include "65 Riviera"

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Guess what? I just saw your car! It was on the very front / top of the car hauler heading south on Highway 169, turning west onto the Creek Turnpike (west) towards Oklahoma City.

I was coming up behind the hauler and saw a blue '65 on front and wondered if it could possibly be yours but since I was passing it on the left, I couldn't see much, so tried to get a pic with my phone. I took 2 quick pics, got in front of it, switched 2 lanes to the right so I could see the plate in my side-view mirror and saw "AE3...." (backwards) as I was exiting my exit.

So, at least for now, you don't have to worry about it getting hit from behind. I'd be worried about a quick stop and it flying off the front!

She's on her way!

-BEPNewt

post-72864-143138575424_thumb.jpg

post-72864-14313857544_thumb.jpg

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Man, that's CLASSIC !

good spottin' Brian and thanks for the pics. what a world we live in. to think I can be looking at pics from way over here...

a mate and I were commenting on the benefits of it being on the back... y'know, no bugs in the radiator... no stone chips.... but me no complain....

It's sposed to be in Long Beach area by end of the week. a few steps closer ...

THANKS !

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  • 3 weeks later...

well, no real progress on my Riv. I got an email from the Aussie govt asking for a bit more detail pertaining to my licence to import.

I sent back the info and haven't heard back. so as far as I know, she's still sittin around in Long Beach.

funnily enough, whilst confirming the correct designation/naming displacement etc of the engine (they wanted that info) I came across an interesting link from the 401 Nailhead wikipedia installment:

Buick V8 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Click the SR-71 Blackbird hyperlink

and read about Startup

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import paperwork has arrived.

i'm officially approved to import.

set sail, me hearties... bring mah baby home....

as another piece of coincidental news, some other Aussie ROA friends are bringing their new Riv to Oz and happen to be using the same importer. the other week they also saw my Riv in the yard in Wilmington awaiting its trip whilst checking on their car before its journey

nice n dusty i hear... to be expected tho, i spose.... so, it's comforting to have a little more news confirming that the car does indeed exist... ha!

Edited by whitewatersky (see edit history)
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Guest carlbraun

WWS

I was in Long Beach yesterday and would have snuck over to the wilmington area to snap a couple of photos for you. Hopefully its already set sail for Oz.

Good luck with that beautiful Riviera mate!

Cheers from San Diego

Carl

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest carlbraun

WWS

Have you received your car yet?

I'm worried...I was in Long Beach last weekend and I saw an Astro Blue Riv with a blown big block chevy motor in it and orange flames on the side...it had Missouri plates on it too...strange?

I've got some associates in Compton that can help with "re-acquiring" the car, if required.

let me know

Carl

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you think YOU want pics... imagine how badly i wanna be able to TAKE some pics...

well.....

it's now the 1st here - 2pm

I rang on Monday to see if the boat had docked, but was told that it will probly be the 13th of Spet

then y'day i got a call saying it should be the 1st

so I'll try again tomoro and ensure that it DID arrive.

ahhhh. frustration....

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5 min after i typed that i got a call from my shipping guy.

my riv is in a container at the Sydney wharf with 2 other cars

as a random check, the Customs people wanna see proof of payment from the 3 car owners, in order to ensure we don't attempt to under state our price paid to under pay the import duty.

no biggie, i faxed the bank transfer statement. only problem is the other 2 guys are apparently away from home - one of them overseas until Sunday ! .. ! .. !

i asked why this impacts me, since I was able to send my proof immediately. i hear that they won't release ANYTHING from the container until the whole container is cleared of this payment checkup ....

DOH ! maybe ..... Monday.... it'll leave the wharf. if not, extra "storage" fees apply.....

(luckily the other fella's not away for longer than Sunday, eh)

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5 min after i typed that i got a call from my shipping guy.

my riv is in a container at the Sydney wharf with 2 other cars

as a random check, the Customs people wanna see proof of payment from the 3 car owners, in order to ensure we don't attempt to under state our price paid to under pay the import duty.

no biggie, i faxed the bank transfer statement. only problem is the other 2 guys are apparently away from home - one of them overseas until Sunday ! .. ! .. !

i asked why this impacts me, since I was able to send my proof immediately. i hear that they won't release ANYTHING from the container until the whole container is cleared of this payment checkup ....

DOH ! maybe ..... Monday.... it'll leave the wharf. if not, extra "storage" fees apply.....

(luckily the other fella's not away for longer than Sunday, eh)

There should not be any "Import Duty"" on this car due to it's age. I believe that all changed in 2000 when the 10% GST came in and replaced a lot of the other separate taxes.

They may be assessing if the right price is being quoted for GST purposes. They charge 10% GST on the total cost of the car including the shipping and transportation costs.........at least that how it worked for me in 2006 when I brought my 65 Wildcat into Melbourne.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Man, I was thinking that Polish customs are slow, but since I'm monitoring your story, slowly I'm changing my mind :-)

Good luck and keep us updated !

nice one!

well, it's 10:55pm & the trucking co. for the last leg of its journey just rang to say the driver could drop it off now, but he forgot his key to our secure dropbox.

do i wanna go and grab the keys from him now? 15 min drive.... bedtime... tempting, but i'll wait until the morning.

i feel like a little kid on christmas eve. hope it's as cool as the Fonzie figurine i got back in the 70s on christmas morning.... just to make the "1 more sleep" worth all the excitement...

Edited by whitewatersky (see edit history)
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so, it runs nice, feels great and looks awesome.

needs a GOOOOD polish.... unsurprisingly.

plenty of bugs on it's bum, thanks to the truck rides.

i have quite a bit of seatbelt mucking around to do before I can register it.

vehicles built after 1 January 1965 must have lap/sash belts in the front.

I will attempt to ascertain whether it may have been built in 1964. here's hopin!

i MUST get back belts installed for Felix and I think we'd be better with front lap/sash belts, anyway.

but apparently there's a good chance the engineering requirements will change on 29 Sept this year, so TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE - unless I'm happy to pay thousands more.

our local automotive engineer tells me the new tests he'll have to perform before passing such cars will be extremely onerous, thus the likely $2000+ increase in HIS fee

funnily enough, he's explaining this to me whilst I'm parked next to this tiny, tinny, crappy late 80s suzuki hatchback (that would almost fit in my Riv's boot). so THAT PIECE OF CRAP'S SAFER ?

cos it wasn't built in America in the 60s !?!?!? whattaloadarubbish..... !

anyway, what will be, will be.... I'll see how I go...

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Man, it sure seems like a long time since I last saw that car in Kansas City. I'm retired now and I think I was still just a pup when I took it for a test drive. Glad to see it finally got there.

Search the archives and I think you can find a thread that talks about rear seat belt placement. I think I attached a page from a chassis manual that shows where the dimples are in the floor pan where the holes should be drilled.

Check this website for belts and attachment hardwear.

Retrofit Seat Belts Installation Shoulder Bolt Anchor Point Your Classic Car, Hotrod 3 Point Seatbelts

Ed

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  • 2 months later...

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