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74' Riviera Air cushion restraint


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For sale: 1974 Buick Riviera with Air cushion restraint system (air bags). Both units are intact with all brackets and wire harness. Will sell parts or whole car. Overall condition of car is bad with some rust and body damage. Asking $2500.00 will consider serious offers. Car located near Seward, NE. Phone 402 643 5058 ask for Monte Possible delivery.

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Guest Shaffer

The airbag option was rare. Only 10,000 GM cars from 1974-1976 had the option. Was only available on full-size Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs. My grandmothers old 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado Brougham had this air-cushion restraint (airbag) option. It finally rusted down to the road as well, and that was back in the mid 1980s.

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Hello Mr. Shaffer. I was told less than 1000 GM cars from 74' -76' had this option, and only four Rivs had this in 74'. If you are correct, the car I have may not be as rare as I first thought. confused.gif" border="0 Can you tell me what you think these parts are worth? As a side note, I do have a 73' Grand Safari wagon for sale. No engine or transmission, but straight and fairly rust free. Asking $1000.00. All for now.

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Guest Shaffer

Maybe it was 1,000. Someone here on the site had said 10,000, so I am not sure. I am not sure what the parts would be worth. I know people on the wagon group with 74-76 Oldsmobile and Buick wagons and they may want the airbag parts, I will post about them there. My grandmothers old 74 Oldsmobile Toronado was the only one I have actually ever seen with the option, so I guess it is very rare these days to find one equipped. I would have liked the 73 Grand Safari you mentioned, but I am looking for a drivable car. They are very rare cars as well. I have looked for a complete and good 71-76 Grand Safari for a long time. I know someone needing parts for a 73 Safari. What other details do you have on the wagon? Does it have woodgrain? 2 or 3-seat? Any power options? How are the 1/4 panels? Thanks.

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not as rare as you think. do you remember a couple years ago when the guy who plays al bundy on married with children did commercials for 1800callatt (before carrottop)? he drove around in a white 75 chevy 4dr with a forest green interior, accosting people at fone booths?<P>that car had the restraint system too. which got me thinking that it must have been swapped in, so i started asking around, and found a handful of people online who had owned chevies with this option. so maybe not so rare afterall.<P>allan

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Guest my3buicks

I knew a woman that was in a horrific accident in her brand new 76 Caddy, investigators said that the airbags saved her life. Sadly 4 died in the 72 New Yorker. frown.gif" border="0

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Guest Shaffer

Someone on here once mentioned to us on a previous post about early airbags and they said some of the 73 Chevrolets (full-size) was equipped, but I think it was not factory, but rather another company installing and testing airbags. Perhaps that lasted until about 75-76 on the Chevrolets.

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I have seen a few cars with this option over the years. Iremember having seen a 1974 Caddy Fleetwood a 75 olds 88 sedan a 75 Park Avenue and my 75 electra ltd. Asfar as I know 1000 1973 experimental Chevrolets were equipped with air bags (from"Buick a complete history")and the option was available on all full size Buicks Olds and Caddilacs exept wagons and convertibles. Cars with air bags so not have shoulder belts or starter interlock, they do not have seat belt warning light and buzzer and they do not have tilt steering. Their lower dash pads are also different and incorporates a knee restraint on the driver side and a large cushion for the center and right passengers. The passenger cushion have two levels of deployment depending of the speed of the crash.

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I have a copy of Oldsmobile's 1974 ACRS dealer brochure with picture of the dash and steering wheel. The lower dash is different, has a larger padded shelf from extreme left side to the area under the radio. Ashtray is moved to the upper section of dash and took up part of what was normally glovebox. Steering wheel is a four-spoke soft vinyl piece with an "Air Cushion Restraint System" emblem at lower right of the pad.<P>The advertising push was that you didn't have to mess with the seat belt/starter interlock or shoulder harness, which y'all may recall was quite unpopular and was quickly discontinued, with a government approved factory issued procedure to disable it. Guess public outcry and rage could influence the Federal nannies then. <P>Ballyhoo? "ACRS... a space age engineered passive restraint system"<P>The brochure seems to validate the 1000 experimental Chevys also- "one thousand ACRS equipped cars have also been driven nearly 40 million miles in actual on-the-road service". That may be where the 1000 cars produced figure came from.<P>Seems like I have a copy of the 1976 ACRS service manual supplement too, but I can't start it here at the house. Probably in the Regency. If I find it I'll post more.

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Guest Shaffer

Rocket, would you happen to know where I could find one of the ACRS brochures, besides E-Bay? My grandmother had a 74 Oldsmobile Toronado with the airbags, back in the early to mid 80s and I do not remember what the dash and steering wheel looked like. Also until this post, I thought that the cars only had driver side airbag, not dual airbags. Also I did not know that they did not have shoulder belts. Thanks for any info on the location of any 74-76 Oldsmobile, Buick or Cadillac airbag brochures.

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Tony, the one I have is the only one I've ever seen in nearly 20 years of literature collecting. I have a 74 Hurst/Olds and even though ACRS was never offered on the midsize cars, I like to have every piece of paper the factory put out for my cars' year of manufacture.<P>I found it at one of the Metrolina Fairgrounds swap meets in Charlotte NC, 5,6 years ago? <P>Next weekend is a swap meet in Raleigh NC and I buy a lot of paper from a guy in NJ who's always there. I'll see if he has one or get him to look out for it.

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Guest Shaffer

Thanks for the lookout. None on E-Bay. I bet my uncle will go to that swapmeet. He lives in Raleigh-Durham. Thanks again.

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I have an original GM service book for the airbag cars from 1974.It has a light blue cover and covers the Buick, Olds and Cadillac, if I recall correctly. I hadn't considered selling it, as I got it at farm auction with a box of old Buick shop manuals from the 50's and early 60's. I figured it wasn't worth anything. deadmed@swbell.net

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  • 6 years later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Great find Rob!

But I think there were a few more than 4 '74 Rivs with ACRS! I have seen quite a few cars with this option on the net and in person over the years. 4 1975 Electras, 2 1974 Electras, I got airbags from another 1974 Electra and I have also seen two 1974 Fleetwoods, two Olds 88 (a 75 post sedan and a 74 hardtop sedan), one '74 98 Regency...

I know that there were 123 1975 Electra Limited hardtop sedans built with this option alone. That doesn't include the Limited coupes and Electra 225 Custom models, Rivieras or LeSabres or any 1974 models...

See this bad movie featuring a '74 Olds.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=VOpUemFenS0&feature=related http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=VOpUemFenS0&feature=related

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  • 3 years later...

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