63 Engine Color Question

[DaveC6970]

Hello again, Well as my search for a first gen Riviera continues I have found another car. This one is a 63 and I believe an early car based on the smooth dash panel and spare tire location. The odd thing is the engine color on this car is the green color and it should be silver, right? The air cleaner has the red finish which I believe is correct. Also the green on the engine appears to have been there a long time. The current owner has owned the car for many years and it was that color when he bought it. I'm wondering if maybe the engine was replaced with a later model at some point? Is there a way to tell? I was thinking 63 was before the engine and vin number matched, but I may be wrong about that. Any ideas? Thanks, Dave

[Mr Riviera]

The letters on the block - passenger side on the flat surface in front of the valley pan , shoud start with J if its a 63 engine . On the other side of the same surface will be numbers and the last few will be the last few of the VIN number if its original . Who knows how or why it was painted green back in the day .

[63 Rivi]

You're correct Dave, the engine should be Silver. That original Silver paint never held up well and usually wore off pretty fast. I had to repaint mine back in the early 80's as most of the original paint was long gone, and that was on a low mileage original garaged car. Since it was a one year engine color for the Riv, many people painted them green since they didn't know any better.

As Dick already stated, definitely check the VIN number on the engine to make sure it is the original motor.

[Guest 63 rivenge]

We'll just my opinion. I have a 63. 1 owner car, with 44k on the clock. The car came from Corletto Buick in PHila and the engine has never been pulled. I have been to Hersey PA, and spoke with 2 Guys who worked at the Flint plant for GM and the paint came in 50 gallon drum. If at times when paint was not at hand during that stage whatever was on hand was used. Ex the Wildcat engine was green. Now I know the question comes up from time to time about the silver paint, I Have no proof but when I pulled the heads and intake, no signs of silver. So that's my 2 cents on it

[1965rivgs]

Hi Rivenge,

I have learned over the years not to use absolute terms like "always", "never", etc....because just when I think I`ve seen it all I learn something new, and often, it serves as an example of how much I have yet to learn.

I have also spoken with employees who were there back in the day and your statement has been repeated to me many times. I was fortunate enough to have a day long chat with an employee who was directly connected with assembly line hiccups and he stated to me repeatedly that whatever was necessary to get the car off the assembly line was considered. This included "borrowing" parts from engineering to complete a build. An absolute last resort was to shut down the assembly line!

A friend of mine ordered a dual quad 4 speed `65 Wildcat hardtop and it was delivered with `66 chrome wheels. "Stuff happened!"

Tom Mooney

[Mr Riviera]

Everyone is correct and it may have been painted green however , without a way to prove it - the color called for is silver when it comes to Judged meets and resale to a purist . It all depends on what you are after .

[RivNut]

For all you doubting Thomases: Here you are. Dealer service bulletin 63-19. Dated Jan. 19,, 1963 stating what color the engines were to be painted in 1963:

As Mr. Riviera says, if you want it judged correctly or want to sell it to a purist, your 1963 Riviera (401 or 425) should have a silver engine.

You may also notice that it is correct for a '63 Wildcat with the optional 425 for that engine to be painted silver as well.

Ed

63 engine color bulletin to dealers.pdf

Edited March 7, 2014 by RivNut (see edit history)

[1965rivgs]

Everyone is correct and it may have been painted green however , without a way to prove it - the color called for is silver when it comes to Judged meets and resale to a purist . It all depends on what you are after .

Yes. Judging guidelines are another story altogether and have their own function. To be a purist, or a real collector is different still.

Many years ago I picked up a Buick dual quad setup at a swap meet. When rebuilding the carbs I checked the carb numbers and found a 4150 number on the rear carb. The stamp had a different appearance than I was accustomed to seeing so, because my knowledge, or anyone else`s at the time, was not comprehensive, I assumed the stamp was a rebuilders stamp. Also, the intake manifold had been painted the "wrong color". I saved the triangular part tag which I removed from the rear carb because the GM part number didnt match the info I had from the parts books. Besides, I knew the "correct" tag should not have a part number but should be color coded. I assumed someone had added the tag to give the carb an "original" appearance. I sold the whole setup because I wanted something that was "correct".

Long story short, the setup was actually a very rare 1966 Super Wildcat package. At the time no one was generally aware the `66 cars came factory equipped with the dual quad option. When I stumbled across the info indicating the dual quad setup I had might have been the rare `66 option I rummaged thru 2 or 3 coffee cans of carb parts and found the original triangular tag removed from the rear carb. The part number matched the correct `66 rear carb!

Judging guidelines are just that, guidelines. Buick made exceptions to their own build guidelines when push came to shove to accomplish the goal at hand, ie, to build cars, sell them and make money. I have discovered MANY misstamped engine blocks over the years so it is not a stretch of the imagination to think they painted a couple the Buick green color that was much more typical. We have to be careful about absolute judgements and keep an open mind to possible exceptions. It`s OK to be vigilant regarding these exceptions for lack of documentation but we must be open to learning. The `63 Rivs are a great example of the variations in production which were made during just one model year.

Off my soap box, sorry,

Tom Mooney

[Guest dwhiteside64]

This is a very interesting topic. Like everything else, it looks like there were exceptions to the rule regarding different engine colors. It makes me wonder if late model '63s started to follow the 'rule' of the '64 and began having their engines painted in familiar blue-green? You are right Tom we should be open to variations concerning these cars, and this goes beyond just the color of their engines.

[Mr Riviera]

Bottom line in my opinion , if you have a green engine and no reason to pull it out - I would leave it . If on the other hand the engine needs to come out - I would paint it silver .