Thinking or buying Riviera convert like your feedback..

[StylishOne]

For those who have owned them n know, is there a best /most sought after year? 1982-85? What do I need to watch out for that they are prone to mechanical, body, or electrical..?? Is red or white more sought after..? Do they need lots of mechanical care? Options that make it nicer? Rust prone? Where? Thanks guys...

Edited September 4, 2017 by StylishOne (see edit history)

[JZRIV]

Welcome to the forum StylishOne.

 

I pasted a link to your question on the Riviera Owners Forum in case members there do not see your question. I'm sure those with experience on the model will chime in.

In general, color will be your preference. Both are nice. Naturally red always seems to get the edge in curb appeal. The white paint seemed to hold up better than red. These cars continue to be a great buy in my opinion. There are a decent number that can be found in excellent condition and prices are still very reasonable for what you get. Don't be afraid to pay up for a pampered well maintained car.

 

Links of interest

http://www.buickrivieraconvertible.com/

 

http://forums.aaca.org/topic/199892-1982-1985-riviera-convertible-production-and-information/?tab=comments#comment-1015658

 

 

Edited September 4, 2017 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[NTX5467]

When these cars, and the companion Toronado convertibles< were done, they were very unique and "not often seen" (although more plentiful back then than now).  Whether you like the Riviera best or the Toronado can be a matter of personal taste, be that as it may.

 

As normal for bac then, there can be some more desirable options, but most were pretty well-optioned by the dealers, considering the potential buyer of such a vehicle.

 

The Olds 5.0L V-8 is NO powerhouse, with the Buick V-6 probably being a little more so.  Good to drive around in and look good, but don't get in a hurry.  The Olds V-8 was pretty strangled by emissions controls (can't see much of the engine due to profuse vacuum lines).  But for somebody that desires 8 spark plugs . . .

 

From the cars I've seen over the years, from new to "used and beyond", the body seems to be pretty good.  Most don't see regular daily service, though!.  Not sure about the convertible top mechanism or related age issues, though.

 

As an "investment", not much upside, by observation.  Prices are generally flat and some sales seem to take a while to find a buyer.  In real estate terms, a continued "buyer's market" rather than a "seller's market" . . . that will probably extend into the future.  Otherwise, keeping it stock is where the ultimate value is!  Seeking to upgrade it with a modern sound system and such might be neat to do, but makes finding a buyer who desires originality much more of an issue.

 

Normal mechanical issues would be similar to a normal Riviera of that era.  In current times, a definite "throw-back" to an earlier time in automotive history.  As things are progressing, finding somebody to service an '80s vehicle (of any kind) now or in the future is becoming troubling for somebody that "owns" a vehicle of that vintage.  Finding a good service facility can depend upon where you live.  This is NOT something the "young 'uns" in the service bay are used to looking at, much less know what a carburetor is.

 

When new, they are unique and enjoyable.  In more current times, still the same, but now have the issues of finding credible qualified service techs to work on the normal mechanicals for general service and such.  Find the best one you can find that needs LITTLE or NO work to be able to enjoy (by your OWN determination rather than what the seller might state!).for the next few years, other than normal maintenance items (oil/filter changes, tires, brakes, and such).

 

The Riviera Forum participants might have some other things to add.

 

Happy Shopping!

NTX5467

[BUICK RACER]

Find the best '85 you can find with maintenance records, receipts, etc. And go for it, now one of the 49 turbo v6 ones would be my choice, converts if I had to have one!

[Pete Phillips]

Lots of plastic and lots of electronics...

After 30+ years, the plastic tabs on the door panels, dashboard, and elsewhere get brittle and break when you try to get access to repair something. I won't work on them, mainly because of that.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

[BUICK RACER]

And then this today:

Dear Buick Enthusiast,

If you know of anyone who may be interested in purchasing this beautiful, fully loaded, 1984 Buick Riviera Convertible, please pass this email along. 

This car came with the 5.0 Liter V8 4BBL Carburetor option and with 25 additional factory options. The original window sticker (see attached), 1984 Buick Audio Owners Guide cassette tape, 2 Owners Manual and Service Manuals are included.

Below are 6 photos. More photos, a recent AutoCheck report, and a written history about this particular car from the previous owner are all available for interested parties. Asking $16,500. Please feel free to call 401-828-3900. 
Thanks,

DC Guillemette
84Riviera@gmail.com
401-828-390
 Only one picture came though on the email, though, looks nice!

[RivNut]

Missing a digit in the phone number?

[Booreatta]

I owned a 1984 with the Olds motor and I had not a problem with anything on the car except the bumper fillers. The car came from the factory with a Rubber type of filler and I could not find the exact replacements. I did find fiberglass fillers and they had to be painted and the fit took a bit of work to get them to fit the right way, I then sold the car, I  saw it a few weeks ago at a car show and they still looks very good. The interior has held up very well and the car still looks great. 

[StylishOne]

Could it be a daily driver? I don't travel far and like the style a lot..found one I like.. A few for sale now, tho several are a bit hairy.. 1 decent ,one really nice but High priced. I noticed what appears to be an original red interior with white piping! Yet dont see that choice in brochures?? Any feedback helps..

 

[RivNut]

Red with white piping is NOT original. Do t be mislead by a desperate seller. Make sure the car is complete.   ASC made many unique parts for this model but no extras.  No parts cars exist.  84 and 85 have a headliner which covers the bows, looks good, and helps insulate the interior. Door panels, visors, etc are all vinyl, no velour.  

 

Remember that these were originally built as coupes until ASC took a sawzall to the top.  

Edited November 23, 2017 by RivNut (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

Like the guys say, get the best one you can. Whatever you buy will be 30-35 years old so the problems will have surfaced.

My car is an '86 Park ave convertible, built by Car Craft who took over Hess & Eisenhardt's work in Lima, Ohio. I previously owned an '82 H&E Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz  convertible. All the top bow assemblies look suspiciously similar. They may have been stamped out at the same job shop. All the 1980's conversions end up with similar quarter windows, even ones like my PA which was a two window design. My PA has a headliner, and I think more attention to quality detail was paid by Car Craft over H&E, like my stainless windshield cap instead of cloth. The parts are fabricated so fabricating some worn piece wouldn't be difficult.

 

I rarely drive mine with the top up, but I had it out on a blustery day last week. The roof rail strips are a token. The gusts of wind took me back to a '60 Chevy convert and a '67 Skylark I had, makes kind of a "Woof, woof" noise in side winds. I also had a '71 Ford LTD convertible. That was the tightest one I owned.

 

Both ASC and H&E built Eldorado convertibles. The H&E is better looking because they retained the quarter panel line, like the Riviera. I am happy with my little PA, but I wish I had kept the Eldo, even with the 4100 engine.

 

My thought would be, buy the nicest one you can find. And remember, you didn't marry the thing. If you don't like it, sell it. You might make a profit, at least you will know more.

 

If I was starting fresh I would be looking for an '81 (368) H&E Eldo. Just from my experience.

Bernie

[60FlatTop]

Oh! Just came in from the garage and thought of an important reminder. Never operate the top on one of these convertible conversions with the back windows raised. The tall rectangular quarter windows can sometimes bind with the top frame upright. Older convertibles usually have triangular quarter windows and the geometry gets the frame away better. Anyway, the worst I had happen was the window track pop out of the roller. but quarter panels are never a nice place to work in. Been there, dome that, don't want to again,

 

[RivNut]

The ASC Riviera convertible has a "rear window down 1inch" built into the top down switch.  No need to remember to put them down on your own.  Have you looked at the classifieds on the ROA website or in the Riview?

Ed

[dei]

A bit of a long story but...

I had a customer with a very successful Bingo business (when that was the in thing) and her two sons decided to purchase new cars together. They went to the local Buick Dealership and both ordered new identically optioned Riv converts. The only difference was one was red with red interior and the other was white with white interior.

The cars eventually arrived within three weeks of each other and Danny's red one came in first. 

He always drove his cars like he stole them. Taking his brother Bob with him and letting him drive it well, I got mine first. Brothers right? 

Bob's car came in later and they took it for rides together and compared however, Bob babied his compared to his brother.

With having relatives up north and a family event in the works they each drove their cars up on the 400 highways and upon arrival Bob asked if Danny's car performed OK? It seems Bob, deciding to open her up, was experiencing a pronounced vibration at around 65 MPH. They both took it out and sure enough something was different.

Back they went to the Dealership who eventually replace all tires, balanced and an alignment  (under warranty) and the issue persisted. Back and forth it went until one mechanic suggested offhandedly to just not drive over 60. Yikes! Bob took it into a large tire store who suggested putting on Michelin's which they did. That helped some but compared to Danny's factory equipped Riv there was something wrong. 

Back to the Dealership with both cars up on the hoists and eventually Buick Engineering was called to figure out the problem.

The point to this long story is the problem was found to be that when cutting off the roof of the coupe to make it a convertible, reinforcing had to be done and somehow that wasn't fully completed on the white car. Think of those two factory front fender braces on Mustang's to control a shake in the front end.

This whole process took over a year to find and correct and once the bracing was done the car performed like his brother's did.

I'm not saying this would be common but heard and saw it first hand. 

 

Friendly advice (for what it is worth), when you find one, check the age and condition of the tires, check the brakes and give her a go on the open highway. Can't hurt and most definitely would be fun!   

[RivNut]

PS - ALL Riviera convertibles came with red interior.  

[dei]

25 minutes ago, RivNut said:

PS - ALL Riviera convertibles came with red interior.  

 

That part is probably an age thing on my part Ed. 

[60FlatTop]

1 hour ago, dei said:

and give her a go on the open highway. Can't hurt and most definitely would be fun!

 

Quarry test drives are fun, too.

 

You might now go too fast but you can test the RPM (Rounds Per Minute).

 

[dei]

1 hour ago, 60FlatTop said:

Quarry test drives are fun, too.

 

And there is that red interior too.

[Matt Harwood]

I'd say you should try to avoid the one used in "Raw Deal" (clip above). Needs a windshield. 

[RivNut]

1 hour ago, dei said:

 

And there is that red interior too.

I'm thinking that Buick had ASC convert only Firemist Red  and White cars into convertibles so that they would only have to make tbe unique interior parts in a single color; one that would go well with two body colors.  The convertibles differed from the coupes with the red interior in that the convertibles had no velour in them. The door panels and visors were all vinyl.  So that the convertible roof frame had a place to store when the top was down, the rear seat compartment was unique from speaker placement to the actual size of the seat. 

 

There was a convertible for sale here in the Kansas City area a couple of years ago that the guy couldn't even give away.  Apparently the leather in this convertible was really bad and too expensive to replace.  The guy got a hold of a coupe parts car and replaced everything with the velour from the coupe.  Everyone who looked at it knew that was wrong and passed on the car. 

 

Ed

 

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by RivNut (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

I had a pretty nice V8 convertible for a while that I couldn't give away. Eventually dumped it at auction for like $2500. High mileage car but everything worked, nice paint and bodywork and good original interior with a brand new top (which cost most of that $2500 that we got for the entire car). There are plenty around that are nice and don't cost much. Buy the nicest low-mileage car you can find and I bet you'll be hard-pressed to spend more than $10,000. These should be more collectable than they are, but like most Buicks, they are worth about half what the Brand X cars bring.

 

[60FlatTop]

The $10,000 is probably a very realistic top end. Bumper fillers, the 307 engine (especially in hill country),  the interior lifespan, and some of the early ECM's after 35 years might put a strain on ownership.

The big issue is that, outside of some fairly specific enthusiast pockets, the collector car community trips over 1980's cars and wonders why they are parked on the lot. Most people who might have an interest were adults when the cars were in the showroom, that's a tough one to get unstuck from the gray matter.

 

For my '86 Park ave, I have picked up a pretty complete set of the OTC 2000 and 4000 diagnostic equipment that I use myself and don't know anyone I could go to and say "Here, use these and fix my car." I have the huge two volume service books, the transmission manual, and some random service publications. It still took me a year and a half to figure out it needed a new MAF sensor. And discovering that was a freak accident.

Fairly intensive research came up with the exact MAF part number, a $240 part today, but I scored one for $20 from a lawn mower shop in Chicago. Luckily between Ebay and Rock Auto a lot of formerly scrapped 30 year old parts are marketed online by the minimum margin sellers. Last spring I replaced all the high pressure fuel lines and hoses with OEM stuff for around $200, consumables you don't think of until 30 years goes by. I am still picking up spares when I see them.

 

Earlier mention of ASC body stiffening is another point, cars do flex. ASC put a double layer of sheet metal, usually pop riveted in the high stress spots.

My Craft Craft, ex H&E car has square tubing framework under the rear seat.

Here is one place they never expected you to work.

 

I had my car transported and when the driver, with a very thick Russian accet went to the upper deck he pointed and said "They built a whole frame under it!"

 

You car see the added side rails spanning the rocker panel area.

 

We had to use a 4" hole saw to notch it so we could drop the engine cradle.

 

Following Matt's comments on value, if you don't completely love it for yourself, you may be disappointed when you sell. Thoroughly know the car.

 

Mine first came up for sale from the original owner for $11,000 with 35,000 mines around '09. late in '10 the second owner was looking for $4,000 at 45,000. Then he blew the engine and I bought it for $500. I have been through every mechanical part on the car except the front struts, no kidding, name it I replaced or repaired it. I have a hair under $10,000 in it now. I figure it needs another $3,000 to $4,000 to make it equal to my '60 Electra in condition. I really like driving the car, but it gets little attention, I mean little. A friend I have coffee with walked out with me last week and saaid "OH, this is a Buick. I thought it was a Chrysler LeBaron."

 

I bought it because Buick and convertible are two words that traditionally go together. And into the future, one that gets 25 MPG sounded like a good idea, still does. If I drive it out to the Nationals in Denver I will check the oil and fill it with gas. It needs some exposure.

 

Whether GM approved or alternate coachbuilder, you are going to find challenges. Look for me in Denver, I'm wearing the rose tint sunglasses.

Bernie

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by 60FlatTop (see edit history)