Ride Height.

[Chasander]

What is the factory ride height dimension for a 63, maybe from an assembly manual. By the way Does anyone own an assembly manual ? That would be great to have. 

[Turbinator]

Please explain your definition of ride height.

The car sits 5” from ground surface to bottom of the rocker panel. The car is 53” high.

But, I suspect you want the spec from ground surface to the top and middle of wheel molding?

Turbinator

[RivNut]

If you can find a 63 assembly manual, you can make a fortune selling copies.  Look at some original Riviera ads and see how the top of the wheel looks in comparison to the wheel well opening.  Set the height to where you like the way it looks.

[Turbinator]

1 hour ago, RivNut said:

If you can find a 63 assembly manual, you can make a fortune selling copies.  Look at some original Riviera ads and see how the top of the wheel looks in comparison to the wheel well opening.  Set the height to where you like the way it looks.

No matter, you still need enough room to mount wheel well lights. I once painted my wheel wells white and mounted blue lights inside the wheel well. My car was Blue , a 73 Monte Carlo. Looked good.

Turbinator

[jsgun]

1 hour ago, Turbinator said:

No matter, you still need enough room to mount wheel well lights. I once painted my wheel wells white and mounted blue lights inside the wheel well. My car was Blue , a 73 Monte Carlo. Looked good.

Turbinator

was it a low rider? Back in my home town in the 90's, they outlawed undercar lighting. Never understood why.

[Chasander]

I’m thinking wheel well moldings. surprised no one on forum has assembly manual. 

[Jim Cannon]

I have a copy of the '63 assembly manual. They are quite rare.

 

I am not at home right now. I do not remember what they have in there about ride height.

 

We have had this discussion on this forum in the past. I think we measured from the ground up to the trim that runs around the wheel openings, front and rear.  See if you can find that thread.

 

😎

[Turbinator]

50 minutes ago, jsgun said:

was it a low rider? Back in my home town in the 90's, they outlawed undercar lighting. Never understood why.

Not quite. actually the car sat 5” off the ground stock. It was low enough for me. What looked good when you are in your early 20’s and 70 changes, but not much. No lights in the wheel wells of my 63 Riv. Now if I was in my 20’s probably lights in the wheel wells and a pair of dummy spots. No hydraulics for me.

 

Turbinator

[RivNut]

I guess we should be glad that no one made a continental kit for the first generation Riviera.  But you could shave the handles, sink the antenna, louver the hood, drop the rear 3" for a "Texas rake", attach a fox tail to the antenna, and hang some fuzzy dice from the rear view mirror. Then  hook up a La Cucaracha horn to it. We be calling you Cholo   In the latest Riview, if you haven't received it yet, there's a 1st generation Riviera with fender skirts.  

[arnulfo de l.a.]

Cholos did not ride like that Ed. Hydraulics, rabbit ear antennas, sometimes fender lights, custom paint, 520x14 tires on dynasty’s or rockets, glass packs,crush velvet interior ,best 8 track available  ( pioneer at the time) and a color bar. This coming from a former cholo living the life in L A. Cruise night FRI. SAT. SUN. On WHITTIER BLVD after the house party’s ended, until the EAST LA SHERIFFS broke it up. Funny how they never messed with the hot rodders further up Whittier Blvd in the city of Whittier. Anyone with a foxtail antenna or cucaracha horn would have been considered a lame and run off the Blvd.

[60FlatTop]

I have thought of the idea to have a spare body. They aren't hard to change.  One spare would be a convertible. The other a Continental style coupe with a recessed tire hatch trunk lid. 

 

On the height,  there should be a measured distance from a suspension point to the frame, 

[MikeJS]

20 hours ago, RivNut said:

Look at some original Riviera ads and see how the top of the wheel looks in comparison to the wheel well opening

 

This photo might help better than an ad.. 

[RivNut]

From this picture, it would be hard to measure from the top of the arch to the wheel as I suggested earlier, BUT look at how the lower stainless lines up with the center of the wheel, maybe not exactly but close enough for a reference..  No matter what size tire you run, those two things will always line up.  Even with the wheels off the car, the hub is going to line up with the stainless.

[awk409ak]

All,

Not that what I'm going to say here is meaningful.😁  I went out and measured mine.  Front is ~24.375-24.500, rear is ~ 23.375-23.500 to top of wheel well opening (including trim piece).  Now I know I have 17" wheels, front tires 225/55ZR17, are 26.7 tall, rear tires 255/ZR17, are 28.0.  I think the rears are pretty close to the stock height (tried to keep the overall tire height same as stock which is ~27.8).  I do have air shocks in the rear, but only inflated to 26psi.  Just thought it would be interesting to see what measurement some of you get with your totally stock, original Riv.  I measured from the ground up to the top of the wheel well at the center of the wheel.

 

Art

[awk409ak]

22 minutes ago, RivNut said:

From this picture, it would be hard to measure from the top of the arch to the wheel as I suggested earlier, BUT look at how the lower stainless lines up with the center of the wheel, maybe not exactly but close enough for a reference..  No matter what size tire you run, those two things will always line up.  Even with the wheels off the car, the hub is going to line up with the stainless.

Ed,

Thought I would try your idea.  Granted mine is a 64, but I measured from the ground to the top of the horizontal trim piece behind the front wheel, measured ~15.00", the back I measured again behind the rear wheel, measured ~16.00.  My tires are about an inch difference in height.

 

Art 

[RivNut]

54 minutes ago, awk409ak said:

Ed,

Thought I would try your idea.  Granted mine is a 64, but I measured from the ground to the top of the horizontal trim piece behind the front wheel, measured ~15.00", the back I measured again behind the rear wheel, measured ~16.00.  My tires are about an inch difference in height.

 

Art 

I'm suggesting that you don't use a ruler but rather a straight edge.  No matter what size tire you have, set your height so that the stainless trim between the fender wells is on the same horizontal line as the centers of your wheels.  Unless you have the original question 7.60 x 15 tires, measuring from the ground is pointless.  Different profile tires are going to give you different measurements from the ground. A 225/70R15 is going to set your rocker panels at a different height as a 215/75R15

[Seafoam65]

The wild card in all of your measurements is the amount of fuel in the gas tank. The height in the rear varies drastically with a low tank versus a full tank. In my experience, the engineers designed the cars to sit perfectly level with half a tank of fuel, a little low in the back with a full tank and a little high in the back when empty.

[kegart]

The car in the picture posted must be empty on gas, it looks higher in the back

 

Kevin 

[dr914]

24 front 23 rear, have measured a bunch of them Level surface, from the ground to the wheel well

 

[RivNut]

1 hour ago, dr914 said:

24 front 23 rear, have measured a bunch of them Level surface, from the ground to the wheel well

 

What profile tires? With a full, half full, or empty gas tank. With or with out a/c?  There is more than 1" difference in the height of the bottom of the wheel arch and the top of the wheel so how can there be only one inch difference in the height from the ground.  Look at the car in the picture. The front wheel arch is about even with the top of the tire; the rear wheel arch is close to the top of the white wall.

 

If I have four passengers, average weight of 175 lbs, a full tank of gas, and luggage for four in the trunk, are my springs going to bottom out? 

[kegart]

1 hour ago, RivNut said:

What profile tires? With a full, half full, or empty gas tank. With or with out a/c?  There is more than 1" difference in the height of the bottom of the wheel arch and the top of the wheel so how can there be only one inch difference in the height from the ground.  Look at the car in the picture. The front wheel arch is about even with the top of the tire; the rear wheel arch is close to the top of the white wall.

 

If I have four passengers, average weight of 175 lbs, a full tank of gas, and luggage for four in the trunk, are my springs going to bottom out? 

If 2 of the 4 are women there won't be any room left for the men's luggage .

[RivNut]

1 hour ago, kegart said:

If 2 of the 4 are women there won't be any room left for the men's luggage .

We'd bring a couple of pairs of sox and skivies, a toothbrush and deodorant. The weight of their luggage will more than offset what they weigh and what we don't bring. It only becomes a problem  when their luggage takes the place of a couple of cases of beer. 

[Riviera63]

14 hours ago, RivNut said:

What profile tires? With a full, half full, or empty gas tank. With or with out a/c?  There is more than 1" difference in the height of the bottom of the wheel arch and the top of the wheel so how can there be only one inch difference in the height from the ground.  Look at the car in the picture. The front wheel arch is about even with the top of the tire; the rear wheel arch is close to the top of the white wall.

 

If I have four passengers, average weight of 175 lbs, a full tank of gas, and luggage for four in the trunk, are my springs going to bottom out? 

 

Data for informational purposes only. Just measured my car and it sits at 25" from ground to wheel well in the front and 25" in the rear. My car has AC and has 1/4 tank of gas. I am running 225/75 tires. I have Tom T.'s rear sway bar so that has added 1/2" to 3/4" to the rear height. 

 

I can answer Ed's last question for my car. We drove back from the 2014 ROA meet from Colorado Springs to Wisconsin in my car. We had 4 passengers, average weight probably at least 190 lbs., full tank of gas and the trunk so full you could barely get the trunk lid closed. I still have the original springs and am happy to say that the car was not bottomed out. We did however scrape one of the tailpipes leaving our friend's driveway in Denver. It was fairly steep.

 

Bill

[Chasander]

The Assembly manual specification should tell us with full tank, 2 passenger, cooler in trunk full of beer.  

[kegart]

1 hour ago, Chasander said:

The Assembly manual specification should tell us with full tank, 2 passenger, cooler in trunk full of beer.  

Your new trunk lining ang vinyl  should help insulate and keep the beer cold.

 

Kevin 

[MikeJS]

10 hours ago, Chasander said:

The Assembly manual specification should tell us with full tank, 2 passenger, cooler in trunk full of beer.  

 

Or, what the spec would be to just skip the cooler like some Aussies do...

 

 

[RivNut]

26 minutes ago, MikeJS said:

 

Or, what the spec would be to just skip the cooler like some Aussies do...

 

 

You might come closer if you could find the dimensions of the trunk of a 1966 Riviera. If the car that's in the video is the one that has the cans in it it's a '66.

[awk409ak]

Are we having FUN yet??  I think the Covid-19 is getting to some of us.😂

 

Art

[RivNut]

[Riviera63]

Just an update to my previous post with the height dimensions for my car. AC, 225/75 tires, on original springs and 1/4 tank of gas was 25" front and 25" rear. Just filled up with gas and the rear measured 24 3/4" and the front 25 1/4". 

 

Bill

[Turbinator]

On 8/30/2020 at 12:21 AM, arnulfo de l.a. said:

Cholos did not ride like that Ed. Hydraulics, rabbit ear antennas, sometimes fender lights, custom paint, 520x14 tires on dynasty’s or rockets, glass packs,crush velvet interior ,best 8 track available  ( pioneer at the time) and a color bar. This coming from a former cholo living the life in L A. Cruise night FRI. SAT. SUN. On WHITTIER BLVD after the house party’s ended, until the EAST LA SHERIFFS broke it up. Funny how they never messed with the hot rodders further up Whittier Blvd in the city of Whittier. Anyone with a foxtail antenna or cucaracha horn would have been considered a lame and run off the Blvd.

In Lomita, a tiny town near South Bay the guys had 53 Bel Airs, 50 DeLuxe, and later the 64’s. One guy had a Midnight Blue brand new Riviera. My pals had record players you mounted under the dash. The record players played 45’s. For wire wheels they had these wire “baskets” they mounted on

chrome wheels and someway mounted two bar spinners on the baskets. Looked good. Dummy spots when mounted tastefully gave the car style. Back then diamond dust, metal flake, fogging, Pearl essence when done well really well made the car stand out. I was just old enough to get a license and buy a motorcycle. Wasn’t long I had all the badging off, chrome every place and flamed in lime and pearl essence green. The cops would scare us off at Taco Bell on Carson & Western and the Taco Bell in Hermosa where our club hung out.

Did you ever cruise 6th St Bridge? I heard a lot of major league cars would cruise the bridge. I think they tore the bridge down. I loved LA, but I got off track and had to come back East.

[arnulfo de l.a.]

Whittier Blvd was the main cruise spot when I was low riding. Would spill into the side streets sometimes until the L A SHERIFF dept would break it up. That went on from Friday thru Sunday. Wednesday’s was van buys Blvd in San Fernando valley. Never heard of the 6th st. Bridge as being a cruise spot.  Yes it did get tore down . A new one is in contruction . L A has changed a lot since those days. Some for the better and some for the worse.  A lot more people for sure

[awk409ak]

 

On 9/20/2020 at 9:58 PM, arnulfo de l.a. said:

Whittier Blvd was the main cruise spot when I was low riding. Would spill into the side streets sometimes until the L A SHERIFF dept would break it up. That went on from Friday thru Sunday. Wednesday’s was van buys Blvd in San Fernando valley. Never heard of the 6th st. Bridge as being a cruise spot.  Yes it did get tore down . A new one is in contruction . L A has changed a lot since those days. Some for the better and some for the worse.  A lot more people for sure

Used to cruise Van Nuys Blvd, in the San Fernando Valley in the 60's and early 70's.  Got caught racing in 1971, spent the night in the Van Nuys Police Dept Jail.  They finally closed Van Nuys Blvd in the mid-70's.  Wednesday's were club night and open cruising was Friday and Saturday night.  The Street Racer club would bring rail drag cars out there on trailer and unload them and then run them on the boulevard. Crazy fun times.

 

Art

[arnulfo de l.a.]

Yes they were crazy fun times!

[TKRIV]

Some cars have different springs (left - right) to allow for the weight of the driver and the camber of the road.

I take it that this is not the case with our Rivs

Tom K

[Turbinator]

On 9/1/2020 at 8:18 AM, Chasander said:

The Assembly manual specification should tell us with full tank, 2 passenger, cooler in trunk full of beer.  

Chuck,the 63 Service Manual on page 7-20 figure 7-17-63 Chassis Trim Dimensions. The notes on the figure talk about curb weight, with 3 passengers In the car heights. No mention of 3-4 cases of beer bearing on ride height.

 

Turbinator.

[Chasander]

Found it Bob. Great bedtime reading.