1964 Riviera - Clunk noise while accelerating and braking

[NTX5467]

Tire paint?  Back when the BFG Drag Radials had just come out, I had two friends who raced in the factory stock nostalgia class.  One with a '70 Hemi 'Cuda and the other one with a '71 Challenger R/T 6-Pack car.  I had been working with Dale (the Hemi 'Cuda) with getting some incognito tires for his car, which were better than stock and within the durometer specs for the NMCA rules.  We had a car club friend who worked for Discount Tire (who could source BFG tires).  Dale had also talked to "Team TA" at BFG, too.

 

When the Drag Radials came out, Dale got a pair, but wanted to disguise them from Jeff (Challenger).  The Drag Radials were blackwalls with no white letters, so Dale got some white latex house paint and painted-in the BFG letters on the sidewalls.  Looked a big jagged up close, but at 20ft, not bad.  So they got to their next race and pulled up beside each other.  Dale did a dry chirp then staged.  When the light got to green, Dale was gone.  Jeff didn't know what happened.  

 

One give-away was that the softer rubber of the Drag Radials picked up gravel on teh way back to the timing tower.  Unusual!  Which Jeff noticed and then realized he "had been had".  We all got a good laugh out of that.  THEN, about a week later we got a recon report that a freight truck had delivered several sets of Drag Radials to Jeff's father's repair shop.  LOL.

 

Those were some fun times!

NTX5467 

[NTX5467]

Dale also had a '70 Dart Swinger 340 that was well-finessed as to drivability.  It was running better than when new, so he wanted to race it in the NMCA class for it, but needed some better tires.  Which was the first contact with Team TA.  I had been to some autocrosses and noticed what tires they were running, knowing that those tires had to grip great after the first 20' of travel.

 

Looking at tire specs, I discovered a Z-rated BFG tire that fit the D70-14 size specs perfectly.  I told Dale and he talked to his team TA contact.  So he contacted our Discount Tire operative and got a set ordered.  When they arrived and were installed, they looked great and "just right size" on the car.  After some break-in miles, he took it to the track.  It shot out of the hole as some claimed they sounded like slicks, so they crowded around the car to see which slicks he had.  No slicks, just "normal" BFG radials.  LOL  They did not know about Z-rated tires at that time, but they learned.

 

Enjoy!

NTX5467  

[RivNut]

A friend of mine wanted to put narrow white sidewalls on his 1956 Ford Tudor and found narrow white port-o-walls at an OTASCO store.  Looked good standing still but who knows what they may have been doing while in motion.  He had repainted a gray/white two tone pant scheme a gold color after shaving the hood and trunk. Found a set of Lancers but the paint and Lancers didn’t look good with blackwall tires.  Same car we put a Foxcraft floor shift into. He wanted to speed up his up shifts so he removed the shifter lever that came with the kit and used a 4” piece of all-thread for a shifter rod.  His first 1st to 2nd speed shift destroyed the synchronizers in the tranny. 😂

[steelman]

Really telling your age with OTASCO and Fox Craft, ya know? Oklahoma Tire And Supply Co. has been gone since the early 70s.

[NTX5467]

Early '70s, that's recent history . . . until you stop to count the years.  Yikes!  THEN you stop to consider all of the neat things you've done and then you smile.

[RivNut]

43 minutes ago, NTX5467 said:

Early '70s, that's recent history . . . until you stop to count the years.  Yikes!  THEN you stop to consider all of the neat things you've done and then you smile.

Exactly.  Been doing neat things in 9 decades.

[Daniel Glass]

On 9/17/2023 at 3:02 AM, Markus64 said:

Hello guys,

 

I have this issue, since I have my 64 Riv. When accelerating fast a clunk noise appears once. When I brake carefully then, everything seems fine. When I brake stronger the clunk noise appears once again.  It seems like the part that is moving only changes its position when there is a strong load change (When I brake hard and the noise appears it doesn´t appear again when braking hard. It´s the same with acceleration).
The clunk is coming from the front left of the car.  When it appears I can feel it through the drivers side floor, next to the pedals.

 

Sometimes it appears when I drive over bigger bumps or potholes.

 

I changed both motor mounts 2 month ago but it didn´t change anything.

 

Do you have an idea where to start troubleshooting?

 

 

Have u checked your body mounts had the same symptoms on passenger side changed mounts problem solved 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Daniel Glass (see edit history)

[Markus64]

On 10/25/2023 at 7:35 AM, Daniel Glass said:

Have u checked your body mounts had the same symptoms on passenger side changed mounts problem solved 

Haven't checked them yet. Is there anything special that I have to look for?

[NTX5467]

Look for?  Many mount pairs have a steel tube in the middle, plus some indexing offsets where they mate.  With time, the rubber can shrink and collapse, leaving the tube as the main supporting item, rather than the centering item of the pair.  Which means that tightening the mounting bolt might make any sounds worse.  If the mounts have visibly deteriorated, might start looking around for some new ones, for general principles.  Then also some Grade 8 body bolts, as most were Grade 5, because they could have deteriorated too, thinning in the middle.

 

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467

[RivNut]

The rear body mounts were oblong. You will not find exact replacements. Another pair of round ones will work fine.  If you buy the set for CARS, That substitution has already been made.

[XframeFX]

 

On 11/4/2023 at 4:27 AM, Markus64 said:

Haven't checked them yet. Is there anything special that I have to look for?

Same here, have yet to inspect body mounts.

Being 60 years old, I'm sure all 1st Gen body mounts require re-fresh.

It goes on and on. Is there a point where our Rivieras's are no longer a project? How to define when a project is complete? When all that is required is detail work?

On the way to various car meets this summer, I usually forget to bring bottled water and a FOR SALE Sign!

[NTX5467]

Does "For Sale" indicate an invitation to talk about the car?

[XframeFX]

On 11/5/2023 at 4:55 PM, NTX5467 said:

Does "For Sale" indicate an invitation to talk about the car?

My wife would say "Ya!". "You promised you'd sell it once you got it on-the-road".

I'll admit I said that with her within earshot during many struggles with my Riviera.

We will be downsizing next year. I haven't a clue how to keep the Riviera and another project when it happens.

It took a long time to make it a reliable driver and I finally got to the good part, tinkering and improving.

It is a Beautiful GM. So, for now, I'll keep at it, TX🤐

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by XframeFX (see edit history)

[NTX5467]

Be careful and mindful in the downsizing activities.  In some cases, updates to the hvac system and some other things might be less expensive in the long run.  But that's y'alls stuff.  Hope it all goes well!  Finding a 2 bedroom/2bath house with a 3 car garage can be a trick, sometimes.  Or that size of house that CAN have a 3 car garage with a carport.

 

Many years ago, an older couple had a '55 Roadmaster 2dr Riviera that he had restored, with the help of his brother-in-law.  They did a great job with it as a correct, OEM restoration.  They enjoyed it for a long time, driving it anywhere they wanted to go, enjoyably so.  The time came to sell it and they found a BCA member to purchase it.  Several months later, his wife was getting tired (or hadn't gotten used to) of him sitting in the chair, watching TV, and reading.  She eventually "requested" he buy another car to work on, so he did.  Not a Buick, but a '64 Falcon station wagon he saw at the local auto supply.  It gave him something to tinker with, which was good for both of them.

 

Happy Holidays (in advance)!

NTX5467

[XframeFX]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:40 PM, NTX5467 said:

Be careful and mindful in the downsizing activities.

 

There is a housing crisis in Canada. Worrisome for our kids' generation to find affordable housing in major centers.

New housing will be less and less a typical suburban house with front/backyards, garage, and basements but will have perpetual monthly strata fees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by XframeFX (see edit history)