I bought this guy today.Very solid car originally silver with black interior and silver head liner-pw,tilt,p seat,am/fm,tinted glass,air,p trunk release,rebuilt 401 but the tranny was giving the fella grief so he parked it. It has a couple of pieces of neet paper work including a Buick thankyou letter for buying another Buick and a Buick instruction and template for installing a rear speaker. Who are good resto companies to deal with for interior and mechanical pieces for these milestone autombiles?Here are some shots of it........Cole
Are you sure that it's not a 1964 model year Riviera ? The 1963 models had the Buick Tri-shield in the lenses of the rear lights, your car has the 1964 lens (I only can see the driver's side on your photo) with the Riviera R in it: 1964 had the standup bonnet ornament (hard to tell looking at your photo) and the boot lid had a Riviera script on the passenger side, instead of the 1963 B U I C K letters in the middle of the lid. But the 1964 model only came with the 425 engine, and your car has the 401. And I see a leather interior in the photos, not available for model year 1964, together with the books for 1963 I reckon it's a '63 with a wrong tail light lens.... Check out the website of Larry Daisey at Rancho Riviera if your looking for parts :TU:
I think it is a 63 because of the vacuum tank under the hood. The lights are easily interchangable. it also has the 63 heater controls and interior trim for the 63 only. Larry
Yes, I agree... 63' with 64' taillights. Cole, You'll want to check Clarks Corvair for Riv replacement interior... http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/pages.cgi?category=buick&dbkey=24&level=1 Classic Buicks for parts... http://www.classicbuicks.com/ CARS... http://www.oldbuickparts.com/ Also, look into joining the ROA (Riv Owners Assoc.) for the wealth of information that the members can provide to you... http://www.rivowners.org/ Hope this helps,
Right on guys!Thanks for the help.The thankyou letter from Buick is dated March 15 1963.It looks like the car was bought in Chicago and then spent most of its life in California where the guy I bought it from and moved it to Alberta.Looks like I'm the 5th owner. Like I say this is a new venue to me.The car is in such nice solid shape,I figured I couldn't let it go.The fella I bought it from said the tranny was hooped,so I think this will be one of my bigger tasks as to how to procede.
Just for kicks, where in Chicago does it say it was purchased? I'm close enough, eitherme or somebody else here may recognize the dealer. Join Roa like Chuck said, best support for these cars and all their little one year one model only help. Larry
For some reason my link to Larry's website is gone after I edited my post, so here it is again: Click banner:Comp:
Oldbuickparts.com is one place that stocks NOS mechanical and interior parts. I've also dealt with Mike at the Buick Bonery for items that are no longer available. He sent me emblem clips free of charge and for that, I will always be grateful. Larry out at Rancho is a good guy to deal with but he charges way too much, usually double in my experience over what everyone else is asking so look around the net for other salvage yards and compare prices if you need those types of things. Randy Rymal at rymalrestorations.com has helped me with a few hard to find interior pieces and he currently sells on Ebay as well. Expect to pay premium prices with him though. Another place I've used is the buickplace.com although they double charged me for shipping because they forgot to include a part that I asked for in the original order. Join the ROA but be forwarned that they expect you to be knowledgeable about the car already and you better have shop manual before asking any questions on their forum. Their website lacks a lot of the basic info and to get past articles that are helpful, you have to send a SASE away and wait for the mailman. Right now they are currently re-doing a CD with all the past tech articles on it, but I don't know when it will be available and that's something you might want to look into. Some members on the forum will be helpful and some will not but you should experience it for your ownself and come to your own conclusion. I personally think that some there take the hobby way too seriously and need to lighten up a bit. This should be fun but for some reason, some people don't treat it that way. Many here and over there might frown upon me for saying that but I look at it this way; these are cars, just old cars and we should all be happy that we can enjoy a hobby like this. Afterall, there's a hell of a lot more going on in this world that's more important. Oh and nice find BTW and good luck with it. Here's a website with a few tech articles to get you started: http://www.chip.com/ and click on Buick restoration. I'm a fairly recent 1963 owner as well and if there's anything I can help you with, feel free to ask.
Not mine but someone elses. I ran across it when I needed to do some work and couldn't get any help. I am planning in the future to put up a site with the shop manual on it and everything I've learned so far while working on the car. Others will be more than welcome to chime in and add their own experiences as well.
My mistake, Jim. I've found that when shopping for parts, bring your manual, as you may have to argue with the counter guy. :rant:
The steering column on these cars got red hot. There is a fix for it. It may have been done already, but once you start driving it, if you notice the column is burning, ask aroung the ROA and on here. Someone will be able to tell you how to fix it. This site is a plethora of knowledge - even for 1st gen Rivvys. Use the search feature a lot - you'll be surprised how many of your questions have already been answered here over the last 7 years. Nice score! Bring it to Ohio in August and beat the snot out of it. Gary Hallock has the single nicest Riv I've ever seen - a 65 with EVERY option - and he races the heck out of it. Nailheads and Rivs can not only handle the abuse, but they LIKE it. Welcome!
