So, I finally purchased a 63 riviera. Bought it in california....I am in Texas. The guy sent me several, several, several pics. $1800. Rebuilt 401, trans, and running. From the pics....NO RUST! Tonight, I started tearing into the car.........It is filled with foam in the trunk on the drivers side. Started sanding. The whole bottom quarter panel is fiberglass and a bunch of foam behind it. HOLY CRAP! WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!? Sanded more, more fiberglass, more foam, right behind the drivers rear window...what have I gotten myself into? LOL. Anyways. Is there anywhere I can get a repro quarter panel? I checked opgi and no luck. I will take pics in the morning and post my surprises!
I'm really sorry to hear that you bought a good looking rust bucket...With some people you never know what they do. Chances are if the Riviera is anything like the rest of the full-size line you'll probably wind up either buying a donor car or fabricating the pieces yourself. Hopefully you'll get it done, the '63 is a gorgeous car.
Rivs are so flat in that area, you can fab up a quick piece of metal and weld it in or have somebody weld it in. Quarters are a different story.
That piece will be a cake walk. It's the quarter I am worried about. I live in corpus christi. So everything here is a rust bucket and if I am able to find a donor, it will be far from here.
No repro sheet metal is available for any year Riv with the exception of floor pan patch pieces. You need to contact salvage yards in AZ, CA, parts of TX, etc and have a rust free quarter cut off and shipped. As you might imagine this is not an inexpensive process and will could cost half of what you paid for the car. Thats the easy part, then once you get it you have to install it. The Riviera Owners Association has member/dealers who deal in used metal. You can also do some general searching on the internet and forums for sources. You have to be careful who you are dealing with though. Some people have a different perception of what rust and bondo free is. Depending how bad the rust is you might be able to purchase smaller sections of quarter that ship with less cost than a whole quarter. Another option is to buy a truely rust free donor car that maybe has a bad engine and cooked interior or fabricate patch pieces from sheet stock on your own and weld them in if you have that ability.
Eddie, Contact Larry Daisey from Rancho Riviera, he might have some good sheet metal for you :TU: Click photo for website :Comp: Recently Larry and Linda moved to Arizona, so they are no longer located in Riverside, CA :Smarty:
E-mail will work better, it looks like the telephone number on the website is still the Riverside, CA number. (951 area code)
Eddie, You can also contact this Craigslist seller in Cleveland. His name is Brian and what I read from other board members, he's okay to deal with :TU:
