...a really cool car! Last month one of our local friends offered a pretty much complete but super rusty 65 Buick Riviera to fitzee for parts. The car was picked up and delivered to fitzees shop for dis***embly and last weekend we had at it to see what we could salvage for our own builds. I grabbed the front fenders as the wheel well lips were repairable and might be used to repair the funky lips on my Dodge....Rusty Buchans grabbed some interior pieces that he'll attempt to integrate into his Model A build and the Fitz-ster took the uselessly siezed 401 nailhead and the T400 trans...along with the nice set of Al-fin 12" front drums. He also hopes to use the good (but to be cut down) front bumper as a floating grille piece in the "Flatliner" project. I'm sure there was other stuff we could have grabbed for resale on the HAMB or E-blob but time just wasn't with us as the shop floor HAD to be clear early Monday morning. At least some of this cool car will remain as part of other projects. It REALLY pisses me off that this car was just tossed behind a house and into the woods so many years ago due to some mechanical defect with the engine apparently. The left valve cover was loose on the engine, but everything else was in place except the rear bumper! Not even any gl*** was broken. We're told the previous owner just wouldn't let it go...until somehow fitzees friend ended up with it as a tow away. Much too late for the poor Riv though. Broke my heart to help tear apart such a stylish icon. Pics seem too big so I'm using Tinypic instead of HAMB upload. Must have camera set up incorrectly I guess....
Thats not too far gone, I wouldn't of parted it out. With enough rust repair it could have seen the road again. Too bad, yeah the '63-65 Riviera's are definitely amazing cars.
Believe me...we make a habit of doing the unrepairable...but this one really was! Not only was the body and frame extremely rusty from decades in spruce needles but ALL potmetal detail parts like mouldings and dash parts etc, the hard to source expensive stuff, were corroded beyond repair. It wasn't a builder....but i sure wish someone local had needed it for a parts car. Some of the hard parts like door hinges and latches etc were good shape. The doors somehow were still pretty good but the bottom area of the car? BAD. Even the lower control arms were rusted to collapse! If I had no project, I still would have p***ed on this one. Whats the deal on the transmission for these? Is it a "switch-pitch" or something??? I remember something about them but I can't "nail" it down!
Oh well it's just a car **** it. Atleast you got some bad*** parts. Did you guys send it to the crusher?
Too bad Patrick Swayze has p***ed , he coulda used the winshield out of it because "A new winshield is gonna cost you more than that beater is worth..." , at least that's what Red told him at the parts store , with a big Nailhead like that , was it a posi-trac car? , 4 speed?
I was suprised to learn they had the X frame,there is a 66 in a local junkyard with the X frame which I thought GM got quit using in 64.
Get any parts off the headlight mechanism and especially the motor if it even looks salvageable. Headlight motor are hard to find and one year only part. The rearend is the basic Olds-Pontiac large rearend, even open drive in the Riviera. The gl*** and wheels could be some swap meet money potential.
That one looks like it was a beach car down At Long Beach Washington some time in it's life. That body style of Riv is my favorite mid 60's car but I doubt if I will ever be able to own one even in that bad of shape.
Headlight clamshells fetch decent money. I sure could have used em earlier this year when we did a 65 GS dual quad.
I don't feel so bad about my floorboards, now. Yeah, it ****s for such a cool car to cease to exist, but every used part for every cool car comes from a cool car that died.
You just know ALL the headlight stuff was gone before fitzee got the car, and the rearend was an open setup. Just a car...but damn they were nice ones! It went to the crusher last Monday. Isn't it wild how the door skins were BOLTED to the inner panel? You had to remove the outer skin to work on the window regulator and door latch!
Info on identifying whether or not it's a switch pitch trans here: http://www.buickperformance.com/switchpitch.htm
Thanks! i'll check that out to see if fitzee got an even better deal then he thought. He's having some computer issues right now and he's off-line. (I think!)
Those were the low back GM 59 to 65 buckets us tri five chevy guys like. They arent ultra rare but that is the first thing I wouild have wanted,they look good in tri five chevys etc. No biggie,there will always be something someone could have used off any heap thats sent to the junk yard.
I know what your saying... I really wanted to research that car before it came apart but unfortunately we were really rushed for time as fitzees shop was full and expecting another job for Monday. Just no time. The only good thing (?) about it all is knowing just how rusted and rotted everything was. Saving the seats (or anything else!) would have involved a total restoration of each individual part. They were much worse than a simple recover. Seen a lot of neglected cars go to dust over the years but that one was truly a shame. If only it had come out of the guys backyard 20 years ago!
Thanks bill. Was going to keep the seats but the drivers side had no back section.. we love to keep parts around but then you end up with too much stuff.Im there now. I keep 30s and 40s stuff but unless I can use it on a hot rod or custom I don't want it..
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