Customs Riviera mild custom.

I pulled the doghouse, adjusted the passenger door (after drilling and tapping three of the sis bolts broken off in the door), then degreased and power washed the engine. Which in the interest of common decency I cannot show you...


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Looking awesome

 

Well, glad you're okay, sorry about the loss of the Pontiac. Keep plugging on the Riv.
Will you be driving the roadster to the fairgrounds this weekend?

 

Nope. In an apparent effort to make my last 6 weeks of work before retirement as miserable as possible, I have been scheduled to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Or maybe this was to simply reinforce my decision that I've been working long enough. Whatever.

 

Congratulations on your retirement decision. If it's any consolation, I had to work until the very last possible day prior to retirement. They forgot to book in a replacement supervisor so t hat I could just come in and say goodbye to everybody, you know coffee doughnuts, stuff. It was a night shift.

 

Since the Riviera is to become our new tow pig, I'm going to put a frame hitch on it. I cut the lock section out of the rear valance panel to straighten it, in the photo you can see car's rear crossmember, a simple "C" channel. My plan is to box this in with like 1/8" stock, box in the now un-boxed last foot or so of the frame horns, make some diagonal braces (now that original gas tank has been replace with one that has different profile) from the crossmember to the horns, and put the receiver where the fuel filler used to be. That's now on the drivers side in the catwalk panel above the deck lid, as the new tank has a left side fill snout. Seems like it'll work...

 

Some progress on the Riviera. I pulled the mangled original rear bumper, and cut the section of the tail valance panel out that had been crushed. It was easier to work it back into shape on the bench and weld it back in, which is what I did. Today I finally got the front inner fenders and core support painted, my outdoor paint booth worked pretty well with the catalyzed tractor enamel.

 

This is a really cool build, Brian.

Rivieras are one of the very few cars that I thought couldn't be improved by customizing (beyond simple lowering & badge removal (nosing & decking)).

You're proving me wrong.

 

Thanks! Really all I'm doing customizing it is removing the front bumper, but it does make a huge difference in the appearance. We'll see how well the headlights work behind those grills.

 

Back on the Riviera! Rear brakes done, new vacuum booster and M/C. Pay no attention to the thing to the right of the M/C.


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Ahhh Haaaa. Boy that frontend looks cool. I bought a buick too Brian. Lippy

 

Have always loved 2 different Rivieras..... early fronts with the clamshell headlights and the later boattails. Would love to graft an early front to a boattail (though it wouldn't be traditional). Probably something that looks better in my mind, but I can dream.

 

^^^^A buddy of mine used to say that until he had too many beers and went for it, grafted a mustang fastback to a 68 cougar, not good. Dreaming is better than doing sometime.

 

This kicked my butt. I had to hog out the center hole in the firewall, as the new booster's neck is 2 1/8" diameter, and wouldn't fit through the 2" hole. Then, from inside the cab, on my back on the floor under the dash, maneuver the pushrod yoke over the pin in the brake pedal, with the booster and M/C hanging from tarp straps on the hood hinge so I could pivot it as I pried the yoke over the pin with a screwdriver. I'm getting to old for this contortionist stuff... Then the power window switch in the passenger door failed, I guess it's corroded points. I took it apart to clean the contacts, which I'd done with the other switches in the car, this one turned into pot metal dust and fragments of bakelite. The good news is, the window motor works fine jumping it, so I just gotta get a new switch. Tomorrow, we put the new fuel pump in and wire up the brake light switch, which has the torque converter unlock switch as well. ONWARD!

 

Brian, whatever happened to this build? @FlynBrian

 

That’s another one we don’t talk about!

 

Same here. Pretty challenging to improve upon the looks of an early Riv, but this mod definitely improves things.

Also, consider keeping the white exterior color. IMHO, they look great in white.