Customs Riviera mild custom.

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I’ve been working the Riviera a bit, and got the ‘65 grill tucked in between the ‘64 fenders. I was going to put projector bulbs behind the park lamp grills, but they’re expensive, they wouldn’t look “right”, and I had the buckets and new Halogen bulbs from the T’bird. They mounted easily, and I think they’ll be OK behind the grills.
I dropped the gas tank, gettinythat ready to run fuel and brake lines, it should be a runner soon.


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So the Bird is finished?


just f@ckin with you!

 

just a note. full custom garage is doing a '65 right now on mavtv

 

Yes, it's all finished! That's why I'm stealing parts from it! ;-)
Actually, the original headlight buckets were replaced by the '63 Cadillac ones that fit those bezels, and, since I didn't get in color (I got close, but it's too cold now to paint in my wood stove heated shop), so I figured I might as well work on the Riviera, so I can have two customs that aren't painted and finished!
The Riviera has been generating some "I'd leave it unpainted" comments from my friends, but I don't know if I could live with it. I'm thinking leaving it the same light blue, so I don't have to paint the door jambs, cowl, under the deck lid and so on. Straight single stage. Cheap. Simple. And my wife wants a blue car. Since it's "her" car (nudge, wink) that seems to make sense.

 

We don't have satellite or cable, but HBONow and Neflix via WIFI, I don't think I can access that. The preview looks like another loud guitar background noise, goofy "reality tv" shop anyway. It may be better than preview looks, but I'll never know. ;-)

 

An aside about the disk brake conversion seen peeking out of the wheel opening in the side shot with the lights on: Those turned out to be '76 Cadillac spindles, rotors and calipers, which I discovered when I went to the parts store to get caliper pins as one had gotten misplaced when I tossed these things under the bench years ago. I THOUGHT they were late 80's/early 90's GM "B" body parts, but NO. Way different. Huge piston, huge pads, same 5 on 5 bolt pattern, and BONUS, they're the same ball joint taper that the new Buick ball joints have. So, after a little effort finding out what they really were, they're now part of the package. I have no recollection of where they came from, why I had them, nor why I thought they were B body parts, but, they work.

 

The 65 Riviera was born perfect that and the 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix.... Good luck on a fantastic looking car..

Too bad it doesn't have the aluminum drums peeking threw the holes of the factory wheels..

 

You can't see them behind the factory rally's, and I swiped one to put on my '34 roadster (worn liner in one that came with the pile), and I CAN seem them on that. ;-)

 

I got the passenger side headlight modified and installed this afternoon. I really dig the way this looks as opposed to the quad headlamps plopped onto the grill of these cars. I've got the parking lamps from the T'bird as well that I think will look OK either behind the grill, or between the bumper center bar and lower pan. Or maybe some LED lamps for either or both, we'll see. I'm happy with the progress in just a couple of days this week on it.

 

That looks evil buddy. EVIL!

 

It kinda does, doesn't it?

 

It looks like it is hiding around the corner of a building in the alleyway waiting for the victim to walk unassumingly by before it pounces or pulls out its tommy gun (sort of attitude).

 

Gosh, maybe robins egg blue isn't the right color? Black. Gunmetal grey satin...

 

check color charts for '65 Riviera - had a real nice lite shade of metallic green

 

I decided bumpers are for fraidy-cats. Buh-bye.

 

Black or dark, dark green might look sort of fly

 

I'm old. I don't know if I'll live long enough to finish the prep work for black or dark green...

 

I did such a great job at putting the headlights in the parking lamp towers that now I have no provision for parking lamps and turn signals. LED's behind the grill? Maybe kinda hidden behind some smoked plexi lenses? I have some nice clear lens, chrome bezel units from some 60's thing that'd be, sorta, appropriate, but they'd be pretty obviously some kind of generic lamps plopped behind the grill. At first I thought some round lights in tunneled openings way down in the original bumper pan, but nothing else on the car is round, so that seems like adding a wart to the now smooth angular front. Cut the backs out between the fins of the lower pieces of the headlamp grills? That seems the most logical, and therefore, the most difficult, to me. Any brilliant (get it, "Brilliant") ideas for this?

 

This wasn't as hard as I thought. This is the practice "extra" bezel I had, I'll drill holes at each end for "stops" so I don't nick the bezel with the diamond cutoff wheel, but, this will be cool with an amber LED park/turn array behind it.

 

That looks great! It will look good with the light behind it.

 

Looks easy enough.

 

There. I fixed it.


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Now everyone is going to want to do that! Seriously, looks very cool.

 

That looks pretty cool.

 

Thanks guys, I had to leave the 2nd and 3rd ones blanked out as the mounting bosses are in those rows. It kinda matches the uppers that way I guess.

 

Hey F,
Your Riviera is pretty cool. My brother and I loved it when our dad drove home in his new, green 63 Riviera. By then, it was his 5th Buick dating back to a 1941 fastback sedan. He wanted a luxury car (with A/C) that would that would stay in style and look as good as the black 58 Chevy Impala. It satisfied both brothers with a classic, custom car look and coolness built in going down the road. When we drove it through our favorite drive-in restaurant parking lot, it was outstanding!

Your lighting dilemma is a cool idea. It looks rather stock and custom all at the same time. The ideas from others, of the amber inside (lower area) seems the best idea to stay legal. Here is another idea, as long as you are working around the headlights and a want something different. New cars have new technology that I am sure could be incorporated into old cars.

Check out the new BMW coupes and sedans. Their intense, xenon headlights turn as the steering wheel turns, giving the radius of a corner or curve more headlight coverage. (adaptive headlights) At first, it was strange, but the no need for high beams on a long curves on either side.

Jnaki

The sales people use this as a new tech toy they show the prospective buyers. Being inside of a friend’s "newish" BMW, going around a corner, is highlighted by moving headlights back and forth as the turn progresses. If there is a right, then a left turn, the lights go back and forth in front. But in normal driving, the headlights stay in the straight-on mode.

 

That sounds cool, but I've got this pretty much wrapped up, I don't want to start over. I priced a pair of (broken) headlamps from a 2015 Caddy that had the projector bulbs and the guts, $200! I quickly decided I could live with the H4 bulbs in the T'bird buckets.

Edit: I wanted to build this for the same reason your dad wanted one in '63: Cool, luxury car with A/C (I've never had a hot rod or custom with air), stylish, classy, and timeless. As I head toward retirement I wanted us to have a custom car that we could tour the country in, this fit the bill. You and I must be about the same age...

 

wow...problem solving 101, nice work - I really like it!!