Thanks, Roy. I really want this car to be the first one with "no compromises", so I can pop the hood, open the trunk, and let people ogle the interior and not be embarrassed by any of them. My other cars are nice in the engine compartments, interior, and bodywork/paint, but I've never customized and finished out a trunk compartment before other than going totally stock with splatter paint and whatnot.....I'm definitely learning a lot on this car. I've got too many of them to farm anything out, so learning more upholstery type work has been a necessary evil, but I'm really enjoying it......got the panels finished last night, I'll test fit and let them get their shape this weekend. Carpet and matching spare tire cover should be here next week according to eBay. Thanks again for following, guys.
39 for me was 33 yrs. ago. Like yourself I've had my broken parts. Most healed satisfactorily. Even being "Retired" doesn't make it any easier. EVERYTHING you do tales 5-10 times longer than it could/should. The stamina/energy/longevity just isn't there like it used to be. I tell ALL I'm 18 with 50+ yrs. experience. Still enjoy drag racing, working on projects, etc. In the end for me it's ALL fun. I'm getting involved in a project with my son with a '64 Riv. We'll see how that finally comes to fruition. I know he has done some research & we weighed one & was surprised at how well balanced it was. Will see how all that works out in the end. It's kinda funny watching him run around like I used to & being so focused at 34. My older son will also be involved at 36 & also pretty focused at what he does. SHOULD BE FUN!!!! Tom T.
Oh boy, now don't get too excited/jealous, but the must have accessory of the year just showed up! The $10.99 elastic size small black vinyl spare tire cover! Can't wait to get it on the crusty whitewall and finish the whole thing out.....I can smell your envy from here..... ....and yeah, that's what the trunk looks like now. You can see why I have my desire to fix it. I mean, it's rust free, but my Budweiser blanket and cardboard box really clash with my radiator.....
Ok Lucas we need to start a new thread what's does your trunk look like... That way everyone starts cleaning up the trunk and throwing away 4 year old octane booster
Hahaha....dude, I dig it. You get the honors. I will post immediately the second I see the thread...... Ok, full disclosure. Mine is much worse than I just shared. The idiot that owned the car before me started the paint job and fade painted from black to red on the engine compartment side of the fenders, the bottom of the hood and trunk lid, and on the trunk compartment edges (look at previous engine compartment pics to see). The red matches the stripes on the car, so I think that's why he did it, and he did it on purpose. All it looks like is the painter was lazy and didn't mask a previously red car properly. I'm just really glad they didn't do the same "trick" in the door jams. I will be fixing this as soon as possible. Enjoy the full glory of the Riviera's trunk in current form:
Been too cold to finish up the trunk (glue won't dry), but I did get a late Christmas present from my little brother, Layne. The car came with the cowl grilles both missing teeth, and my brother just happens to have a project car set up just like mine that came with two near perfect grilles. So, after a couple years of harassment, he finally caved and gave them to me. This past weekend was unseasonably warm, so Saturday was spent disassembling the cowl, polishing all the bits, repainting a few things like the hood hinges and screens under the grilles, polishing the wipers, etc., then reassembling...... Here's a more detailed thread with more pics from the weekend: http://v8buick.com/index.php?threads/late-christmas-present-this-weekends-project.341433/
Looks great Lucas! Don't ya just wonder how some things get broken like that? I can't fathom how those grills managed to have chunks missing out of them.
Thanks Nick! After fighting the wipers on and off a few times to get them in the right spot, I've got an idea of what happened.......What a stupid design.
I used to fight with wipers long ago until I bought one of these......................https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...VQ7jACh3jQAkcEAQYAyABEgJ59vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Simple but very effective little gadget that works great!
I've seen those, and I've got kind of a monkey homemade one that has always worked pretty well. These were just super, super tight fitting, and I bet a real deal one like you posted would work a lot better. If I have to do it again, I suppose I'll splurge and spend the $4 ........
Couple little projects done under hood, made up a finned battery cover and put on some new little plug wire holders. Battery cover was a really poor quality casting, so a lot of sanding and polishing on it. Had to do a few parts store runs to get the right length battery bolts and acorn nuts to match the rest of the accessories on the engine. I'm debating if it sticks out too much visually, might paint it black and just clean off the ribs.
Decided the cover was too much visually, so painted it black, sanded off and polished the ribs....much happier now. Winter is supposedly over, and it's going to be in the 50s all next week so going to have to ramp up and get all the little stuff knocked out here soon.....
Pulled it out of the garage last night, looked at the streets, and decided to take it for a drive, so I technically drove the Riviera in the winter .......beautiful all week so brought it to work today.
Oh, and it felt pretty good when I pulled my nice shiny "restored" gas cap off that I forgot I did months ago and put it on the concrete when I fueled up yesterday .... One of those little "oh, yeah" moments.
Wow Lucas! I read your entire thread from Kennedy Space Center to South Florida. You do beautiful work!!! I know you'll do more customizing but it sure looks mighty fine! Time to unload the car and drink a beer. Tomorrow...
Hey, thanks John! Glad the road trip went well for you and you're home safe... I always say there isn't a good car out there I can't mess up hahaha..... enjoy that beer and have one for me (or 6)....
Thanks a lot Erik. It's coming along, never seems like it's done. Got the engine compartment and trunk painted today, going to try to get the carpet laid and panels installed tomorrow.