Hey Guys, I bought a 1964 Riviera this summer, because I've been in love with the lines of them for the past 5 years. It seemed like a clean car, supposedly from texas, floor pans were really solid under the carpet and from what I could see underneath the car. Mice had gotten in it so I pulled the whole interior out to clean/replace. I pulled out the rear seat and found a crunched up floor pan. I knew the car had some damage to it where the rocker meets the quarter panel, but I thought it was minor. The car has an x frame under it, and it was hit in the rocker panel, not hard but enough they had at one time tried to pull out the damage and then brazed/leaded on a new rocker(repair must have been done when the car was fairly new). The cars dimensions are off, it is 1" narrower between the wheel wells than it should be and 1.75" narrower between the rockers than it should be. I can't find any factory dimensions, but took measurements off a 65 to compare it to. Now the question is, should I try to fix it? Or cut my losses and look for a new starting point for the project? What would you do in this situation? If anybody has any old frame or crash books and can find a 63-65 Buick Riviera in it I'd greatly appreciate if you could scan the document and post it or email it to me. Thanks, Scott
Here are some pictures. http://s443.photobucket.com/albums/qq157/srsterr/ The damage wasn't easily visible when I bought the car. I noticed the mud in the front lower quarter/rear rocker but there was not damage between the rocker and the frame that I could see. It wasn't until I pulled the rear seat that I noticed the damage between the wheel wells/ frame rails.
Scott, that doesn't look too bad from the point on view of making further repairs. Keeping in mind the factory tolerances were probably fairly big as far as taking measurements goes, any competent collision shop could chain it down and straigten things out just bit more if necessary. On the other hand, if visually the car appears to be straight and tracks properly, doors/windows open, close & seal ok, you might decide to just go ahead with the finish work. I guess it all depends on how nice the rest of the car is and what you want to do with it. Sometimes the old frame charts show up on ebay; you might try the Riviera Owners Assoc as well. Devon
Well I got a hold of Larry, he said his book grew a pair of legs a while ago and walked off on him. He told me a couple of things to look out for but mentioned that I might want to look for another body for the car. If I ever did sell the car, even if it was fixed perfectly I would mention the collision damage. I don’t know what effect this will have on the value in the future. I don’t think it would be too hard to repair, but then again, if I spend 2-3,000 now on a new project car, sell this one and cut my losses and am able to sell the finished product for 10,000 more down the road I’d be money ahead. <o> </o> I don’t get some people, they’ll buy a car that’s had every major component replaced with reproduction sheet metal, but won’t touch anything that was in a minor accident and still has all the original steel. I've seen corvettes that have been built from the cowl up and fetch more than $200,000....
