1972 Buick Riviera
The car of my dreams!
I've been lusting for one of these ever since I spied my first Boattail.... a dilapidated worse-than-a-parts-car mess, that sat tail-out in a driveway near by. I walked past that car hundreds, maybe thousands of times, taking time on my way to school or the corner candy store to ogle its amazing lines.
Fast forward ten years, to High School: This super cool chick I knew happened to show up with one... it was her dad's! Candy apple red (this was the eighties, remember!) black interior, floor shifter. She let me drive it, and that pretty much removed free will from the occasion. I had to have one.
Dreams can come true!
My buddy Darren said it best:
Not to gloat,
But I got this friend, he got a boat.
Its fenders wide, its hood so long
Fat 'ol tail, and the engine strong.
He got it cheap, a hell of a deal,
Not much money for all THAT steel!
He picked it up, he set the sail,
He turned the key, it didn't fail.
Now on the road, off in style,
just one more thing before that first mile.....
Click here for the punchline
It's pretty much all stock and complete. The console lid is missing (big bummer!), but that's probably the worst of it. A/C is inop, heater core bypassed, blower motor inop, power windows a bit goofy, typical old car stuff.
But it's got new tires, great brakes, a good ride, and is super straight.
What does the future hold?
Mechanical
- Lower the front ~2" (done 10/29!)
- Get the climate controls working (heater core replaced 11/4!)
- Beef up the suspension (replaced control arm bushings and swaybar (f)
and shocks (f&r) 5/27/01... still to do: box rear control arms and install
rear sway bar)
- Tune up
- Fix cruise control
- Get the windows operating smoothly
- ...wow, I thought the list would be longer!
Cosmetic
- Buff the paint out
- Remove front plate frame (done 10/29!)
- Black out grille ('71 grille en route 1/8/01)
- Maybe cut front bumper ('71 bumper en route 1/8/01)
- Replace rear bumper ('71 bumper in stock)
- Replace rotted deck lid ('71 louvered deck lid in stock)
- Recover seats
- Replace headliner
- Paint it! (thinking of metallic orange or purple)
- New wheels (thinking of 16-17" Early-American clones)
What does the present hold?
...or... unintended modifications...
As with any old car, sometimes things don't go as planned.... reality rears its ugly head, and:
- Get that nasty tape deck outta here! Replaced it with a whole bunch of goodies... needless to say, I went overboard (like usual;-) and have now got the fattest sound system I've ever built. Jammin!
- Replaced worn, stripped, don't-you-dare-go-over-30%-throttle-or-I'll-spit-sputter-and-stall original QuadraJet (aka QuadraJunk) carburetor with an Edelbrock 1411 (750 cfm, mechanical secondaries, electric choke). This required the use of a square-bore to spread-bore adapter plate, which ran about $20. Awesome results! The car starts right up, runs great, and has a Boatload of power.
- Replaced perfectly operating points distributor with a HEI unit from a '76 Park Avenue. Dropped right in, but I didn't wire it properly (no key-cranking power, oops;-) and exploded the muffler.... which leads me to:
- New exhaust! 2.25" pipe, 3-chamber Flowmasters. This certainly wasn't in the game plan, but I couldn't see spending $100 or more to fix the crummy stock exhaust. So now this sucker really grumbles and growls... the power increase, especially in higher-rpm (4000-5000) range is great.
- Seems the cheapo lowering job was too much for the stock 130K mile
control arm bushings; this led to a complete rebuild. So far, the front has
been done, with new rubber bushings, KYB Gas-A-Just shocks (rears too), and
an enormous! sway bar (1.125") with poly bushings. It still has the
235/75R15 comfy cruiser tires, but handles GREAT!
With those unforseen mods, this car has gone from a bone-stock cruiser to a pretty muscular street beast. Look out world!
Sold 12/5/08, on a boat to Sweden for custom/resto. Happy trails, Riv,
it's been a great eight years.