Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 I spent the entire day rearranging the garage so that I could park my new Riviera inside.

Under the cover, my '06 Mustang looks
absolutely huge from this angle.

My '96 Mustang had to go, and it will not be returning. It's former position will now be taken up by the '06 Mustang. The '96 will sit behind my truck at the curb, under a car cover, this will make it more convenient to take to events. 

My plan is to take it to as many Cars and Coffee type events as I can, and see if it catches anyone's eyes. Yes, I know that I'll have to list it on CL. 

Interestingly enough, I found that the Riv could fit it's snout under my garage table. My '06 Mustang could not, as it has a higher hood. 

Why didn't I just park the Riv in that spot? I would have liked to, but then I wouldn't be able to access the car as easily. I'd have to move the car parked in the left side spot, because the doors of the Riv are so long. And I'm not that skinny anymore. if I ever was.

To accommodate the '06, I'll have to raise the table. Which I did by adding some sections of 2x4 under the casters. It worked, but that table is getting awful tall! It's getting awfully close to pub height!

The '06 Mustang will probably end up sitting a bit until next year, when I buy a new set of tires for it

It's kind of funny that I never noticed how chunky the '06 Mustang is. But that only seems apparent in comparison. It is an inch or so taller than the Riviera, and the hood and trunk are noticeably higher. The Mustang is 188 inches long, while the Riv is 207 inches. But the Riviera body doesn't extend to the end of the bumpers. The front grille is set back at least four inches from the edge of the front bumper. Likewise the rear deck is another four inches shorter than the bumper. The front and rear ends are quite tapered as well as the body sides. This really reduces the visual bulk of the car, making it appear quite a bit smaller than it's measurements would suggest.

It's actually as long as the Navigator and the Flex. 

My plan will be to swap out the Riv and the Flex without having to disturb the other cars.

The only car that my Wife is comfortable driving is the Flex. I need it to be available to her if I'm off somewhere. 

I had parked the Riv in my sloping driveway and noticed that there were a few drips of oil under the car. I had noticed some oil dripping on the oil pan when I had loaded the car on the dolly. The car had been transported with the nose up and I'd driven it on level streets. Oil leaks often pool and build up in a low spot or depression on the motor until they spill over the edge. The smell of burnt oil reminds me a little too much of  my last years with my Cadillac STS!

Lot's of these cute little critters around my house.

Looking under the hood I saw some pine nuts on the transmission. That means that either mice or squirrels have been there. It could mean some possible damage to the wiring. I should have used my shop vac to clean the area, but I had my leaf blower handy, so I blew the area clear. Unfortunately it didn't really blow it clear, instead it must have dumped it on the exhaust system. I found that out  after some driving, as there was some smoke coming from that area! Not good. After it cooled off I used my compressor and air nozzle to blow off the exhaust system. It worked, crispy stuff fell onto the driveway. 

I'd been noticing a faint smell of gas. I found that the original quick disconnect gas line had been replaced with a section of high pressure fuel line. The hose clamp was a bit loose and it was seeping a small amount when hot. I tightened it up and that solved the problem. 

The car runs well and if it was going to overheat, I'm certain that it would have done so already! We had quite the heat spell when I brought it home. The brakes, steering, and suspension are working smoothly, and  the turn signals and other lights are all working fine. The car was built when GM was big on daytime running lights, DRLs, and that complicated system is okay. I do not like automatic lights, I prefer to control them myself as needed. The "perimeter lights" also stay on after being locked. It's another small annoyance. However this a feature that's been adopted by lots of new cars. 

Now it's a matter of shaking the car down, that can only come from driving it. I'll use it for local errands and gradually expand the distances that I drive it. 

The tires on the car are pretty bad, all the sidewalls are badly cracked. I haven't checked the age of the tires yet, but I don't really need to. They are obviously old. The seller had to replace a flat tire with a new one, because the tire shop told him that it was too old to fix. If I want to really use the car I'll need to replace them. It's a big expense up front, I would have preferred to wait and see just how good the car is. I don't want to do the half ass thing with used tires anymore. They got to be pretty expensive, and nothing makes a car look unloved like a set of mismatched old tires. I'll be making the rounds looking for a decent deal on a good quality tire.

At least this car uses 16 inch tires. It's gotten to be pretty difficult to find good quality 15 inchers. The size is 225/60 16, the same size as those on my old Jaguar XJ6. The Riviera doesn't really need high speed rubber, even with the supercharger, the electronic cut off is set at 109 mph. 

I just need a good set of Touring rated tires (110 mph.) that should be plenty of reserve. How fast do you think that I'm going to drive this thing anyway? From what I've gleaned so far, I think that the car will be a fantastic freeway and highway cruiser, which is exactly the use that I have planned for it. 

I'm lucky that the car is in pretty good original condition. My plan is to work on the cosmetics and the minor (and not so minor) things that it needs fixed. Like the HVAC, and the passenger window. It gets pretty hot in there without ventilation! The CD player won't read a disc, but the radio works fine and sounds pretty good to me. I'm a bit afraid to try a cassette in the player, I'd hate for it to get stuck in there! The paint is still very shiny, it has a couple of scrapes on the outside edge of both bumpers. There's also a dent in front of the left rear wheel. Parking by Braille, I guess. I sent away for some touch up paint.

The car looks silver to me sitting by itself in the Sun, but compared to the much brighter Ingot Silver of the Flex, you can see the brownish tint to the color. Sandstone Beige metallic. Not my favorite color, and not the one I would have chosen, but I am happy that it is still in good shape. 

I want to keep it under a good cover when it's not in the garage. Preservation is the name of the game with this car. Even so, since the mileage is so low, I don't see any reason not to drive it regularly once it's squared away. Even if I drive it a lot, I don't imagine that I would put more than five or six thousand miles a year on it. 

I've only put around 50 miles on it so far, but I really like how the car drives. It's very solid and quiet, and rides really smooth. Although the 8th. Gen Riviera debuted in 1995 and only ran until 1999, it was GM's most advanced platform at the time. It was shared with the Oldsmobile Aurora, as well as the Buick Park Avenue. That model ran into the new Millennium, ending in 2005. 

Compare that with my '96 Mustang. The Fox body platform debuted in 1979 and the Fox Mustangs ran until 1993! Then the platform was updated and became the SN97 which ran from 1994-2004!

There are still a lot of GM produced videos on the '95 Riviera available on YouTube

The Riviera was ahead of it's time, and subsequent GM models built upon the concepts of this platform and these cars ran another 15+ years, past the mid teen years of the 2000's. This means that the Riviera is still a pretty modern car.

The '97 Riviera uses the updated Buick 3800 Series Two V6, mated to a supercharger. Acceleration is pretty good. The intention was to provide V8 type performance coupled with V6 type fuel economy. It is rated at 240 hp with 280 lbs. ft. of torque. That is pretty impressive. By comparison, my '94 NorthStar Cadillac was rated at 295 hp. with 300 lbs.ft of torque. The Cadillac was a much more expensive car and was equipped with  a very high tech aluminum V8 with DOHC and 32 valves, plus an additional 800 ccs of displacement. 

In comparison to my '96 Mustang it looks even better. It has 25 hp. more, and torque is only 5 ft.lbs. less than the 4.6 V8. On the road performance between this Mustang and the Riviera is quite similar, but the Mustang has a higher top speed.

The Riviera is rated at 27 mpg. on the freeway, Buick V6s are known to get good fuel economy. The gas tank holds 19.4 gallons, it should have an impressive range per fill up. I haven't checked it yet, but at 25 mpg. range should be well into the high 400 miles mark. Maybe that's why Buick didn't make a trip computer available. They knew their customers wouldn't be running out of gas easily! Premium fuel is required for this boosted engine.

I anticipate that the Riviera will fit my needs very well. Of course, none of this will make any difference if I can't get my car's problems fixed!