buick riv....

[Salt Racer]

...It'd be a shame to kill the car's comfortable ride.

I'm officially ashamed.




As far as I know, nobody makes repop sheetmetal and other parts for '63-'65 Rivs. I'm having a helluva time trying to find a decent driver side fender for my '65, and I paid dearly for passenger side fender (and clamshells). '63 & '64 stuff are a little easier to come by as their front sheetmetals interchange. '65 has its own front sheetmetal. Like Steevo said, you want to make sure the car's in good condition and many parts are intact. You'll save money paying extra couple of grands and buy a good car than buying a beat up car like I did.

'64 is a little more preferable over '63 unless you plan to do complete drivetrain swap. Dynaflow(?) 2-sp auto isn't really great from what I hear. '64s have TH400 (don't know if they made switch pitch in '64). All '64s have 425ci Nailhead, while both 401 & 425 were used in '63 and '65. Not a whole lot of parts are available for Nailheads these days. TA performance has some, Comp Cams has a core (you'll have to pick the lobe specs), and Gasseler Porting has nice but expensive heads on exchange basis.

Common area of rust is around the rear window. Even many CA cars have rust in this area.

As far as chassis/suspension goes, you'll have to make pretty much everything yourself if you want to do some kind of upgrading. You'll even have tough time finding replacement parts such as inner tie rods. About the only thing that can interchange with other GM vehicles is springs. EDIT I think air spring kits are available - it's jut not my thing.

But, '63-'65 Rivs are one of the coolest cars Detroit ever built IMO. I'll live with the hassle.

Click on my profile and find some of my past posts. There are some pics of my car, and its front/rear suspension (JFYI, I hate the color of my car). The car is currently going through a minor make over in an interest of further reduction in cushy ride. Goodbye one-finger slow steering and cool aluminum drums - hello 12.7:1, 0.235"-valved steering and 13", 4-piston brakes.