Where do i start???

[phenometron]

Okay, I've been posting for awhile now...first about wheels, then brakes...I'm converting a hot rod/cruiser into a pro-touring machine. I was looking at suspension upgrades, then I figured I should choose the wheels I want first...then I thought I should do brakes first since that could affect offsets...then I thought just swap the rear since I have drums back there now... I've now thoroughly confused myself. I have a vision, I just want a place to start at this point. Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thanks so much for your patience, understanding and wisdom!

[John Wright]

Welcome to my world. It gets expensive and the car gets taken apart further than you could have ever imagined. It will be off the road and in the "in progress stage" from now til eternity.

Just wait til the " while I have this apart, I might as well...fill in the blank"...starts

[phenometron]

[QUOTE=Just wait til the " while I have this apart, I might as well...fill in the blank"...starts[/QUOTE]

I'm already there and haven't really touched anything major. That's what started the whole "working backwards" thing. It makes my head hurt. Thanks for empathizing, though. Why am I doing this again...?

[John Wright]

My whole ordeal started when I replaced the rear brake shoes and found a little axle seal leak....might as well replace that axle seal so that it doesn't ruin my new shoes, then when I went to pull the axle to replace the seal, the retainer pin/bolt for the cross shaft in the rear was broken off up inside, so I ended up replacing the gutless open rear with a new Eaton posi and set of performance gears, but while I had all that apart, I might as well paint everything up, and I've always wanted disc brakes in the rear, and another guy made the C5 swap look so easy and inexpensive....and on and on.....it went, and continues to go.

[Mkelcy]

It would be really helpful for folks trying to respond if you gave us some idea whether you'd be doing the work yourself, or sending it out, if you weld or can do small metal fabrication projects, what your budget is, how long you're willing to have the car off the road, whether you want to do it all at once or in stages, and so on.

In other words, how much time, money and skill do you have available?

[phenometron]

Doing some myself, some outsourced. I don't have a lot of the toys some of you have to work on it...I'm not what you'd call skilled, though I have a good friend who fabricates, powdercoats, etc. etc. ...pretty much everything. He's going to be a big help. Pro-touring is a new world for me. I love to drive (I mean DRIVE...give me a squirrely road and I'm happy) and love what I'm seeing here. I'm trying to segment projects, or group them together to evaluate costs of parts/procedures. I find that if I say "This needs/these things need to be done first", then that tends to get done. That's just me. If I give myself the 10 mile long list and there are no "chapters", I'll end up walking away from the whole thing. I tend to set budgets per operation based on whatever research I do beforehand. That also makes it easier to take. If I do the long list with the $20K+ price tag, again, I'll walk away overwhelmed and depressed. I don't mind her being off the road for awhile...she's parked in the garage now as it is. :p

[Mkelcy]

Oh, what car?

[phenometron]

1971 Buick Riviera. The one in my profile pic/PT garage. She's just a cruiser right now. I'm not looking to compete with the smaller Camaros, etc. I just want to maximize the potential of a 2-ton car. The theory is if Bugatti can do it with a 2-ton Veyron, I can do it with a Riv...sort of...I haven't hit the lotto yet... ;)

[Mkelcy]

1971 Buick Riviera. The one in my profile pic/PT garage. She's just a cruiser right now. I'm not looking to compete with the smaller Camaros, etc. I just want to maximize the potential of a 2-ton car. The theory is if Bugatti can do it with a 2-ton Veyron, I can do it with a Riv...sort of...I haven't hit the lotto yet... ;)

Don't know the Riviera too well, but I'd always start with brakes, steering and suspension. All three can be relatively cheap (less than a nice set of wheels) and can make a big difference in how the car feels. If they needed to be prioritized, I'd go brakes, suspension and then steering.

I'd also look for an E-body specific forum to see what folks are doing with these cars. Your car is far enough out of the norm, that it's going to be a fun challenge to figure out what can be done and how to do it. Good luck with a different car!

[phenometron]

"Fun", you say? LOL It'll be sweet one day, that's for sure. I use a lot of ideas from pics of the 'Cudas and 2nd gen Camaros. 'Cudas because I love those cars and 2nd gen Camaros because they have a similar line to them albeit a much shorter wheel base. Thanks for the tip, though...I've never thought of searching for an E-body group beyond Buick-riviera.com, though most of those guys either restore them or make them cruisers.

[2ndgenhunter]

Just a lil tidbit of info. The Riv shares alot of the susp parts with the A body. With your 71 Riv you'll be cross matching parts with the 68-72 A bodies. Good luck with your Riv. I'm a big boattail Riv fan.

[phenometron]

Just a lil tidbit of info. The Riv shares alot of the susp parts with the A body. With your 71 Riv you'll be cross matching parts with the 68-72 A bodies. Good luck with your Riv. I'm a big boattail Riv fan.

Glad you like the Riv...I've never seen one "G"d, so I thought I'd give it a shot! Anyway, Thanks a million for that post. That's the kind of information that seriously takes a load off the brain!

[The Stickman]

Wheels and tires are always the best bang for the buck in both performance and appearance. After that start with the suspension. I would fix trouble spots first. Look at you bushings front and rear. if any are in real bad shape look at ways to replace them. Look at it this way let's say the bushings in your rear LCA's are bad. Buy a set of new LCA's they come with new bushings. Things like that. Not sure I would go so far as to replace the front control arms but springs and shocks yes.