More recent pictures of the '95

Hey all,

I'm still slowly picking at my car's problems, one at a time. In the meantime, I keep the noble steed looking as nice as possible and have even made an 'upgrade' recently! New wheels!....Ish....

My dad upgraded the wheels on his '04 Regal GS so I got his chrome stockers for the summer. I also did something some of you may consider 'taboo'. I have 'not-portholes' lol. Think along the lines of the new Lacrosse, and check them out a few pictures down the page.






The portholes...any opinions welcome. I understand not everyone will like them lol...they're odd, indeed.



Does anyone know if the chrome Riviera wheel centercaps will fit the Regal GS chrome wheels?


The interior is ok .




Dirty engine...


My favorite pic:


Thanks for looking everyone!

looking good Andrew.nice.

In my opinion, the portholes don't look bad at all. Their positioning and shape is nice, and it doesn't take away from the shape of the vehicle.

The interior color is beautiful, by the way. She looks great.

Looks great! That color is sharp. I put the same rims on my Riv. They were off the other car and match well, IMO.

I am not the biggest fan of portholes on the Riv, but they definately look nicer then the oval portholes that are normally placed on the fenders. And as Florence said, they follow the lines of the car, which looks pretty good! Also,traditionally the Buick shields haven't made many appearances on Rivs in the past, but the rims look reeeally sharp on the car Andrew. Nice color by the way!

I like the location you picked for the portholes, not as obvious as putting them on the side. They look more functional on top, nice job.

If you can find them, Riviera center caps should swap with your tri-shield ones. They look nice as is, though.

Thanks guys and gals! I appreciate all the compliments . Blending the portholes into the car was the idea I was going for! They really do match. They're actually VERY close replicas of the Enclave hood portholes.

The wheels I think made a HUGE difference on this car. I had the silver 12-spokes before, so now they've been demoted to winter wheels . And yes, BMD, I have to say I like the color of your car too! And what you said about the trishield not being on the Riviera hardly ever, that's the reason I want to see if the centercaps will swap. It'd be nice to have the big R in the center of the wheels, but if it can't be done, no biggie! They're still Buick wheels .

Demonte - I knew i saw someone else on here with those wheels! I know you've since changed them, but they looked awesome before on your car. I think they should have used these instead of the 7-spoke Riviera wheels...I'm not a fan of the 7's for some reason. I think there's 'too much' wheel to them.

Thanks again everyone .

Looks great and the portholes surprisingly don't look all that bad. Nice job. Love the exterior color and the wheels match nicely. What's odd to me is the match shift knob. Can't say I've seen that before.

Keep it clean!

Thanks for the compliments Vinney! I was wondering who would notice the shifter first. It's actually from a parted out '88 Riviera T-type that I came across. Close to the original black one on our Riv's, but shorter. Almost like the hacked off the bottom inch and a half of the shifter knob. I like it though.

No problem.

Ya I did notice it was a little shorter than stock but because of the color I think it looks ok. Nice little mod.

Z-type wrote:

And what you said about the trishield not being on the Riviera hardly ever, that's the reason I want to see if the centercaps will swap. It'd be nice to have the big R in the center of the wheels, but if it can't be done, no biggie! They're still Buick wheels .
.

Absolutely, I wouldn't think any less of them because of the tri-shield. I was just throwing out that info incase you didn't know. Our color looks way better on chrome in my opinion so I would definately say that this is an upgrade!

Oh haha no I didn't mean it that way BMD. I was just talking to talk lol...I do that all the time.

Thanks again

I think we have the same color package lol...looks good!! What color is it exactly on the outside??

EDIT: I am blind I just seen you had the color in your sig.

Nice! I haven't seen a whole lot with that color combo. I had those wheels too!

I believe the first Riviera ('63') had tri-shields only before they developed the Riviera "R" badging...........[img]

Oooooooooooooh man...I finally got some cash and instead of spending it on my vast aquarium hobby, I spent it on the car. I got new rear shocks and had a friend replace the front control arm bushings (they had disintegrated over the last year). So I drove the car home from his place and i couldnt believe the difference! I had no idea what a pile of crap my suspension was until those little parts were changed. The car rode like a dream. Until i went around one turn...

*CRACK ting ting ting ting ping ding ding*

Uuuuuuuh what? My driver's side sway bar link broke lol. Wasn't a mile from where I started. No biggie. So today I changed both links, took the car for a ride, and was completely blown away! Like I said, all those new little parts made such a huge difference that I would have to say it feels like it would have when it was new. Doesn't make any noise going over little bumps in the road, doesn't clunk around in the driveway, goes around turns with almost no effort, and I'm completely happy with it. One of the best parts? I didn't spend any more than $300 including labor. I think I lucked out on this one.

Sorry to ramble, I'm just really happy how things turned out haha.

Now if I can get an air ride compressor....

cool.did ya ever fix your headlight?

Its a great feeling when you discover what the Riv must've been like when it was new!

Fix the headlight? I re-aimed them if that's what you meant:). I was getting a really good view of the trees at night, instead of the road haha.

And yep, you're right BMD! As simple as all those things are, the change is night and day. My dad, who's only driven the car 3 times since I bought it last year, even noticed a huge difference. He almost took the car from me for a week haha.

Next project: Seafoam the top end. I have Seafoam in the gas tank right now.

Project after that: Get a freaking air ride compressor.

Z-type wrote:

Project after that: Get a freaking air ride compressor.

ever thought of just doing the ak29 kit? It gives the possibility for a much firmer ride than the air ride. My 95 has the ak29 kit, the wife's 98 has the normal air ride. Both have the front struts in the same condition, both have new monroe maxi air shocks and both have new sway bar bushings etc... They sit at the same level, but hers bounces ALOT more on bumps and rolls like a whale in the corners, compared to mine. Plus you will lose the 30 lbs the compressor weighs...Just food for thought....

Yeah I actually have been thinking about that kit since day one. I was just in a conflict in my own mind with the situation. I REALLY like to keep cars original functioning and appearing (or modding tastefully). So on one hand, I want the air ride to work like it's supposed to. On the other, I REALLY like the convenience of the air line fill kit.

I'm shopping online right now for that kit, and since I was thinking about this all day after I read your post, I think I'm going to go with the kit for the soul purpose of having my new airshocks use the 'air' aspect.

I caved and went the way of the air line fill kit! I have to say, for a total of $8.30 shipped to my door and half an hour of work, I'm WAY more than satisfied with the results! I filled the shocks to 25 PSI and im gonna ride around for a while and see how i like it. So far, it's amazing....handles like a champ. I'm not sure if I'm going back to the auto-level system now!

I also did a top engine clean (Seafoam) and am quite pleased with the very tiny gain in power i got...the engine wasn't that dirty.

Next project: save money for paint

Any pics? What was involved in installing this kit?

This was probably the least difficult AND most useful thing I've ever installed on the car. I got the stock replacement Monroe air shocks (I forget the number) and got Monroe's AK29 air fill kit from a suggestion from Karma. It comes with two air hoses with the ends need to plug into each shock, then a 'T' fitting with a tire valve attached. All you really have to do is find a place to mount the valve itself, connect the lines at the shocks, route the air lines safely, and fill it up! Like I said, too me only about half an hour, including clean up.

From other suggestions Karma gave to me, I ended up mounting the air valve on the black plastic part of the top of the tail light assembly. The part just under the trunk lid lip when closed. The valve clears the lid without any issues. I'll have pictures up tomorrow granted I have time to take them (work....psh).

Ok finally - pics of my installation of the custom shock air lines and all that. This install has been done by a few of the members here, but I don't know if anyone has shown too many pictures of it.

I didn't get any pictures of the kit out of the box, but here goes: the connection that comes with the kit clips right on just like stock air shocks.


You're looking at the rear driver's wheel on the left. The air line is routed under the plastic wheel well liner, and around/through the gas tank strap on either side. I still have some loom to apply, but for now I have the loom covering the important parts of the lines until i get more loom.


The lines are routed as seen under the rear bumper, and up behind the license plate:


This is the valve and 'T' assembly mounted to the plastic above the license plate - view is facing away from the car, as if you were sitting in the trunk. You can see the two compression fittings that hold the air lines to the 'T' and keep them sealed.


Here's a view of the 'T' fitting unmounted. Ignore the rust lol.



Pretty simple system really. I took some advice from Karma and that's why I mounted the valve where you see it. It's the easiest place to get to it as well as it being out of the weather. Right now, I have the system filled to ~40 PSI. The ride height in the rear is about 3/4" higher than the front, and makes the car look sick. The handling improvement? Well, I can't say how much better it is than stock because until recently, I'd been driving with bad shocks for a year lol. However, I would have to say the added stiffness and ability to custom-fill the air shocks is better than stock.