New Member, and eager to mod my 97 Riviera.

Hey everyone! I've been using this forum for a while now and I finally decided to get an account so I can ask questions and post pics of my car. I bought a 1997 Riviera supercharged, bluish greenish color, 133,000 miles, with a few flaws here and there but nothing major. What can you expect with a car thats now 14 years old? Any who I'm excited to join this group and am looking to getting help and information with the extras I want! so far I have new american racing rims, because the old ones were corroding, and a new Sony head unit. I have yet to install the head unit. To be honest i'm kind of worried about it, but hopefully you guys can lead me in the right direction.

- Colten

Welcome to the forum. I am new here too but welcome. Where you from in Iowa

Hi Colten, you'll find lot of info here about stereos, double-DINs, amplifiers, etc, etc...

In Newton, the one with the Iowa speedway. haha

Yeah I've been finding a lot of information about certain components and requirements, I'm just curious if you have to take the whole dashboard out to install just the head unit. I saw the diagram and got a little worried with the extent of taking it apart, so if theres any short cut do advise!

Oh and by the way thanks for the greeting! I'll make sure to put up my pictures that I have sometime. I'll take more in the spring since I can't keep the darn thing clean with all of the winter road grime and salt.

The removal of the dash for just installing the stereo is pretty easy. It looks hard but once you go to do it it is easy

Welcome Colten. It sounds like you probably have the same color as me. It's pretty sweet. Sunlight really makes the paint do cool things.

Head unit install... Coming from someone who has taken the dash apart so many times I could literally do it blindfolded, I would say there are no good shortcuts to any of it. It's very much worth taking your time and removing everything that inhibits your access, especially if you need to add any wiring for amps and stuff. There are threads on this, but there's a good chance you'll need to cut out the back of the dash where the head unit goes. Even if you don't need to, it's better not to pinch all the wires on the back of the new head unit. There is nothing hard about any of it, it just takes a little time going through all the motions. It all may seem slightly intimidating to deal with but if you give yourself ample time to do it, it's easy enough.
PS. Don't buy the GM antenna adapter. Just lift the dash up and remove the adapter plug that's there and it'll be the right size for the aftermarket head unit. I figured this out like 2 years after I put the first new radio in.

Welcome to the forum!

Awesome! I'll just follow the steps listed here then. Thanks for the help with my first real project with the Riv. I appreciate it! I have lots of other questions, but ill just go to the specific forum page and ask them instead.
And yes it's the exact color of your Riviera. After we buffed the whole car out last summer and got it looking like new the paint looked amazing in the sunlight! So many people asked if I re-painted the body.

Welcome Colten! I bought my 97' with 135,000 on the clock about 1.5 years ago and it's been great. Sitting at 152,000 now. I did all the basic maintenance to this once I got it (plugs, fuel filter, air filter, trans fluid change, etc). This car has been nothing short of fantastic. I also credit my luck to the great care the previous two owners paid to this car. But overall, these cars are quite strong.

I think the stereo is probably next on my list of goodies to mod.

Hope yours treats ya well too! Great to have you aboard.

Welcome! There's tons of radio information here, which you've clearly found, and be sure to post some pics up of the car with the new wheels!