Hi- my name is Gene and I have rounded the 60 corner
and spent 30 years rebuilding and restoring corvettes as well as building
customs, street rods, lead sleds and custom corvettes. My first car was a
'32 ford coach when I was 15 and my first corvette was a two year old '66
coupe when I was 21 (my daughter was 3 mo old and grew up in the
back of that coupe- we didn't have child safety laws back then). I retired it with
285k miles- serious frame rust problems.
I have had the good fortune to have a *lot* of cars over the years
including a corvette at all times since the first one ( full custom '66 convert
and a modified '01 convert now).
This being Minnesota one needs a winter beater too, of course. I repainted
a '86 Regal T-type and installed the running gear from a SS Monte- when that
grew long in the tooth I bought my first '89 LeSabre T-type- nearly had a
breakdown worrying about stepping down to a '6' cyl- I had never owned
one. But it was a love affair from the start- that one got a lot of miles ( I
thought) and I found another one with 10k miles and ran that one up to
well over 100k and looked frantically for another low mi LeS T-type with
no luck. Ended up buying a '98 sc riviera and loving that - running the miles up
on that and buying another '98 sc Riv with 23k mi in Cleveland a month ago and driving it home.
The first Riv was kind of a test case- to make sure I liked it- so now I am pumped
to make this one nice. I had modified the ashtray and CD storage areas into
usable 'cubby holes' for the stuff that you need at hand so I transferred those
modifications to the 'new' one and have a corvette radio and changer ready
to go in when I have time. All of my cars have been silver on top and black
lower (except the '01 corv) and this Riv is all black- so I will 2-tone it with silver
sometime this summer when it doesn't get much use. I also have 16" Mille
Miglia silver wheels from the old Riv on the new one.
I would really like to add an old style rear spoiler (not the currently available
spoiler on ebay) before I paint it- but don't have much hope of finding one.
I may have to fabricate one, but I have kinda quit bodywork- but never say
never.
Anyway- I have been too windy- but it is nice to be with people who talk
Buick (especially Riv) performance- instead of grandkids ( have to admit to
having one). Thanks - I will be reading old posts as I have time and plotting
course for future mods. Buicks forever -Gene
And the info exchange is top notch.
Make sure you get some pics up in the Showroom.
Sounds like you have a lot of knowledge to share. I can't wait to see some pics.
