Restoring my 98 for a second time

Hello

14 years ago I acquired a beautiful maroon on red 45,000 mile hurricane damaged 98 riv, I signed up here to poke around but was not a particularly active member, not sure if I posted photos...hope so, as I have lost all personal archives to fire, and to be brutally honest let myself get purged from here.

Where do I re-start?     History:

When I got the car it was in perfect condition except the part where it was buried in trees, subsequently abandoned and left entombed in vegetation for a year.

After recovery it ran and drove with a jump. Between trees and dozer clearing the field it only had one piece of glass (LR 1/4 window) head/taillight smashed by kids, it looked bad but walking around it would seem 90% of the damage was to bolt on items, once sitting down inside, under the leaves and glass, the interior was still 9 out of 10, somehow the rear fenders only had door dings, the rest was smashed but shiny, every button worked, had full tank of fuel, it would burn the tires for a block...

Being the car was 8 yrs old, many were available in local junkyard, decision was made, fix it.

I carefully stripped & stored the interior, saved every clip, screw, piece of molding, chrome, etc. pulled the damaged parts off and went to buy used stuff at the local you pull and pay.

Bought doors, hood, trunk, front fenders, glass, lights, even the rear package tray and roof center, yeah they bolt on.  I also used this unique opportunity to get rid of the sunroof, as a auto tech I hate those.

Aside from a little structural roof damage @ the passenger sunvisor everything literally bolted/clipped/snapped back together like legos, too easy, got the car in primer, bought the paint then a housefire struck... lost everything, the car was at work, it got a car cover and sat ignored, untouched.

5 years later:

Look under the cover, Im horrified but not surprised to find much trashed, hood dented from something, the fuel pump, alternator, a/c compressor, blower resistor and airbag cover (horn stuck) all shot. Another decision has to be made, my daily driver, 98 3.8 Monte is worn out, burning oil, trans about to quit, do I resurrect the riv or strip the driveline for the monte?

Just then, painter buddy having a rough patch of life comes to visit, he is crashing at my place for 6 weeks.

We get to painting/fixing the Riv, when finished it looks and drives like a new car, I swipe the alloy 5 star wheels off the monte.

2 more years:

The old Monte had been long ago entered in a demo derby, the Riv was my new daily, unfortunately the paint, more specifically the clear coat that sat 5 years before being applied, has not held up, she is starting to look like hell, dumb luck I win a raffle for a free Econo paint job, sounded good at the time but you get what you pay for...

2 years later:

Looking like hell again, same friend comes back for a visit, back in primer, this will be my new look till further notice, I don't drive it every day or even every week as I have customers cars very often available, the Riv gets run down, still using it but no more weekly detail jobs, life goes on car goes downhill, still has only 70,000 miles tho.

1 year later:

 I acquire another low mile riv, not running, but decent White pearl, with a 9 out of 10 red interior. Turns out a old guy passed and the wife left it parked in a carport untouched for 12 years till it was to be scrapped, thankfully the tow guy knew I had a riv and I bought it, unfortunately it sits outside as I pick at it for spare parts.
I also score ANOTHER free paint job @ the same raffle!

Life takes a turn, family health crisis.

2 more years...

Raffle ticket goes unclaimed, riv still in primer, one day I pop the hood to jump another car and get distracted, laid the hood down unlatched, 2 days later I hop in and make it a mile before flipping the hood up... Now I have a pearl white hood on.

1 yr later

Tropical storm sweeps through and pulls the top off a old tree, it travels quite some distance to drop on the trunk, RR fender and roof of the riv  

Same buddy helps get the dents out, all but the trunk (ruined) now back in primer.

1 more year sneaks by, Year 14, last week:

Same buddy on vacation now accepts he will be doing body work every time he visits, riv has taken a spiral downward after the fuel pump quit, sitting 6 months, its sad, the Florida sun has made all the plastic brittle, door panels are warping as the backing crumbles, seat got its first hole, interior has not been detailed in a long time...Its almost bringing a tear as I really love the car, now 90,000 miles there is much life left but this thing refuses to stay nice.

Today:

One last hurrah, in haste, got it running with a junkyard fuel pump, time to pool all spare parts acquired over the years.
Skipping the raffle paint job, bought the best epoxy primer and going at it almost as hard as the first round, but now, finally, we need things no longer available @ the junkyard or dealer.

All week we have been stripping chrome/rubber/lights, trunk is off, the roof is now bare metal and getting filler, parts car assessed, interior still 7.5 out of 10

Will get some pics up but not sure what.

Comments? Complaints? Im ready.

Best of luck with it, show us some pics sometime.

That's more work than most people would put in one. A+ for effort!

More power to you, you are persistent!
I've put more money into mine over the years then I could get for it, I guess this model has a way of keeping its owners faithful.

Do you call her Christine?

jbird wrote:

I've put more money into mine over the years then I could get for it,

IMO you win if you spent less than you would on a replacement.

jbird wrote:

More power to you, you are persistent!
I've put more money into mine over the years then I could get for it, I guess this model has a way of keeping its owners faithful.

Do you call her Christine?    

Naw, it has yet to try to kill anyone, The wife simply calls it Pimpin

Loyalty earned, but not heavily invested, got this car for $300, first drive as restored was about $2300... To date I have yet to spend $5000 total (and a zillion hours)

Never bought new...

Hahaha..... Ed...
" Same buddy on vacation now accepts he will be doing body work every time he visits...."

Haha.... best of luck, something tells me 2020 will your year.
Good luck Ed.

Have all most the parts including "new" interior (going to need some trim clips)

With my good buddy doing it with me, we are

only

spending < $1000 in high end materials then I get a 90,000 riv back for another 4-5 years of daily driving in luxury


I like the black look, where in Florida? How bad is the title? Price?

You do what's best for you. I loved the story. I assume the house fire didn't damage the car, as you mentioned "at work" so I figure you lost it all at home, spare parts, computer with pictures etc. Bad luck with external damage and didn't really understand how you found the original. If you need parts, get your wish list up. Occasionally someone out there has a part gathering dust. I bumped into a Riv guy at the junkyard and we've become parts hounds together. You never know. And point of order. There are 1956 1999's Riviera's produced with an ADDITIONAL 200 Silver Arrows, which naturally, only came in silver and loaded at the factory. No idea how many survive. I use my Riviera as a daily driver only...not a fanatic, but I appreciate that others are. I just want my car to be complete and comfortable and I'm still working on eliminating the swimming pool in the trunk, a common Buick failing. I'll get to it. Summer's coming.

My ^^^ 99 still running good, under 110K, although my dash cluster says much less 38K.
Switched it out a few years back when I replaced the stereo with a Monsoon unit. If memory serves me correct the low mileage dash cluster and head unit were around $50 each. Only real maintenance I've done is fluid changes before winter. Need to get those suspension parts sitting in my basement on the car this spring.

EyeDoc1 wrote:

You do what's best for you.  I loved the story.  I assume the house fire didn't damage the car, as you mentioned "at work" so I figure you lost it all at home, spare parts, computer with pictures etc.  Bad luck with external damage and didn't  really understand how you found the original.  If you need parts, get your wish list up.  Occasionally someone out there has a part gathering dust.  I bumped into a Riv guy at the junkyard and we've become parts hounds together.  You never know.  And point of order.  There are 1956 1999's Riviera's produced with an ADDITIONAL 200 Silver Arrows, which naturally, only came in silver and loaded at the factory.  No idea how many survive.  I use my Riviera as a daily driver only...not a fanatic, but I appreciate that others are.  I just want my car to be complete and comfortable and I'm still working on eliminating the swimming pool in the trunk, a common Buick failing.  I'll get to it.  Summer's coming.

Ah the quote button, Im starting to figure this place out  


Long story how the car found me, but lets say I saved it from being brought to a field and hooned to death over a single weekend.

Awesome meeting a fellow enthusiast like that!
Car and all spare parts were in a separate location when the house burned, lost everything including the computer/camera/SD chips, a work buddy with some duplicate photos had a hard drive fail soon afterward, fortunately my recent enthusiasm has got him working on another attempt to recover it (yeah, he saved it all this time)

Aside from maintenance that includes a couple of A/C compressors and such, there is plenty more to this story, like the time I was looking for other unrelated junkyard parts and stumbled across a hot rod GTP.
 I scored a aftermarket 3in drop pipe, supercharger overdrive pulley(took whole nose), billet fuel pressure regulator, phenolic throttle body spacer, throttle body heat shield and double roller aluminum rocker arms for $100

Pics when I figure out where I hosted some other stuff or get the phone to work here.

[quote="buck3647"]

98inWPB wrote:

Have all most the parts including "new" interior (going to need some trim clips)

With my good buddy doing it with me, we are

only

spending < $1000 in high end materials then I get a 90,000 riv back for another 4-5 years of daily driving in luxury  


I like the black look, where in Florida? How bad is the title? Price?

WestWay towing sent car for demolishing somehow original owner got car and paper title sold to me now pleading with Florida DMV to reinstate title now that I put $10,000 into it to restore.  This car is completely restored


Ah WestWay, I had trouble with them before, while not the at all same, they were less then honest about some things that affected me.
As fot the issue, I was in the industry for a decade, sounds like you have a CD, the only way to get out of that, a long shot, is to work with westway to have them send paperwork that it was done in error.
Best of luck, it is difficult even with cooperation, perhaps a bare shell with a good vin then xfer everything over?

Don't feel bad. I haven't master hosting pictures either. You'd think it would be easy, but apparently the most used hosting site was Photobucket, but there was a lot of problems with it when it went from free to a paid site. But I haven't looked into it. So much to do (reality), so little time (seemingly).

98inWPB wrote:

buck3647 wrote:

98inWPB wrote:

Have all most the parts including "new" interior (going to need some trim clips)

With my good buddy doing it with me, we are

only

spending < $1000 in high end materials then I get a 90,000 riv back for another 4-5 years of daily driving in luxury  


I like the black look, where in Florida? How bad is the title? Price?

WestWay towing sent car for demolishing somehow original owner got car and paper title sold to me now pleading with Florida DMV to reinstate title now that I put $10,000 into it to restore.  This car is completely restored


Ah WestWay, I had trouble with them before, while not the at all same, they were less then honest about some things that affected me.
As fot the issue, I was in the industry for a decade, sounds like you have a CD, the only way to get out of that, a long shot, is to work with westway to have them send paperwork that it was done in error.
Best of luck, it is difficult even with cooperation, perhaps a bare shell with a good vin then xfer everything over?

Florida has a form for auto sales fraud and my hope is that some commission will have mercy on me this car is road ready.

[/quote]
Florida has a form for auto sales fraud and my hope is that some commission will have mercy on me this car is road ready.[/quote]

If you think westway did something shady, the words they never want to hear are "Consumer Affairs"

IF and I say big IF you want to go that direction, try carefully talking to them with those words before going to actually report them.

While I can not help in any other way, I have sat in conversations on both sides of issues similar to yours and oddly, my journey of ownership involved a tow yard where I allowed the original tow *pre title* paperwork to go +4 years stale before submitting to get my freshly restored Riv on the road. (project got back burner-ed because fire)

Pretty sure I was turning blue holding my breath @ the DMV counter while being processed.