New here! meet baby shark

whats up, im new to the forum but ive had my riv since january this year. i got it for $360 with a locked motor, both airbags deployed, and a support in the steering column broken. i had the car just sitting for a while. i only recently had the motor replaced. i bought another series 2 with 140k miles off ebay for $400, and paid the shop $800 to drop it in there. now she runs like a champ! my grand total to this point is about $1600 so im not mad about it i love the car and the interior is almost perfect! no rips in the seats or anything. i just got a little cracking on the dashboard. i gotta replace the airbags so it can pass inspection and i can register it. does anyone know if century/lesabre/park ave airbags will fit?
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Welcome aboard!  I have a grill I can sell you cheap, PM me for details.

You'll have to find a friendly parts counter person or junkyard person with a Hollander (interchange guide) to address the airbag question - and you'll need a Tech II to get it dialed in once installed. That said, my wild guess would be LeSabre & Aurora, and maybe the '90s Skylark - they had the same steering wheel and airbag cover.

Welcome! It's good to see that the airbags deployed without breaking the windshield.

Welcome Mekk.

albertj wrote:

Welcome aboard!  I have a grill I can sell you cheap, PM me for details.

You'll have to find a friendly parts counter person or junkyard person with a Hollander (interchange guide) to address the airbag question - and you'll need a Tech II to get it dialed in once installed. That said, my wild guess would be LeSabre & Aurora, and maybe the '90s Skylark - they had the same steering wheel and airbag cover.

thank you so much! now all i gotta do is find one that matches my blue interior! and i actually purchased a grille off ebay, it just didn’t include fasteners or screws. i do need those, and a couple other interior parts. like my center console doesn’t close shut because the little latch release is broken, the same for the garage opener door too, but the thing that makes me the most sad is my dash is cracked on the passenger side and has more than a few chips in it im thinking of trying to repair it myself, cause other than said damages, the interior is sooo nice! the car was a rental car since the day it was bought so it was maintained pretty well. if i remember the carfax correct, it had 2 other owners. and the last owner bought the car salvaged and never got to it. he had it sitting since 05 and he sold it to me so cheap cause the motor locked and he ran out of driveway space for all his projects. he actually had it listed for $600 but it nobody was biting. so i negotiated the price damn near in half lol. the original motor only had 115k miles on it! nobody really got the chance to abuse this car except the people who rented the car back in the day, but it was maintained well by the rental company. the exterior paint just needs to be redone, and the grille slapped on how can i upload a video of the interior on here? im on my phone

Jack the R wrote:

Welcome! It's good to see that the airbags deployed without breaking the windshield.

thanks! and wow, i didn’t even consider the airbags breaking the windshield the big ole cracks on the passenger side dash from the airbag deploying distracted me a little haha i am thankful now that you mention it though! counting all my blessings

stan wrote:

Welcome Mekk.

feels good to be here! i had been lurking in the shadows for a couple of months till i finally decided to make an account haha i know, weird right? but it feels like im already a part of a community yall are great!

bbyshrk wrote:

but the thing that makes me the most sad is my dash is cracked on the passenger side and has more than a few chips in it

Maybe see if you can find a good dash at a yard and paint it to match your color. I've never had any luck repairing the vinyl covered foam type surfaces, be they dashes, headrests, armrests . . . There are a bunch of videos on YouTube and I haven't tried them all, but what I have tried didn't work.

Welcome and hi. Car-part.com list a zillion yards throughout the country pack your patience and you should be able to find what you need. I think of my car more of a white whale than a shark LOL.

Jack the R wrote:

bbyshrk wrote:

but the thing that makes me the most sad is my dash is cracked on the passenger side and has more than a few chips in it

Maybe see if you can find a good dash at a yard and paint it to match your color. I've never had any luck repairing the vinyl covered foam type surfaces, be they dashes, headrests, armrests . . . There are a bunch of videos on YouTube and I haven't tried them all, but what I have tried didn't work.

yeah, ive been thinking the junkyard route might be the way to go too. i saw somebody on youtube sand the rough edges off the cracks, buy sprayable foam and fill the holes, sand off the excess foam, bondo the newly filled cracks, and then sand and paint the finished result. it didn’t look bad, but it didnt look fantastic either i just want to find one in good condition and slap it back in there, hopefully i can find one the same color too so i dont have to paint it, but i guess beggars cant be choosers lol

carguy8888 wrote:

Welcome and hi. Car-part.com list a zillion yards throughout the country pack your patience and you should be able to find what you need. I think of my car more of a white whale than a shark LOL.

thanks! i’ll definitely have to check it out! and thats funny its the baby blue color that reminds me most of a shark also the oval shape of the car, and the head lights being so wide apart. i googled a white whale and i also see the resemblance, but the forehead on it is quite big haha what color is your car? you should share some pics

bbyshrk wrote:

i didn’t even consider the airbags breaking the windshield

Lucky you. My windshield shattered when airbags deployed. But guess what - now I have a new windshield (well, it is already 3 years old), he-he.
As for the airbags - in the steering wheel I put one off the Regal with the same steering wheel design, and the passenger one is from Riviera, I think they are unique for our cars.
My dash was cracked too, I got it wrapped in black alcantara/synthetic suede. No reflections of the dash in the windshield, whatsoever.

P.S. Welcome!

DeepFrozen wrote:

bbyshrk wrote:

i didn’t even consider the airbags breaking the windshield

Lucky you. My windshield shattered when airbags deployed. But guess what - now I have a new windshield (well, it is already 3 years old), he-he.
As for the airbags - in the steering wheel I put one off the Regal with the same steering wheel design, and the passenger one is from Riviera, I think they are unique for our cars.
My dash was cracked too, I got it wrapped in black alcantara/synthetic suede. No reflections of the dash in the windshield, whatsoever.

P.S. Welcome!

let me go ahead and add regal to the list of steering wheels to look for in blue, thank you! and the previous guy had put some type of dash cover with velcro on it that looked real nice n mediocre, maybe wrapping it might be a better option for me do you have any pics for reference?

I'm pretty sure any airbag from the steering wheel of "our" design will fit, and there are several Buicks with such steering wheels (not the Aurora though). Some years of the Park Avenue, pre-97 Regals... You got the idea. Do some picture-googling )
If you want to restore SRS functionality, you're going to need intact airbag module, located under the passenger seat. What year is your Riviera? Modules are different for 95 and 97+.
I'll make some pictures of my dash later.

DeepFrozen wrote:

I'm pretty sure any airbag from the steering wheel of "our" design will fit, and there are several Buicks with such steering wheels (not the Aurora though). Some years of the Park Avenue, pre-97 Regals... You got the idea. Do some picture-googling )
If you want to restore SRS functionality, you're going to need intact airbag module, located under the passenger seat. What year is your Riviera? Modules are different for 95 and 97+.
I'll make some pictures of my dash later.

thank you! this is all very helpful information. mine is a 96, will i need a new clock spring?

I don't think so. Mine is Ok after the BOOOM and the airbag isn't part of the clock spring, it just connects to it.
You will find a TON of information on this forum - and this is great. What's not so great - a lot of pictures were lost due to Photobucket's greed.

DeepFrozen wrote:

I don't think so. Mine is Ok after the BOOOM and the airbag isn't part of the clock spring, it just connects to it.
You will find a TON of information on this forum - and this is great. What's not so great - a lot of pictures were lost due to Photobucket's greed.

ive noticed that alot of photos posted here through photo bucket dont even show up for me, i was even wondering how to upload videos so i could post my car interior vid and the video of it running, i might just have to post it on youtube and share the link

Try flicker.

carguy8888 wrote:

Try flicker.

she’s immaculate 🤩🤩

Ty, a lot of time and money lol. Also, the people on this board made a big difference.

carguy8888 wrote:

Ty, a lot of time and money lol. Also, the people on this board made a big difference.

makes me happy i joined the community, i cant wait to get mine to look this nice! ive learned plenty new things just getting responses back from you guys and searching through the rest of the forum very eager to see what the future holds for my lil shark

Tons of great info here.

Get a new dash and spray it with interior paint the company is SEM great product and it will not peel wears great good luck