Goodnight Sweet Prince

Panel on the rear window is pretty easy. all you have to do is remove the 2 bolts holding in the back seat, they are the same bolts that hold the seat belts on, and then remove it, it has three hooks at the top so just lift it out. After that there is 3 Christmas trees holding in the rear shelf under the window and it slide horizontally out. hardest part is getting the seat back and seat belts back in the car. If you talk it make note of how the seat belts are bolted down, it took me a few minutes to figure that out when reinstalling. Actually PM me if you want pictures of how it all goes together i (obviously) have all the parts laying around my garage.

krazyfish wrote:

Panel on the rear window is pretty easy. all you have to do is remove the 2 bolts holding in the back seat, they are the same bolts that hold the seat belts on, and then remove it, it has three hooks at the top so just lift it out. After that there is 3 Christmas trees holding in the rear shelf under the window and it slide horizontally out. hardest part is getting the seat back and seat belts back in the car. If you talk it make note of how the seat belts are bolted down, it took me a few minutes to figure that out when reinstalling. Actually PM me if you want pictures of how it all goes together i (obviously) have all the parts laying around my garage.

Thanks for the info Jerred, one more question. If the rear shelf slides out horizontally (presumably towards the front of the car) then why would you need to take the rear seat out first?

there is about a 3 inch lip on the forward edge of the shelf in which the Christmas trees attach to, you cant get the the trees or slide it out until the rear seat is out, and these are some of the strongest Christmas trees Ive ever messed with i had to pry at them pretty hard to get them out.

This picture will help you out: https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v606/krazyfish/P1030622.jpg

The black dots on it are the trees (there is a third in the middle but is not on the piece in the photo.

Well The riviera is on its last leg.

A few nights ago while going to town to get rent money from the bank my girlfriend noted a clicking noise (im deaf i couldnt hear a thing) i limped it to the bank and got out and there was a relativly significant click coming from the engine. I decided i would try to limp it to Autozone across the street so i could top off the oil (always had a small leak, figured it couldnt hurt) and see if it helped any but by the time i got there they had locked the doors.

At this point i decided i didnt want o drive the car anymore than i had to so i skipped going to walmart for oil, and decided to go straight home. It was at this point that i noticed when you left off the throttle from about 1500-2000 rpm there was a horrible clacking. I pulled over turned off the car and called my dad to come help me, once he got there we tried a couple different things to help (biggest being disconnecting the SC, thinking it might have grenaded itself, since it been needing a rebuild for a while, we also added oil that he brought and no dice there). We then gave up on fixing it for the night and attempted to limp it to the closest relatives house, less than a mile away. i started the car and started idling down the road got about 100 ft and the car died on me, battery dead. we try for another 30 minutes to jump it to no avail. Finally we tied a tow strap to it and pulled it down the road. To add further insult to injury the tow strap is now jammed on the suspension where we wrapped it around. that is where it sits now at my grandmas house. Saturday we are going to trailer it to my house to look at it better.

Tuesday just was not my day, a few hours before all this i got hit by a deer on the highway, no major damage just a couple of dents. Im praying when we take a look at the car in the next week or so we find that we can rebuild then engine. We will see i suppose.

How low was the oil level? Did the low oil level lamp come on?

Oil was very low, it is without a doubt the reason for the failure, ignorant me relying on my oil lights to come one of which they never did. The car had not been being driven much the past couple months so i neglected to keep as good of an eye on it as a i should have. I am kicking myself in the ass now though...

I've been there. Did that to the 455 in my 76 Riviera when I was in high school and warped a rod. It leaked oil out of every crack it could though. It worked out, becuase I found a better engine with more horsepower and higher compression. So maybe something will work out for you.

Im hoping that i managed to stop the car before i did too much damage and may get lucky with a rebuild of the engine.

If this isnt the case i dont think i am going to be able to find a new motor, things are just too tight monetarily right now. If it isnt fixable without replacing the engine its either getting sold or parted out. the only other option is if i can get a car from a family member i may keep the car as a project for later.

Just found this one. I'm bored so I figured I'd take a look. So incase you are interested heres the link. http://louisville.craigslist.org/pts/2278725130.html

Ill keep it in mind, thanks for the help, like i said though things are super tight money wise for me, I actually had a job interview this morning so hopefully that will pan out and i will be able to fix my car.

Alright motor is seized. I am tentatively saying the car is for sale or for parting out. If anyone is interested in anything or interested in the whole car let me know and give me a price. im not 100% this is the route i am going but more than likely is.

If anyone is willing to drive and get the charcoal interior this could be a good opportunity to get one cheaply, 99% of the charcoal parts. i dont think i could live with myself if i had to send that interior to the scrapyard. (which will happen if i cant sell it)

I think my plan is to get some cheap transportation asap and then save up some money for the down payment on a NA solstice.

Man! Really sorry to hear this. Losing your car is like losing a friend. I've had it happen, and I know.

Sorry to hear, what led up to this?

look back a couple of posts i explain it in detail, sparknotes version, im an idiot and didnt put enough oil into the car for various reasons. (in large part because i have been financially tight and havent been driving it too much lately). Live and learn you know.

Im pretty bummed and i know you all can relate to this but i havent owned a car that i enjoyed so much. This car has so much soul it bothers me knowing its dead.

But i think things will shape up shortly. I am 90% i just got a job after months of searching, I had a loose idea of saving up for a camaro once i became employed again, but my plan always revolved around keeping and restoring the riviera. I think it is time to move on though. Im going to get some kind of beater and try my damnedest at buying a solstice before next summer.

Damn that's sad

sad,sad...

Well the car got sold by my brother and managed to escape the jaws of the crusher, i talked to the new owner and he has done a lot of work in fixing and restoring the car, she is now running around with a new engine and some body and paint work done apparently, while i miss the car alot, i am ecstatic to know that it is still being driven and taken good care of.

On a side note, i have a nearly complete gray interior and a set of FSMs i probably should get rid of, i dont know about shipping any of it , but the offer is open.

That's Good News !!! Does the new owner know about this forum ? Can you get pics of what he has done ? Thanks for the update

I sent him a link to this forum, so he can have all the information on the car since i bought it. Weather he joins or not i dont know, he had it up on craigslist, that is the only photos i have seen of it, he mentioned that he was having second thoughts about selling it.

Well guys, I know it has been a very long time since i have shown up here, and many members here probably don't even recognize me, but i figured i would pop in and show what i have moved on to. Even though i haven't posted in a long time i still do pop in here to see what is going on.

Anyhow, since the day i killed the Riviera last year: I bought a 98 Sonoma which i eventually traded to my brother with the Rivi for a much nicer 97 S10.



The S10 went through a lot of changes, I changed the wheels for stock 88 s10 wheels, then changed the bed to a blue fleetside which was eventually replaced witha red fleetside. Then it was lowered, a lot, and the wheels were painted and it ended up looking like this:



Then i bought a 2004 GTO 6 speed in Cosmos Purple, which is a relatively low production one year only color. When i bought it, it looked like this:



After changing the stripes, and replacing the wheels, as well as a few other mods it is currently looking like this.





And i still have the S10, but it will be going away next year and will be replaced, probably with either a 1st gen corvair wagon, or a 2ng gen corvair coupe.

Like i said, i dont know if any of you will remember me or not, but i wanted to pop in a say hey, and share what i have been up too the last year.

thank for sharing and by the way how do you like the GTO? For a while GM was talking about using that platform for the next Riviera; currently it's coming back as a Chevy - see

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/2014-chevrolet-ss-spy-photos-and-renderings-news

or just google search "Chevrolet SS 2014" or "Chevrolet SS based on Monaro" or some such.

Albertj

I love my GTO, ive always wanted a big RWD V8 coupe and this is the one for me. I like to be different, which is what drew me into owning a Riv a few years back, and you dont see many goats running around, especially not purple ones.

Like the Riviera i get a lot of people that have no idea what it actually is. And I can keep up with most Mustangs up to the new 5.0l coyotes. It isnt a perfect car though, they have their issues, All the suspension bushings are trash, that is factory installed crap. They have a tendency to wheel hop instead of spinning tires, And i weigh a few hundred more Pounds than most mustangs and camaros. I have also learned that the cheapest and most cost effective way of making one faster, is to buy a Corvette.

There are also some creature comforts that were not options that i wish i could have had, I have leather, but no heaters, No sunroof, etc.

Mine is actually a V body, the new Chevy SS is going to share the platform of the new Camaro and the old pontiac G8, the zeta. The Zeta is what replaced the V body in Australia. That being said, i cannot wait for the SS to come out The worst thing about killing pontiac was losing the Zeta and the Cappa (Solstice/Sky) platform.

krazyfish wrote:

I love my GTO, ive always wanted a big RWD V8 coupe and this is the one for me. I like to be different, which is what drew me into owning a Riv a few years back, and you dont see many goats running around, especially not purple ones.

Like the Riviera i get a lot of people that have no idea what it actually is. And I can keep up with most Mustangs up to the new 5.0l coyotes. It isnt a perfect car though, they have their issues, All the suspension bushings are trash, that is factory installed crap. They have a tendency to wheel hop instead of spinning tires, And i weigh a few hundred more Pounds than most mustangs and camaros. I have also learned that the cheapest and most cost effective way of making one faster, is to buy a Corvette.

There are also some creature comforts that were not options that i wish i could have had, I have leather, but no heaters, No sunroof, etc.

Mine is actually a V body, the new Chevy SS is going to share the platform of the new Camaro and the old pontiac G8, the zeta. The Zeta is what replaced the V body in Australia. That being said, i cannot wait for the SS to come out The worst thing about killing pontiac was losing the Zeta and the Cappa (Solstice/Sky) platform.

You can have heated seats for eighty quid and a Saturday afternoon:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/heated-seat-2-seats-installed-single-dial-switch-seat-heater-car-cushion-/180781747879?_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D163%26meid%3D3946237342119002754%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D170751861967%26

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-seats-installed-heated-seat-Hi-off-Lo-round-switch-seat-heater-car-seat-cover-/170751858114?_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D163%26meid%3D3946267824842847967%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D5%26sd%3D180781747879%26

Peel back the leather seat covers, cut the heat elements to fit with scissors; mount the switches in the seats on the controls (easiest) or in the console or the doors (you'll have to extend/install plugs in the harness)