Meet Jessica - A 1995 S/C . This won't be 56k friendly....

*Update* 7/22/11 - I've decided that with my college graduation being in March of 2012 I'm going to take a trip to the 2012 ROA meet in CA in this car. Again, toal investment will hopefully be <$1500 for a solid running car. Wish me luck!

Well I finally decided on a name for my riv. All my previous cars have had 2 names - a true name and a nickname. My 1996 dodge conversion van with all the fun toys was called Richard Johnson (I was 17....forgive me....)and his nickname was "Pimp Van". My 1997 monte calo that I still drive angers me. Often. He doesn't get a name. His "name" is just "Car" and his nickname is "Lolcar". Those of you in michigan may have seen it at one point or another -

So now that my riviera is home and safe and is alive she also needs a name. I've decided her name will just be "Jessica" and her nickname....fail whale .

First - Group shots



It is sort of interesting how the riviera influenced not just buick's design language but the rest of GM as well. The monte carlo design is from 1995l but the basic design (shared with the lumina) has hints of the 1994 riviera show car in it. Not surprising that some of the GM designers would take inspiration from each other. Although the MC just looks so....plain. It really lacks the flow and grace of the riv's curves.


And now some before/beginnings of the paint work. My front bumper actually looked a lot worse than what you can see....I couldn't get a good picture to come through to show all the rock chips and paint peels.






Left side = buffed and polished. Right side = how I got it....WHAT A DIFFERENCE!


And now for some good "during" shots




The lettering is aluminum and the basic color is "Chevrolet engine block blue". This was just the first coat and I think I might do the lettering a bit differently since this was a pain to get started


The roof took some work but hey, it's not too bad and no one will really see it


That uneven paint is just some high gloss black enamel I'm using to fill in deeper scratches. They buff out fairly well afterwards to a much less noticeable scratch. Most of the rock chips get shallow enough to where touch up paint and a quick wet-polish before they completely dry conceal them well enough



And that's it for now. Overall....not a bad buy for 700$ . Total spent so far just cracked a grand and I'm planning on dropping another 200 for trans mounts, control arm bushings, sway bar links, and whatever else comes my way. The exterior is still a ways off but I see potential in her.

Very nice. I love that dark interior!

Nice find with the charcoal interior, and looks like you've put a lot of hard work in the restoration! Gotta love the Monte's badging on the rear!

Nice work and I like that SC Cover. Good to see it on a Series I.

Keep us posted on your progress.

wow... i've never seen a black interior before! keep it clean!

Really? I didn't think it was that rare of an option...I figured black on black was a bit rare but black leather in general?

Welcome! Nice Riv. Love interior.

Charcoal interiors are extremely rare on the Riv. If I'm not mistaken they're mostly on the '95 model and not too many of them were made that way. Most dark interior Riv's have the teal leather like mine had.

Well today sucked in terms of my schedule for the day so I didn't get to do much but I did get one corner finished in terms of the touch up paint. Please refer to exhibits A and B -

Exhibit A - Passenger side C pillar wear and tear


Exhibit B - Driver's side C pillar after painting and first round of sanding and buffing -


I must say, I am enjoying the arm workout everyday after work. I should make a business out of doing this kind of stuff to keep in shape. I get to work on cars and improve my health

That being said, I had the wind blow a fair amount of overspray on my trunk (grrr..... ) so I used meguiar's fine cut cleaner and a buffing wheel to remove the overspray and then I used an orbital with Meguiar's #7 show car glaze to finish it up. ANd the results speak for themselves - A perfect mirror shine even at 8:30 at night with an overcast sky


Also, since people like it so much here's some more of the interior from when I got it (I'm cleaning out a few things so fresh interior pics won't be ready for a little while)




Keep in mind - this car is showing 255k miles on the odometer....I am well on my way to my goal of having a car that looks dead on perfect at 10 feet away. It might not seem like a very lofty goal but I also intend on pulling this off for the low low price of 1500$. And so far I see no reason why it won't happen unless my arms fall off.

Trunk looks absolutely perfect. Keep up the hard work and you'll be a body builder by the end.

Great job.I hope you have a buffing machine?

I have an orbital buffer that I use alongside one of those foam wheels you mound on a drill. I use the wheel as an initial buffer/wheeler and then I use the orbital along with more of a wax/mild polish to finish up. I then buff off the polish and apply real wax to protect.

I took Jessica out for another good drive today since the rain was keeping me from continuing the body work and I'm still waiting on parts from rockauto. I met up with a few guys from my car club at school for dinner. Our total fleet was as follows: 2007 VUE AWD V6, 2010 Evo X, 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. All of them were blown away by the riv's existence. THe guy with the jeep asked "You sure this isn't like a one off or something? This looks like a concept car from the 90s!". THe evo driver was jealous of my sweet torque numbers and the Vue driver about crapped his pants when I told him the price for the car and showed him the work that had gone into it. ALso I was second only to the evo in our four lane drag race after dinner. My BCS decided to work and the rough idle went away when the engine warmed up. I hit 60 in about 7 seconds or so from a dead start but I got off the line even better than the evo driver. We all got a good laugh that the 4000 pound batleship outlaunched the jetski..

Work will hopefully continue tomorrow night or this weekend.

Nice, the Riviera was actually designed to be a concept car that you could own.

themanwithsauce wrote:

... in our four lane drag race after dinner...

sweet!

Nice.

Engine cover is done I've got to change the wires still but when I do I'll put them away properly. Stupid rain getting in my way of more work....

Looks nice

Insurance came in the mail as did oil pan gasket and a few sensors and parts relating to the check oil light. Should be all set to go for daily use after tonight! Trans mounts I think I'm going to do w/ my dad and put the control arm bushings in at the same time.

Future projects
-finish restoring paintwork
-STS sway bars and PU bar links
-subframe bushings (PU if I can find or make them)
-cat back exhaust
-FWI w/ heat shielding including a heat shielded filter
-new stereo system

The first leg of the journey was getting her on the road, now comes making her the classiest car in my area.

An update after about a month of work

-New O2 sensor
-New MAF sensor
-New PCV valve
-Touched up door seals and rock chips on edges
-Passenger C-pillar is being repainted as is the edge of the roof
-Rust repair has begun on the hood and passenger C-pillar as part of the repainting progress
-Check engine light has gone away for good now