Supercharged 97 Riviera 2 years later..plenty of rims/pics

It sounds like your car's going to be pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to watching the progress. If you black the trim and the chrome on the exterior, I would suggest getting rims without chrome on them... but maybe chrome/black would look good on there. It always depends.

Good luck!

ghost88 wrote:

rick i blame you and Ewolf for all the money im going to be spending lol

the riv's body was made to be all black and after seeing it done right i have my mind set.

your regal was always my favorite and now your rivi is a close second! did you ever get around to snapping some better pics of the riv since the paintjob? im intrested in possible blacking out my trim. also can you try to get a decent angle to show the mettalic flake you added?

thanks in advance!

Thanks for the compliments bud.

No great pics since the tint. Car is pretty dirty now from the ugly weather we've been having in the Northeast. As soon as we get a nice day, I'll wash it and grab some pics. The pearl isn't incredibly noticeable except at certain angles. I'm hoping to respray the car in the spring and add just a little more pearl to the clear. Should come out nice.

Finally getting around to posting some pics of my Rivi on here. Lost my job last year and was unemployed for a couple months but I finally got some cash together and putting a nice amount of it refreshing/modding the car.

Over the past 2 years I've gone through 6 sets of rims (stock 7spoke chrome, 18"zenneti chromes, stock 12spoke alloys, polished GTP torque stars, chrome regal GS chromes, and now 20" Tis chromes) and finally got the look i wanted. Plan on blacking out the exterior lights, 2 toning the interior and a basic headers/3.4 pulley setup. Anyways heres some pics

Almost forgot



Got 4 cross drilled and slotted rotors off ebay with ceramic pads for $195 shipped. My buddy/mechanic had a set of 99 Trans Am Calipers/Brackets that he drilled/tapped than he installed the brakes all around and charged me $120 including the price of the Calipers which i think was a steal.. Definetly have to push down a little more on the pedal for the brakes top kick in but once they do they definitely feel more progressive and better to modulate.

Nice clean car. Man you could eat off that interior!

Thanks those interior pics are from a year ago and i gotta admit the driver side doesnt look to good. For the life of me i cant find a grey driver seat so im going aftermarkey. Thinking about scooping these up

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/pts/2244332611.html



I I'm going to do the majority of the interior in black so these should fit right in. I was going to do all black but I;m scared of ruining my seats by dying them. Also i drive a bit agressive and as much as i like the comfy seats I find myself sliding all over the place.

Possible aurora front seat swap?

Didnt know they were interchangable. Ive sat in a couple of Aurora but if i remember right the power controls are on the door panel not the seat itself and it shouldnt be to hard retrofitting the control panel on the Rivis door panel since theres plenty of space but what concerns me is the seatback wont tilt all the way foward to allow for easy access to the rear.

I just picked up from my local pick a part,a driver and passenger seat set.out of a 91 Mazda M-x3
They are beautiful,for $50.I will have them upholstered in grey vinyl to match mine.Ill fab up the brackets to make them fit.piece of cake.Plus I save 55 lbs over the stock set.

Ive crawled around all the local pick and pulls but decent condition sporty seats are hard to come by since the yards around here are mostly beat up old sedans and SUVs. Was going to pick up some porsche 997 turbo sport seats last week but the seller sold them while i was on the way

Im gonna offer the Sparco seller $300 and pray he takes it. My mechanic will have no problem welding up the prelude sliders to the stock seat mounts

ghost88 wrote:

Ive crawled around all the local pick and pulls but decent condition sporty seats are hard to come by since the yards around here are mostly beat up old sedans and SUVs. Was going to pick up some porsche 997 turbo sport seats last week but the seller sold them while i was on the way

Im gonna offer the Sparco seller $300 and pray he takes it. My mechanic will have no problem welding up the prelude sliders to the stock seat mounts

Bomz seats @ racinx.com, are going for $269 a pair in black vinyl. super deal.and from what i can tell,Bomz seats are pretty good for the $
Its allmost impossible to dye cloth seats.not to say it cant be done.but hard.

Keep out the fat chicks 2 Robo!!!

Car looks really nice Abe, wacha doin' with the OE rims?

flyineagle96 wrote:

Keep out the fat chicks 2 Robo!!!

somehow I see this being the truth someday??humm! I do like me some meat though..if they're a hair over 250,they ain't gittin a ride...

I sold the chrome 7 spokes to my brother for his 96 white SC Riv when i put on the 18s, used his stock 12 spokes after i sold the 18s than traded the 12spokes for the regal 9 spokes that are currently in my back yard. The chrome is completely corroded on back of the wheels, theres bubbling on some of the faces along with lots of pitting not to mention they leak air so they're definitely reserved for winter duty lol

Btw robo i was planning on dying the leather but even that is a longer and harder process than i want to tackle. I'll check out the bombz seats as long as they dont have logos on them and actually offer some support i might bite the bullet on them, Would be sweet to be the only modern Buick (that i know of) that has Sparco or Recaro seats

Dying leather,vinyl,is really easy.prep is key. apply light coats until uniformity is achieved.SEM and others make lea/vinyl dyes that work great.and cover real quick.I've used em.they are essentially what the oem uses. unless the leather goes through a tanning process,the colors are in fact vinyl over leather.no big deal.oem will have you believe it is.

ghost88 wrote:

Didnt know they were interchangable. Ive sat in a couple of Aurora but if i remember right the power controls are on the door panel not the seat itself and it shouldnt be to hard retrofitting the control panel on the Rivis door panel since theres plenty of space but what concerns me is the seatback wont tilt all the way foward to allow for easy access to the rear.

They will bolt in. As for seat controls as you said you masy have to rig something up. I would just swap recliners from coupe seats like the truck guys do. If my Graphite riviera seats ever bite the dust I will pull seats from either an Aurora, Cadillac or another GM car.

What do you mean by swap recliners? Wouldnt that mess with the power functions of the seat?

Its been a while since I posted anything but I'm bored and figured I'd share the progess I've made on my Rivi. I'm 22 and have owned 14 cars including turbo datsun 280z's, cammed 5.0 cougar, pullied Regal GS and a few rwd v8 cars and this buick is by FAR my favorite car. Its f#cking gorgeous, spacious, plenty of power, amazing ride and with fresh 255/35/20 tires on it, it can actually take turns pretty dam good, and on my highway commute it gets 25mpg even with my lead food. I've put 44,000 HARD miles on it since april of 09 and it hasnt gave me a single hick up yet. AC has a slow leak but other than that its perfect. The original owner i bought it from used dish soap when he washed it so the clearcoat is pretty non existant but the car still cleans up real nice but its still a 5ft away car. Next tax refund I'm having it resprayed with the semi color changing teal/blue/purple paint that was on later 2000's GMs, notably on suburbans and late late model Grand Prix's.

Performance mods are pretty simple, just a hai, LS1 calipers with drilled/slotted rotors and Raybesto pads all the way around. Just did a tune up with AC Delco wires n fuel filter and al104s gapped to .55

Rims are 20x9" TiS 05's wrapped in Yohohoma S.Drive's 255/35/20. Top 3 all around performance tire on tirerack and $500 cheaper than the #1 Michelin Pilot Sports. Windows are tinted 15%, 10k 55watt HIDs, and a little tasteful chrome accents (wheel wells, grill, "eyebrow" over headlights)

Stereo is A oldschool alpine with 4volt preouts running to a alpine v12 4 channel amp putting out 55watts rms to 6.5 and 6x9" Image Dynamic 3 way speakers. All wiring is all JL gold (got free when i was a installer at Tweeter and they went out of business) and car is pre wired with Kicker 0gauge. Had a 1600watt rms Xtant X1001 running a AQ HDC3 12" in a custom ported box tuned to 34hz(?) at 1ohm. Video at the bottom shows how hard it hit in my regal with over 200sq ft of dynamat extreme in the trunk and doors.

Anyways onto the pics

Day 2, tinted than detailed it






LEDs and old Pioneer d3



3/4" Grill and HIDS


18" Zennetis with 255/40 Nitto 555


Brothers SC'd 96 Riv, he now has my stock 7 spokes on it


Sold the 18's due to winter and swapped out some polished GTP Torque Stars on it. My brothers 12spokes were pitted with dryrotted tires


Sold the torque stars for $500 and bought these regal 9spokes for $150 from a friend parting out his GS.


9 Spokes clearly didnt shine like they should


Rims with the tiny 225/30 Fushion tires they came with, notice the wheel gap




Old tires/wheel detail shot

Giant LS1 Aluminum Calipers, either gonna paint them red of color match the paint of the car



With appropriately sized 255/35's. Planned on lowering but they fill the wheel well pretty good and already have an occasional rub on the rear fenders so keeping it stock ride height. KYB GR2's are on the to do list. This is currently how it sits. Going to tint all the marker/brake lights and disassemble and paint the non reflective parts of the headlight like Demonte did on his sick black riv lol

That got a little long winded but all comments/questions welcomed!

BTW none of the rattling in that video was from trunk/doors, it was all the exhaust and bumper brackets rattling themself apart lol I was young and couldnt get enough bass

Beautiful car, Abe. I like the latest rims. They compliment your grill mod very nicely.

I bought a new Regal GS in 2000 with the chrome rims and they never really caught the light like I wanted. I also noticed the chrome strip over your headlights. Lots of nice touches on your car and I really like that color.

Thanks Dave your car is definetly one of my favorites on the site. I was actually supposed to pick up a 96 SC Riv in your factory color with 70k on it but the owner wouldnt take a dollar less than 4500 and I was able to get mine with 68k for 3200.

I REALLY wanted the factory 18's you have but as you know they dont come cheap so I opted for the 20s instead.





^^Blue Green Crystal

Im going for this color with the respray. Its a factory GM paint they released in 2005 and i think it would look amazing with the Rivi's swoopy body. Also since its close to my factory color i wouldnt have to worry about doing the door jambs, inside trunk ect. (they're all in great shape and still have a clearcoat shine)

Abe:

I really like that Blue Green Crystal and it will definitely make your Riv jump. Of course, I like the color of your car as it is now, however, I suppose it is a little dated...but then, so am I , LOL !!!

Actually thats exactly what im going for lol I just like the fact that the color i posted is a little darker and has more shades of blue than it does green. My original plan was black with a red metallic pearl but after getting estimates and realizing how much pearl goes for I opted for a stockish color.