Back in Black

Bah! Of course! *smacks forehead*

We'll I can't pass on the new wheels now. Summer mod! That would make my 'GS' package come together, eh?

Z-type wrote:

Finally had some dry roads tonight to test out the new struts, and I'm extremely pleased! It's hard to compare old blown-out struts for new ones, but body roll is at a minimum. Just like I like it. Tomorrow I'm installing a new window switch I got from Ed Morad, and switching my air shocks over to a manual fill valve, as long as I have all the parts for the kit still (long story). My compressor has about had it.

The compressor is repairable, might want to check with Eddie at American Air Suspension. His 'nickname' is "BleuCollar" and phone is 423-487-4321. He's a straight-up guy. He helped me troubleshoot an air ride problem I had on another car - did not take up much of his time but amazingly it negated the need to buy anything from him... car's been rolling fine since (2 years).

Also, Arnott has some NOS compressors for the Riv:

https://www.arnottindustries.com/part_BUICK_yid10_pid90.html

There's at least one Riv compressor for sale on eBay.

Albertj

Thank you for the reference Albert! I'd like to rebuild it, so I'll save his number for when the time comes. It still works ok, just getting a bit 'weak' sounding and not keeping the shocks inflated well. Might be a leak somewhere in the old lines, but i just got in from the garage replacing them with the manual fill kit.

When it warms up I'll remove the pump and see what's what about a rebuild.

The compressors have a life-of-the-car design goal, but at 15 years 250000 miles we are now seeing those "lifetime" components failing.

I read somewhere that the valve on the compressor wears, permitting air to leak back. Although repairable, a rebuilt compressor will have most likely also a new air pump as well as that valve.

That reminds me, Eddie's rebuilds have a rep for being Quiet.

gm dealer back home has them new for 500, ive got a used one i havent tested in my garage. but i do need it. i could pull one at junk yard if interested

Thanks Josh, I think I'm going to hold off for now. I appreciate the offer, but I'm rather enjoying my manual air lines right now!

So, me and dad went to the junk yard today to find a rear end for our Skyhawk, to no avail. We did head over to the GM car section and there was a LOT of good stuff. I came across the first Riviera I've seen there in 2 years, and it was in nice shape, for the most part. The engine had a piston through the block though. Bummer. It was hard to tell, but I think it was a '96 model. I took the cornering lights from it to polish and put on my car. I also grabbed a REALLY nice turn signal stalk from a DeVille for my Riv, and found an extremely rare Lesabre T (not T-type) gauge cluster. Spent $25...amazing.

However, the real reason I'm posting is because of my HVAC fan. It started vibrating the other day at any setting over 3, so I figured a few blades were missing or something and it was off balance. This morning before we went for the junk yard I decided to replace my fan with the spare one I have. Got everything apart, and this is what I found:



That little bastard chewed through my blades and tried his darnedest to make a home. Turns out you can't make a good home inside a cylinder full of centrifugal force. I figured the fan and motor are probably fine, but I put the '95 fan in anyway since it was in perfect shape.

All in a day of taking care of the Riv...

Looks like a power habitrail to me!

Damn...serves that little bastard right for chewing up a car!

jeez.....man!

Good thing that you found that before he permanently stunk up your car

I'm glad it's cold out still for that reason. If it were summer, I definitely would have known the problem....

Little bastard.

Anyway, my trip to the junk yard netted me some spare cornering lights, as I mentioned. I took some time today to polish them. I used some weird awful smelling polish from a friend a year or so ago, but it does wonders!




I'd really like to find a good sealer to keep them as nice as possible. Unlike Aaron, I don't like yellow corners

LOL @ AA.

Drew, does it look like you can crack the lens of those easily? Any idea what's on the inside? Is it mirror material inside?

I was considering paining the inside of the light assemblies black and keeping the lens clear.

Any idea if that's even feasible?

Nope - they appear to be plastic-welded. They'd have to be cut off, which is not something I'd want to get into. I had to do something like that when I took the yellow lenses out of my Bonneville's turn signals...never again. But yes it is a mirror material on the inside, like headlights.

Doing a bit of reading on our wonderful forum I find that the Crystal View kit seems to be the best for fixing up these lenses, among members. I'm more concerned about the sealant for UV protection, now that these are already polished and cleared.

These babies don't come apart. We even tried baking them in the oven with no success. They do clean up nicely without taking them apart though.

Just read that the headlights are glued on and can be separated. The cornering lights are plastic welded and take finer craftsmanship to separate. Fun.

hey bud,yeah, you can clear coat them with urethane high gloss or a good acrylic enamel.you can also use lacquer. i would use a urethane clear with reducer and hardner.a quart kit will last you forever and will not affect the oem plastic.weve done loads of them to endure the Nevada sun with enduring results. just prep the plastic well before of course.
this is the stuff im talking about.works good.cheap too.
http://www.tcpglobal.com/restorationshop/itemdetail.aspx?itemno=KUS+KIT-KC210/211-QT

Thanks Robo! I got the Turtle Wax headlight kit because it was convenient for me at the moment, but I'll also need it to do the turn signals and tail light on our Reatta. I used the sealer in the Turtle Wax kit for the cornering lights.

However, when it warms up a little more in a few months I'll be getting out my new paint guns and touch up guns so I'll shoot the corners then! Thanks for the tip - I was leery about clear coats but urethane makes sense.

Did a little Spring cleaning! I didn't do the engine bay, but I did probably everything else. Even the trunk!

No before pictures of the outside, but it turned out good! Of course, the sun went in as soon as I was about to take these shots.




It doesn't LOOK bad, but trust me, the interior was kinda filthy. Not as bad as I expected from this Winter.


Begone ugly floor mats! Begone snow scraper! You're not welcome here!


Aaaaah that's better. Big difference in person. Especially on a tan interior. Wish I had black...



Not much to do with this car really as far as maintenance. I need to remove the lower molding paint I applied last year, I must have done something wrong because most of it has chipped off. I'll give it another go. I 'might' be ordering my new wheels Monday, and I plan on getting AddCo sway bars in the next few weeks too!

Looks perfect Andrew.

Thanks stan! I appreciate it!



In other news:


Uh oh...look what I got...

SIIIIIIICK

WOW......!

Those are going to look AMAZING!!

Well, the weather turned out better than expected, and the forecast looks decent for a while, so I put the new wheels on! The wheels look so much better in person than on the internet, and phenomenal on the car as far as I'm concerned. The sun doesn't really want to come out today, but these pics are a decent representation overall!

As some of you know, these are the Sport Edition SE-14's, and I ended up with Continental ExtremeContact DW in 235/50/17.

Not even a contest.






This picture exaggerates the front end look quite a bit. The wheels actually line up almost exactly with the edge of the fender.