My riv might be gone forever :( [somewhat totaled, needs new windshield]

Dude, i dont see any critical frame damage from the pic you submitted. Even your bumper is fine.
You're good.

And by the way.. JDMが好きですよ。けど。。アメリカで君のリビエラの方がいいと思う！

yes...が好きですよ。けど。。アメリカで君のリビエラの方がいいと思う！haha.......

stan wrote:

yes...が好きですよ。けど。。アメリカで君のリビエラの方がいいと思う！haha.......

I need a translator! :o

charlieRobinson wrote:

Dude, i dont see any critical frame damage from the pic you submitted. Even your bumper is fine.
You're good.

And by the way.. JDMが好きですよ。けど。。アメリカで君のリビエラの方がいいと思う！

Lol.

Yeah the collision was at pretty low speeds since I slammed on my brakes, the Fedex truck's rear bumper cleared mine. I'll upload a pic sometime of the scene. He slammed his brakes so hard right when I checked my blind spot that the turn he was going for, he would have gone over the curb to make it. He didn't even look to see if there was anyone behind him.

stan wrote:

...ohh 25MB file!25 MB Raw file you mean?that's what i get from my 1Ds Mark III.What you shooting with? 1Ds Mark III or D3x?

Yes, .raw is just an uncompressed pic. Even the compressed jpeg was too big to upload at 24.3mp lol



Sony NEX -7 with a 50mm F/1.8 prime lens. I call her Sexxy Nexxy

There's my DSLR, well technically it's a mirrorless interchangeable single lens reflex camera, but it has the same APS-C CMOS sensor as Sony's a77 DSLR. There's the Alpha adapter which gives it translucent mirror technology that the high end Sony DSLR's have and gives it phase-detect auto focus as well as makes it become the same exact mount as Sony's high end DSLR camera's.

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666375219

Basically, It' has an arguably better sensor than the Cannon Rebel T4i, and it's half the size and weight

That is a sweet funky lookin camera

charlieRobinson wrote:

That is a sweet funky lookin camera

Thanks






These are terrible pics because the airbag deployed and made my hand fly and smash into my door, and my hands were shaky and it was freezing out lol

ohh i see NEX-7.must be fun to play with it.Enjoy it!

Man..... WTF man.... why were you ridin his ass.. you're in a Riv... it's chill time, bro.

ohhh..it happened night time? ....still the hit isn't that bad and i see nothing beyond repair.

stan wrote:

ohh i see NEX-7.must be fun to play with it.Enjoy it!

Yeah, with a pancake lens, it's barely bigger than a point and shoot camera

charlieRobinson wrote:

Man..... WTF man.... why were you ridin his ass.. you're in a Riv... it's chill time, bro.

I was about 2 car lengths behind him actually. Yeah it was legally my fault. I was driving with my puppy, brought her to the city. I actually stepped on the brake a little before I checking my blindspot, and when I did was the exact moment he slammed on his brakes to make that turn. that second checking made me inertia's bitch and slamming my brakes wasn't quite enough.

The screwed up part is if I had merged without checking my blindspot like an asshole, I'd have gotten rear ended, and it would be the other guy's fault legally most likely as far as I know, but I didn't want to drive aggressively with my puppy in the car lol.

I dunno I could be retarded, but it looks like from his angle of entry in general to that turn tells you that he slammed his brakes way too hard in general, but the law says otherwise lol

stan wrote:

ohhh..it happened night time? ....still the hit isn't that bad and i see nothing beyond repair.

Yeah, I actually didn't hit him all that fast at all. I was going under the speed limit of 25 at the time, and maybe hit him going a little past 5-7 mph I'm guessing. His bumper cleared mine and crunched in right above mine and busted my grill, headlights and radiator and for some reason deployed the airbags and that shattered my windshield

that looks like very little damage.We fix ten times worse than that at the shop weekly.dont worry.

robotennis61 wrote:

that looks like very little damage.We fix ten times worse than that at the shop weekly.dont worry.

Well the only thing I'm really worried about is swapping the windshield from my parts car lol

You got us all worked up like your car was totaled.. Fix that shit, swap in your L67 and let's ride.

Also, It is quite interesting to me that your airbags were deployed without bumper impact..hmm..

Corey in few days you'll want to restore her no doubt.Your heart won't let you let her go...Im telling that.

Now's your chance to make a carbon fiber hood too.

charlieRobinson wrote:

Now's your chance to make a carbon fiber hood too.

Haha actually the hood that got crunched was originally from Parts Buick.

If I had the supplies, I'd go for trying to make a carbon fiber hood. Carbon fiber weaking ain't cheap. Most aftermarket JDM carbon fiber parts are actually just fiberglass with a top layer of carbon fiber to make it look like carbon fiber.

Speaking of which, that would be kinda fun to try if I had extra supplies lol. my recent subwoofer box had like 40 pounds of fiberglass reinforcements, I might have a little bit left :O

But then I'd want a giant vacum mold press, and to do it right, I'd have to vacuum mold a fiberglass release mold of the hood then I'd have to make another fiberglass mold from that fiberglass, and on the top layer put down some carbon fiber weave, then vacuum press it using either finishing resin from the hobby store or special purpose fiberglass resin that cures completely transparent, then vacuum mold that.

All in all, those JDM bastards can get a perfect carbon fiber looking hood made of fiberglass for cheaper than it would be for me to make one myself, and that really pisses me off.

So that being said, I'd probably pass on the carbon fiber idea there. I could use that fiberglass to mold a custom bumper instead by foam molding and using industrial grade duct tape as a release agent instead and get a much nicer look for dollar :p

Apparently it costs more to swap the windshield out of parts car than to get a brand new replacement..how lame is that?

Replacement windshield quote was about $220 which is doable though

This might be a good candidate to get everything from.
http://martinsburg.craigslist.org/cto/3630818089.html
The hood looks like it has a small dent in it. Much better than your small dent.......

Yeah but it's a 95.let him get something newer who knows what'll start breaking ....and repaired.

stan wrote:

Yeah but it's a 95.let him get something newer who knows what'll start breaking ....and repaired.

...ain't that the truth

Thanks for the link but pre 96 cars I wouldn't want for a number of reasons :p

They are older ofcourse meaning more things wrong

They have OBDI instead of OBDII meaning it's harder to diagnose with a scan tool. Using my step dad's professional back-in-the-day scan tool from when they used to cost an arm and a leg has really helped me out. Not only that but I plan on building up a car computer in the near future and the ability to hook up to OBDII with a windows 8 touch screen computer to display gauges and engine info, diagnose things and whatnot will not only be awesome, but a really useful tool.

I'm also planning on using a windows 8 tablet hooked up to a high grade USB sound card as a band aid solution because windows has the amazing feature of sound alignment by setting the distances of the speaker, which you can set extra distance to achieve the proper alignment given the speed of sound as long as they are coaxial speakers, it will be perfect alignment to the sub. a $300ish win8 tablet and sound card is a cheaper solution than a $750 DSP to do it manually lol.


But yeah I'm gunna open her up and try to assess exactly how bad the damage is. The hood is jammed closed at the moment so I'll probably have to pry it open. I'm pretty sure the frame itself should be fully intact. I'm hoping the radiator mounting brackets haven't been mauled but I think it should be okay or at least fixable. I already know all the wiring for the airbags inside the car like the back of my hand, because I swapped an entire interior as well as the entire instrument panel wiring harness myself. I Think I need to replace the airbag control module as well as the switches which are probably right around the grill area in the car I'm guessing by the impact low severity that set it off with that little amount of damage.

Also the good news is that I can most likely get a free beater car to use (looks like a white 95' Honda EG EX Civic sedan with a shitty D15 motor lol) while I take my time fixing the Buick. having a step dad with a towing company that ends up crushing cars that could be used more often than not comes in handy once in a while :p

I guess the silver lining on this is that I get to use a crappy beater civic to learn to drive stick, it ha s 36 mpg with it's garbage D15 motor, and driving in the city will be alot less stressful in areas like Georgetown in a car half the size lol. Also for some reason that car is sought after and it has 3 times the value of my Buick even when it's beat up, like wtf, it's a crappy Honda beater??

So yeah, plan as of right meow is obtain beater car, learn stick while I fix up the Buick when I can, and having 2 working cars makes it a lot easier to work on engine related things and still have a working car

Hondas aren't garbage, they're just a different type of car than the Riv. Lighter cars with less powerful engines, so they're going to get good MPG. Like it or not, most Japanese engines will run just as long or longer than a 3800 while revving at higher RPM. For those reasons, people like Hondas.

On the other hand, the Honda won't be winning many races, it's boring to look at, and IMO not as safe in an accident. The Honda won't survive pot holes and curb hits like a Riv can, and It's also more likely the Honda will get stolen or broken into. For those reasons I like Rivieras! You can also haul stuff with a Riv, like a truck, and it's a quieter, smoother ride.

My wife drives a Toyota Corolla, which is like a Honda Civic. It is one year newer and has about 75k miles less than my Riv. KBB lists them for about the same value.

AA wrote:

Hondas aren't garbage, they're just a different type of car than the Riv. Lighter cars with less powerful engines, so they're going to get good MPG. Like it or not, most Japanese engines will run just as long or longer than a 3800 while revving at higher RPM. For those reasons, people like Hondas.

On the other hand, the Honda won't be winning many races, it's boring to look at, and IMO not as safe in an accident. The Honda won't survive pot holes and curb hits like a Riv can, and It's also more likely the Honda will get stolen or broken into. For those reasons I like Rivieras! You can also haul stuff with a Riv, like a truck, and it's a quieter, smoother ride.

My wife drives a Toyota Corolla, which is like a Honda Civic. It is one year newer and has about 75k miles less than my Riv. KBB lists them for about the same value.

Okay I'll admit I'm pretty biased against Hondas. The Eg civic sedan doesn't actually look too bad lowered a bit with clean halo lights, flushed bumpers and clean paint. The suspension is actually very good on the EG Hondas for a beater car. Also it's easy to go to a pick and pull and find a B18C1, the Ecu, tranny, shifter linkeage and front axle off an Integra or something for relatively cheap and swap it in without too much effort. The B18C1 has been proven to be capable of 300whp boosted with a stock engine. 300whp in a 2500 pound car is no doubt quick being that light also pits a lot less stress on the suspension, the wheelbase is also pretty ideal. Not only that but the Acura Integra suspension and brake parts all fit the EG civic, and racing suspensions are made in a competitive market for the Integra. Honda parts are among the cheapest and easiest to work on. I get why that car is sought after, but I just don't have much respect for it because all the rice kids take one, put a fart cannon on it and think they have a race car. A properly done EG is pretty rare. And I still don't like Hondas other than the S2000 with the LSx V8 swap.

I have no plans to upgrade the Honda other than maybe clean it up a bit before maybe selling it unless it proves to be profitable before selling later on

People probably didn't expect me saying that after showing how fond I am of the 300zx :p

Sad fact is I hate Honda, I hate Ford as well even if the new mustangs are amazing cars for the price but I notice I said the D15 engine was garbage more than the car itself

But I still hate Honda and it's still a crappy beater car

I was shopping for a Z two years ago before I got my Riv. I was in LA at the time and I was looking for the best Z around the country. I found two of them and had 3rd party mechanics check the cars out for me. Paid them $100 each for an appraisal. One was in Arizona the other in Texas. Both came back as DO NOT BUY status...

I wasnt about to pay $100 again for a 3rd appraisal so I decided to ditch the Z dream.. I was stuck on the Eldorado for a couple of days and was about to pull the trigger on one when I came across some obscure forum with some obscure post that said something like....."dont get an eldorado.. get a Riviera!"

After reading that post I had to wonder what a Riviera even was.. One google search and I was sold. Got my first '98 Riv with 65k miles out of Chicago for $4k out the door. I totaled that car only 5 months after buying it. You know... just doing my part to bring the Rivs numbers down to make our cars even rarer!

Thank you for reading my story..

On most cars, it's a lot of work to get an installed front W/S glass out without cracking/breaking it. Not so lame that it is cheaper for a new replacement glass, when you consider that.

LARRY70GS wrote:

On most cars, it's a lot of work to get an installed front W/S glass out without cracking/breaking it. Not so lame that it is cheaper for a new replacement glass, when you consider that.

I guess that makes sense, but you''d think that within the past 20-30 years they'd come up with better technology to remove a windshield lol.

My idea was to convert an old soldering iron into a hot knife by machining a craft knife set collate piece to the shaft of the soldering iron, and have the knife attachments simply slide in and screw tight. aluminum is so conductive because of the crystaline structure of the metal that allows heat to pass right through that not much besides some aluminum foil to act as a thermal conductor for any air space to make it slightly more efficient would be needed, if that doesn't work, I could fill it with arctic silver 5 thermal compound for cpu heatsinks, then take it to my welding class and tac weld it shut around the edge for a way better conductive surface, but basically extension cord plus hot knife soldering iron would probably work a lot better than a piano wire I'm thinking to remove the windshield. It would cut through the urethane like butter, and I'd have a lot of uses for a hot knife scalpel attachment a actually. that and replacement blades are dirt cheap for hobby knife kits.

charlieRobinson wrote:

I was shopping for a Z two years ago before I got my Riv. I was in LA at the time and I was looking for the best Z around the country. I found two of them and had 3rd party mechanics check the cars out for me. Paid them $100 each for an appraisal. One was in Arizona the other in Texas. Both came back as DO NOT BUY status...

I wasnt about to pay $100 again for a 3rd appraisal so I decided to ditch the Z dream.. I was stuck on the Eldorado for a couple of days and was about to pull the trigger on one when I came across some obscure forum with some obscure post that said something like....."dont get an eldorado.. get a Riviera!"

After reading that post I had to wonder what a Riviera even was.. One google search and I was sold. Got my first '98 Riv with 65k miles out of Chicago for $4k out the door. I totaled that car only 5 months after buying it. You know... just doing my part to bring the Rivs numbers down to make our cars even rarer!

Thank you for reading my story..

Yeah but any older car like that is going to need a lot of love to become anywhere near factory new. If you think about what you're actually getting of of a 300zx for the money, it actually seems worth it to me. they are floating around everywhere for the non turbo 4 seater for under 2 grand in working order with decent bodies, and putting the extra coin into cleaning it up, then making it run better, possibly upgrading some engine components would make that car a phenomenal value. A 3200 pound RWD car with racing suspension kits in abundance with an engine that can make 600 horses without too much trouble with a decent turbo build with a stock weight distribution that nice seems almost too good to be true. I still wonder why Nissan replaced the 300zx with a worse car using the 350z, it's like when mitsubishi changed the eclipse, older eclipses are much much better than the new ones IMO. Anyway I kinda decided instead of car payments for my first really nice car, it would be a lot more fun to find a really cheap 300zx and clean it up while I have another crappier car to drive for a while instead of driving a mustang I don't own for however many months

Sorry to hear that about your first Riv though :/ They are great cars. I actually loved cruising on the highway and watching my tach floating aroud at like 2100-2200 rpm and doing like 80mph with only a 4sp automatic. Blows my mind sometimes, and the transmission in that car is really smooth even if it can't handle a lot of power. It's weird how I appreciated the car a lot more when I drove it smooth then trying to stomp on the pedal seeing how fast it can get.