It's in my blood!

[Superior Shine]

After detailing all week for a living, what do I like to do on my time off??



Detail some more of course!

My 1964 Buick Riviera got some love tonight. Last time I detailed it was a good 6 -7 years ago!

It only has about 2.0 mils of material on it or less so I took the easy route on it. I speed glazed it with a w7006 pad on a PC. That was followed with good old #7 by hand. The chrome got NXT metal polysh.

[Pete-FWA]

Your Riviera is one of the most beautiful designs put out by General Motors in the last 50 years.

Vehicles, in their various forms, trigger a genetic pathway in the brain that makes us "Car Crazy", as they say. After selling and liquidating my business and most of my vehicles over 5 years ago and trying very hard, the "disease" still has a hold on me. Gotta get back in this somewhere, somehow

[Setec Astronomy]

Is that the original paint/chrome? I guess if you haven't detailed it in 67 years and you only use #7 as an LSP, the car stays under a cover all the time. How often do you drive it? How long have you had it?

[Superior Shine]

I bought it with 62,000 miles on it. It now has almost 70,000.

I stored it a few years when I first got it until I had money to get new tires and other things for it. I drive it now about 1000-1500 miles a year.

I bought the car early 1990 from a guy who had it advertised in the recycler classifieds. The selling price was $1,900 and the ad said the vehicle was in pretty good condition but the engine was blown. I really had no intention on buying the car when I went to go look at it. It was near by and I was curious to see what exactly a 64 Riviera looked like. At the time I was into 65-66 Chevy Impalas, owning 4 of them at the time.
The seller of the "Riv" told me his mother bought the car in 1977 and she was the was the second owner. He said that she drove the car about a year then one day had the car towed home because the engine blew. The Riv has been in their garage since 1978.

Fast-foward to January 1990, I am standing in front of the garage, he opened the garage and I laid my eyes on "her", it was love at first site. There was about an inch of dirt, dust ,and grime covering the outside of her. The tires were all flat. Her exhaust was completely rotted out. She looked SHABBY but, I was in love.

My wife, who tagged along, was thinking " well so much for that, llets go home," but then she noticed the look in my eyes, she has seen it before. " Oh no !” she says, “Your not thinking of buying this? "

After begging and pleading to friends and family for the $1900 asking price that I didn't have, I bought her and she was mine.

Now I had to get her running. I decided to try and start her to
find out what was wrong with the engine. After a night of letting tran fluid soak in the cylinders, I installed a new battery and a ran fuel line into a coffee can placed under the car and fired her right up. She spit and spuddered a bit and smoked some but lsoon cleared up and ran SWEET. Come to find out all that was wrong was a bad water pump that was making a heck of a racket ! After a set of new tires, radiator, tune up , new brake system, fluid changes, exhaust system, I have been cruising her ever since.

I got tons of paper work and service orders with the car dating back to December 1963. In 1999 I tracked down the orig. owner. She was a very friendly lady now in here late 80s. She told me that out of all the cars she had owned over the years the Buick was here favorite car.

The paint and interior are completely original.

She won 3rd place at the 1999 Buick Club of America car show where about 12 other 63-65 Riviera competed.

She is far from perfect. There are edges that had been buffed through and she has her share of small dents and scratches. The bumpers could use a re-chroming to be show quality but I love her just the same.

My dream is to completely (down to the last nut and bolt) is to restore her one day.

[Setec Astronomy]

That's a great story! Did you have to do anything else to the fuel tank/lines/carb to get that 12 yo gas, or what was left of it out?

[Superior Shine]

I never did anything to the tank, but I did replace the fuel pump and fuel filter once. The carb is completely untouched.

[Setec Astronomy]

That's pretty amazing, I would have thought the fuel tank would have been a rusty, gummy mess. I have a vintage outboard motor gas tank (about the same vintage as your car) that was like that....and a lot harder to get cleaned out than I thought it would be.

[rusty bumper]

Re: It's in my blood!

Originally posted by Superior Shine
I speed glazed it with a w7006 pad on a PC.

Really??

I thought the W-7006 pad/PC combo would leave micro-marring/haze on the surface?

[rusty bumper]

Originally posted by Pete-FWA
Your Riviera is one of the most beautiful designs put out by General Motors in the last 50 years.

Buick in general has had some of the best overall styling in the last 50 years IMO.

Great cars!

[Teak]

Nice looking Riv.

Did you use a wax after #7?

Eric

[Superior Shine]

Re: Re: It's in my blood!

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper
Really??

I thought the W-7006 pad/PC combo would leave micro-marring/haze on the surface?

My car has orig. lacquer paint. It is a whole different animal from what the newer cars have. It wears down easy and is brittle and very porous at the same time. You can be much harsher on lacquer than you can on modern paint.

[Superior Shine]

Originally posted by Teak
Nice looking Riv.

Did you use a wax after #7?

Eric

No wax.

[Teak]

Originally posted by Superior Shine
No wax.

Must be a Sunday driver.

Eric

[Don]

Dang Joe, now I'm really wishing I could have my dad's '65 Satellite to play with...sold years ago, it had a 383/4 speed and was a bright cherry red, like this one I found on the 'net...his even had the same 'spinner' hub caps.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Re: Re: It's in my blood!

Originally posted by Superior Shine
My car has orig. lacquer paint. It is a whole different animal from what the newer cars have. It wears down easy and is brittle and very porous at the same time. You can be much harsher on lacquer than you can on modern paint.

I would concur. A skilled person can get away with using the W-7006 foam cutting pad on traditional, single stage paints without inducing swirls or marring.

They work really well for removing years of dead paint from oxidation too...


I've seen Joe's Riviera in person a number of times now and it's just as nice up close and in person as the pictures make it look. Take a look at these two photos again...






Show Car Glaze...

Back in the day, everyone in-the-know used Show Car Glaze as their LSP right before taking their car to a car show or a cruise... It was and still is known for it's ability to make paint look wet... or glazed... Like the glazing process used when creating pottery goods.

Nice work Joe, by the way, I uploaded the above to photos into your gallery here as photos linked to the Autopia Gallery tend to disappear over time.