1966 Buick Riviera

Well here we go. As you know I had paint problems with the Mercury Pro Mod. I wanted to make sure I had a compatible primer before I painted it again. So I broke this out. I had given the engine to a buddy of mine that was looking for a nail head. I was never a green kinda guy so the stage was set. I started with this kit.



I primered the body with Dulpi-Color Self Etching Primer and paint it with the HOK Silver under base followed with Organic Green Candy paint. It came out so good I decided to build it.









Since I don't have the engine for it. I will put in a Ross Gibson TunePort 502 Chevy engine. It has a 4L60E transmission on it so it will be like an nice old car with a computer controlled power train. Like so many rods and customs being built today. Here is the engine.



This is not going to be a charge through it build. The Merc is still my number one priority. I will being working on this a little at a time until the Merc is done then will go back and finish this.

I am thinking about doing the interior in shades of gray. Dark Gray carpet and then the seats and door panels in 2 lighter shades of gray.

Thanks for looking in, any questions or comments are welcome.

Hey everyone I bet you thought I had forgot about this one. Not really. Since this was an experimental car. Meaning I was trying new stuff on it. I decided to keep going. After finding the Dulpi-Color Self Etching Primer was compatible with the House of Kolor Candy paint I decided to try more.

I was told about Krylon Crystal Clear Gloss paint. I was told it worked well as a clear coat and was very friendly with decals. That is one problem I have fought for a long time. Sometimes the clear is great with the decals and sometimes it wrinkles them up. Seems to be no way to predict it. I wanted to use a good Clear coat on the 49 Merc and I knew that some of the decals were very old. The Bob Paeth Decal came out in a 1974 kit. Anyway I used the Riviera as a test bed. When I put the decals on it I was surprised to see how close it is to the box art car. Oh well. I used the normal method for clear coating over them. A couple light dry mist coats then a couple wetter coats then a couple wet coats. Worked perfect on this car and the Merc. I haven't sanded or rubbed it out yet but here's what it looks like.







I forgot, I BMFed the car also to make sure there were no problems there either.

I am very happy with the Krylon Crystal Clear Gloss. It drys in about 10 or 15 minutes. So that cuts the paint time way down.I also bought a can of the Satin thinking it would act like dull coat but it doesn't. It gives everything a silver-gray coating. Anyway this stuff is only 3 bucks at can at Walmart. An 11 ounce can seems to be enough for about 3 cars. I am guessing, I have cleared 2 and still have a good deal left in the can.

That out of the way I started working on the Ross Gibson 502 Tune port engine. They call it the "Alley Rat". Anyway opened it up and cleaned all the flash. also sanded all mating surfaces flat on a piece of glass with some 400 grit wet ans dry sandpaper taped to it.



I painted the engine using different Metalizers and Orr-Lac Dull Aluminum. The car reminds me of a Christmas tree ornament so I decided to stay with the color scheme. It will be done in silvers, reds, greens and Golds.



Did the floor boards in Candy Green, then used Play Dough to mask off the spare tire well and the fuel tank. Another first for me. Works awesome and is cheap. I was told that you can do the same thing with Handi-tak. I don't see why that wouldn't work. I use it for mocking up so will try it soon.



Frame is Orr-Lac Medium Gray.



If the Ross Gibson engine doesn't fit pretty simply then I have a plan "B" to put a Corvette motor in it. Until next time. Remember all comments and questions are welcome.

Ho Ho Ho! The fat guy with the Gray beard is back. Thanks for the comments and following along.

This Ross Gibson engine is probably the simplest I have built. The only real trick is drilling the distributor cap for the plug wires. It is very thin and very brittle. But it can be done just be careful. I used a .015 drill bit and the plug wires are .013. I am not going to show a lot of the engine build.

I will say that the detail of the engine and the 200-R4 transmission is awesome. Good stuff. Here are some pictures of the finished engine and tranny.







Now for the good news. It is to big for the car. I know it could be made to fit but will require major frame modification. I just not up to it as I have a plan "B".

Hey Berine does this look familiar?





It will fit the car and the hood will close. Here is the difference.













So enough of that. What I am going to do is take the top off the Corvette engine and do the engine covers in Candy Green and the intake in Dull Aluminum. Then it will match the car better and the intake will look like a metal after market intake. The black plastic ones break. I want to be able to beat this thing and not worry about it.

So that's what I have been up to and what I have planned. See you next update. Probably a couple days.

Max I had the same idea. Shorten the intake runners. But it's more involved than that. Here you can see how the exhaust manifolds hit the upper control arms.





I don't know if I can get it low enough. If you look at the picture of the two engines sitting side by side. The 502 valve covers are taller than the Corvette engine.

I don't know. I will doink with it for a bit and see what can happen.

Hey guys I am back. Thanks for the comments and input on this one.

I know that everyone wanted to see the 502 go in this car but it ain't going to happen. The Ross Gibson engine is to wide and to tall. I don't want to doink up the engine and then not be able to use it later on. So I went with plan B.

I took the top off the Corvette engine. I think it is an LS-2. I know it is an LS series engine. Berine said he had it in a Chevelle. I painted the intake aluminum to look like a Wieand intake and did the covers in Dulpi-color Anodized Green. It's a little paler shade of green, but didn't feel like breaking out the airbrush for the 2 little covers. When I was all done it looked like this.



This is what it will look like installed in the car.



That behind me I moved on to the suspension. Rear first.



the front.



And a roller.



This shows the contrast with the Candy Green floor boards.



That all behind me I moved on to the interior. I did the floorboards in 2 different shades of gray flock. I wasn't trying to make it look like mats. Just a two tone carpet. It was and experiment. It ended up looking like this.



The seats and door panels were done in 2 tone grays. The seat belts are black but look blue in the picture.



Here is everything but the steering wheel. I don't like the chain wheel that came in the kit. I will dig one out of the junk yard.



That's it for now. Oh the interior is acrylic craft paint with a coat of Dullcoat over it.

I found out that the Play Dough masking thing doesn't work as well as I thought it did. The play dough doesn't stick to things like the seats and door panels. Maybe I am doing it wrong. I need to find the article and reread it. Has anyone else tried this? I think the Handi-Tak or maybe modeling clay would work better.

I am going to try to finish this today and move on to something else. I have two more started that I want to get on. Thanks to everyone that followed along. see you at the NMA.

Impressive build. Have to put this kit on the wish list.

I always liked the colour on this one Buck and the graphics are 'striking'.
Nice one.