ABANDONED 1971 Buick Riviera Boat Tail! - Will it RUN AND DRIVE 100 Miles Home?

hey welcome to vice grip garage a guy decided to buy this car sight unseen found her on the face space it's a 1971 buick riviera she's a boat tail flavor card's been off the road for 30 years so i'm gonna do the right thing and just try to fire it up and drive it about 70 miles home that seems fine nope bad idea [Applause] [Music] sounds like i'm in the middle of a zoo or something around here things squawking in the buick world this is actually a highly sought after vehicle it's considered the third gen river but what makes this one special is it's got some one year only features mainly the louvers on the rear deck lid then went away in 72 it's got a little bit different grill and probably the best front and rear bumpers from the third generation in my opinion it's also got a 455 or should turbo 400 transmission and the buick max track rear you know you got to get that power just digging in i think they only made about 33 000 of this year and probably the same for 72 maybe 73 they got to looking pretty weird in 74. i don't know they didn't make a lot of them is what i'm saying and this is probably the one that sought after the most yeah so the plan is i don't have one i guess we could just start by looking at it see what we got pop the hood see if there's something there and then we'll just start you know formalizing or whatever you're supposed to do when you do things we'll hook our papers around the exterior of the vehicle and then we'll try to find some keys i guess and get in the trunk i like to start in the trunk because if there's a water pump or a head maybe a rotating assembly kind of eases you into what kind of nightmare you're going to have under the hood here and in most cases it's accurate and i'm talking like 86 no 87.92 so this car hasn't been sitting here the whole time it was actually sitting over there in the driveway for so long that it sank through the asphalt the family was going to rebuild it and like most you start getting into rust and some other things and life gets in the way and you just never get around to it but some sort of light tan beige brownish and then underneath that it has some sort of butterscotchy yellowish tannish color appears to be complete i guess it's got the nice big buick rallies on it so those are period correct i'm sure they're original for this car but this section here is what makes this car so unique and sought after the windshield this is very reminiscent and inspired by the 63 corvette so now you can picture one of those in your brain box there and then these here are the louvers i was talking about it's one year only 71 they got rid of these in 72 i think these are really cool this is my favorite year 71. i actually have another 71 that's a dark brown i think it's got all three badge laters on it missing some trim here maybe it's in the trunk i don't know i don't know had a vinyl top smartly that was taken off otherwise this just really starts to rot in here and that looks not too bad little pinhole there a little bit of weight reduction not horribly bad though frame looks like it's there tire looks really good more weight reduction there not too badish down here oh well maybe just to tickle a weight reduction there could be an ankle vent we'll have to wait and see what the inside looks like too bad the grill's got a wallop thinner odd rust here for some reason this side's not so bad same spot in the door what happens in these big buicks stuff falls in here and it works its way down to the bottom gets packed in here especially like leaves and needles and stuff like that and they get wet and she just eats away down there this is actually for racing scoops air and cools the brakes down that's a pretty neat factory option you can order them that way oh boy that's a floppage on that one so i don't know it's rusty but i've seen worse for sure it's definitely salvageable we'll have to see what the floorboards are doing could be flintstone model maybe just some ankle vents hard to say let's see if we can find the keys because i don't have them and we'll get in the trunk and we'll start there i do believe i just found the keys right there but you know there's that i wonder if a guy can get in this way oh he can oh no no no all right just click in get the key get the out just crunched in my hand yeah i think i'm going to let that just leave open for a little bit tranquilization engaged oh she's full plum full of stuff well i could see the grass and several different areas that's fine oh boy i better get you in here because there's we got a lot there's some things going on in here is that a spare tire i'll be dipped it's got tread even look at this grill replacement we got door panelage wood grain dash parts i guess i didn't even look at that yet more door handles more door panelage heavy i'm gonna get this out before it gets broken very cool a bunch of trim front headlight bezels hey that's the i think that's the rear window trim get this stuff out too over there maybe they don't have ventilation like this anymore between the chaps cooler them are nice oh we got some boom booms six by nines in there [Music] get this trim out i don't want to bend it up that sounds really crunchy so i'm not gonna lift it up oh boy yeah a little light in the shorts there some seat belts you don't need them up front the original jack that's broken that adds at least a dollar fifty in value so i don't know overall it's you know bad so that's good this is what just rots cars out doesn't matter what maker model all that stuff gets in the whatever this is called the thing around the rubber stuff and it just eats it alive we're probably gonna find a lot more of that in the doors well we did not locate any engine parts which is you know that's that's good there's just the interior to 14 cars that's fine got some parts speaking of interior let's jump in see what we got going on in there find some clues and then we'll finally open the power barn and see what kind of chance we got making at home today so far i mean nothing says we couldn't right it smells like burnt applesauce and mulch in here and it is really sick what's not helping it is it's 96 degrees and rising is that a boy band probably not anyway might not be warm to you but for minnesotans it's called death basically we just we're not sure what how do you deal with it basically i think i should get the other door open because it's just all wafting this way i think we got some literatures in here and we do rivera book we got some sort of restoration guides this one might be cool hold on i'm getting there just get be patient a little bit casa service manual and it is like a new york phone book look at that she's a thick one we might need this today got some parts in here bulbs that's good blanker fluid can't be right sparklater plugs what year was this 1982 well the plugs were changed before i was born so that's good you know they might still be good probably not let's keep going what else we got what is this what is this thing fabrication i know that sound probably lower quarter panels or something like that no need to open it because we're not going to be doing that today there's really nothing else in here besides a severe amount of mold so i'm going to do the right thing and just climb in all them door panel parts must be for that i'm guessing if you watch that video where i pulled the cadillac out of that field had basically all the same mold in here and it took us a lot of work to get this smell out i mean it was yeah we got some mices and mises hello if you're home you gotta leave now i don't know where they're at oh new wiper blades i mean they're 30 years old but we'll put them on you got the really really stiffy horn section also severely covered in black mold so i'm going to keep that put that back there there's a dead animal of some kind not quite sure we'll leave it alone oh oh the tumbler is missing in the column that's good that'll help us get home i'm going to quick dive across and get this other side open you can hear the seat crunching as i touch it so dry there we go it's fine just keep going oh it's got factory door lock knob on it blue yeah boy it has been sitting a long time see this is where all that stuff falls gets down into the lower fenders and the door just eats it up oh another ant infested car oh that's great got some white mold or something in there flip these forward button up here there we go oh more mold that's fine what isn't this i wonder empty i wonder if we got any fishing lures let's check it out and starting fluid so hard starting and probably a dead cylinder is what that's telling us that's great oh there's the tumbler so maybe it's not stolen okay deck lid looks pretty good back there actually these here supposed to hang up there somewhere oh wow oh okay so all right that's fine don't think you need them how many miles we got 68 425 i don't know if i believe it maybe though dashes you know that's cracked pieces i wonder why the i suppose getting the ignition out oh great this is the ignition switch uh it usually sits up in the column when you turn the key it moves a rod i believe yeah right in here by my thumb so that's fine see the brake pedal here it's not 68 000 that's 168 000 there's no way i would wear that much and the gas pedal was just 68 000 miles so 168 000 if it does run it's probably not going to be the greatest but it is a buick they'll pretty much run forever with just some basic mantinance is that a cassette player stereo two band oh it was already almost full volume that's good we're gonna have to definitely check that out heavily smoked then that's great pop the hood while i'm over here that did pop actually but let's go see what's in the glove box first the smell has not ceased insurance card what is this what is it okay a whole bunch of fuses i see i'm seeing a common common issue here with the uh is that a neutral safety switch i'm not sure looks like it really nothing else in there all right well it is that time let's get the power barn open see how many horses we got in here yes still has a 455. looks completish but it is covered in just dirt and leaves and well 30 years of stuff oh no it's got a fram filter so this here 455 would have had 315 gross horsepower they changed it to net horsepower i think in 73 or 74 which was like 255 i think not sure probably right but anyway it repelled this big boat zero to 60 in about eight seconds back then that was moving even today you get a car this big moving that quick pretty impressive i'll get you in here and we'll hook her peepers on it a little bit closer she's even got the windshield viper motor still huh dual horns triple horns quadruple horns what is going on in here well first thing let's just get in here one two three four horns all be dipped radiators leaking hoses in it still got the fan blade i mean it looks really complete actually all the way through i don't see we know the car's got mice in it but normally they get into the sparklaters and all the digital stuff but i'm not really seeing that yet a little bit back there but we don't need that it's got a battery in it hopefully that's good that's been shortened up about 87 times custom trans cooler line belt is rock hard it's got a fuel make it happener in there it's bolted down to something cruise and control not even going to step on the brake pedal until we try to get this thing fired up and if it runs transmission do we at least got first gear and park that'd be good enough you know then brakes it's kind of just a add-on convenience well i'm gonna take this air cleaner lid off see what we got going on under that should have a four barrel quadrant junk in here which is fine with me they're usually really resilient and don't take a lot to get going that looks like another fram filter really old yep what do we got here remanufactured in canada huh so the fuel maker happener i don't know when it's got a rebuilt tag on her it's not locked up everything's working of course the choke spring is not hooked up them never work anyway gives me a closer look here though i mean everything is here [Applause] you make wind with your mouth you know and it well this is dirtier than a nicki minaj video altogether but it's all here which is good see that tag remanufactured that probably just saved us a ton of heartache they already went through that issue the old frigidaire pump is still on it really tight i guess the next step is before we get too carried away here now let's get a wrench down here on the crank and see if the engine even rolls over make sure that it spins freely and that we can rotate it a full 360 degrees and that'll make sure we don't have any stuck valves or valve train or sometimes the ridges get in the cylinder walls and the piston will move but it'll hit that ridge and get stuck don't just go boop and think that hey we're good to go because it might just trick on you well lo and behold it the old hobo freight tool kit doesn't have a socket big enough so i'm going to do the right thing to take a hitch ball wrench here and hook it on to the charging whirler press down on the belt with about 82 foot-pounds of force and then when i spin this over it should turn the crank down there as well and it does and it's still doing it more of the same except i just slipped the adjust-o-matic on the charging wheeler now the belt's floppy speaking of belts i didn't bring another one of them so hopefully that just doesn't explode if it runs suppose a guy could check on some fluids here see what we got going on oh dark brown smells like branding cattle and severely overfilled so i'm gonna pretend i didn't see that put that back over there as far as the oil goes hmm wow lots of gas in that like a lot so someone has tried to start this girl many many many many times and often what happens is all that fuel just ends up in the crank case down there based on the plug faller upper 9000 the laughing gas back there and a bunch of fuel in the oil everything's looking really good so far you know well a guy reckons at this point we miles will figure out if i can even get this thing to twirl over based on the fact there's no ignition tumbler and we got wires hanging out of the column i'm sure i'm going to have to throw a battery in it and then we'll see if we can at least get it to turn over and crank just for a second and if that happens then we'll figure out we got lightning i don't know and then the fuel system and everything else but let's just make sure it cranks over and then we can start going i think there's a list or something that you're supposed to do i don't know we'll figure it out okay i guess a guy should have paid closer attention to the fast and the furious the 22nd one they just reached down and going the car runs you know but i don't think that's how it works in real life maybe i'm not saying movies are fake you know but there's this thing in here i know it's supposed to slide i don't know what this is but this might work just going to jam it in here yeah see so if i go left i could feel a resistance like you would when you turn the key and then you let go it comes back to run and then that must be off and aches axes a cease whatever it's one where you twirl it backwards okay let's throw a battery in it and see if something happens there's another dead creature in the back that's fine get this guy out go on get out of here oh the tray is just comes out and bits that seems fine just leave them in there a guy does not like buying new batteries but when i do you better believe there's words like extreme in it it's also gotta have a goal handle and be on sale this one checked all the boxes oh almost hit the ground there we're gonna perform what's called a fire test once i get this on and i call it that because basically we're smelling and looking for fire cars that sit like this this one 30 years what not wires get eaten and they can short out sparkle 8 and next thing you know you got a big old pallet bonfire going and you're six cases deep into some wobble pops with your neighbors so just you know breathe it in when you connect it here we go no sparks no fire yet maybe we're good nothing feels hot well everything is actually going pretty good so far i'm gonna grab my key here again and try this again i got a generator light no radio dang it here we go it did and then the fan started all of a sudden how do you turn that off let's do it again it's cranking over just fine so that should work if i can crank it with the key also known as this headliner bow then gently slide it back to the run position that way the lightning can still have some storm maker to it then technically it should run i wonder if a guy shouldn't just throw some fire maker right down the yap and just see if it barks off yep let's do that but first let's disconnect the fuel pump my imaginaries are telling me the fuel tank is either completely dry and full of rust and dirt or if there's a little bit of anything left in it it's going to be that dex stained maple syrup varnish stuff now we don't want to pull that into the fuel pump and ruin it because i don't have another one and we don't want to pull it into the fuel megan happener because i also didn't bring a kit for that so that's great so this guy here is gonna be a three hose variety you got one coming up here of course and then you're gonna have a feed line which feeds it and then you're gonna have a return line which returns it so basically the fuel make it happen it's going to take the pressure it needs anything over that the pump just sends it right back to the tank the bigger one is always the inlet that's the one we need to disconnect so then we can crank it over and it's not going to suck anything up here that's the plan anyway look at that [Music] meas bites on there got pretty darn lucky though what is this here that's factory i'm sure okay what was i doing something with oh yeah fuel pump can't see nothing down here you little stubborn dowel why don't you just come off oh there we go oh we got a little bit of spillage and it's black with chunks in it so that's good got the line disconnected and you can just smell the varnish i mean she's coming in like a six bottom plow next thing i'm just gonna test for spark really quick we could just throw some fire maker down and twist it and if it runs it runs but i don't want to sit here and crank on it forever being this has points it only takes two minutes i'm just gonna pop the lightning roller off go down and look at the contacts hopefully the cam and the lightning wheeler there is right on an edge where i could just rock the rotor back and forth where it's going to open and close those contacts and we should either see or hear some sparklization in there and that'll at least let us know we got lightning to that point throw that back on then we'll put some juice down it i wonder what clint black's doing today oh a bunch of spider eggs in there that's fine so the equipment in here appears to be in pretty darn good shape i'm thinking whoever tried to get it running maybe got in here who knows how many years ago but keep your eye right in here keep it open back in there did you see that so i don't know if you guys can see it but she's got spark in there so now i can just throw that back on or shoot some juice down here and see if it makes some noise wanting to get this running as cheap as possible but if it does make some noise here i got some sparklators well at least put those in i believe the lightning hoses on it unless one's burnt or not firing right and i also got some earl change on earl because you know it's full of gas and 842 years old okay here we go this is gas for my grandpa's riding mower so i know that's at least 15 years old yep and then this is just some two-cycle oil i like to mix the two when you're spraying fuel make it happeners down unless you're in a pickle and a bad one about the worst thing you can do is just start spraying carb cleaner brake clean down these this is going to help lubricate the top end there the rings and whatnot keep the cylinder walls just you know it's better it's better for it that's what i'm saying does it work that's that's not sets nope how about now do i got like a squirt mode i don't know that seems like way too much perfect all right we know we got spark we know it rolls over if i can hold my headliner bow just right it just might make some noise here there it went starter is not happy more fire maker i don't know sure something like that bring the thunder she's a runner yes lots of valve train noise but that's to be expected till it builds oil pressure i know you could tell by the look on my face but a guy is really happy 455 it's gonna be a runner of course it only ran for 2.1 seconds hard to say if there's any knocking or anything like that the valve train is a little clattery but it probably hasn't even built oil pressure yet plus the oil that's in it is basically gasoline so there's you know there's that too but i think it's worth the time and money now to change the oil we'll put some fresh sparklators in it and then we'll hook up a temporary fuel system and you know let's just get this thing idling maybe see what kind of shape it's in then we can move on to do we have first gear maybe another one anything better than four neutrals is what i'm saying well the jack should go on the earth about seven feet but maybe lift the car one i brought a really thin brittle piece of plywood that would break in half if i put the jack on it but didn't have the clearance ground's pretty solid actually this might just work what's the frame look like oh sure good enough oh it's kind of a dance to get these boats out of the ground i just like to shoot the jack underneath start lifting it's either going to go up or bend one of the two whoops speaking of bending something is we'll just keep going hopefully i can get stand under the control arm that way a guy can get his belly under here you know i don't know how's that good we'll do the death shake test ooh c-plus at best i'll leave the jack under there that way the rescue team can pull my body out easier when it falls these 455s require a special tool for the drain plug and that's a vice grip here we go here we go now ready not down the armpit derrick hits lots of gas and chunks what do we got on the mega milk since these are dangling guy hooked his peepers in them and you know normally i drive on these but i got to go down the highway and i just don't think these goodyears are gonna cut it i did bring two tires that are decent but off my 68 la sabre i thought i would be fine with that because it's two more than i usually have but the rears are in the same exact condition so this is going to get interesting if this thing runs and goes down the highway i'll put my two decent ones up front and i guess carry these two as spares and then we have four tires to blow out maybe five because this one's got the most tread on it so i don't know we'll just have to see what happens but i'm going to swap these out super quick since it's already up in the air they're not locked up that's good news definitely hear them dragging but 90 mile per hour blast i'll clean that right up oh jeez yeah well you know everything looks fine but i suppose i should go ahead and fix these brake pads [Music] there that's all rejuvenated and basically brand new the rubber on these is actually brand new yep oh they're not fiddling no can't be well these buicks and they're stubborn everything oh is this a rear wheel looks like it you get out of here let's try this one yeah that one doesn't have the there's a ring on the inner side you do you know what i'm saying maybe we could pound it out probably not so we've got one good tire then seems fine [Applause] oh yeah well a guy got that fram off there just as fast as i could gonna throw on a wicks of course a couple reminders get the date on there and the miles makes it easier for the next guy to guess what's going on make sure you're not double stacking your gaskets you could be in a whirl to hurt and then lube up that o-ring a little bit before you put her in and don't you know just snug it you don't have to get it tighter than the penitentiary guys got her back down to earth now gonna throw some earl in there pop the cap off and you can see it's completely dry in there and just verifies it has not been run in many many many years since there's been oil on the top end that's all that clanking and banging hopefully it'll build pressure in five seconds or so five ten seconds and start lubricating that top end we might have to keep firing it up and shutting her back down today's flavor of oil is shell rotella t6 1540 heavy duty diesel oil it's got a semi on it being halfway serious it's got all the vitamins and dinosaurs and stuff you need for these old flat tappet cams and in fact it has 1200 ppm which is identical as a lot of the racing and hot rod oils out there but it's half the price fellers my final quart is going to be this hyperlube eliminates dry starts that'd be good reduces friction and it's got a flag and stuff on it i like that i'm going to take this dump it into this one because this one's got about a quart left in her and a little shake on it and hopefully she flows better you know this is a crunchy bottle i had no idea this engine was that high a mile so this actually is going to do quite a bit of good yeps yep [Music] i wonder if there's a vfw around here getting hungry put some of this maple syrup in oh yeah she's flowing right in still plenty to do even if this thing runs we still don't know if the head gaskets are any good if they're going to hold in there if it makes any oil pressure if the radiator holds any juice let's just keep you know not thinking about it got my lone wolf 9000 rig out here basically what we're going to do is just use this as a pony tank we're going to circulate some fuel right from here into the pump make sure the fuel pump works and get this engine running and this will be plenty of fuel to tune her up and also check the transmission out then we can make a decision based on how good or worser this is if we're going to run this as a tank or the stock tank stock tank is probably in pretty rough shape this does have a return on it if we need i could throw this in the passenger seat or something and run 87 feet of hose and this won't get us very far but i think i do got another 5 gallon jug we can just fuel while cruising down the highway so now i'm going to lift it up for the 13th time and just connect this to the inlet to the fuel pump and see if we can get this thing to run on its own without spraying juice down the fuel make it happener that's all plugged in and clamp later up it's able to prime on it just by blowing in the return by the way this will run fuel pump ignition and the starter if you just hook all the goody moves up but in this case we don't need all the flavors i just need some fuel for now and we'll keep using our headliner bow to get it fired up if it starts being real picky then we might at least get the starter button hooked up i'm gonna fill the fuel bowl here no idea if we've got a accelerator pump unlikely highly but it'll help if it does run a couple sprays okay okay here we go bring the thunder no way is it going to sit here and idle it is oh i wish i had an oil pressure gauge it's still clacking it's idling right now unbelievable still a lot of clacking come on old girl build some oil pressure pieces boy i don't know how much longer i want to run this it's really not happy it idled it idled i just don't believe it but i guess i got to i'm looking right at it decades sitting around here fires right up sits here in idles doesn't like the throttle accelerator pump you know she exited quite a while ago also not building oil pressure it seems like she's knocking like a jehovah witness but i think we should fire it up again and just hope that the knocking at least just quiets down a little bit sounds like a stuck lifter it's really not that big of a deal we just don't want to get a bunch of rpm in it and wipe out a cam lobe or something like that so being it doesn't have an accelerator pump give her a couple more sprays and fire it up headliner engage oh then i unhook the headliner let's try it again i could try pump it i don't think it's going to do anything hmm fuel pump might not be pumping come on now hmm well for pete's sake that should be enough well for crying in the rain that's way too much perfect blow-by is really bad but some rings still got to come back around you know you know one of the mustard squirters worked really good for this i just didn't bring one but you can get that right down the vent tube nice and snazzy oh no will that ever come back now what happened i spray a leak in this now wow i just never seen such mickey mouse there you go there you go come on yeah we ain't got no fuel i wonder if a guy could run electro digital pump into the manual pump i think that's what we're gonna do sometimes that diaphragm is just crispy in there you gotta juice it up a little bit so it starts populating so this is all rigged up and all i got to do is flip the switch there we go so i'm going to flip this on juice it and with any lock the manuel one will start working again we're not really going to know we'll let it run off of this for a little bit and then we'll reconfigure this headliner going hot headliner going hot again [Music] it's gonna be a little tricky without an accelerator pump is it still not doing it i wonder if we got a stuck needle in there let me get my precision needle adjuster come on now there we go hear this just change tone now we got accelerator pump that's all she was was a stuck needle now she'll run there we go oh hey that lifter went away she ain't knocking like that looks like a freight train though just blow by coming out of here like crazy it's starting to sound pretty good now when a guy was adjusting on it you know tickle tickle heard the fuel pump change tones and then i could actually hear the bowl filling so that needle was just stuck normally i just hit them first i don't know i must like it too much already anyhoose i'm going to reconfigure it to the fuel pump that's on board we'll pop the radiator cap off throw some juice in it see if the thermostat stuck it will be and then on to seeing how all the gaskets come back around when they sit this long you got to just cross your fingers and three toes that them head gaskets are going to re-seat up and all the oils stuff gaskets rear main things like that they get really crispy so you got to cook them nice and good get them nice and hot see what kind of leeks we got hopefully it doesn't overheat anything like that oh this is on here use my radiator cap adjuster tool there we go whoa it's got juice in it i mean there's leaves and stuff floating in here that's fine well we know that doesn't leak so that's great news done what's next oh fuel pump that's right fuel pump seems to be working right back up keep an eye on that so we've still got a lot of blow-by and look at this smoke back here pretty excessive actually really bad so that tells us the engine's pretty tired or the rings are just sticky we're going to give her an italian tune up here in a little bit once we get some heat in it we make sure that it stays cool and that'll bring them rings back around if there's any left to be brought around [Music] [Music] well she's been idling roughly for about three minutes now thermostat's probably about to open nope that stuck i'm gonna move on to the italian tune up throw some of this berryman b12 in it it's made of dragon piers and tornadoes clean up that combustion chamber free up them sticky rings see if we can get the smoking down just a little bit the good news though the mosquitoes are just they're gone nowhere to be seen [Music] [Music] [Laughter] she's tuned still running a little rough but slightly better but look at this 98 of the smoke is gone so the rings did come back around with the old tune up there that's great news i'm going to wait a few more minutes here see if the thermostat's going to open it's starting to jump and bubble a little bit all right let's see yeah it's about 180 degrees 190 so should be any second now that'll open we've up used quite a bit of fuel down to here i think the guy's going to go ahead and change on the sparklaters even though it's already running she's running pretty rough and i want to see if that smoking issue we got out the tail lips is something that's been there for quite some time we'll be able to tell so we'll snap a couple off trying to get these rusty seized sparklators out but i'm gonna wait because this is 11 or 10 million degrees now so we can do some other stuff while we're waiting for that to cool down one of them is i got to get these winters down it is hot and ain't getting cooler i got my headliner turned on to ack mode i got no winders even these switches i thought maybe it's fuse sure enough one's blown so i'm going to take out the clock that doesn't work and snagalize that fuse into the windows and see if we can get these puppies rolled down there's a blowed up one all right nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing there too come on did it already blow well i think i got the windows figured out we don't have power into the switch so there's something else going on in there i don't have a digital meter or a test light so what i did was use this clicky clock pump and if i grounded it out and applied it to power she'd run so i was able to test that i didn't have power there so i grabbed the battery and i grounded that to the body made sure there's a body ground from the battery up there and you cut these long enough to where you can twist them around on themselves and they'll hang onto the posts like that now if i take the positive end one of these wires should be up and the other should be down for each of the windows so let's test this thing out see if it works [Applause] there we go down up down nice can we get the back one all right so purple is down in the back what about the other side yep she's going slow i better ease off of that one then i think brown was down in the front [Music] yep there now a guy ain't gonna suffocate in here and whatnot goodness how hot's the engine still ouch it's still hot so now maybe we should figure out the fuel system i don't know if we dare go off the tank i mean this one's been sitting a long time that lasabinator i can't remember how many years that was sitting and i took the gamble using the tank in the rear because i needed the capacity and i got like one filter per 11 miles it was bad this one see i got to go 70 75 miles say it gets seven miles to the gallon or even 10 miles a gallon this is going to be cutting it really close at four and a half gallons but i could maybe throw it up in the passenger seat and then we just pull off halfway there and pop it off i can carry some fuel i got a five gallon jug we just throw that back here maybe that's going to be the better way than on the side of the road putting filters in also i'm going to put the other good tire on the drinker side rear so the bad ones are on the captain's side that way when the tires blow out when we pull over the side of the road we got concrete and traffic so that'll be fine this one had air in it this one has air in it that one's flat so i figured we'd just go that route still gonna ignore the steering wheel and broken steering column and i have no idea if this is even gonna turn the wheels but yeah we'll wait on that stuff normally i use a boat tank for this but it's in a temporary permanent location underneath my lasabre so i got that laying on the floor but look at this custom hose work and then it swoops down on the inside of the fender so the hood's going to close all the way fillers comes across lays on some really hot stuff right down by the manifold here and then back in there's two because there's a feed and a return and i got a filter on both of them but this right here that's all it's going to show so it's going to keep our cottage level down a little bit hopefully so that should take care of the fuel issue no idea if it's charge latent because i don't have my meter but i guess we'll find out i'll just carry another battery but i think we're to the point now let's set this thing all the way on the ground and see if we got some sort of gears the only thing i got to do really quick is swap this tire in the rear fast put that other one on and then we'll see if this thing moves some of the heat and moisture is getting out of here used to be able just to bite it but but it's getting a little bit better no it's still barely barely manageable i've been working out the railroad nope literally never have well what size is this now not this one that's 17 different sized lug nuts seven eighths can't be they got tomatoes coming in yeah they do they do these need some water displacement on the 40th try i think i did everything coming apart mouse nest on top of the drum that's neat should i look at the brakes let's not open that can of beans yeah okay yep here we go now are you kidding me no i can't because of the flange again i ain't gonna make it on tires am i well let's try to bolt them up anyway i don't know can we keep torquing them down yes well the time is here oh better get the floor checker in no floor left okay now is the time in other words the time is upon us in other words chicken cassava extra chicken let's see if this thing's got into gears boy she fires right up now reverse positive reversage neutralis there's no neutral did i go right over it well there's neutral we had drive too it wants to go oh yeah brake pedal hey something's there i mean the right blinker comes on when i hit it but it makes ah noise which means vacuum assist is working does it hold it i i've got more brakes than i've ever had in my life in this thing what is going on radio still doesn't work get my headliner and turn it off there we go well we're you know this is a going to town rig guy's finally on to the sparklaters here burned my hand 15 times got two out she's running richer than bill gates heavily sooted and these are also the old school ac delco's you could tell because of the way that they are the font on that is different and it's a different color green these are from the 80s at best there are 44 ts's ts is tapered seat 44 is kind of in the middle of the heat range typically when i buy sparklators on old rigs like this i always get them hotter than what they typically ran because we assume they're all carboned up and such so a hotter plug is going to help clean some of the deposits and what have you is out of the power pumpers there but i'll keep moseying down the line i would guess that if they're that old these lightning hoses are probably just as old as well but i didn't bring any of that stuff i was in such a hurry to get here you know boat tails it's not every day you snag one of these you know yeah it's 14 torques lightning hoses are also different colors so instead of replacing a whole set a guy or could have been a girl they just replaced one at a time see what this one looks like that's dead same story junk another thing you really really got to pay attention to is the gap your speculators this one calls for 40. yep yep ufta it's hot i got a backcrack waterfall like you wouldn't believe and don't you go chasing it i gotta get all these leaves three decades of stuff in here out because i'm starting to smell burning leaves and we don't want a fire going down the highway i mean if you're in park that's fine but down the highway seems just a little aggressive there's a lot of spiders in here get out of there i should start bringing some canned air or something that'd be smart don't do it then well for the air filtration all i got is this used no-name brand so we'll put that in then i can tie up these fuel lines a little bit better maybe we go up over the snout here huh oh is it jammed in there already well sure that looks good and maybe over here to the ps line yep confirmed that's fine hook that thing up some sort of alien tube well i don't know we never really technically checked the transmission fluid checked now we did so i think all we got to do now is get the steering wheel on pack up and just jam it on the highway i guess huh did this used to be teal couldn't have been primer these are juicy ants let me sit down the guy was about 14 seconds away from you know can i just put a vice grips on here but then when i was wallowing around i think i found the nut to it yup i did oops so we got to line it now yeah a little to the left okay so that looks good right there let's throw this on yeah good enough well got a jack two bad leaking tires tool kit a little air compressor and my wallet car has been off the road for 30 years we're just gonna you know go jam it right out there in traffic and see what happens well i just changed my pocket computer to avoid highways these tires ain't gonna take 70 80 miles an hour so when they blow out i'd like to be going 55 it's the best way to travel spend your money at the gas stations and buying sandwiches and t-shirts at all those small mom and pop shops plus you get to see so much more cool stuff here we go oh yeah get the key out of the way all right this steering wheel is by far the worst out of any vehicle i own speedometer stuck on 75 appropriate trip stopped at 7777 what are the odds one in 396 7712 pretty cool moving under its own power and going on the road for the first time in 30 years the steering wheel steers it brakes aren't as good as previously thought but it was it up a little bit i got the steering wheel completely upside down that's fine he's got to ease our way out of this yard here so now that i'm going avoid highways it's actually a hundred miles and a little over two hours to the shop something's already dragging and not sounding good in the back we'll ignore it for now just made a popping noise i think that's the max track not very happy oh it's got you know enough breaks there we go on the road hindsight being 13 24 i should have put some gauges in this thing oh man bad scraping rubbing in the right rear just past the cop at that far away there are so many leaves and debris flying off of this thing it's kind of nice i don't got to clean off the rest of the way home you really got a steer on it is that an axle bearing probably can it make a hundred miles i'm gonna find out every time i hit a bump there's stuff falling out of the ceiling i got this mustang just right up in my teeth well go around then for pete's sake i'm doing the speed limit all right let's see if we get her up to 50 47. that is a nice looking what is he carrying dual shovels i definitely smell foliage burning underneath the hood but i'm gonna wait until my feet get hot i did bring a fire extinguisher that's well it's in the orange i think it means it's halfway good well the transmission seems to be shifting just fine and it's running decent so basically it comes down to when is it going to overheat and when are these two tires going to pop that's fine at least it's not 97 degrees out today maybe 98 by now i don't know if it's really hot though grinding intensifies drink your side rear it's not good can't quite pick up on what it is but almost sounds like a bearing or i don't know from up here let's see what happens we're just going to keep going i got a break dragon back there for sure i don't know if there's anything additional to that i don't think it's overheating yet doesn't smell hot i don't smell any antifreeze if i keep these two tires aired up somehow oh gas check well we're one third of it whatever kind of jug that is down and we're only eight miles in okay doesn't seem to be returning any fuel that's not good so we might be gassing up a little bit more than anticipated but that's okay [Applause] [Music] all i need is just the ants are just they're all over the dash they're crawling on me it might be a little upset cruising at about 50. i've used half my jug of gas nowhere near halfway my phone's at three percent i got a charger but no way to charge it might try to swing in somewhere and cool down the back neck for a little bit charge a lathe at home fill her up with some gas and then go again [Music] no idea what town i'm in but i swung into this little tavern here and cooled down my neck a little bit plugged in the phone i need the jeep system on it you know because i just i don't know how to get back basically well that was charged late and i topped off this little tank thing looked at the rotten tires for just a millisecond i didn't want to stare at them there's no big chunks or anything coming off where did my key go oh here it is let's see if it restarts i can't believe these tires haven't popped yet yeah it's making me just a little nervous there [Music] all right let's hit the road oh something like that anyway there was one back there as well here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] i'm getting some very bad grindage squeakage and pull and the captain's side front up here very reminiscent of a wheel bearing normally i check on them and most of the time just repack them but didn't even look this time and that might just come back and bite me i don't know yet it's not by any means correct or safe but it's what i had nice old square body while we're making it looks like 30 miles last little stint here i don't know if you guys can hear that squeaking but that is pending wheel bearing going out i don't know if we're gonna make it i don't have a wheel bearing i don't have any grease we're just gonna you know come on old girl i'm trying to save you here for pete's sake just applied the brake pedal to see if it changed when i hit the brakes and i have zero brakes pedal goes all the way to the floor so i either popped a line or it was just low on juice to begin with and i pumped what it had through the system because i never even looked so right now i'm downshifting the slow oh we got a stop sign the good news is i have some really twisty turny roads coming up close to my shop over the river there we'll definitely want breaks there's no auto parts stores over here that i know of so we're just gonna have to ease she's just kind of falling apart on me yep the wobble and the shake was getting bad enough pulled off the side here so i can feel the heat from this wheel but you can hear it it's yeah i don't know if we're gonna make it on that missing a lug up there too i thought maybe one of these wheels was coming loose or going flat [Applause] i don't know they seem to be on there i just checked the master it's got a little bit of juice in it looks like coca-cola that's fine i think what's probably happening is this wheel bearing going out is so insanely hot that it's heating the discollator and the stop pads and i just got a case of the old break fade going on big time i'm just gonna hang out here for a few enjoy the views beautiful day what do we got coming something cool nope definitely not the last water bubbling just a little bit in there might be a touch warm just pulling in and turning it off but i don't see anything leaking or any fires all looks pretty normal other than the blow-by coming out of the air filtration system what does this thing do i don't know but i guess we'll just uh fire it up it's been sitting long enough well there's definitely something else going on with the brakes they've been cooling for a while and i dumped the rest of my water on it i got nothing i think the master ceiling there just went out that's bad news fellers so now i've got to decide what i'm going to do here because i've got twisty turnies and hills and i got to go across the river with no brakes i just don't think that's going to be possible and i don't know of any parts stores on the way to grab a master i'm trying to think i'll google machine it see if we can get somewhere but this might be the first time i've ever had to just roll one in the ditch and i'd say leave the keys in it but it's just a headliner bow i don't think anybody would probably figure that out coming up here i got to take a ride on highway 243 which is how you cross from minnesota over to wisconsin it's a really really really steep grade coming down across that border and it comes right into town into a four-way if i do attempt this it will literally be the dumbest thing i have ever done in my life probably and i'm just trying to figure out how i would do that the only thing i could think of is go down at first gear come on around feller i can't go fast go down in first gear and if it starts swinging this engine faster than it'll go that'll blow that up and if i get to that point i'm just gonna have to put her into the guardrail and ruin a riviera so i don't know yet i think we'll just get on up there and see if we're gonna jump or not young or am i faking on the tip of my tongue there's a sarcasm waiting for you well a guy sat here on the top of the hill for quite a while letting the brakes cool down contemplating there's a doe right there anyway i think i'm gonna go for it traffic's not too bad and i'm going to go in first and i got a little bit of rear brake so i think i can drag the rears and i don't want anybody getting hurt so i'm fully prepared to put this thing in the bedrail okay here we go we're just gonna ease like this yeah there's just a scotia rear it might be enough might be enough look at the wobble on this it's kind of relaxing it's almost like a back massage now now it's just annoying you know not so much to go on the town car right now it needs a little bit of work so far the gear is doing its job i haven't even had to attempt to touch the pedal which really wouldn't do much and it probably doesn't look steep to y'all but if you're from this area you know the hill i'm talking about in a winter this thing is a doozy there's cars just every direction you can think of it's gonna get steeper up around this corner and it drops right down into that river but we should get a really nice view this time of day i think we made it fellers we're getting towards the bottom here first gear held the car yes yes four-way stop foots to the floor hear that grinding let's see if it'll stop ah there it is complete you just got a plan way ahead and i'm going to try not to stop here i'm just going to swerve about 15 miles we'll be at the shop well i'm going to take that back just blew a tire and went sideways guess where right in front of the country club i'm just gonna ease into the front row right over here and uh you know work on my classic car there we go right in the shade oh yeah no brakes still running though couldn't be worse now i think i do need a key to get into the trunk don't i yeah right back there she went plowy swerved on in here man we got close so close but when they're that dry rotted it's just not a whole lot you can do i'm surprised this front one hasn't gone any time you blow a tire just be thankful if it ain't the steer tire well i'm gonna get this other bad one out of the trunk and throw that on quick see if we can make it the rest of the way i think i see the problem it's not so much here as it is right there and maybe also there in here and uh that one but drums of now on seas from all the heat that's good so this was the really sketchy one on the drinkers front and we'll just throw this one on i should find the date code on here just for giggles but it's only got to make it a handful of miles and we'll be good my forearms are sweating i didn't think that was a thing stuff's getting exciting i better put the seat belt on actually pick up the safety a little bit all right key come on timing's a little off did you hear that i did yeah she diesel a little too far advanced on the timing that tire had air in it oh crap there's no brakes there you go just neutral drop it all right we better get out of here there's a lot of khaki shorts and expensive shoes i'm getting a little bit nervous but i don't see any corvettes though first gear also known as brake applied here we go i'm trying to feed it onions just quit on me bad idea let's see if we could fire it up going down the road here oh yeah come on there we go after the long transmission slip we're back on the way come on slow down slow down ah dang it well that worked ben relocate guy had mo under it anyway shuts the car down in a hurry hey we made it thanks for riding shotgun with me 1971 buick riviera boat tail it's a beautiful machine needs a little work but you know what for being off the road for 30 years this thing started impressively quick it's not smoking anymore i mean we don't have brakes and wheel bearing some other stuff but seems to run pretty good so now i really don't know what to do with this to be honest the reason i bought it was i was going to take the big block the turbo and this rear end because it's a great combo and i was going to put it in my 56 buick that i just got back from texas but now that it's a running driving car as a whole i might just clean it up and flip it there's so many people out there looking for a boat tail so i don't know you guys bleep bloop do we clean it up a little bit buff late on the paint fix on the interior get it running real nice and flip it or do we really want to hack into a boat tail to get the drivetrain out the reason i'm struggling with it is i'd hate to sell a boat tail as just a chassis rolling chassis but i don't know you guys help me out thanks guys for watching appreciate it very much we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Vice Grip Garage

Views: 3,563,222

Keywords: motortrend, roadkill, vice grip garage, vise grip garage, vgg, REVIVAL, field, barn, farm, find, rescue, restoration, buick, gm, chevy, riviera, gs, 455, big block, boat tail, boat-tail, 1970, 1971, boattail, drive home, revival, 3rd gen, road trip, abandoned, forgotten

Id: KpR3939eJTw

Length: 83min 38sec (5018 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021