Saleofcar.com :Buick

Buick Riviera Riviera (1965)
for sale

Price: US $17,500.00

Description:

Thank you for looking at this beautiful, 2 owner, 1965 Buick Riviera in its original Arctic White. It is and always has been a Southern California car, currently showing 78, 580 original miles. Power: seats, windows, antenna, steering, brakes. AIR CONDITIONING blows cold and has just been rebuilt and converted to modern Freon. Car has tilt steering wheel and the clock works too. About 300 miles ago, the entire suspension front to rear, was replaced with GM and Moog components. Original Nailhead 401 engine and trans run and shift smoothly. Engine has not been detailed and shows originality well. One repaint in original factory color of arctic white. New brakes and related items, rebuilt transmission. Riviera handles better than new. Clam Shell headlights just rebuilt and open & close perfectly. Interior is in nice condition with no tears or bald spots in the seats. Brand new American Classic tires with less than 75 miles on them. Carpet is a newer replacement. This car was not rebuilt for resale, but for my wife who hardly ever drives it and has put fewer than 400 miles in the last 6 or 7 years.. It sits in our garage and we now have decided to let it go. Comes with 2 extra Buick finned brake drums and other extras.
Needs: Glove box interior, radio works but speaker shot, power antenna needs to be connected, plastic courtesy light cover, could use new trunk carpet as original is ok but worn. Rear windows work and go down, motors work but they often stick and need hand assistance. Front windows work fine.
1963-1965 Riviera as most know this was a beautiful change in automotive design. Buick Riviera in 1963 was Motor Trends CAR OF THE YEAR...
Bill Mitchell was hardly short of ideas, he had trouble pinning down the design concept for this would-be Thunderbird-fighter until he went off to the annual London Motor Show in 1959. One evening, he saw a parked Rolls-Royce partially obscured in the fog. That's it! he said to himself. If we just let the air out of the tires . . . just lower it a bit.
With this firm direction, he got together with Ned Nickles who was an old hand at Buick, having created the 1949 Roadmaster Riviera.
Mitchell made it clear that he wanted GM's new personal car to have the Rolls' razor-edge roof, rear deck, and sides, plus an aggressive front end reminiscent of contemporary Ferraris. And the luxury and appointments of a fighter cockpit.
To each of its front fender leading edges he now applied small grilles shaped like the ones Mitchell had penned for certain late-1930s LaSalles. With this change, Nickles' drawing became the starting point for what would emerge in late 1962 as the production Riviera.
The hidden headlamps seen here were brought
out and into the light for the 1965 model.
The new personal car was assigned experimental project number XP-715, and design work moved quickly to scale and full-size clay models. At this point the Advanced studio didn't know which division would be tapped to build the car, but Mitchell was eager to nudge the decision toward Cadillac, probably because that's where he had begun his GM career.
Accordingly, early proposals carried the name LaSalle II, thus reviving Cadillac's companion nameplate last seen in 1940. Preliminary drawings for XP-715 featured subdued headlights or ones not visible. It was thought that the headlights could be concealed in some way behind the front fender grilles. Dominating these designs were horizontal lines and a sense of strength.

_{update: 2015-06-14}