compdrag
Well-known member
Hello and thank you for checking out my on going Restore of my 68 Riviera. Named her Mallow because she looks like a big marshmallow.I apologized now to the purist. I'm building her to be a usable camper. I bought her Oct 21 from a friend. Needed money to buy his daughter a car for her 16th b-day. He wasn't totally attached to it so it worked out good. She isn't perfect, but thats not why I bought her. Rust in the dog legs, drivers floor rusted through, water damaged camper stuff, ripped pop top canvas, and electrical issues. My First concern was the electrical since none of the blinkers worked, and the brakes were hit and miss. She had the wrong emergency switch in her, so I got the correct one and wired her up the right way. Not to mention an aftermarket head unit was wired into the turn signal fuse.
After I took care of the electrical I moved right into pulling out some of the camper pieces. The jump seat was pretty much falling apart at the bottom because of water damage. The sink is still in great condition so I just pulled it out for the time being. Wasn't digging the plaid seats and bed so we bought some new foam and fabric which I'm still waiting to upholster. I rebuilt the jump seat and the door under neithe the rear seat. and the arm rest next to the seat. Again water damage. My wife didn't like the number of different color woods through out the bus so we decided to paint the big wood panels in the bus white. All the pieces I built we painted the same color as the rear headliner.
I mentioned rust, I just finished welding in a new piece to fix the hole in the drivers floor. Dog legs are next. After I welded in the metal I covered the whole front floor board with truck bed liner. That should keep it quiet, and water proofed.
So for that ripped canvas. I took off the old one which let me tell you has seen better days. Found a company in Seattle which I just live a ferry crossing away from. That has a guy who used to work for Riviera. So I took over my canvas about a week ago and I'm waiting on that to be finished to get the pop top all back together. I took the pop top off and cleaned up the rusted supports and painted them and added a new wood headliner, again water damage to the old one. So that is about as much progress I have made so far on my project. I plan to have her on the road again soon. Dog legs are my next big job on her. After that its upholstery, and a paint job on the outside.
I know most topics havent happened without photos so here are some. Starting from the day I got her to where she is now.
After I took care of the electrical I moved right into pulling out some of the camper pieces. The jump seat was pretty much falling apart at the bottom because of water damage. The sink is still in great condition so I just pulled it out for the time being. Wasn't digging the plaid seats and bed so we bought some new foam and fabric which I'm still waiting to upholster. I rebuilt the jump seat and the door under neithe the rear seat. and the arm rest next to the seat. Again water damage. My wife didn't like the number of different color woods through out the bus so we decided to paint the big wood panels in the bus white. All the pieces I built we painted the same color as the rear headliner.
I mentioned rust, I just finished welding in a new piece to fix the hole in the drivers floor. Dog legs are next. After I welded in the metal I covered the whole front floor board with truck bed liner. That should keep it quiet, and water proofed.
So for that ripped canvas. I took off the old one which let me tell you has seen better days. Found a company in Seattle which I just live a ferry crossing away from. That has a guy who used to work for Riviera. So I took over my canvas about a week ago and I'm waiting on that to be finished to get the pop top all back together. I took the pop top off and cleaned up the rusted supports and painted them and added a new wood headliner, again water damage to the old one. So that is about as much progress I have made so far on my project. I plan to have her on the road again soon. Dog legs are my next big job on her. After that its upholstery, and a paint job on the outside.
I know most topics havent happened without photos so here are some. Starting from the day I got her to where she is now.
