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What did you do with your Reatta today.


DAVES89

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Thanks for your nice comments about my car. I spent some time buffing the paint a few years ago to make it shine. My car has the original paint. It isn't perfect when you look at it up close, but it does have a lot of shine. You could do the same but it takes a lot of time and elbow grease.

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Here are a few photos of Giant City. The park features many sandstone bluffs and a lodge built by the CCC in the 30s. 

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17 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Thanks for your nice comments about my car. I spent some time buffing the paint a few years ago to make it shine. My car has the original paint. It isn't perfect when you look at it up close, but it does have a lot of shine. You could do the same but it takes a lot of time and elbow grease.

I’ve waxed my car before. You’re right it is a lot of work. This summer I want to try to polish my tail light. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Beautiful day today. Low 50's but lots of sun so I decided that I would put away the Black and start driving the Red full time. So the Black gets an oil change and a "Rinse" wash [where I just use clear water and a wash mitt] to clean the car. Swapped out all the stuff you need to have in the car you drive [coin caddy, door opener, glasses, sun glasses, etc.]

 Then as long as I was at it I thought "Time to swap the Driver's inner door panel from the Black to the Red". So I did. However last fall I was out at Gibson's and they had just got in a Red '89 that had a real nice interior so I grabbed that inner door panel as it was nicer then what I had in the Red but not as nice as what was in the Black. So that one goes in the Black. It looks real nice and I am sure 2seater won't mind when it comes time for him to get this car [if you remember he got the last 2 Reattas I didn't want anymore].

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Ever since I bought my '91 Reatta (2013) I've been on the lookout for an OEM CD player but have never found one that worked.  Over this past Winter, Marck of EastCoast Reatta Parts had on sale some BUICK radio/CD players (I think they are from Buick Regals).  The radio/CD is one unit, not like the separate radio and CD that was original to Riveras and Reattas.  But these radio/CD players fit right where our '90 - '91 current radios are located...just a simple swap out.  The face is very similar to our current radios, with the added attraction of a little Bluetooth pinhole connection.  Southeastern MA had some pleasant weather one day last week, so I decided to do the radio swap.  I'm quite familiar with the dash removal process since I've done this a few times with the two '92 Rivieras I previously owned.  Marck did include removal/install and radio/CD player operating instructions with the shipment.  I removed the dash facia and HVAC/radio combo.  I swapped the old radio with the new radio/CD player and reattached it to the HVAC.  I put everything back together...easy, peesy.  Fired up the unit with a CD in play.  Because the Reatta cabin is small, the sound is unbelievably fantastic!    

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18 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

Beautiful day today. Low 50's but lots of sun so I decided that I would put away the Black and start driving the Red full time. So the Black gets an oil change and a "Rinse" wash [where I just use clear water and a wash mitt] to clean the car.

Dave, you inspired me to get out and wash my Reatta this morning. It is sunny here today and the temperature is high 60s this morning. Perfect weather for washing a car. Rain is on it's way so I'm glad I got the red baby doll (as Kat calls it) clean before the bad weather hits. I wiped down the leather with Meguiar's Gold Class Leather Cleaner/Conditioner while I was at it. 

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4 hours ago, ship said:

Ever since I bought my '91 Reatta (2013) I've been on the lookout for an OEM CD player but have never found one that worked.  Over this past Winter, Marck of EastCoast Reatta Parts had on sale some BUICK radio/CD players (I think they are from Buick Regals).  The radio/CD is one unit, not like the separate radio and CD that was original to Riveras and Reattas.  But these radio/CD players fit right where our '90 - '91 current radios are located...just a simple swap out.  The face is very similar to our current radios, with the added attraction of a little Bluetooth pinhole connection.  Southeastern MA had some pleasant weather one day last week, so I decided to do the radio swap.  I'm quite familiar with the dash removal process since I've done this a few times with the two '92 Rivieras I previously owned.  Marck did include removal/install and radio/CD player operating instructions with the shipment.  I removed the dash facia and HVAC/radio combo.  I swapped the old radio with the new radio/CD player and reattached it to the HVAC.  I put everything back together...easy, peesy.  Fired up the unit with a CD in play.  Because the Reatta cabin is small, the sound is unbelievably fantastic!    

Good for you Ship. I did pretty much the same but added a Kicker powered subwoofer. Great addition...

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3 minutes ago, DAVES89 said:

Good for you Ship. I did pretty much the same but added a Kicker powered subwoofer. Great addition...

That must sound incredible!

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My radio works but I rarely listen to it. I like the windows down and the wind and road noise sort of drowns out the music details. Maybe it would sound better if I had a kicker for more bass.

 

 

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I was looking to replace the 'vert's stereo as it didn't play all the speakers, so on Ebay I found a guy that reconditions stereos and found one like yours but was cassette instead of CD. Didn't matter to me as I had him set it up with Bluetooth for my wife and MP3 for me. Then Infinity speakers all around and like I said Kicker powered sub woofer. I got the Kicker idea from "Cargirl" from "over there. The reason I liked the powered subwoofer is I could wire all my Reattas with Kicker harnesses and swap the subwoofer from car to car. Because I now have one Reatta in Texas all the time I found another Kicker sub woofer for whatever Reatta is there.

 The Red has actually the best sound and I don't know what the P.O. did. The speakers are unmarked and I never had the "popping" issue so I am guessing he had the stereo rebuilt and maybe upgraded? Sounds better then any speaker system I put in any of the "winter Black" Reattas I have/had. IMHO sounds better then the 'verts which isn' hard to believe because the vert either has it's top down and sound is lost, or when the top is up doesn't have the same sound qualities.

BTW the Kicker 250 I bought were on Ebay and Craigslist. Way cheaper then the price at Walmart who carried them at the time. 

 Ship you could do the same on your Reatta and Riv [unless you have a different sound system in the Riv. Wiring is simple, power wire to the fuse box, ground in the trunk and tap into the rear speakers.

Edited by DAVES89
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I rarely if never listen to the car radio.  I do listen to CD's because I've accumulated over 300 of them over a number of years.  I have a house stereo system and my '00 Eldorado has a 12 CD unit in its' trunk.  So, I decided to add a CD player to my '91 Reatta.  I don't do blue tooth, but Diane does in our '14 Caddy ATS. 

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49 minutes ago, ship said:

I have a house stereo system

Now you are talking my language. Listening to music is my first hobby with my Reatta being a close second. I still have a lot of CDs, and I still have my vinyl record collection from the '60s and '70s. The cabinets you see in the photo are full of them.  I spend hours at a time listening to my Polk speakers at home so I guess I need a break from music when I'm in my Reatta. 🙂 

 

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And I'm the opposite. I seldom listen to music in the house, and as a matter of fact pretty much only when I am in the garage. I have just a simple am/fm radio and play it when I know I will be in the garage for some time. Otherwise no music unless I am in the car. I don't even play the stereo in my wife's car just when I by myself in my car...

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Ronnie, that is one terrific setup!!  My office is upstairs in my Cape Cod style house.  I built my Technics stacked stereo system in the knee wall section of my office along with built-in 15"X27" speakers.  The ones you have will blow you literally off your couch!!

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Thanks Dave. I have a Technics turntable. Good stuff. My vintage Polk SDA speakers were made in 1989. I searched for years before I found a pair of them. SDA (Stereo Dimensional Array) is a technology that can make the sound seem to come from outside the speakers, Sometimes I hear sounds all the way over to the green plants you see in my room. They are 16" wide and 40" tall. They are powered with a 200 watts per channel Adcom amplifier that really makes them sing. 

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Mine is headed home from storage today but this post is about the Riviera air struts. I have had the air struts for a couple decades but I never really ran air in them. I think the question from some others is what happens to them over time. The photo is my remote fill assembly I made way back when I installed them. I added 50psi and the rear of the car rose from 28.5” to 29.75” measured at the top of the wheel opening. They hold pressure moderately well but they never were perfect in that regard. Long term, they seem to hold up pretty well.

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Before I took the 'vert down to Texas I gave it the "ol 2seater carpet treatment" that means a spray dye job. Turned out really well so this week it was the Red's turn. Borrowed my neighbors "Green Machine" [hand held carpet cleaner] and cleaned the carpet and floor mats. Then mixed up a batch of dye and sprayed the carpet, wiping down the vinyl as I went. Allowed to dry and turns out great.

Another little project was I noticed while stopped in traffic [Brownsville Texas 80 plus temperatures] that my water temperature gauge would register 220 degrees which is high for a 185 thermostat. So this week I thought I would address that. I thought sure it would be the fan motor [so I never checked the relays] and pulled the fan [puller, radiator side] and and ran direct power to it off the battery, ran perfect. So I swapped relays around and now it works. However the puller fan stopped working so that confirmed the relay was bad. Had some extra relays in the parts bin, swapped in another and all is good.  

Edited by DAVES89
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  • 2 weeks later...

Shopped Rock Auto for Reatta parts in particular 1990 Reatta front strut mounts. As luck would have it they were closing out Moog front mounts for the 1990 model year at $4.99 each. Freight was $9.99.

Bought the last two...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well this morning I went out to the garage and said to myself "I know my Reatta will never be faster then 2seaters but maybe I can make it prettier". So after dyeing the carpets [a couple of weeks or so ago] I decided a little detailing was in order. So i use the "Invisible Glass" product everyone was raving about [works great] and then a wax job. Wiped down the vinyl inside so it all looks pretty good. Next week I will go under the hood and clean that next. 

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Daves89, is this your Red with 300,000 miles?

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