Howard Gribble's 1966 Buick Riviera - Uneasy Rider

In 1968, lowrider enthusiast Howard Gribble of Torrance, California set out to build the ultimate showpiece. Starting with a nearly-new 1966 Buick Riviera, he transformed it into The Uneasy Rider, a radical custom with shaved handles, a full lift setup by Dick Saller, Skylark wires, and one of Bill Carter's finest paint jobs. This photo captures the Riviera shortly after completion, ready to cruise and conquer the car show circuit. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Howard Gribble's 1967 Chevrolet Impala, the lowrider he sold in 1968 to finance the purchase of his dream car, a 1966 Buick Riviera. While the Impala was a show-worthy cruiser, Howard wanted a car he didn't have to drive daily, and the Riviera offered the perfect canvas for a full custom. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Walt Prey applying his distinctive signature to the Uneasy Rider in March of 1969. The "T" in "Walt" was crossed with a minuscule hand holding a striping brush. Walt had previously striped Howard’s Impala and reunited with him at Bill Carter’s Van Nuys shop for the Riviera project. The fuchsia and silver Metalflake paint job with black veiling was applied by Bill Carter, with Walt adding his signature striping to finish off one of Carter’s best paint jobs. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Howard flashing a peace sign next to The Uneasy Rider in 1969. In the background sits the VW Beetle he bought as a daily driver, allowing him to preserve the Riviera as a dedicated show car. With shaved handles, Skylark wires, and bold black veiling over silver metalflake, the Riviera was far from practical, and exactly how Howard wanted it. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

“Buick Skylark wheels were a must for a lowrider Rivie,” Howard stated in 2020. The mid-1950s Buick Skylark wires were rare and hard to find, but essential for the perfect lowrider stance. Howard tracked down a set, had them chromed and laced by Joe Worsey in Signal Hill, and topped them off with Riviera “R” medallions for the finishing touch. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

The Uneasy Rider sitting low on a single-pump hydraulic system installed by Dick Saller in South Gate. Installed late in 1968, the setup ran on one battery and operated with a single switch, lifting the rear first, then the front due to the car’s weight balance. “When you put it down, the front end would fall first, and then the back end,” Howard recalled. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Low, laid-back, and loving it. Howard behind the wheel of The Uneasy Rider in full cruising mode. The Riviera might’ve been built for the spotlight, but moments like this were what it was all about. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

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The first car show Howard attended with the Buick was an R.G. Canning show up in Bakersfield, about 100 miles north of Torrance. Howard made the winter trek with Rudy and Linda Reyes and their 1965 Chevrolet Impala, the Choosy Beggar, driving through snow over the Cajon Pass. “So our two cars were kind of an oddity,” Howard laughed. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Taken in April of 1969, about a month after the Riviera rolled out of Bill Carter’s paint shop, The Uneasy Rider was more than just a show car. Howard showed it extensively, but he also cruised the boulevards with friends like Allen Duke and his Bloody Mary Impala. One Sunday evening on Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington, a group of Northern European sailors watched in awe as Howard dropped the front and then the rear. “The car is broken,” Allen joked. The men laughed, having just witnessed California lowrider culture in motion. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

The Uneasy Rider on display at an indoor car show, flanked by two other Walt Prey masterpieces — Dave Prey's 1963 Chevrolet Impala Cherry Heering and the seaweed-flamed 1955 Chevrolet known as Peaches and Cream. Though this photo was likely taken at a different venue, Howard vividly remembered the politics of the show scene at the time. After entering both the Great Western show and Gary Canning's Tridents show, he was told he couldn’t show the Riviera at the latter because it had already appeared at the former. “The night we were moving into the Great Western show, I looked up, and I saw Gary Canning and his Tridents buddies walking through… I figured it might be trouble.” Sure enough, the rejection letter followed. Howard couldn’t care less. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

The Uneasy Rider parked in front of the Long Beach Arena, one of Southern California’s premier indoor car show venues during the 1960s and ’70s. From legendary custom builds to lowrider debuts, this arena saw it all. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

The Uneasy Rider on display next to Allen Duke's Bloody Mary at an R.G. Canning indoor show in Long Beach, circa 1970–1971. Both cars were fixtures of the SoCal lowrider scene. Two friends, two customs, and a pair of unforgettable paint jobs under the arena lights. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

By 1971, The Uneasy Rider had changed hands. Pictured here outside a garage in Southern California, the Riviera was now owned by Danny Jones of Wilmington. Howard had sold the car earlier that year after shifting his focus away from custom cars. “I started getting interested in other things,” he recalled. Danny would eventually trade the Riviera for Allen Duke's Bloody Mary, which at the time was owned by two brothers from the San Fernando Valley. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Captured at an indoor show at the L.A. Sports Arena after the Riviera had been traded for Bloody Mary, this photo marks the last time Howard saw The Uneasy Rider. What happened to the car after this remains a mystery. More customs, and even a hot rod, would follow, but Howard still holds a special place in his heart for his early lowriders. Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

Photo from The Howard Gribble Collection.

In 2020, more than 50 years after it rolled out of Bill Carter’s paint shop, The Uneasy Rider finally received the spotlight it deserved in print. Howard Gribble’s Riviera was featured in the Kustomrama Korner of Sweden’s Gasoline Magazine, preserving its legacy for a new generation of custom car enthusiasts.

Featured Story - Hydraulic Lifted Cars

1966 Buick Riviera owned by lowrider enthusiast and photographer Howard Gribble of Torrance, California. In 1968, Howard traded his 1967 Chevrolet Impala for what he considered the crown jewel of lowriders at the time — a 1966 Buick Riviera. “It was only about a year old, and already I was tired of it,” Howard told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama about the Impala in 2020. “By the time I was selling the Impala, I was already thinking about a Riviera because they were such good-looking cars.”

A Purpose-Built Show Car

The Impala was Howard’s first real lowrider. It was also his only car, so it was driven daily. Having put nearly all his money into the Impala, he ended up being worried about driving it around. Worried about parking it unattended at work or at the shopping mall. The Riviera was going to be a dedicated custom. A real show car, and Howard did not intend to drive it as his everyday car. So after selling the Impala, he bought a VW Beetle he could use as his everyday driver.

“I liked particularly the ‘66 and the ‘67,” Howard told Kustomrama. It was gonna be a used car. It was only a year or two old, so it was basically new anyway. “I started looking for one in the papers, and I eventually found one up in West Los Angeles. At a dealership.” The Buick Howard found was all white with a black interior. He bought it in September or October of 1968, a couple of months after he had sold the Impala. He had to pay around 3000 dollars for the Riviera. More than he got for the Impala, so Howard had to save up a bit before he had enough money to finally buy the car.

Hydraulics by Dick Saller

The Riviera was stock, and Howard recalled buying it on a Friday. He didn’t waste any time, and the following Monday or Tuesday, he was on his way to Dick Saller to have hydraulic lifts installed. At the time, Dick was running a shop somewhere around South Gate. Prior to that, he had operated Dick & Ron's Custom together with his buddy Ron Jones. Dick and Ron had a good reputation, and Howard believed they did more lifts than anyone in the area back in those days. “Dick lifted my Riviera late in 1968.” By then, he was working on his own, and having the lifts installed took about a month. There was one pump, and it was run by one battery, so the car came up slower than the Impala, which ran two batteries and 24 volts. “It had one switch, so when you raised it, the back end would come up first, and then the front end because of the weight. Then when you put it down, the front end would fall first, and then the back end.”

Howard also had Dick block the car out, primer it, and get it ready for paint. He believes he paid him an extra 75 dollars to do that. “Dick also shaved the door handles and removed whatever chrome was on the hood.” Solenoids to open the doors were installed, along with door poppers that he placed in the front wheel wells. Howard paid right around 500 bucks to have the lifts installed.

Custom Paint by Bill Carter

Whenever you take a car to a painter and someone else has prepared it, they don’t like it, and they want to do it again. That was also the case here. Around December of 68, Howard brought the primered Riviera to Bill Carter at Carter Pro Paint in Van Nuys for a custom paint job. Howard had been in touch with Walt Prey ever since he pinstriped the Impala. Back then, Walt was working with Dave Kent. He had now moved on and was working with Carter, so that’s how the Riviera ended up in his shop. Howard and Carter talked about the design, and Carter had an idea about what he wanted to do. He suggested a Fuschia and Silver Metalflake panel paint job with black veilings over the silver. Howard liked the idea, but he wasn’t sure about how the veiling would turn out. “I had seen other cars with veiling on it, but I think I thought that we didn’t really need the veiling over the silver. Carter seemed to wanna do it, and it turned out that he was right. It looked better that way. It was really distinctive.” Veiling is more or less random swirls applied with a special spray gun. A decorative technique said to have been borrowed from manufacturers of household furnishings and first used on cars by Larry Watson. The paint job was completed around March of 1969, and Howard recalled that Carter charged 400 for the job. He also had to pay Walt a little extra for the pinstriping. “They were working out of the same shop, but their businesses were separate.” Satisfied with the result, Howard believes that the paint job Carter laid on his Rivie was one of his best paint jobs.

Skylark Wheels and Custom Touches

When it came to the wheels, Howard wanted Skylark wheels because it was a Buick. “They just seemed like the right wheels for it.” Skylark wheels were rare, and they only rolled on the limited Buick Skylark model from the mid-1950s. Howard had no idea where to get a set. “I went to Mr. M. He didn’t have em, because they were not in production then.” As luck would have it, Mike knew a guy who had five wheels. “He said I would need five because some of the spokes might be broken.” Howard believed he paid 175 dollars for the five wheels, “and they were kind of rusty, you know.” After disassembly and chroming, the pieces were taken to a specialist in Signal Hill to be "laced". A considerable cost, but it was all worth it for a classy lowrider Rivie. Howard still recalled the name of the specialist, Joe Worsey, and he remembered him telling him that he took the wheels home at night, lacing them while he was watching TV. Within a couple of years, several clones of varying quality would be available on the market. When Howard got the wheels back, he discovered that the center of the hubcap that was on the car when he got it was a round black medallion that had an R on it for Riviera. If he took that off the hubcap, it fit right in the hub of the wire wheels. “Perfect!” He ran tires with dual white stripes. “Those were the tires that came with the car. I thought they looked pretty good, so I just kept them.”

The Uneasy Rider

“I got my wheels on, and then I was ready to go,” Howard recalled. Shown as "The Uneasy Rider," the first car show Howard attended with the Buick was an R.G. Canning show up in Bakersfield. About 100 miles North of Torrance. He brought the Riviera up along with Rudy and Linda Reyes and their 1965 Chevrolet Impala known as "Choosy Beggar." It was winter, and they had to drive the cars through some snow over the Cajon Pass. When they finally arrived, Howard recalled that they were kind of strangers in town, and they didn’t have many lowriders or customs in the show. “So our two cars were kind of an oddity,” he chuckled.

The next show for the Riviera was one that Bob Schremp put on at the Great Western Exhibit Center down in East Los Angeles. Bob was a competitor of Gary Canning and his popular Tridents indoor car show. Howard had entered both shows, and he had also been accepted to show his car at both. The Great Western show was around April, while the Tridents show was a couple of weeks later. “The night we were moving into the Great Western show, I looked up, and I saw Gary Canning and his Tridents buddies walking through. They were looking around at the cars in the show, and I figured it might be trouble.” Sure enough, pretty soon, Howard got a letter in the mail that said that he couldn’t bring his car to the Tridents show because he had shown the car at the Great Western show. Howard couldn’t care less.

Boulevard Cruising and Nightlife

Howard owned the Riviera for two or three years. It was built for shows, and he showed it more than the Impala, but he also cruised the boulevards with it. “I went to Harvey's and the A&W. Cruised the different boulevards and got around,” he assured Sondre. Not as often as he wanted, though, as he still had to work night shifts and weekends to pay for all the fun. He had become good friends with Allen Duke, and they used to cruise the streets of the LA area with their cars. Allen in his Bloody Mary Impala, and Howard in his Riviera. “One time I was cruising down Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington,” Howard told Kustomrama. “Allen and I. Wilmington is part of the port of Los Angeles. There are San Pedro, Long Beach, and Wilmington, and they all have docks there and ships coming from all over the world loading and unloading. Anyway. We were driving down Avalon Boulevard on a Sunday evening. The sun was already down, and I saw these guys walking down the sidewalk. They were looking at my car, and I’m pretty sure that they were part of a crew on a ship. They looked like they were Northern Europeans. From somewhere in Germany or Scandinavia. They had probably never seen a car like the Riviera, and that was something crazy to them. I stopped at a stoplight, and they were looking it over. It was three or four of em at least. So I said, “OK. Watch this Allen.” I let down the front of the car and then the back of the car. Allen then looked out of the window. He looked at the back. He looked at the front. And he looked at the guys and he said; “The car is broken.” Howard chuckled. “He said. “It fell down!” Then I raised it back up, and those guys just laughed. They realized that it was kind of a joke. But I’m sure they didn’t know why this car was doing this. You know, people outside California didn’t know much about lowriders back then.”

Mechanical Woes and Final Days

Unfortunately, Howard actually ran into some problems with the Riviera. After buying it, he found out that the wiring was all messed up. “I think it had had a fire.” Later on, the engine blew up. Howard suspected that the car was probably a car that somebody had abused before it was sold to him. “It was only a couple of years old when I got it, but I don’t know what had happened to it before that.” In addition to this, Howard was also having problems with leaking hydraulic fluids. A normal problem with lifted cars, but not something that Howard hadn’t experienced with the Impala.

The Riviera became Howard’s last specialty car for a while. “I started getting interested in other things.” He moved on to other pursuits and sold the Riviera to Danny Jones of Wilmington, California sometime around 1971. Howard met Danny through Allen, and he was one of the guys from down there. Danny owned it for a while before he ended up trading it for Allen Duke's Bloody Mary. At the time, Bloody Mary was owned by two brothers from the San Fernando Valley area. In 2020, Howard recalled seeing the car at least once in a show after Danny sold it; after that, he has no idea what happened to it. More customs, and even rods, would follow, but Howard still has a soft spot in his heart for his early lowriders.