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For Sale: 1967 Cadillac Eldorado

Started by 67_Eldo, December 13, 2017, 05:06:50 PM

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rollerball

No matter how you slice it....almost anything you can do will be more expensive than buying a really good 67 Eldorado in the first place. I would buy a "new" one and keep the old one as a parts car. Or you find one with a decent body but with bad mechanical condition and swap parts.

Or you just patch things up with POR15 and drive the shit out of it. It can be a very liberating feeling to drive a classic car that you do not have to baby because it is flawed anyway....i can tell you that once the car is perfect it becomes a pain to drive it because you always think of rock chips, etc.

67_Eldo

I think the buy-a-"new"-one route is the one I'm going to take.

Then, as I pull the excellent parts off of my old car, I can sell items like the QJet for $10k, the disc-brake rotors for $15k (each) and so on until I'm neighbors with Bill Gates!

I'll thank some eBay sellers for the insane-greed-income-scheme idea.

rollerball

Buying a good "new" one in the first place -even for a relative high price- is ALWAYS the cheapest way....

67_Eldo

I thought I was buying a good one. But if the seller consistently misrepresents the condition of the auto, the issue isn't as black and white -- black vinyl over Grecian White in my case -- as it seems.

BJM

Quote from: rollerball on January 03, 2018, 03:18:10 PM
Buying a good "new" one in the first place -even for a relative high price- is ALWAYS the cheapest way....

Thomas
Your statement is a well worn statement by most folks in the hobby.  It's a safe choice to say to buy the best one you can afford.  I have never had more than $6000 or so to buy a car, and that usually buys an Eldorado with issues. 

I came close on a 69 Eldorado in Minnesota honestly described last year - for $4500, with 88K miles.

Instead I waited and bought something else, money gone.  Then when my current full on project 68 Eldorado came up, I paid $500 for it but have a LOT of work, which constitutes fun work for me, ahead.

Two sides to each coin.  If you ask a 30 something with kids, mortgage, and all the debts of modern life to "buy the best car, a new car" then they are going to be saving for years and need to see the kids out of the house before thinking about that car. 

This is not a slam on your comment.  I see a lot of salt and pepper haired retirees that worked HARD for 25-30 years to get a street rod or muscle car with their 401k or pension.  Restoration is not for everyone.  For me, to not get my 68 would likely have meant this SO car would never be restored. 

I can chip away at it for a few years without a huge outlay of cashola, as opposed to saving my money until age 70 and buying a car. 

No right or wrong answer.  There was an ad on the AACA Buy/Sell selling a 1940 Packard that was a gift from a wife to the husband and the reason for the sale is the husband has terminal cancer. 

In my 3 owned collector cars I have a mix. A nice driver convertible, a driver car that needs restoration but runs and drives and this trainwreck of an Eldorado.  So when the Eldorado gets frustrating I can hop in one of the other cars. 

Hang in there 67 Eldo!

DeVille68

Keep it. Love it, Work on it, learn with it. Drive it, have fun. It is your car.

Look at my restoration blog http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=130360.0, if have spent thousands of hours and money on my car. Is it better than those shown at the GN? No, but it is my hobby. Somehow you need to get rid of your money to experience something you like. And I learned so much in the process. I met so many nice people. I even travel to the GN's to visit my friends that I would never have met if I had sold the car too early.

Start doing your work by yourself. Don't pay any shop anymore.

My driver side floor is completely rusted away - do I care? No, because it is not a structural piece. I put the carpet back and keep it that way until I have the time and money to fix it.
Both of my doors are completely surface rusted inside - do I care? No, because it is not a structural piece. I fixed all weatherstripping and put some rust preventing grease on all surfaces.
The front pow of my convertible top is rusted completely - do I care? No, because it is still structural ok. I fixed all weatherstripping and added POR 15.
My car had a side accident where every panel on the driver side from front to rear was dented - do I care? No, because it is not a structural piece and it was fixed ok. They did put some bondo on it, but the work was done good. (I knew this at the time I bough the car).


In short - put the car back together!
Maybe teach yourself in welding, weld in some metal for fixing the roof. Go to a top shop and ask if you can do the work yourself with some guidance. I usually ask them to give the work to a trainee and I assist and help. So you can learn something, you are there and you can check that stuff is done properly.

Best regards,
Nicolas

1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

67_Eldo

Thanks Nicolas! I will probably follow your recipe.

I was taking a body class last semester to learn the finer points of (modern) body work. Alas, the main instructor of the class thinks the car is so not worth any additional effort that he didn't want to see it again. So if he doesn't relent in a few weeks, I'll truly be working on my own ... as soon as the weather heats up.

I was going to do the mechanical work myself, except for the tasks that really benefit from heavy or specialized tools. Unfortunately a perfect storm of events, triggered by an unexpected transmission failure, prompted third parties to bust my budget all to pieces.

But whenever it is above 50 degrees (F), I take it out for a 50-mile drive. At $3 a gallon, that's a $15 excursion, but it feels good! :-)