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My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

Started by MaR, December 08, 2018, 07:14:12 PM

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MaR

When I was a teen a few decades ago, I had a '74 Coupe deVille. I did a few things to it but was never able to really restore it and quickly rusted away into oblivion (it was quite rusty to start out with). While I had that car, I acquired a 1974 full line dealer brochure and in it was a Cranberry Firemist Eldorado convertible with a white top and white/dark cranberry interior. I really, really like that car and that color but a McDonalds salary would not cut it for anything like that, let alone finding one in the pre internet days. A few weeks ago I was perusing the ebay listings for mid '70s Caddys and a rough but complete '74 Cranberry Firemist Eldorado Convertible popped up for sale. The story was that it had been sitting in a barn for the last 20 years and it had 50k miles. I bid on it and won the auction and based on the pictures, I assumed that it was more like 150k miles, not 50k. Here are a few pics from the listing:













It took a few weeks to get it shipped but once I arrived I gave it a good look over. The body is solid with very little rust at all, the engine starts with ease, and the dash is not cracked at all but that was about all that was good. The top (as you can see in the pics) is completely shot, the upholstery is dead, the carpet need to be replaced, the paint looks as if it could be buffed out but the passenger side door and rear quarter have been painted at some point and that paint is cracked and peeling. It would move under its own power but just. The absolute worst part though was that the key in buzzer was stuck and would not stop buzzing, even with the car off and the keys in your pocket. Over all though, it's a solid car that should be easy to restore.

DeVille68

damn! This is going to need a lot of work!  >:( 8)
Can you do the work yourself? I would recommend it, because otherwise things will get expensive I think!

Here are a few things I would do:
Go through the engine and change all fluids and filters. Engine oil, engine filter, flush the coolant, transmission oil and filter. Rear end oil. Power steering fluid.
Check for vacuum leaks. Replace the brake fluid. Suck out all the fluid and clean the reservoir.

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

MaR

Quote from: DeVille68 on December 09, 2018, 03:58:01 AM
damn! This is going to need a lot of work!  >:( 8)
Can you do the work yourself? I would recommend it, because otherwise things will get expensive I think!

Here are a few things I would do:
Go through the engine and change all fluids and filters. Engine oil, engine filter, flush the coolant, transmission oil and filter. Rear end oil. Power steering fluid.
Check for vacuum leaks. Replace the brake fluid. Suck out all the fluid and clean the reservoir.

Best regards,
Nicolas
I can do it all myself. Right now, I'm just making it road worthy. I started with the brakes as they felt as if they were dragging. To my surprise, the rear brakes were the factory components. The rear passenger side had a leaking wheel cylinder and the shoes were worn to the rivets long ago. I was able to save the drum and finish the brake job. The rear drivers side was in much better shape with the shoes just getting to the rivets and no leaks. The front passenger caliper was completely seized and the hose was clogged up. The front drivers side was OK but I replaced the caliper and the hose since I was in there. Both outer CV joint boots were long gone and both of the axle assemblies were the factory units. I replaced axles but kept the old ones as I think they salvageable. The front shock were completely worn out and replaced. All the ball joints, tire rod ends, and bearings were fine, as well as the rear wheel bearings. I pulled the dust covers off the rear hubs and the factory grease was still in place. The only non factory installed parts I have found on the car so far have been normal wear items. It even had an LR78-15 tire on one of the wheels. My current task is to do a general tune up, replace the degraded vacuum lines and fix some of the more obnoxious fluid leaks. The carburetor most likely need to be freshened up as sitting for a few decades probably did nothing great for it.

DeVille68

good! It seems you have worked on an old car before!  8)

Best regards,
Nicolas
1968 Cadillac DeVille Convertible (silver pine green)

Cape Cod Fleetwood

"Would you like fries with that?"

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Glad you got your dream car! Absolutely do ALL the mechanicals first, it has to roll safely
and reliably. Then its just finding parts for the exterior and interior. If you can replace the roof, do
the body work and paint, replace the seats, carpets etc yourself you're really winning.
If you'll need a body shop to do it, contact one NOW and get on their list. Most good
body shops are backed up 6 months to a year or more.

Good luck and keep posting updates with pics!

\m/
Laurie
There are 2 kinds of cars in the world, Cadillac and everything else....

The Present -1970 Fleetwood Brougham

The Past -
1996 Deville Concours
1987 Sedan De Ville "Commonwealth Edition"
1981 Coupe De Ville (8-6-4)
1976 Sedan De Ville
1975 Sedan De Ville

The Daily Driver and work slave -
2008 GMC Acadia SLT *options/all

MaR

Quote from: MaR on December 09, 2018, 12:12:57 PM
I can do it all myself. Right now, I'm just making it road worthy. I started with the brakes as they felt as if they were dragging. To my surprise, the rear brakes were the factory components. The rear passenger side had a leaking wheel cylinder and the shoes were worn to the rivets long ago. I was able to save the drum and finish the brake job. The rear drivers side was in much better shape with the shoes just getting to the rivets and no leaks. The front passenger caliper was completely seized and the hose was clogged up. The front drivers side was OK but I replaced the caliper and the hose since I was in there. Both outer CV joint boots were long gone and both of the axle assemblies were the factory units. I replaced axles but kept the old ones as I think they salvageable. The front shock were completely worn out and replaced. All the ball joints, tire rod ends, and bearings were fine, as well as the rear wheel bearings. I pulled the dust covers off the rear hubs and the factory grease was still in place. The only non factory installed parts I have found on the car so far have been normal wear items. It even had an LR78-15 tire on one of the wheels. My current task is to do a general tune up, replace the degraded vacuum lines and fix some of the more obnoxious fluid leaks. The carburetor most likely need to be freshened up as sitting for a few decades probably did nothing great for it.
Yea, making it a function car is my first priority right now. I much prefer making things shiny and new but right now I'm sticking with drivetrain and letting other things wait. I was able to get the top go down. The previous owner said that it would just bind up half way but the real problem was that when they replace a broken drive cable, they go the two side gear boxes out of sync. I got them close enough back in sync, tightened up a few loose pivots and greased the whole thing and it folded up probably for the first time in decades. I also pulled one of the extra leaky valve covers and found almost zero build up. I really do think that this is a 50k mile car now.

MaR

I manage to acquire something that I have wanted to put in a Coupe deVille or an Eldorado for a long time:




A Fleetwood Talisman center console. I will reupholster and fit it when I do the rest of the interior.

Highwayman68

Welcome to the forum, you are obviously driven with passion which nice to have here. Wow you are on a fast roll with this. You found the best group to help you with questions on how to make repairs and where to find what you are looking for.

I will be the first to tell you as several other will too shortly, get a shop manual in both paper and digital, they are on ebay cheap and you will need it. The CD version is easier to search and the paper is convenient to have at the car.
1968 Fleetwood Purchased in 1981

MaR

Quote from: Highwayman68 on December 13, 2018, 09:23:09 AM
Welcome to the forum, you are obviously driven with passion which nice to have here. Wow you are on a fast roll with this. You found the best group to help you with questions on how to make repairs and where to find what you are looking for.

I will be the first to tell you as several other will too shortly, get a shop manual in both paper and digital, they are on ebay cheap and you will need it. The CD version is easier to search and the paper is convenient to have at the car.
Way ahead of you on that; I already have the shop manual and the body manual. I found out long ago that having the proper information as well as the proper tools goes a long way to being about to just about anything. I was able to get all the windows to finally roll down also. I was hoping that none of the window motors were bad as they can be difficult to extract. Turns out that the master power window button was corroded and full of dirt. It cleaned up nicely and now all four windows at least move.

Cadillac Fleetwood

Congratulations on great find, and realizing your dream. And what a wonderful color combination, too!

PM sent.

Charles Fares
Forty-Five Years of Continuous Cadillac Ownership
1970 Fleetwood Brougham
1969 DeVille Convertible
1989 Fleetwood

"The splendor of the most special occasion is rivaled only by the pleasure of journeying there in a Cadillac"

MaR

I had some time over the holidays to put some time in on the car. As I had said previously, I had already addressed the leaking valve covers. I also did the distributor cap and rotor, as well as the plugs and wires. The next big thing was the carburetor. It was leaking badly from just about any place that fuel could leak from so it had to be rebuilt.



All of that dampness was from running it for just a few minutes. It also smelled strongly of fuel.



Your standard dirty, leaky carb.





Decades of sitting had left sediment in the float bowl and on the needle valves.



After cleaning and reassembly.



The transmission kickdown switch was seized up and broken so I left it off (for now) as well as the anti-dieseling solenoid. There was a service bulletin that came out in'74 that said that the solenoid was not really needed at all so I will probably just leave it off. It runs much better now and I was also able to replace several rotted vacuum lines.

MaR

Next on the agenda was the hood hinges. I did not get many pics of this part but this one should say it all:



The previous owner had tried their hand at fixing the worn hinge by drilling out the rivets and replacing the with bolts. Not a horrible train of thought but the bolts were not even starting to be tightened down enough before the nuts were welded. On top of that, they did not fix the elongated holes and stopped after the first two rivets. Needless to say, closing the hood was a two person job. The replacement hinges did the job and now the hood shuts just fine.

MaR

Now on to the big job. The doors on both sides were sagging and the drivers side had a bad pin on the bottom hinge. Aligning the doors is a pain (at least for me) and I was not looking forward to doing this. It's almost impossible to move the doors around with the front fender on the car so I just started by taking the fender off. I started on the passenger side.





It was surprisingly rust free under the fender, so I was happy about that.





Even down at the bottom and under the hinge had nothing more than a little surface rust.





The fender was another story though...




I sat the fender aside and decided to pull out all the old seam sealer on the A pillar/firewall seam. The stuff that was applied at the factory failed years ago and it took nothing more than just touching it for it to fall out in large chunks. I had it all out in half an hour or so.



I'm not sure what that stamp was for so I just took a pic of it...




I put new seam sealer over all the seams that would be under the fender.




And then hit it with some custom spray paint I had mixed up in the correct body color.





Back to the fender. I cut out the rust, made a masking tape template, and then transfered it to some new sheet metal.





I fitted the patch panel, welded it in place, primed it, and then gave it a few coats of the body color to keep it nice until I can paint the car properly. It's not perfect but it will be just fine as the rocker panel trim covers the area completely. I finished the door alignment and bolted it back on the car.




The side marker/turning light lens was broken out so I sourced a replacement lens and polished it. It turned out good as new.



The battery tray was rusty (as expected) so I cleaned it up and gave it a coat of POR15. That should keep the rust at bay until I can take things apart further.




I found it interesting that all the headlights were still the factory Guide Power Beam bulbs.




The drivers side was the same as the passenger side with the exception of there being no rust at all on the fender. That saved a days worth of work right there. Both doors are aligned with the rear quarters now and they both close much easier. There is a problem with the passenger door though. It has been sideswiped at some point in it's history and the door was re-skinned. When they did it, the frame was not fixed properly and the crown in the middle of the door where the body molding is mounted is too flat. This makes the door fit flush at the top and bottom, but not in the middle. I will just replace the entire door shell at some point before I paint the car.



MaR

I had a bit more time so I decided that I needed to get the old carpet and padding out. It was unfortunate that the carpet is not salvageable because it's a one year only color and I doubt that I will be able to buy a reproduction molded carpet in the correct color.




I did save a few good sized chunks of the carpet that were under various things so I had a good reference of the color. Under the carpet were layer after layer of nasty, smelly padding and dampening materials. I would say that it was at least 100lbs of stuff I took out. I'll have more pics of the floor pan and the heat shielding/acoustic materials that I put back in a later post. Right now, I'm trying to find a suitable color for the replacement carpet. I may even look at dying the carpet myself if need be.

cadillacjack

Mitchell,

Congratulations on your purchase.  You are really going to town on that Eldorado.   This might be a good source for your carpet. 

https://smsautofabrics.com/

MaR

Quote from: cadillacjack on January 02, 2019, 06:59:49 PM
Mitchell,

Congratulations on your purchase.  You are really going to town on that Eldorado.   This might be a good source for your carpet. 

https://smsautofabrics.com/
I already tried them, they just sell ACC molded carpets like everybody else. I have a few sample from ACC that could pass for OK, but all of them are on the burgundy side (brown tinted) rather than the cranberry color (purple tinted) the factory carpet is.

Cape Cod Fleetwood

Holy Cow... that was some good holiday thrashing.

\m/
Laurie
There are 2 kinds of cars in the world, Cadillac and everything else....

The Present -1970 Fleetwood Brougham

The Past -
1996 Deville Concours
1987 Sedan De Ville "Commonwealth Edition"
1981 Coupe De Ville (8-6-4)
1976 Sedan De Ville
1975 Sedan De Ville

The Daily Driver and work slave -
2008 GMC Acadia SLT *options/all

MaR

I really hate rusty brackets and other parts on the inside of the car. I really feel like they are one of the things that gives a neglected old car that "smell" that everyone here knows about.









These parts are various brackets from the rear sides of the car and the floor pan plugs. All of them has some (or a lot) of rust and needed to be cleaned, primed and painted.








After sandblasting. All of the parts are now clean and rust free.



Everything primed with self etching primer.




And everything painted with black paint. After I refresh the rear quarter windows I will put all of these parts back in.

MaR

I also managed to acquire a pair of OEM rear fender extensions. I had an ABS reproduction on the passenger side and I was not terribly pleased with how it fit.






Here is the ABS unit. The bumper is out of adjustment a bit and that is why the vertical section is pushed all the way to one side but the reproduction piece is the wrong contour in some areas, too short in others, and completely the wrong shape in places.





The OEM part fits much better with virtually no adjustments needed. I do need to shift the entire bumper to the drivers side about 3/16" or so though.

chrisntam

As has been said, pretty impressive work, good job on getting after it and getting it done.

When you finish, can you move to Dallas so we can become friends!?!?!?!

You make it look easy!!

chris.
1970 Deville Convertible 
Dallas, Texas