working to get the Jimmy back on the road

Since my dad passed away, I haven't been very motivated to work on any cars, and most of them have been sitting around - I don't have to drive to get to work, and I'd been occasionally renting cars if I really needed something to get around in - if I didn't have one that ran. I had 6 cars and nothing to drive at many points over the last 5 years.

This Jimmy has been sitting in my front yard, unmoving since at least 2014. It ceased to be able to be pushed around sometime probably in 2016, and I feared that it had drum brakes that had ceased (I never bothered to really look to see what they were- and as you can see, these are pretty dense wheels, not easily viewed with a glance), and remembering how hard that was to deal with on the '67 deVille, I always avoided dealing with it.

We live in a suburban neighborhood that is a bit older and has been chopped up and filled in over the decades, the result is portions of the neighborhood with sidewalks, and portions without. Our house does not have them, our neighbor across the street does. I park a couple of my cars off the asphalt in the dirt in front of my house because there is no where else to park once the driveway fills up (and the driveway is always filled up). This fed into my laziness, as technically I don't have to have the car registered to park there as it is on our property and not parked "on a city street" ... so it sat and sat.

Our neighbor came by one day a few weeks ago and let us know they were moving, and that seemed to be the motivation I needed to get the car moving.

Not wanting a car that didn't look very good essentially smack dap in my front yard, that might dis-sued a potential good new neighbor from buying their house - I called up a repair shop and asked them if they could work on it. they said yes, and gave me the name of a tow truck that would come tow it over to them, even though it was not currently registered. (AAA does not do this because they don't want to tow old non-running cars around - I think maybe I might just cancel the AAA membership at this point - I mean, what does it really get me?).

All Area Towing came by very quickly after I called and took it away to the shop. The car creaked out of it's slumber, and thankfully rolled, with the encouragement of a winch, slowly onto the bed of the truck.

CTS Wagon

I bought this CTS Wagon - it's not the awesome one, it has the 3.0 engine, but I needed a car that checks all the boxes, AWD, fits a large dog, something I don't have to fix, and it meets all those requirements - they don't make the fast one with AWD, and I don't like the 3.6 because of the timing belt failure it's known for (I think they pushed the power band on that engine just a bit too much).

It is an interesting and fairly rare color, Majestic Plum - a very subtle purple (I wish it was just a bit brighter - Cadillac, if you're listening tighten up your colors, and maybe offer more than 6 "colors"  each year please [black white grey and champagne are so boring!!!!, and red in the complete opposite]). I also wish it has a black or titanium interior, but instead it is the tan and brown combo.

This is the first time I've bought a new car, and I compromised so much on what I really wanted that I finally understand the why the aftermarket parts world is so huge - I have already purchased "enhancement" parts to improve the car, fog lights, a new grill that doesn't look as cheap as the stock one, cross bars for the roof rack...

Re-Starting Work on The '67 Convertible

It's been a long time since I have been able to do anything with any of my cars. But losing your storage is a very good motivator to get going on projects.

I had the '67 Cadillac DeVille Convertible towed to a mechanic I found who's shop is right down the street from my house. I like this guy, he's into old cars and knows a lot about them. When I called him after an internet search, he asked all the right questions about the car, and ran through the steps he would take on it, and they were all right, and he talked to me like I was a competent human right off the bat (a trait that is unfortunately hard to find in automotive mechanics).

His shop is tucked back from the street, and has a security gate for when he and the other guy who work in the building are not there. The shop is in town, close to where I live, and it makes me feel more comfortable to have it a bit closer to me after having it be over an hour away from me for so long.

Here's where the '67 had lived for the last 10 years, it's the one in blue. The one under the silver tarp is the '79 Coupe DeVille.

'67 DeVille on the tow truck going to the shop, notice there is no glass in the passenger side window. and most of the trim has been removed.

It's exciting to know that the car will run and drive soon.

Here's what's being done to start with:

• Brakes - so far the Check Valve for the Bendix Brake Booster has been replaced, the fluid was low (gone) in the front will probably need wheel cylinders replaced on front...
• Water Pump - on order. Single-outlet version being delivered from AZ Vintage Parts (rebuilt and ships with all gaskets and a 1-year warranty)

once those two things work, we'll see what else is wrong with it ;-)

2014 Portal Park Meet CLC

Odometer Numbers

I love when the odometer numbers line up, and am always compelled to take a photo when ever I see it. Here I am at 133333 miles on the Datsun, with an added bonus of 22.2 trip miles at the same time.

Sold the 944

We were doing some yard work and had the garage door open when a guy stopped in front of the house and asked if the Porsche was for sale... So it went to a new temporary home of a guy who was going to fix it and turn it around for a profit. He paid me $1000 for it, not bad considering I paid $3800 and got 5 solid years of use out of it, and only put about $1000 into it over that time.
I will miss it, it's been a fun little car, but honestly, I'll never get around to fixing it before all the other cars I need to fix...and they are still cars that are able to be picked up for relatively little money, I can get another one if I want it, maybe one without the peanut butter color interior.

1983 Datsun (by Nissan) 280zx

I bought this today. I wasn't planning on it, but I've wanted one of these since I was in high school.
It's in very good condition, though the dealership did a clean up on it, so I'm sure there are some problems that have a band-aid solution applied to them, that I will discover later.

• Silver 280zx turbo
• Automatic 3-speed (boo, but it will force me to drive slow)
• Talking Lady
• 125,000 miles
• T-tops!

Bring A Trailer.com

nice site that finds cars for you...

http://bringatrailer.com/

Portal Park Meet, Cupertino - 7/24/11

 

Eldos

 

Cleaning up the 67 Eldo

This weekend is our local Cadillac club's annual judged show, so I took took the boxes off the 67 eldo, topped off the fluids, fired it up and drove it around a bit today to make sure it is working OK. It passed the test stops starts, and is driving fine.

Things that need to be done:

- Drivers side window needs to be fixed - won't roll up
- Dash lights and rear parking lights are not working
- Vacuum hoses need to be replaced for headlamp covers (and probably other places too)
- Fuel Filter (in tank)
- New dash installed
- Radio installed
- Antennae fixed (won't go down)

Things that I'll need to get to eventually
- New Carpet
- Paint
-Weatherstripping
-Trunk Carpet

Air Conditioning

California has figured out yet another way to squeeze money out of us. They have passed a law that requires air conditioning containers to be refillable and tacked a $10 deposit onto them, which you can only get back within 90 days.

I went through 4 of these containers in the process of trying to get the air in the Jimmy to work.

The first one leaked out pretty much immediately out of one of the fittings after the hoses were disconnected. So I bought a new fitting.

After most of the second can was half in the in the car, we had the car running and air cycling, when I noticed that when the air cycled, some gas was leaking out of the cap over the fitting. Tightening it did not get rid of the leak completely, so we has to let all the gas out to remove the fitting to put teflon tape over the threads.

Third can went in OK, and it needed most of can four as well.

new car

This is the dog car I've been driving around. It's a 2001 GMC Jimmy 2-door five-speed. My dad purchased it in Florida, and since it's 2001, it's already CA smog approved. He is letting me drive it since none of my cars are fully operational. The dog loves it.

944 overheats and won't start

Got stuck at the nursery today when the 944 wouldn't start and then overheated.

Jackets made of Cadillac Seats

 

PLATINUM DIRT LEATHER VIN JACKETS™ 
BUILT WITH RECLAIMED LEATHER FROM VINTAGE AUTOS

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Cadillacs at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV part 3

Cadillacs at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV pert 2

Saw this one leave the show it sounded NICE.


'59 at the ditzler booth


another '59 at the ditzler booth

Cadillacs at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, NV

1939 LaSalle with a Northstar engine

1939 LaSalle with a Northstar engine

1980's Limo

1954 Cadillac with Northstar Engine

CTS Sedan

Registration!

I finally got the 944 registered today went to the DMV with an appointment, and while it didn't take very long to register the 944, the woman behind the counter double-charged me for registering the 67 vert.



It was non-op last year, and I handed her the slip for the new year and said 'let's take care of this one too while I'm here'... and ran the credit card thing, and I looked at it and said why is it so much? and she said you have to push the button or it won't go through!, so I pushed the button to save her extra work.Then, she printed out the reciept for the 67 vert, and she charged me for the last week and a half of this non-op year! I asked her why and she said well I assumed you wanted to run it today, and I said why would I wait almost a year, and then pay for the whole thing a week before it was renewed. and she said "that's just assumed" and I said, no it's not, you should ASK.

And guess what that best part is, you have to MAIL in a request for a refund. Next time I'll be going to AAA to do my DMV work.

SF Cadillac mailing list group meet & oil change

We had our annual meet at the San Pablo Reservoir today, I arrived late because when I checked the oil in the '67 eldo before I left the house, it was really low and overdue for a change. So instead of wasting oil topping it off only to change it, I changed it before the meet.

Ironstone concourse