'67 Eldo Broken

Last night I pulled the most bonehead move ever.

'67 eldo fixed

Well, part of it anyway... I haven't been driving it because the battery cable was not connected properly and was dangerous to be using, and was difficult to start from the lack of proper battery connection. I've been trying to find a new battery cable, but no luck. I went to Pep Boys last night; they didn't have the one I needed either ( a 2 gauge 72" or 78" cable).

What they DID have was a new battery cable clamp/attacher thing.



I installed that last night, and now it starts right up no problems! Yay! I drove it to work today, and I haven't really been driving it since the muffler was replaced, but I could actually have a conversation on my phone and hear the other person on the line! Even in the tunnel! My car is awesome.

Shipping Sucks

I wanted to order a battery cable from RockAuto for the Eldo, but the shipping is just as much as the cable, and it's got a 15 day wait to ship. blah... I'm going to try PepBoys tonight after work.

New Dash!

I got a new dash for the convertible this weekend! It's in great shape, I'll need to have it dyed to go with the interior(it's black right now). I'm going to try to sell the old one on ebay, we'll see what I can get for it, it's got a quarter-sized hole on the top, but is in decent shape other than that.



I also forgot to bring the starter with me to the convertible, so didn't install it. Maybe next Monday, since it's a holiday weekend...I really need to get it going so I can get the work done on it. I will try to talk to the place near my work that looks like they do body work to see if they can fix the sheet metal.

I was looking at my '79 this weekend, and I think the vinyl top is rusting underneath, I was thinking that I should strip it off and do what I can to save it now, maybe next Monday I'll do that too.

Starter

OK, I finally bought another starter for the deVille, I will try to install it on Sunday, when I am in the same city the car is in. I also bought a new battery cable for the Eldo, and was giong to install it last night, but I'll need a jack and stands to get under it. Those happen to be with the deVille in another city. So, I will pick those up this weekend, and change the battery cable in the Eldo next week.

Engine/Dash

OK, all is set for me to go check the engine out and/or pick it up. I go to West Sac at 10 am on Saturday to the shop it's at. There's an extra tranny too I guess, I'm not sure why but that also makes me suspicious.

Also, I will be picking up a stereo dash board for the '67 DeVille this weekend in San Jose. It is black and I will need to dye it the blue color I think it is supposed to be.

I will also try to pick up a new starter for the '67 DeVille and a new Battery cable for the '67 Eldo.

Random call

I got a call today from the guy who was selling the 94 northstar engine. He said he was going to check the engine number I suspect that it is not what I need, as he says it comes from a deVille. I thought I read somewhere that the deVilles did not have the L37 model Northstar available in them. but maybe that is only for 93 models, and not '94's?

Dash?

I may have a new dash for the Deville! Yay!

I still haven't ordered the new starter, but I think I can just pick one up at the local Kragen. I also saw on ebay an ignition switch I may pick up just incase that's the problem.

I'll be away this weekend, and won't be able to work on the car anyway. Next weekend, I will try to get it started, then I can bring it to a mechanic to get it fixed.

no new engine for me...

Well the people selling the Northstar engine will not reply again and won't give me their number, so it's looking like that is not an option anymore which turns out to be fine, because I really need to get started on the '67 convertible.

I'm going to order a new starter for the '67 Convertible, and try to get it running (the last one I ordered and installed a few months back is broken (I may have broken it).

I also want to check out a metal fabrication shop around the corner from where I work and see if they can/will do the body work the '67 convertible needs.

Once that is finished, I can get some suspension work and engine work done, and then find someone to paint it.

It doesn't look like a lot of work when you write it out, but it'll be a lot. I hope I can get it all done in time for Savannah!

Wash Wash Wash the car...

I washed the ‘93 Eldo when I got home last night, man was that car dirty! I don't think I've ever seen a car that dirty before, the water coming off it was black. It looks good now.

My brother forwarded me a listing from craigslist about an engine and tranny (which I may possibly need) from a '94 Cad, for $1000, which should work in my car. I emailed and got a reply, so I'll hopefully go look at it this weekend.

Smoking through the night

In the dead of night last night, I brought the '93 eldo to the new place. Jim followed me just in case it blew up or something. He says it was smoking pretty bad. I think this car is done. For now, it is in my driveway I will post it for sale on craigslist.org and see if anyone takes it as is.

One the way home, I saw the funniest thing, I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me...there was a flat bed tow truck that had another flat bed tow truck on it's bed and that tow truck had a van on it! It was so funny to see them all stacked on top of each other like that.

New Muffler!!!

I brought the '67 Eldo to the muffler shop today and had the muffler replaced. It still has a meaty sound because I left the dual exhaust and the muffler isn't quite stock, but it's not Funny-car loud anymore. It's nice to cruise around in a car that doesn't give you a headache when you drive it. $170 installed after tax at Allied Muffler on Gilman in Berkeley the guys in the shop are nice.

moving

I am moving this weekend. All my cars overheat easily so I will have to bring them over in the dead of night when it is cool...

Almost Lost the '93...

So my cars are parked on the street around the block my apartment is on, and the '93 Eldo has not been near a car wash in a number of months so it's looking pretty dirty right now. Apparently, someone is sick of looking at it because there was a notice on it from the city of Berkeley letting me know they were going to tow it if I didn't move it dated 7/21. Luckily yesterday I drove home a different way, and saw the windshield when I pulled up to my place. The part about it that I thought was pretty hilarious was the chalk markings they used to determine if the car had moved...they were a little over the top. there was a vertical mark on the tire from the wheel to the ground then there was a half circle on the ground marking where exactly the tire was and then a crossing mark which also lined up with the mark on the tire it looked a little too CSI...I wondered what they would do if I moved the car an inch so the lines didn't line up anymore...

Actually, there were two notices on it. The other was from a guy who had seen the for sale sign on it months ago, and wanted to know if I still wanted to sell it. Then someone else walked by it and wrote on that guy’s note that they would also like to know if the car was till for sale.

I called the first guy, and he said he'd look into how much it was going to cost to fix and call me back today, and since I'm sure he will not be calling back, I'll call the second guy tonight.

Ordered Muffler

The Eldo was looked at this morning, and a new muffler was ordered. It will get replaced on Friday or Monday depending on when the part comes in. I decided to go inexpensive, and just replace the muffler with a stock-style one that will fit the existing pipe pattern (which is no where near stock).

Loud-ass car!

I went to a Cadillac meet on Sunday, and I was a little embarrassed about my car. If anyone is going to know all the things that are wrong on my car, it's this crowd.

The first embarrassing thing was that the coolant boiled over when I got there.

Then while they were doing the awards, some cars left early and drove out right behind where the announcer was. They were so quiet the announcer didn't even need to speak up, I don’t think many people even noticed the cars drove by. That was depressing, If I had driven by at that point, they would have had to stopped that whole thing until I passed. I was embarrassed for something that didn't even happen...I really want to get this fixed!

On the way home, I turned the heater on, and that kept it from boiling over again. Of course, it was like 20 degrees cooler at home than where the car show was, so that may have helped too ;-)

muffler quote

I called a place right down the street from where I work and got a quote to replace the muffler, he gave me an off-the-top-of-his-head-without-looking-at-the-car quote of $150 installed.

I'm going to bring it by their shop on monday morning, and see about having it done. I'm not sure if I should put it back to single exhaust or leave it dual. I will post on the CML and get some feedback.

I can't wait to have a stealthy cadillac once again!

muffler

Uh I have GOT to get this muffler replaced! the car is so damn LOUD it's making me not want to drive it.

dash dying

So I got some good info on dying dashboards, it seems possible, now I just need to look and see if my car was supposed to be mono or stereo. If it was mono, I may have a new dash!

Dash

I got an email from someone who has a 67 cadillac dash for sale. This was in response to a post I put up on a parts board a few months ago. It is a mono speaker set up (one speaker in the middle) for a deville, and it is gold.

Now, I know it's possible to dye these things, but I don't know if it's possible to succesfully dye one blue if it is gold to begin with. I have posted that question to the Cadillac Mailing List(CML), hopefully someone there has tried it, and can tell me if it will work.