Welcome

To my Cadillac page My car is a 1966 cadillac De Ville with a hundred and twenty four thousand miles.    The car was given to me by a friend who was sick of it taking up most of his back yard .It was basically sound but had been stripped of all its chrome and the convertible top was ripped and there was about a foot of water inside.
 
 









  The First  job was to replace the rotten floorboards and then free off the frozen wheels. Then I decided to get the engine running. Thisfairly  was difficult as it had stood so long that the engine was very stiff and I couldn't find a big enough battery to turn it over fast enough to fire up .The answer was to take out every other spark plug and crank it over and fire it off on only four cylinders. Model airplane fuel was used to give it a little extra kick and lube up the cylinder walls .
 
 

   The entire braking system was replaced and new tires were installed.Then new upper and lower control arm bushings and ball joints were installed.    Many electrical items were repaired including the radio and I was  able to fix the westclox clock that now keeps perfect time . I prefer to keep things as original as possible so I fixed the clock rather than replace it with one of the modern quartz movements that are available .
  The convertible top system was fixed with the help of a 1967 shop manual and now works very well,all that was realy needed was some bushings making and then bleed the system  .
 
 
 

     The paint was ok but oxidized badly so many hours of rubbing out was done . I think I will have it repainted when I am completed but I would rather put my money into mechanical items right now. The chrome is in ok condition but not perfect . That gets so expensive that I will probably just accept it the way it is .
 
 
 

  The first year I had the car I drove it about four thousand miles and enjoyed it very much with only one minor breakdown .This was a brocken rocker arm retainer clip which caused a rocker arm to actually fall off. It was then I discovered two things .
  One the engine was not original and was infact a 1967 429 from a four door sedan, this explains the rockerarms being the style the are as they were changed in 67 to the pedastal mounted types held in place by a spring steel clip .
  Second, Someone had worked on the engine before and had all the pedastals in backwards which meant that the exhaust rocker was working the intake valve and vise versa. Worse than that they dont line up properly that way so
in december of 1999 I decided to pull the engine and go thru it Click here to see the pics of the engine rebuild.

 

Every year I enter the car in the Walker Michigan memorial day parade which is a lot of fun and always popular with all the kids in the neighborhood who want to ride along .The parade goes down main street and takes about an hour . You must have a good radiator to do parades and keep the timing right on the factory 5 degrees btdc and you should be fine .    Click here to see the pictures of the 2000 parade
 
 


 

   I have driven the cadillac now about ten thousand miles since I got it in the fall of 1998 and continue to do the odd job on her as I get the urge.She is an absolutely reliable car now and can be driven any where .I can average about 12.5 miles per gallon and stretch it to 15 if I keep a light foot on the gas. I am not sure what more i will do to her as I am getting the calling to buy a southern rust free 1960 to 64 convertible and do a true frame off restoration .However until then this car will do just fine and proves what can be done with a little effort and not too much money . 







 hbutcher1@yahoo.com



 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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