I thought ya'll might get a kick out of this. My buddy with the white 64 Caddy sent this. He inherited that car from his grandfather and restored it a few years back. It's gorgeous. He's since bought a silver '76 Seville which is his daily driver. It's also gorgeous. Anyway this is his car now, taken at the Freddy's car show this past weekend: And this pic was taken at Lake Travis back in the 1980's, when his grandfather was using the car to pull his 1970 lake boat. The current owner can be seen as a kiddo playing with brother behind the boat. Neat to see stuff like this. That car has been in his family since it was new. Well used and well enjoyed! -Mike
Speaking of towing Caddys........... We have friends with a 75 Caddy convertible which they tow on a dolly behind a 40' motorhome. This was when they towed from east coast of Florida to Pigeon Forge. Son dressed as Boss Hogg and mom dressed as Daisy Duke.
I really like the older Caddy's as Tow Vehicles. For their time they were tremendous cars compared to their age equivalent counterparts. There are a couple of fellows in our area who tow their vintage trailers with 50's Caddy's from time to time. Quite the showing when they turn up at a Tin Can Tourists event. Your buddy has really done a nice job of the Caddy. I'm sure his GF would be pleased.
Back in the late 90's we had a 68 DeVille convertible come into our a/c and electrical shop, and the guy wanted all the electrics fixed, including the a/c. I grew to hate that car over the two months we had it in the shop. You'd think a car from 1968 would be fairly simple right? You'd be wrong. Not the car's fault, but it had been a decoration at a honky-tonk bar for years and years. When the guy bought it, it was painted white with black spots to look like a cow. It had 80's-era Cadilllac wire wheel hubcaps, and faded chrome with paint overspray on it outside. Just sad. The interior was even more crazy, it was done in cheap bright white and bright red vinyl, fuzzy red carpet, and the door panels and dashboard had been painted bright red with thick gloss paint, even the steering wheel had been painted solid bright red. Horrible. The chrome was all pitted and the wood trim was warped and looked to have been painted with wood stain and a brush. Under the hood sat a shiny blue-painted rebuilt 472 with a flat-gold painted air cleaner, but the rest of the engine compartment was a dirty grungy original mess, and under the car was a nasty dirty mess too. I felt bad for the this new owner. He knew nothing about cars. He'd bought a rolling bar decoration, and really thought it was special and worth restoring. The only "right" way to fix this car would have been to tear it totally down and start fresh. He'd not down that. Instead he'd done a fast thick solid red re-paint over the cow paint, and put a (actually nice) new white top on it. He'd had the engine rebuilt and the fuel system flushed to get it to drive. It had a shiny new gas tank bolted to a nasty, dirty floorpan under the trunk. Bright new Monroe shocks stood out against rusty sagging springs, worn suspension bushings and dirt. The trans was a dirty leaking mess bolted to a bright clean new engine. He told us the car had been parked inside the dance hall for years and year, not running or moving since sometime in the 80's, and when the hall closed, he got the car cheap. I didn't have the heart to tell him he should have just left it alone. Nothing inside worked when it came in, and I mean nothing. Our guess was the honkey-tonk, way back when, bought a totally worn-out Caddy and had the interior "re-done" as cheaply as possible and had the cow paint added. I'm sure from a distance it made a really good bar decoration, but up close...it was really REALLY BAD. We ended up having to replace the entire a/c system, including the dash control head and miles of vaccum lines. It had automatic climate control, which consisted of 10,000 vaccum hoses, switches and diaphrams. It was flat scary to look at. We had a tech named Tom Collins (no joke!) that had worked for the Cadillac dealer in the 70's and 80's, and thank goodness he knew how the system worked, but still, it was a nightmare. He's the one that told me if the tail lights on a Chevy used one switch and a wire, the ones on a Caddy would use two switches, four wires, and a relay or two thrown in...just to prove it was "special" a Cadillac... :banghead3: I had to source used parts from the all over the place. Once done, it worked, but still didn't blow very hard....1968 technology with the blower fan a long way off from the dash vents....it was cold, just not much vent pressure, especially for a convertible he wanted to USE in Texas in the summer. It was as good as we could make it though. The power locks on those cars were vaccum controlled. We had to re-do all those lines in the doors, and then he had us do the power seat and the power top cylinders and lines, the power windows, and the brake light switch. The headlights didn't work and we had to source a new dash switch...the car actually had automatic dimming lights, the sensor was behind the grill, and I was SHOCKED when my tech put the new switch in the dash and that auto-dimmer feature still worked. That switch also fixed the dashboard lights, which before had not worked. The speedo didn't work when it came in, turns out the cruise control modulator had broken and snapped one of the cables (with cruise then you had a cable from the trans to the modulator under the hood, and another from the modulator to the dash). I could not find a modulator, so the customer had us bypass the modulator and run a single line from the trans to the speedo head. That got him a speedo again, but no cruise...oh well, as least he could tell his speed again. When it was all said and done the bill was NOT cheap, I'm taking over 5-grand in our work, and I really felt bad about it taking his money. In addition to our work he'd paid someone to rebuild the engine, re-do the fuel system, and put new shocks on it. Plus a new battery and re-cored radiator...who knows what all that had cost before we even got the car. He still had a car with a cheap thick runny-orange peel red paint job over a cow paint job over the original gold color, and a vinyl and spray-painted interior that was just nasty. It was an old car with a bunch of new parts bolted on, you know? The trans, suspension, rear end, and such were all still old and gross.....well you get the idea. Anyway, since that car I've been leery of old Cadillacs, even though restored they are gorgeous, they sure are complicated. I have no idea what happened to that one car. I to this day do not like 67-68 Caddys.... -Mike
Nice Caddy. Looks like a 63 to me rather than a 64. Love seeing the old pics from the days the old cars were still daily drivers.
In 1964 the grill had a horizontal painted bar from end to end, and it was painted to match the body color.
When they run right, caddies are fun to drive. But when they mess up, even old vintage cadillacs are electrical nightmares. Too much to go wrong when you get a Cadillac.
Was talking to the Caddy guy above about the funky interior we had on our '78 Safari wagon, and he replied with the below. I thought you folks might get a kick out of this: Ah the 70s. I remember my dad's plaid suits well. Definitely the funkiest decade we have ever seen. Mike, the push back your dad got while trying to order the non-standard interior reminded me of something I read in the '63 Cadillac options spec manual. The Caddy sales people are basically instructed to protect customers from their own bad taste. After seeing the conventional wisdom for styling in the 70s, the whole idea really seems silly. I think your Dad's Safari wagon looked awesome inside and out. Too bad you can't find one of those. and check out these babies offered in the 74 Caddy. I wish something like this was offered in the 76 Seville but they were going after Mercedes & BMW and got conservative "international" size and styling
