Belly of the Beast

Here is a scan from the shop manual showing the largest engine ever put into a passenger automobile - the 500 cubic inch V-8 Eldorado engine.

Back in the 1930's, Cadillac made V-12s and V-16s, with displacements of 368 ci and 452 ci, respectively.

Jaguar also made a 5.3 litre V-12 in the 1970's, which is about 325 cubic inches.

Colors

Today, I received the 1971 Cadillac Shop Manual and some other documents I bought off eBay, including a paint chart which is displayed here.

The color of my Eldorado is 'Brittany Blue'. Or at least is was, now it more of an 'oxidized and cracked blue'.

Salvage Yard

Kyra & I took a trip to a salvage yard today looking for parts. We think this may be a '61 Caddy, but we're not sure. It looked like most of the parts were there - at least two hubcaps were inside. This will make a nice project for somebody (not for me, though, I'm holding out for a '59 - don't tell Marcia).

Kyra & I spent a couple of hours working on the Eldorado yesterday. We figured out that the reason the windshield fluid wasn't squirting is because of a bad pump. The pump is integrated with the whole windshield motor assembly, so you can't just buy the pump. We did pick up a motor and hopefully I'll be able to pull the pump out of that.

We didn't find any of the other parts we were looking for - eBay seems to be the best place to find stuff.

We also determined that the problem with the power locks isn't fuse related. And we found a crack in the driver-side CV boot (not the one Marcia replaced) so I squirted some grease in there.

Here's another photo of Kyra at the salvage yard. It was kind of rainy today so we drove the truck instead of the Eldorado.

90 MPH

Got the Eldo up to 90 today, baby!

It was a little hard to take a photo while haulin', so the picture doesn't quite show 90, but we got up there, and maybe a little faster.

It was such a nice evening: mid 80s, low humidity, just a few clouds, I decided to take the Caddy for a spin. After filling it up (cha-ching!), we hit the highway. Since the car seemed to be running well, I took the opportunity to open it up a bit.

The Eldorado felt real good, straight and steady at that speed. Until we hit some bumps and then it was like "BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA!".

As you can tell, I'm a lot more comfortable driving the car than I was a couple of months ago. Seat belts are for sissies! Brakes are for losers!

Speaking of brakes - brake fluid seems to be the second most leaky thing after engine coolant, followed by oil. Transmission and power steering fluid seem to be okay.

Oh yeah, the power steering does quit unexpectedly sometimes, so I thinking I'm gonna need a new power steering pump one of these days.

And... while the car felt great at 90, it subsequently developed a new squeak. Luckily, I only hear it at or below 35 mph, which gives me some great incentive to keep tearing up the highways!

Here is a photo of us coming back into town this evening:

Parts

Here is photo of Kyra with the trim for behind the driver-side front wheel. I also got another piece for the other side even though that hasn't fallen off yet. The pieces are more worn than what is on the car, but I think they will polish up okay. They don't have any serious dents or rust, so now its a matter of finding the clips to hold them on.



I also noticed that the trim on the door is getting loose in a couple of places. I had an opportunity to buy all the lower body trim from the same eBay seller and it was quite tempting. Given enough space & money, it would be great to do that and store the pieces until I need them. Unfortunately, most of my discretionary income now goes to gas, and we live in a small bungalow on a small lot with no garage. In other words - we have no storage space!

Driving Around

I took Marcia out to dinner Saturday night - the weather was nice so of course we took the Eldorado.

This car gets a lot of attention - people stare, wave and smile. People come up and ask questions about the car and relate stories about people they knew who owned one. Marcia doesn't travel in the Caddy very often so she's not used to the attention. It kind of feels like being a movie star, I guess.

She was wondering why the car gets notice so much. Here is my theory:

• It's old. You just don't see many cars this old on the road, much less an old Cadillac like this.
• It's huge. It's wider and longer than a lot of SUVs.
  
• It's a convertible. I think convertibles get more attention anyway, but it is rare to see one of these land yachts.

Also, I suspect folks think we must be filthy rich to be able to afford to put gas in this baby. Maybe they are being nice to us hoping that we will start passing out $100 bills or remember them in our will or something.

On another note, I got the little piece of chrome that fits behind the rear wheel off of eBay. Haven't had time to see if it fits yet...

Radio

Sure, the sweet, sweet purr of a massive V-8 is music to my ears, but I thought it would be nice to listen to the radio or MP3's occasionally. I bought a cheap-o system shortly after buying the car but only got around to putting it in yesterday - that took most of the day.

I'm getting really good at taking the back seat out and putting it back in. The rear speakers fit behind there.

Since the new radio won't fit in the old slot, I've got it stashed in the glove compartment. I'll move it out of there eventually and try to mount it under the dash.

First thing I played on the new radio - Master of Reality by Black Sabbath.