It looks like that pictures I, or my wife made from my Cadillacs, seem to be pretty popular by music bands. Another picture of ours made it on the cover of a CD. It`s an EP called “Road Rash“ by the hardrock band “CornFed Bruiser“

CornFed Bruiser is a four-barrel, full-throttle rock and roll flame-thrower out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.Congealed from the primordial ooze of the underground dirt-rock scene, the Bruiser combines heavy riff-driven guitars and fat grooves, topped-off by a soul-shredding vocal.Late 2010, CornFed Bruiser set out to record its first EP entitled “Road Rash” scheduled to be released early 2011. Feature tracks “Road Rash” and “Fu Man” are just two of the tracks that define a new sound with an old school vibe.

With a beautiful Cadillac like this on the cover nothing can go wrong ;-) I think it is about the 6th picture that made it on a cover of a CD which I´m all proudly displaying in my garage.

Tags:1967, Deville, Photoshooting

With winter already throwing cold and damp weather against us, the cars are in winter hibernation now and are looking forward to the spring of 2011. They all got an oil change and the tank was filled with fresh fuel to the brim. I cleaned and waxed them, put a thick coat of Gliptone leather conditioner on the leather seats, overinflated the tires and put their soft and warm covers on them. There is not much to do during the winter months while they are stuffed into the cosy and dry garage.
I will eventually put some new rear shocks and front wheel bearings on the 67 DeVille, do some minor detailing work like putting on some new decals in the engine bay and try to safe as much money as I can, to hopefully be able to afford a new concourse grade paint job for the 1967 Eldorado next fall.
This season I did not drive my Cadillacs very much - all in all a tank of fuel on every car... We had a very wet summer, my job was very demanding and our baby son Elliot was born in May, so I did not have much time to enjoy my cars as much as I would have liked.

Miles driven in 2010:

• 1967 Eldorado: 275 miles
• 1967 DeVille: 189 miles
• 1958 Eldorado: 187 miles

Looking forward to the 2011 season with some great shows coming up. In June 2011 the US-CAR-SHOW Dornbirn will be held again and of course the Cadillac BIG Meet on August 28th 2011 will be my personal Cadillac highlight again.

The cars are in storage now - a picture before they were covered.

The cars are in storage now - a picture before they were covered. Sleep well!

Tags:Winter

We own a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon as our business car and like it very much. This summer the fuel pump started to make some noise which got louder every day. The pump was exchanged when we bought the car and lasted only 5k miles. So my wife and I wanted to change it again before the car would leave us stranded somewhere along the road.

I ordered a new pump from Rockauto. When it arrived I dropped the tank to get access to the unit. You also need some special tools to disconnect the fuel lines. I found these tools at Summit racing and ordered them.

When I had the fuel sending unit out of the tank I noticed that at the previous repair they did not install a strainer. I also got the tip that it would be a good idea to also exchange the whole fuel sending unit, just to be sure that I would not have to remove the tank again anytime soon. So I bit the bullet and also ordered a complete fuel sending unit including a strainer. So the car was sitting there waiting for the parts to arrive from the USA blocking the garage for the 67 Eldorado which I already wanted to put into winter storage.
As it turned out the parts where delivered to Australia, not Austria where I live... After 3 weeks they finally arrived. My wife helped me putting everything back together. The most difficult part turned out to install the strainer, as it came loose whenever I wanted to reinstall the fuel sending unit back into the tank. Eventually everything was back together and it was time to reinstall the tank. I worked from underneath the car, standing in the pit and my wife helped to reconnect the fuel lines. Everything is back together now and works as it should. So the Roadmonster is ready for the 2011 season waiting in its garage for spring to arrive.

The old unit and the dropped tank

the old unit with the fuel pump removed

the new fuel sending unit when it arrived

Tags:Fuel Pump, Fuel Filter, Fuel Sending Unit

Finally my climate compressor showed up from the USA. The USPS kind of lost it and it took three months to arrive at my door... In the meantime I had ordered another one because it was thought to be lost and so I ended up with 2 climate compressors for the Eldorado. The old one was leaking its charge and so I decided to go with a new rebuilt one.
Also the ignition and the rebuilt carburetor were not quite up to my standards yet, and so I decided to ask for some professional help for the last finishing touches. So I delivered the car to the shop, and the experts did some more tweaking. The result is that I finally have a perfectly working AC on my car. It took a while, but finally it's working as it should. When I got the car, a lot of AC parts were defective or torn out, and now everything is back to factory specs.
Also the carburetor is finally working as it should.
From a technical standpoint the car is now in perfect condition - you wont find anything that´s not working as it should.
Great! - next up is a repaint...

The Eldo at the shop.

I took my little son with me to show him whats going on in the restoration shop.

Looking at so many cool cars made little Elliot very thirsty. Here he is having his milk in the shop.

Tags:Restoration, AC, A6, AC Compressor, Carburetor

Despite the bad weather the Cadillac BIG Meet 2010 was a great event. We took part with our 1967 DeVille this year as the theme was “The Cadillac Convertibles“. You can find a huge image gallery on the Cadillac BIG Meet website with hundred of pictures. Check it out!
I´m already looking forward to the Cadillac BIG Meet 2011 on August 29th 2011.

the first cars are gathering before the start of the Cruising tour


During the Cruising tour


a special area of the show field was reserved for convertibles only


the 67 at the show field...


A report from the local newspaper “Rundschau“ - click for larger view

Tags:1967, Cadillac BIG Meet, Deville, Cruising

My wife and I used one of the last beautiful evenings this year for a photo-shooting before the 67 DeVille goes back into storage. We took our baby son Elliot with us to get some nice pictures with him, his mom and the 67 DeVille.
Click on the image below to go to the photo gallery with more pictures.

Afra with Elliot

Tags:Photoshooting, 1967, Deville

My buddy Tayfun was in town for a visit and we spent quite some time in the garage detailing the paint of my 1967 Eldorado. We used a lot of Meguiars products for a mirror smooth surface. The original paint is much shinier and glossier now and looks pretty good. Thanks for your help Tayfun !!!!

My friend Tayfun polishing the paint

it took 7 steps for a smooth surface...

Tags:detailing, Paintjob, 1967, Eldorado

As we are having an extremely rainy spring and summer here in Austria at the moment, my wife and I used one of the very few sunny evenings so far to go for a photoshooting with the 1967 Eldorado.
Afra used her old trusty Hasselblad camera which, even in the digital area, is better than any new camera, and shot a roll of good old black and white film and another roll of color slide film. She now scanned the films and the results can be seen here!

At the photoshooting with the light meter

Afra giving her best to avoid any reflections in the chrome

the sun is setting

click on the image to see all the images from this shooting

click on the image to see all the images from this shooting

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Photoshooting

My friend Christian owns some spectacular Cadillacs, but now he opened one of the greatest garages I have ever seen...
He made his dream come true and built an awesome home for his car collection including a private dinner below the garage. The whole building is just amazing. On his 50th birthday he invited some friends for the grand opening of his new building. Congratulations Christian!!!

He built the whole garage including the diner with his own hands with the help of his family - an enormous task, and perfectly executed.

A panoramic picture showing his showroom - the cars and the building are just spectacular!

The private diner below the garage.

the birthday party had a 50’s theme - so we dressed up accordingly. Elliot was only 3 weeks on this picture.
The car on the left is Cary Grant’s former 60 Eldorado Biarritz btw....

Tags:Roadhouse, Ultimate Garage, Garage

I neglected my garage a little bit during the last time - and as I had a day off today, I decided to give it a good spring cleaning.
I cleaned the entire epoxy floor - and now everything looks clean and tidy again. The Cadillacs like it clean... I will rent a floor polishing machine soon - for the extra shine ;-)

The garage floor before cleaning - the Eldorados had to wait outside

After cleaning-still wet

Clean and dry - the 67 Deville stayed in there...

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor, Cleaning

After my last repairs at the car, the right headlight door did no longer close properly. Only if I wiggled on the vacuum hose on the actuator which is responsible for opening the door (the green hose), the door would eventually close. So I thought that the actuator was shot and I ordered one from a 1969 Camaro RS which looks almost identical with the only difference being the rod ends which are completely different on the Camaro. The original mounting pins on the Eldorado are screwed on and can be removed pretty easily from the rod, which has a thread on the end. On the Camaro actuators, the rod end is pressed in place and the rod has no thread at all... So one would have to find a way to switch the rod ends and modify the reproduction actuators...

The instructions on the reproduction part mentioned that one could use silicone spray to lube the internals of the actuator through the vacuum inlets - this would also make the rubber parts in there soft for a better sealing. So I thought it might be a good idea to spray something in my old part and really soak it...
I had the impression that the rod was easier to move after application. I also put some gasket sealant around the vacuum inlets, just to make sure that there is no leak anywhere.
So I installed the old unit once again and it still did not work properly - but it worked fine if I only installed one vacuum line at a time. Suddenly it rang a bell. There are some T-connectors which also act as a valve going to each actuator. They do vent the system on one side when the doors are operated.
I cleaned the connector valve and reinstalled one hose going there and suddenly everything was back in working order! It now works like it should again!
Looks like I bought the new actuator for nothing... It cant hurt to have a spare though, as they are pretty fragile and even failed when new in 1967... In the meantime I might also find a way to install the original rod ends... Let me know if you have an idea!

If you are looking for a vacuum diagram for the Eldorados headlight doors you can find it on my website.

on the left the original actuator - on the right the reproduction unit from a 1969 Camaro RS


The different rod ends - the original one on the left - the headlight door mechanism is installed in the center of the rod end with a pin.
On the Camaro unit one could probably install it on the side using a bushing.
I have heard that this worked fine for some Eldorado owners as you can see on the picture below.


This is how it worked for another Eldorado owner - he installed some bushings on the new unit.
I found this picture on ebay at the auction for a 1967 Eldorado recently.

Update November 2014:

I have been in contact with Mark Maromonte who found this post on my website and replaced his bad OEM actuator with the 69 Camaro RS unit. He did some modifications and sent me some pictures to share here. Thanks Mark! I´m sure its helpful to others as well:
Mark wrote (all pictures below were provided by © Mark Maromonte):

I bought an actuator for a 1969 Camaro  RS. I removed the two pins that held the attachment to the end of the rod. Then I cut 3/8 of a inch of the rod off, so the rods were the same length. Then I beveled the end of the rod on a grinding wheel, for about a ½ inch at the end of the rod. This was done so that I could start a ¼ tap on the end of the rod. After the tap was done. I threaded on the Eldo clevis pin. Done! 20 minuets, $76 vs $245. Works fine. Thanks again for suggesting that in your post. Take care, Mark

The 1969 Camaro RS headlight actuator is slightly different from the original Cadillac actuator. It can be made to fit though.


The original Cadillac OEM actuator on top and the Camaro RS actuator below. You can see the difference on the mounting. Also the air outlet is slightly curved on the Camaro. There is a thread on the Cadillac actuator and a clevis pin on the Camaro rod end.


The original Cadillac OEM actuator on top and the Camaro RS actuator below. You can see the difference on the mounting. Also the air outlet is slightly curved on the Camaro. There is a thread on the Cadillac actuator and a clevis pin on the Camaro.


Mark beveled the end of the rod on a grinding wheel, for about a ½ inch at the end of the rod.


Mark cut a thread onto the Camaro shaft so that the original Cadillac clevis would fit.


Finished- works perfectly. The modification is done.

Tags:1967, Eldorado, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip, Headlight Actuator, Headlight doors, Restoration, Camaro RS, Vacuum hoses

Our son Elliot was born on May 15th! Mum and the boy are both healthy and everything is fine!
Of course his first trip in a car was in a Cadillac - I used the 1967 Eldorado to drive him home from the hospital. You can´t start early enough with the Cadillac education!

Our son Elliot on the way home from the hospital in Cadillac style!


Elliot and his mum at the first visit in the garage...


The Cadillac Mobile we made for his crib...

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Mobile

I brought my 67 Eldorado home from the restoration shop yesterday only to find out that the AC compressor died and leaked the fresh refill it got. Everything is new except the compressor and of course it died at the first usage. The system was pressure tested at the shop and worked like a charm. When they let the car idle with the AC on, the compressor started to leak. They tried to fix it but had no success. So I will need a new compressor and a new charge.
The right headlight door actuator also suddenly no longer works correctly. All hoses are new and it worked perfectly until recently. I can now only make it close if I jiggle on the actuator. Is there any way to rebuild them? A source for new or rebuilt ones? I have heard that the ones from the 1969 Camaro is very similar and only needs some minor modifications to work on the Eldorado as well. So I went ahead and ordered one. But the worst thing was that the freshly rebuilt carburetor made strange ticking noises and sounded like a tractor while accelerating. It worked well though, but the sound was unbearable. Could it be a defective gasket? It was also idling quite badly. Acceleration was superb though, its much more powerful than before, but still something was wrong... The ignition also was completely rebuilt. So I played around with the ignition first, but the ticking sound did not go away, no matter in which direction I changed the timing... Almost sounded like an exhaust leak, but there seemed to be none... It was LOUD! Before I had the carb and ignition rebuilt, it was extremely quiet and idling smoothly but had misses while accelerating.
I got some very valuable tips from fellow Cadillac aficionados and the previous owner of this Eldorado even called me from the USA to give me some tips to solve this issue, and he was spot on with his diagnosis...

With a hose held to my ear and the other end to the carburetor, I was able to locate the source of the noise. It came from the carburetor below the choke assembly. So I took the freshly rebuilt Rochester Quadrajet out again, only to find out that the gasket and the metal shim were installed the wrong way around. This burned a hole into the brand new gasket where the exhaust gases from the heat crossover passage could escape and make this noise.
Of course I did not have a new gasket at hand, so I carefully removed the old one from my spare engine, which was in pretty good shape and installed it.
No more ticking - no more noises, no more bad idling.
The car now drives amazingly good and is silky smooth. It could not be any better.

The shim was installed first and then the carb - thats wrong! The gasket has to go on the intake manifold first - then comes the metal shim.


Here you can see the burnt gasket and the metal shim


Putting everything back together again


Test drive after the repair - perfect!

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Restoration, Carburetor, Rochester, Quadrajet, Headlight doors, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip, Headlight Actuator, AC Compressor, A6

Yesterday the 67 Eldorado was picked up by the restoration shop. As some bolts broke off when I tried to repair my waterpump issue, and I do not have the necessary tools and skills to deal with broken bolts, he came by and picked the car up. He and his team will fix that for me hopefully soon.
Also on the „to do list“ is to install a new condenser for the air condition, recharge it with good old R12 and to fix a problem with the ignition timing. Cant wait to have the car back!

As I could not start the car we had to winch it up onto the trailer

Its pretty heavy...

Almost up...

Good bye!

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Restoration, Water Pump, AC, ACC, Condenser

When I repaired the seat transmission of my 67 Eldorado I drove the car out of the garage to have more room. When I wanted to drive it back into the garage, suddenly the radiator boiled over and the temperature gage showed full heat. I immediately shut down the engine. The car never had an overheating problem before and the radiator is new as well.

There are only very few possibilities why this could have happened.

• The thermostat did no longer open
• The waterpump failed
• Air was trapped somewhere in the cooling system

So I removed the thermostat housing first to check the thermostat. This is when disaster struck. The two bolts in the thermostat housing snapped off immediately when I tried to unscrew them. *Cr*p”
I then removed the thermostat and put it into boiling water and it worked perfectly. So I think I can rule out the thermostat.
As the upper radiator hose stayed pretty cool and it did not feel like there is any coolant circulating through it, I suspected the water pump. Maybe the impeller does no longer work. I will have to remove the pump to check it.
My friend Richard came over to help me to try removing the broken bolts which got stuck in the cylinder head water outlet pipe. As all methods we tried to remove the broken bolts failed, we began drilling the remains out. This did not turn out very successful either... The threads also got damaged with this method. Of course one could now rethread this part, but I decided to order a good used one.

Once again Arizona Vintage Parts is the company where I ordered all the spare parts. They are really a great company! They are reasonably priced and so far they had everything I ever needed and inquired for. They are a pleasure to deal with and I can highly recommend them. I´m looking forward for the parts to arrive, as the car in its current state is immobile and blocking the garage...

UPDATE 03/09: The parts from Arizona Vintage parts already arrived within a couple of days after ordering! Wow thats fast! Now I need some time and warmer temperatures to install them...

My friend Richard drilling out the snapped off bolts...


Normally the thermostat is in there. You can see the mounting holes from where we drilled out the bolts. Unfortunately the threads did not survive this treatment...

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Water Pump, Restoration, Thermostat, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip

When I got my Eldorado one function of the 6 way power seat did not work. The rear tilt function did not work at all and was stuck. When I pushed the according switch I could hear the motor spin but nothing happened. So I crawled under the seat and saw that the according transmission wire was disconnected from the actuator. I reconnected it but this did not change anything. I then checked all the connectors for current. Everything was o.k. there, so it could have only been the seat transmission itself.
I removed it from under the seat, what was a little tricky and involved getting in some strange positions to access all the screws. It would be easier if one removes the seat from the car, but thats a rather unpleasant work as well...
Eventually it came out of the car. I disassembled it and at first everything looked pretty good, but it soon showed that the old grease became rather hard and sticky and one of the three solenoids was no longer able to push the gear into a locked position.
I thoroughly removed all of the old grease and re-greased everything with white lithium grease. I then reassembled everything, reconnected the gear cables, reinstalled the transmission under the seat (thats a very tricky part...) and everything worked like new!
I now have perfectly working power seats again!

The seat transmission disassembled - you can see the brownish old grease everywhere.

Part of the gears and the solenoids

The transmission part

The three solenoids

The cleaned and re-greased transmission

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Restoration, Seat Transmission, Solenoid, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip, 6 way power seat, 1967 Cadillac Repair Tip

Whenever I opened the drivers door on my 1967 Cadillac Eldorado the interior lights would not come on. Only the red warning light in the door lit up. Everything worked from the passenger´s side though. So I had to check out the door jamb switch. I unscrewed it and checked the three cables going into it. One cable is for the warning light in the door, one for the front interior lights below the dash and one for the rear interior lights in the C-pillar. I made sure that all contacts were in place and had to bend them a little. After a little tweaking the lights started to work again. When I screwed the switch back into place, the rear lights went out again. So I had to adjust the contacts once again and now everything works perfectly. Great to have the interior lights come on again when I step into the car.

This is how the doorjamb switch looks like on a 1967 Eldorado when removed. Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture!
I will have to clean the paint in the doorjambs soon as you can see in this picture...

Tags:Restoration, 1967, Eldorado, Door Jamb Switch, Wiring, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip

As we had an unusual warm day today with the snow melting in front of the garage, and having a couple of hours of spare time at hand, I decided to drive the Eldorados out of the garage. They both started right up as soon as the fuel pump delivered fuel to the fuel bowl. Both cars idled beautifully and it was a pleasure to see them in the bright daylight again for the first time since last October when I had put them into storage.

While I had the 67 Eldorado out I also turned on the headlights and was once again annoyed by the fact that the right one opened simultaneously, but closed slightly slower than the left one when I turned the lights off. There was a difference of around 1 second in movement between the two headlight doors.
Being a perfectionist I could not stand this, so I began searching for the problem. I already had spent some time in the past trying to fix this, but I did not succeed. The system is driven by vacuum only, so I started to look through the vacuum hoses once again. I had already exchanged a couple of them last year. I found another two brittle ones going through the firewall to the headlight switch from where a slight hissing sound was coming when the lights were on. When I touched them the hissing would become even more noticeable. I then tried to press them onto the connector of the switch and the first hose began to crumble into pieces. So I replaced all the hoses on the switch and rerouted them through firewall through the rubber insulation. There are three hoses . One is the vacuum feed (the one in the middle - I think it was yellow), one is for opening the doors (green) and one for closing (red). I also replaced the red hose behind the firewall going to a T-connector from where the vacuum is fed to the headlight door actuators. I had already replaced the two hoses after the T-connector in the past. With all new hoses in place the doors now perform almost simultaneously and quite fast. So when you run into troubles with your headlight doors, check and replace all the according vacuum hoses first. Its amazing how brittle the hoses going to the headlight switch inside the car can become over the years. It looks like they used a quite different material for these three hoses, as all other vacuum hoses are in much better shape and do not show any sign of deterioration at all.
You can see a video of the headlight doors in action below. On this video they are slightly out of sync. As it looks like they are slightly different every day, depending on temperature and engine idle...

watch on youtube or below

the vacuum diagram for the headlight doors


The vacuum diagram for the headlight doors

While the Eldorados were outside the garage my wife used the opportunity to shoot a couple of pictures she had in her mind, which she is planning to hang into the kids room. Cant wait until the medium format film is back from the photo lab. Below you can see only some digital snap shots I took.
Despite the last two unusual warm and beautiful days unfortunately winter is not over yet here in Austria, as some more snow is predicted for next week and the cars are back in the garage desperately waiting for April to come...

The Eldorado is enjoying some sun rays for the first time this year

Although she is 7 months pregnant, my wife Afra is still climbing ladders to get the best angle for her shots...

The two Eldorados in front of the garage where the snow has just melted away.

Tags:1967, Eldorado, Headlights, Actuators, Headlight doors, Video, Vacuum diagram, 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Repair Tip, Restoration, Vacuum hoses

Today I could finally fix the issue with the broken wires in the passenger door. Because of these broken wires there were some issues with the power vent windows. You can read about the problem here.
Today I started to repair the broken wires by soldering them together and put some heat shrinking tubes and electric tape around the repaired areas.
You can see some image below. More of them can be found in the restoration section.
Everything now works as it should! Lets hope that the repaired wires wont break again any time soon ;-)

Next up - repair the door jamb switch of my 1967 Eldorado and install a new power seat transmission as the front up/down solenoid does no longer work and therefore does not engage the according seat transmission. This will involve removing the front bench seat which is very heavy... Oh it is so much fun owning these cars! ;-)

I removed the kick panel, heater-box and door sill scuff plates to get access to the broken cables.


They broke at the area where all the bending is taking place when the door is opened. Here the first wire is already soldered together


I put some heat shrinking tube around it after soldering


Just to be safe I wrapped some more electric tape around it

All the wires are back together


The wires are back together in the metallic tube going through the door


Kick panel and everything else back in place. Everything works as it should now.


As I work as a cameraman I had a good film light at hand to light the working area properly.

Tags:Wiring, 1958, Eldorado, Power Vent Windows, Restoration, 1958 Cadillac Repair Tip

A while ago I thought that I had already fixed an issue with the wiring of the power vent window in the passenger door.
Yesterday when I was repairing the 6 way power seat which had a contact problem somewhere at a solenoid - suddenly the power vent window started to close itself when I shut the door. So the problem was back! (At least the power seats do work perfectly now!)
So I decided to spend the day in the garage - rewiring the 58´s passenger door as there definitely was a short somewhere in the power vent window circuit. Thats the kind of work I absolutely HATE! 52 years of bending the wires whenever you open the door took its toll.
The bug was easily found after I removed the kick panel, door sill plates, parts of the heat tubing, and the metal tube which is going through the door to protect the wires. 5 (!) cables were broken and only held together by the original fabric covering around it. The cables all broke exactly at the end of the tube where all the bending is going on when the door is opened. I will now have to splice the cables back together somehow and get them back into the tube. No idea how I will do this - I will have to buy some electric supply material first, but the shops are all closed over the weekend. I´m still stunned that the windows still worked and the only sign of failure was that they started to open or close themselves sometimes when I opened the door, and that the battery was drained at one occasion. I guess I was lucky that the car did not catch fire...

UPDATE - Feb. 8th:
I fixed it - read everything about it above or by clicking on this link!

Tags:1958, Eldorado, Wiring, Power Vent Windows, Restoration, 1958 Cadillac Repair Tip

My 1967 Cadillac DeVille was featured in the German Cadillac Club Magazine “Der Standard”. Burkhard Briessmann did an excellent article about 60 years of Cadillac deVille, where he used 3 pictures of my car. Click on the image to read the page where my car is featured. © “Der Standard” - Classic Cadillac Club Germany, 2009 - Burkhard Briessmann. Pictures were shot by my wife.

Tags:Magazine, Der Standard, Article