2012

Geralds 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville, 1967 Cadillac Deville,1967 Cadillac Eldorado, 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III and 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. | 2013 | 2011

Winter is here!

22 | 12 | 12 | 17:37 | Filed in: Garage Stuff | Various

During the cold and way too long winter I won’t have any Cadillac activities going on. My main project 2012 was the construction of my new Cadillac Garage. Unfortunately I was not able to finish the garage project before the winter due to some major health problems with my back and some delays with building permissions. The project started two months later as initially planned.

I really hope that my back will get better until next spring and that I can start working on my new garage and my cars once again.

In 2012 my car activities unfortunately were very limited as well:
I drove all my cars together for only around 400 miles, due to some very wet summer and lots of work. I really had no time to enjoy my cars as much as I would have wanted. Thats not good for the cars as well - they were built to get driven!

My personal Cadillac highlight 2012 once again was the Cadillac BIG Meet (Europes biggest and best Cadillac Meeting)with some awesome cars attending. I am already looking forward to the 2014 edition of this Cadillac Meeting.

Thanks to everybody for visiting my website and for all the nice comments I got and the people I “met“ through your comments and messages!

I´ll be back in spring 2013 with my first new updates for 2013 to my website. I have so many cool things planned and I hope that I can make all plans come true.

Keep on cruising!

My unfinished new Cadillac Garage project in the snow….

Tags:Garage, Cadillac BIG Meet

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The new garage is ready for paint

14 | 11 | 12 | 19:51 | Filed in: Garage Stuff | Various

As the new garage I´m building is almost ready to be painted, I made some drafts how it could look like once its painted.
My friend Mike had the idea for one of the paint designs. Thanks Mike!

As it is too cold outside anyway and I unfortunately hurt my back quite badly I won’t be able to do the paint work or any other work in the garage before next spring. So there is still a lot of time to think about how it could look like and most importantly to get healthy again ;-)
You can see the status of the work in the garage in this gallery with hundreds of pictures of the build.

Here are the two design ideas I like the most. I´m also still looking for a good name - favorites so far are: „Land Yacht Club“ or „The BIG Block“

The more classic version or…

… the more elegant version?

Some more color ideas

Some more color ideas - I will most probably go with this version

Tags:Garage, Paintjob

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Building a new Cadillac garage!

13 | 09 | 12 | 19:44 | Filed in: Garage Stuff | Various

As I ran out of space to store all my cars at home - work for my new Cadillac garage began today! I will use 3 spaces in it for myself - the rest will be for rent for fellow classic car owners.

At the moment I have to store at least two cars at friends garages. The 58 Seville spent a whole year in a friends garage an hour away from my house. After a lot of planning and waiting for building permissions, today finally work for my new garage project began. Once finished I will be able to store 8 full size cars in there :-)
The new garage is located only a few minutes away from my house in a good neighborhood, with friendly neighbors who will keep an eye on whats going on there.

Today we had to cut down some trees to make room for the building. During the next days the property will get cleared and grubbed before the foundation will be laid next week.
The plan is to have everything finished by mid October so that the cars will have a new home before next winter.

*UPDATE* October 5th
during the last few weeks we made really good progress on the building - check out the pictures to see the current status.

You can find an image gallery of the construction process here

Clearing the property began on Sept 13th

October 5th

November 2012

test fitting November 2012

Tags:Garage

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The 58 Seville is back home. A dead battery...

04 | 09 | 12 | 21:08 | Filed in: 1958 Cadillac

Due to limited space in my garage I always have to store at least 2 cars at friends. Last year I put my 1958 Seville into storage at a friends awesome garage.

Now after almost a full year of not seeing the car it was time to bring it back home again. I was a little worried if the car would even start up after such a long time of hibernation.
After I put some fuel into the center carb - the car fired right up after only 3 seconds of cranking! Amazing! The car ran perfectly well and made the one hour and a half trip home without any issues.

The surprise came the next day when I wanted to take the car on another trip. The battery was dead although it was disconnected after the last trip. I tried to recharge it but it´s completely dead! The Exide Maxima battery only lasted for 5 years and broke down over night without any warning… I will buy a new battery probably next spring - not sure if I should go with Exide again, maybe a cheaper one will have to do.

The 58 after it left my friends garage after a year of storage. To my surprise it started right up!

Tags:1958, Seville, Eldorado, Battery, Exide

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Cadillac BIG Meet 2012 - Bad weather but great cars.

26 | 08 | 12 | 19:45 | Filed in: Car Shows | 1967 Cadillac DeVille

Kremsmünster, Austria – In its 110 year history, Cadillac built more iconic vehicles than any of its competitors in the luxury car segment. This has once again been impressively demonstrated at the annual Cadillac Big Meet in Kremsmünster, Austria.
86 Cadillacs from the nineteen forties to the present day have been put on show and many of them were awarded with prices from a distinguished international jury.
Even with this year’s number of cars below it’s record mark of 160 – due to the rather unfavorable weather situation – the Cadillac BIG Meet in Kremsmünster is still regarded as the largest annual Cadillac meeting in Europe.
It is open to all Cadillac owners, regardless of age and history of the vehicle.

This year, the special focus was on cars from the nineteen seventies, represented by 20 cars from this decade, with the Eldorado convertibles clearly outnumbering other body styles.

Organizer Georg Pfeiffer and moderator Ulla Theussl handed over the trophies in pouring rain this year – but the weather could not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants and the spectators. We took the 1967 DeVille this year.

On the day before the meeting we held a driving tour for 40 registered Cadillacs. The participants were rewarded with breathtaking vistas along the whole route.
You can find a huge gallery of the pictures my wife and I shot from the driving tour and the show on the Cadillac BIG Meet website.

At the driving tour!

My personal favorite car at the show - the 1958 Eldorado Brougham!

This years special theme was the 1970´s Cadillacs

Tags:Cadillac BIG Meet, 1967, Eldorado, Brougham, Cruising, Deville, 1958

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Preparations for the Cadillac BIG Meet 2012

20 | 08 | 12 | 20:27 | Filed in: Car Shows | 1967 Cadillac DeVille

My friend Tayfun came to visit to prepare our Cadillacs for next weekends Cadillac BIG Meet in Kremsmünster. It´s the biggest and best Cadillac Meeting in Europe and I´m a proud member of the organization team. My friend and I will spend the rest of the week in the garage detailing our cars for the big show. I usually take a week of from work a week before the Cadillac BIG Meet to have a good time in the garage. Tayfun is here with his newly acquired 1990 Brougham D`Elegance which needs some detailing and I will take my 67 DeVille to this years show. Both our cars will get full attention to the last detail.

In the garage with the Brougham and the 1967´s

Detailing the grille of the Brougham

Detailing work

Tags:1967, Deville, detailing, Cadillac BIG Meet, Cleaning

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New great Cadillac garage decoration.

20 | 08 | 12 | 15:46 | Filed in: Garage Stuff | Various

Through the help of a Belgian Cadillac friend I was put in contact with a gentleman in the Netherlands who had two Cadillac light boxes from a former Cadillac dealer for sale.
He sold them pretty cheaply - so I thought it would be a great addition for my garage as decoration item. Shipping them was not so easy. Nevertheless they look great and will eventually be hung in my planned new Cadillac garage.

My friend Tayfun helped me clean the new decoration. After some work they looked like new!

Tags:Garage, Decoration, Neon

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A photoshooting with 2 Broughams

29 | 04 | 12 | 21:00 | Filed in: Various

My friends Mike and Tayfun both own a Cadillac Brougham. Mike owned a 1986 Brougham Coupé and Tayfun is the owner of a 1990 Brougham D´Elegance. As both of them were in town we made a little photo shooting with their cars. I will post a link to the images here eventually.

more pics will follow!

Tags:Photo shooting

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Front wheel bearings replacement on my 1967 Cadillac DeVille

17 | 03 | 12 | 20:05 | Filed in: 1967 Cadillac DeVille | Restoration

When my 67 Deville had to pass its annual technical inspection last fall the inspector complained that one of the front wheel bearings made a little humming noise. The car passed nevertheless, but he asked me to replace the bearings before the next inspection.
As we had the first really warm and sunny days this weekend, I took the car out of storage and put it into my old garage to do the work. It's a pretty easy job on the 1967 Deville - you do not even need any special tools or presses.
I got a set of inner and outer wheel bearings for both front axles from Rockauto.com - I got a set made by “Moog“ as I have heard good things about their quality.
You just have to remove the tires, remove the pin at the axle, remove the big nut and pull off the brake drum. The outer bearings can just be pulled out - the inner bearings have to be tapped out with a long screwdriver, as they are held in place by a dust cap. A very slight tap is all it needs to get it out. I cleaned everything and put the greased new wheel bearings in and put everything back together. I also readjusted the front brakes and also found that one of the new brake hoses was a little loose and loosing a little brake fluid, so I tightened it.
As I had the front wheel tires off the car - I also cleaned the entire front suspension and detailed it. Everything is squeaky clean now again. No more noise is coming from the wheel bearings now…

The old inner wheel bearing is out

The new inner bearing

There is a dust cap which you have to tap out

the front axle

Back together - before detailing the wheel housing and front suspension

Tags:1967, Deville, 1967 Cadillac Repair Tip, Restoration, Wheel Bearings, detailing

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Outlook to the 2012 season - doing the first repairs 2012

As we had a nice sunny, dry winter day today I decided to re-arrange the cars in my garage so that I can start doing some work on them during the remaining cold winter nights.

The following work is planed for the next few months before the cars will be put back on the road in May 2012.

1971 Mark III

new vinyl roof (the original one was damaged during transport and the insurance will pay for a new one)

1967 DeVille

needs new front wheel bearings (I already have the spare parts)
will try to find a rebuilt OEM Bendix master cylinder and vacuum booster. These are very difficult to find. Everybody seems to offer Delco Moraine parts only. I have replaced my original booster and master cylinder 2 years ago and I´m not quite happy with the power assist of the new units. It seems that the after market master cylinders from Delco have a smaller bore diameter and therefore you will have to depress the pedal with more force. There is a discussion going on on the topic of finding the correct booster and master cylinder in the CLC forum - check it out for more detail! If you know where I could find a correct Bendix booster and master cylinder or where I could get my original core rebuilt, please let me know!! The parts number for the Bendix Master Cylinder is #1489981 and for the Bendix booster it is: #1489071
re-adjust the gear indicator as it's slightly out of line.

1967 Eldorado

I will remove the starter motor and have it rebuilt - it sometimes is acting up

1958 Eldorado

It needs some new front wheel bearings as well. I already bought the parts.

I will of course post the repair progress here on my website

A new garage?

The biggest planned project for 2012 will be to find a solution for my storage problem. I hope to be able to build another garage or to rent one. I will have to find a solution until the spring of 2012. I´m dreaming of building a building which can hold 8 Cadillacs, but I do not know yet if I will be able to afford it...

Car Shows

I hope to attend and visit the „Klassikwelt Bodensee“ from May 17th to 20th and of course the best meeting in Europe - the Cadillac BIG Meet August 25th to 26th. I will also hopefully make it to some local shows here in Austria.

As we had a dry winter day I took the cars out of the garage - they fired right up after some months of sleeping

The Mark III was moved to the back of the garage, so that I can start working on the other cars first

Little Elliot loves Daddy´s cars as well ;-)