15,000 mile 1976 Cadillac Coupe deVille; Images tell the story

[Professor]

One owner, car sitting since 2011.  Here are some images.  I am truly not sure what to do with this car.  The previous owner, a close friend of mine, was a Cadillac fan.  He bought this one for $10,000 in 2011 and then let it set.  The car is beautiful on the inside and heavily optioned, and could clean up nicely… however, it has been setting so long that I am afraid of the reality that lies just beneath some beautiful skin.  I would be interested in your thoughts.

 

Here comes a deluge of images.

 

 

 

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Some comments.  In examining the car, I suspect that the driver’s door may have been repainted.  There is overspray on the VIN tag on the driver’s door, and some paint on the door edge guard.  I also see what I think is overspray on the undercarriage under the driver’s door.  The gas tank is dented, but not leaking.  The bumper fillers have disintegrated and will need to be replaced.  Somehow, the cowl body tag has been deformed, which seems like an odd place for damage.  I am uncertain how well the chrome and paint will clean up, but I think they will be very nice.  The interior… oh my gosh… the interior is absolutely stunning.  This is the nicest original interior I have ever seen on a car.

 

The undercarriage has some rust, but it appears to be surface rust.  The engine compartment has some rust and corrosion and I am uncertain how much it will take to make everything functional.  At a minimum:

 

Fuel system cleaned.

Brake system cleaned and restored.

All new oil and grease everywhere that can be reached.

Drain and replace transmission and rear axle fluids

New tires (clearly, lol)

 

It seems to me that this car has some serious potential, and no matter what, I am not going to allow it to continue to disintegrate, even if I have to buy it and slowly work on it.  This car meant a great deal to my friend, and I would love to see it be on the road and shown.  With such low miles, I don’t think it should become a daily driver.

 

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.  Hopefully the hundred or so images will help produce some comments.  Thanks in advance.  I know close to nothing about Cadillacs or cars from this era… other than they were, ahem, not very high quality.

 

Joe

[EmTee]

I agree with everything you have said and also was thinking that at least parts have been resprayed at some point in the past.  The fact that the car came from Albany, NY probably explains much of the 'flash rust' on the undercarriage and engine compartment.  Despite the low miles, I'll wager that the car was driven on salted roads on at least a few occasions.  That salt solution or even the 'mist' fogs any bare metal and is almost impossible to remove.  I am not concerned about the visible rust, as it is all on the surface, but depending upon what the plan is for the car, it will take a lot of time and elbow grease to clean that up by hand.  Actually, if it were mine, I'd be looking into having the undercarriage and engine bay blasted with dry-ice.  From what little I know about that process, it seems to me this car is a perfect candidate.  I have no idea what it would cost, but whatever it is, it would save weeks of effort otherwise necessary to disassemble, clean and refinish components...

 

The car deserves to be saved, however, I'll say that I love the interior, but the exterior color choice -- not so much...  It seems to detract (clash) with the interior.  I wonder whether that was a special order combination; doesn't seem like they would go together naturally.  The other 'minus' is just the sheer size of these cars.  This was the last of the 'big' GM automobiles.  Not everyone is into these mid-70's behemoths, although you'd be hard pressed to find a more comfortable long-distance cruiser (gas consumption aside).

 

Good luck and keep us posted as this story develops! 

[VW4X4]

Joe,

     Do some home work.....  Find out how many were made.  Find out if the car has any significant background, or history that may add value.  IF so, it MIGHT have some value. If not, JUNK IT.  These cars were the worst gross polluters, and gas guzzler,

ever made.  BIG EGO cars...... LOOK AT ME AND WHO I AM , coming down the road.  I personally would never own one.  I called them clown cars, because by the late seventies, you had to be a complete idiot, with complete careless disrespect to health and environment, to have purchased such a monstrosity.  Yet, even today, I'm sure you will find an A$$ for every seat. (as the saying goes).......  If I was you, I would sell parts off of it,  (your not going to stop someone who already owns one), then scrap out the rest.  You will have done your part in keeping the planet clean.   Remembers the cash for clunker program? Consider this car to have been over looked.  Might be a great demolition derby car....  I'm sure I've offended a lot of people who have cars like this.   Maybe that's what it take to use some common sense. Flame suit on....

 

Now, I'm not a big tree huger, or environmentalist, but I am a fairly conservative person, and it has definitely payed off.... Literally  

 

ERIC

 

[Professor]

Thanks @EmTee, @VW4X4.

 

Eric, Because this car had some meaning to my friend, I will not part it out.  This said, you raise a good point; this car is not exactly “earth friendly”.  However, given the low miles, I doubt it will be driven much.  A quick look on BAT suggests that a low mileage version of this car can bring close to $40k.

 

My Chrysler will be going to get paint and body work completed, and I think it will be gone for 6 months, so this car may be a good time-filler for me. However, I have quite a bit of work to do around my property so I probably don’t need another project.

 

Oh, one other note, Eric… this is my daily driver.  It probably yells “LOOK AT ME” and “THIS GUY WASTES FUEL”, but I’ll tell you… I love it, and for work here on the farm, it doubles as an amazing tool.  I cannot imagine what people think when they see it.  LOL.

 

 

[Big Beat]

Beautiful car. Great example of GM in all its 1970s glory, magnificence and cheap crappy plastic both. Nice sunflower seed stash, too.

 

Environmental concerns about such cars are misplaced. They were valid when this car was new, and that is why nobody makes cars like this anymore. But gas consumption is irrelevant in an antique show car, and if you want to talk about big, heavy and wasteful, talk about all those huge, raised, 4-door, 4x4 pickup trucks that have basically replaced the full-size sedan. Plenty of Rams and F150s and Silverados on the road today that make this Cadillac look look a lithe paragon of thoughtful efficiency. 

 

Surface undercarriage rust can use a clean-up, but it all looks good otherwise. Wake her up slowly and carefully and post more pics for us as you do. 

 

 

[STEVE POLLARD]

Very cool...doesn't look like the Dealership is still there, another one is - Otto Cadillac, Inc....maybe they might have kept records ? Can't hurt to find out, maybe some history on the car ?

 

Steve

[Bloo]

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but this is not a time filler for 6 months, this is a time filler for the rest of your life. If 6 months seems reasonable for paint on the Chrysler based on what you have been told in the beginning, I would plan for more like a year and a half. That is about how complete body and paint jobs go if nothing goes wrong. A year and a half is still not enough time to consider this car as a time filler. Of the two projects, Cadillac and Chrysler, this Cadillac is the big one, and by a large margin. When theses cars were contemporary, they needed a lot of tinkering. It was more of a normal thing at that time. Average cars from the mid 70s spent a lot of time in the shop. Cadillacs, being loaded with extra parts and features that could potentially misbehave, needed quite a bit more tinkering than the average car. Now it's over 40 years old. If this particular year and model of Cadillac is not something that you have been wanting for yourself for years, you should run away screaming and hope it doesn't catch up.

 

 

[Professor]

@Bloo, this is not something I have been wanting, or in fact, ever wanted… I would prefer to have someone purchase it.  I will recommend that my friend’s widow not sink anything into this car unless it has special meaning to her.  I will talk to her tomorrow and let folks know what she has to say.

 

Joe

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

8 hours ago, Big Beat said:

Beautiful car. Great example of GM in all its 1970s glory, magnificence and cheap crappy plastic both. Nice sunflower seed stash, too.

 

Environmental concerns about such cars are misplaced. They were valid when this car was new, and that is why nobody makes cars like this anymore. But gas consumption is irrelevant in an antique show car, and if you want to talk about big, heavy and wasteful, talk about all those huge, raised, 4-door, 4x4 pickup trucks that have basically replaced the full-size sedan. Plenty of Rams and F150s and Silverados on the road today that make this Cadillac look look a lithe paragon of thoughtful efficiency. 

 

Surface undercarriage rust can use a clean-up, but it all looks good otherwise. Wake her up slowly and carefully and post more pics for us as you do. 

 

 

 

 Thank you sir.

 

  Ben

[Rivguy]

Wow, Mr. VW4x4 certainly has some strong opinions. We are all entitled to our opinions, granted, but I think that his assessment is pretty rough.  These '76s are the last of GMs land yacht line. Like models from the 1950's they personify their era. Yes they were the last of that era, and they are interesting because of that. If the poster doesn't want the car for himself, then he should help in selling it. Just put some decent used tires on it so that it can be moved around. There might be an interested buyer out there at the right price.

All old cars were fuel inefficient and emitted more pollutants than a new car. at least this one is equipped with a catalytic converter . The 1975 models  were the first to be equipped. The slightly downsized '77s were quite a change, I bought a three year old Coupe de Ville as a present to myself when I graduated from college. 

This car looks to be pretty well preserved, but nobody is going to fix this up and start doing a fifty mile commute with it.  I'm sure it would be sparingly driven, like most collector cars. I hope that it finds a home with a sympathetic owner.

[ramair]

I have been trying to decide this past hour whether to comment on Mr. VW4x4 and out of respect for my Grandfather I will comment.  The statement that “Look At Me and Who I Am, Coming Down the Road” does not describe my grandfather who was a hard working farmer who milked herds of cows twice a day . He was 72 years old and still putting in a full days work, he finally ordered a near identical 1976 Cadillac,  do you think he had a big ego or could it have been that he wanted to drive a car that he felt was the “standard of the world”. Ego and idiot I can attest he was not, I remember well the day a civic group came to the house to ask my grandfather for a donation to build a facility, they had a dollar amount in mind after they told him the amount my grandfather said he would double what they wanted with one stipulation , the money would be from an anonymous donor and know one was to know who donated it, I still live in that small community and I smile when I drive by because 40 years latter no one know’s , well I guess you guys do !

[Professor]

My uncle always drove Cadillacs, purchasing one new every year or two.  He certainly wasn’t the type to want attention.  I recall at the time, Cadillacs were (to me, and I suspect many at the time) indicated success.  Remembering that I came out of socioeconomic conditions where Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche did not even exist as far as I knew.  Living in the poor part of town limited my perspective of status cars… except for Cadillac.  I saw them, and I knew without a doubt that this was a car that rich people drove. They were big, beautiful (to me), and unbelievably comfortable.

 

My family owned only one car.  In the mid to late 60s, it was a 1959 Rambler station wagon.  In the early 1970’s my uncle gave us a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle, which was out car for the rest of my childhood.  These cars were well used by the time we got them, and many of you will understand how “comfortable” they were.

 

I rode in my uncle’s Cadillac a few times when he drove from California to Arizona to visit us.  Imagine what a kid who grew up with a Rambler and a Volkswagen might have thought after stepping inside a new Cadillac in the mid-1970s.  It was breathtaking to me.  I literally could not even comprehend how a car could be so beautiful, quiet, and smooth on the road.  

 

I think that the image of Cadillac has changed substantially since I was a child.  The image of Cadillac being the car of choice for pimps and mobsters was never imprinted in me as a child, so I do not tend to think of Cadillacs like this, even now.

 

Regardless of what happens, I will be involved in helping my deceased friend’s wife get this car in shape so that it can be sold.  First step is new tires.

 

Joe

[VW4X4]

Well this thread, I hope will spark some food for thought.  I have done a lot of unscientific studying about a persons  personality and the car they drive /the condition it is in...... There are many exceptions to the rules I've come up with, but in some situations, with specific vehicles, like this one, the car tells you "mostly" who your dealing with.   Some people say its "judging a person" ... what ever that means.  An exception would be if someone gave you the car.

 

Many people do this. A good example of this would be, seeing someone  drive up to a fee market in a car like this. Lots of sellers would think, "double the prices"  they have the money.   They might be right, but now the cost of driving the car has increased more.

 

and Its not just me, I'm just more vocal about it....

 

ERIC

Edited November 26, 2022 by VW4X4
gramer (see edit history)

[Professor]

Hi Eric,

 

People stereotype because it helps process information more quickly.  I agree, Cadillacs come with a stigma associated with a common stereotype.  Stereotypes are nothing more than a common societal perception, and you are definitely not the only one with a Cadillac related stereotype.

 

Joe

[Rivguy]

I grew up in a blue collar neighborhood. My Dad told me once," People drive whatever they can afford." Some choose to stretch and buy something more expensive, some settle for something in their range. Others, like my Dad, will choose to drive cheap older cars and save their extra money for an investment, or education for their kids. I've never really equated an expensive car with being wealthy, though there is a definite correlation. 

Now, I live in the SF Southbay area and I see high end cars  everywhere. Not just American makes but Europeans, like Porsche, Mercedes, Audi,  even exotic stuff like Lambos.  The current car of choice is of course the Tesla. They are good cars that send the right message, I think of them as the engineer's or techie's choice. My Son just bought one. Nice, but not my thing.

Old car guys are sending their own message by their choice of a vintage car, as it's a luxury that is out of the ordinary. Drive whatever you can afford that makes you happy. 

[EmTee]

"High income" and "wealth" are not the same thing.

[ramair]

Anybody have the phone number for Cash for Clunkers, I need to prove that I don’t have a big ego, good riddance evil Cadillac

[Professor]

@ramair,

 

Believe me, I understand.  I was looking at Cadillac Allantes for awhile, thinking I wanted to own one.  It didn’t take me long to figure out the reason why you can almost get them for free (a bit of an exaggeration, but not much).  People who owned them essentially said, “these are junk, and I hate them, stay away”.

My friend bought a well-cared-for 1992 with 7,000 miles on it.  He said little things kept breaking and it ended up costing him $6,000-ish for work, and then he sold it for a huge loss.

 

I might take one if someone gave it to me, but I would sell it immediately.  It was NOT one of Cadillac’s better ideas.  It was cutting-edge technology without the bugs removed. If only they had made it rear-wheel-drive.

 

I bet you have a story.  This is my thread so you can hijack it for a moment if you want.

🙂

 

Joe

 

6 hours ago, ramair said:

Anybody have the phone number for Cash for Clunkers, I need to prove that I don’t have a big ego, good riddance evil Cadillac