76 eldorado convertible rebuild

[Leary75]

Hi everyone,  I am new to this forum, and pretty new to Cadillacs in general.  I have always had a love for huge convertibles, since I was a kid and my next door neighbor had two old Devilles that kinda rotted away in his back yard.  About a year and a half ago, I bought a 76 eldorado that kinda ran...  It was cheap, and had a decent looking body and frame, especially for New England.   It has been, and continues to be one heck of a project.   I call this a rebuild, because I have not tried to keep it all original, and it was never meant to be a true show car.  I just wanted a slick driver that fits my 4 kids.   Here is a pic from last January when it was dropped off

Thanks
Brian L.

[Leary75]

I took a pic for a friend to show it fit in the garage (with about 12” to spare).  It’s a tight squeeze but it gives me a space to work in the winter.   

Big old 500 in this guy, and it had the factory EFI in it.   It ran, but really rough, and once in the garage, there was a strong fuel smell.   The garage is attached to the house, so my wife promptly kicked the car out until I figured out the fuel leak.   

Couple of other immediate items were that the rear passengers window does not go up or down.  And the top is good at about 20 feet, but the back window was a botch job.  It is clear that the top will need to be replaced

Carpet is ratty as well.  All fixable. 

-Brian L

[hornetball]

Kids will love it.  Went to the drive-in movies last Sunday night with the grandkids in a '74.

Your wife is right about that fuel leak, you need to get that fixed.  I know carbs (glad I have one), but there are some experts here on the fuel injection system.  I think the main issue with early fuel injection is finding repair parts.

Good luck!

[Leary75]

Thanks hornetball.  I actually had the car done and back on the road.   Long process so was starting at the beginning 

I say had, because I blew a bearing on the engine and am now rebuilding it.  I will get to that soon. 

-Brian

[Leary75]

So as I got into the car I started pulling out the interior.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the car in the beginning, but can’t go back in time....  interior was pretty rough, carpet worn through, and leather cracked and ripped in a few spots.   

Once I got through the carpet, floors were Swiss cheese, and clearly needed to b replaced as well. 

Bought a welder and learned how to weld.   Also learned that welding rusty sheet metal stinks....   it takes a long time to say the least .  Whole process took about 2 months to get back to a solid floor. Used a rust encapsulator primer, and a black chassis paint

Here are a few pics of the car as I was disassembling the interior, and redoing the metal

[Leary75]

Also the gas leak was the tank.   I sent it out to be re-coated, as you can’t get a reproduction of the EFI tanks from this year.   Cleaned, primed and painted the body and frame under the tank, and my son made some new tank straps.   Also replaced all the fuel, return, and brake lines on the car, as they were all rusted in a few spots, and I like stopping

[Leary75]

Last one for tonight, installed sound deadener (noico rubberized sound deadeneder from amazon) and then dry fit the new carpet.   My wife recommended that we have the seats professionally reupholstered, so they were at an old school upholstery shop near me in RI. 

This was about a year ago today.  Lots more to come!

-Brian

[Leary75]

The top...  with the help of my kids, we replaced the top.   Taking it off, the rest tack bow was completely rotted out at both ends, so that needed to be replaced.   Fortunately, parts are readily available for scissor tops.  Also, the mechanism itself works well, so the tack bow was the only physical repair that was needed on the frame.   

My oldest son was really into this, and helped a lot with the re-assembly.   The fisher body manual is a must here, as it gives step by step instructions for the replacement. 

All in all it was a tedious process, and I am pretty happy with th results.  It keeps the rain out...   there are some areas that we will be re-stretching this summer to tighten it up better.  Frankly, I never want to drive it with the top on, so it is pretty low on the list 😆

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Brian,

Congratulations for doing the replacement yourself.

Boy, that is one rusty tack strip.

I too replaced the roof on a '71 Eldo, and know that the Shop Manual is a must for these tasks.

Love to know how the factory got them so well, but at least, they would have had an outside framework to assemble everything on, before installing the complete unit.

Bruce.

PS.   Did you replace the drain gutter as well?

[Leary75]

Hey Bruce, thanks for the reply.   Yup on the gutter, the retaining rod in the old one was rusted out, and it was brittle.   I didn’t re use any of the soft components of the top.   I have seen old pics of the factory assembly, and they have them fully made and hoist the whole thing in from above...   my home factory is not as advanced unfortunately 😆.   
Lots more to update on soon. 

Thanks
-Brian

[Leary75]

So on to the interior!   The passengers side of the car had issues with the door seals, and the rear quarter window didn’t go up all the way.  This must have been going on for a while, because the lower door panels were pretty bad when I got the car.   I decided to try to repair them as opposed to replacing them using fiberglass resin.   The old fiber board forms were frayed in a lot of spots, nd soaked up the resin like a sponge.   It gave the forms structural integrity, and works for now.

[Leary75]

For the dash pad nd doors, I re- colored them usning the SEM system paints.   Can’t say enough about these, they work so well.   The car had a two tone grey interior, which I kept close to original

[Leary75]

Finally the pads on the top of the doors needed to be re-covered.   The place that did my seats had a special tool to remove the inverted push nuts that hold the pads to the metal.   They also gave me all of the leftover leather and vinyl from the seats, so I had lots of material to work with.   I ordered matching carpet for the bottom of the doors too.   I decided to wrap the rear pads in the vinyl, and the front in the leather (since my arm would be on it 😊)

My younger sons helped with the pads as you can see in the pics

They came out well.  Tough to get the corners a tight with the leather, but the fronts are butter soft. 
- Brian

[Leary75]

Interior finishing touches.  A bunch of other, not too exciting, interior items were taken care of. 

- Installed a retro sound radio, and was able to fit the original knobs.   
- Put in a new light switch, and rewired the interior lights after chasing a short
- new speakers in the dash ( oversized, and had to modify slightly to fit )
- all new cluster lamps
- rebuilt the speedometer housing with parts from two
- dressed up the chrome trim with a paint pen

Also, got new floor mats as a gift for Christmas.  Yes, by now we are into January of this year.  It is amazing how time moves by.  But in January 2020 I finished the interior and had it fully re-installed.  I absolutely love how the interior came out.   The only thing left to do inside is the steering wheel, but that can wait for now.  I still have extra seat leather to make a wrap for it. 

-Brian L.

[hornetball]

Ooooohhh!  Upper door panel in leather.  Nice.

I wrapped my steering wheel and like how it turned out.

Give one of your sons some "Never-Dull" and set them to work on the door sill plates.

[Leary75]

Hornetball, I love your thread on your 74.  That green is pimptastic, and I have serious garage envy.   I actually ordered a grey sample from wheelskins based on your post to see if it matches my leather.   May go that route if it is close. 

My door sill plates are pulled through at about 1/2 of the screw holes, so I actually have new ones sitting on my workbench.   I may try the ‘never-dull’ on some of the other chrome trim pieces that are currently always dull 😆

-Brian

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Brian,

Great to see the younger generation getting stuck into tasks that some people would not attempt.

Bruce.

[Leary75]

Ok, so the interior is done, so it’s basically ready, except for this nagging issue in the trunk area that I have been putting off.   The rim around the trunk seal rotted through in a few areas, and it is in a tricky area that has bends in it.    Unlike the floor pans,  this  area can be seen.   Few pics of before, and prepping the area for welding.   

As I dug in to this area, there are some clear signs of a previous repair, with quite a bit of body making the hole thing more complicated.

[Leary75]

This section tested my welding skills.  Especially with the cheap, flux core welder I have.   Lots of tack welding, with lots of grinding to get this smooth.   Also, some odd ball pieces that needed to be hand formed.   I have a sheet metal break at work that let me make the major bends, but even these needed to be tweaked to fit in the vise.   

Had a few separate sections to weld, and after a lot of trial and error, got it to a decent place. 

-Brian

[Leary75]

To finish the rear, I skimmed on som filler, sanded a lot, primed, and painted.   You really get n appreciation for the labor that goes into body work and paint prep when you do it yourself.    I don’t have a ton of pics here, but there were touch ups done on the outside of the rear quarter as well, where there was some old pitting that was never repaired properly.  Eventually, the whole car need to be painted, and it will be a big job. 
-Brian