New Member - 1960 Cadillac Sixty Two Coupe Restoration

[Brighton60]

Hello All,

I’ve been popping in and out of the forum for a little while now as I gathered information, and I think it’s about time to join up and share my journey from the start.

A little backstory:
I’ve got a roughly 30x60 shop, that my father used for storage and the occasional project before he passed away a few years back. As of this year, I’ve started a new business doing custom fabrication of scenery, displays, furniture, metalworking  etc. for theatre, film and retail in that space. Naturally this has meant a lot of clearing out during any downtime. One of the biggest things left in the shop is  my fathers 1960 Caddy.

I remember that growing up (1990s/2000s) my dad always had a classic car.. or two, Corvette, GTO, Thunderbird, Cadillac. Whatever he could trade/ barter for, from one car to the next. Some in better condition that others. He always made sure that my brother and I had an appreciation for the classics, especially American Muscle, and also that we enjoyed jumping in and working on a car when necessary.

When he passed, this 1960 was the one he had left. I can remember driving in it with him when I was maybe 13 years old, and it was in pristine condition, other than some wear and tear on the upholstery. Then one day he heard a noise he didn’t like coming from the engine. I’m told now that “it was probably the lifters” but I don’t know for sure. Long story short, once he worked through what he could think of to diagnose it, he drove it to a shop of a friend who “knew old caddy engines” to get rebuilt. Some time later he brought it home in a basket. Details get fuzzy here, but I believe that person pulled the engine out, began to dismantle it, and then passed away.

That was probably 2005. After that, life got busy, money got tight and my dad let the car sit, engine 75% on a hoist, 25% in a box.. Fast forward to 2019, I’ve got this new business, space is limited, the caddy is big, it’s time to either Fix it or Nix it.

Step one, the engine. As part of the cleanup of the shop I got the engine down from the shelf that it was on, and I located a local engine shop/machine shop, who gave a good price to do a full rebuild, cleaning, machining, and testing. The place does a lot of classic car engines, and I made sure to do a lot of researching and asking around before going with them. At this point I’m waiting to bring them the engine, hopefully in the next week or two.

In the mean time, the front driver side wheel was locked up, so the car had been sitting on low profile carriers. This past weekend I pulled off the wheel, and opened up the drum brake assembly. I cleaned it up, and adjusted the brakes to temporarily free up the wheel. After looking at the front suspension close up, I see that I’m going to have to replace some of it. I’m expecting a decent amount of that as the car has sat without TLC for over a decade. For now at least she’s easier to move around the shop.

Here are a couple of photos of the car (including one where you can see the engine on the shelf). I’ll post some more varied photos once I give it a bath and start to scan over the rest of the car.

Thanks!
Aaron

[Ken Perry]

Thanks for sharing I have some 1960 Cadillacs.The 60 Cadillac is a good looking and also a good driving car. Sorry about your Dad. If you run into trouble with your build,there is a lot of info to be had on this site. Good luck with your Caddy.  Ken Perry   

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Hello Aaron and welcome to the site.

That's a nice car to restore and you're approaching it
correctly.  Sort out the mechanical stuff first.  Getting
the engine rebuilt by a reputable shop is a good start.

The brakes, suspension and also the electrical system
will require your close attention.  That's a 60 year old
wiring harness you've got in there.  Your best
course might be to consider installing a new one.  The
old one will be a source of problems for you.

So many other things to consider as well.  However, as
the previous poster stated there is a wealth of knowledge
on this site from those of us who have been down this road
before.  Don't be bashful about posting!

One recommendation:  get these two publications if
you don't already have them:  the 1959 Shop Manual
(reprints can be found on E-Bay) and secondly, the
Authenticity manual (available from the Club).  They
will save you time and trouble.

Best of luck,

Mike

the Authenticity Manual (available from the Club).

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

One recommendation:  get these two publications if you don't already have them:  the 1959 Shop Manual (reprints can be found on E-Bay) and secondly, the Authenticity manual (available from the Club).  They will save you time and trouble. 

Don't forget that you also need the 1960 Shop Manual Supplement, which gives procedures that were an update on the 1959 models.

Bruce.

[marty55cdv]

 "the Authenticity Manual (available from the Club)."
  Mike are you saying it is available ? 

[59-in-pieces]

Aaron,
Authenticity Manual is under production.
It will be available while you work through your journey, but any questions you have along the way may be answered by those who have cars like yours, just for the asking.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[Skwerly62]

Aaron, welcome aboard! The forum is a great spot to link up with those of us who have already walked in your shoes, have spare parts for sale, and general advice about how to get that beautiful piece of American steel back on the road. I’m sorry to hear of your Dad but it’s nice that you have fond memories of you’re time with him and his cars (as I do of mine). Feel free to reach out as I’m wrapping up my 60 coupe resto here in PA. Good luck.

[Brighton60]

Hello again,

It’s been a little while since my last post, but I wanted to share my progress. When I first posted my plan was to bring the engine to a local speed shop to have it fully rebuilt. However after doing a lot of reading, and watching, and more reading, I decided that I would like to handle the breakdown and reassembly of the 1960 390 myself. Still of course leaving all of the internal machining, boring, etc. to the professionals.

I talked over my plan with him when I delivered the disassembled engine to him last week, and he seems pretty open to working through the process with me. As he starts his work on the block, headers, crank, etc. he is going to keep me posted and let me know the quality of the parts that are there.

Something that he mentioned that makes sense to me, but I want to confirm here is about the replacement parts for the rebuild kits sometimes being made overseas and possibly not up to the same standards as the originals. In his opinion “a higher quality but old original may be better than a new replacement that’s made overseas”. I wanted to get some opinions on picking up the full deluxe rebuild kit off of a place like caddy daddy. Am I better off, piecemealing the rebuild with some OEM parts and some replacements. Or are there specific parts of the full rebuild kit from them that you’ve had trouble with in the past?
For reference this is the kit I’m looking at ordering once I get the measurements from him, plus the rocker arm shafts that are sold separately. https://www.caddydaddy.com/shop-parts/engine-items/engine-rebuild-kits/1959-1960-1961-1962-cadillac-engine-deluxe-rebuild-kit-reproduction-free-shipping-in-the-usa.html

Also I’m unfortunately missing the drivers side exhaust manifold, which seems to be a troublesome part to find in good condition.

A few photos of the engine breakdown attached. And I took a look and my father already had picked up a copy of the shop manual for that year so I’ve got that on hand. I’m going to look into the authenticity manual next.

Thanks!
Aaron

[Brighton60]

Here are those breakdown photos: