Hello. I have been a member of the CLC for along time and this is my first post. I recently found and purchased a 4160 mile all original 1 owner 1975 Sedan Deville with the d'elegance option. I believe the color of it is called Rosewood. I discovered this car after I started talking to a gentelman at a local car collection auction that I attended. He said he had just inherited 3 Cadillacs from his neighbor that had recently passed away. They only lived about 3 miles away from my home in country. I knew of the guy that died, but I had no idea he had 3 Cadillacs. He had this 75, a 97 Deville d'elegance with 14,000 miles and a 2009 DTS with 500 miles. I was told the 75 Deville was parked in the garage when they built the new house in 1979 and never was started or moved out of the garage again. It was parked in a 2 car attached garage with a concrete floor. When I found the car it was sitting on 4 flat original Uniroyal wide whitewall tires and covered in dust. I opened the door on the car and I could believe the condition of the car. It looked brand new inside, not even any dirt on the floor mats. After we decided on a price, I hauled the car on a rollback wrecker back to my shop. I pulled the spark plugs and put some oil in the cylinders. I changed the oil for only the second time in the cars life and drained the old gas out of the fuel tank. I then added some fresh gas to the tank and primed the carburator. I replaced the battery which may have been original. It was a red, white, and blue delco battery. It turned over maybe 1 revolution and started and ran like it was brand new, not even any lifter noise. It was just amazing. I had to add several quarts of trans fluid that had seeped out over the 30 years of sittng. I also had to replace the tires because they had bad flat spots. The original exhaust looks great. I have only driven it 40 miles since I got it running. The chrome shined up with a little elbow grease. They had parked it with bugs on the front bumper which caused some pitting. It also has some rust spots that look like spider webs under the paint, overall it looks amazing for being 35 years old with only 4160 miles. I also checked all the lights on the car and the headlight bulbs burnt out after i tried them. I guess the didn't want to be turned on after 30 years. It also had a wheel chock in the trunk. Is that original to the car or did someone make it? If anyone has any questions please ask me. I can't wait until the weather gets better so I can drive it some more and share the car with other people.
Sure would like to see some pictures. Here or e-mailed to me.
Roy
Great find! To be sure that cars stays roadable, it needs some aged parts replaced. Get a new timing chain, that very old plastic sprocket can fall apart regardless of miles. Get new brake hoses, I'd replace the front calipers, and you might want a new set of piston seals in the trans to avoid a catastrophic failure. Bruce Roe
Those cars came with a black painted wooden wheel chock. It doesn't look very professional, but it is original. Congratulations on getting that time machine. We'd all love to see some pictures.
-Mike Beda
CLC #24610
On borrowed computer
I tried to attach a picture, but the file is too large. I will have to take a differant picture. I wondered if that wheel chock was original. It looks like a piece of 4"x4" wood cut on an angle and spray painted black. What did the 75's come with for a battery? The one I replaced was a Delco with a white body and a blue top with red, white, and blue decals. The seals and weatherstriping feel brand new. They are not dried out at all. I still can not believe what I got. I always thought I would love to go back to the 70's and buy a brand new Cadillac. This as close as I will ever get!! Randy Manus
RANDY! I have a 76 Coupe de Ville and the wheel chock that holds up the spare tire is original and was there when the car was purchased in Oct 1976. I do think the timing chain and sprockets are all steel, not plastic, so I wouldn't change those if I am correct. Good Luck on a nice car. EAM
Replacement timing chains are all steel, originals are not. The cam sprocket has plastic teeth, which wear badly, fall into & jam your oil pickup, and eventually throw the chain off leaving you stranded with possibly bent valves & damaged pistons. Bruce Roe
Quote from: bcroe on January 12, 2011, 10:22:42 AM
Replacement timing chains are all steel, originals are not. The cam sprocket has plastic teeth, which wear badly, fall into & jam your oil pickup, and eventually throw the chain off leaving you stranded with possibly bent valves & damaged pistons. Bruce Roe
BRUCE! I guess you might be right that the cam sprockets' teeth were plastic but the timing chains were always steel in 75-76, were they not? EAM
The actual timing chain is always steel, but every couple months I hear of another one that came off when the cam sprocket failed. In theory you could just change the sprocket, but good practice is to change to a matched set. Bruce Roe
Ev,
I personally have never seen a cam sprocket that I would consider reliable (plastic coating has not deteriorated to the point of incipient failure) on any Cadillac over 25 years old, regardless of mileage. It seems to be a chronological thing, rather than use.
Greg
Here are some pictures of my 75 with 4200 miles now. The pictures were taken outside of my repair shop. I did add wire hubcaps to the car. I think it looks much better. Randy
Here is a timing chain picture somebody posted. Not the upper sprocket "teeth" are just barely holding the chain, compare to the steel crank sprocket teeth. When the chain comes off, the engine could be destroyed. Low miles may not look this bad, but they can still crack & fall off at this age. Bruce Roe
Randy, Thats a real beauty! And the wire wheelcovers look great on it.
I sure would be proud to own that one. That is a nice ride.
Roy
That timing gear looks like it was out of one abused engine. Even has rust in there.
Nice Nice car!
Just to clarify-it does not appear to be a de'Elegance as originally posted.
On de'Elegance models the upper door trim pads would be fabric covered, plush pile carpet along with a wider brushed chrome molding on the door trim panel above the carpet and the body side molding would have a vinyl insert to match the roof color.
Rosewood interiors were a de'Elegance color choice.
I thought if it had the see through hood ornament and Manhattan cloth it had the d'Elegance option? What else was included in the d'Elegance package? Randy
Randy,
As Frank mentioned, The D'Elegance had the same striped upholstery but also had it on the door upper panels.
The D'Elegance had the stand up see-thru hood ornament, but it also deleted the V and crest on the front of the hood. So if you see both, then someone added the stand up type. An exception is the Coupe Devilles. On a Coupe Deville you got the stand up type if you ordered the half vinyl top (Cabriolet option) or the D'Elegance package. D'elegance models had factory pinstriping on the front of the hood too. At least they did in 74, I'll have to verify that when I get home from work for the 75s.
The dashboard had a "Deville d'Elegance" script on the wood above the glovebox.
Coupes had and exterior "D'elegance" emblem on the rear sail panel, although I don't think the sedans did. They did in 74, but the 75s have that new opera window back there, so they may not have the room for it on the 75 SDV.
Interior had seatback map pockets too. Thicker carpeting and wider chrome accent on the lower interior door panels. Otherwise there isn't much to distinguish a D'elegance from your car. You already have the right seats. :)
Dave
My door panels do not have the cloth on the upper portion. It does have pinstriping on the hood and trunk, but they are not painted on. Were they painted on from the factory? Also I do have the see through hood ornament and the crest and V on the hood. I don't think the hood ornament was added later. Was the hood ornament a single option you could order seperately? I will have to look and see if it has map pockets on the back of the seats. It just reads Deville on the dash not Deville d'Elegance. Randy
Another D'Elegance feature is that the body side molding has a color keyed vinyl insert that matches the roof color. Regular Devilles use a plain chrome body side molding.
I had a '76 Sedan DeVille D'elegance back in '85. It had "loose pillow" style seats with a few big square buttons. They were in the same ribbed velour cloth as "regular" devilles. Also those seats were 50/50 split, with two front center armrests. That car had painted on pinstripes. And the cloth on the doors, hood ornament, d'elegance name on the dash, etc.
You car has the optional 60/40 split front seat. It's true that caddies in that era deleted the hood mounted crest above the grill when they came from the factory with a hood ornament. However the hood ornament (and pin-stripes) were very common dealer added accessories. I'm not sure where the CLC stands on dealer added accessories and authenticity.
So yours is not a d'elegance, but it is a supremely beautiful car. Great color combo too.
-Mike
P.S.
After I wrote the above I saw the picture (under the mardi-gras cloth topic) of the '75 SDV d'elegance with airbags and, clearly, a non-split seat. So either my '76 had an additional option in the 50/50 split seats, or they changed the standard seat between 75 and 76.
Mike,
The 76 Deville d'elegance got new 50/50 dual comfort seats as standard equipment that year. The cloth was called Magnan, a ribbed knit available in black, dark blue, blue-green and light buckskin.
QuoteThose cars came with a black painted wooden wheel chock. It doesn't look very professional, but it is original. Congratulations on getting that time machine. We'd all love to see some pictures.
Great info on the wheel chock. There was nothing in my 1969 Fleetwood trunk when I bougth it last week...except for the spare and the chock :-) I said what the heck is this from? Can't believe original....thanks for the info!
Nice car BTW!! Congrats.
I'd be worried about those old tires. I have a 75 de ville that has 112,000 miles but was well kept by a former owner who bought new tires for it in 1993. Doing some research, most experts warn that even though my tires may have had only a few hundred miles since new, the rubber degrades over time and driving at highway speed or more than from home to the gas station could result in a blowout. Like yours, my tires look great, almost new, but like me there are things they can't do today that they could do 25 years ago. :)
All valid points however its been over 6 years since the last posting in this thread so hopefully the OP addressed any tire issues by now.
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