On May 1, 2011, I bought the 1970 Eldorado shown below. As I make progress on it I will post photos here. It has 88,200 miles, and is overall in good condition. Outside, it needs paint, a new vinyl roof, some rust repair under the roof on the passenger side, and the rear bumper has a few small (smaller than 1/32") bubbles in the chrome.
The interior is good overall. The front seat cushion needs new foam and/or springs, but the leather is nice. The steering wheel has a delaminated and broken rim insert but no cracks in the rim. The power windows are very slow, so they will probably need new motors, and one is completely stopped. The radio illuminates but doesn't make sound, so that'll also have to be addressed.
Mechanically, the car is decent. I replaced the right axle. The exhaust needs replaced and there are a few small, slow leaks, but the engine and drivetrain are very strong and tight, so at this time I don't plan to rebuild the engine or transmission. All level ride components are intact, but the system doesn't appear to work, and the horizontal rear shock absorbers appear to be original and shot, so I'd like to replace them.
It's optioned with leather, A/C, stereo, tilt/telescope, power locks, 6-way seat and vinyl roof. I've wanted a 67-70 Eldorado since I was 14 and I'm glad to have one now that I'm 35.
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The most severe rust is by the rear window and near the right front roof corner. Otherwise there is virtually no other corrosion. Regardless, I think this will be the most challenging thing to fix on this car, at least for me, because I'm not a skilled welder... yet.
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Congratulations! It looks as if you've found a beautiful example! The combination of White with Brown leather and vinyl roof looks better in pictures than I had thought--and you may eventually consider proper WSW tire width to beautify the car even more. The 1970 design is very classy, with those slim tail lamps, in my opinion, and it has the great 8.2 Litre engine. Good luck! In time, these cars will be appreciated even more by collectors.
Rich,
Thanks for the kind words. I would like to get the correct tires for it, but I will wait to do that until after the paint, etc. are done, because I expect it will have periods of sitting while the work is underway.
The top will be dark brown; right now it's a lighter color that looks almost tan. The darker top will provide more contrast, and I think the car will look noticeably better when it is finished. I wouldn't have picked the color combination it has if I were to see it in a sales book, but in person it looks very good and has grown on me a lot. The other top color I considered is white, but I think I will redo the roof in the correct dark brown.
One of the biggest downfalls of the GM design of vehicles in the late 60's and early '70's was the design of the rear window in that the water just stayed there, and the padded vinyl roof that absorbed moisture, and simply created the rust problems without the owner knowing about it until it was too late.
Even without the vinyl roof covering, the back window framework rusted out.
Bruce. >:D
Having had this problem with my 61 Coupe DeVille I packed the space under the molding with linseed oil based putty on my 68 ELDO. No rust yet. And it is a smooth top so no problems with the vinyl roof.
Glen
Just stumbled upon this video of another nice 1970 Eldorado that some of you may enjoy seeing (maybe the owner reads this forum):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aHf7mpYRn0
Congrats on the purchase! That is a very sharp looking car!
Of course I might be biased! LOL :)
David,
Thanks for the compliments. I noticed your post with the new top and it looks great. Did the body shop have to remove any or many interior parts for the rust repair? Fixing the roof rust is the part of working on this car I am most apprehensive about because rust generally is worse than it appears before removing it.
Last weekend I installed a Pertronix II ignition, Pertronix Flamethrower III coil, Pertronix 7mm wires, and new cap, rotor and plugs. The car idles smoother now and has more power, but the wires were over 20 years old and arcing visibly to the valve covers, etc., so I don't have a baseline for how it compares to a properly tuned stock ignition. Vacuum lines to the vac advance were also very loose, so I suspect replacing the lines helped the performance also. Everything I bought is black, so although it will be wrong someday when I show the car, the ignition components will look stock to most people and hopefully be trouble free.
Next I'm going to get Hankook tires like David's, and once I am done moving to San Diego, I will tackle the top and paint. Locating the correct grain and color top is proving tougher than I thought. I may need to order material from SMS or someplace similar and have a top fabricated, because OPGI and others who use the same top supplier can't get tops in special order colors, or at least that's what OPGI told me.
Tonight I'm re shimming the rear bumper because it was rear ended lightly at one point before I bought it, and things weren't put back as neatly as they could've been.
Hi Aaron,
I didn't notice them pulling anything apart on the rear compartment, but they did go through the trunk to get to some of the bolts to removed the lower side molding on the vinyl top. They had to use some new clips around the rear window too. Fortunately this shop has been around for decades and had old clips in stock.
You are right about the original top material. There isn't alot of the old Tuxedo grain material left in all colours. I couldn't get the original Sandalwood colour in tuxedo grain (they had darker colour) but they did have it in the Elk grain. I chose to stay with the original colour in the Elk grain and I'm glad I did.
Since posting last, I've moved to a place that requires me to store my car away from where I live and have been busy with work, so progress on my car has slowed much more than I'd like. I've bought a rebuilt clock and headlight switch, and painted the top white because I didn't like the incorrect tan it was painted when I bought it. Eventually I will replace the top with the correct tuxedo grain dark brown material, but in the meantime, white will do. I hope to have the car painted later this summer, and am torn between having it painted the original Cotillion White or changing the color to Sauterne, a warm silver-pewter 70 Cadillac color. Regardless of body color, the top will be the factory dark brown.
Meant to post these in the post above but didn't attach them correctly.
The white top looks quite good! Did you have lots of rust repair? Any pics of that ? Good luck!
Rob,
Thanks for the compliment on the white top. I didn't actually replace the top yet; the color change was done with Dupli-Color Dover White and clear because the tannish-brown top bothered me so much, so the rust is still there. I know painting the roof is not the right way to do things, but it had already been painted by the previous owner in an awful and incorrect color, so I didn't feel bad doing it. If the top had been the original color in good condition, I would not have painted it. This was also a large scale experiment to see how I liked white on white. I like it, but I'd only want that exterior on a car with a white interior. I feel the vinyl top color should tie in with the interior color, so that's how this car will be when it is done. I painted it in September, and it hasn't deteriorated in any way and is easy to clean. I wanted to paint the roof the correct dark brown color, but it wasn't available. SMS does have the correct color and grain roof which I will be ordering soon.
Originally I wanted to do the body work myself, but now that I'm in a glorified apartment (condo), I don't have the garage space I had before, so I will likely have a body shop do the roof and paint. The roof will probably be done first to stop rust damage and to get the top the correct color, and then when I see how it looks with the existing white paint, I'll decide if I want to change the car to Sauterne or have it repainted white.
Aaron, thanks for those great pictures! You are a fine photographer, and your subject is a beauty! I compliment your desire to replace the roof correctly--although they were prone to causing rust, I recall all the '70 Eldorados familiar to me in my youth had vinyl roofs, and since that is what your car came with, it would be my preference too. I've always been partial to the classy appearance of the "V" shaped rear window with the Vinyl Roof on those Eldorados!
If it's helpful, here's a picture of a '70 Eldo in Sauterne and Dark Brown from an ad--either decision you make will look nice:
Looks good Aaron!
Nice ride. And I also like the white roof look, even if it's not original, or accurate. I'd agree with you to find a shop to do that work. Body work _and_ paint are as much art as technique. You want to find people experienced in both technique and the art. Learning how to do that on your own car will cost you in the long run, and will no doubt require a re-visit of the patch later. To complete that work, they'll no doubt have to remove the rear window and rebuild some of the window channel.
Rust was repaired under our vinyl top on our 79 Seville before we got it. The PO had the top peeled off, the rust, which was at the base of the vinyl top on the sail panel, repaired by replacing the rusted metal with a metal patch, and a new vinyl roof was installed. It looks great, and I am expecting the repair to last.
My first car was my parent's 64 Riveria. No vinyl top, but it too had rusty rear window channels, like the others have described. I pulled the trim, window and under-window trim and repaired the rust myself, with Bondo. I then primed and painted that section of the car. The patch was visible, but the trunk was again watertight, which made me happy. The patch area was needing to be re-addressed when I sold the car a couple of years later (it was, however, parked outside). So yeah, do it right, spend the money, and do it once.
Make sure they paint the underside of the repair area. It's hard to get to, but I think it's worth it to get some paint on it so you slow the rusting under that area. These cars are bare metal on the inside. I had similar work done on a 83 Impala I had, replacing the panel that goes between the back window and trunk lid. They didn't paint the underside of the panel. The panel was rusting less than 5 years later!
Good luck with your restoration!
Thanks to all for the compliments, and Rich, thank you for the photo of the Sauterne 70 Eldorado. If anyone else has photos of that color I'd love to see them. I'm on the fence about changing the color and the more photos I see, the easier the decision will be.
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What other colours do you want to see a 70 Eldorado in? I have tons of photos.
David,
Those are perfect. Thanks for posting them! Was the roof on that car black or brown?
Quote from: Aaron Hudacky on May 19, 2012, 02:01:12 AM
David,
Those are perfect. Thanks for posting them! Was the roof on that car black or brown?
I don't have a closer photo of the roof. I
think it was black, but it could have been dark brown.
Sauterne is a real nice color live and in person.
It would make your brown interior really stand out
Aaron did you find out how much it is to re chrome the bumper?
let me know
djohnson,
I agree, Sauterne would look good with dark brown. I've been looking through the 1970 colors and considering every color that would be appropriate with brown, and that's my favorite. Another I like is a similar 1969 color called Cameo Beige, but I think if I change the color I will stick with 1970 choices.
No, I haven't gotten an estimate on rechroming yet but I will share it when I do. Unless I find an NOS bumper or perfect original, that'll be one of the last things I do. The chrome on the rest of the car is very good and the rear bumper is presentable, but when I see NOS chrome I usually like to buy it if I can because it never is available when you are looking for it.
Tonight I installed a rebuilt clock I bought off Ebay. It's nice having one that works although I expect it will need redone again within a couple years for oiling as the owner's manual says. The replacement clock had a widerlower ridge than the original and wouldn't quite drop all the way behind the instrument bezel, so I had to remove the bezel from my original clock and install it on the rebuilt unit for everything to fit properly. The other thing I hope to do this weekend is install a rebuilt headlight switch.
Is your car the one that was being sold in a video on youtube a while ago? It looks identical with a green cloth interior and black top. If that's the car you bought, it looks very good overall.
Aaron
Yes, the car on you tube is now my car. the video was done a year or so ago. i purchased the car
from the person who got it from him. i stumbled across that video after i bought the car but before
it arrived here at my house, so the video gave me a little peace while i was waiting for the shipper.
The clock project sounds like it turned out great. to be honest i never checked the clock but im sure
it doesnt work (they never do ). my next project is to install an 8 track that i got from ebay.
still looking for a rear floor mat in dark green.
also looking for a nice windshield wiper switch.
Then she is headed to the body shop. found a couple of pimples under the vinyl top
not bad but i notice everything on that car now. the only way to take care of that is
remove the vinyl top (which at this point im not willing to do)
As far as the color of the car. Sauterene is the way to go when trying to coordinate with the
dark brown. the other options would be ...briarwood (a reddish brown) dark walnut and
cinnamon firemist (orange).
cant wait to see the finished product
Less than one month and my rebuilt clock is already dead... time for a quartz conversion. I'll trade the incorrect second hand movement for more reliability. If anyone has had this done and likes the result, I'd appreciate hearing who did the work and approximate cost.
Aaron,
I have a new in box quartz movement for your clock along with how it instructions bought from Insrument Services> the part number is S-3015 if you are interested. $60 bucks plus shipping.
Regards,
robtroxelemail addresses not permitted
Rob,
Thanks! I'm sending you a PM.