Would it make financial sense to restore this car even if it was free? The guy is selling three Eldorados.
https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/cto/d/east-bridgewater-1974-cadillac-eldorado/7678300910.html
Many "Sellers" say it was working when it was parked, which usually means there was a problem.
From the limited photos you can see extensive rust, plus many parts have been stripped.
If the convertible top and the dashboards are not torn and cracked it would be worth buying.
I would assume there was big problem mechanically (and sat for years); however the price for a parts car seems reasonable.
Theres a really nice one for sale in FLA.
https://www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/614/1974-cadillac-eldorado
John,
The owner of Primo Classic in Florida takes all his cars to the Classoc Car Auction in Lakeland in January each year so there is always an opportunity to pay less then the sellers asking price. I have been multiple times. IMHO he did a little bit of Photoshopping to his photos on his web site, again just my opinion. That is a nice 1974, a little to nice, as the plastics and material in the mid seventies cars tended to show a little ware no matter how well they are taken care of. Also the rear lamp monitor is missing fromt the top of the back seat and that white top has no texture. If you enlarge the photo, it is almost impossible to not have texture in a convertible top and IMHO it is just a little to white. Also the wood insert is missing from the steering wheel. Again, if interested in a seventies convertible always take a trip to look at it in person a lot can be done to photos to make up short commings, and let me be clear I am not saying this car has short coming just giving my opinion.
In my opinion after you track down all the missing trim and repair the body and new door panels and seat leather ETC. ETC. ETC. You will have much more in it than it is worth, even if gotten for free.
I'm with Billy on this: Short answer is no - I don't think you'd ever see value out of restoring it. If you could get it for free and just wanted to spend a couple grand as a personal challenge to get it running I could see that, but it still wouldn't be worth much, and you'd likely lose money trying to sell it again.
Interior looks bad and you're not even seeing it all- could cost $10k+ to sort that even doing a fair bit of work yourself. Plan to replace everything under the hood plus possibly brake lines, fuel lines, maybe tank, etc.: $10k+ again, depending on if the engine needs rebuilt and if you can do that yourself. Then there's the body...can't see it all here but assuming "what you don't see is worse than what you do" I don't know if you could ever get that "right", but trying might cost more than the other two items combined.
My 2cents...