I have been planning to start this thread for a while, will need to upload the pictures in the next go around. The year is 1990, I have some savings bonds gifted from my grandmother burning a whole in my pocket. My job was emissions calibration for the new Cadillac Northstar Allante'. Volunteering at the Cadillac Museum gave me a chance to meet and make friends with Greg Wallace. I collected some Phoenix area car trading magazines from my last visit for Hot weather testing. I was convinced by Greg to check out the Seville deeper (vs. a GS Buick). It is a complete car including the factory A/C. It was missing the sabre wheels, dual quads and tailfin chrome.
It was being sold by a gentlemen that was into monster trucks. The car was missing it's driver's door window so I checked the car after hours and found numerous pamphlets from the previous owner. I called him to learn more. Wish I had visited him, turns out he was just a few blocks from where the car was.
The city was giving him grief as the car was parked in his front yard on East Detroit street in Chandler, AZ. Howard Jordan bought the car in 1970. A movie company was shooting a film in Tucson and was using the Seville to run back to LA every night at high speed to develop the film. They "burned up the motor" according to Howard, so he traded a running 50s Cadillac of his for the Seville. He was very proud of that car, rebuilding the front suspension, transmission and recovering the seat. He started to prep the car for paint in 1981, removing some trim and priming some parts. It sat from '81 to '90 as best I can tell. He said the trans was rebuilt in 1978 and "never worked right". Reverse was weak starting in 1981. I verified the (1958) engine in the car wasn't stuck and made a deal with the interim owner to have it delivered to Michigan as he had sold a truck and trailer to a guy in Michigan.
My parent's had put a cap on my car collecting as they were storing everything at this point (I was just 2 years out of college). My girlfriend had a client that owned a farm and would allow me to store it in the 3 sided equipment barn cheap with easy access. Over the next two months I rebuilt the carb, brakes, cleaned and coated the fuel tank, rebuilt the water pump, cleaned the oil filter housing, replaced hoses, and put in long battery leads to use a conventional battery in front of the radiator. My parents knew nothing.
I got it started up one cold (November?) evening. The lifters clattered like crazy. I ducked into my car to warm up and let the car idle and hopefully quiet down. Admiring the Christine like image of the car idling, smoke from old oil coming from under the hood, and parking lights on, I decided she reminded me of Bernadette Peters, being a red car with prominent frontal features, hence her name.
I had my girlfriend drop me off the next weekend, and we slowly drove back to my parent's house (they were out of town). Did a once over and then planned to continue on to better storage for the Winter at an Oldsmobile engineer's barn near the Lansing Capital City Airport. I made it less than a mile.
As I turned left on to the main road, a noise came from the right rear, I felt the car drop a bit in that corner with a scraping sound. I immediately went to the shoulder. The right rear wheel bearing had failed and had let the wheel shift outwards. No physical damage the car and it's rust free body though! GF gave me a ride back to the parent's where I quickly sourced a tow truck to tow the car the half mile back to my parents. He had seen me drive by earlier and was very helpful. Only outdoor parking was available and he put it close to the trees but very directly outside my parents bathroom about 30 ft away.
I was extremely nervous as my folks were coming home that night. God protects fools apparently and a light dusting of snow covered the faded Mandan Red paint overnight. They both went to work that Monday none the wiser and I took the day off. Pulled the right axle, had a bearing pressed on, reinstalled it and drove to the storage location, meeting the engineer when he got home. After a cool down, reverse worked well enough to back up the hill into the second floor of the barn. I put it in an Omnibag with some desiccant and tucked her in.
Chapter one is certainly engaging... and I'm looking forward to the next installment. One question, what about the smoke in the parking lights conjured Bernadette Peters? Was it "Into the Woods" or some other starring role?
Great story Dave. I'd love to see some pictures if you get a chance to post some. 1956 is my favorite year of Cadillac.
You were lucky that the axle bearing going out didn't cause any quarter panel damage.
Rick
Hi James, I was always a fan of Bernadette, thought of her as pretty and classy. With her being a red head and the car being red, both having prominent features, I felt a match.. :)