Bringing a 53 Sedan Back From the Dead

[Quentin Hall]

Soon as I saw that cutting of John Stordy's obituary, I understood why you had to bring this car home. A great story and bittersweet at the same time.  If you can't find the radio buttons, I have some spares. I wouldn't do much except fix the things needed to get it running and driving. That car has never been abused. It will likely have many more good years to offer. Personally I would not even Rechrome it. Loosen up the surface rust with some penetrant and then just clean and polish it. It has a survivor"honesty"  and integrity and needs not to make any excuses to anyone.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Thanks everyone. 

I'm hopeful that Mr. Stordy is looking down from somewhere with a smile on his face knowing his beloved 53 is going to be majestic once again. 

There will be a period where it won't be the prettiest 53 on the road.  I'll do up the floors and clean up the exterior as much as I can and get it roadworthy and then tear into it gradually during the off season.

I didn't realize it didn't have the correct radio buttons.

I know a lot about 61/62 cars, but these are all new to me.  I'll have tons of questions along the way, and I have a sneaking suspicion one of the kids will be getting me an authenticity manual for Christmas.

When I first met Mr. Stordy, he was carrying an oxygen tank and could barely walk, but as soon as he walked in that garage, he ditched the oxygen mask and vividly told the story of his car.  In failing health, battling Alzheimer's, I think I had such a difficult time buying the car from him directly because it was one of the few things he could remember and when it came time to let go, he just couldn't.  I got to know the person behind the car from our phone calls and random meetings.

I know it's not the most desirable car to redo, however, there's a story there.  The car will live on to tell it.

[Quentin Hall]

Looks like second and fifth radio pushbutton are missing.   Knobs are correct.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Oh, yes.  Those.  One more thing to add to the list.   

[chrisntam]

Good car and a great story.  I got to the end of the story and never did see what you ended up paying for the car.  There were many opportunities to buy it (but the price seemed to be an ever moving target) along the way and wondered what it finally took to bring it home.

[Dan LeBlanc]

$2300

[Jay Friedman]

At one point in the recent past, I thought I would love to have a "simple" 53 sedan like Dan's but in the end decided to stick with my '49 club coupe.  Reasons were a bit complicated and, of course, you'll see that they were pretty quirky.  The PROs and CONs of my reasoning was as follows:

PRO
1.  Unlike most of us, I'm a partisan of stick shift, largely because I can fix it myself and I consider it more fun to drive.  '53 was the last year it was available on Cads (almost all were hearses), so before finding a car I went ahead and bought the components to make the switch from a guy street rodding a '53 hearse. 

2. Since I don't like the complications of power steering, the stick shift components I bought included a manual steering column.

3. I also don't like power windows, either Hydro-lectric or electric, and '53, I think, was the last year manual windows were available.

4. '53 the 1st year for A/C, which is needed where I live in Georgia .  A/C was made possible in '53 because, as mentioned above, that year was also the 1st for 12 volts with all its advantages.

5. As Art pointed out, the sedans of that era are particularly good looking.

CON
1.  At about that time, I worked on the dashboard of someone else's 54, which is similar to a '53.  Unlike my '49, whose dash is relatively easy to get your hands behind and dismantle if need be, I found the later dash set up (adopted in '51) to be too complicated for me.

2.  With stock A/C, the engine compartment would be more complicated to work on than my '49.  (Taking off the valve covers would be a major task.)

3.  As mentioned above, the cost of chrome and stainless, if needed, would be too much for my budget.

4.  My wife, who loves our '49, saw a '53 at a car show and informed me that she didn't like their looks, which is the kiss of death in our household.

So, in the end I didn't buy a '53 and luckily was able to sell all the stick shift stuff at Hershey.  On the other hand, I still think from time to time of what might have been.

And I wish Dan all the best with his project.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Great story Dan,

What was wrong with the back window?   Had it been broken, and another GM window just sat in the hole and taped up, or was it just leaking badly?

Bruce.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Vandals had broken into Mr. Stordy's garage and broke the rear window.  A replacement was obtained by one of the subsequent, owners, incorrectly installed, and taped up.

[chrisntam]

I'm curious, have you reached out to the Stordy family to let them know you 1) have the car and 2) it's in good hands and 3) not to worry as your intentions are to restore it?  I say this because as corny as it sounds, and since the car was near to his heart, the family may always wonder what happened to it.  I bet they'd be thrilled to know you have it.  Be sure to tell the story (to the children) about trying to buy the car for those many years too.

[Dan LeBlanc]

That's actually a pretty good idea.  I'm sure the children would be happy to see it once it's done also.

[wrench]

51 Sedan here...the way I look at doing a Cadillac sedan is that it is cheap enough to acquire and maintain that it can be driven on a regular basis without worrying about it. I just get in the thing and go...it's just an old car not a showboat. I lucked out in that mine was in really good shape and could be driven right out of the box.

I'm glad you mentioned about him not really wanting to part with the car because as I was reading the tale, I was thinking if someone jacked me on the price 3 times like that, I would have told him to take a flying leap.

[kav]

Nice car Dan .looks just like mine . Your interior is exactly the same as mine . I'd stick a coupla pics up but I don't have any pics that will fit under the 5000 kb limit . Well done . Wish I could find out more about mine .

[Scott Anderson CLC#26068]

That's actually a pretty good idea.  I'm sure the children would be happy to see it once it's done also.

I also suggest keeping in touch with the family. I have a friend that has done so with two of his vehicles, finding the owners initially through lucky web searches and here you have the information. So much comes from doing so, including the satisfaction on both sides already mentioned. In his case, period photographs from over the years are as much fun in the car show album as disassembly and restoration photos. Background information (here's why this piece is a different OEM finish than the other one), and so forth. It's great fun for him.

[Cadillac Slim]

Thank you for the wonderful back story on the car.  It's stuff like this that keeps me into this hobby.
I recently purchased a 53 myself.  I had to rebuild the motor & the overall costs were around $5,500 with parts & machine work.  I pulled the motor & reinstalled it myself.  I don't know if they are all the same but I found the carbueration to be very tricky on this car.  After the rebuild I could not get the car to idle right & the transmission would shift funky.  Luckily I found an Ol Timer that new the carb like the back of his hand & apparentely getting the right gasket set was the issue.  The previous owner had the wrong one on there.  I also had him rebuild the carb & now it runs like a Cadillac should.  I have not had any trouble finding parts.
One thing I did notice in driving my 53 is it must be the heaviest car I've ever driven.  Makes sure the brakes are adjusted right!
I will say this, of all the cads I've owned this one grabs more attention than any of my other cars.  You would think you were the President driving these cars.

Congrats on the car.

[Dan LeBlanc]

I've found contact information for one of the children and I'm going to reach out over the weekend.

I downloaded the data book from the GM Heritage Centre over the weekend.  You can tell the Hydramatic plant fire was unexpected.  There is very little mention of the Hydramatic in the data book, and you can tell the Dynaflow transmission was a last minute addition.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Around what VIN# did they make the switch between Dynaflow and Hydramatic?  My car's VIN is 536238925 and is Hydramatic equipped.

[kav]

Hey guys I'm interested also to find out , at what VIN they changed to dynaflow .  My vin is 5362 99530 . It appears that my hydramatic is not original. It may just have been swapped out at some point , but as we speak I'm waiting for some info about why mine has the 30 tap threaded bolts that seal the flywheel to the torus housing , rather than, through nut and bolts . My flywheel is on its way to transmaticparts  as we speak to be reconditioned .
I imagine this info has probably already been discussed and done to death by some of the boffins on this site . Sorting through 285 pages of info on only one topic takes quite an amount of time and sometimes the search engines on these forums leave quite a bit to be desired , I know this as being a regular on another motoring website . Anyway any , links or info is greatly appreciated . Cheers , Stuart .

[Dan LeBlanc]

Well, folks.  Winter is finally over here in Eastern Canada.  Things are green again, yard work is done, reseeded some bad areas of the lawn and waiting for it to start growing, and the new garage is built.  Now it's time to start into this 53 Sedan I picked up last November that's been in storage for what seems like an eternity.  Took the first step today and got the certificate of ownership straightened out.  Something I should've done months ago, but I've been procrastinating for so long.  It is all now loaded on a flatbed trailer to make its journey to my office on Thursday.  The chap I work for is storing it for a few weeks until I get a few loose ends tied up on the daily drivers before the 53 permanently takes over the garage for the next 10-15 years until roadworthy again. 

The chap I bought it from sent me some pictures of it seeing the light of day again after being in his barn for awhile:















So, finally, on Thursday, I get to see it for the first time again in years, except this time, it's mine.

I've also combined my introduction thread with this one so that the story of this car and it's journey can all be documented in one blog.

[Dan LeBlanc]

Well, after sitting at work for about a month while we got summer vacation and a few things done to the daily drivers working out of the garage the 53 is going into, I finally brought her home last night.  Now the real fun begins.

Just for laughs, I hooked up a battery charger to her last night to surprisingly find a few things still work.  I'll pull the battery from my 1-ton today to see what happens with a real battery installed.

Fortunately, the truck hauled her like a dream.  Just bought the truck in April and went back to a gas truck for the first time in a long time.  I must say, I'm quite impressed with how the Ford 6.8L V10 performed.   It has the Banks Power Pack installed (engine management computer, transmission computer, cold air intake, and upgraded exhaust from the manifolds back).  According to Banks, in this configuration, based on the increases, the V-10 should be making more power than the 7.3 PowerStroke it replaced.  It feels like it does, that's for sure, plus more responsive than the 7.3 - no turbo lag here.  Gas mileage with the 7.3 F350 with 4.11 gears was 13mpg unloaded, and 11 towing.  The V-10 so far with 4.30 gears is giving me 15.3 unloaded, an 10.5 towing.  If you're looking for a nice tow rig for your Cadillac, don't overlook these trucks.  Mine is a 1999 (couldn't justify paying more money for something that gets used a few times a year) and was half the price of a similar condition diesel.  Save yourself a heap of cash, and go this route.

Unloading was fun last night.  My fiancée was not having any part of steering the car off the trailer with no brakes - she was very fearful that she would continue going down the street.  I only had about 10 psi of air in the tires so once off the trailer, it only rolled about 6'.  While up on the trailer, I had the best look underneath the car I've ever had and found it to be surprisingly sound.  Frame is excellent.  2 or 3 body mounts need to be replaced, but they seem to be simple enough to fabricate and the floors look better than I imagined.

So, that's all I have for an update for now.