My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[MaR]

I also finished up the valve train installation and am well on the way to closing the engine back up.







I needed something to spin the oil pump so I made a drill mounted oil pump spinner rod out of some scrap bar stock and some 3D printed bushings. I put a little spiral oil groove in the distributor mount ID so I would not run the risk of overheating the plastic bushing.









The pump spinner worked well enough with my cordless drill to get oil flow to all the rocker arms.

[hornetball]

You sure do love that 3D printer, don't you?  I need to get one.  Looks like fun.

[MaR]

The whole time I have been under the hood, I have been trying to ignore all the rusty brackets and supports.





Now that so much of the car is apart, I decided that I should go ahead and pull the grills and the rubber air dam to see what is really going on up front.





Nothing too rusty but cleaning all that up is going to be a pain. Turns out, the radiator shell is only held in with a handful of bolts so out it came!





I really should have done this first thing when I started working on the engine. There is so much more room to work when you take everything off the front of the car. The radiator housing just has light rust on most of it but the battery tray has a few pinholes in it. Turns out, the battery tray itself is the same stamping as the tray that holds the horns and the overflow bottle. I'm going to see if I can locate a good used horn/bottle tray an weld that in to replace my existing battery tray.









It's too big to fit into my sandblaster and wire brushing it is not really feasible so I will probably just have this part soda blasted so I can repaint it.
I had noted earlier that the bumper on the drivers side was pushed in almost two inches and I could see that the shock absorber mount on that side was compressed. With everything out of the way now, I had now great access to the mount. I wiped the greasy road grime off of it and sprayed it down with penetrating fluid. The fluid just instantly wicked up into the gap between the piston and the body of the mount so I sprayed it until no more would soak in. I then tapped the body of the mount with a dead blow hammer and it started to move ever so slightly. I tapped it a few more times and "pop", the mount completely extended with no lasting damage. You can see in the pic below the line in the grime where I wiped it down before it extended.

[hornetball]

Nice work.  This forum needs a "like" button.

[MaR]

You sure do love that 3D printer, don't you?  I need to get one.  Looks like fun.

The one I have at home is a Woot! special I picked up last year for $180. It nothing special but it's perfect for small bits and pieces and prototyping. I have a larger one at work that I can use for bigger parts and prototypes but for "production quality" prints, I use a printing service called "Shapeways". Their fees are reasonable and they have some very nice equipment to print with. I can get things printed in a variety of plastics, rubber, and metals. 

[MaR]

I almost forgot, I blasted the intake and gave it a bit of paint:

[MaR]

I'm starting to clean up all the accessories so I can put the engine all back together. I started with the AIR pump. It turned freely but it sounded like something was rattling around inside it. I pulled the rear cover off and both of the vanes had several cracks in them and there was a loose piece floating around. I ended up just pulling out all the vanes and I'm going to leaved it gutted.









I also wanted to pull the distributor apart and check the condition of all the bits and pieces. I have had the pickup coil fail on an HEI distributor before and chances are that the heat sink compound for the ignition module is old and crusty.





Turns out that the plastic housing for the pickup coil was cracked and it just fell apart.





Also, the spark advance weights were a bit rusty and were sticky when actuated.





On a side note, I have historically used phosphoric acid to clean up bolts and small parts but it very caustic, can completely dissolve small parts (rest in piece little fender skirt trim clip), and it seem as if it can make some parts very brittle. I have seen a number of youtube channels using Evapo-rust to clean up parts so I gave it a shot. I'm quite impressed with it so far and it's much easier handle and clean up.

[cncadillac]

Incredibly well done work! You are making amazing progress, and fast. I am anxious, and am pretty sure you are also, to see the final results and your being able to drive it.

Best wishes,
Charlie

[hornetball]

I've become a big Evaporust fan too.

[MaR]

I got things done over the long weekend! I'm to the point where I'm putting parts back on the engine rather than taking them off. Here is a bit of a time laps of where I'm at now:











I have the intake on, front cover on, the water pump and thermostat installed, the distributor installed and roughly timed, and several of the accessory brackets installed. I also have the fuel pump mounted but I decided that I'm going to put a new one on. The gasket for the fuel filter is shot, the spring is missing (or rusted into nothing) and there is corrosion on the inside of the pump.

[MaR]

I also have cleaned up more rusty parts in preparation of installing them.






Nice pile of freshly painted parts:

[MaR]

I also had time to pull out the last of the HVAC system off of the firewall. All of the foam on the doors had rotted away and there was plenty of debris inside the box. The sound deadening and insulation on the firewall was degraded and smelled horrible so it all had to go also. The only piece of old sound deadening left is behind the fuse panel area.









Everything on the inside of the heater box was rusty and dirty. It will all get cleaned up and new foam applied. Also, the two stage actuator for the defroster door was broken so I had to order a replacement. I will probably replace the heater core while I'm at it.






Judging by the date stamp, the ATC programmer is original.

[James Landi]

Mitchell,

Before you began working on the car, what still functioned?   Would be interested to know if any of those many accessories were still in operation after 4 decades of use.   James

[MaR]

Mitchell,

Before you began working on the car, what still functioned?   Would be interested to know if any of those many accessories were still in operation after 4 decades of use.   James

Well, it was more like 2 decades of light use and two decades of sitting in a barn. All of the windows worked, the top worked after it was greased up and the gearboxes were synced up correctly, the trunk popper and pull down works, the Twilight Sentinel system works, the blower motor works, the power seats work, the radio mostly works but all the speakers are dead, the delay wipers work, and finally the lighted vanity mirror works.. The power door lock actuators are seized up, the Guidematic sensor had gotten dislodged from it's bracket so the system was not working correctly. The power antenna mast is broken off but I think the motor is fine. The vacuum lines to the cruise, parking brake release, and HVAC system were all rotted under the hood so none of those actuators worked though I think the programmer for the HVAC is OK. The clock runs but there is a stripped out gear in it. The key in buzzer is stuck on and buzzes even with no key in the car.

[James Landi]

...and I assume the car ran... impressive durability considering the state of the car based on the picture in your original picture.   You're an inspiration!  James

[MaR]

...and I assume the car ran... impressive durability considering the state of the car based on the picture in your original picture.   You're an inspiration!  James

It did run, and move (just barely). The brakes were seized up so 15 MPH was about the limit of what it could do. Inside the engine was quite clean, just about every seal was leaking though...

[MaR]

I got a bit more done on the engine, mostly pluming this time. I replaced all the vacuum lines on the engine itself and now I'm working my way back to the firewall replacing the cruise control lines. The one line that was problematic to replace was the line that goes from the carburetor to the PCV valve. It has a molded 90° elbow where it connects to the carburetor. The factory line was completely unusable so I searched around for a suitable replacement. Turns out the PCV line for a late '60s small block Camaro is the perfect size and there are accurate reproductions made for under $20 shipped. It's a bit longer than what is needed for the Cadillac application but it's easy to cut. I opted to omit the vacuum line to the AIR pump since it's gutted and I also did not plumb the air ride compressor since I have no idea if it even works right now. The compressor will be easy to add back in later if I decided to keep the vacuum one.











I also added a disposable fuel filter before the new pump since I have not removed the fuel tank to clean it out yet. I will remove it when I get the tank cleaned out.





My next 3D printed filler came in. It's the filler that goes between the front bumper and the turn signal. The fit turned out great and you can use the factory metal retainer with no modifications. Also, since I made the filler that's next to it under the headlight housing, I was able to make sure that the transition between the two pieces is perfect.















My next filler to 3D print will be the one that goes between the front fender and the bumper, just below the turn signal filler.

[hornetball]

That's exactly the same PCV line I used.  Your fillers look great!

[MaR]

That's exactly the same PCV line I used.  Your fillers look great!

I'm very pleased with the way the fillers are turning out so far. Once I have the front parts done, I'll do the license plate handle and then start on the rear fillers. I have a good 74-76 quarter panel extension to use as a reference and I'm working on getting a usable tail light bezel. I also have a good 75-78 front fender extension and all of the rear 74-76 deVille/Fleetwood parts to model later.

[DeVille68]

Good work! Thanks for pointing out the PCV hose. I might get one for mine too, although I already have a hose inplace, this hose with the elbow might look and fit better.

Best regards,
Nicolas