Author Archive
58 Cadillac Update
Posted by: | Comments Preliminary inspection of the interior showed us that the car was complete though it had some issues. The white vinyl, black cloth interior looked less than stellar and we had decided that we were going to just tear it all out and re-upholster everything. The vinyl on the seating areas and door panels was showing what we thought to be mildew stains and spots and there surely was an odor of mildew throughout. We felt the vinyl was deteriorating because it actually was sticky to the touch The head liner had a large tear and will be replaced, the dash and dash pad show no damage at all and the seating fabric showed only 2 small tears. The trunk interior is in reasonably good shape with the original carpet, spare tire and jacking instructions still intact, though it has a strong mildew odor

With a few hours to kill I figured I might as well try to clean the interior to get some idea of the results we would be able to attain. If nothing else, worst case it would give me a chance to bond with my new baby and best case it might actually shine up like a diamond in the rough. Well, the results can only be described as spectacular and even that cannot really describe the transformation. I suppose being in the fabric cleaning business may have given me an edge on this project but I have to say the end results exceeded my expectations by a factor of ten!! Honestly, there is still soil there, you can’t clean out 50 years of wear, tear and environmental deposits in one cleaning but we are now confident that we have stopped any further deterioration from occurring. Not only that, we may have saved ourselves thousands in refurbishing costs.

Totally psyched and not ready to quit yet, I decided to put in a battery and power up the electrical system to check it out. Imagine my surprise that after two and half decades of sitting there most all items were functioning. Power door locks all function with the exception of the rear passenger door which is sticking, all power windows run up and down though are going to need some lubrication and the dash indicator lights appear to be functioning properly. The horn sounds, power antennae runs up and down with ease and the radio not only works, but sounds great, including the wonder bar floor switch. I made no attempt to roll the engine over, that will come later after we have had some time to evaluate its condition.
Happy Birthday to Me!
Posted by: | CommentsHappy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, OK it’s really not until June 1st but my lovely wife, Mary Lee had my gift delivered early today. She could not find a bow big enough but that’s OK with me I’ll take it anyway. Admittedly this whole thing has been in the works for many many weeks and we appreciate the patience of the sellers Fran & Ann who bent over backwards to accommodate us in every possible way. They have been clients of my business for more than 15 years at www.aldenvillerugcleaning.com and on every visit to their home I would see the Caddy in the garage, notice that it never moved and sure took up a whole lot of space. I often wondered about buying it for a restoration project. This has been a life changing year for us, we have had to deal with a very serious health issue with my Mom and at the same time decided to sell our beach house out on Cape Cod. Mom passed away on the 5th of May and we closed the sale on the house on May 21st.. I knew or felt that when all was said and done we were going to have a whole lot of free time on our hands and not being a couch potato I was going to need to do something to occupy my time. Well I could take up golf again after a 10 year hiatus or find a classic car to rebuild, hmmmm.… Finally, on my trip out to Fran & Ann’s home in April this year I asked them if they were interested in selling the car and they agreed to sell it to me. Not only did Mary Lee and I purchase a “Classic” we bought a piece of history that actually has a history of its own.
The day began early when I arrived at the Harris home to pay them and complete the paperwork, about 15 minutes later the flatbed from Interstate Towing Inc. arrived to begin the process of pulling it out of the garage and loading it. The car had not been started for 22 years, we were not sure if the brakes would be locked or if there would be any other issues to deal with. All went relatively smoothly and Tony (driver #110) treated the car as if it were his very own.

Once out of the garage and on the flatbed, Tony decided he really was not comfortable taking it that way, took it out to the street, off loaded it and reloaded on the truck again before he was satisfied. That part now done, off we went to the cars new home, a storage bay at my business.

On arrival we were thinking we would have to drop the car and then reload it in order to roll it off into the bay. Tony decided he could drive the wrecker right in and off load the car directly into the garage, saving a step. What a tight fit that was!!!

At this point I really need to thank Interstate Towing, www.interstatetowing.com based in Chicopee, MA., they were super professional in every way and took great pains to insure a safe trip. Their attention to detail is like nothing I have ever seen. In today’s world we are all accustomed to dealing with phone systems and not real people, customer service has suffered across the board, not here though, if you need a tow, call these guys, you will not be disappointed.… We spent about an hour going over the car and just taking it all in. What an amazing piece of history, Detroit iron at its finest. Every time I look at it I find new little details that I missed the time before.



