As we had a nice sunny, dry winter day today I decided to re-arrange the cars in my garage so that I can start doing some work on them during the remaining cold winter nights.

The following work is planed for the next few months before the cars will be put back on the road in May 2012.

1971 Mark III

• new vinyl roof (the original one was damaged during transport and the insurance will pay for a new one)

1967 DeVille

• needs new front wheel bearings (I already have the spare parts)
• will try to find a rebuilt OEM Bendix master cylinder and vacuum booster. These are very difficult to find. Everybody seems to offer Delco Moraine parts only. I have replaced my original booster and master cylinder 2 years ago and I´m not quite happy with the power assist of the new units. It seems that the after market master cylinders from Delco have a smaller bore diameter and therefore you will have to depress the pedal with more force. There is a discussion going on on the topic of finding the correct booster and master cylinder in the CLC forum - check it out for more detail! If you know where I could find a correct Bendix booster and master cylinder or where I could get my original core rebuilt, please let me know!! The parts number for the Bendix Master Cylinder is #1489981 and for the Bendix booster it is: #1489071
• re-adjust the gear indicator as it's slightly out of line.

1967 Eldorado

• I will remove the starter motor and have it rebuilt - it sometimes is acting up

1958 Eldorado

• It needs some new front wheel bearings as well. I already bought the parts.

I will of course post the repair progress here on my website

A new garage?

The biggest planned project for 2012 will be to find a solution for my storage problem. I hope to be able to build another garage or to rent one. I will have to find a solution until the spring of 2012. I´m dreaming of building a building which can hold 8 Cadillacs, but I do not know yet if I will be able to afford it...

Car Shows

I hope to attend and visit the „Klassikwelt Bodensee“ from May 17th to 20th and of course the best meeting in Europe - the Cadillac BIG Meet August 25th to 26th. I will also hopefully make it to some local shows here in Austria.

as we had a dry winter day I took the cars out of the garage - they fired right up after some months of sleeping

the Mark III was moved to the back of the garage, so that I can start working on the other cars first

little Elliot loves Daddy´s cars as well ;-)

Tags:2012, Cadillac BIG Meet, 1958, Eldorado, 1967, 1971, Bendix, Master Cylinder, Vaccuum Booster, Delco Moraine, Gear indicator, Garage, Klassikwelt Bodensee, Front wheel bearing, Starter Motor, Rebuild, Vinyl Roof, Restoration

With winter approaching rapidly, today I returned the license plates of my cars and put them into winter hibernation. I did not drive my cars very much this summer due to a mostly very rainy summer. So I did not rack up too many miles on my cars this season. I just made about 200 - 400 miles on most of them...
The cars are now in their cosy garages and will all get a new wax-, lubrication- and thorough cleaning job during the next few weeks. I usually also disconnect all the batteries, give the weatherstripping and rubber a good coat of silicone spray and treat all leather areas with leather conditioner. I also clean the interior carefully and over- inflate the tires to make sure that they do not get any flat spots. I will also park the tires on styrofoam. I really hate winter and snow and I am already looking forward to next spring... Over the winter I will rebuild the starter motor of my 1967 Eldorado and detail the undercarriage. The Lincolns undercarriage will get a very good cleaning as well. The 67 DeVille will get some new front wheel bearings and probably a new wheel cylinder and power booster. The 58 Eldorado will also need new front wheel bearings. So there will be a lot of minor things that will keep me busy over the winter...

Below are some pictures of our very last cruising tour this week with the Mark III

cruising through the scenic landscape of Austria looking down at a lake

the Mark III enjoying the last sun rays...

the whole family in the Lincoln - little Elliot is taking a nap as usual - nothing beats the soothing sound of the V8...

Tags:1971, Lincoln, 1967, 1958, 1996, Buick, Roadmaster, Eldorado, Seville, Deville, Continental Mark III, Winter, Storage

I neglected my garage a little bit during the last time - and as I had a day off today, I decided to give it a good spring cleaning.
I cleaned the entire epoxy floor - and now everything looks clean and tidy again. The Cadillacs like it clean... I will rent a floor polishing machine soon - for the extra shine ;-)

the garage floor before cleaning - the Eldorados had to wait outside

after cleaning-still wet

clean and dry - the 67 Deville stayed in there...

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor, Cleaning

Today my wife and I installed the original NOS 1967 Cadillac dealer banner I won on ebay earlier this year. It never was out of its original box since 1966...
It looks great!

building the frame with my wife


mounting the banner on the frame


finished!

Tags:Banner, NOS, 1967, Garage

Today I received a very nice parcel from the USA. On ebay I won an all original NOS 1967 Cadillac announcement banner, which dealers used to decorate their dealership with when the new 1967 models arrived at their showroom.
Its unused and still in the original box. Its almost 7 meters long.
I do not yet know where in the garage I will hang it, but as soon as it is getting warmer I will take care of this cool new decoration item. The best thing is that I got it pretty cheap.

the original box from Cadillac


The original box coming from Cadillac


the banner is pretty long


cool banner

Tags:Banner, NOS, 1967, Garage

Today I put my buddies Tayfun 1981Pimperado into winter storage into my garage. It started immediately although it was put into storage in my old garage 3 months ago and did not run since then.
It fits in pretty well into my new garage and now has a good and dry home over the winter months. The garage is dehumidified so I´m sure the Pimperado will like it ;-)
The cars put on their pajamas and are now waiting for spring to arrive.
Below you can find some images of the now crowded garage. You can click on the image for a larger view.

they fit in pretty well - image is a little distorted because its made of 4 images stitched together

disconnecting the batteries

Covered - good night!

Tags:Garage

Today I picked up a Craftsman Tool storage cart for my garage. Its a used cart I bought from one of Austria´s fastest Drag Racers Mr "Coolchevy" Heinz Schenk.
Now I need some more tools to completely fill it...

Tags:Garage

Finally the new garage floor was finished and the cars moved back in. Looks fantastic! More pictures can be found here!

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor

Today the red stripe was painted.
Next week they will give the floor a good polish and a sealing coat.

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor

Today the floor company started to mask off the areas which got a coat of black epoxy applied afterwards.
They will still have to paint the black areas a second time before they can take of the masking tape.
A red stripe which will surround the checker board area will also be added and the walls will be repainted in the same red as well.
Looking forward that it will be finished soon.

The floor with the masking tape in place

the first coat of black epoxy

seen from the outside with the masking tape still in place

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor

Yesterday the floor got a base coat - a kind of primer.
Today the layer of epoxy in cream white was poored. Looks fantastic!
You can see all the pictures in larger resolution in my garage gallery!

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor

Yesterday work on the new garage floor begun. It will be a professionally done epoxy coating with a black and white chessboard pattern surrounded by a red stripe.
First the company which does the work removed the old epoxy coating to make sure that the new one can bond to the concrete really well.
Then they started to repair all the creases in the floor by cutting them open - then they inserted some metal support - and then filled them out with a special epoxy raisin.

It will take them at least one week to finish everything, as they are doing a very thorough job.

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor

I´ve started to decorate my garage a little more. I´ve hung 30 nice images all around the garage. A lot more will follow soon.
The garage floor will be done in 2 weeks.
Here you can see the new framed pictures I hung on the walls along with the old hubcaps. The walls look a little distorted on this pictures as it was not stitched very well.

Tags:Garage

The floor in the Cadillac garage was finished by the construction company last week.
The final epoxy coating will be done starting on April 23rd after the concrete floor had 28 days of drying.
I`m really looking forward to it.

picture with the old epoxy coating - the new one will be a black and white checkered coating

Tags:Garage, Epoxy floor