1967 Cadillac EldoradoGERALD´S CADILLACS - NEWS

SEASON'S GREETINGS

Here is our annual Season's Greeting card. This year with the 1966 Cadillac and my lovely family.
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PUTTING THE CARS TO SLEEP

2021has been a very busy year for me in my job, but I am very glad that I had so much work and great clients in times like these.
I have to admit that my car activities were almost non existent until a week before the Cadillac BIG Meet.
I did not even drive all of my cars this year - one did not even leave the garage… BUT… CONTINUE READING BY CLICKING HERE

The 58 Eldorado
The 71 Lincoln
The 78 Eldorado

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The cars in my home garage are ready for winter as well…

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS

2020 has been a very "different" year for all of us. I did not drive or work on my cars very much - some of them had to stay inside the garage all year unfortunately :-( I did not buy a single car part this year as well…

Every year we do shoot a Season's Greetings card with one of our cars though and we made no exception this year. You can see previous years cards here.
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PEACE, LOVE, JOY

Holiday greetings to all the visitors of my website!
This year the 1971 Lincoln Mark III is featured on our traditional seasons greetings card together with my beautiful wife Afra and my son Elliot.
I also made a short behind the scenes film which you can see below.
This years picture was put together from 12 different photographs of the car, as we did not have a studio and only two flash lights. We had to shoot it in front of my garage just before all the cars went into storage for winter.

We have been doing these cards for quite a few years now-. You can see some previous cards here.
XMAS-2019

Our 2019 card


Click on the video to watch it.

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A VISIT FROM A CADILLAC FRIEND FROM THE USA

What I enjoy most in the old car hobby is meeting other aficionados from all over the world.
This time Joe came all the way from Texas for a short visit to my garage and my cars. We only knew each other from the Internet and Facebook and finally had a chance to meet in real life.
I took him and his traveling partner for a spin in my 67 Eldorado and my 67 Deville. Joe was so kind to personally deliver some brake parts I needed which he got from Honest John´s Cadillac Corner.

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Joe and I in front of my big Garage

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PHOTOSHOOTING WITH MARILYN

My wife and I were asked to photograph a very special Cadillac in Graz/Austria. Its a super nice 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Seville which is allegedly linked to Marilyn Monroe. (no hard proof or documents - the story came from a previous owner). My friend Christian is the owner of this beautiful car, and as he got a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz just recently, he wants to sell the Seville as he cant keep them both. If you are interested in owning a great 1959 Eldorado Seville just contact me

marilynmonroeCadillacREAD MORE...
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DETAILING MY FRIENDS 1970 ELDORADO

My friend Christian is a fanatic Cadillac Collector like me.
A short while ago his newest car - a fantastic 1970 Eldorado - arrived. The car is a completely all original, unrestored car with only 8k miles on the clock in one of my favorite colors…70and67eldoradosREAD MORE...
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A VISITOR FROM AUSTRALIA

Today I welcomed a visitor all the way from Australia in my garage.
I have been knowing Dermot since around 1996 through the internet where we were members in one of the first Cadillac Mailing Lists - the CML. I´m quite sure that the CML was like the first social media platform for Cadillac Enthusiasts. Over the years I had the opportunity to meet some of the members of the CML in real life. I always enjoy…
dermotandgeraldREAD MORE...
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R.I.P. MOM

Hildegard Loidl
*August 10th 1929 - † May 15th 2017


My mom unexpectedly, peacefully passed away yesterday evening. I found her this morning. We had a great day with her yesterday when she celebrated my sons 7th birthday with us. Nobody expected that this would be her last day. At age 87 she still drove her car, regularly rode her bicycle and went shopping on her own, although her heart was a little weak.

She did not have an easy life. She lost both of her husbands in work related accidents. I was only 4 years old when my father passed away. She was a fighter and rose me and my sister on her own without any help.

She fully supported my Cadillac passion and liked my cars, and had a good time when I took her for a spin in one of them. She was always interested in what was going on in my garage.

One Cadillac related story with her was especially funny:
In 2015 - after her 85th birthday - there was a big helicopter event in our town. Mom decided that she wanted to go for a helicopter round trip and I reserved a flight for her. She wanted to go there in style, so we took the 78 Eldorado and I drove her through the huge crowd of people directly up to the helicopter landing area. She had great fun that all the people were gazing at us. She then got out of the car and directly boarded the helicopter for her flight. 10 minutes later she returned from her flight and got back into the Cadillac. People could not stop staring at her ;-)
We had a good laugh - everybody must have thought we were millionaires ;-)
Thats the kind of fun she liked :-)

I miss her very much! Love you mom!

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Mom in my 74. She liked this car very much!

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SEASON´S GREETINGS

Happy Holidays to all the visitors of my website.
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My little family with the 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville.

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MY GREAT CADILLAC BIRTHDAY CAKE

My dear wife surprised me with a great self made birthday cake. She made one that looks like the Sabre Wheels of my 58 Cadillac - my favorite Cadillac rims. Thanks darling - fantastic work!

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HAUS OF HOT ROD PHOTOSHOOTING WITH A 1935 LASALLE

Sepp Weinzetl is very well known in Europe for his incredible Hot Rod creations. His "Haus of Hot Rod" is home to an amazing collection of super rare speed parts, engines, cars and Automobilia. It´s the coolest place in Austria.
He also owns some amazing Cadillacs and now he found a 1935 LaSalle that he literally pulled out of a barn a week ago.
So we had to go there and take a couple of pictures of his newest acquisition.
You can find the resulting 22 images from the shooting in this gallery.
Thanks Sepp for the cool photo shooting.

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A look behind the scenes of the photo shooting. My wife is the photographer, while Sepp helped with holding the flash light.
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A 1935 LaSalle Convertible which came out of a barn.
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In front of the "Haus of Hot Rod"

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Happy Holidays to all the visitors of my website.

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my little family with the 1974 Cadillac Coupe deVille in Persian Lime - the perfect color for the holidays ;-)

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The Cadillac BIG Meet 2014 - testing the Driving Tour.

I´m a proud member of the organization team of the Cadillac BIG Meet - Europe's biggest Cadillac meeting.
Today we tested the driving tour for this years meeting, which will be held on Saturday 23rd of August - the day before the BIG meeting.
Almost all the members of our team took part in the test and we had a great convoy with our cars.
My family and I took the 67 Eldorado for the tour. The tour will be spectacular this year with the most participants we ever had.

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The biggest part of the organization team during the driving tour.
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Christian with his 60 Biarritz - followed by Steve and his 65 Sedan deVille.
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1960 and 1959 Biarritz on the scenic roads
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Georg with his 59 Biarritz

Below you can find the press release for the 2014 Cadillac BIG Meet.



* * * Celebrating our first Decade : The 2014 Cadillac BIG Meet * * * The Tenth Cadillac Big Meet at Schloss Kremsegg, Kremsmünster, AustriaSunday, August 24, 2014Historic, scenic and beautiful Kremsmünster welcomes you!For a whole decade now, the friendly little town of Kremsmünster has been the location for the Cadillac BIG Meet. And for a handful of those years, we were able to proudly announce that the city of Kremsmünster is co-organizer of the Big Meet!It is a fine moment when the iconoclastic cultural heritage as presented by Cadillac, the pinnacle of automotive and stylistic engineering in its day, is allowed to assimilate with the historic heritage as presented by Kremsmünster.The pleasing castle grounds of Schloss Kremsegg remain the place to be for everyone admiring the Cadillac car - one area exclusively Cadillacs, the adjoining area for all USA and classic cars.In regards to the show field, it is now the largest yet : plenty of space to park your Cadillac, as well as enjoy the other Cadillacs, allowing breathing space between the cars for photographing, filming, or just gazing at them in quiet admiration.So it's clear that, if you have a Cadillac or are lusting after one, on August 24, 2014, Kremsmünster, Austria is the place to be. This year's special theme is the Cadillac Milestone Cars. More info on this years spotlight can be found on our website : http://www.cadillac-meeting.com/english/program/spotlight/index.htmlOf course, we welcome all the fantastic Cadillacs of all other models as well, fully restored or all-original, old and new alike.On Saturday August 23rd, the Kremsmünster event kicks off with a cruise through the scenic countryside. Please decide swiftly if you'd like to join in!But the big day will be Sunday when Cadillacs meet in the Park of the Kremsegg Castle. Important to note is that everybody is welcome, no pre-registrations necessary (except for the Saturday cruise of course). Just drive up to the castle gates and enter Cadillac Heaven!The Big Meet is also free for visitors – good to know if your Cadillac is being restored, or if you still haven’t come across that dream car you’re lusting after… maybe you'll find it here?Kremsmünster is located about 30km southwest of Linz, Austria.Full information on the Cadillac Big Meet website :http://www.cadillac-bigmeet.com/We also have our group page on FaceBook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/109516329070589/Together with the city of Kremsmünster, we will offer you an unforgettably nice time - Cadillac style!Davy Borghys from BelgiumOrganisation team : Gerald Loidl, Georg Pfeiffer, Wilhelm Hofmann, Christl and Christian Freudenthaler , Ludwig Medel

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Happy Holidays!

Thanks to all visitors of my little site and thanks for all your nice comments and kind words and for all the people I had the chance to meet and that became real friends through my site.
You great people are the reason why I´m running this site.
I wish you all a happy 2014! Keep on cruising!

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Photoshooting in the garage

We recently got some new flash equipment for our photographic business and did a nice test photo shooting with my beautiful wife and my cars.

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1932 LaSalle Photoshooting

My wife Afra and I were asked to do a photo shooting with a very special car for a friend. It's a 1932 LaSalle which was converted into a tow truck sometimes in the 1950s and used as a race track tow truck.
Of course we loved this shoot very much and took some very nice pictures of the car and the owner. The owner will start to restore the car back to its original condition as a roadster in the near future.
The owner was so kind to let me drive his car. It was a completely new experience for me to drive such a prewar car. Great!
Some of the resulting images can be found here.


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The very rare 1932 LaSalle

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It´s still a very agile car despite its age.

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Another EP cover with a picture of my car

One of the photographs my wife took from my Mark III was used for the new EP of Jakobin & Domino for their "Come on Back EP".
A lot of my car pictures were used for CD covers from bands from all over the world in the past and this is the newest release.
You can listen to the new EP on sound cloud btw

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On the road again - Season 2013 begins

The car season 2013 just started. I got my license plates again and the cars are back on the road after long winter hibernation.
Lets hope for some really nice weather this summer and that I will have enough time to drive and enjoy my cars.
The 58 Seville came out first and needed some new brake fluid and a complete flush of the brake system and a thorough bleeding. Thankfully my wife helped me pushing the brake pedal while I was doing the bleeding procedure under the car. Its great to have such a lovely helper! Thanks darling!


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My 1958 Seville on one of the first spring days

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Another Hotrod photoshooting with PinUp girls

As my wife is a professional photographer and I sometimes work as her assistant, I had the pleasure to do a very special photo shooting with her for her portfolio. We shot our friend Bernds fantastic new Plymouth Hotrod which he had just finished. He also booked 2 attractive PinUp models to spice things up a little bit ;-)
The shooting was done in Bernds shop which is the cleanest shop I have ever seen. His paint work is spectacular.
The pictures came out great - below you can view one of them. The rest can be found on our professional photographic website.
Great car and pretty girls!


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My wife Afra and the model at work with her good old Hasselblad 6x6 medium format camera

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My wife and the model at work.

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one of the resulting pictures

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A visit to Toms Club - The Mark III is back home

My Mark III is back home after it spent a while at Toms Club in Germany. Tom Witzel took care of my roof repair as the car was damaged during the shipment from the USA on the truck.
Tomsclub has a great restoration service and besides the Cavalry Twill roof repair they also did some other work on the car like repairing the carburetor base plate, adjusting the ignition and other little tune-up things. The quality of their work is exceptional.
My Mark III made the 400 Mile trip home without a problem and turned out to be pretty fuel efficient on the highway at a steady 65mph. It averaged 21 mpg - which is really good for such a car.

Tom Witzel is famous for his awesome collection of the finest Cadillacs and Lincolns. If you want to buy the best of the best low mileage cars you should check him out. He really has the finest cars available. They of course are not cheap on the first look - but worth every cent in my opinion. Tom gave me a tour through his inventory and I was just blown away by his cars. I did not take many pictures - below are a few:


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A part of Tomsclub inventory

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A fantastic 1971 Lincoln Mark III and a 1977 Mark V

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A spectacular super low mileage 1979 Mark V - only 4.500 Miles!

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A spectacular super low mileage 1979 Mark V Collectors Edition - only 4.500 Miles!

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One of the many cars I would have loved taking home was this 1965 Coupe de Ville! Awesome! It looked like new inside and out...


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I have a soft spot for old Station Wagons - this 1978 Ford Country Squire just blew me away.

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In the evening at the restaurant - Tom Witzel arrived with this awesome 1977 Town Car.

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During the almost 400 mile trip home with my Mark III - it drove like a dream! Too bad it was raining... Fuel efficiency was pretty good - 21mpg!

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A Hotrod photo shooting in my new Cadillac garage

My wife and I just recently had a photo shooting in my Cadillac garage with the newest Hot Rod creation from the "Haus of HotRod" for a Hot Rod magazine. This is a short look behind the scenes of the shooting. This Hot Rod named "The Patmobil" is equipped with a rotary 9 cylinder airplane engine! My wife Afra is a professional photographer and did this shooting for free for our friend Sepp.

Here is a short
making of video of the shooting. The pictures from the shooting can be found in this gallery.





Make sure to watch the video in HD!

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One of the pictures resulting from the shooting

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Winter is here!

During the cold and way too long winter I won’t have any Cadillac activities going on. My main project 2012 was the construction of my new Cadillac Garage. Unfortunately I was not able to finish the garage project before the winter due to some major health problems with my back and some delays with building permissions. The project started two months later as initially planned.

I really hope that my back will get better until next spring and that I can start working on my new garage and my cars once again.

In 2012 my car activities unfortunately were very limited as well:
I drove all my cars together for only around 400 miles, due to some very wet summer and lots of work. I really had no time to enjoy my cars as much as I would have wanted. Thats not good for the cars as well - they were built to get driven!

My personal Cadillac highlight 2012 once again was the Cadillac BIG Meet (Europes biggest and best Cadillac Meeting)with some awesome cars attending. I am already looking forward to the 2014 edition of this Cadillac Meeting.

Thanks to everybody for visiting my website and for all the nice comments I got and the people I “met“ through your comments and messages!

I´ll be back in spring 2013 with my first new updates for 2013 to my website. I have so many cool things planned and I hope that I can make all plans come true.

Keep on cruising!

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My unfinished new Cadillac Garage project in the snow….

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The new garage is ready for paint

As the new garage I´m building is almost ready to be painted, I made some drafts how it could look like once its painted.
My friend Mike had the idea for one of the paint designs. Thanks Mike!

As it is too cold outside anyway and I unfortunately hurt my back quite badly I won’t be able to do the paint work or any other work in the garage before next spring. So there is still a lot of time to think about how it could look like and most importantly to get healthy again ;-)
You can see the status of the work in the garage in this gallery with hundreds of pictures of the build.


Here are the two design ideas I like the most. I´m also still looking for a good name - favorites so far are: „Land Yacht Club“ or „The BIG Block“

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The more classic version or…
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… the more elegant version?

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Some more color ideas

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Some more color ideas - I will most probably go with this version
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Building a new Cadillac garage!

As I ran out of space to store all my cars at home - work for my new Cadillac garage began today! I will use 3 spaces in it for myself - the rest will be for rent for fellow classic car owners.

At the moment I have to store at least two cars at friends garages. The 58 Seville spent a whole year in a friends garage an hour away from my house. After a lot of planning and waiting for building permissions, today finally work for my new garage project began. Once finished I will be able to store 8 full size cars in there :-)
The new garage is located only a few minutes away from my house in a good neighborhood, with friendly neighbors who will keep an eye on whats going on there.

Today we had to cut down some trees to make room for the building. During the next days the property will get cleared and grubbed before the foundation will be laid next week.
The plan is to have everything finished by mid October so that the cars will have a new home before next winter.

*UPDATE* October 5th
during the last few weeks we made really good progress on the building - check out the pictures to see the current status.

You can find an image gallery of the construction process here

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Clearing the property began on Sept 13th

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October 5th
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November 2012
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test fitting November 2012

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New great Cadillac garage decoration.

Through the help of a Belgian Cadillac friend I was put in contact with a gentleman in the Netherlands who had two Cadillac light boxes from a former Cadillac dealer for sale.
He sold them pretty cheaply - so I thought it would be a great addition for my garage as decoration item. Shipping them was not so easy. Nevertheless they look great and will eventually be hung in my planned new Cadillac garage.

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My friend Tayfun helped me clean the new decoration. After some work they looked like new!

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A photoshooting with 2 Broughams

My friends Mike and Tayfun both own a Cadillac Brougham. Mike owned a 1986 Brougham Coupé and Tayfun is the owner of a 1990 Brougham D´Elegance. As both of them were in town we made a little photo shooting with their cars. I will post a link to the images here eventually.


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more pics will follow!

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Austrian Mopar Nationals Trailer

This summer my wife and I were asked to shoot a film about the Austrian Mopar Nationals. A DVD with the film we shot is now available from the organizer of the meeting, and here you can find a trailer for the DVD we produced. We had quite some fun shooting this video. We really like to do such fun projects from time to time.

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My wife Afra during the video shooting - filming out of the back of the pace car...

Austrian Mopar Nationals 2011 - DVD Trailer from Mr Cadillac on Vimeo.

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or watch on Vimeo

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The 58 Eldorado is in winter storage in an awesome garage

I put my 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville into winter storage today. As I ran out of garage space and have not found a solution for my storage problem yet, my friend Christian was so kind to offer me a cosy place in his AWESOME garage to store the 58 over the winter. So I drove my car to him today and enjoyed the 75 mile trip to his garage, as we had a warm and sunny autumn day.
When I reached Christians garage I refueled the car and put some fuel stabilizer in it. Amazingly the car needed only 18 mpg / 13l/100km. Thats pretty amazing - and I drove it pretty lead footed...

The car will spend this winter in a fantastic garage . The owner has an amazing collection of fine Cadillacs and some other classic cars. Among the Cadillacs are a 1956, 1957 and 1960 Eldorado Biarritz and a super low mileage 1976 Bicentennial. All cars are in amazing condition. The garage is second to none - it also features a full size bar and diner below the show room...

I´m glad that my 58 can spend the winter there, while my other cars are safely put away in my crowded garage. I really want to thank Christian for his generous offer!!!!

Below you can see some pictures I took on my last ride with the 58 in 2011. Good night my dear 58 - see you in May 2012.

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On the way...

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I had to stop at an oil pump along the road to snap a picture...

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I had to stop at an oil pump along the road to snap a picture...

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Christians “Eldorado Roadhouse“ - an awesome garage! The 1960 Biarritz once belonged to Cary Grant by the way... Next to my 58 is a super low mileage Bicentennial...

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A part of Christians garage - the car under the cover is my 58... then there is a custom corvette and a #1 Mustang GT350...

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A Photoshooting with my Cars

We had a short photo shooting with my cars today. My wife shot a roll of good old medium format slide film through her good old Hasselblad camera. You can find the image gallery with the best pictures from this shooting here. Not in the pictures is my AMC-Pacer which is not running at the moment.


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Seen from the roof top of the garage
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Most of my American cars in front of the garage...
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Mark III Photoshooting

My wife and I did a quick photo shooting of the Mark III today. As we shot the pictures on good old analog medium format slide film it will take a while to have the film developed and scanned. I will post the pictures here as soon as they are available. Below you can see a few digital ones we also shot.


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My wife Afra with her good old analog Hasselblad camera

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Little Elliot with his mom
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The Mark III
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Rear view
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What a nice interior!

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TV - Promotion Shooting for the Cadillac BIG Meet - 58 breaks down

I got a call from national Austrian television that they would like to do a short report for the upcoming Cadillac BIG Meet at the Kremsegg castle. They needed some Cadillacs there to do some interviews and to shoot some footage to promote our upcoming event. Of course we had to use this chance to promote our show on air.
My friends Christl, Christian and Willi and I made it there with our cars, on what must have been the hottest day this summer, and we could do the shooting for a 2 Minute piece at the Kremsegg castle.
We had Cary Grants former 1960 Eldorado Biarritz there, which now belongs to my friend Christian, which was the star of the report. The report aired 2 days before our show on national television.

I drove my 58 to the shooting and while sitting in heavy traffic it suddenly cut out while I was in the left lane. Eventually I made it to the right shoulder and I tried to make it run again without any success. Unfortunately I had no tools with me - so I had to call the automobile service club to help me out. They arrived about 20 minutes later. I asked the guy who helped me out to unscrew the fuel line and blow some compressed air into it, as I suspected a clogged fuel line. We reconnected everything and it ran beautifully again. So I safely made it home again. I wrongfully assumed that everything must have been fixed now and that I should clean the tank soon... (see the report about the Cadillac BIG Meet 2011to see what happened)

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Stranded on the Autobahn

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Cary Grants former 1960 Eldorado Biarritz was the star of the show
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The TV team with the show host Simona Pindeus and Willi Hofmann on the steering wheel

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Oberösterreicher des Tages - a newspaper article

The newspaper “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten“ brought a short article about my hobby in their “Oberösterreicher des Tages“ column (Upper Austrian of the day).
I just wanted to promote the Cadillac BIG Meet and sent them a press release when I got a call and was asked to do an interview with the editor.
The article below is what came out - click on the image for a larger view. You can also read the online version here.

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The Mark III arrived today!

After a - what it felt for me - endless time of waiting it was finally time to welcome my newly acquired 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III to Austria.
It arrived today - very unexpectedly when I got a call from a lady I know who is the manager of local gas station. She called me and asked if I would expect a Continental. She explained that a truck just stopped at her gas station to ask for directions to my home. Luckily I was still at home and so I jumped into the car to get to the truck driver and show him where I live, as he did not speak our language at all.
I then guided him through town and we started to unload the car close to my home.
When the car rolled of the truck I was shocked! The once perfect vinyl roof was badly damaged. It was immediately clear that it was damaged on the truck of the long journeys last leg.

Problem was that I could not really talk to the driver and write something down. I took lots of pictures immediately though. So I called the trucking company and they said that I should send them the pictures. The next day they called and asked why nothing about the damage was written down on the papers when I received the car and that they probably would not pay because of this!!!

Looks like I will need a good lawyer now to fight with the insurance company.
I got a raw estimate from a good upholstery shop here for the repair which is for 60 hours of work + material.
You have to remove almost the entire interior of the Mark III, including the rear window mechanism with the glass and most of the weatherstripping to get access to the fasteners which hold the moldings in place. Most of the plastic fasteners also are no longer available - so you will have to be very careful when you remove them.

The original top material of the Mark III was called “Cavalry Twill Vinyl“ and the only company which can offer a correct replacement top seems to be SMS Auto Fabrics http://www.smsautofabrics.com/products/vinyl-tops.php

The material alone costs 475.- + shipping. (price from August 2011)

Besides the damage to the roof during shipment- the car is really nice. It drives beautifully and everything works as it should.
I already delivered the Mark III to my restoration shop to prepare it for the inspection for the Austrian license. We will have to convert the lighting system to go with Austrian law.
The first inspection showed that I will also have to install 3 new brake hoses, 2 upper ball joints and both outer tie rods. Got most of the parts already from rockauto.com - only the front brake hoses seem to be difficult to get and very expensive. Luckily I found a shop on ebay where they are available for half of the price of what most Lincoln specialists are asking.

Here are some pictures of when the car arrived - it got extremely dirty from the transport unfortunately.


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As you can see it was squeezed in pretty closely into the truck - watch the beam just above the vinyl top...

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The damaged “Cavalry Twill Vinyl“ roof

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My first ride in the Lincoln.

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At home - saying “Hello“ to the Cadillacs

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in front of the garage

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In my old garage - together with our Roadmaster

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First sunset in Austria

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Dressed for the first night...

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At the restoration shop - awaiting inspection

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A new toy - my new AMC Pacer

I have a new toy - it's a AMC Pacer. I will eventually try to bring it back on the road. My friend Andy had it stored in a building for over 8 years and it had to get out there now. As he no longer was interested in this car I took it over for free and it's the newest addition to my collection. It will need A LOT of work though and I will try to get it going again sometimes in the future. First I will have to find a new garage for it...

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The Pacer - out of 8 years of storage - it still ran when it was parked - but it no longer does now...
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rear view
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on the tow truck
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70s interior at its best...

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1967 Eldorado with Sunroof from ASC

A 1967 Eldorado with sunroof?

A while ago I was contacted by fellow 67 Eldorado owner Mark Bristol. He owns a very rare 1967 Eldorado with a sunroof done by ASC (American Sunroof Company). He asked me if I knew anything about it.

I had never heard anything about a sunroof in a 1967 Eldorado unfortunately, and so I could not help him out with any kind of information.

So Mark Bristol did a lot of great investigation work and found out the following:

“ I have found quite a bit out from my research.  I spoke with Christian Prechter, President owner of ASC West on the phone.  He was brought over from Germany when he was 19 in 1966 to help his brother Heinz Prechter do installs at the ASC West location and stayed there doing custom installs when ASC opened the Southgate Factory in Michigan.  He told me that he did over 50 1967 Eldorados that year for various Stars and VIPS.  He recalled doing mine for William Morris and even told me what color it was without me volunteering it to him.  He said it was the only Marina Blue one he did!  I quizzed him several times in a cross examination method to make sure he was not just telling me what he thought I wanted to hear.  He said he is 100% certain he did it personally as he was actually doing the installs himself back then.  The conversation went like this:  „Hi I am Mark Bristol from Tomball, TX sorry to bother you at your home residence.  I have a 1967 Eldorado with a sunroof.Did you ever install any sunroofs in 1967 in Eldorados?“.  Prechter, " I installed over 50 for people like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and William Morris.“ „Wow that many?“  Prechter "Yes it was very popular that year."  „The car I have was William Morris' car do you recall doing it?“Prechter, "I sure do it was the only Blue one I did that year"  „So you did a Marina Blue one for William Morris.  That was a long time ago and you remember specifically doing this car, that is incredible are you sure?“  Prechter "I am 100% certain I did it"  „So your division didn't get sold off to Inalfa.“  Prechter "Yes, I kept the custom install portion ASC West as it is the most profitable segment."„How involved are you with the actual operation of the company?“  Prechter  "ASC West is still doing custom installs daily and I personally over see the operation." „Christian,  Thank you for your time, you have been very helpful in understanding how these sunroof Eldorados came to be.“ It was a fairly short conversation I'd say 3-5 minutes with a very revealing content.  I intend to mail him a packet with a photograph of "Elle" to autograph and several pictures to review and a certificate of authenticity for him to sign.  Hopefully he will take the few minutes it will take and return it to me in the mail. A former President of the Cadillac Lasalle Club lives here in Tomball.  He was president from 2004-2008.  He stated he has seen 2 sunroof cars in person mine would make number 3.  So they are floating around out there somewhere 50+ of them.   My rule of thumb is 10% left in any condition after 40 years. That would mean there are 2 more out there some where!!!“ Mark Bristol



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Mark Bristols - Ultra rare 67 Eldorado with sunroof.


Thank you Mark for providing all this information! Mark allowed me to post his info here, to help other 67 Eldorado fans with what he found out. Some more pics of his car can be found here:

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A picture of my 67 Deville made it on the cover of a hardrock EP

It looks like that pictures I, or my wife made from my Cadillacs, seem to be pretty popular by music bands. Another picture of ours made it on the cover of a CD. It`s an EP called “Road Rash“ by the hardrock band “CornFed Bruiser“

CornFed Bruiser is a four-barrel, full-throttle rock and roll flame-thrower out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.Congealed from the primordial ooze of the underground dirt-rock scene, the Bruiser combines heavy riff-driven guitars and fat grooves, topped-off by a soul-shredding vocal.Late 2010, CornFed Bruiser set out to record its first EP entitled “Road Rash” scheduled to be released early 2011. Feature tracks “Road Rash” and “Fu Man” are just two of the tracks that define a new sound with an old school vibe.

With a beautiful Cadillac like this on the cover nothing can go wrong ;-) I think it is about the 6th picture that made it on a cover of a CD which I´m all proudly displaying in my garage.

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The 2010 season is over - the Cads are in winter hibernation

With winter already throwing cold and damp weather against us, the cars are in winter hibernation now and are looking forward to the spring of 2011. They all got an oil change and the tank was filled with fresh fuel to the brim. I cleaned and waxed them, put a thick coat of Gliptone leather conditioner on the leather seats, overinflated the tires and put their soft and warm covers on them. There is not much to do during the winter months while they are stuffed into the cosy and dry garage.
I will eventually put some new rear shocks and front wheel bearings on the 67 DeVille, do some minor detailing work like putting on some new decals in the engine bay and try to safe as much money as I can, to hopefully be able to afford a new concourse grade paint job for the 1967 Eldorado next fall.
This season I did not drive my Cadillacs very much - all in all a tank of fuel on every car... We had a very wet summer, my job was very demanding and our baby son Elliot was born in May, so I did not have much time to enjoy my cars as much as I would have liked.

Miles driven in 2010:
  • 1967 Eldorado: 275 miles
  • 1967 DeVille: 189 miles
  • 1958 Eldorado: 187 miles

Looking forward to the 2011 season with some great shows coming up. In June 2011 the US-CAR-SHOW Dornbirn will be held again and of course the Cadillac BIG Meet on August 28th 2011 will be my personal Cadillac highlight again.


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The cars are in storage now - a picture before they were covered.
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The cars are in storage now - a picture before they were covered. Sleep well!



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A photoshooting with the family

My wife and I used one of the last beautiful evenings this year for a photo-shooting before the 67 DeVille goes back into storage. We took our baby son Elliot with us to get some nice pictures with him, his mom and the 67 DeVille.
Click on the image below to go to the photo gallery with more pictures.


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1967 Cadillac DeVille Convertible
Afra with Elliot

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Eldorado Roadhouse - an awesome private car museum

My friend Christian owns some spectacular Cadillacs, but now he opened one of the greatest garages I have ever seen...
He made his dream come true and built an awesome home for his car collection including a private dinner below the garage. The whole building is just amazing. On his 50th birthday he invited some friends for the grand opening of his new building. Congratulations Christian!!!

He built the whole garage including the diner with his own hands with the help of his family - an enormous task, and perfectly executed.

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A panoramic picture showing his showroom - the cars and the building are just spectacular!
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The private diner below the garage.
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the birthday party had a 50’s theme - so we dressed up accordingly. Elliot was only 3 weeks on this picture.
The car on the left is Cary Grant’s former 60 Eldorado Biarritz btw....

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It´s a boy! Welcome Elliot!

Our son Elliot was born on May 15th! Mum and the boy are both healthy and everything is fine!
Of course his first trip in a car was in a Cadillac - I used the 1967 Eldorado to drive him home from the hospital. You can´t start early enough with the Cadillac education!

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Our son Elliot on the way home from the hospital in Cadillac style!

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Elliot and his mum at the first visit in the garage...


The Cadillac Mobile we made for his crib...

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My 67 DeVille under palm trees...

I got a nice email from Scott Thrower, who found some of my pictures on Flickr. He wrote:
“Hi, Gerald....I saw your photos on Flickr. I snagged one of the photos of your 67 and made a Photoshop creation of it. Be looking for it.”

And here is the picture he sent - my 67 under palm trees, something I have never seen before as those huge palm trees are not existent over here in Austria! What a cool photoshop creation and idea - Thanks Scott!

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Music video with our Roadmaster in the background

While my wife and I were on holidays in Vorarlberg, we shot this music video for the local band “MAGUAMS” where my wifes cousin played bass.
We shot this “no budget“-production on a rainy sunday morning in a storage facility - the cars in the background were the perfect backdrop for the band. The musicians are a great bunch of guys and we had lots of fun during the shoot. Our Buick Roadmaster also served as a background props for the shooting - thats why I´m posting this video on my website.


The shooting location with our Roadmaster in the background

The finished video

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Oilers 69 - The coolest Diner of them all!

When driving home from our holiday we found the best diner I ever saw before.
The owner took care of every little detail, like a working V8 at the bar, lots of old cars on the outside, a pickup truck as salad bar and much, much more.

I have added a gallery with some pictures - check it out!

Check it out if you are near Innsbruck in Tirol/Austria!



The “Oilers69” in Tirol - click to go to the gallery!

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The Roadmaster is back home with "new" transmission

During our last trip we had bad luck with the transmission of our Buick Roadmaster. (See entry below)

Finally, after 2 1/2 months in the shop we got the Buick back yesterday. The shop had problems locating all the parts for the rebuild. As I lost patience and they still could not find the parts, eventually I found the parts myself without a problem. Anyway, the car now is back home in the garage and drives beautifully again. The transmission was completely rebuilt, including all internal parts.



we could follow the repair on the webcam of the car dealer - this is a screenshot of the final day.

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Defective Transmission - Roadmaster

My wife and I were on the way into our holidays. Of course we took our Roadmaster for the roadtrip. Suddenly the "Service Engine Soon" lamp came on while driving on the highway.
We stopped on the next rest area, but I could not find anything wrong with the car. So we continued our journey and stopped at the next specialized dealer to have the error code read out. Code "P1886" showed up - which is transmission related. The 2-3 upshift solenoid seemed to be defective. So we decided not to drive any farther, as it turned out that the car only ran on second and third gear. Finally the car was delivered to the next national automobile club service station of the "ÖAMTC" to be towed to the dealer I bought the car from. I still have 6 months warranty left, so he has to repair the transmission at his costs. Worst thing was that we just could not continue to enjoy our trip with the Roadmaster and had to borrow a tiny Suzuki Jeep from my wifes mom instead...

UPDATE: In the meantime a transmission specialist took over my car and is completely rebuilding the transmission now... At least I´ll have a like new transmission!



suddenly this lamp showed up...

delivering the car at the national automobile club "ÖAMTC"

checking the Buick´s digital shop manual we had with us...

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RIP - Max

Our beloved cat "Max" passed away today at only 9 years of age. He suffered from an aggressive tumor.
He was the cutest and nicest cat one could have. We will miss him very, very much! :-(
Rest in Peace!


one of the last pictures we took of Max

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Spring is around the corner

As we had springlike temperatures today in the middle of winter, I decided to wake my cars from hibernation and drive them around the block. I put the batteries in only to find out that the one from the 67 was quite empty and the car would not start. I wanted to charge it with a battery charger but it also quit working... So I had to use jumper cables and eventually I could start the 67. The 58 also had problems starting up as the fuel pump needs to be replaced. I already have a new one lying around which I will install soon. After some cranking the 58 came back to life and ran beautifully. I took all the cars for a quick spin around the block and after they were fully warmed up they went back into storage for about 6-8 more weeks. Can´t wait for spring to come!
I also installed a new hood emblem on our 96 Roadmaster as a wrong one was on the car when we bought it.
It was great to work on the cars again.


the cars in front of the garage

the Buick´s brand new hood ornament

the Buick´s new hood ornament

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58 gets a new fuel pump - Video shoot

Today the 58 got a brand new fuel pump. It was a really quick and easy exchange and it now works flawlessly. It was the first time I had to do a repair like this. Luckily the pump is very easy accessible on the 58.
Later we also did some more repairs on my friend Tayfuns 81 Eldorado. After that we had a nice cruising evening with some friends where we did some professional filming for our next video.

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This is where the new fuel pump goes
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filming

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Tayfun´s Cadillac works again

My friend Tayfun was on visit once again for a couple of days which we spent in the garage.
We finally managed to fix the problem with the ECM and sorted out most other issues. Another big point was the total rebuild of his rear brakes which worked out fine as well.
Over the last 6 month we could fix 35 points on the repair checklist.
Now there are only 11 points left which need some attention - but no more severe repairs - only a couple of details.
Tayfun is happy that after owning the car for over 11 years he finally fixed the electronic issues.
His Eldorado will be like new soon!

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Tayfuns 1981 Eldo finally repaired!

My friend Tayfun visited me once again to try to have his 1981 Eldorado back in working order. He was trying to fix an electronic problem that plagued him for years and nobody could find a solution so far.
All ECM´s he installed went up in smoke. (See picture on the left)
Finally with the help of Martin - a guy who is the owner of a custom autosound store - we could find a defective solenoid which was causing all the trouble.
Finally his car is back in working order!

Martin at work

we worked till late in the night

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Cruising with some Friends

This evening I met some friends and we had a photo session on the parkdeck of the local shopping mall.
All the pictures can be found here.

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Trying to repair Tayfuns Pimperado

My buddy Tayfun was on visit for a couple of days and we were trying to repair his 1981 Pimperado. The car has a problem with its ECM which is constantly burning through. As the new garage was not finished yet we had to work in the old garage. Unfortunately we did not find the cause for this issue yet, but the search will go on.

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Spring has sprung!

As weather was really fine today - I woke up both of my cars and took them for a spin after the long winter hibernation. Both cars started right up after 8 months of being in storage and ran beautifully. It was great to drive such land-yachts once again.
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The cruising season can start

Just picked up the plates from the insurance. I can now drive my Cadillacs again after the long winter break. Of course its raining...
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