Geralds Cadillac Page - The News

The 67 Eldorado´s waterpump is defective

Gerald Loidl — 2010-03-02T20:50:46+01:00

When I repaired the seat transmission of my 67 Eldorado I drove the car out of the garage to have more room. When I wanted to drive it back into the garage, suddenly the radiator boiled over and the temperature gage showed full heat. I immediately shut down the engine. The car never had an overheating problem before and the radiator is new as well.

There are only very few possibilities why this could have happened.

The thermostat did no longer open
The waterpump failed
Air was trapped somewhere in the cooling system

So I removed the thermostat housing first to check the thermostat. This is when disaster struck. The two bolts in the thermostat housing snapped off immediately when I tried to unscrew them. *Cr*p”
I then removed the thermostat and put it into boiling water and it worked perfectly. So I think I can rule out the thermostat.
As the upper radiator hose stayed pretty cool and it did not feel like there is any coolant circulating through it, I suspected the water pump. Maybe the impeller does no longer work. I will have to remove the pump to check it.
My friend Richard came over to help me to try removing the broken bolts which got stuck in the cylinder head water outlet pipe. As all methods we tried to remove the broken bolts failed, we began drilling the remains out. This did not turn out very successful either... The threads also got damaged with this method. Of course one could now rethread this part, but I decided to order a good used one.

Once again Arizona Vintage Parts is the company where I ordered all the spare parts. They are really a great company! They are reasonably priced and so far they had everything I ever needed and inquired for. They are a pleasure to deal with and I can highly recommend them. I´m looking forward for the parts to arrive, as the car in its current state is immobile and blocking the garage...

my friend Richard drilling out the snapped off bolts...

Normally the thermostat is in there. You can see the mounting holes from where we drilled out the bolts. Unfortunately the threads did not survive this treatment...

1967 Eldorado Seat Transmission repaired

Gerald Loidl — 2010-03-01T10:41:55+01:00

When I got my Eldorado one function of the 6 way power seat did not work. The rear tilt function did not function. When I pushed the according switch I could hear the motor work but nothing happened. So I crawled under the seat and saw that the according transmission wire was disconnected from the actuator. I reconnected it but this did not change anything. I then checked all the connectors for current. Everything was o.k. there, so it could only be the seat transmission itself.
I removed it from under the seat what is a little tricky and involves getting in some strange positions to access all the screws. It would be easier if you remove the seat from the car, but thats a rather unpleasant work as well...
Eventually it came out of the car. I disassembled it and at first everything looked pretty good, but it soon showed that the old grease became rather hard and sticky and one of the three solenoids was no longer able to push the gear into a locked position.
I thoroughly removed all of the old grease and re-greased everything with white lithium grease. I then reassembled everything, reconnected the gear cables, reinstalled the transmission under the seat (thats the tricky part...) and everything worked like new!
I now have perfectly working power seats again!

the seat transmission disassembled - you can see the brownish old grease everywhere

part of the gear and the solenoids

the transmission part

the three solenoids

the cleaned and re-greased transmission

1967 Eldorado Door Jamb Switch Repair

Gerald Loidl — 2010-02-28T17:38:35+01:00

Whenever I opened the drivers door on my 1967 Cadillac Eldorado the interior lights would not come on. Only the red warning light in the door lit up. Everything worked from the passenger´s side though. So I had to check out the door jamb switch. I unscrewed it and checked the three cables going into it. One cable is for the warning light in the door, one for the front interior lights below the dash and one for the rear interior lights in the C-pillar. I made sure that all contacts were in place and had to bend them a little. After a little tweaking the lights started to work again. When I screwed the switch back into place, the rear lights went out again. So I had to adjust the contacts once again and now everything works perfectly. Great to have the interior lights come on again when I step into the car.

This is how the doorjamb switch looks like on a 1967 Eldorado when removed. Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture!
I will have to clean the paint in the doorjambs soon as you can see in this picture...

The 1967 Eldorado headlight door repairs - first spring outing

Gerald Loidl — 2010-02-25T17:18:12+01:00

As we had an unusual warm day today with the snow melting in front of the garage, and having a couple of hours of spare time at hand, I decided to drive the Eldorados out of the garage. They both started right up as soon as the fuel pump delivered fuel to the fuel bowl. Both cars idled beautifully and it was a pleasure to see them in the bright daylight again for the first time since last October when I had put them into storage.

While I had the 67 Eldorado out I also turned on the headlights and was once again annoyed by the fact that the right one opened simultaneously, but closed slightly slower than the left one when I turned the lights off. There was a difference of around 1 second in movement between the two headlight doors.
Being a perfectionist I could not stand this, so I began searching for the problem. I already had spent some time in the past trying to fix this, but I did not succeed. The system is driven by vacuum only, so I started to look through the vacuum hoses once again. I had already exchanged a couple of them last year. I found another two brittle ones going through the firewall to the headlight switch from where a slight hissing sound was coming when the lights were on. When I touched them the hissing would become even more noticeable. I then tried to press them onto the connector of the switch and the first hose began to crumble into pieces. So I replaced all the hoses on the switch and rerouted them through firewall through the rubber insulation. There are three hoses . One is the vacuum feed (the one in the middle - I think it was yellow), one is for opening the doors (green) and one for closing (red). I also replaced the red hose behind the firewall going to a T-connector from where the vacuum is fed to the headlight door actuators. I had already replaced the two hoses after the T-connector in the past. With all new hoses in place the doors now perform almost simultaneously and quite fast. So when you run into troubles with your headlight doors, check and replace all the according vacuum hoses first. Its amazing how brittle the hoses going to the headlight switch inside the car can become over the years. It looks like they used a quite different material for these three hoses, as all other vacuum hoses are in much better shape and do not show any sign of deterioration at all.
You can see a video of the headlight doors in action below. On this video they are slightly not synchronic. As it looks like they are slightly different every day, depending on temperature and engine idle...

While the Eldorados were outside the garage my wife used the opportunity to shoot a couple of pictures she had in her mind, which she is planning to hang into the kids room. Cant wait until the medium format film is back from the photo lab. Below you can see only some digital snap shots I took.
Despite the last two unusual warm and beautiful days unfortunately winter is not over yet here in Austria, as some more snow is predicted for next week and the cars are back in the garage desperately waiting for April to come...

the Eldorado is enjoying some sun rays for the first time this year

although she is 7 months pregnant, my wife Afra is still climbing ladders to get the best angle for her shots...

the two Eldorados in front of the garage where the snow has just melted away.

FIXED - 1958 Power Vent Window wiring problem

Gerald Loidl — 2010-02-08T19:03:23+01:00

Today I could finally fix the issue with the broken wires in the passenger door. Because of these broken wires there were some issues with the power vent windows. You can read about the problem here.
Today I started to repair the broken wires by soldering them together and put some heat shrinking tubes and electric tape around the repaired areas.
You can see some image below. More of them can be found in the restoration section.
Everything now works as it should! Lets hope that the repaired wires wont break again any time soon ;-)

Next up - repair the door jamb switch of my 1967 Eldorado and install a new power seat transmission as the front up/down solenoid does no longer work and therefore does not engage the according seat transmission. This will involve removing the front bench seat which is very heavy... Oh it is so much fun owning these cars! ;-)

I removed the kick panel, heater-box and door sill scuff plates to get access to the broken cables.

they broke at the area where all the bending is taking place when the door is opened. Here the first wire is already soldered together

I put some heat shrinking tube around it after soldering

just to be sure I wrapped some more electric tape around it

all the wires are back together

the wires are back together in the metallic tube going through the door

kick panel and everything else back in place. Everything works as it should now.

as I work as a cameraman I had a good film light at hand to light the working area properly.

1958 Power Vent Window wiring problem

Gerald Loidl — 2010-02-06T16:11:16+01:00

A while ago I thought that I had already fixed an issue with the wiring of the power vent window in the passenger door.
Yesterday when I was repairing the 6 way power seat which had a contact problem somewhere at a solenoid - suddenly the power vent window started to close itself when I shut the door. So the problem was back! (At least the power seats do work perfectly now!)
So I decided to spend the day in the garage - rewiring the 58´s passenger door as there definitely was a short somewhere in the power vent window circuit. Thats the kind of work I absolutely HATE! 52 years of bending the wires whenever you open the door took its toll.
The bug was easily found after I removed the kick panel, door sill plates, parts of the heat tubing, and the metal tube which is going through the door to protect the wires. 5 (!) cables were broken and only held together by the original fabric covering around it. The cables all broke exactly at the end of the tube where all the bending is going on when the door is opened. I will now have to splice the cables back together somehow and get them back into the tube. No idea how I will do this - I will have to buy some electric supply material first, but the shops are all closed over the weekend. I´m still stunned that the windows still worked and the only sign of failure was that they started to open or close themselves sometimes when I opened the door, and that the battery was drained at one occasion. I guess I was lucky that the car did not catch fire...

UPDATE - Feb. 8th:
I fixed it - read everything about it above or by clicking on this link!

My 1967 DeVille was featured in "Der Standard"

Gerald Loidl — 2010-01-20T11:20:46+01:00

My 1967 Cadillac DeVille was featured in the German Cadillac Club Magazine “Der Standard”. Burkhard Briessmann did an excellent article about 60 years of Cadillac deVille, where he used 3 pictures of my car. Click on the image to read the page where my car is featured. © “Der Standard” - Classic Cadillac Club Germany, 2009 - Burkhard Briessmann. Pictures were shot by my wife.

Website update

Gerald Loidl — 2009-12-25T12:37:18+01:00

I updated and relaunched my entire website today. Most things were done “under the hood” of the website, so you wont see many changes besides some new cool banner images. The website should be more reliable and compatible with the many browsers now. Whats completely new is the video gallery with all the videos in flash format. This may be convenient if you do not have Quicktime installed on your computer. I still recommend to watch the movies in Quicktime though. The quality is slightly better and its not that CPU intensive on your computer. Please let me know if you run into any issues with my site, as this was a major update I did to it.

Cadillac BIG Meet 2009 - The Video

Gerald Loidl — 2009-12-08T15:20:33+01:00

Today I finished a short video clip of the Cadillac BIG Meet 2009. This is Europes largest and best Cadillac Meeting held every year at the last weekend of August. The next one will be held on August 29th 2010. More info about the meeting can be found here.
I did some filming at the 2009 event and posted the video in the video section of my website. Enjoy this nice short clip with some fantastic cars.

Cleaning the 1967 Eldorado´s Engine Bay

Gerald Loidl — 2009-12-07T15:48:14+01:00

I spent quite some time during the last weeks in the engine bay of the 67 Eldorado. I tried to clean everything in there as good as possible. After cleaning and degreasing everything I also gave all the metal parts a fresh coat of wax. I also cleaned all the rubber parts and cables and applied some vinyl and rubber conditioner. Everything is sparkling clean now. I´m now thinking about painting some of the parts where the paint has some imperfections or is worn off. I will have to find the right correct paint first. The engine looks quite presentable now. What will get a new paintjob first will be the airfilter housing, which looks pretty worn. It will be stripped to bare metal before painting of course.
Below you can find some pictures of the now clean engine bay.

as seen from the passenger side

from the front

from the left

The 67 Eldorado´s Automatic Climate Control system is back in working order

Gerald Loidl — 2009-11-14T16:59:35+01:00

Today I managed to solve the issue with the partly non working Automatic Climate Control of my 1967 Eldorado. As described in the entries below, the blower would only come on in full heat modes when the car was accelerating. The AC of the Eldorado is very similar to the one from the DeVille btw.
I suspected a vacuum leak somewhere in the system. Troubleshooting began with going through all the vacuum hoses. I replaced some which were a little worn out at the connectors. I also cut off the ends of most hoses, as they were all becoming a little loose during the last 40 years. I then plugged them in again.
Not much did change though.
When I came to the hose of the hot water valve and the delay relay, I had the first success. At least the blower motor would stay on in all “Auto” modes, even when the car was idling - but would still go off in “Fog” and “Ice”. I then suspected a leak in the power servo or in the dash controller. So I installed the power servo from my 67 DeVille where everything works perfectly, to be able to rule out any problems. Nothing changed though - the blower would still come on and off depending on the throttle position.

I then soon found the culprit of the whole issue - it was the master vacuum switch - which seems to have a problem with the internal electric switch. As I had a spare one around I installed it - and voilá - everything worked as it should. It always looked good when I checked it before.
I´m very happy that everything is back in working order. The only thing which I still have to repair is the fast idle diaphragm which completely dried out and is no longer functioning. Fortunately I do have a spare 429 engine in the garage from where I can grab and use this part - so I will repair it soon.
I then need a new condenser which is already on the way across the Atlantic coming from Old Auto Air.
By the way - Cadillactim has an excellent trouble shooting guide for the ACC on his website.

The best troubleshooting guide for 1967 and 1968 Cadillac´s Automatic Climate Control Systems I got today from Gary Sisk - owner of a 1968 Cadillac.
This is a very easy to follow explanation which will save you a lot of time and you do not even need any special tools.
It was written by Lynn Nicholls and can be found on Stampies Cadillac page - here is the direct link to it.

Below you can find some pictures of my system:

I discovered the first issue at the hot water valve

the hoses around the time relay delay were leaking a little bit

for testing purposes I hung a spare master vacuum switch into the car - this solved the problem

the old fast idle diaphragm was leaking and brittle and was replaced with a better one...

the 1967 Cadillac Automatic Climate Control Vacuum Schematic from the shop manual -
1968 is almost identical BTW... Click on the image for a larger view!

The 67 Eldorado´s vacuum hoses - Blower issue

Gerald Loidl — 2009-11-09T12:46:13+01:00

The 1967 Eldorado is now back home from the restoration shop. They wanted to recharge the AC on the day before I wanted to pick it up only to find out that the condenser is also leaking badly. I´ve ordered a new on from Cold Air Products in USA in the meantime which I will install later. The recharge will then take place in spring.

During the rebuild of the whole AC system I found out that I´m also having a little issue with the blower which does not always come on at full heat. So as a first step I started to go through the numerous vacuum hoses in the car yesterday. I soon found some old and brittle ones which fell apart when I just touched them. The two hoses that fell apart were the ones going to the right headlight doors.
Original color coded hoses seem no longer available anywhere. Thats why I had to buy regular black ones and paint the red and green stripes on them. Looks almost perfect - I did not think that it would turn out this nice.
Will go through the rest of the hoses soon. With the replaced hoses the headlight doors now work 100% simultaneously, whereas before one was slower.
I still have to find the issue with the blower motor - but I now suspect either the AC controller or the power servo. It works perfectly in full cold - only when I set a higher temperature the blower will cut out. Another problem to solve over the winter... I had almost the same problem with the 67 DeVille before which I could successfully repair.
BTW - if you know of any source for the GM OEM style color coded vacuum hoses please let me know.

there are lots and lots of vacuum hoses in the Eldorado to check - here are only a few going to the storage tanks...
I will also give them a good cleaning during the winter.

the new hose with the painted red stripe is already in place - looks some kind of original...

The 67 Eldorado passed the inspection

Gerald Loidl — 2009-10-30T12:15:29+01:00

Just got the news from the restoration shop that the 67 Eldorado passed the state inspection and has now all the necessary paperwork to be driven on Austrian roads! YEEEHA!!!! It is now "typisiert". (thats the german word for this inspection procedure which privately imported cars have to go through to get a license for Austrian roads)
The completely rebuilt AC will get a recharge next week and I can then pick up the car and put it into winter storage together with the other Cadillacs. Can´t wait for the next cruising season.

these are the documents which now allow me to register the car in Austria.

Visiting the 67 Eldorado at the restoration shop

Gerald Loidl — 2009-10-14T15:23:56+02:00

Today I visited the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado at the restoration shop where some crucial work is done to it to get it back on the road. The guys at American Special Parts are doing a great job once again and they are doing a lot of progress. I snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone while I was there.
Here are some pictures of what is going on. You can also see all the restoration pictures here!

the 1967 Eldorado at the the lift of American Special Parts - the trunk is full of parts

look how clean the 429 engine looks inside - it only has 27k miles on it - the valve covers will get a repaint and new gaskets will be installed

the radiator is out for a re-core

the left front disc brake is sticking a little - it will be completely overhauled as well soon.

some of the parts - the old ball joints are out. New brake hoses and brake parts are waiting for installation

a new H4 headlight had to be installed as the original T3 headlights are not street legal in Austria

A short in the 1958 Eldorado power vent window wiring

Gerald Loidl — 2009-10-08T19:10:14+02:00

When I came into the garage to take something out of the trunk of the 1958 Seville yesterday, I pushed the trunk release button in the glove box and... nothing happened. I pushed again and instead of hearing the trunk pop open and the sound of the pull down motor going up, there was just nothing happening. This was when I noticed that the interior lights did not come on either... The battery was completely dead.
So there was no other way than hooking up the charger. Two hours later, the battery was strong enough to start the car. I checked all electric components and everything seemed to work - so I was wondering what drained down a fully charged battery over night? This was the moment when I noticed a clicking noise coming from the passenger door. I opened all windows including the power vents . When I opened the passenger door the vent window started to close itself! So even when the vent window was fully closed, the window motor would still draw current. At a test drive with the door closed (of course)- the window would eventually start closing itself again.

So I had to remove all the window switches and unscrew the kick panels. Of course some of the cables behind there were broken or had the isolation coming of at the areas where they had to bend each time the door was opened or closed. I replaced one section of a cable and isolated the other ones.
So far everything seems to be working o.k. now. After an extensive test drive and opening the doors multiple times - everything seems to be well.
It is really a pain to get access to all these cables and trying to repair them. Some smaller hands would be very handy in this cases.

Thats the area behind one of the 1958 Eldorado kick panels where the cables have to bend all the time. After 51 years they seem to get tired.

The 67 Eldorado is now at the shop to get an Austrian license

Gerald Loidl — 2009-10-06T18:43:02+02:00

All cars imported into Austria have to pass a technical inspection to get a license. Its an inspection done by state inspectors where they are checking every car thoroughly.
The cars have to be safe and in very good condition. They check the brakes, all the suspension parts, rust, emmissions and everything else what is important. The regulations are very strict - so basically everything has to be in perfect order. We even have to change the lighting system. Its obligatory to have amber rear turning signals, which makes it impossible to keep the rear lighting system in original condition (at least for the time of the inspection...). Often there is no other way than to install additional amber turn signals somewhere on the rear bumper or trunklid. (!)

The 1967 Eldorado is now at the restoration shop - here it is on the side of a nice low mileage 1971 Lincoln Mark III.

As I finally want to be able to drive the Eldorado on our roads, today I delivered the Eldorado to my restoration job, where they will do some of the necessary conversions and repairs. They already helped me with my 67 Deville and the 58 Eldorado.
The Eldorado will now get a new radiator as the original one is leaking badly. Actually I will have the original one recored and repaired. The front disc brake will get an overhaul due to a partly sticking piston, together with all new brake hoses. The fuel line will be replaced as it started to leak as well. The lower ball joints and the idler arm will get exchanged along with some rubber bushings. Besides of this list of repairs the rear lights will be converted for the inspection.
After the Eldorado is back in perfectly working condition, the inspector will check the car and hopefully approve it... Unfortunately until all this will be done it will take some time, and the winter is just around the corner - so it will go right back in winter storage after this procedure.

The 1996 Buick Roadmaster - new rear wheel cylinders

As our 96 RMW did not pass the technical inspection 3 weeks ago I had to order some new rear wheel cylinders which were installed today as well. It then passed the annual inspection and can be driven for another year.

A great 1958 Eldorado Seville for sale!

Gerald Loidl — 2009-08-29T11:31:00+02:00

Per Rubien from Denmark sent me the following message about his great 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville which is for sale now:

“I want to sell my 1958 Eldorado Seville. The car is 100% complete and in very fine condition. Everything is working and it drives like a new car. The interior is 100% original and in super condition.”

If you are interested please contact Per Rubien in Denmark directly! Phone: +45 98134480 or mail:
He is asking around € 35.000.- - which is a very reasonable price for a car like this!

My 67 DeVille under palm trees...

Gerald Loidl — 2009-09-14T17:11:52+02:00

I got a nice mail 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! Great - I love it What a great photoshop creation and idea - Thanks Scott!

1967 Eldorado - the headlights and the ALC work again

Gerald Loidl — 2009-09-13T11:23:52+02:00

Yesterday I finally found the time to spend a couple of hours in the garage and deal with the problem of the non working headlights and the defective ALC of my 67 Eldorado. I got some great tips from Glen (see a couple of entries below). With his great expertise I could solve all the problems. I installed a set of new original style spring clamp battery cables from Antique Auto Battery and repaired the blown fusible link for the headlights. The new battery cable comes pretty close to the original cables that came with the car. I would say they are 98% correct.
I also got a new control valve for the ALC compressor from Arizona Vintage Parts (a company I highly recommend). With this new valve the ALC is back in working order and the car is now raising its rear to the correct riding height again.

the new original style spring clamp battery cables

a new used ALC control valve is also in place.

A night photoshooting with the 67 DeVille

Gerald Loidl — 2009-09-07T23:02:30+02:00

My wife and I had a great night shooting with my 1967 DeVille. She took some brilliant pictures with her Hasselblad 6x6 camera. The pictures were shot on good old Fuji Provia slide film and scanned afterwards.
I also took some "making of" pictures of her in action.
Click on the image below to go to the gallery with all the pictures.

The Cadillac BIG Meet was a huge success!

Gerald Loidl — 2009-08-30T21:21:01+02:00

I just returned from the Cadillac BIG Meet - Europes largest Cadillac Meeting where I am in the organization team together with some friends. Its held in Austria every last weekend in August. This year we had the sixth edition. Thanks to all participants - the 2009 Cadillac BIG Meet was a huge success once again! 140 Cadillacs made it to the show this year. As we celebrated the 59 Cadillacs 50th birthday, we managed to get 17 of them parked side by side. 9 of them were Eldorados, ranging from 6 Biarritzes and 2 Sevilles to the super rare Eldorado Brougham of 1959. Some of the other highlights among all these beautiful Cadillacs which made it to the meeting- were a perfect 57 Eldorado Brougham and 2 1953 Eldorados and many other awesome Cadillacs. Visitors came from Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. While the driving tour on saturday, which was limited to 40 cars, had some terribly rainy weather, Sunday, the day of the show was just splendid. I took my 1958 Seville to the show. But look for yourself and check the image galleries with more than 800 pictures my wife made this year.
http://www.cadillac-meeting.com/english/pictures/pictures.html

on the picture above you can see the venue - in the front there is my all-time favorite car - the 1957 Eldorado Brougham. This one was in perfect condition.

The Cadillac BIG Meet - This Weekend!

Gerald Loidl — 2009-08-28T10:20:28+02:00

The Cadillac BIG Meet 2009 will happen this weekend - August 30th.
Its held for the 6th time this year at the Kremsegg Castle in Kremsmünster in Austria. This is the biggest Cadillac Meeting held in Europe and about 150 Cadillacs are expected.
For more info click on the image below - which was taken at the show. This years theme is “The Cadillac Fin” and the 50th birthday of the 1959 Cadillacs. I will take my 1958 Eldorado Seville to the show, as it is the only Cadillac I own which has fins.

The first 1967 Eldorado parts arrived

Gerald Loidl — 2009-08-13T16:54:24+02:00

Last week the first parts I will need to get my 1967 roadworthy arrived. Some more are on their way to me from the USA. I ordered them from Rockauto, Antique Auto Battery, Coopers and Arizona Vintage Parts. When everything finally arrives I will start working on the Eldorado again.

The first few parts that arrived - belts, filters, gaskets, caliper repair kits, dryer, pitman arm, air filter and some other stuff....

1967 Eldorado headlight issue - one step further

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-25T22:53:53+02:00

As my headlight suddenly stopped working recently, (see two posts below) I spent the afternoon in the garage for troubleshooting. I got a very good troubleshooting guide from a fellow Cadillac enthusiast from the USA.
Glen wrote the following:
“If you take the panel under the steering column off I think you can reach up and disconnect the connector from the light switch. Or you maybe able to get a meter probe up there to check voltage. The battery connection to the switch for the headlights is on the 14 gauge yellow wire. This only supplies the headlights and front parking lights. If you have 12 volts there then your problem is in the switch. There is a circuit breaker in the switch and it may be bad or the contacts in the switch are bad. IIRC these switches have a vacuum switch on the side that operates the headlight doors. This makes them hard to find. They do not interchange with the 68 Eldorado because in 67 the parking lights only come on when the switch is pulled out to the first position while in 68 the parking lights come on with the headlights also. If you do not have voltage on the yellow wire then you should check the fusible link on the starter. It is an 18 gauge dark green wire that changes to a 14 gauge red with white tracer before it gets to the connector. Check for 12 volts at the connector and check the contacts in the connector. “

Glen was spot on with his diagnose and it turned out that the green 18 gauge fusible link was the culprit for my headlight problem as it came apart for unknown reasons.

the green wire once was a fusible link - it fell into pieces when I slightly pulled on it

As a follow-up Glen recommended the following:

“You might want to look closely at the break in the link. See if it is melted or did was it broken by mechanical means. If it was just pulled apart or cut then you have to check what caused that. To trouble shoot this if it was actually melted due to over current, I would unplug the headlights and front parking lights, and temporarily connect a headlight or other big light bulb, in place of the fusible link. You can then try things without blowing fuses. With the troubleshooting light in place it will light up brightly if there is a direct short. With the headlights and front parking lights disconnected the test light should not light up at all under any condition. You should be able to move change the position of the headlight switch, switch from high to low beam (light switch in the headlight position); wiggle the wire harness anywhere and not light up the test light. If it does you have found the short.”

I did this procedure today but it did not show any shorts. I then reconnected the front lights and everything did work again. I will now have to find a replacement fusible link which is very uncommon over here in Europe. I will replace it together with the positive battery cable where the clamp is almost falling apart. I hope the issue wont come back. It looks like the fusible link maybe only fell apart due to age as it did not show any signs of burning. Its located very close to the starter and the exhaust manifold - so maybe 42 years of dirt and heat just made it crumble into pieces....

the completely removed positive battery cable harness

the original battery clamp - its already missing the spring part

New pictures of my 1967 Eldorado on my website

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-23T15:34:37+02:00

When I drove the 67 Eldorado home from the shop last tuesday (see report below)- I stopped at the park deck of the local shopping mall to shoot a couple of quick pictures.
You can find them in the Eldorados gallery.

You can find more pictures by clicking here.

1967 Eldorado Inspection - ALC issues and dead headlights

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-21T18:39:04+02:00

I took my 67 Eldorado to my restoration shop yesterday to have it checked for the Austrian registration.
When I arrived there the headlights did no longer work. They did not have any problem before.
When the inspector wanted to turn them on - the headlight doors did open but the lights did not come on.
Also the parking lights and high beams do no longer work. The taillights did come on though and the cornering lights and turn signal do work as well.
Very strange. Checking the fuse panel I found out that there is no fuse for the headlights. My guess is now that it must be the headlight switch - can this be repaired? The shop manual mentions a 25amp circuit breaker in the switch but it does not mention how to repair it or check it.

The other thing which stopped working yesterday was the Automatic Level Control. The vacuum operated compressor in the engine bay seems to work as I can hear a ticking noise, but the car does not raise. I also added some pressure (100psi) to the service valve at the compressor but the rear of the car did not raise at all. When I depressurized the compressor the car did not come down any further either. Very strange. I really need to get this fixed - non working parts are making me crazy!
The car lost the yellow plastic cap which is located on the top of the regulator valve while driving it into the shop. Unfortunately it landed directly below one of the tires and was crushed to tiny little pieces. I will have to try to find a replacement. I have no idea how this could have come loose.

The car did not pass the inspection for some other reasons as well , like a sticky front disc brake, worn ball joints and pitman arm and some other minor things . It will keep me busy repairing all this for a while. Whats worrying me most is the headlights and the ALC as I do not have any clue at all.
On the positive side - the car was a pleasure to drive the 60 miles to the shop - its so much different to the “regular” Cadillacs - Big, silent and powerful and no big boat ride ;-)

in the shop at American Special Parts in Wels

67 DeVille Brakes finally fixed

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-19T20:31:24+02:00

Today I once again tried to fix the low pedal issue on the 67 DeVille´s brakes. I recently replaced the booster and master cylinder and had a low pedal problem then. The brakes worked fine, but the pedal travel was way too long. I first suspected air in the lines, but we really thoroughly bleed the whole system multiple times. I then thought that the push rod of the new master cylinder might need some adjustment, until I found out that the Delco Moraine boosters are not adjustable, whereas - the also used - Bendix boosters had an adjustable rod.
As I replaced the complete front end including the entire front brakes last year, I did not think that the drum brakes might only need a simple re-adjustment. As it turned out the front brakes were out of the range where the star-wheel can adjust itself while driving the car backwards and applying the brakes.
I now adjusted the front brakes pretty tightly and the pedal is now pretty firm again. I hope it will stay like this. If not - there must be something wrong with the automatic self adjuster, but I´m very optimistic that the problem is now solved. I also gave the rear drums a check - they turned out pretty fine. I just wished the DeVille had front disc brakes like my 67 Eldorado...

checking the rear drums - crappy cell phone picture...

the rear drums

Music video with our Roadmaster in the background

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-19T13:03:47+02:00

While my wife and I were on holidays in Vorarlberg, we shot this music video for the local band “MAGUAMS”.
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

click on the image to watch the video

1967 Eldorado detailing

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-07T21:02:34+02:00

My buddy Tayfun came to visit me for three days to help me with detailing my 1967 Eldorado and to exchange the brake booster and master cylinder of my 67 DeVille.
The Eldorado got a wet cleaning treatment of the carpet and trunk and a full detailing of the interior - which looks like from a new car now. We also started to clean and polish the original paint but ran out of time. We only finished the hood - but the before and after difference is amazing. More work will be done soon.

The Eldorado is lurking out of the garage

washing and brushing the original rubber floormats...

...they turned out as if they just left the factory - awesome - this Meguiars rubber treatment is more than fantastic!

Tayfun - wet cleaning the carpet and trunk - looks like new now as well - the low miles are showing on the interior pretty well

My buddy Tayfun polishing the hood

Tayfun at work

The hood´s paint came out really fine and smooth - unfortunately we ran out of time and could not finish the rest of the paint

1967 DeVille got new brake booster and power cylinder

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-07T22:01:10+02:00

While my friend Tayfun was in town to help me with my Cadillacs, it was time to exchange the still original brake booster and master cylinder of my 1967 Cadillac DeVille.
Everything went pretty smoothly at first - only bleeding the brakes was a little complicated and it did not help either that I spilled some brake fluid into the engine bay. Some harm was done to the black paint which had to be repainted immediately. So it took us some unplanned time to get everything back in working order. As it was raining heavily we could not even test the brakes. In the meantime I did a test drive and found out that the pedal travel is way too long. Looks like the push rod in the booster needs adjustment... D*mn this means removing the master cylinder once again... I hope I will find the time to do this soon.

the removed brake booster - the hole in the firewall

the new booster needed some paint before installation

painting the master cylinder

Tayfun painting the primered booster

reinstalling the whole unit

Tayfun bleeding the brakes

finished - looking good

1967 Cadillac Eldorado radio replacement

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-01T20:03:19+02:00

My 1967 Eldorado originally came with an AM radio only, which is basically useless in todays world. The seller of the car put an FM/AM unit in the trunk which he had for the car but never installed it.
Today my wife helped me trying to replace it. It is always a pain to get the old radios out, as the electrical connectors are pretty hard to reach if you have big hands like me... After some fiddling and lots of bad cursing, the radio eventually came out. During this procedure I found out that somebody messed around with the speaker cables which go to the rear speakers and installed new ones - which were connected directly to the front speaker. They cut the wire going to the front speakers and spliced in the rear speakers. Not very well done...

When I finally managed to install the “new” AM/FM radio I found out that it does not fit at all... It either comes from a 66 or a 69 Cadillac?

So I installed the old AM radio coming from my convertible where I did the same procedure 2 years ago - only to find out that non of the 2 speakers seem to work anyways...
I now have to find a good used 1967 AM/FM radio and 2 speakers - the list of things I need is getting longer everyday. I will also have to repair the wiring of the rear speaker back to original.
Thanks to my wife Afra for helping me!

removing the dash

the removed dash

removing the radio buttons was the easiest part

Afra repairing the wiring of the old radio

sometimes its good to have some small hands

US-CAR-SHOW Dornbirn 2009 - Film online

Gerald Loidl — 2009-07-01T09:36:06+02:00

The US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn is held every second year and is Austrias finest car show.
I always exhibited one of my Cadillacs at the indoor show in the past years, but this year I decided to take the Roadmaster for the trip and just take part as a regular visitor.
The show itself is a class of its own. You can find hundreds of Hotrods, Classics and Muscle Cars there which you do not see at any other shows in Austria. We really had a great time there and are looking forward to the next edition of the show in 2011.

I shot 2 hours of footage at the 2 days of the show, which my wife Afra and I edited down to a 11 minute film, which is now available on my website.
It features some great Cadillacs like a 53 Eldorado, 57 Biarritz or a 1959 Biarritz and many other great cars.
The film is pretty big as the quality is very high - so be patient while downloading. It was shot in Full-HD in cinemascope.
You need the Quicktime player to be able to watch it - if you do not already have it you can get it for free at Apples website.

Click on the image to go to the movie gallery of my website

Cleaning the engine bay

Gerald Loidl — 2009-06-19T22:49:19+02:00

Today I started cleaning the engine bay of the 1967 Eldorado with its mighty 429cui V8. Amazing how much dirt could collect on a car with only 27k miles on the clock. Its a pretty dirty job and will keep me busy for a while. Surprisingly, below the thick, oily and dirty surface there is still some shiny paint appearing!
I hope though, that I will ever be able to get my hands clean again as well... I guess I should wear a pair of gloves next time...

This is how the engine bay of my 1967 Eldorado looked before cleaning - I will also have to install the new evaporator later, reinstall the blower motor, connect all the AC hoses and recharge the AC... lots of work ahead
.
The engine degreaser is pretty aggressive on the oily gunk and dirt.

Time to change the engine oil

Gerald Loidl — 2009-06-16T20:29:32+02:00

Today I started to change the oil on my cars. The 67 DeVille was first and now has some fresh oil in its engine. Next up was the Roadmaster. Unfortunately I did not have the correct oil for the Roadmaster at home but I eventually found out when I already had drained the old oil... The RMW its now stuck over the pit until I buy the correct 5W-30 for it... So the 67 Eldo and the 58 will have to wait for a couple of days. Stupid me - I should have checked which oil it needs before starting to drain it... BTW: The 1967 Cadillacs need 5 quarts of oil at an oil-change when you also replace the filter and only 4 quarts without a filter change. Considering the displacement of the engine this is not that much oil...

I had to drive one after each other over the pit...

somehow its always a mess to change the oil...

The first pictures of all 3 Cadillacs side by side

Gerald Loidl — 2009-06-13T23:55:48+02:00

Today I took the first picture of all 3 Cadillac side by side in front of the garage. Unfortunately it was shot a little too late as the sun already set. Will try another time again.

The Cads lined up

Dornbirn Car Show - Picture Gallery

Gerald Loidl — 2009-06-01T20:51:16+02:00

The US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn is held every second year and is Austrias finest car show.
I always exhibited one of my Cadillacs at the indoor show in the past years, but this year I decided to take the Roadmaster for the trip and just take part as a regular visitor.
We met with some friends and drove there in a 7 car convoy. It took us a 7 hours to get there as we also stopped at a very cool diner along the route.

The show itself is a class of its own. You can find hundreds of Hotrods, Classics and Muscle Cars there which you do not see at any other shows in Austria. We really had a great time there and are looking forward to the next edition of the show in 2011.

You can find a huge selection of pictures of this trip in the image gallery. Most pictures were taken by my wife Afra as I did the filming part this time. The black and white one were shot on real "old fashioned" analog film with a medium format camera. Afra also shot two roll of slides which were scanned after development.
Enjoy! A very cool High Definition film will follow in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned.

a great 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

Sepps Lincoln Zephyr - Aweseome and rare car. Click on the images to go to the gallery for more images like this.

Alex´s 1963 Riviera shot during the night cruising on Saturday

The 67 Eldorado arrived!

Gerald Loidl — 2009-06-05T15:19:14+02:00

Today was a big day, as the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado I bought in March finally was delivered to my door after its long journey from North Carolina. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a ship coming from Charleston, SC and landed in Rotterdam where it was unloaded from the container. It was then transported 1000 km to my home in Austria on a truck.
The truck arrived at 3 pm with the 67 Eldo and the 69 DeVille which I bought for a dealer here in Austria. Both cars had empty fuel tanks and dead batteries so we could not start them and had to push and pull them from the truck, what took as quite a while. This was very exhausting work, but eventually we had the cars parked in front of the garage. I poured some gas into the tanks and installed batteries from my other Cadillacs. I then turned the keys and the cars roared back to life without any problem. The 67 is a very nice survivor with only 27k miles on the odometer. It drives like a dream - I´m very impressed. The biggest surprise for me was that it has disc brakes on the front - I always thought it would come with the basic drums and not with this very rare option.
The cars got a quick wash and were then parked inside the garage.
Tired and exhausted, but very happy I finally went to bed thinking about all the work I will do in the upcoming weeks. Stayed tuned!
If you are interested about the cars history and how I found it visit my history page!

Here are some pictures of when the car arrived:

the truck as it arrived

the 67 proudly rode on top...

the old Cadillacs watching the new one arrive...

finally unloaded

after a quick foam bath

looking a little cleaner

yes - they all fit in...

nice sight in front of the original 1967 Cadillac banner

its narrow - but they do fit in

looking into the garage - nice view...

the mauve 69 was picked up by its new owner - a dealer in Austria - it will be for sale there soon. Its a really nice car which I would like to keep if my funds would allow it. Whoever will buy this car, will get a nice Cadillac in a stunning color combination!

The 67 Eldorado arrived in Rotterdam

Gerald Loidl — 2009-05-26T15:27:01+02:00

Last week the new Cadillac arrived in Rotterdam. In the meantime it was unloaded out of its container and the custom declaration was done. The car is now waiting in a warehouse to get picked up by the car hauler and get trucked to my home. This will be done by the end of this week. The car will then be delivered to my home in the first week of June. Cant wait to finally see it in real life. As soon as it has arrived I am going to snap a couple of pictures and upload my brand new website which will feature this new car in great detail.

Details about the 67 Eldorado shipment

Gerald Loidl — 2009-04-24T11:01:37+02:00

I finally got all the shipping details of my 1967 Eldorado. It will leave Charleston on the the 4th of may and should arrive in Rotterdam on the 16th of may. It will sail on board of the cargo vessel “Star Evviva”. (Live tracking)

the ship my 1967 Eldorado will sail on across the Atlantic Ocean

I bought a 1967 Eldorado

Gerald Loidl — 2009-03-30T12:55:38+02:00

Today I officially bought my new 1967 Cadillac Eldorado from a collector in North Carolina. Its a beautiful survivor with only 27k miles. The car is in grecian white with black standard interior.

More details when the car arrives!

The 67 Eldorado was picked up

Gerald Loidl — 2009-04-09T15:36:52+02:00

Today the car was picked up from the seller in Wilmington North Carolina and trucked to the harbor of Charleston South Carolina, where it will be put into a container and shipped to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. I do not have a sailing date yet, but I do hope that it will be here by the end of may.

1967 Cadillac banner installed

Gerald Loidl — 2009-03-28T17:47:22+01:00

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!

Detailed seats are finally back in the 67

Gerald Loidl — 2009-03-14T16:57:54+01:00

Last weekend I finally found the time to reinstall the detailed leather seats into the 67 DeVille. They look like new now and the interior is one step closer to perfection.
If you compare the new pictures to the “before” pictures below - you can clearly see the difference.

Thats the area which showed the most wear - looking perfect now!

the same area before detailing

the interior is back together and now waiting for the cruising season

Cruising 2008 - The Video

Gerald Loidl — 2009-03-05T16:08:12+01:00

Last year I shot some video footage with my friends while we were cruising with our American cars. I also had the camera with me while we spent some time in the garage repairing our cars. I just finished editing and the result can be seen on my website now. The new video “Cruising 2008”. Enjoy!
You will need Quicktime player to watch it.

Very cool new garage decoration arrived

Gerald Loidl — 2009-01-30T16:27:13+01:00

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

New 1967 and 1958 Cadillac Ads

Gerald Loidl — 2009-01-23T18:06:34+01:00

I found some of the missing 1958 and 1967 Cadillac ads and added 13 of them to the ads gallery.

1958 Eldorado Brougham ad

1967 Cadillac ad

Leather seats are back from detailing!

Gerald Loidl — 2009-01-23T19:34:20+01:00

The leather seats of the 1967 Cadillac are back from detailing. I will reinstall them into the car soon. Everything looks like new-- I hope it will stay like this for a very long time. The detailer had some problems with the vinyl area at first, as the dye started to peel off right after the first detailing attempt, so I had to bring the seats back to his shop once again two weeks ago. He redid the whole vinyl area and I hope it will last this time.
They look like brand new leather seats now!

the front seat before

the front seat now - before installation

the rear bench before the repair

after the repair - all the tears and cracks are gone!

Winter sleep

Gerald Loidl — 2008-11-25T14:30:21+01:00

There is already snow outside and my Cadillacs are in winter hibernation now, safely stored away in their warm garage. I´m still doing some work with my buddy Tayfun on his Pimperado though. You can check out what is going on on his website.

Here are two pictures of the cars sleeping under their cosy covers.

Cadillac BIG Meet DVD - now available!

Gerald Loidl — 2008-11-08T22:35:04+01:00

The DVD of the 2008 Cadillac BIG Meet is available now.
This is a short trailer for this DVD which contains the whole 25 minute film.
The DVD also contains around 1000 pictures and as a bonus the film in High Definition to view on your computer.
You can order the DVD using the contact form on the Cadillac BIG Meet website.
Cost is €20 + shipping.

The 67s interior is going to the detailer.

Gerald Loidl — 2008-10-25T11:21:42+02:00

Today my wife and I removed the front bench and the back seat from the 67. The leather still is in excellent original condition with no real cracks or tears but it is showing its age on some areas. I found a shop which is specialized in leather repairs and detailing which will do some work to bring the interior back to like new condition. I have seen some of their work and the results were absolutely spectacular. I will deliver the seats to them sometimes next week. It will take them about 2 weeks to do the detailing. Looking forward to it!

this is one of the areas which will be restored - its showing some surface age cracks.

my wife Afra helped me removing the seats

the removed seats

I had to drive the car back into the garage sitting on the floor...

Last cruising with the 58 for this season.

Gerald Loidl — 2008-10-05T17:41:39+02:00

With winter already around the corner - the first snow is already visible on the surrounding mountains-- today I took the 58 Eldorado Seville for its last spin before it will finally go into winter hibernation.
Today was a picture perfect fall day, so my wife and I drove around a little bit. I filled the gas tank up to the brim and overinflated the tires for the long storage period.

I will soon change the oil, give the exterior a fresh coat of wax, clean and treat the leather with a conditioner, remove the battery and then put the car on blocks over the long winter. I only drove the car 640 kilometers (397 miles) this season. Somehow I did not make it to many shows this year and it was a very humid summer and fall.

pretty fall colors

over-inflating the tires for storage

filling the gas tank

There is already snow in the background!

Oilers 69 - The coolest Diner of them all!

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-31T20:23:35+02:00

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!

You can also find a link to its website in the Links category.

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

Going on holiday with the Roadmaster

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-31T20:22:49+02:00

We took the Roadmaster to go on holiday this year. On our last attempt in May the transmission failed and it had to be towed home.
We drove it over some high alpine passes this time and suddenly the “Service Engine Soon” light came on once again. The car still drove nicely and eventually the light went off again.
After some more highway driving it came back on and went off again.
When we returned I had the error code read out which was “P0137” which indicates a faulty oxygen sensor. I will replace all four soon.

The RMW at the Arlberg Pass.

Cadillac BIG Meet 2008 - A great show!

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-24T20:22:16+02:00

The Cadillac BIG Meet took place for the 5th time this year. I´m part of the organization team.
At this years event 115 Cadillacs from all over Europe attended. Everybody had a great time and it was a huge success once again.
Watch out for next years Cadillac BIG Meet which will be held on August, 30th 2009.

You can see hundreds of pictures of this years event by clicking on the picture below!

Mostkost Kustom Video online

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-17T22:30:41+02:00

The new video of the last „Mostkost Kustom Meet“ which was held 2 weeks ago - is now online. You can watch the high quality Quicktime movie by clicking on the image below. I´ve also added some new images to the photo gallery.

ORF - Shooting a promotion for the Cadillac BIG Meet

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-13T17:22:41+02:00

Today the national Austrian TV station ORF shot a short event promotion report for the upcoming Cadillac BIG Meet on August 24th. We had some nice cars on the venue like a 57 and 59 Biarritz, a 76 Bicentenial, a 81 Biarritz Custom, a 58 Sedan, and my 67 Deville. The report will be aired on August 21st on ORF2 at 7 PM. Below are some impressions of the shooting.

The ORF team at work

Willi´s 58 and Christians 57 Biarritz and 76 Bicentenial

my 67, Tayfuns 81 and Willi´s 58

the cameraman at work

The Roadmaster is back home with "new" transmission

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-09T09:18:20+02:00

During our last holiday 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. Anyways, 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.

Mostkost Kustom #3

Gerald Loidl — 2008-08-03T20:57:06+02:00

Due to a lot of work going on in my job, I missed most of the car shows I wanted to attend during the last weeks and also did not find the time to drive my cars a lot.

Today my wife and I finally visited a nice small meeting which is held only 40 kilometers from our home. Its a small gathering of US-Car enthusiasts. One of the organizers is collecting and building great Ratrods which he is always showing there. Its a very nice and relaxed atmosphere with nice cars and great people. Looking forward to the next edition.
We took the 58 to the show. My wife shot lots of great images which are available in this gallery. Some black and white images will also be added soon - they first have to be scanned and prepared for the web.
I also did some filming which still needs to be edited, but should follow soon as well.

A great ,all original Hudson Hornet. More pictures can be found in the gallery!

Klassikwelt Bodensee - images online

Gerald Loidl — 2008-06-06T14:50:43+02:00

My wife and I visited the "Klassikwelt Bodensee" in may during our holiday. It was held in Friedrichshafen in Germany. The „Klassikwelt Bodensee“ is a very spectacular classic car exhibition with hundreds of high profile cars on display and for sale.
You can find a picture gallery by clicking on the image below.

Defective Transmission - Roadmaster

Gerald Loidl — 2008-05-22T10:30:53+02:00

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 guarantee 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 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 now!

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...

Car Show in Altmünster

Gerald Loidl — 2008-05-11T22:31:57+02:00

Today a small, but very nice car show for US-Cars and other classic cars and bikes was held in Altmünster at a museum. As this is located only 10 minutes from home, I drove both Cadillacs to the show.
I have added a picture gallery here: CLICK
Below is a little preview.

overview

the 58 at the show

the 67 in the background

Custom Cadillac project

First official Cruise 2008

Gerald Loidl — 2008-04-27T22:22:45+02:00

I got my license plate for this season from the insurance company yesterday. First I fixed them onto the Roadmaster and we took it for a spin immediately. (See pictures)

Today weather was perfect and so it was time for the first cruise with the Cadillacs as well. First I took the 58 for a spin - it ran perfectly and it was a dream to drive it once again after almost 8 months in storage.
After the 58 it was time to move the 67 out. Unfortunately the 67s battery is dead after 12 years of reliable service, and the new one did not arrive yet. So I had to jump start it with jumper cables. This worked perfectly and so I headed off with the 67 as well. After a few miles it started to hesitate pretty badly. As I would not be able to restart the car with the dead battery along the road, I got pretty nervous in heavy traffic. Eventually I made it home safely and I immediately started investigating the issue. I was worried that something broke somewhere along the ignition or the fuel distribution. I found out that one ignition cable managed to slip off the spark plug. I have no idea how this could happen - but the problem was fixed easily and I took the car for another spin to the gas station....
Great to be able to drive all my cars again.

the 1958 Cadillac on the shores of the "Traunsee" in Traunkirchen

cruising with the 58 through the countryside

we took the Roadmaster for a spin...

my wife enjoying the "new" family car

New Video online - Season Opening 2008

Gerald Loidl — 2008-04-07T16:57:02+02:00

I did some filming when my buddy Tayfun was on visit on the first weekend of April 2008.
I edited it into this short clip which is now online. You can see some repairs going on, and Tayfuns first cruise 2008.
Quicktime 7 is required to watch the high quality file which you can find here.

You can also watch it as a flash movie by clicking on the image below!

The 2008 Season Begins!

Gerald Loidl — 2008-04-05T18:31:34+02:00

My buddy Tayfun once again came on a visit to start working on his Pimperado for the upcoming season.
First we both made a "To Do List" for each individual car and plans for repairs that we want to do this spring and summer.
Also on the agenda was to wake up the cars, which were stored for the last months.

Yesterday we replaced the fuel pump on the 58, which I already replaced last summer - it was brand new but did not work correctly. So yesterday we installed another one.
This work was done pretty quickly within a couple of minutes. It now seems to work flawlessly. I hope it will stay like this.

Tayfun also did a lot of work on his 1981 Pimperado - you can read everything about it on his website.

Today Tayfun and I moved all the cars out of the garage to clean the floor a little and to do some spring cleaning.
My buddy Richard also helped me last night doing doing some "Garage Pimpin´".
It was pretty funny - with lots of car talk till late in the night.

The 67´s battery seems to be on its last breaths, as it was no longer strong enough to start the car up - I have it since 1996 - so it lasted pretty long anyways, never needing any charge before. It looks like I will finally need a new one.
So I borrowed the battery from my Buick and then the 67, like all the other Cadillacs, fired right up.

Tayfun cleaning the garage

RIP - Max

Gerald Loidl — 2008-03-23T23:36:47+01:00

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

My 58 in the newspaper

Gerald Loidl — 2008-04-03T15:29:18+02:00

A picture of my 58 made it into the daily newspaper "Kurier" 2 weeks ago. You can see a scan below, click on it for larger view! Its an article in the travel magazine - not sure why they selected the image of my car - its not explained in the text at all...

Spring is around the corner

Gerald Loidl — 2008-02-24T17:58:21+01:00

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

Cruising 2007 Video online

Gerald Loidl — 2008-02-02T11:10:13+01:00

I´ve just finished a new video and uploaded it to the video section of this website.

Although I did not film very much during the last 2 years, from the little material I have, I edited a short video. I also used some footage that was shot on real old fashioned Super-8 film.
It features both of my Cadillacs and the cars of my friends like Alex´s new 1963 Buick Riviera, Tayfuns 1981 Pimperado, Richards 1965 Impala and some local cars from Gmunden like Shorty´s Cougar, a great Torino, 2 Camaros and more. There is also some restoration work featured that was done in Richards´s private workshop. You can also watch some burnout action going on on a park deck of a shopping center...
The video is 15 minutes long and 100mb large - so a broadband connection is recommended. Quicktime 7 required to watch it.

Click on any screenshot below to go to the video.

Super-8 Material

1981 Pimperado cruising

Burnout action - Shorty´s Cougar!

Happy New Year! - Roadmaster detailing

Gerald Loidl — 2008-01-01T13:04:28+01:00

As my buddy Tayfun was in town for a new years party, we decided to start detailing our new Buick Roadmaster. The temperatures were way below freezing outside and only slightly warmer inside my old garage, so we really had to work hard to feel comfortably.
The paint on this 1996 Buick Roadmaster was pretty much neglected and a lot of cleaning, buffing, polishing and waxing was necessary to bring it up to like new condition.
It took us 2 days to just do the paint properly. We worked more than 20 hours in reviving the paint job and the exterior chrome.
We´ll do some more detailing work on the car later - it is now in winter storage anyways.
The car looks spectacular now - the white paintjob is now very bright. I have the impression that the shade actually changed...
Next up: Interior, engine and engine bay, rims and everything else...

My buddy Tayfun with the buffing machine...

more polishing....

and more...

Our new family car!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-12-12T19:24:06+01:00

Today my wife and I bought a new daily driver car for the spring, summer and fall months. As we have very strict laws here in Austria and could no longer import the desired car from the USA we had to find one locally.
Here it is:
Its a 1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon!
We finally bought it from a dealer in Vienna and brought it home today. The car is in nice condition and drives like a dream. So far we are very satisfied with it.
Attached are the first pictures.

at the dealer lot

first tank of gas...

Cadillac BIG Meet DVD available now!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-11-26T16:34:20+01:00

My wife and I produced another DVD of the Cadillac BIG Meet 2007. It´s available now. You can watch the trailer for it on the website of the Cadillac BIG Meet.
If you want to order your copy, please contact me directly. If you click on the image below you will be directed to the website of the Cadillac BIG Meet where you can watch that trailer.
The trailer is also available on my site by clicking here:

The 81 Pimperado is in winter storage

Gerald Loidl — 2007-11-28T10:12:52+01:00

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!

New picture gallery - the best pictures

Gerald Loidl — 2007-11-28T11:53:26+01:00

I have added a brand new image gallery to this site featuring the very best images my wife and I shot over the years.
Its a selection of my favorite images. Whenever a new favorite image is shot it will be added here.
Enjoy! You can go directly to this gallery by clicking on the image below.

The 67 is back with a "New" Front Suspension!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-11-08T11:40:40+01:00

Today I picked up my 1967 Cadillac DeVille from American Special Parts - the shop where all my repairs and restoration work is done when I can´t do them for myself.
The car got a complete new front suspension including all bushings, ball joints and paint. Some of the old bushings already fell apart. As everything was apart we also did the complete front brakes.
Also the radiator was fixed and the car got a new ignition lock which I removed from a 67 limousine at a junkyard in California last year. Also the turn signal switch was finally fixed after it was broken 3 years ago...
The car is in spectacular condition now and with the new suspension it drives like a brand new car - I could not imagine that the difference would be that big.

On the left you can see a picture of the rebuilt front suspension. Its still a little dirty as I had to drive the car home through rain - it will be cleaned soon though.

1967 Cadillac turn signal switch arrived

Gerald Loidl — 2007-10-23T14:52:13+02:00

Today another 1967 Cadillac turn signal switch arrived for my 67 which is in the shop at the moment with a broken switch. I found a nice NOS switch on ebay and finally its the correct one. All the ones I bought in the past were the wrong ones as 4 different ones were available in the 67 models! Non of them is still in production or reproduced and they are very hard to come by. Originally they were built by Delco and Boyne and they are very different as I learned later... I already spent quite a sum for wrong NOS switches. I guess I will try to sell them again as they are really expensive. Used ones are usually sold for $250.- to $300.- at the big Cadillac parts specialists... So if you need a NOS Delco switch for your 1967 Cadillac without tilt- and telescope column let me know ;-)
Here is a picture of the new one manufactured by Boyne.

Dornbirn 2007 Video online

Gerald Loidl — 2007-10-23T10:40:27+02:00

The US-CAR-MEETING in Dornbirn/Vorarlberg/Austria is probably the best show held in Austria. Its taking place every second year in may and hundreds of cars are attending.
This is the "homevideo" our friends and we shot there. It also shows the preparation of our cars as we almost could not finish them for the show.
My buddy Tayfun had serious electronic problems with his 81 Pimperado and my 58 Eldo developed a driveshaft vibration only 3 days before we wanted to leave for the show.
Everything was finished at the very last second and we finally had a safe trip to the show.

The video is in Quicktime 7 format. Its 15 minutes long and requires a fast internet connection to watch. Enjoy!

Click on the image below to go to the video!

Cadillac BIG Meet 2007 - a TV report by TS1

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-25T19:17:10+02:00

TS1 - a local TV station filmed a report about the cruising tour of the Cadillac BIG Meet which lead us to the shores of the "Traunsee" a scenic lake in Upper Austria. As I am part of the organization team I had to do a short interview for this report.
The report was done by Lorenz Zwicklhuber and Konrad Forstinger who did a great job. The video is now online in the video section of my website. You can click on the image below to go there.

© Courtesy of www.ts1.at 2007.

Cleaning the 67´s front suspension

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-22T21:05:10+02:00

Today I disassembled the rest of the front suspension and cleaned all the parts before they will be sandblasted. Tomorrow I will finish them and give them to my buddy Richard for sandblasting.

the brakes before I disassembled them - I hope I can clean the small metal parts with an ultrasonic cleaner

all these parts will be sandblasted and painted afterwards

The 67´s front suspension

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-20T19:15:42+02:00

The restoration of my 67s front-suspension is in full progress. Today I visited American Special Parts to pick up all the suspension and front brake parts they disassembled. I will clean them and have them sandblasted before they will get a new coat of paint. Most bushings and ball joints will have to be replaced with new stuff and I already ordered all the necessary parts from the USA. This will result in a hefty bill... :-(
After this the suspension will be in new condition - one of the last things that have to be done on the 67 before it is really in like new condition. The only other thing that needs attention in the future will be the top which is still the original 40 year old one.

the completely stripped front suspension

the 67 at ASP

New tool storage cart

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-18T19:10:12+02:00

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...

New pictures from the Cadillac BIG Meet 2007

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-14T01:41:20+02:00

You can find hundreds of pictures from this years Cadillac BIG Meet on the website of the Cadillac BIG Meet directly.
My wife Afra shot 2 rolls of slide film with her medium format camera. She has now scanned the slides and I´ve put them on my website.
You can check them out if you click on the image below.

New video of my 1958 Eldorado Seville online

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-15T22:03:57+02:00

I´ve updated my website with a brand-new video of my 1958 Eldorado Seville today.
My wife Afra (a professional cinematographer) shot it as she had to test a new camera for work. As it turned out we wont buy the camera - but she edited the test shots into a nice short 2 minutes clip.
Enjoy!
Click here for the high quality version in Quicktime (30mb)

The last cruising and photo session this year

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-13T22:42:22+02:00

Today was the last evening before I´ll put the 58 into winter storage and return the license plates until next May. As it was a picture perfect evening with a great sunset I wanted to shoot some nice pictures. Unfortunately my wives Hasselblad camera quit working during the shooting and so I could mainly only shoot digital images.
More of them can be found here.

The 67 is in the shop...

Gerald Loidl — 2007-09-10T18:28:31+02:00

Today I visited American Special Parts with the 58 for the obligatory annual technical inspection. Of course it passed with flying colors without a problem.
Later I also dropped off the 67 there as some smaller things have to be repaired as I do not have the necessary tools nor skills to do them myself.

The front-suspension needs a rebuild and I do not have the presses to push some of the bushings in and out.
The switch for the directional switch in the steering column has to be replaced
Need a new ignition lock
The transmission has some leaks I could not find

The guys from American Special Parts who helped me in the restoration of my cars will take over. Besides myself, Rudi Kerschbaumer and his team are the only mechanics I would ever allow to work on my cars.
In a couple of weeks I should have the car back. It will go directly into winter storage then. Today also was the last day to drive the 58. I will return the plates over winter.

The 67 at American Special Parts

Cadillac BIG Meet - A huge success

Gerald Loidl — 2007-08-27T17:56:44+02:00

Last sunday the Cadillac BIG Meet was held in Kremsmünster/Austria for the 4th time. Cadillacs from 7 nations attended. I´m a member of the organization team.
Over the last years it became a still growing meeting. This year really was the best of them all.
Weather was perfect and the show had the theme "The Cadillac Eldorado" and more than 35 Eldorados showed up - among them Eldorados from 1954 to 2002.
We had one 54, 3 56 Biarritz, one 56 Seville, a 57 Biarritz, a 57 Eldorado Brougham (another one unfortunately broke down on the way to the show), 2 1958 Eldorado Sevilles (one coming all the way from Sweden!! - the other being mine), 2 59 Biarritz, 1 59 Seville, (a 59 Brougham was also planned, but restoration was not finished on time), a 63 and 64 Eldo, 2 67s (one of them with only 30k miles), 1 68 (with 20k miles), a 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 + a low mileage 76 Bicentenial, 79, 80, 81, 86, and lots of other Eldorados I forgot, but which you can see on the pictures.
Altogether 113 Cadillacs showed up in the park of the Kremsegg castle during the show - and about 10 more after the show was already finished... The oldest one was from 1921.
The mood was excellent and everybody loved it very much.

The last weekend probably the best Cadillac related weekend I ever had, and you should not miss next years edition of the Cadillac BIG Meet.

Check out the pictures here:
http://www.cadillac-meeting.com/pics2007 (in German with some english...)

a dream came true - my 67 Deville on the side of a 67 Eldorado in my favorite color combo

the star of the meeting - a 57 Eldorado Brougham

my 58 together with Stellans Seville from Sweden

two super low mileage Eldorados from 1967 and 1968

another view of the 2 Sevilles

The Kremsegg Castle

Preparations for the Cadillac BIG Meet

Gerald Loidl — 2007-08-23T09:57:45+02:00

I´m on vacation this week and I´m using my time to prepare my Cadillac for the Cadillac BIG Meet which is coming up this weekend. I´ve repaired the AC on my 67 and cleaned and detailed both cars for the show. My friend Tayfun is also in town and we´ll do the same with his 81 Pimperado as well. We´ve spent around 14 hours in the garage each day so far.

working on the AC

installing the new backup lenses - which had to be custom fitted...

"Mostkost Kustom Meet" Video online

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-30T22:00:29+02:00

The "Mostkost Kustom Meet" is a small meeting of US-Car enthusiast in Atzbach in Austria. It was held for the first time in July 2007. I shot it for the local TV station "BTV" as a cameraman and this is what they made out of my material. Editor: Hubert Huemer. Camera. Gerald Loidl. All rights reserved ©www.btv.cc 2007
I´ve also updated all my video pages. Click here for the video:

AC Problem

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-29T20:42:07+02:00

The blower motor on my 67 wont come one when I switch on any heating or cooling position. It sometimes comes on in the "ICE" position but not always. After lots of searching I found out that the vacuum master switch does not get enough vacuum to be switched on. When I push the backside of it - everything works as it should. Of course that´s no real solution. Looks like my system needs a good overhaul.
Three parts could cause this problem:

The dash switch with its rotary valve from where I can hear a slight hissing noise,
the power servo on the firewall
or the master switch itself - what I doubt.

As I hate when something does not work on my cars I ordered all the parts. I found a good source which sells all these parts rebuilt. Hopefully they will arrive soon as I would like to have this issue resolved before the Cadillac Big Meet. It should not be too much of a hassle to install them when they are here.

the power servo

the power servo and master switch

Cadillac Big Meet is coming up!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-26T19:19:15+02:00

Its only 4 more weeks until the Cadillac Big Meet - Europes biggest Cadillac meeting. You can watch a video of last years event below. More info, pictures and videos on http://www.cadillac-bigmeet.com
This year will feature an "Eldorado Special" and we are looking for everybody with an Eldorado to participate. Of course all other Cadillacs are welcome as well.

New Gallery added

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-23T13:05:46+02:00

I´ve added a new gallery to my website with the best pictures we shot at our many cruising nights this summer. It will be constantly updated with new images as they come in. Take a look here!

Mostkost Kustom Meeting

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-22T23:42:25+02:00

Today I had to shoot a car meet for a local TV station I´m working for as a cameraman. I took the 58 there. My friends Tayfun and Alex also drove to the show. It was a very nice and fun meeting with 30 cars attending. Here is a picture gallery of some images Betty shot there.

Sepp with his hotrod

the 58 on location

at work with my colleague Hubert Huemer from BTV

Interior cleaning and Cruisenight

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-21T23:24:35+02:00

Today it was time to do some interior cleaning on both of my cars. My friend Tayfun was in town once again and brought one of these wet cleaners with him to do all of our cars. It really worked wonders and the cars turned out great. I could not believe how much dirt I could extract from the carpets and floor mats.

cleaning the trunk of the 58

Cruising night!

After cleaning we had a nice cruising trip around the lake with friends and our ladies.

Tayfun

on a hill

the ladies

Alex

Tayfun

Richard

I took the 67

58 gets a new fuel pump - Video shoot

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-15T23:56:07+02:00

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.

Cruising night with friends

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-14T23:56:05+02:00

Tonight 3 friends and I had a nice cruising night as it was a really warm and perfect night. It also was the first cruise for my friend Tayfun who's 1981 Eldorado was finally finished and now is fully driveable. The other cars were Alex with his 63 Buick Riviera and Richard with his 65 Impala. I took the 67 for a spin.

67 gets new fuel filter

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-11T18:12:52+02:00

I have to admit that the 67 was a little neglected in the last time, as I spent most of my spare time working on the 58 and on my friend Tayfuns Eldorado. So it was time to do some necessary maintenance work. Today I replaced the fuel filter in the glass bowl. It turned out to be a really big job because the fuel bowl would not want to come off. I had a big problem opening the screw which holds the glass in position, as access is very limited.
Eventually I made it and when everything was back together, the bowl leaked. So I had to re-open everything. I readjusted the gasket and now everything is tight. The old filter was very dirty, because at the last big service I forgot to replace it...

I think it´s the fuel pump

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-09T17:18:42+02:00

Looks like the problem my 58 has is fuel pump related. Yesterday I thought it might only be a clogged fuel line (see entry below) - but today I had the same problem as yesterday again. The fuel bowl did only fill up to about half. (see pic below). I blew all the lines through, but it did not change anything... The car runs, but on slow idle it tends to hesitate.
I ordered a new fuel pump today - they are relatively cheap - hope to have it here in about 2 weeks...

58 wont start!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-08T22:57:49+02:00

Today suddenly my 58 Eldo stalled and would not want to start again. After checking everything, eventually I found out that no fuel was coming to the fuel glas bowl.
My friend Richard towed me to his garage where he has an air compressor and all the tools and we blew air through the fuel line to check if it would be clogged. We were not clever enough to open the gas tank cap before we did that though.
When we removed the compressor from the line of course lot of now pressurized gas sprayed out of the line and into my face...
Well, at least it works again - looks like it really was only a clogged line. I already suspected that the fuel pump was on its way out, but luckily it wasn´t.
Will check everything again tomorrow and install a new fuel filter as well. I hope that I wont need a new fuel pump.

A great Ebayer - Power Vent Window Switch

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-06T17:39:16+02:00

Today I received a 50% refund for the non working Power Vent Window Switch I won on Ebay. (see entry below) The Canadian gentlemen I bought it from was so kind to refund some money as he did not feel good about the deal as well. He did not do anything wrong at the initial deal as his description was accurate and correct - so this came as a nice surprise. There are still honorable people out there!
Thank you Michael!!

"New" vent window switch arrived + new Battery

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-05T17:48:22+02:00

Today the power vent window switch I won on Ebay arrived from Canada. It came from a 58 Sixty Special that was equipped with power vent windows as well.
When I opened the box I immediately had the feeling that it would not work. The buttons felt sluggish and two prongs were missing on the backing plate. So somebody must have had it open at some point in its history.

So down I went into the garage to check it.

As suspected it did not work... Only one button worked in one direction. I cant even blame the seller, as he stated in his ad description that he does not know if it works or not.
As I spent quite an amount of money for it and could not find another switch anywhere, I did not want to give up yet and so I disassembled it. Of course the 2 rusty prongs broke apart when I bent them open... A really good start! Eventually I made a good working switch from most of my old switches parts and the help of the plastic backing plate of the new switch. So I could also reuse the perfect chrome bezel of my old switch. :-)
Now everything works again - it´s not a concourse winning repair, but a solid one I can be proud of, and nobody can notice until he takes the car apart... ;-)
Now the clock is the only non working gadget on my 58 - my next project.

The new Battery

I also had to install a new battery today as my old one died after only 3 years in service. I bought an Exide Maxxima 900 - hope it will do a better job - I´ve heard lots of good things about it.

The new Exide battery - the green knob is a battery shut off switch

Website Update

Gerald Loidl — 2007-07-02T14:47:46+02:00

Today I did a major update to my website. It now uses a different color theme. Hope you like it.

Tayfuns new Website

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-30T14:41:42+02:00

While my friend Tayfun was on visit - we also worked on his new website.
The old one was way outdated - so we did a new one.
Check it out:

Tayfun´s Cadillac works again

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-28T14:36:21+02:00

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!

Two new pictures of my 67 added

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-24T23:38:41+02:00

Last evening I shot some more images in my garage.
I´ve added 2 images of the 67 in the new garage to the 67´s image gallery.

Another Photoshooting with the 58

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-24T23:34:45+02:00

As weather was really fine I took the 58 out for a little photoshoot yesterday evening.
You can find all the pictures in the 58´s image gallery.
Here is only a little preview:

Power Vent Window Switch wanted!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-06T22:21:56+02:00

Thanks found it!

I´m looking for the Power Vent Window Switch with the two buttons on the driver side. It controls the small power operated ventilation windows on the front doors. If you have one for sale - please let me know. Thats how it looks like:

Pinstriping removed

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-01T23:52:30+02:00

To keep my 58 Eldo all original I decided that it would be a better idea to remove the pinstriping my friend Marcus did.
It wasn´t an easy decision as I really like his artwork but it just wasn´t the right car for it... So I used some acetone cleaner and it wiped of easily without damaging the original paint underneath. I then used some Meguiars polish and buffed it back to shine followed by a thick coat of wax.
If I ever do have the appropriate car I will ask Marcus again.
Thanks Marcus!

as you can see - no damage occurred!

looking nice and shiny!

58 featured in magazine

Gerald Loidl — 2007-06-01T18:46:09+02:00

When I opened the newspaper this morning there was a full page report of the US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn. Guess what - they only had 4 images and my 58 was featured with a half page image!! You can click on the image below for a larger version!

A photosession with the 58 - Tires balanced

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-30T18:44:44+02:00

As we spent a couple more days in Vorarlberg at my in-laws after the show in Dornbirn we had a nice photoshooting at the shores of the Rhein River today.

You can find the gallery of the first digital images here - the ones we shot on medium format slides will follow sometime next week.

This morning I drove the car to a tireshop to have the front tires balanced. As it turned out they needed a couple of weights...

The 58 was pinstriped

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-28T18:43:59+02:00

Marcus Pfeil is one of the best custom painters in the world. He is featured in about every custom motorcycle- and car publication around the globe. I know him for a long time as we did some BMX-Freestyle back in the days in the late 80s to early 90s. As he was at the US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn as well - I had the opportunity to get a pinstripe from him. I was very honored that he was willing to do one on my car - not thinking that an all original 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville with original paint might not be the appropriate car to do such a custom artwork... (I removed the pinstriping a few days later without any damage...)
Marcus did a spectacular job though. His skills are awesome and he drew a perfect pinstripe on the trunk of my Eldo!

Marcus at work!

US-CAR-SHOW-Dornbirn!!!!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-24T18:43:10+02:00

The US-CAR-SHOW in Dornbirn/Austria is the very best and biggest car show in Austria. It´s held every second year and my wife and I visited it for the 3rd time. Together with my friend Tayfun and Betty we made the 6 hour drive there. Our cars were finished at the very last minute before we could leave - but we made it there safely and without any issues.
Our cars were exhibited indoors at the showroom together with some spectacular customs, lowriders and hotrods. My car was the only original one - but the spectators loved it very much.
The show was held on 3 days and we loved everything very much.
A big thank you to Robert Willinger, who is the organizer of this event.
A massive image gallery can be found here.

58 Vibrations...

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-23T18:41:58+02:00

The 58 developed some vibrations that could be felt through the steering wheel during the last weeks. As I could not find anything suspicious I drove the car to American Special Parts and they found out that the U-Joint at the drive shaft was pretty worn. So they sent it in to have it replaced and the driveshaft also was balanced. Most of the vibration was gone afterwards, but at 50mph there was still a slight vibration. I will have the tires balanced soon as well.

Tayfuns 1981 Eldo finally repaired!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-23T18:41:13+02:00

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

Cruising with some Friends

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-18T21:57:05+02:00

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.

The new Garage Floor is finished!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-19T21:56:09+02:00

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

Trying to repair Tayfuns Pimperado

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-17T21:55:30+02:00

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.

Lions Club Classic Car Meeting Traun 2007

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-12T09:25:40+02:00

My wife and I took the 58 to the first car show this season. The Lions Club in Traun organized a Classic Car Meeting on a small lake in Traun/Austria. About 300 cars showed up - most of them were european brands. The 58 drew a lot of attention and we spent a nice afternoon there. We did not take many pictures which you can find here - the ones taken from the organizers can be found on their website.

58 Carburetor Rebuilding Project finished!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-11T09:20:36+02:00

Today I got a call from the restoration shop that the 58 was finished.
The 3 dual carburetors were rebuilt completely. The carbs were blasted, cleaned and rebuilt and work perfectly now. I did not think that it would make a difference that big. It´s a real pleasure to drive the car now.
And the best surprise was, that the rebuild cost much less than the initial cost estimate I got.
Thanks to American Special Parts!

during the rebuilding - click on any picture for larger view!

all carbs were blasted and cleaned

the rebuilt front carb

Garage Floor Project Day 5

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-11T09:18:42+02:00

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

Garage Floor Project - Day 4

Gerald Loidl — 2007-05-04T17:47:53+02:00

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

The new Garage floor - Day 3

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-26T21:57:56+02:00

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!

The new Garage floor is coming

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-24T11:01:19+02:00

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.

Spring has sprung!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-20T23:35:06+02:00

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.

The cruising season can start

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-18T13:03:34+02:00

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

Cadillac Big Meet is coming up!

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-17T22:57:53+02:00

The Cadillac Big Meet is Europes largest and best Cadillac Meeting. You should not miss it! Cadillacs of all years get together at the Kremsegg Castle in the heart of Austria on August 26th. 2007 is the 4th edition of this meeting, and you should not miss it. I´m in the organization team and we are already working very hard to make this years edition the very best one we had so far. We will especially feature the 5 decades of the Eldorado and are trying to have at least on Eldorado of each year on the show field!
For more info go to the website of the Cadillac Big Meet!

Finally: A date for the tri-carb rebuild

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-04T21:05:35+02:00

The restoration shop called and I finally got a date for my carburetor rebuild.
I will deliver the car to them on April 23rd. Looking forward to it.

Preparing the 67 for the 2007 season

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-12T20:36:23+02:00

Today I started to clean up the 67 for the new summer season. The car is in storage since the end of August 2006 and is eagerly waiting to see some daylight soon.
I started to clean the car and gave it a new coat of wax. In about 2 weeks I will bring it back to live and hopefully drive it a little bit more than last year when I only did about 300 miles.

Pimp my Garage Pt.1

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-12T20:27:31+02:00

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.

Garage floor almost finished

Gerald Loidl — 2007-03-29T11:57:56+02:00

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

The 58 is at the restoration shop.

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-23T10:04:10+02:00

The 58 was delivered to the restoration shop to have its 3 dual carbs rebuilt.
It made the drive there without catching fire again ;-)
Rudi Kerschbaumer from American Special Parts will take care of the carbs now.
He has the experience to rebuild them.
One of the carbs caught fire last year at my own wedding and since then I could not drive the car.
Also the air cleaner will have to be repainted due to the burnt cover.
Hope everything will be fixed soon and I can finally drive my 58 Seville.

New Website online

Gerald Loidl — 2007-04-17T13:19:46+02:00

My old website has been online since 1998 and it was finally time to update it.
I replaced most of my old pictures with new ones and brought everything up to date.
Hope you´ll like it

thats how the old page looked like.