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...

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...
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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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