COAL: Hobby Car of A Lifetime #7 – ’56 Cadillac Sedan De Ville – How To Train Your Dragon

 

This is a vehicle that has held quite a strong hold on my imagination. My initial exposure to this car occurred in 1966, when I was in sixth grade. I had tagged along with my dad to an auto parts store located in Oakland’s Chinatown.

 

Parked in a gas station lot next to the auto parts store was a white over yellow ’56 Cadillac Sedan de Ville hardtop. It was for sale, asking price 299.00, and my dad let me take a good close look at it. I got to sit behind the wheel, and he even opened up the hood to let me take a look at the engine.

 

The car was long and low and it seemed so massive. It gave me an almost reptilian feeling. At the time, I was crazy about dinosaurs! It reminded me of the alligators that I’d seen on a family trip to the San Francisco aquarium. Those creatures were also huge and heavy looking. But this car couldn’t be anything as common as an alligator. This had to be an aged dragon!

 

By ’66 the Cadillac looked so different from other cars, which boasted long straight lines and boxy roof lines. It was old enough to look out of date, unfashionable, and to some people, even ugly and repulsive. Despite all that, it was still easily able to be recognized as a Cadillac.

I found the car fascinating, and thought that I would have to own one… someday.

It only took a bit over forty years!

I found my ’56 through the Auto Trader. The seller was located on the outskirts of Palo Alto at a small flat topped house surrounded by cars. There were cars in the garage, cars in the driveway, cars parked at the curb, and even cars parked on what was left of the front lawn. He told me that the City had recently sent him a notice “suggesting” that he get rid of some of his fleet. Gentrification had come to his neighborhood, so some of the cars had to go!

The ’56 was painted in my favorite ’50s color combos, a white top over an aqua body. It had a completely straight and complete body. All the trim and even all the wheel covers were present and accounted for. The upholstery was white leather with black brocade inserts. The front seat was worn in places, but the back seat was protected by a yellowed smooth plastic seat cover.

The engine fired up after some coaxing, but some of the wheel cylinders had leaked. This resulted in the brake drums being firmly stuck to the shoes. The transmission would engage gear when shifted, you could feel the car straining against the brakes, so it appeared that the transmission was working. A couple of the windows worked, one went down and stayed there, one never moved at all. On the other hand, the radio worked fine.

 

The seller told me that he had originally bought the car to use as a parts car for a coupe that he was restoring, but the car was so nice that it seemed like a shame to tear it apart. So he sold the coupe and held onto the sedan.

We agreed upon the price, 2,000.00, and since he was on good terms with a towing company (not surprising!) he arranged for the tow to my house. Then he took me to the fenced off section of the front yard and showed me an extra engine he had acquired for the car. It was actually a ’54 motor. “It’s yours if you want it.”

Of course I wanted it. Who could turn down a free 650 lbs. lump of iron? I would have to borrow my dad’s truck so I told him I would call later to arrange a date. It turned out to be a good thing that I took it.

I had a clear space in the driveway next to where my wife would park the Seville. The tow operator expertly dropped it at that spot. I knew that the car would sit there until I dealt with the brake problem.

While the car was in good shape the interior was a bit mildewy, actually, some of the exterior panels too. I told my son that we’d have to wash the outside and interior before Mom got home from work. I didn’t want her first impression to be one of disgust! Talk about hope springing eternal!

It looked so much better clean.

Then the inevitable old car problems started!

The first order was to free up the brakes. I jacked up each wheel, removed it and carefully, using a piece of 2×4 as a cushion, hammered on the rim of the brake drum until it came off. I sprayed WD40 into the opening hoping to lube up the situation. It eventually worked. Then I changed the adjustment to allow as much clearance as possible. I wiped the shoes with solvent, sanded the braking surface, as well as the interior of the drum. I repeated this on all four wheels. A few came off easier than the others, but I was careful, I didn’t want to source replacement drums.

I restarted the car and tentatively tried to engage the transmission to move it forward and backward. I only backed it up a few feet. I wasn’t going to back it into the street and have it die on me. The car just didn’t look heavy, it was heavy!

Now that the car was mobile, I restarted the car with the intent of letting it run for an extended time. I was checking for smoothness, smoking, overheating, leaking, and strange noises. Things were going well, the engine was idling smoothly when all of a sudden I heard a loud metallic screeching, followed by clattering, and the engine came to a stop.

Whatever the problem was, it sounded mechanical!

I removed the most accessible valve cover, the left side, to take a look. What I found was that a couple of push rods had jumped off the rocker arms; one rocker was cracked. I removed the other side and found a similar situation. This was serious, so I removed the intake manifold and valley cover. I found a couple of bent push rods and even a cracked hydraulic lifter.

It seemed that some of the valves had seized in the guides. They locked up tight enough that the push rods bent trying to move them. This also cracked a couple of rockers and damaged a lifter. What had happened?

The car must have been sitting for quite a long time, longer than the seller had led me to believe. The gas in the carb and tank had turned to varnish. Adding fresh gas and running the engine from the gas tank had been a mistake. I imagine that the varnish, mixed with the gas coated the valve stems and combined with heat, cemented the valve stems in place. Maybe after I had stopped the engine earlier.

I had never bought a non-running car before.  Every other car up to then, I’d driven home. The car must have sat with gas in the tank for a long time. The lesson is not to run the engine from the gas tank of a long-sitting car until it’s been flushed out. It was an expensive lesson.

What now?

I hadn’t paid that much for the ’56, but now I had a virtually worthless hunk of metal sitting in my driveway.

Sometimes, you just have to do the work! So I set to the task.

 

I pulled the heads and inspected the extent of the damage. It was limited to the heads and rocker assembles. I completely dismantled the heads, removing each valve and keeping its components separate for eventual reassembly. I had to tap on many of the valve tips to remove them. They all had crusty deposits on them. I wire-brushed all the stems and heads, then ran a slender wire brush through each valve guide. Following this I hand lapped all the valve seats. The valves all checked out as straight. I checked the play in the guides with the stems and deemed it not to be excessive. I cleaned everything and reassembled the heads. Any broken parts and bent push rods had been replaced with parts that I scavenged from the spare ’54 engine.

This engine may not have had a wrench laid on it since the ’50s, but it was still cleaner than that of my ’66 Riviera!

After reassembling the engine it fired up easily and ran fine for the duration of my ownership.

 

The interior had cleaned up nicely. The paint looked pretty shiny after polishing and waxing. I cleaned all the chrome and stainless using Simichrome polish, a highly abrasive but effective compound. It ain’t Mothers, it’s more of an evil Step Mother! The rear seat looked like new after I removed the cover, but it began to deteriorate once I put the car into use.

The front seat had the typical wear at the top of the driver’s side. I bought two imitation fleece seat covers, one black, one light tan. I used the lighter color on top, and black on the seat bottom. Old seats will break down once the car is used, crumbs of foam rubber started falling from under the seat and I constantly vacuumed them clean.

 

I tried to fix any problems that presented themselves. The front shocks were completely worn out and the car would bounce like a pogo stick over bumps. The exhaust system was rusted and full of holes. I ordered some straight sections of pipe and a new set of mufflers from J.C. Whitney. I tied these into the original exhaust pipes, then formed tailpipes from lengths of flexible exhaust tubing that were also ordered from the same source.

I found new shocks at my local Pep Boys. I had ordered the engine gasket set from J.C. W. also, as my local supplier wanted over 80.00 for their set –identical to the mail order product.

I wanted a set of wide whitewall tires and I visited a local used tire store that offered this service. A narrow whitewall tire, mounted to the rim, was placed on a spinning base. The tech applied a disc grinder to the side wall exposing the white rubber that was hidden under the edge of the existing whitewall. There was usually an extra inch available on both sides. It was a very messy, noisy, and smelly operation!

 

I enjoyed the car because it was a cool old car, not because it was particularly fun to drive. The tall domed hood reminded me of an old truck from behind the wheel. I had taken the cheapest route in getting the car up and running, but I eventually had to spend some money.

I usually refrain from putting too much gas in the tank, as it’s possible the tank will leak when it’s full. This one sure did. I filled it and when I parked in the driveway I noticed a steady stream! I would have to drain gallons of gas to get it down to the level where it would stop leaking. This was a nightmare process that is best forgotten. Afterward, I took the car to a radiator shop that cleaned, sealed and repaired the gas tank.

I drove the car quite a bit locally, I figured that if I really liked the car then I could invest more money fixing things to a higher standard. I was also driving my ’66 Riviera and decided that I should choose between the two. The Riviera was actually fun to drive, it felt like a big muscle car. The Cadillac felt like a big old tub, but still, a cool big old tub!

Of course nothing is ever easy. I had listed the car on CL and had a few inquiries. Then when I was moving the car in the driveway, the transmission suddenly went out! I re-listed the car at a much lower price, stating in the ad that the transmission was inoperative. Now there were no more inquiries! I once again had a dead lump of metal on my hands!

The only way that I was going to sell the car for more than scrap was by fixing the transmission. It would be a big expense, possibly a classic case of throwing good money after bad, but I was willing to roll the dice!

I gritted my teeth and started visiting local transmission shops. I will say that they could be very creative in discouraging me and my business. Most told me that they didn’t work on transmissions that old because their techs didn’t have any experience with them. Or they would have to work on it between jobs, no telling how long that would take! Or that they couldn’t give me an estimate, since it would be a parts and labor arrangement. As if they couldn’t price a basic trans kit and the labor a typical rebuild would normally take and tell me that this would be the cheapest estimate, and that the final cost would likely be higher? My favorite excuse was from a shop that told me that they only worked on these transmissions during a certain time of the year, and that time had passed! A couple were honest and just said that they didn’t work on stuff that old, and they didn’t plan on starting.

Shops that don’t want to work on your old car are very common. This is a theme that will arise in future installments.

Trying to get work done on a forty year old car can be frustrating, and it’s not like I can go to a local wrecking yard and find a good transmission. Looking through a Hemmings magazine I learned of a specialized dismantler located in So Cal called “Cadillac King.” Maybe they might have a wrecked car with a good transmission, so I gave them a call. They told me that they didn’t have a good used unit available, but could offer me a transmission exchange. They would pull a core out of their inventory and rebuild it. Then I could exchange my old transmission. All I needed to do was to provide my credit card number and they would start to work. Hoping for the best, that’s just what I did.

Next, I had to remove the transmission from my car. This was accomplished without too much drama in my garage. I cleaned it off and waited. A week later I got the call that my rebuilt tranny was ready for pickup. Now I just needed to haul my old unit down there and make the exchange.

I pulled the seats from my Dodge minivan, laid some heavy plastic sheeting, a couple of layers of cardboard, and an old bedspread down and loaded the transmission through the side door. Then I secured it to the seat mounting points.

I kept my son out of school, got an early start, and we arrived in Pacoima before noon.

Installation of the transmission was the reverse of removal. That’s what a lot of repair manuals say, again not too bad.

 

The eventual buyer was a bit of a surprise, a young man in his twenties from the affluent town of Danville. He showed up with his Dad. I was expecting an older guy. Of course I wanted to sell the car, but I asked his dad if he was in agreement with his son buying the car, since it wasn’t a typical young man’s car. He told me that it was his son’s money as well as his own choice. I think that the repair invoice displaying the rebuild cost eased his mind and was a selling point. My asking price was only a couple of thousand over that expense. I almost broke even on the deal.

So off it went.

 

I listed the remains of the ’54 Cadillac motor on CL and found a buyer who wanted to build a traditional Cadillac powered hot rod. I also gave him an empty early Ford transmission case as part of the deal. We kept in touch, and a few years later, he completed his hot rod.

Do I ever regret selling the Cadillac? Sometimes, but there are so many other cars that I still wanted to own. No time for regrets.