A few weeks back I was driving to work and passed a late 60’s/early 70’s Cadillac Sedan Deville. Based on its near-beater condition, it appeared to be driven regularly, if not a daily driver. Having always liked these cars, it got me wondering how much something like that would cost, with the intention of slowly restoring it.
[Kent Bell is the author and proud owner]
When I later checked AutoTrader, several appeared in my 500 mile search radius from Southern California. Some were pristine at over $16k. A couple more were in good condition at $10k. Neither was what I had in mind. But at the bottom of the list, below the $2500 models at a junkyard in Phoenix, there she was. A 1969 Sedan Deville located in Desert Hot Springs, asking price $2,200.
The ad had only two photos, but the car did look quite good. The seller claimed the car runs well and is driven regularly. 132k miles. Perfect. Knowing my partner likes these cars as well, I forward him the link, thinking he still isn’t going for it. Much to my surprise, the email I get back a few minutes later exclaims “WOW! Let’s go check it out!”
So I call the seller. He informs me the car is also listed on another site, with more pictures and detail, and directs me to the site. He stays on the line as I check out the ad. Here the photos show more the detail of cars condition, and lists 4 known issues. I ask the seller what the issues are. Transmission seal leaks, automatic climate control doesn’t work, rust on lower front fenders, and needs rear shocks. None of these are deal breakers for me. And the asking price on this site was $1800.
Since it was a Friday afternoon, and Desert Hot Springs (near Palm Springs) is 90 miles away, I ask if we can come see the car the next day. His response was yes, but call first because someone else is coming that evening. I call the next morning, and sure enough, the guy hadn’t shown up.
We head out, pulling up to his street by noon. When we turned the corner and first saw the car we both uttered expletives. It was in MUCH better condition than we thought. We took turns on the test drive. It starts, runs and drives very well. The owner explains that he is recently retired, and they no longer need two cars, much less the maintenance required for a 43 year old Cadillac. He shows us the manila folder full of receipts from the past 40+ years. The first owner purchased the car in Laguna Beach and had it for 30 years. He even kept the original bill of sale ($7600!) and a notepad listing every maintenance performed. The couple we bought the car from bought it from the 2nd owner, kept it for 6 years, and they also kept meticulous records. After reviewing the title, we paid the man $1800 and got out of there before he changed his mind.
The car made it back to Long Beach just fine; we were a little nervous. I had assumed by “transmission seal leak” that it was NOT the pan seal, as that would be too easy a fix to just ignore. But upon further inspection, it was the pan seal, which we have already replaced. Next up, upholstery, rear shocks, rust and paint. We’ll tackle the automatic climate control someday, but being a pillarless hard top sedan in Southern California, I’m in no big hurry.
Wow! What a find, what a deal! Drive it lovingly.
Awesome, I looked at a 1977 Eldorado here for $3500.
haven’t decided on it yet.
Congratulations, great find! I love that creamy color. This Mofo is a real Caddie. Enjoy your newfound ‘pimpness’
🙂
A beauty. Love that “creased” rear window and the fact that it is a 4-door hardtop.
By the way, $7600 in 1968 would be about $47,000 today.
I love your car. Although I am more of an Imperial/Lincoln kind of guy, there is something compelling about these big Caddies. As far as I am concerned, this is about the end of the line for the really good big Cadillacs. The 71-76 was inferior in almost every way, and the 77 and up version is a whole different sort of car.
Although I am not usually a fan of yellow cars, the color looks really good on this one. You note that the car needs some upholstery attention – I just hope that you can find some of that original gold brocade cloth. It absolutely SCREAMS “I am a 1969 luxury car!”
Thanks JP
I completely agree. After 71 they had too much in common with the big Oldsmobiles and Buicks.
I have already ordered the reproduction upholstery. It’s an exact mactch, but it isn’t cheap!
Nice! The chrome looks great. If the car hasn’t been molested under the dash, the automatic climate control can be put back to working order if you take your time going through the system. It is highly likely either a vacuum-related failure at the power servo in the engine compartment, or a failed transducer on the back of the climate control head unit (unless of course the prior owner really means the A/C unit has failed). Have fun with it.
The system looks largely intact. There is a vacuum line missing that goes to the servo. I’m guessing the servo itself is the culprit, so they just disconnected it. (I’ve read the system will default to full on heat or A/C, depending on the failure point)
Yes, it will normally only work on the “HI” setting and “DEF” usually, also check under the passenger side of the dash where all the vac lines connect a problem there with a disconected line can cause issues too.
Nice looking Cadillac. Congratulations! Paint looks really good from the pictures, a little rust on the bottom. I don’t think I’d do a real restoration on this car. Repair the rust, paint what needs to be done, and enjoy. As far as the seats, I’d probably put in decent seatcovers front and back. I can’t say I ever liked the garish brocade in that genre of car.
Anyhow, my point is, keep it nice, but it’s not worth putting big bucks in. A convertible might be a different story. You’ll need the money for all the minor things that go wrong. Had a 66 conv in the eighties. Beautiful car, but always needed something. Brake lines rusted out, all the brake seals and calipers, shocks, window motors, trunk lock. The exhaust system was extremely expensive. It had a resonerator and a muffler, maybe duals, I’m not sure. It was sticker shock at every repair. The last estimate I had on a Cadillac ATC for a 78 Eldo was $ 800 ten years ago.
I’m not trying to discourage you. On the contrary, at the price, I’d have bought it. Cheers!
Congrats on scoring a great buy on a Lead Sled Caddy. My Grandfather had a convertible of this era that sat in his back yard for 15yrs waiting for its restoration “next summer”.
As might be expected, my sentiments mirror JP’s. 🙂
Cadillacs became caricatures in the 70s, but their designers could do no wrong in the 60s. I like the understated colors on yours – no need to shout about such elegant lines and details. Congratulations!
It just hits me: I (or maybe someone on the west coast) need to find a late 60s-early 70s Continental, then the three of us meet up for a day of period luxury car frolic. A gigantic full-immersion CC comparo test. It would be an incredible experience to bask in the three distinct personalities of that era’s high-end sedans.
CC WABAC Machine Test! – “Quiet You!” – Mr. Peabody
That would be awesome! Although I’d love to go visit Kent in my car, something would probably break on the way. Makes more sense to fly everyone to the Midwest and have the cars shipped…Paul, this is all in the budget, right?
You are my new hero.
Great to see and hear about this car! In 1981 I was living in West Los Angeles, needed transportation, but had no money. The engine in my Peugeot 504 had just self-destructed and I was desperate. No problem, said my partner at the time. A friend of his, Mrs. (insert well-known name here), wants a smaller car and has a 1969 Hardtop Sedan de Ville she wants to sell. It had 23,000 little-old-lady-from-Beverly Hills miles on it, was in reasonably good condition, had one fender skirt missing, and she wanted $800 for it. I drove it off for $600 (12 cents a pound?).
Her late husband, a very wealthy man, had apparently been a real cheapskate. He wanted to own and to be seen in a Cadillac, but special-ordered the car from Hillcrest Cadillac in Beverly Hills with NO options. It had the standard brocade, no A/C, no tilt, no cruise, no stereo, no 60/40, no leather, no nothing. Since Cadillacs were delivered with A/C almost by default (it was technically still optional) the car had a crappy vent/heater set-up, obviously designed to make Mr. X regret on a daily basis that he hadn’t popped the extra cash for the A/C. Fortunately the windows worked.
I drove that car for five years. The drivetrain, IMO, was the best there was at that time, almost as if there was no drivetrain – it was that smooth and quiet. It had gobs of power, undeniable presence, and those great high-backed front seats. There were inherent problems with the front suspension and alignment and I thought the interior details were poor compared to earlier models.
But, as the ad said, “Best of All, it’s a Cadillac”. I prefer Lincolns and Imperials as cars, but Cadillac maintained a consistent image throughout those decades and I’m sure this was responsible for its superior sales figures.
I sold the Cadillac to a goth kid who painted it flat black and drove it for another five years.
Ahhh, the infamous GM automatic climate control. To this day, I have never seen anytone get one working properly. I suppose anyone I know has tried it has run out of patience and/or money.
Since it is a 43 year old car, be prepared to spend money on it. If it were mine, I would spend $5000 getting it up to snuff with preventive repairs. Here is my list for old cars, and I have done this before:
-Replace all brake seals. This means new calipers and wheel cylinders.
-Replace any brake line that seems rusted or cracked.
-Replace master cylinder.
-Repack wheel bearings.
-Change all fluids.
-Check exhaust and be prepared to replace exhaust manifolds.
-Replace every front end part including steering box.
-New shocks.
-The best tires you can get for, I’d go for Michelins.
My buddy has a 1977 Sedan de Ville and he did just this. It is amazing the difference it made. Cost like $4000 but that is cheap compared to buying anything new.
Maybe my Mr. X knew what he was doing by not ordering the Automatic Climate Control.
Some of the things on your list make sense. Others I think are quite unnecessary unless there are signs of an actual problem.
Yeah, if the car was well maintained, there is no need to replace the entire front end, the front end on theses cars is totally serviceable, grease every fitting and maybe repack the wheel bearings and your good to go.
Spending that much money on a car like this is stupid. It’s not going to be a daily driver nor is it getting the full resto. Spend $5000 on it and they’ll have $7500 into a car worth $2500.
It has a full set of records and that is where they should start, surveying them and seeing when the last time said items were done.
If it has been more than 5 or so years since the belts and hoses were done then yes they all should be replaced. Ditto for the master cyl but don’t buy a rebuilt unit New and only New from a trusted mfg like Bendix or Raybestos.
The brake hoses should be replaced if they haven’t been done in the last 10 years or so. The steel lines should be left alone if they look OK. This is So Cal not Canadia and you don’t want the parts store lines, they will rust out in short order even in So Cal, they are no where near the quality of the old factory supplied lines.
Fluids and cleaning and packing the wheel bearings is a very good idea.
The front end parts should be left alone if they are in good shape particularly the steering box. It doesn’t make sense to replace the good old made in USA parts if still functioning well, with the cheap made in China stuff you get nowadays or a cleaned and painted “rebuilt” steering box that will be leaking in a couple of years or sooner.
The front shocks if they aren’t leaking and they pass the bounce test should also be left alone.
Finally Michelins while a good tire are a waste of money on this car as with the increasing price of gas I doubt this car will see the 15K-20K miles per year needed to get their money’s worth out of them before they have reached the 5 year mark, are dry and hard, and no longer provide good traction.
Thanks all.
They put a stainless exhaust in, that alone was $1200. Many other wear items have been replaced in the last few years.
We’re not going to do a full restoration. We have no plans to turn it into a garage queen that only does auto shows. After all, she is parked on the street!
Canucknucklehead said it all. Sounds like he ran the repair shop where I took my 66 Deville. Sound advice, all good safety related items. My car was formerly little old lady owned. No A/C, am radio, no tilt, no cruise. Had leather, though. Probably was standard in the convertible. What was really amazing is that I think it had 6 cigarette lighters. One in each door, two on the dash ashtray, and two in the back. My current 78 Eldo has at least 4. Light em up if you got em!
Although I’ve had several old Cadillac’s, the 66 was the one which needed the most work. But I miss it most.
As I mentioned above, the interior of my ’69 wasn’t as nice as earlier models. We had to make do with 4 lighters.
I ran a repair shop for years so I know of what I speak. I would also add new hoses and thermostat. Check coolant for gunk and do a back flush. If there is maga-crud, replace the heater core. Easy to do on GM stuff of the era. Splice in an inline fuel filter, the GM one on the carb is useless and often plugs up with gas tank sediment.
Load test the battery, replace if necessary. Amazing how people neglect batteries.
Replace belts. Cheap on this vintage.
Tune up, new high tension leads. Convert to electronic ignition, easy to do, not expensive. The HEI off a 500, 472 or 425 will drop right in.
The list on an old car is endless….
All great advice, thanks!
Great find, and sounds like an incredible deal for a car you can really drive. I know the purists will hang me for this comment, but I would put on some (tasteful) modern rims and slam this thing on airbags . A guy around here drives a black 69 coupe thats completely stock except for rims and bags and it just looks amazing…
As everyone else has said, congrats and welcome to the world of classic car ownership. I would keep the stock wheels and hubcaps, and the narrow whitewall tires. Unfortunately, when it comes time to replace them, whitewalls are getting hard to find.
Awesome find! I drove a 1969 Cadillac ambulance (Miller-Meteor 42″ combination) as a daily driver (alternated with my 1971 LTD, the “small” car!) from 1986 to 1995. And believe it or not, the automatic climate control, as well as both the front & rear air conditioning, still worked just fine.
You’re going to want to run premium fuel and I would add a lead-substitute (I used Bardahl’s Instead-O-Lead) as well. If it still has ignition points, strongly consider switching over to a breakerless ignition. Even 25 years ago, the quality of the “best” points was crap (I usually spent about an hour with needle-nose pliers doing a precision alignment of the two contacts, as out-of-the-box they would usually only contact on an edge and burn very quickly). I usually got about 3K miles between point cleanings and dwell readjustments, and maybe 15-20K miles between point replacements.
That car is a tank, and the sheet metal is thicker than other GM cars of that era. You will believe me if you ever try to remove the hood (takes two people minimum).
Hopefully the car already has the upgraded “capture” style engine mounts in it. I broke my original driver’s side mount (was just the rubber block glued to steel on each side) stoplight racing a much smaller car and was lucky that the exhaust manifold (or something else that I never did identify) hit the frame and kept the engine from flipping out of there.
I’d love to have some classic iron like that, but with my young kids, it’s just not in the cards for me. And somewhat of a sad day for me; I just did a compression test on my ’96 Civic daily driver (gets the 2nd-highest mpgs in my fleet) to see why I am getting multiple misfire codes, and Cylinder #2 has ZERO compression! Fortunately I have a replacement engine sitting in the garage, but I was really hoping to get another 6 months out of the Civic before having to do the engine swap. Oh well.
At that price and condition I’d buy them all day long. I had a 67 Coupe with a former partner in crime several years back. She was a surprisingly nimble car considering her heft!
How are you liking that 472?
I saw that AutoTrader listing not too long ago when I was on my most recent classic car search (I find all the cars on Auto Trader, Cars.com, Hemmings, etc under $5000 and then rank them and wish I had $5,000 laying around). I was wondering if it was as good as it looked in the pictures, and it sounds like it is. The 1969 is probably my favorite post-plastic-dash Cadillac, since it has those beautiful blade taillights.
Great deal, a steal at that price, and well maintained car to boot. These are very strong cars, very servicable, if your handy and have a service manual, there are plenty of things that you can take care of yourself. I like the stacked headlight 68’s a little more than the 69-70 Cadillacs, but that 472 V8 and tubo 400 combo is with a 4dr hardtop body is a hell of a ride. Cheers!
This DeVille is pretty straight and clean! 472 V-8 has locomotive torque and power and could pass anything but a gas station. Love big Cadillacs!!
Fuel costs…. $6.00 per gallon? 10mpg at best?…. Man must have deep pockets.
I read that seventies full size cars are worth more as scrap because of full costs..