Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

You can go your own way,  1964 Cadillac convertible.

Not my actual car but a doppleganger.

As Fleetwood Mac sung in 1977, I decided to follow my own automotive path.

My 1966 Mustang was a compromise, I had decided to honor my Father's advice and wishes and buy an appropriate  young man's car. But growing up in Oakland in the 1960's had created a deep love for the Cadillac marque and my dream had always been to own and drive one of these magnificent beasts.


While in high school I had seen a 1960 Cadillac convertible parked frequently outside of a small tavern. Everyday as the school bus rolled by on it's way home, I was craning my neck looking out the window, to see if "my" Cadillac was parked outside. An immaculate jet black body with a blinding white top. Chrome baby moon rims with wide whitewall tires, just a dream come true.

Not exactly the same, but you get the idea.

My other favorite fantasy ride was a 1956 Coupe de Ville. This was a result of the cars that I had seen and sat in while cruising the car lots with my Dad. I think that the real encoding had occurred outside of that Oakland Chinatown auto parts store, in the gas station parking lot. That would have been in the mid 1960's, years before I started high school.  This was a Sedan de Ville four door hardtop and it looked just as rakish as the coupe in my eyes. My fantasy car had a small console with a floor shift. I had seen these offered for years in the J.C. Whitney catalog and thought that this would make my car a real stand out.

I imagined driving my Cadillac all over the state, discovering all the places that my parents had never had the interest to take the family.

My Mustang was sold and I'm sure that I told my Dad that I would save up some more money before rushing out to buy something. After all I still had my motorcycle, a Kawasaki 500, to get around on.
There were quite a few used car lots on E14th. St. in Oakland and I would cruise around with my eyes open looking for a likely prospect. I found a ''65 Coupe de Ville for sale at a lot near Seminary Avenue. The car looked pretty clean and the salesman assured me that it ran great. So off we went for a test drive. Well almost, he had a lot of trouble getting the car to fire up. After a lot of cranking, and a bit of swearing by the salesman, the motor caught and came to life with a bang! He started to rev the motor and the weirdest thing occurred. Pink smoke started billowing out of the single exhaust pipe! It was probably white smoke tinged with a lot of rusty powder but it was sure pink to me! Truth be told that was the first and only time I have ever seen this.

We took off down the street with me driving and the salesman doing all the talking. He asked about my last car and I told him about my Mustang and how I had just sold it. He told me that I should have brought it in as a trade and that he could have given me a "sweet deal" on this Caddy or something else on the lot. Of course what else was a salesman going to say?

I thought that the Caddy was driving pretty good until it started losing power. Luckily there was a parking lot just ahead and I made it there before the motor died. The salesman couldn't get the car restarted and went off to look for a pay phone. He told me to meet him back at the car lot and we could figure out what was wrong with the car. I told him thanks, but no thanks, and walked the four blocks back to the dealers lot.

Luckily my bike started up on the first kick. Maybe I should look around a little more.


At the time I was a student of Karate at the Shorin Yu dojo down the street, just a few blocks from my house. However they later expanded to a location in Downtown on Broadway Ave, alternating the days of instruction. So I could take additional classes for free if I attended the new dojo. What does this have to do with acquiring my first Cadillac? Plenty. During rainy spells I would ride the bus Downtown instead of getting soaked on my motor cycle. It just so happened that my final bus stop was right in front of a used car lot.

Following of it's release in 1972 thousands of young Americans were convinced
that they could master the secret. I was one.

The bus windows were high enough that I could easily see to the back of the lot, my favorite hunting ground! Sure enough there appeared to be a '63 or '64 Cadillac hiding in the back. After class I walked back to the lot, slipped under the chain to inspect the car in the glare of the strings of light bulbs.  It was a gold '64 model convertible!

photo source: hemmings.com
Not the actual lot, but they all looked like this in the 70s.

Being on the back row of the lot the best thing would have to be the price, 325.00!

Actually it was in pretty good shape. It was straight with no collision damage or dents. The paint was dull but wasn't worn down in any spots. There was only the slightest sign of rust blistering on the bottom of the front fenders behind the wheel openings. This was where a brace was located that would catch and hold dirt over the years. This  would lead to some rusting and blistering at that location. This was common all the way into the early 1970's. All the glass was good, but the plastic rear window was getting pretty cloudy, a usual convertible problem at that time. The top itself was in good shape, no cracks or tears. The tires looked okay but there were only two hubcaps, maybe the other two were in the trunk? The perforated leather seats had a couple of split seams and cracks but were in acceptable condition. The carpet was worn and dirty and looked like it had gotten wet more than a few times. The car was only ten years old at the time, and it seems like it should have been in better shape. But then it would have cost a bit more, and a bit was hard for me to come by in those days.

There was no way to know how well it ran or even if it did, but it was on the lot, not behind the office so I assumed that it would. I immediately liked the car and decided that I wanted it. I really hadn't considered getting a convertible, but here it was! I decided to come back on my motorcycle and check it out when the lot was open.

I returned the next day and the salesman let me take a look under the hood and started up the car. It fired up easily and ran smoothly. I don't recall how many miles it had on it but the test drive went fine. I hopefully looked in the trunk but there was no sign of the other two hubcaps. It was equipped with a/c which didn't work but I had expected that. The radio, an am/fm job worked but the front speaker didn't, still there was a speaker in the back. The total only came to 340.00. I was responsible for having the thermostatic vacuum advance device installed as well as paying the reg and transfer fees at the DMV.

The thermostatic vacuum control device otherwise known as "the green meanie"was a unit that was spliced into the upper radiator hose. It controlled the vacuum advance to the distributor. The installer would retard the spark setting and the unit would allow the advance when the car got hot enough. It was made from a very bright, yellow green plastic and that accounted for it's name. I can't remember if it really adversely affected the way the motor ran. I just drove the car as it was.

I hadn't told my Dad that I was going to buy the car. I just parked it next door at the curb. When my Dad got home he asked me if I had seen the Cadillac parked next door.  I told him that I had, and that it was mine! He asked me how much I had paid for it, then laughed and went out with me to check it out  I know that my Dad vicariously enjoyed the cars that I bought.

I had to get this can back into the kitchen before my Mom had to wash the pots and pans!

I learned a lot fixing up that car. I scrubbed down the top with bathroom cleanser, which brightened the white top considerably but also left streaks in the paint when I failed to rinse the run off promptly. A good application of rubbing compound followed by a couple of coats of Simonize wax brought the paint back to life.

There would be a lot of body color on that rag
before I was done.

Nothing fancy or exotic.
Just a lot of rubbing and wiping; Wax on, Wax off!

On an older, somewhat neglected car the chrome bumpers would build up a film of dirt that washing alone wouldn't remove. It took products like Turtle Wax chrome polish to do the job. I also discovered that it would polish stainless steel and remove light oxidation from anodized aluminum trim.

I've always delighted in the image of the turtle sporting a top hat, monocle.
 cravat, and shiny kicks!

The  cloudy rear window was a bigger problem. I tried plastic cleaner and polish, and even this new fangled stuff called Armorall, which had just recently come on the market. There was a noticeable improvement but I was not satisfied with the results. What to do?

The J.C. Whitney catalog to the rescue! 

If you couldn't find it in here, you probably didn't need it.

J.C.Whitney offered three levels of quality of replacement convertible tops, but I didn't think I needed a complete top. Sure enough they offered replacement windows as a separately available item. I filled out the order form, included my money order, and mailed off my request. Then I waited for the three weeks to pass before my order arrived.

Compare that to my online order from Rock Auto of my Mustang's intake manifold. I ordered it Wednesday night and it arrived on Friday morning! Isn't progress wonderful?

I had to disassemble the rear body mount of the top and window and loosened and removed both from the rear top bow. I bought a staple gun to reattach the window and top to the tack strips and bow. It came out pretty good If I do say so myself. Not only could I see out the window, it made a huge improvement in the appearance of the car. 

Old tech but effective.

Now I turned my attention to the interior, I had bought a curved needle and some nylon thread and I "sutured" the split seams and cracks, the perforated leather already had lots of tiny holes for the thread. I also sewed a leather patch onto the upper panel of the driver's seat. Several applications of leather conditioner improved the appearance of all the upholstery. 

I learned from reading my collection of Old Car Weekly magazines that at one time this was considered the standard method of restoration. Just patching the voids and stitching the splits and cracks meant that you were retaining the originality of the interior. While you would lose some judging points for the poor condition, would regain some points for maintaining the originality. How times have changed!

A trip to my favorite wrecking yard  provided me with a matching pair of hubcaps. I had put the other two on the left side of the car where they were visible when parked at the curb. Like my Dad said, "You can only see one side of the car at a time!" I bought an external speaker which I installed with a bracket under the passenger's side of the dash. At least I was smart enough to refrain from dis- assembling the dash. I was worried that I might never get it back together again!

That car never gave me any real trouble and I drove it all over the Bay Area. I even took it up Highway One up over the Marshall -Petaluma road. That car made quite a sight cruising with the top down among the tree lined highways.

I noticed that it was starting to leak some transmission fluid so I thought that I could change out the front transmission seal. A simple job, or so it seemed. At least I was smart enough to rent a transmission jack, but not smart enough to secure the torque converter to the transmission. I managed to knock the converter loose and spill a couple of quarts of ATF while extracting the transmission. After the clean up I replaced the seal which cured the leak. All that work and mess to avoid leaving a few drips on the driveway, which I stained badly anyway when the torque converter spilled it's contents! Live and learn.


I don't remember exactly how long I kept that car. Like several other of my vehicles, it ended up getting sold off the street. I had it parked it at the curb, while I was cleaning my motorcycle in front of our house. A passing driver noticed it slowed, and did a double take. He parked his car and walked over to me and asked me about my Cadillac.

Now I really wasn't interested in selling it but he made what seemed like a great offer. I don't even recall giving him a price. He just made several higher offers until he knew that he had caught my interest. I ended up selling it for 650.00, which seemed like a pretty good profit. I figured that I would find another car, apply some sweat equity, and sell that one for a little profit. Like most of my plans at that time, it didn't exactly turn out that way.