Old Timer Garage

If you haven't read the first part of this restoration you can find it by clicking on this link: 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville

2. The launch of the project


Once my flights booked, I have two months left to prepare the launch of this restoration project.
The plan is to order all the parts that the Mexican guy is going to need. In order to make sure the quality of the work done is up to my standard, we agreed that I would supply him with certain parts and materials like the primer, the paint, the Cadillac original cloth for the seats as well as the leather, the headliner and the carpet for the interior and all the rubber parts for the windows, doors, trunk lid, windscreens etc…
I also am going to have to replace the exhaust line because the one that is on the car at the moment didn’t like the 40 years it spent in a field and my friend tells me that he will also replace the dashboard with another one that he has in stock because the original one is completely dry because of the sun.

And this is where things started to become more complicated.
I was given an estimate delivery time of roughly two months to get the new exhaust line for my car so it was important for me to order this as a number one priority because I only have 8 weeks left before I am flying to the US again to get the car across the border and start the restoration. And I also have to order the parts that will be required for the restoration itself so that I am not late once on site.
Long story short, this was the theory and as always, the difference between theory and reality is that in theory it works…
In reality, I had a hard time to get an answer to my questions and here I am 2 months down the line, ready to fly to the US with very little progress made.

It is not the first time that this happens to me. I am young and it is not the first big (and a bit crazy) project that I take on. Each time I do that people seem not to take me seriously at first. Until they see that I actually always do what I say I will and that if I am where I am today, it is because I take on this sort of projects that most people wouldn’t usually even consider. I know this sort of comment tend to make me come across as arrogant but it is the truth: I have created several companies from nothing while my friends were watching TV or were out drinking and now I am in a position where I can do things that some of them couldn’t.

To give you an idea of how advanced the project is at this moment, I am one week away from taking off to the US, with a car that is still not registered, my friend was going to drive the car to Mexico with me but told me he fell down a ladder and won’t be able to drive, the parts haven’t been ordered (including the exhaust line that takes 8 weeks to get delivered).
Long story short, it is a shambles. I have to find a replacement driver because the driver, the car and the paperwork for the car have to all bear the same name when the car will go across the border. I could do it myself but I would like to avoid too many questions when we will get to the border. I would rather have a US resident driving. This is for the good reason that I am obviously not a US resident, I am traveling on an ESTA and not a visa, I drive there with a French driving license and not an American one etc… nothing illegal in all that but these are all questions I would have to give an answer and justification for if the car was in my name and if I drove it myself.
I have one more card to play though because my brother lives next to the border and under an American visa and he has an American driving license. I will have the car registered in his name and he will help me drive it across the border. That wasn’t the plan and I usually always prefer not to mix business and family (or friends) but I don’t have any other choice here so it will have to do.
For the exhaust, I will have to do without it too. There is no other option with such a short time left. I just have to hope that the car won’t be too loud so that I don’t get problems at the border.
And for the drive down to the border, my friend offered to bring it to my brother’s place on a trailer for free.

Like I was saying earlier, when people realise I am serious with what I say I will do, things start to move. It is just a pity that it is so late because I will now have to adapt the project with these new parameters.

Tomorrow I take off for the US again and to discover my car and see what other new problems are awaiting me there. And you can be sure that problems there will be so…

To be continued… here: 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville - part 3