Old Timer Garage

If you haven't read the fourth part of this restoration you can find it by clicking on this link: 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville - part 4

5. The car is running but more problems are coming my way

A few hours later, I am feeling better. I walk around the car to get to know it in more details. The body is pretty sound apart a few spots of rust on the front fenders.

The floors are rusted through as well as the exhaust lines as I already knew. It is true that the car is loud but it is less worse than I thought and a few cars from the neighbours there are actually louder than my Cadillac. I am even thinking that it should be OK to drive it like that across the border and I will ask the Mexican guy to replace the lines over there.

For the starting problem, several things could be causing it. The first thing that comes to my tired mind at this moment is that this car might not have been as well checked up as I was told it had. After all the things that were said and not done, at this point in time it wouldn’t have surprised me too much that this could also not be the case. A part of me doubts this though because this information comes from my friend and I tend to trust him. He has always come across as sincere and honest to me and although I haven’t know him for years, I am rarely wrong at assessing people I can trust. The fact that he may not trust me completely yet to take this project all the way kind of annoys me but I can understand it and I keep thinking that I may be completely wrong and it is just how business is done in the US. And to be completely honest, if the positions were reversed, I probably wouldn’t trust a guy like me.
The second option for the problem could be the settings of the carburettor. It was set in Phoenix which is much lower in altitude. Where I am now is higher up which makes the mix gas/air much richer because the atmosphere contains less oxygen. An adjustment of the richness should do the trick in this case.
But after looking under the hood for a few minutes, it is a third option that happens to be the good one. By following the different elements that are connected to the carburettor, I notice that a nut came lose on the adjustment of the idle. It must have come lose because of the vibrations during the trip on the trailer and so with the idle too low, the car starts but turns just fast enough to idle and stops as soon as a gear is selected. I just have to tighten this nut again and the problem is fixed. The car idle normally again and the car drives as it should. One problem less… next one please!

Next I need to take care of the insurance and we will be able to drive the car around the block when my brother comes back from work and make sure the Cadillac drives well enough to be taken across the border.

The insurance is a problem relatively easy to fix. The only thing you need to know is that you need two insurances in a case like ours: one for the US and one in Mexico. Rare are the insurance companies that cover both territories so two insurances are required.
I insure the car for 6 months thinking that it should be enough for the restoration and that I will still be able to extend it later on if needed.

When my brother comes back from work, we both get in the car and start it. It is the first time that he drives a car older than him so he needs to get used to the size of the car but mostly to how they drive and how they brake. It is much more fun to drive through the desert in an old American classic. The night is starting to settle but to my surprise, the headlights are very good and we keep driving around a bit longer. But out of the blue after about 3 miles, the car starts to shake strongly and shocks are heard underneath the floors like a machine gun noise. We stop, then start again slowly, nothing. The car picks up speed again and again, the machine gun starts shooting… I go under the car to try and have a look but it is pitch black in the middle of the desert and I can’t see anything. I am suspecting the driveshaft right away.
In my opinion, there are two options: either one of the cross joints broke down or the middle mount went. And the second option seems more likely because the car still drives and only starts making that noise and shakes once it reaches a certain speed.

We head home very slowly. It is too dark to see anything so it is not tonight again that the car will cross the border and besides, I have just notice that we are missing one of the documents we need to take it across into Mexico.
This project was supposed to be straight forward. I was supposed to get to the US, get the car, drive it across the border and launch the restoration. Now I just have a few days left before I have to head back to the UK, a broken down car that is still not in Mexico and I don’t even know how I am going to get it fixed.

When we get home, I contact the Mexican guy once again to let him know that I won’t be able to get the car to him today again. It is not really professional from me and I hate not being able to do what I said I would but it is beyond my control here so I will have to get over it.

The plan for tomorrow is to fix this problem as quickly as possible and see what is going on with this missing document to get this project back on track.

To be continued… here: 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville - part 6