- Seller: Iconic Motors of OKC (Contact)
- Location: Oklahoma City, OK
- Mileage: 40,472 Shown
- Chassis #: 6L67S6Q255893
- Title Status: Clean
- Engine: 500cui (8.2L) V8
- Transmission: 3-Speed Hydra-Matic
For fifty years, the Eldorado was Cadillac’s halo personal luxury model. The model tended to receive the latest and greatest Cadillac had to offer. Over its twelve generations, the model saw a lot of changes to meet the requirements and regulations of the market at the time. Still, it always managed to be the ultimate in comfortable cruisers. This 1976 Eldorado Convertible is from the final generation of truly massive Cadillacs and is one of the last big American Convertibles built. It’s a project that’s been parked in a warehouse in Oklahoma for an unknown amount of time and is being offered here as a no reserve Barn Finds Auction!
The 9th generation Eldorado is impressive, coming in at 224.1 inches long and weighing over 4,800 pounds. This car is around the same size as a modern Escalade ESV, but without all the room to haul kids and soccer gear. Much of its size is forward of the cockpit, with a massive engine bay to house its 8.2-liter V8. As you can see, the paint on the hood has failed, and the filler panels are gone. The fillers are being reproduced and aren’t terribly expensive. Since you will have to have paint mixed to match for those, it might be worthwhile to touch up the paint while you are at it.
Considering how the exterior looks, the interior is in surprisingly good condition. This would seem to back up the claim of long-term indoor storage, plus it shows just how well these cars were built. The leather seats don’t show any signs of wear, and the dash is free of any significant blemishes. There are signs that a mouse or two might have taken up residence in it at some point, but overall, it just needs a really good cleaning.
We don’t get a good look at the 500 cui (8.2-liter) V8, but the seller states that the car currently doesn’t run. This engine is known to be quite robust, though, and tends to hold up well. The odometer currently shows 40k miles, which the seller believes is correct. If that’s truly the case, this engine should have lots of life left in it. For 1976, performance was down, with horsepower rated at 190 and torque at 360 foot pounds. It’s still plenty of power for comfortable top-down cruising!
There’s plenty of work to be done here, but this Eldorado appears to be a good starting point. There doesn’t appear to be any major rust concerns, the interior is in decent condition, and it’s being offered without a reserve! We would be tempted to focus on getting it back on the road and doing what cosmetic work is necessary to drive it. But what would you do with this grand land yacht? Leave your thoughts and questions in the comment section below!
Bid On This Auction
59bigfins bid $5,500.00 2025-04-09 13:59:53
Anders bid $3,750.00 2025-04-09 04:43:08- 59bigfins bid $3,500.00 2025-04-08 14:35:01
Dominic bid $2,750.00 2025-04-08 13:19:51- 59bigfins bid $2,500.00 2025-04-08 11:52:20
Gdenn bid $1,800.00 2025-04-08 09:59:31- 59bigfins bid $1,550.00 2025-04-08 08:49:19
- Anders bid $1,250.00 2025-04-07 14:01:35
- 59bigfins bid $1,000.00 2025-04-03 09:42:40
Parked for an unknown amount of time you say? It very well be one of those cars I read about in a convertible book that was given to me by an old friend over 25 years ago. The author stated that many of these last year ragtops were bought by speculators who drove them from the dealership directly into climate controlled buildings where they would sit until the owner got his,/her asking
price. In the beginning it all worked great. Used to see ads in Cars & Parts, Hemmings, Car Exchange, and
The National Auto Trader where these
speculators were charging (and getting) as much as $100K for one of these cars which the seller claimed that it only had 2.5 miles on it. During
that time though, you still could get one for far less (maybe $20K or so) than those money hungry fools were charging back then but these were few and far between. Looking back, I don’t recall a lot of folks that bought
these cars ever really took them out and enjoy them for what they were, and still are, the finest motorcar you could find bar none. But it all came crashing down when Cadillac offered an Eldorado convertible in ’84. And the howl of these speculators did indeed resemble a symphony of scorched cats when some of them filed lawsuits against GM and Cadillac for allegedly going back on their word that no more ragtops would be made by GM. The suits stated that the speculators had lost huge sums of money because the
exclusivity of their cars had been voided by Cadillac’s decision to re offer the ragtop to the motoring public. And as to whether this car was one of those speculator specials or not, we’ll never know. But if you love these old barges like I do, you’ll
drool all over yourself and run straight
down to Race Trac and buy a Powerball ticket so that you can buy this car and make it yours. Any thoughts?…
Yep- remember that well- Cadillac annouunced they were ” The Last Cadillac Convertible” and suddenly the bidding was on at dealerships with cars going out the door for multiples of the MSRP. A lot of them were sold to guys hoping to cash in on the frenzy and selling them on as a quick flip.
Hi Ken,
I knew you’d chime in on this Caddy. Oops, sorry, it’s a Cadillac!
The regular Eldorados did bring in some investment/flip money but the REAL money was in the last identical 200 Eldorado convertibles which were white with a white convertible top and red leather interior. With red and blue pinstripping down the exterior. Those are the ones that went for $100,000+. Chrysler came out with a factory convertible in 1982. GM followed in ’84. Pissed a lot of people off.
When I had an opportunity to by buy either a 1975 Eldorado convertible in baby blue or a 1984 Eldorado convertible in white, you know it, I chose the ’75. Never liked the next generation Eldorado which came out in 1979. Too narrow, too short, too upright. The ’84 was in much better shape than the ’75 and priced about the same. Both were true barn finds by the same owner. But I just couldn’t see myself in an ’84.
Anything GM did after 1978 was ugly and pure junk to me.
This ’76 Eldo has potential in my book, but the inserts alone are going to run $1500 or more as all 7 need replacing. The chrome is good, the leather is good, the stand up hood ornament us there (a plus), I’m guessing the top works as they are electric and not hydraulic. Not many care for the scissor top system but it allowed GM to use the same rear seat in the convertible as the hardtop. That way they didn’t have to make two different seat backs. Cost cutting I assume.
This Caddy looks like a good solid starting point. This has got to be the original paint. It’s been mentioned on Barnfinds before, by others and myself about certain colors, silver especially, but this shade of blue on GM cars doing exactly what you see here. Thats why when I see either silver or this color thats original and still looks good It’s very impressive to me. My ’77 Olds Delta 88 was this color, I bought it when it was 10 years old used and it was a fight to get the paint decent. But at least it stayed on the car. I hope this one gets restored, the interior is a big ticket item if you can save it. And if its a matter of replacing the fillers and just prep work, with no major dents, or rust to deal with, that wouldn’t be too bad either. This Caddy is very restorable. And at that low mileage that 500 is barely broken in.
There could be engine damage. With the oil pump in the front, it’s difficult for the oil to go from the bottom of the pan to the front, often if these engines are left idle, the oil pump loses prime and start ups result with no oil pressure. So even if the 500 is “rugged”, long periods of sitting idle can cause engine damage to occur. It’s a bad design shared with Buicks.
A 242 mile 76 Eldorado convertible just sold on BAT for $74,000, a very bad investment compared to just putting your money elsewhere, and the owner didn’t get to enjoy the car. The same thing happened to the ‘78 Corvette pace cars. They sold for big dealer mark ups and are still not worth much.
I do believe the year was 1987, before my great downfall. I did front end alignments and frame straightening at a body shop in Miami, Florida. The owner owned a triple black 76 Eldo convertible. I was constantly fiddling with that car on slow days. It was the first car I had ever seen with a built in cell phone. My 14 year old step daughter thought that was the greatest thing ever as the owner let her call all her friends from the car. That was a big deal back then. I have fond memories of those days.
God Bless America
It definitely looks like a very worthy candidate for restoration. I do laugh at the writers optimistic outlook. “It might be worthwhile to touch up the paint while you are at it.”
WOW, the paint that hasn’t fallen off the car already is totally dead and ready to let go. Touching up this paint fell off the list of possibilities years ago. Lol… A new top and new paint will do wonders for this car. I hope it finds a good home.
Hi Angel! All I could think of when I saw this car was the memory of how
dumbass speculators gobbled these up and made it hard for average folks
like us to get our hands on one BEFORE they were all gone. And yes dear, I would gladly ride with you in a car like this. And I’d be doing what I said I’d do in the ’73 Eldorado post a
few days ago too. Sold the ’35 Buick
print Monday afternoon and I’m almost done getting it dressed out and ready for its new owner. I sent you some pics of it, but I guess it didn’t take. I know how busy you are so I don’t write much right now. Well
honey, I’ll go for now so I can get a pic
of the Buick ready. See ya later! 💋
There’s no mention as to what might be wrong with the engine, only that it doesn’t run. Any further info on this beautiful ride?
Hi folks! Apologies, but we didn’t receive any notifications that anybody had commented or had questions until I just checked the listing and saw all the comments.
Basically, this is one of a dozen cars that a local OKC collector had stashed away in a warehouse. He had tons of unique cars – including a ’46 Dodge Coupe, a ’35 Mack truck, some Model As & Model Ts, a ’57 T-bird, a ’60 Jaguar, and a few others. He passed away a few years ago, and his sons/nephews all gave us his collection to get into the hands of folks who would appreciate them. Some we got up and running and into Mecum/Barret auctions, some we’re just selling as-is due to the bottle-neck of work we’ve run into.
We don’t have a lot of info on this particular Cadi other than what you see, because the family that inherited it wasn’t privy to what the cars history is/was. So we’re flying a little blind on this one. Sorry we couldn’t help much more than that.
We’ll be out of the office through the weekend and will catch up on questions and comments on Monday. Thanks for looking and happy bidding!
If I had this car I would get it running and drive it as is. It’s going to make an impression every where it goes, nobody will notice the paint. The sheer size, seventies style, and it’s a Cadillac. You won’t mistake it for anything else on the road. My late friend said he always wanted one of these. He said he’d go cruising with the top down and a white German Shepherd sitting in the back. He got the dog eventually but never got the car, RIP my friend.
Like 78 Corvette Pace Cars that are now worth very little, the same thing happened to these Eldos except the very low mileage ones with new bumper fillers. They all fell apart, sun or no sun. It was lousy urethane. Ask me how I know. Anyway, with the way 99 percent of the public drives today, I would just clear the lousy paint and get the mechanicals up to snuff. Drive and enjoy. Life is too short to let something sit in the garage. You’d spend $10,000 easy on a good paint job. Go for a cruise and some punk in a 30 year old Honda with no insurance plows into it. I deal with terrible drivers every day in just a 7 mile ride to work.
Hi all! Less than 24 hours left to get those bids in for this Cadi! Some of you had some great insight into what you could possibly to do with this car going forward. Lots of possibilities. We’re anxious to get it into the driveway or garage for someone to enjoy. Happy bidding!