A couple weeks ago, I received a phone call from my Dad. I don’t typically get up and leave meetings to answer my phone, but for some reason I thought I’d better take this call. I asked if everything was alright. My father’s response was surprising, “What do you think of Cadillacs from the late sixties?”. I told him I thought they were nice land yachts as long as everything worked and they weren’t rusted out. He then told me that he had just found a ’66 Coupe DeVille that was parked in a garage where he was working and the owner wanted to sell! He runs a smoke and water damage restoration business in our small Wyoming hometown and he often spots interesting cars while out visiting job sites, but this was the most interesting one he had run across in a long time.

A stuck engine or any cancerous rust could be a deal breaker for a big car like this, but luckily Dad is pretty savvy with a wrench. Considering how busy he is though, it wouldn’t be a good idea to take on a project that needed serious work. As I was running him through what all to check on it, he stopped me and asked, “Aren’t you guys going to be here in a week for the 4th? You can just check it out then!”. I told him we would be there, but that he might not want to wait that long or someone else might snatch it up. He kind of chuckled at that remark and said that we didn’t need to worry about that. So we added going and looking at this Cadillac to our list of things to do while we were home for the holiday!

After making the 12 hour drive back to Wyoming, both Jesse and I were pretty excited to see the Cadillac. If we hadn’t been so tired from the drive, we probably would have gone and looked at it as soon as we pulled into town. Boy am I glad we got some rest instead, because we ended up needing it! The Caddy had been parked in this garage since the early ’90s and at one point was covered in a mountain of junk. Thankfully someone had cleared most of it off before we got there. We still had to remove a chair, some lamp shades, and a box, but that was the easy part! We started checking the underside for rust, and while we spotted some surface rust here and there, none of it was serious. Next up was to check the engine and once we got the hood up, we made sure the engine was free. As soon as the motor budged, Jesse gave me that look I’ve come to know so well. I call this look the “we need to save it” look! So we gave Dad the thumbs up and were soon loading it up onto the tow truck.

Getting it out of the garage was no simple task and this is where the good nights rest came into play. The driver of the tow truck felt the best plan of attack was to use  a winch to pull the car just far enough out of the garage to slide it up onto the truck. Jesse and I both recommended pushing the car out of the garage onto level ground first and then pull it up on the truck, but one of the tires was completely flat and the driver does this kind of thing for a living, so we didn’t argue with him. That might have not been the best decision on a car that is over 18 feet long though. I climbed into the driver’s seat to steer the car and while I was there I was surprised by just how nice the interior still is. The angle of the truck ramp and the length of the trunk just didn’t add up quite right and there was no way we were going to let him just drag this beautiful beast up the ramp on its bumpers. Since we were already lined up and I was trapped inside the car (my door was too close to the wall to open and the passenger’s side was jammed shut). It was decided our best bet was to build some type of ramp to get the rear wheels up higher. With the driver and one of the owner’s son’s help, a makeshift ramp was constructed to get it up onto the truck without any grinding or bottoming out. After some hard work, we had it up on the truck!

With the car out in the open, we finally could see the overall condition of the car. And while it has some bumps and bruises, it is in great shape. It is without a doubt the longest coupe I have ever seen! Getting it back off the truck went much smoother than getting it on did, but that could be attributed to the air in the flat tire and the level driveway. Soon it was parked in our parent’s driveway. We weren’t going to work on it, but our hometown holds an annual car show on the 4th of July and we could tell our dad really wanted to take his new purchase to the show. We’ve revived quite a few cars now, so we thought we’d give it a shot.

We didn’t get started on it until late in the evening and Wal-Mart was the only store still open in town. While we would have liked to done a full tune-up, Wally World doesn’t carry oil filters, plugs, or wires for a ’66 Cadillac. So we just had to make due with an oil change and a good cleaning of the spark plugs! We also bought some Marvel Mystery oil to put down in the cylinders. With supplies in hand, we headed back to the house and got to work! We even had a small fireworks show off in the distance to keep us entertained! Jesse remarked that it was just like the scene in Sandlot, except instead of playing baseball we were reviving an American classic!

Draining the oil was super easy, but adding Marvel to each cylinder was a bit tricky. Eventually I got a little oil in each cylinder and we let it sit while we worked on checking the fuel system. Whoever parked it had the wisdom to drain the fuel system, so all we had to do was get the locking cap off and put fuel in it. Just before midnight, we strapped in a new battery, disconnected the coil, and put the key in the ignition for the first time in over 20 years! Jesse was upfront monitoring the engine, so I had the privilege of being the first person to crank this mighty big block over since it was parked all those years ago. As I inserted the key, all the interior lights came to life. I turned the key to the on position and the dash light came on, even the radio crackled and came to life! We let it crank a few times and everything sounded good. With some oil pressure built up, we decided to attempt a start. Jesse plugged the coil in and I gave the gas pedal a couple pumps. I turned the key, but no spark. I gave it a couple more tries, but no luck. So we grabbed a trusty can of carb cleaner and gave it a couple of squirts. I hit the key one more time, she coughed a bit, and then spun to life. There was a bit of valve train noise at first, but it quickly smoothed out.

With the engine purring almost like new, we decided to check the master cylinder, which turned out to be completely empty. After putting some new brake fluid in it, I pumped the pedal a few times to build up pressure. The pedal felt spongy, but we wouldn’t know if we had brakes until we put it into gear, so I pushed the brake pedal to the floor and slide it into reverse. I felt it go into gear, but it didn’t move. I slowly left off the pedal and the car began to roll backwards. Success! I put it into drive and I began to creep forward, I gave it a little gas and off I went. I swung back around and Jesse jumped in the passenger seat. He exclaimed that with all the smoke in the air and dust on the car, it looked like the funeral flower car from hell! It was 12:10 and we had just revived the single largest car we have every worked on! We didn’t want to risk damaging anything, so we took turns driving it up and down the driveway for the next few minutes. We finally parked it and started testing things inside. We started out testing the lights – headlights, high beams, brake lights, and turn signals all seemed to be working. Next up was the radio, which came on, but was only putting out static. As we were messing with the dials, one of us pushed in on the channel dial and the antenna started moving up. After letting it fully extend, we heard what sounded like a voice, so Jesse began to adjust the frequency and soon we were enjoying the sweet sounds of the Beach Boys!

At 12:30 we finally drug ourselves back to the house to get some sleep. We were exhausted, but excited to see if the car would start back up in the morning. When I woke in the morning, I headed to the kitchen and overheard my dad excitedly telling my mom that we must have gotten the car running because it wasn’t in the same spot as the tow truck had delivered it! Eventually, we all went out to have a look at the night’s work. Dad climbed into the driver’s seat and gave the key a twist. The engine fired right up! It didn’t hesitate, it didn’t cough or back fire, it just came to life and idled smoothly. After looking everything over, we decided to give it a real test drive. With my dad at the wheel, we headed off down the street! It glided down the road without a single issue. It felt like a boat, of course, but they felt that way when they were brand new. After testing the brakes a few times and making sure the wheels were going to hold air, we decided to make the drive down to main street for the car show. Once we pulled into the show, people immediately came to look at our bright blue bomb. Some people loved the barn fresh look, while others were upset that we hadn’t detailed it, but we were just happy it made it there without overheating or breaking down!

Throughout the show, our dad proudly told each passerby that would talk to him about Barn Finds and how we had revived the car mere hours before the show. We even talked to a few people who have been following the site since we launched it all those years ago! I even got to talk to one of the previous owner’s sons, and when he found out how little it took to get it running, he wanted it back! While the show was a great time, the best part was just getting to spend time enjoying the hobby we love with the man who inspired us to hunt for cars in the first place! Our father isn’t a man of wealth and he doesn’t own a beautiful collection of classic cars, yet he somehow managed to instil a love and appreciation for all things classic in us. He also taught us how to use a wrench and what it meant to work hard for the people and things you love!

After the show was over, we were able to cruise around in this big Caddy in the shadows of the Bighorn Mountains while our dad told us stories of a Super Bee he once owned. Eventually, we decided to give the Cadillac a bath so we could see what was under all those years of dust. We started out at a regular car wash, but ended up at an automatic one. Jesse advised against that, but it turned out to be exciting. It proved two things too. First, the seal are all still good! Second, this car is too big and heavy to go through a modern automatic car wash. We derailed three times and only the first six feet of the car ended up getting washed! That’s alright though, because we got a good laugh out of the whole experience and the car ended up looking great once we finally got out of there! After we got it home, we did a little cleaning (there’s a lot more still to be done) and it looks like it is going to clean up really well. As you can see, the interior really does look good and is in surprisingly nice shape! It’s amazing to think of all the conveniences this car had in the sixties. There’s automatic climate control, power seats, and even a tilt and telescope steering wheel in there! Heck, this thing even has corning lamps that come on when you hit the turn signals.

Our dad really enjoyed the whole experience, but honesty it really isn’t his type of car. He would rather have a Super Bee or a Model T. He actually picked up a lead on a Model T while we were loading this car onto the truck! He still hasn’t decided whether he is going to keep the Cadillac or not, but one thing is sure – we made a lot of great memories with this car in a short period of time. So, thanks dad for one of the best 4th of Julys your boys have ever had!