A tarp find is never is happy sight as a tarp doesn’t do a very good job of keeping water off of a car, and it tends to trap moisture against the car as well. Found as a decent condition driver, the owner began a restoration, but didn’t get much further than pulling the engine, and replacing a few seals in the transmission. Still, this Deville is rather solid, and seems worthy enough to hit the streets once again. The opening bid for this Caddy is just $999.00 or the buy it now option is also available for $2,000.00. Take a look at this Cadillac here on ebay out of Memphis, Michigan.
Although described as being a very nice driver condition car, this Deville is nice, but does have its concerns. Inside much of the interior is complete, and in reasonable condition aside from the carpet, and the dash pad that is very rough. With some minor matting on the driver side of the bench seat, the remainder of the upholstery is in pretty good shape after 59 years. New carpet, and some work to the dash pad would leave this interior looking nice enough after a thorough cleaning. The major let down about this Deville is that the original engine was pulled to be rebuilt. The heart breaking part of that story is the engine sat so long at a machine shop, that the engine would up being “lost.” So there is no engine with this Cadillac, although the automatic transmission is included with the car. It is unclear when the restoration began, but at some point, the “brakes were redone” and new tires where installed.
As a whole the body seems reasonable, but there is more rust in sight than what the seller mentions in the ad. Described as “rock solid” the only rust of consequence the seller mentions is that a patch will be needed for the driver floor. There are a few areas on the body wearing surface rust, but there are also a few crispy areas where it looks like you could put your finger through the sheet metal. The first area is near the lower door edge of the driver rear door. The second area is around the rear window where there is a piece of stainless trim missing. Pictures can be misleading, so I could be mistaking. Aside from those few suspicious areas, the rockers and quarters look great, as does the rest of the body. Relatively solid, and nice enough to make a project out of, what would you do with this Deville?
As a life long resident of Michigan, rule # 1 never wrap a car in plastic, humidity and constant changes in temp make for a feeding ground for rust. Better check the underside of this car.
It looks like a 79-83 plate, I hope it hasn’t been under that tarp that long.
Very true ! you are better off NOT putting a tarp over a car just leave it , I once went to look at and old English Austin that the owner had covered with a tarp , when I lifted it half the roof skin came with it !
Cool car, good price. Since there is no engine, the sky is the limit!
I would put in a 454 and 4L80 for easy cruising.
A 472 or 500 out of a late 70’s Caddy will bolt right in . The newer trans too. You just need to swap the tail of the trans with the original. Then off you go. This works, I have done it.
I usually prefer an original driveline but I admit the idea of a 500 CI Caddy motor in this car is intriguing.
It’s already gone 🤗 bye bye.
Are you sure it is a DeVille? There is no front arm rest.
Sold
It was worth much more than the $2000.00 in parts.
The engine “was lost ?”…sure it was. More likely the engine was slimmed out from under the owner over time. I’ve seen it happen more than once. A small shop gains the confidence of a customer who is not in a hurry for supposed services rendered and pieces parts disappear.
Someone found themselves a great project for only $2k!
The engines in this particular series of Cadillacs just weren’t great. I bought two 57’s and a couple of other similar engines. All were seriously seized beyond simple repairs. Of six heads I took to the machinist two were rebuildable. The spark plug hole and intake valve are just short of 1/2 inch apart and cracks develop at this location. The machinist told me that some of the heads had machined plugs installed in the heads by the factory to compensate for those cracks. Ordinary machinists couldn’t repair these flaws, and I could see the engine being scrapped at a machine shop for this reason. Installing a 350 Chev would be the answer.