classic car advice please

[Brak]

well i almost finally achieved my dream of owning a classic car. this will be my first car, since i got my liscence on saturday- and im pumped. it is a 1971 cadillac el dorado with a good old 500CI engine. we practically stole it (cause my dad knows the guy who owns the shop we bought it from, who is selling the car for someone he knows). we will probably make the final purchase and get a bill of sale tomorrow.

its got 54k miles, and has been garaged for roughly the past 30 years. its great, a front wheel drive (1971!! front wheel drive!), and takes unleaded gas so we can put in regular pump gas instead of super-high octane gas we wouldve needed for an older car that took leaded gas. its in good condition, but needs some TLC here and there. we got some precautionary work done, new protectors (rubber/leather boots that go on the differential to protect it from the elements or something) for the front wheel drive, new disks for the brakes (1971!!! disk brakes!), new oil, tranny sluid, just some stuff that needed to be done.

with everything that NEEDS to be done finished by the end of this weekend, we are left with some other things to take care of. right now its light green with a black hardtop, and red interior. but there is some surface rust that needs to be taken care of with a paintjob. any suggestions on a color? cant be red, cant be black. im thinking khaki or something.

another thing, is that its got a little bit of rust at the wheel wells. nothing thats rotting away the whole wheelwells, just a little bit. what should i do about this? its where the skirts will go (hell yeah i got wheelskirts), but i dont want it covered up, i want to get rid of the rust.

last thing is that its old and it smells like MOLD. the interior is beautiful though, ALL dark, nice, red LEATHER. this car was top of the line back in the day. how do i get mold out of leather, and get it smelling good? also some of the little rubber things that go between the window and door are cracking, how do i replace those?

and should i get white and black dice? or should the dice match the interior? any estimations on the mpg, or how much money its gonna cost to fill up a 26 gallon tank?

EDIT: go to the bottom, ive got more questions/info

[Brak]

anybody? anybody? bueller?

[skife]

mpg is going to probably be around 12.

26 gallon tank at 1.98 here

51.48 to fill the tank. this car is going to cost you a fortune to drive man.
you dont need a 500cu stroked....

[PyRo]

well i almost finally achieved my dream of owning a classic car. this will be my first car, since i got my liscence on saturday- and im pumped. it is a 1971 cadillac el dorado with a good old 500CI engine. we practically stole it (cause my dad knows the guy who owns the shop we bought it from, who is selling the car for someone he knows). we will probably make the final purchase and get a bill of sale tomorrow.

its got 54k miles, and has been garaged for roughly the past 30 years. its great, a front wheel drive (1971!! front wheel drive!), and takes unleaded gas so we can put in regular pump gas instead of super-high octane gas we wouldve needed for an older car that took leaded gas. its in good condition, but needs some TLC here and there. we got some precautionary work done, new protectors (rubber/leather boots that go on the differential to protect it from the elements or something) for the front wheel drive, new disks for the brakes (1971!!! disk brakes!), new oil, tranny sluid, just some stuff that needed to be done.

with everything that NEEDS to be done finished by the end of this weekend, we are left with some other things to take care of. right now its light green with a black hardtop, and red interior. but there is some surface rust that needs to be taken care of with a paintjob. any suggestions on a color? cant be red, cant be black. im thinking khaki or something.

another thing, is that its got a little bit of rust at the wheel wells. nothing thats rotting away the whole wheelwells, just a little bit. what should i do about this? its where the skirts will go (hell yeah i got wheelskirts), but i dont want it covered up, i want to get rid of the rust.

last thing is that its old and it smells like MOLD. the interior is beautiful though, ALL dark, nice, red LEATHER. this car was top of the line back in the day. how do i get mold out of leather, and get it smelling good? also some of the little rubber things that go between the window and door are cracking, how do i replace those?

and should i get white and black dice? or should the dice match the interior? any estimations on the mpg, or how much money its gonna cost to fill up a 26 gallon tank?

It probably has 154k or 254k on it, 54 seems really low for a 33 year old car.
Paint it the same color otherwise the doorjams, enginebay, trunk, etc won't match.
Rust you gave to remove it (a die grinder with some roloc disks work wonders here) then paint the area. Maybie clean up the wheel wells and use some undercoating or por-15 in them. And make sure the painting place isn't going to "take care" of the rust by just painting over it. It needs to be removed or it will be back in a couple years.

[doc_Zox]

fabreeze

sounds like a daddy-lac

[PyRo]

Automotive fabreeze can work wonders. But I would recommend stripping the entire interior, clean everything, replacing anything that needs it and take care of any rust. Rust holes in the floorpan are the easiest to see when the carpet is out so if there are any you don't know about that is when you would find them. If you find any get replacement floor pans and replace the section that needs to be done. Or if you're a cheap bastard like me just use a piece of an old washing machine to patch up the floors.

$1.98 for gas is a bargain I havn't seen that in about nine months now, $2.13 is the cheapest here with a $2.17 average :(

[mcveighr]

Mileage will be killer. As will emissions.

[PyRo]

Emissions? 1971 wants to know what those are.

[skife]

Mileage will be killer. As will emissions.
as long as it meets the smog laws of 1971, it will be fine.

[skife]

Emissions? 1971 wants to know what those are.
hahahaha


BIG BLOCK

[vf-xx]

Mileage will be killer. As will emissions.


Gas yes. Emissions I'm not so sure about.

At least in Texas "classic cars" (anything over 25 years old) doesn't have to pass emissions. Yay!!!

I"m really going to miss my 77 Culass when the time comes to sell it.

[skife]

i love michigan

no emissions laws what so ever.

I could be spewing pitch black smoke from my car and it would be legal for me to drive around

[mcveighr]

I didn't mean the laws, I meant the enviroment.

[Mad-Medic]

Hello, Congrats on the sled, I to am a classic car person. I have a 1968 Buick GS400 Dealer Option Stage 1 car, It is all numbers matching. I to have the big block and it is a very high performace motor. It is funny, I just had it smogged and it is cleaner burning than a 2004 vehicle. It is all in how you build and take care of a vehicle. And as far as milage goes. I get close to 15 in a car that is 3800 lbs and has a 525 HP motor and does 12.1 in the quarter. Don't listen to people that do not share your passion with vehicles. They are talking about something they do not understand. They are usually hipocrites (sp?) Think of it this way. People slam Paintball saying it promotes violence and is to realistic. That is just teaches kids and adults to kill. This comes from people that do not understand the sport. I am much older than you and have seen the sport come and change as I have been playing for over 20 years. I have been into muscle cars even longer. What is important is that you enjoy what you are doing and be responsible in it. When it come to muscle cars or any vehicle KEEP IT MAINTAINED, nothing is worse than a smoker or leaker, in that case I would agree that a person should not own a vehicle that can not take care of it.

Thanks and I hope this helps,
Later

DISCLAIMER, It is not my intention to step on anyones toes or to upset anyone with my opinon..

[PyRo]

Mad Medic you need to shut up :)
I don't think anyone here was saying anything negative so i'm not quite sure where that came from.
I love older cars altough I cannot afford to have and maintain one right now. And I do take care of my car better than most other people take care of theirs which is why I was telling him to take care of the rust the right way the first time, and to keep the paint matching. A couple months ago I cut all the rust out of the floors in my car and patched it up. Now the fenders and quarters are starting to get a bit of surface rust on them so i'm going to take care of that as soon as some things I ordered get here. Maybie some day my car will be one of those sought after classic cars (91 Camaro) :)

[TMAXXKING1]

lights brakes glass and an idle test thats about it ... no dyno no probe in tail pipe ...
some states like newhampshire you cant have any rusted floor boards ..

[joez]

Its a 71 eldorado, its got 54K miles. 90% of that generation of caddys were bought by old folks who literally dont drive anywhere. My neighbor just traded in his mint condition 1974 coupe DeVille that he bought new, and it had 36,700 documented miles. Not to mention he said that they know the guy they got it from.


As for mileage, you will get better than 12. Most people who drive with a relatively light foot have gotten over 20mpg. Dont beat on it to hard, that 500 likes to eat CV shafts anyway. Straight line they are fine, but to many hard corners with the pedal mashed will blow parts, if they are orriginal. Unless you live in Komufornia, smog tests will be a breeze, if you even have to take them. For paint, i always like the 76 caddy silver, real sharp looking color, and easy to keep clean. If you do all the prep and pull the interior and doors they will paint the whole body, and if they dont have to prep it the cost isnt to bad. Then the only part that wont match would be the firewall.

Visit www.500cid.com for any engine parts you need. Pulling 600 horse and over 700 ft-lbs is relatively simple on these motors, and their torque curve is amazing. I will probobally be replacing my diesel with a built 500 this spring, if diesel fuel prices dont come down. 500 ft-lbs off idle on pump gas with a redline 2 grand more than my diesel will be nice.

Good luck with the car.

[Eagle]

does it have whale skin hub caps and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights? Or was that just the 1967 model? :D

[Brak]

pyro, it has 54k miles on it. joez it right, its an old lady-owned car. it has been maintained for the past 33 years by the guy (gas station owner) who we are buying it from. no fraud here. thanks for the advice everyone, im surprised at the gas mileage, its better than a H2 so its cool with me. im a heavy-footed driver, but im not crazy, so im gonna go easy on this and try to maintain this car as well as possible. i want it to last a long time for me. any other maintanance tips? i want to keep it in tip-top shape.

right now according to the old caddy advertisement i found on a site it has:
Gross HP 345 @ 4400 RPM
SAE net HP 235 @ 3800 RPM
Gross torque 535 ft.-lbs. @ 2800 RPM
SAE net torque 410 @ 2400 RPM

is there a way i can get some more power and at the same time make it more reliable? like replace old, less effecient parts with newer, dependable, more effecient parts?

oh, and no emissions here. they stopped testing emissions 2 years ago because it was so corrupt. even if you passed and you didnt slip them a 20, youd still fail, so they just stopped alltogether

[joez]

pyro, it has 54k miles on it. joez it right, its an old lady-owned car. it has been maintained for the past 33 years by the guy (gas station owner) who we are buying it from. no fraud here. thanks for the advice everyone, im surprised at the gas mileage, its better than a H2 so its cool with me. im a heavy-footed driver, but im not crazy, so im gonna go easy on this and try to maintain this car as well as possible. i want it to last a long time for me. any other maintanance tips? i want to keep it in tip-top shape.

right now according to the old caddy advertisement i found on a site it has:
Gross HP 345 @ 4400 RPM
SAE net HP 235 @ 3800 RPM
Gross torque 535 ft.-lbs. @ 2800 RPM
SAE net torque 410 @ 2400 RPM

is there a way i can get some more power and at the same time make it more reliable? like replace old, less effecient parts with newer, dependable, more effecient parts?

oh, and no emissions here. they stopped testing emissions 2 years ago because it was so corrupt. even if you passed and you didnt slip them a 20, youd still fail, so they just stopped alltogether

Where did you pull that info from? In 70&71 the eldorado with the 500's Gross HP rating was an even 400hp. That appears to be the HP rating of the 425.

As for effeciency, yes, anything that you can do to make the engine breath easier will make it more effecient, to a point. You cant put dual 650 demons on it and expect better mileage. But, for a little bit more power and about the same economy, i would do a mild cam from 500cid, matched with an edelbrock intake manifold, mainly because they are the only people who make one for it. You can either modify BBC headers, or get a set of 500cid.com's block huggers. Get a bigger air filter, but stay away from K&N. Paper filters filter much better, as long as they are not fram.

Edit: That HP rating you have doesnt match any numbers i have. 472's were rated at 375 gross HP and 500's were rated at 400 gross hp.

[rehme]

if you wanted to get good gas milege get a fish carburetor.

yeah i have the same problem with my car i can pass anything on the highway execpt for a gas station.

my car is a 64 buick riviera numbers matching car.

[skife]

Where did you pull that info from? In 70&71 the eldorado with the 500's Gross HP rating was an even 400hp. That appears to be the HP rating of the 425.

As for effeciency, yes, anything that you can do to make the engine breath easier will make it more effecient, to a point. You cant put dual 650 demons on it and expect better mileage. But, for a little bit more power and about the same economy, i would do a mild cam from 500cid, matched with an edelbrock intake manifold, mainly because they are the only people who make one for it. You can either modify BBC headers, or get a set of 500cid.com's block huggers. Get a bigger air filter, but stay away from K&N. Paper filters filter much better, as long as they are not fram.

Edit: That HP rating you have doesnt match any numbers i have. 472's were rated at 375 gross HP and 500's were rated at 400 gross hp.



K&N's dont filter as well, but if your going for power a K&N will give you more power than no filter.

its a big block caddy... i dont think a few specs of dust are going to harm it much. It might, but i dont think it will. joez, you mentioned something about breathing easier, you forgot to mention exhaust if you can breath in all that air, it doesn't do much good if you can't get it out just as equally fast right? Get a decent set of headers and a decent dual exhaust setup, no mufflers would help it alot, it would be loud but sound way badass.

[joez]

You can either modify BBC headers, or get a set of 500cid.com's block huggers. Get a bigger air filter, but stay away from K&N. Paper filters filter much better, as long as they are not fram.


Skife, im quoting myself here. The way i see it, if headers are being mentioned it goes without saying that a good exhaust will follow them. Big block chevy headers need the flange cut off and a new one welded on, or he could buy a set of 500cid.com's blockhuggers. No muflers are not a great idea on a daily driver, maily because with the now almost 0 backpressure, fuel needs to be increased, and by quite a bit on a big block caddy. This kills any hope he had for fuel economy. Like i said, helping it breath will help economy, but only to a point.

As for K&N, i will NEVER run another one of their products, nor will i ever recomend them to anybody else. They dont just let a few specs of dust threw.

[PyRo]

K&N's dont filter as well, but if your going for power a K&N will give you more power than no filter.

its a big block caddy... i dont think a few specs of dust are going to harm it much. It might, but i dont think it will. joez, you mentioned something about breathing easier, you forgot to mention exhaust if you can breath in all that air, it doesn't do much good if you can't get it out just as equally fast right? Get a decent set of headers and a decent dual exhaust setup, no mufflers would help it alot, it would be loud but sound way badass.

Ok why don't K&N filters work as well as others? You have been misinformed on that 2nd statement. Using no filter WILL give you the best flow, I guess the K&N filters are made of tiny microscopic superchargers woven together and that is how it flows more air than no filter. Ontop of that the flow differance between a K&N filter and decent paper filter is miniscule meaning you arn't going to notice any differance even on a dyno unless your motor is really starved for air. Those few specs of dust will harm the motor that is what air filters are for.
You don't need a dual exhaust, 3in mandrel bent pipes will do you just fine. If you are planning on driving it on the street put in a muffler and if you feel like being nice to the enviroment keep the cat. If you need to make a lot of noise just get an electronic cutout, flipping a switch goes from a quiet emissions freindly exhaust to an earth shaking smog pouring exhaust.

[skife]

Ok why don't K&N filters work as well as others? You have been misinformed on that 2nd statement. Using no filter WILL give you the best flow, I guess the K&N filters are made of tiny microscopic superchargers woven together and that is how it flows more air than no filter. Ontop of that the flow differance between a K&N filter and decent paper filter is miniscule meaning you arn't going to notice any differance even on a dyno unless your motor is really starved for air. Those few specs of dust will harm the motor that is what air filters are for.
You don't need a dual exhaust, 3in mandrel bent pipes will do you just fine. If you are planning on driving it on the street put in a muffler and if you feel like being nice to the enviroment keep the cat. If you need to make a lot of noise just get an electronic cutout, flipping a switch goes from a quiet emissions freindly exhaust to an earth shaking smog pouring exhaust.


hot rod magazine did a test 2 months ago, i think it was the september issue that had a BBC and they took and ran a bunch of different filter on it and then no filter, a K&N ran the most performance, Its because a filter sort of funnels the air down the carberator

[PyRo]

That's news to me, I have seen tests done with differant types of filters. The K&N flowed a tiny bit better than the best paper filter, and no filter flowed a tiny bit better than the K&N.
And how were they doing their tests?

Open filters sounds cooler too :)

[skife]

That's news to me, I have seen tests done with differant types of filters. The K&N flowed a tiny bit better than the best paper filter, and no filter flowed a tiny bit better than the K&N.
And how were they doing their tests?

Open filters sounds cooler too :)

on a flywheel dyno indoors.

[PyRo]

on a flywheel dyno indoors.
How reliable is that? Their are a million thing that can affect hp; slight variations in temperature, humidity, etc.

[skife]

hahahahaha.

[PyRo]

Whats so damn funny :)

[joez]

hot rod magazine did a test 2 months ago, i think it was the september issue that had a BBC and they took and ran a bunch of different filter on it and then no filter, a K&N ran the most performance, Its because a filter sort of funnels the air down the carberator

ever notice the big giant K&N adds that they have in their rags? Or how about the comercials on their TV show? Magazines are horribly biased, because most of these manufacturers, such as K&N, sell their products based on Hype, not how it actually works. When the rags say that it flows better, not only do they get to keep selling their magazine space to them (which isnt cheap, at all), but the manufacturer sells more product. If they say the truth, that it is a load of BS and doesnt filter for crap, then they loose a customer, who will go to the next magazine and hype them up and buy their add space.

If you actually stop and think about how the filter works, you will quickly realize that thinking a filter flowing more air than nothing at all is impossible.

[AGDlover]

i know cars and joez just own ya!!!!

[TMAXXKING1]

i am guessing it has the stock air filter set up on it .... take the lid and flip it over ,, gives more air and as the tool box mr. ford would say now listen to the throuty v-8...

[PyRo]

i know cars and joez just own ya!!!!
Hey I owned him first

[PyRo]

i am guessing it has the stock air filter set up on it .... take the lid and flip it over ,, gives more air and as the tool box mr. ford would say now listen to the throuty v-8...
That doesn't work with all filters you would need to see the setup to know if it would do anything (bad or good). Unless you are familar with the car?

[skife]

nothing