Projects 1960 Cadillac Sedan "Sharky"

What's going on guys. I used to lurk this forum all the time when I was in high school and read a lot about everyone's projects. Went to register and realized I already had an account. If you look at my about me it still says this, LOL

"Well, I'm 16 and I really love rods and customs. I've been a long time lurker on the HAMB and, though my car isn't exactly old enough, do love to read about all the amazing work and craftsmanship that goes into these cars. I would like to build my own someday."

Fast forward 12 years, I no longer have the '79 Lincoln I was driving to high school and I'm 28. A lot has happened since then, was kind of cool to see that though. Graduated high school, went to college etc. I now work in the parts business in sales for NAPA. Started to get the itch for something old again.

I had actually been looking at 58-60 Lincolns but stumbled on this thing for too good of a deal to pass up. Drove an hour to the North Georgia mountains to look at it and it just had so much presence in person. I will admit to not really knowing anything about these cars because I always assumed a 59-60 would be too expensive for me to own one.

The car is a 1960 Sedan De Ville with the rare tripower option, Arroyo turquoise originally with turquise interior. Optioned with power seat, power windows, power vent windows, tripower, and even cruise control but a factory non AC car. Here's how it looked in July when I picked it up.





Lots of crappy previous metal work with acres of bondo on top that are now flaking off. Interior was very dirty but salvageable except for the front seat maybe. Some rust through in driver floor board but trunk and frame are ok. Rockers are pretty crusty under there though.



The guy selling it claimed he had driven it from Tennessee to Georgia when he bought it recently but I definitely didn't believe him. I test drove it and it had one working brake and for sure no accelerator pump. I told him I'd think about it and drove home. He messaged me on the way and said for an extra $500 off he'd drop it off at my house on a trailer tonight. So I bought it lol.

First (very careful) drive around the neighborhood



Started to try to clean the interior up. It was filthy. The only thing that would work was actual bleach spray.







had to take my girlfriend for her first ride in it... shortly after this we took a trip to Panama City Beach and drank at a bar called Sharky's so now the car is named Sharky. I think it fits with the fins.



Started to look into the brakes. So for some background I am somewhat ok at working on cars but most of my experience is with 90s-2000s German cars. I had never worked on drum brakes in my entire life so this was quite the experience.

Wheel cylinders were full of Parmesan cheese! Only one was somewhat functioning through a brake hose so clogged maybe a paperclip width of fluid could get through.



At this point it was sort of kind of ready to cruise. My roommate actually borrowed the car for several weeks to drive to work. It didn't let him down.... except for the time the gas tank fell out in bumper to bumper traffic. He replaced the fuel tank.




At this point the water pump had been making a pretty awful clattering noise that got worse and worse. I parked the car until the new pump came in and got to removing the old one. The fittings screwed into the old pump seen here were obviously never going to come out, so I went to Home Depot and bought some 1/2 pipe thread fittings to attach the heater hoses. The water pumps have a different length shaft based on whether or not the car is equipped with AC but the ones you can buy now seem to split the difference. Looks like everything still pretty much lines up well enough.



At this point, I replaced the tired old plugs and wires with Autolites and Beldens. It's pretty funny how my weird German cars never have anything available at work but I can now get whatever I need for the caddy. After I replaced them the car ran like shit. Breaking up, especially under load. I went a little crazy with troubleshooting. The fuel tank was new but I thought maybe the pickup was clogged or the pump was weak. Running it off a jerry can ruled out clogged hoses or pickup, then I found 5.5psi fuel pressure before the carb so that ruled out the pump.



I was scratching my head until I called a buddy of mine who told me to think about what I'd changed. Maybe I got a bad batch of plugs, he suggested. Turns out one of them had absolutely no gap whatsoever... yep, fired right up after it was fixed. Maybe it was dropped or something? Don't know how I didn't notice.

Just got inside from taking the car out to dinner. It flooded really badly, was able to limp it back home. That has never happened, but I have a rebuild kit for a Rochester 2GC handy so I guess I'll try to take a look at it this weekend.

if you're still here, thanks for reading this far. Hope to absorb a lot of knowledge from those much smarter than me! I plan to bag the car in the somewhat near future but want to sort mechanical stuff out first. The 390 is extremely tired, burns quite a lot of oil and leaks just as much. I would rather not throw an LS in the car. I think the 390 will need to be rebuilt or at least needs rings etc. The tri-power doesn't work right either - I got a new vacuum switch to actuate the secondary carbs to complete my setup and fuel just gushes out of the carb toward the firewall. For now I'm running on the center. Maybe just switch back to a single quad Edelbrock etc and sell the tri power stuff? Apparently the air cleaner itself is $1500.

 

60s are my favorite.
Friend of mine has a nice 62.
Great story.
Keep it up.

 

Cool car , great story . Cool your up to the challenge of fixing up an old car .

 

Thing's to replace on ol' vehicles..All three rubber hose on brakes, Fuel pump, An at least, rebuild master..
Fuel pumps age out an can put fuel in your oil, Brake hose's get hardening of the arteries, Master's... Well that's a no brainer... Kool ride!$
An if it's piss'n fuel, change the oil!

 

Cool car and story, careful with the gas leaks, they can ruin a dream in the blink of the eye.

 

great car! you’ll get it sorted out soon!

 

Yessir I’m too ADHD to complete the story I guess but all brake lines wheel cylinders and hoses are now new and it has a 1968 dual chamber master in it in case I want to do a disc conversion in the future!

 

Cool car and even better story so far. I’ll be following along as your story continues.

 

Thanks! I just finished reading the Edsel thread earlier. Great progress

 

those old Caddy's are great cars. I had a 62 Sedan Deville back in the 80's back before they were worth anything.

 

Have you seen Frank DeRosa`s Cad built back in the late 70`s early 80`s. The Shark.

 

Great story. You’ve picked quite a car to cut your teeth on. Trying to keep it on the road will maintain your interest.
Always check plug gap right out of the box. They are never set correctly.
Nice car!!

 

Three deuces, you scored. A great car, I have her 59 four door cousin .

 

I would keep the 390. How about something like a Jasper rebuilt thru NAPA. Sell the tri-power for funding support and go with Edelbrock. Love the car, soft spot for 61/62 coup deville. You done good and oh yea keep the girlfriend!

 

If you're taking votes... keep the 390. Fix the gas leak first. Maybe swap in a 4 barrel while you rebuild the Tri-power? It really depends upon what your ultimate vision is for the car.

 

Great story, and you told it well. Keep the HAMB in the loop, we all want a ride in that car.

 

the problem with owning an old caddy is everyone wants a ride but nobody wants to help pay for gas.

 

You ALWAYS need to re gap new spark plugs, they do not come gapped from the factory. So..... you should pull your plugs and gap them all correctly.

 

Plugs were gapped correctly last night once I realized what was going on. .035 is the right gap correct?

Looking at the carb today. Pretty fun taking it apart. I took a lot of pics to make sure I put it back together right lol.

Here’s what I found when I took the top off:





A couple things I’ve noticed so far:

- literally a third of an inch of rust sediment everywhere
- cap on the vacuum port at the back of the carb was split causing a leak
- choke completely clogged
- accelerator pump spring wasn’t seated. That would explain it but put a new pump in anyway.



Cleaning it out now that it’s off the car. I’ll report back a little later!

 

I know a guy with a 56 that had factory dual 4’s that he constantly had trouble with so he replaced it with a single edelbrock and made it drivable immediately. The cool factor goes away but it can save you a lot of time and troubleshooting and dialing in the 3x2s. plus I’m sure selling the 3x2s and the air cleaner would fund a good chunk of the air bag system.

i had a 4 barrel intake for a 390, but alas I don’t anymore. Sorry.

 

Ya know I hadn’t even thought about that. I believe we use ATK/ironclad for engines, I’ll have to look tomorrow but I’d be surprised if we could get them. A quick google shows me reman 390s do exist though.

Girlfriend says thanks! She is very supportive. Im lucky.

Yep I’m thinking the same. I would love to get it functional to the point I could sell it as a working setup then swap to a single quad.

it looks like the carb project today was successful! I think I need to adjust the accelerator pump a little but having an actual throttle is great. The car feels so much stronger and I really enjoyed messing with the carb.

I recall fuel just gushing out of the carb toward the firewall when I hooked fuel up to all 3, so I’ll have to take a look at that.

I did notice these instructions that came with the Standard/Echlin carb kit have some good info pertaining to Tripower. I’m uploading just in case someone else needs this info.



Maiden voyage. I took it a few exits up the interstate and back. There’s a cars and coffee type meet in Atlanta tomorrow morning I may try to bring it to…

 

Woke up this morning and drove down to Atlanta to cars and coffee! I really have got to look into the wipers not working. That and the dash lights would be nice. Going from a rear engine car on performance radials one minute to this thing on bias plys in the rain the next is a pretty crazy contrast.

The car did great on the 40 mile drive each way and was a hit. Pretty fun crowd, you never know what you’ll see. I like a little of everything.

Just thought this was a cool shot driving through downtown Atlanta.





Parked at the meet.




Next to address is probably the exhaust- massive leak under the drivers side and it’s totally rotted. Don’t want fumes getting in the rust holes in the floors LOL

 

Good stuff! If you remove the 2 X 4BBL intake, replace it with a single 4, but hang the original in the shop until you feel brave enough (or rich enough) to get it going again. I had a '60 Coupe Deville for many years, just one of those cars I now wished I had kept (I had no more room for the big land yacht!). The only problems I got with my wipers were all in the pillar-mounted switch. A workshop manual with the wiring diagram will help, you can short out the switch and see if you get any life from the wipers. One thing I learnt with the Caddy and lack of spares in these parts, is many other GM brands used the same bits. Not a lot, but some electrical stuff was the same . Your wiper motor comes to mind, it is the same as 58-60 Chevy sedan.

 

Don't sell the tripower! If you do, you will always regret selling it!

While if complete, and original, the tripower will bring a lot of cash, but maybe not enough to make the imitation new carb run as well on your Cadillac (Cadillac engines do NOT like Chevrolet carburetor calibrations).

The tripower adds to the mystique of the car!

Should you ever sell the car:
The tripower will add several thousand dollars to the price.
The tripower will multiply by probably a factory of 10 the universe of prospective buyers.

And you get the joy of rebuilding three carburetors rather than only one!

If you do decide to change it out, opt for an original Carter AFB or Rochester 4GC that is calibrated SPECIFICALLY for your engine by the Cadillac engineers, and an original Cadillac intake manifold. Not only will an original run better than the new imitation (on a Cadillac engine), everything fits (fuel line, linkage, air cleaner, transmission linkage, etc.).

The original vacuum linkage CAN be challenging. If you get to the point where you give up on the vacuum linkage; find a Pontiac vendor, and order the mechanical tripower linkage for a 1964 or 1965 (but NOT a 1966) Pontiac GTO, and install.

And while they are NOT as efficient as the original air cleaner for the tripower, you might at least think about a set of reproduction air cleaners for the 1964 or 1965 (again, not the 1966) Pontiac GTO. These do not hide the 3 carburetors like the original. If you go this route, get the paper filters, NOT the foam!

Nice car!

Jon

 

Carbking, you are a treasure trove of knowledge on the HAMB. Thanks for sharing that with us lowlifes.

 

Thanks! I really need to get my hands on a shop manual. Good info about the wiper motor. So far here is what does work:

- power windows (rear 2 need help)
- power seats
- all lights (stuck on high beam)
- radio
- cruise control!
- horn
- interior lights

Doesn't work:
- wipers
- power vent windows
- speedometer
- any of the dash lights

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I just saw your PM and will reply there too. I am feeling more positive about the tri-power now that the center carb is more or less working as needed.... plus I am less intimidated now that I've only taken one apart. I'm sure a lot of you guys are used to this stuff but thinking about it was making my head spin.

Regarding the vacuum switch, I did get one that appears to work well. When I got the car the switch was missing, and I have the complete system with the vacuum reservoir on the firewall, etc. The fuel lines to the secondary carbs aren't the correct hardlines but I think they will work. Right now the issue I'm having is the carb nearest the firewall just floods itself whenever fuel flows to it.


I was able to track down the previous owner who is named on the title. GA does not issue titles for cars this old so I didn’t submit it when I registered the car. He owned it from something like 2000-2005 in Oregon. He was nice enough to send me very blurry photos of how nice it used to look…

 

I agree with carbking, this Caddy is a neat project but the tripower is absolutely the best and most interesting part. Sure they can be finicky and a 4 barrel would be easier, but a Corolla would be easier too, we don't do this because it's easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it and it wouldn't be special anymore.

I like the car though, it seems very intact. I'd be tempted (when you get that far) to repair the lower half rusty spots and just blend them into the remaining original paint, even if it's only a stop-gap effort toward a repaint later on. It's intact-ness is what makes it so intriguing. I wonder if a clear vinyl seat cover on the front seat would help hold the old upholstery together for a while longer?

 

Fuel gushing out of one carburetor PROBABLY means a stuck float, since the car has sat without the secondary carbs being used. Another possibility, although rare, would be the float in that carb was bad.

The float (unless it was replaced by Dr. Goodpliers) would be brass, and may be tested by submerging in hot water, looking for bubbles.

Be careful in looking for rebuilding kits for the ends, as they have special gaskets, special fuel valves, etc.

EDIT: this article from my website MIGHT help:

https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Tripowertuning.htm

Jon

 

Boring sensible Dad hint here, carry a fire extinguisher. Leaking fuel can be so embarrassing..
cool car though.

 

You should also check this Modified Cad site: http://www.modifiedcadillac.org/forum