Here is my latest project, a 1956 Cadillac Seville-first year Cadillac built a four door hardtop. My wife and I have toured the west in a 1966 GTO and a 1964 Corvette, but we now have 5 grandchildren under the age of 7 and they don’t like riding one at a time in the Corvette-plus my wife and I wanted a big car to hit the road for long road trips (the corvette fills up with luggage real fast!
The lady I bought from purchased this car as a parts car to use on her white 56 Seville. She said it ran when parked 3 years ago. The car was an original Southern California car up until 2017 when a previous owner purchased it and had it shipped to Tennessee. While the car has some rust, the floor pans are solid.
I purchased the car in November and had it transported to my friend’s shop about 60 miles from my home. I worked on the car several hours in early February and was unable to get it to start. Last week it only took about 2 hours to finish up the little things on the caddy, and then, to my amazement it cranked almost immediately! The ratty battery cables were causing too much voltage drop-once I installed the ones I had made the starter spun the engine perfectly. Likewise, once I connected a jumper wire from the ballast resistor to the coil, the car had a healthy spark. I drove it almost a mile (to the end of a long street and then turned around in a big parking lot and returned. The brakes are very good, the engine purrs, both front electric windows work perfectly, even the automatic trunk works perfectly. The only unresolved issue (that I am aware of) is getting the throttle linkage to work smoothly/return to idle. That will be next time. I will be unable to work on it until early June. My goal in June is to pull the Gas tank and assess it (currently running on a jug), get the accelerator linkage to move freely, and then drive it home begin sorting out the subsystems on the car to make it a reliable driver.
That will be a great road-trip car. And you can easily seat all four grandkids at the same time. Back when a sedan actually was intended to seat 6 adults.
I had been looking (on and off) for a 56 caddy hardtop for over 2 years when this "parts car" popped up. The picture is a 4600 mile trip we took in the GTO in the fall of 2019 (just before Covid). I hope (short term) to get it dependable enough to make short (less than 100 each way) trips-but ultimately (by summer/fall 2027) I would like to make an epic (5000+) miles in this car.
I noticed that it's a factory A/C car, are you gonna try to get that to work, if so the folks at Vintage Air in S.A. maybe able to help, or get you one of their under the dash units.
The car doesn’t have a belt on the compressor, but it still has some Freon in the system! It has front/rear AC units. I am undecided about whether to keep the system original or upgrade to VA-both the Corvette and the GTO have VA and it works very well.
AC in a car was a pretty new thing back in 56, there is a reason there was a front and a back unit, it needed both back then. If the belt is missing, I suspect there was a problem someplace. I also suspect it may get costly to make the old units function correctly. The old R12 was a much colder air, but was harder to control the comfort level (unless you like frozen or off). The modern AC is likely more efficient (performs better and temp control is better but may not get as cold, as fast) then the original units were, but as large as that car is, a front and rear modern AC might be a better option. It should be a great road car.
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