1969 Fleetwood is Here!!!

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Kevinpreston3

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Apr 28, 2005
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Made all the arrangements yesterday, and had it flat bed towed here from my parents' house about an hour away. Mom had tears in her eyes and was so glad that they didn't have to sell it (she didn't think she could) and that it would forever be part of the collection.

Dad and I put in a new battery and with a spritz of quick-start, she fired right up. We took it for a spin around the block, and the only thing wrong was the thump thump thump of the now out of round tires (from sitting so long). No leaks to mention. Amazing...usually GMs like to leak transmission fluid when they have sat so long, and you have to put in sealer treatment to get it to stop. Not here.

The brakes are a little bit weak, but not that bad...still have to find out why the rear-feeding master cylinder chamber had been dry. Probably just a break cylinder on one of the rear drums.

It still smells good inside. Up on the flatbed, I looked under the whole car, no rust, not even on the exhaust. Here are some pictures, not the best quality, better ones will come later.
 
Rear view....

Here is a shot from behind. Notice the taillights--for 1970 they would become diamond shape. I love these abbreviated fins. I remember looking out at the fins as we drove across the interstate when I was a kid.

This very vehicle made the trip back and forth from Denver to Chicago 4 times, and finally, from Chicago to San Diego/LA.

I was still small enough at 13 that I could lay across the back seat like a bed when we came out to Chicago without my sisters in tow. Heck, I could still sleep back there.

Trailer hitch will be de-welded.
 
Back seat

Here are the back seat accomodations, or sleeping quarters if you will.

Twin footrests, reading lamps that rotated (and you could read by them, at night I would throw a blanket over my head and read an automobile book until dad yelled at me that the light was still coming through the blanket and distracting him!

Ashtrays with lighters for rear seat passengers, three seatbelts in the back, fold down armrest, original Cadillac rear seat floor mats. Notice the awesome yellow and red door lights, so oncoming traffic can see you when have the door open.

Do you have enough legroom or shall I pull my seat forward a little?
 
Kevin, AWESOME Caddy!! LOVE the styling and the double-headlight configuration on the front...I wonder what year this was dropped? I saw a 1972 Fleetwood on eBay, and it had a different front end/grille, with the turn signals mounted between the headlights instead of on the fenders.

Now you'll be cruising at 100 (that feels like 60) again!! Congratulations!!
 
Driver's control center

Ok I lied. This one does not have a Wonderbar type radio, that must have been my dad's 1971 Coupe DeVille.

It does have the flip down am/fm panel radio, and up and down arrow buttons for the electric antenna.

The steering wheel moves both up and down and is telescopic, not anything special today but it was back then. The horn is activated by squeezing a soft rubber line around the inside of the steering wheel rim.

The parking brake disengages automatically when you put the car in drive. It was 20 years or more until I saw that in another car that was not a Cadillac.

The flash from the camera makes the dash look worn, but it's not. In person it looks almost new.
 
So, Kevin--

Is this going to be a daily driver, or a "every other Sunday?"

Very cool car. In fact, this is one of the last Cadillac years I really like.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Another land-yacht hits the road! Yay!

I remember those rear footrests. I believe a friend of my grandmother had a Caddy with them.

Our 1973? Ford LTD station wagon had the auto-release parking brake.
 
Very nice old Fleetwood Kevin! Looks like the body and interior are original and in very good condition. You are very lucky to be able to have the car you and your parents took on vacation when you were a child. How fantastic is that!! (:

This bodystyle ran for two years, 1969 and 1970. I had a 1973 Fleetwood many years ago. It had the 472 CID. the fuel economy was 7MPG in the city. Hope you get better that that!

Good luck with your classic Cadillac!

Rick
 
Family vacation....

Thanks for the nice words folks.

On the vacation piece, yes it is really nice to have something from way back then. The other car that had a special place in my heart was our 1961 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon. We sold it to a private party shortly upon getting the Cadillac. For years I dreamed of getting that car back...the Pontiac was the "drive in" car and we had many miles in that one too.

It took me 15 years to find one but I got one that is close the year before last. Different color and options, but a '61 Safari nevertheless. So I feel great having one that reminds me of our old car, and one that IS one of our old cars!
 
Thermostat controlled AC

Oooooh. Nice.

Ya know, this leads me to another rant.

You can get an air conditioner for under $100 with a digital thermostat and they work reasonably well. So why don't all cars come with thermostatic control?

Also, what's that little black box under the dash next to the steering wheel? It's attached with some kind of bracket.
 
That horrible thing....

Quote:

Also, what's that little black box under the dash next to the steering wheel? It's attached with some kind of bracket.
--------------

Several years back my mom and dad went through a brief period of renting trailers or motorhomes for week long getaways. The only did the trailer thing twice. There is a hitch and power socket on the car, which are going to be jettisoned. That box has something to do with the brakes for the trailer...whenever you apply the brakes it clicks and the light on it glows. Drives me crazy. As soon as I figure out how to remove it without damaging anything it's gone too.

Note about Guide Matic, Autronic Eye, Sentinel, etc.

The Guide-Matic Headlight Power Control dimmed the highbeams automatically upon coming across another car--then switches them on high again automatically. You could override it with a foot switch. This was an update to the Autronic Eye. My car does not have this option, but you could get it AND the Sentinel according to my manual. Here is an interesting article:

http://www.dorrengineering.com/background.htm
The Twilight Sentinel, shown on the dash just as "Sentinel", turns the headlights on automatically when it is dark. Its sensitivity to darkness is adjusted by the bezel around the headlight switch. My dad didn't like it because if you left it on and went to start your car in the morning in the garage, it put the lights on while you started, putting a big load on the battery. (especially in a cold winter).

Just for fun, I tested mine last night, and it works. It's really cool because when you turn off the engine, you can hear a relay click and it turns your lights off for you a few seconds after the engine stops.

Again, no big nowadays, my Chevy Venture has it automatically, but very fun in an older car.
 
Drove it on a few....

....extended spins...you know, not very far away, but you just kind of keep going around a 5 mile diameter of your house.

There is a slow drip of brake fluid out front somewhere, it may even be the master cylinder. Aside from that, the brakes are excellent, does not appear to be a wheel cylinder. No pull or anything, but have to get it fixed immediatly.

Aside from that, the out of round tires rounded themselves! Yep, the car sure rides better than one my dad and I took it around his block. It is totally smooth and quiet. I think all it really needs is new spark plug cables, as one shocked me just by touching it, so obviously we are losing some ignition energy. Heck, they may be the originals. All in all though, it seems to have the right power.

I was so pleased. Once the brake thing is done, I can focus on the air conditioning, but that will probably be resolved further into the future.
 
Ah, for the days, when...

...we didn't drive injection-molded cars.

That is one nice Caddy! I like the elegance of the interior. I didn't know they had the delayed shut off for the lights in '69...cool! Fleetwoods always get a plus with me for the formal rear window. Kevin, interesting top treatment, too, on your Cadillac -- the margin between the vinyl top and the edge areas of the roof -- I didn't know Cadillac ever did this style of top.

Beautiful automobile, may you enjoy many years of pleasure with it!

John
 
GuideMatic

is an easy retrofit, a trip to a Pick-A-Part would probaly yield a working one. Mostly a simply lug-=in installation.
 
Took it for extended drives...

Including some full throttle runs on the freeway. Still gets up and goes great. Took the wife out in it, she had not been in the car since my mom stopped driving it over 7 years ago, and she was impressed.

Having a ball in it....

KP
 
YAY, glad to see you're having a blast driving it! I have to admit, all of these posts about vintage Cadillacs is really influencing my decision to sell my (slow) truck and start looking for one! A 1969-1976 Eldorado convertible (with the 500 CID V8) or late-60's Coupe DeVille (with the 472) is what I have in mind...and gas mileage isn't a problem as long as it's powerful!

Jaune, complements are nice. Don't be afraid to use them once in a while. :)
 
Westy....

There is a guy around here driving a late 60s CDV, but it is a really strange green. Trying to figure out if it is a stock, and rarely used, color. It is in really nice shape.

I had a friend who had an Eldorado...make sure the front end (transmission and front drive) is really in good shape when you get it, the transmission, etc. My understanding is that they are quality built but a pain and $$$ when they break.

You are going to have more back seat room in a CDV than an Eldo, if that is important to you...one reason why my dad went for the CDV.

Gas mileage is dependent of course on how you put your foot into it, and whether you have a long commute. Some people complain that the ride on these older vehicles is TOO soft. My response to that is just don't race them or turn fast corners! They are not made for it. They are made for luxurious cruising, and if you open it up, cruising at a rapid and comfortable pace.

The nice thing Westy is that these are cheap enough that you don't have to sell your driver to get one, unless of course space or insurance are key factors. For insurance, Amica has a collector car policy that as long as you have a regular car under insurance (it does not have to be thru them) you can get their collector car policy for CHEAP, agreed upon value, as long as you promise to garage it and keep the mileage down. Food for thought!

One other thing, who is Jaune?!
 
Kevin, I had a 1976 Eldorado convertible for 19 years. It was a very nice flashy car,however it was the worst automobile I ever owned! And I LOVE Cadillacs!! I am sorry,the quality of those Eldorados (1971-1978) was very poor. Between the repairs costs and high fuel usage,it could send a wealthy man to the poor house to try to use one of those as daily transportation. Mine would fall apart just sitting in the garage!

Austin, you would be way ahead to look for a 1977 to 1979 Coupe de'Ville with the 425 CID. The late 1970's were better than the early 1970's for Cadillac.And the Devilles of those years were much better that the Eldorados.

Rick (who has owned many)
 
I love the

Wow sweet ride. I have only driven one Cadillac in my lifetime considering that I came from a Lincoln-Mercury or Ford Division household.

I found out what "Cadillac Style" meant when my dad brought home a mint cond 1980 Coupe Deville with the 500ci in June 1997, it only had 63,110 miles on it that summer day when I saw this gold General Motors monster park up in our driveway. He traded a 1984 Crown Victoria for it plus some cash to a guy who bought it for his daughter...but she wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

It was a sweet ride roomier than anything I had driven with the sole exception of my 1979 TownCar... Was a metallic gold with a wite vinyl florentine style rear coach style roof, white leather upholstery with beige carpet and enough woodgrain on the dash to make a person puke.

The engine was smooth and quiet and had plenty of ooomph to move it along smartly. I have no idea of what the horsepower was but it did have dual exhausts. It was a former Cadillac dealers personal car as it was ( the glovebox) loaded with every slip of paper that was even deemed nescescary to keep and three logbooks of what he felt could be done to newer Cadillacs that apparnatly he was sending off to GM or some such thing.

The transmission was a Hydramatic of some sort...but not a true four speed as I thought it might be, especially after reading just a few day before about a 1956 Cadillac. After driving around the first three miles that I drove it..in the second drive potion and the engine was running rather high in the rpm's and running very loudly...( yes I was 20 and stupid) that it was nothing more than a three speed transmission.

The first DOT if you will under the massive DRIVE letters allowed it to progress up thru three sequential gearchanges, where the second DOT if you will let it progress up into second gear or intermediate wher it held out until like 70 where it would upshift anyway to thrid or direct. Without your moving the lever...( yes I tried this and so did my younger brother) and then of course had the LOW position after.

PARK R N .DRIVE. Low

This car was a gashog and my brother and I usually full throttled it from stoiplights to see the amber light glow on the dash telling us that the car was drinking fuel like a drunken sailor...and that when crusing out on the interstate it would finally change to green. The switch for our cruise control was on the dash, and the button was at the end of the turn signal stalk.

Ours did have the tilt and telescope so it allowed our young selves to "pimp out" so to speak while having the seat back lay virtually flat. The radio was mediocre in our opinions at the time, but then again coming form the multpile Fords and Mercury's that I owned with just usually a stock AM/Fm casette this radio wasn't so bad.

It held faithful service until one day in 2000 with a carload of freinds we were coming back from a Concert in Detroit where as we hit about 30 miles away from Lansing...the car began to slow down like I had just hit a VERY strong headwind. I of course pushed down on the throttle to hear the engine race...and the car was slowing more still. I figured that the Hydramatic had given out... and thankfully costed off the interstate onto a off ramp.

I caled my dad and AAA towed it home to find that the splines in the rear axles had finally given out, at which time he was told that it seemed like abuse was a major culprit. Which in a sense it was.. he replaced the whole axle assembly and sold it promptly. He never owned another one. Nor di we get the opportunity to use another car of his agian for any extended period.

I miss it. In fact I was just at a car show in Lansing recently and thought I saw our "old Caddy"...almost made me wish that I was more respectable of it..Maybe it wouyld stillbe around.

On a lighter note...i can see wher the upholstery looks like the vacuum cleaner bags of the time....what a pattern that is....LOL

Chad
 
late 70's Cadillacs

"Austin, you would be way ahead to look for a 1977 to 1979 Coupe de'Ville with the 425 CID. The late 1970's were better than the early 1970's for Cadillac.And the Devilles of those years were much better that the Eldorados."

Me and two ofmy roommates had 77 Cadddies, and they were pretty good mechanically, but ther interiors just fell apart. Plastic cracked showing the foam underneath, instrument panel always crakced in the same spot, steering wheels deterioate, power window swith mountings would break and fall into the armrest, the filler panels between the taillights and the body would crumble.
 
Mid to late 70s not good for Domestics!

This was the worst time I agree.

I used to get those huge "World Car Catalogs" from Italy, that have every car made in the world in them. To see what happened to the American car industry, I compare my 1971 guide to the 1976 guide...what horrible thing our industry morphed into, and never did really recover until the mid to late 80s and 90s (some question that, but that's how I feel).

I don't doubt the quality issues about your interior Kenmore and Rick's points too. Cadillacs were still very good in 71 though, in my opinion. My dad's CDV was a 1971 with leather, driven much harder and longer than my mom's Fleetwood. He sold it for like $300 when it had just sat for years in front of his house. 160,000 miles with no problems, aside from typical things such as brakes, an alternator and a water pump. I was amazed. The leather wore a bit on the drivers seat, yet never cracked.

My dad, love the guy, but he would sometimes take the budget way out of things, which is 180 degrees from me. He let the "vocation arts" students repaint his car, which had been a great metallic bronze. Not only did they have it for 5 months, it came back in a color best described as somewhere between salmon, almond and 1000 Island dressing. They said it was "close". Yechhh!

It did serve us very, very well however.
 
picture c. 1985

I worked as service manager at a Cadillac,Oldmobile,Saab dealer from 1980 until 1998. Some of the worst,lack of quality cars Cadillac built were the 1973 to 1976 Fleetwood and de'Villes and the 1971 to 1978 Eldorados. However the grand prize of the worst of the worst was the 1985 to 1987 FWD de'Villes and Fleetwoods. We replaced engines at 4'000 miles on some of those cars.Everything went wrong with those cars. They really were terrible! The 1977 to 1979 de'Villes were really nice Cadillacs though. They were fast,nice looking,easy to drive, trouble free solid cars. We had many customers that wished they had kept those models.
 
1977 Cadillac

The interior problems were the only issues I had with my '77 Sedan DeVille. Mechanically,, I had little trouble with it, just things one would expect like alternator failure, smog pump seizing up, water pump, fuel pump, leaky radiators, master cylinder wearing out. The only other issues I had withit were thath though the ride was generally smooth, going over rough pathes would make all the doors bang against their strikers. And one had to SLAM the doors to close them, though I noticed this problem seemed to extend even back to before the '77 re-do. ('74 Buick Estate wagaon had the same problem with havvign to SLAM the doors). Another weak point is that the headlight adjusters on them (and the other GM cars) were plastic, would break, and your headlights would all go cock-eyed.

Rick, the car fans here called the Caddies you mentioned the "toy" Cadillacs. We absolutely couldn't believe they would bring out something like those.
 

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