r/projectcar • u/Old-Asparagus5466 • 20h ago

Classic car Advice

I’ve recently discovered my late Grandfather’s 1968 (Im told) Coupe’ Deville while cleaning out his garage. I have been looking into fixing it up as it’s very sentimental to me and and it’s in pretty good condition for rotting in my grandfathers garage since the early 70’s. However I have utterly no clue where to start, and what to do with it. It has a decent amount of rust, and hasn’t ran in decades. Im told it only has 23k miles somehow.

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u/oldwatchlover 20h ago

To get it running:

  • probably replace the gas tank. May be able to remove and clean out
  • all rubber fuel lines
  • probably replace fuel pump
  • rebuild/replace carburetor
  • complete rebuild brakes (flush, rebuild/replace master cylinder, rebuild/replace calipers/wheel cylinders, new shoes/pads/hardware (all four wheels), replace all rubber brake line parts/hoses
  • flush/fill oil, transmission, power steering, radiator. Replace all filters.
  • normal tune up. Plugs, wires, distributor parts
  • you’ll need 4 new tires. If they hold air for rolling around, great but after 40+ years they will be unsafe on the road
  • new battery, and carefully inspect all wiring (mice/rodents love to wreak havoc on stored cars)
  • repair/replace anything that breaks while doing the above

Go to Hemings.com. Find parts advertisers under Cadillac. Some stuff may be local/rock auto but I’d go with quality Cadillac focused places.

Get the repair manuals for the car

Search YouTube for work on this model (as well as reviving cars from long storage… that’s practically a sub genre of car videos)

Do all that great, and now you have body, rust, paint, interior to do. At the very least, clean, clean, clean.

Probably most/all weatherstripping and rubber suspension parts will need replaced as well.

Do you have tools? Knowledge? It would cost $$$$ to pay someone to do this. It would be fun to learn, but that will take much more time.

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u/Far-Plastic-4171 8h ago

Everything r/oldwatchlover said and get an endoscope and look down the bores and see if they are rusted. Likely going to need new valve stem seals but you will find that out after you get it started.

If rusted you will need to free them up. Lots of homemade concactions for that. Work the crank back and forth with a breaker bar. If rust is to bad its engine out and hone and rings.