1969 Cadillac Coupe deVille - Countdown to 1986

"Best of all...it's a Cadillac"

1986 was Cadillac's nadir, so to speak. That's based on years of missteps and circumstances beyond their control that culminated in a line up of automobiles that included the Chevrolet Cavalier based Cimarron (above) and the all new for 1986 Eldorado and Seville (I actually liked that little Seville). The styled in a high school shop class, front wheel drive DeVille and Fleetwood were in the second year of HT 4100 powered infamy, the wraps were coming off the inexplicable Allante and the only rear wheel drive sedan they had was now powered by a puny Oldsmobile 307. The only thing that Cadillac had going for them was "tradition" and they were bundling their entire steaming mess together with an oxymoronic advertising slogan playing off that sentiment.   

That table set, let's take a look at today's subject, a car that I actually adore, a 1969 Cadillac Coupe deVille.

There were many "last great Cadillacs" before the storied brand slid below under water in 1986. This 1969 Coupe DeVille is certainly one of them although there were obvious signs that Cadillac was taking on water. 

The exterior styling certainly was still "Cadillac" with all the requisite clichés that made a Cadillac a Cadillac. You'll even find vestigial tail fin lights on every Cadillac available today.

Adhering to a three year model cycle that was de rigueur at General Motors for years after World War II, the 1969 Cadillacs were the second year of a three year model cycle that, in and of itself, was an update of their all new for 1965 models.

The new for 1968, who-cares-about-gas mileage, pre smog 472 V-8 was still amazingly responsive and seemingly destined for engine immortality. Funny thing happened on the way to heaven. Cadillac enlarged this engine to 500 cubic inches for 1970 with plans to go as large as 600 cubic inches. The issue with this engine was that it didn't offer any significant increase in performance above and beyond anything similar from Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac or Chevrolet.

Where the cracks in the foundation were obvious were here in the cabin. Hard to believe that this is the interior of General Motor's top-of-the-line automobile at any time in its history let alone one from an automobile when General Motors was allegedly still at the top of its game. Feel the cheapness as you run your hands along the plastic injection molded dashboard.

Forty seven years of wear, tear and just plain old atmospheric deterioration certainly doing no favors to this chintzy, granny's paisley sofa cloth interior. Leather lined Cadillacs of this vintage weren't that luxurious when new either.  In my opinion, the high grade vinyl or what was called naugahyde  on Buicks of this vintage was much nicer. What were you buying exactly for twice the price of a Chevrolet Caprice?

You can almost hear and feel the hollow clickity clack, click-click-click of the cheap plastics of this dashboard that wouldn't look out of place in a Caprice.  

If you didn't know this was a Cadillac already and were asked to guess what car this back seat came from, would you say, "Cadillac" based on this photograph? Note the over spray on the pin for the door latch. This car is for sale for $12,995 by the way. Here's the listing on ebay.

Here's an exclusive touch you wouldn't find on any other GM product at the time - windshield wiper controls on the driver's door. Did come in handy when wanted to work the wipers when you were standing outside the car, though.

In many ways, this car is like an elegant restaurant that serves the same food much less expensive restaurants sell. Same could be said for just about every Cadillac made after, say, 1955 as many of the performance and creature comforts that were once exclusive to Cadillac had trickled down to lesser models on the GM pricing ladder. As GM stopped plowing profits back into engineering to keep Cadillac "The Standard of the World", the gap narrowed between Cadillac and even Chevrolet to such a point that the  only thing going for a Cadillac was the fact it was a "Cadillac".

Usher in the age of Cadillac's infamous, "Best of all it's a Cadillac" ad campaign that began in 1982 and was mercifully gone after their nadir in 1986. In many ways, Cadillac is still recovering from 1986 as they struggle to sell their fabulous modern cars that are arguably, and remarkably, better than anything from Germany. Problem today is that Cadillac can't find enough buyers willing to pony up the premium price for a Cadillac but they are willing to pay a premium for a BMW, Audi or Mercedes. Reason for that goes all the way back to Cadillac's nadir that took decades to achieve just as it will take decades for Cadillac to reverse that sentiment.

1986 Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country Convertible - The Automobile in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles".

Thanksgiving is here so let's stuff the bird, stuff ourselves, watch football games we could care less about and dust off our old VHS tape of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and drop it into our virtual VCR. "Planes" is John Hughes' 1987 holiday classic about Neal (Steve Martin) and Dell (John Candy) and their epic three-day journey to get Neal home from Manhattan for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Along the way, they rent an automobile. Well, Dell does. 

Dell doesn't rent just any automobile, though. He rents the biggest four-wheel joke of the 1980's - a Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country convertible. A car as perfectly cast as the foil for John Candy's comedic brilliance as the Trans Am added to Burt Reynolds' machismo-cool in "Smokey and The Bandit" and what the cheesy-exuberance of the DeLorean in "Back to the Future" did for Michael J. Fox. 

Producers of "Planes" used a total of six "automobiles" in the movie - a combination of stock, woodie-free Chrysler LeBaron's and Dodge 600 convertibles. For the record, Dodge 600's never came optioned as woodies. Apparently as an homage to the "Wagon Queen Family Truckster" from National Lampoon's, "Vacation", the cars were painted lime-green; the simulated wood grain applique and plastic molding trim added afterwards. John Hughes wrote the short story that "Vacation" was based on.  

Chrysler executives at the time, and we have to assume, included the lordly Lee Iacocca (above), were none-too-fond that one of their models crushed, smashed, made fun of and ultimately incinerated. That, and for all intents and purposes, a "clown car". Any car could have been the "automobile" in "Planes" - why'd they go to the extraordinary efforts of gussying up the cars for the movie? Plain and simple - because they were funny looking. Could Chrysler's hesitancy also have been because they knew their K-car based LeBaron "woodie" convertible was, being kind, a polarizing design and concept? 

Somewhat amazingly if not stupefyingly so considering how unique and distinctive the LeBaron woodies were, Chrysler stiffs were ok with the use of the cars in the film if no Chrysler branding was visible - as if no one would be able to tell what they were. Hence, producers removed all Chrysler badges and, poking fun, affixed "Gran Detroit" to the flanks of the cars - the unofficial, official name of the car was, "Gran Detroit, Farm and Country Turbo". The only labeling on the car original to it the "TURBO" badges on the back of the front fenders denoting the turbocharged, 2.2-liter Chrysler engine under the hood. It's not clear if the car in this shot was originally a Chrysler LeBaron or Dodge 600; the 600 had a six-inch longer body. The cars had somewhat different front ends and used different taillight lenses. 

Keen-eyed K-car fans know that the car in this scene is a Dodge 600 gussied up to look like a Chrysler LeBaron woodie. It's longer body giving the stubby car somewhat better design proportion and balance. Somewhat. There's only so much designers could do with these cars. 

This car here is clearly a Chrysler LeBaron woodie. Sorry, "Farm and Country". Dang it - "Town and Country". 

The "square-body", 1982-1986 Chrysler LeBaron was part of Chrysler's K-car series that debuted in 1981 and sold well enough that Chrysler was able to pay back $1.5 billion in government loans they received in 1979 early. K-car styling, or lack thereof, was by design. The cars were simple, practical, no-frills automobiles targeted at a middle America struggling to recover from the double-dip recession of the 1970's; that subsequently beat the tar out of already cash strapped Chrysler. Nothing building confidence like little victories.

The original Chrysler LeBaron K-car convertible debuted in 1982 and added some calculated whimsy to a staid lineup. The "woodie" Town and Country models, which came out in 1983 and were offered for sale through 1986, were, frankly, a long putt if you weren't of the age to appreciate what Chrysler was attempting to do with them. That being to ape the haughty Town and Country's of the late 40's and 50's (note the old car in the background in the above ad). Again, being kind, the design was half-baked at best, off-putting at worst. Look closely enough and you can see Ricardo Montalban rolling his eyes. 

Woodies aside, historically, the 1982-1986 LeBaron convertible was significant because it was the first Chrysler branded convertible since 1970 and the first factory-built convertibles sold by a domestic manufacturer since the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. Frankly, having had a literal front row seat through the entire Chrysler K-car and LeBaron woodie saga, there's not much I can conjure up to say positively about them. Sorry, Captain Gen X over here, I wasn't a fan. I'm still not, although, could any other then-contemporary car have been the "automobile" in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles?"

Greeted with critical acclaim upon release, "Planes" was quite the accomplishment for John Hughes as he was construed in Hollywood as nothing but a teen angst filmmaker at the time (Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club etc). Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up declaring it John Candy's best role to date. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" has 94% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is featured on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" collection. 

Little Red Corvette - Waiting To Exhale

There's always something going wrong or about to go wrong with this car. It is the most lovely car I've ever owned but it is also the biggest hunk of garbage I've ever owned too. 

I've been lucky diagnosing the problems that I've had with our 1977 Corvette. While the work to repair what was wrong has been at times challenging, diagnosing what was wrong in the first place has been very straight forward. Except, however, when "Little Red Corvette" started to have what I melodramatically described as "intermittent catastrophic electrical problems".

It all began last summer after I pulled out the dead passenger side power window motor so we could open and close the window manually. After I put the car back together there was no power in the cabin. I checked everything I could and I found nothing wrong and then, seemingly like magic, there was power in the cabin and the car started. It continued to do so with the problem not coming back at all for the rest of last summer.

Everything I read on replacing this power steering pump had me believing it was going to be water torture to get the old one out and the new one in. I found it to be a very straight forward dare I say simple process. What came next had me ready to push the car into Lake Erie. 

I quickly forgot about this problem, that is, until this past February after I went to start the car after I replaced the power steering pump. Just like last summer there was no power in the cabin and the car wouldn't start. Great.  Another test of everything found nothing wrong and then, just like before, the power returned to the cabin and the car turned over. A couple of times. It went back to being dead and this time "dead car syndrome" was here to stay. What made it very confusing for me was that sometimes there would be power in the cabin but the starter would just go "chunk" or "click-click-click". After the "chunk" and "clicking" there would be no power in the cabin again. Sometimes for days. Then power would inexplicably come back on but the car wouldn't start - the whole "click-click-click" and the going dead again three act play playing itself out over and over.

Certain that there was something horribly wrong and sick to my stomach at the notion of having the car towed to a shop, I contacted the "technical director" at one of the parts distributors I use and attempted to describe what was going on. He told me that it was probably a bad starter since sometimes the car would have power. Seemed odd seeing that I replaced the starter when I first got the car in 2012 but I replaced it anyway. After I went through that pain in the neck the car had power in the cabin and the car did crank! at first. It then went back to being as dead as before. I spoke to the tech again and this time he recommended I check the grounds. In doing so I found the negative battery cable to be very corroded so I replaced it and I also removed, inspected and cleaned the ground strap from the engine block to the motor mount on the right side of the car. All this, by the way, taking hours to complete. Amazing how time flies when you're frantically trouble shooting. After all that the damn car still had no power! At this point I'm losing my patience and I'm thinking of pushing lovely plastic lump into Lake Erie.

My Little Red Corvette was in this position for most of the winter as I tried over and over and over to get it to start. 

Once again describing the problems that I was having with the car in great detail but this time on http://www.corvetteforum.com, several people insisted the problem was a bad ground. Bad ground? Really? Hadn't I fixed that problem already? Someone suggested I attach a jumper cable to the negative post on the battery and the other end to the body so as to at least I could establish some sort of solid ground from the battery. And what do you know, it worked! But the starter cranked very slowly and then went "click-click-click". However, the car didn't go dead after wards. I was somewhat elated since I felt I was making progress even if I had no idea exactly what that progress was. 

This picture was taken on the service road on west bound I-90 the weekend I finished the power steering project. Leery of the power issue, I left the car running when I took this picture. 

Then I pulled battery out and connected it directly to the starter using jumper cables. While I got power in the cabin, this time the starter wouldn't turn at all. Thinking I was back to square one and that something dire was wrong with my car's electrical system, I logged onto corvetteforum.com and found out that jumper cables can't handle the load that it takes to crank and engine. Good to know. With that in mind, I bought new battery cables and attached the positive to the starter and bolted the ground to the frame . With everything as securely fastened as I could get it, and holding my breath while standing on one leg for good luck, the car fired right up. Over and over. Hurrah. More than half way home.

This picture was taken before most of the recent disasters unearthed themselves. Failed rear brakes, passenger side power window motor stopped working, power steering system failed, and of course the lingering "dead cabin" issues. 

Convinced that it was a bad ground after all, I put the battery back in and secured the grounding end of  the negative battery cable to a better place than I had it previously. I tightened everything down again as best as I could and "Little Red Corvette" turned right over. And, blissfully, continues to do so. I've surmised that the original problem was the corroded negative battery cable but I compounded problems by not installing the new one correctly.

Little Red Corvette is running again. At least for now. 

Ironically, what at first seemed to be an almost insurmountably difficult problem for me to diagnose turned out to be something very simple. I have to thank the members of http://www.corvetteforum.com for their help and I recommend that site wholeheartedly for anyone with an Old Corvette like my '77. Hopefully, I will have a driving season with as few breaks in it as possible because of breakdowns. I'm waiting to exhale.