1970 Cadillac Eldorado - Baby Blue

Shame the Corinthian Blue paint on this 1970 Cadillac Eldorado is as worn down as it is, having spent its 56 years getting pounded by the weather up here on the coast of Lake Erie. It's peeling in places, too. The fact that this needs a new paint job is one of the reasons the asking price is just $6,000.

There are rust bubbles under the vinyl roof, too. This needs to come off completely, of course, and the body underneath it repaired properly. This, along with the paint job, could easily run $15,000. No sense in cheaping out, either; the rust will just come back. Whether you replace the vinyl top or not—I wouldn't—is up to you.

What's most disconcerting are the rusting, more like disintegrating, rear structural mounting areas. This is where things get interesting with the Eldorado's unusual construction. The 1967–1970 Eldorado used a semi-unitized body shell with a long subframe carrying the powertrain and front suspension. That subframe extended rearward to roughly the area of the forward rear-leaf-spring mounts. It wasn't a conventional full-length frame like you'd find under a traditional body-on-frame Cadillac.

Can this even be fixed? Good question. I'm sure some hack with a blowtorch would be willing to give it a shot. The proper repair would mean cutting out the rotten metal and replacing it with properly fabricated structural sections. Finding replacement structural pieces could be another matter entirely. You also have to be concerned about the rust having spread into the surrounding body structure as well.

This would be what would make me walk from the deal. Where there's smoke, there's fire, as they say, and where there's rust, there's more rust. When structural mounting areas are compromised this badly, there's bound to be other places where it's soft.

Cadillac first came out with an Eldorado in 1953 to commemorate its 50th anniversary; the name actually originated with a 1952 Golden Anniversary show car. In 1951, Cadillac's advertising agency held an internal "name-that-car" contest, and a secretary in Cadillac's merchandising department, Mary Ann Zukosky, came up with "El Dorado." She didn't get a new Cadillac Eldorado, but she did receive a $25 U.S. Defense Bond.

The Eldorado went through myriad changes over the next decade or so, at times devolving into little more than a fancified deVille convertible. That changed in 1967 when Cadillac introduced this front-wheel-drive Eldorado, which shared little structurally with what it replaced.

These were Cadillac's first front-wheel-drive production cars, but unlike the front-drivers it came out with in the 1980s, the engine wasn't transversely mounted. It was mounted longitudinally, like the engines in rear-wheel-drive cars.

That meant the engine's output had to be redirected from the rear of the engine to the front-wheel-drive transmission. That was accomplished through a specialized "split" transmission and transaxle arrangement using a two-inch-wide "Hy-Vo" chain.

The engineering was remarkably sound, and torque steer was well controlled despite these cars being powered by some of the largest engines ever installed in a passenger car. The 1967 Eldorado was powered by Cadillac's 429-cubic-inch V-8, which had debuted in 1964. That engine was itself an evolution of the 390-cubic-inch V-8 introduced for 1963.

For 1968, Cadillac introduced its clean-sheet 472-cubic-inch engine. For 1970, the 472's basic architecture was enlarged to 500 cubic inches, but the 500 was exclusive to the Eldorado that year. Hence, this Marketplace gem here has the 500, which for 1970 was rated at 400 SAE gross horsepower and 550 lb-ft of torque.

Hard to determine exactly what that 400 gross horsepower would be in net horsepower. There isn't a simple formula for converting one to the other, since SAE gross and net horsepower were measured under different conditions. Suffice it to say that the net figure would have been substantially lower. Using my crazy "Charley Math", I wouldn't be surprised if this engine netted roughly 250-horsepower. Your opinion may vary. See dealer for details.

Contemporary road tests of the 1967–1970 Eldorado were generally pretty benign. They noted that the cars rode just like any other luxury car of the day. Other than the lack of a driveshaft hump, there was little indication from behind the wheel that the car was front-wheel-drive.

Surveys of Eldorado buyers found that the vast majority didn't buy the car because it was front-wheel-drive; they bought it because they liked its styling. I get that. These cars are really special. The clownish parade floats that replaced them from 1971 to 1976? Not so much, as I see it through my foggy goggles.

So, what happens to baby blue here? Good question. Perhaps the seller will grow desperate and let it go for a fraction of the asking price. $6,000 is still $6,000, although it seems five- and six-grand is like two grand from 20 or 25 years ago.

I just hope someone doesn't pay anywhere near the asking price and then find out they've been had. That's why it's always best to get the car in the air and have it checked out from top to bottom before purchasing. If the seller refuses to let you do that, well, they're telling you, in not so many words, everything you need to know about the car.