My 1973 Cadillac, Huggy Bear

[junkyarddog]

Did you manage to flog a few bits Eddy?

[PhilA]

Looks like it was a day that was good for the mental health.

 

That A is almost a spit of my neighbor's, too. I'm sitting here listening to rain and thunder, which has been threatening all week and finally arrived...

[eddyramrod]

1 hour ago, junkyarddog said:

Did you manage to flog a few bits Eddy?

Yes I did :). I came home about £30 up, which I thought was good enough.

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

Looks like it was a day that was good for the mental health.

 

That A is almost a spit of my neighbor's, too. I'm sitting here listening to rain and thunder, which has been threatening all week and finally arrived...

It really was Phil, thank you.  Huggy got quite a bit of admiration, which always surprises me because I know what lurks under the primer!  Seems the "work in progress" look actually goes down rather well .

[eddyramrod]

2 hours ago, bicycle repairman said:

missed a good day eddie am about recovered from my night off drinking let me know off next one cant waite,love cars good thing about your car,you dont need a table to sell your goods bonnet well big enougth  brill

Next one will be July 4th

[Crackers]

9 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

Yes I did :). I came home about £30 up, which I thought was good enough

Good work that man. Can't ask for any better than that, seeing all those nice motors and coming out a few quid up. 

[junkyarddog]

I'd call that a result!

Well done Eddy.

[eddyramrod]

When I got home on Sunday I noticed the rotten trim at the front edge of the vinyl roof had broken and was flapping loose.

I tried to pull it back into line but a chunk from the middle broke away.  A trip to Halfords was in order.

So yesterday, in three bursts, I filled in the sections I could, using the filler to hold the broken piece back on the roof.

When my head isn't quite so battered by the endless bills I'll have a sanding session and try to sculpt it into something resembling what was there before.  I think it'll need more filler too, but that's for later.

Chuck it out and buy new?

Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?  It's 48 years old, Cadillacs don't come with mouldings like this any more.  What do you think my chances are of finding such things in a UK scrappy, in anything like a usable condition?  Yeah, me too.  I have asked on a US-based Cadillac group on FB, but nobody seems to want to scour their local breakers for inconsequential bits for a car 5000 miles away.  So I'm thrown back on my filler-sculpting experience.

Fucking marvellous.

[PhilA]

There's one on eBay right now but at $175 just for the top section, I think you're currently better off with that and just paint it black.

[AnthonyG]

Weird that the vinyl roof doesn’t cover the whole roof, I guess the stylists were desperate to do something different after 5 or 6 years of vinyl tops as a feature.

1970s American cars always seemed to have padded ones as well, presumably with some sort of foam inside.

Much worse for rust then the British/European sort, which tended to be just flat embossed vinyl cloth - albeit usually glued onto unpainted metal!!! 

[eddyramrod]

I was expecting the roof on this to be padded, but it doesn't seem to be.  My first Cadillac was a 1979, which had had a padded top from new.

Some time before I bought the car, it had been attacked and almost all the covering ripped away.  The padding had a fairly smooth top surface, so as a temporary measure I painted it with black shoe dye!  It looked better until I could afford to get the roof re-covered.  Notice the screen pillars?  The original white vinyl was still there, A and B posts.  The new top I had was black, because I'd got used to the black by then, and had never seen the white.

I think what the styling department set out to do with the previous generation (Huggy's) was simply run a contrasting strip of body colour between the windows and the vinyl.  Several colours of roof covering were available, to suit the colour of the car's paintwork.

[flat4alfa]

On 6/2/2021 at 10:18 PM, eddyramrod said:

Well, without wishing to tempt fate... I think we might be up-and-running again. 

I did an early run to Halfords this morning for some ATF to fill up the power steering, then removed the tape from the mirror plinth and refitted the mirror.  Then filled the tank and went down the road to Grange-over-Sands to meet @flat4alfa who was having a little family holiday up this way.

...Using his family's little RV.  We passed a jolly couple of hours, being Shiters and therefore generally Good Eggs.  Nice to meet you at last, Jason!

I then headed for home, and when I last looked the mirror was still where it should be.  I think I'll leave the exterior one (passenger's door) for next week, because I want to be able to drive the car on Sunday.  But after all the fun* and games* of recent months, it was just lovely to be able to drive Huggy again.  I feel so much better.

Sorry Eddy, bit of a latecomer posting these two after all the recent posts

Great to meet you @eddyramrod (twice in three days!).  Seeing Huggy was a great surprise and as expected, was immense, literally.  With a hood that needs a hefty shove to lift it!  I thought it was stuck...   (southern puff)

Eddy Woollard, in action

[eddyramrod]

I was delighted to be able to come out and meet up!  You have a lovely family too.  I hope they didn't mind me monopolising you (twice, lol). 

Huggy's hood is heavy, isn't it?  I'm constantly amazed the way it self-supports.  Letting people lift it is one of my/Huggy's party tricks.

[eddyramrod]

I've had a couple of days filling and sculpting, and this is what Huggy looks like after all of that.

At least it shouldn't fall off now!  The paint is some leftover (always use leftovers up) gold Hammerite.  It isn't very pretty but it's better than raw filler and bare metal.

[bicycle repairman]

looks good eddie keep it on the road m8 doing my back coil springs tommorror mrs at work and got free day,

[PhilA]

Use any reason you can!

Today the dog didn't want to walk so we went for a joyride!

 

Phil

[eddyramrod]

A ride in your Pontiac is always a joy isn't it?

[PhilA]

19 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

A ride in your Pontiac is always a joy isn't it?

Apart from when the dog sees something out the left of the car gets in my lap, leans on the horn and scares the daylights out of herself and the people walking alongside!

[bicycle repairman]

mine just sleeps in the car,shes 10 not even mine but my daughters who about 8yrs ago can you look after her for weekend,ended up being mine,daughters back home again dogs all over her bloody traiter lol,she goes every were me and mrs,

[eddyramrod]

Huggy went to Morecambe again today...

Not many cars in attendance today, thanks to a big show just up the road and an even bigger, mostly American, one at Tatton Park.

One local chap, who has a 53 Chevy, decided to leave it at home and come by bike instead...

This might look like the frame of a 1942 Harley with added pedals, and there's a reason for that: because it was designed to!  It is actually a purpose-built pedal cycle that's about two years old, and very heavy.  I think it's brilliant.

Oh and I sold the last T-shirt.

[PhilA]

This popped up for sale local to me. 

That's an awful lot of money for a crew-cab.

[eddyramrod]

71/72, looks lovely but what was the price?

[PhilA]

6 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

71/72, looks lovely but what was the price?

$15,500.

Does have the paisley pimp-trousers seats in crushed velvet though.

[eddyramrod]

I think I've underpriced Huggy!

[DSdriver]

23 minutes ago, PhilA said:

$15,500.

Does have the paisley pimp-trousers seats in crushed velvet though.

I think I need to see pictures, despite my art school training and years of working in advertising I am having terrible trouble visualising that

[PhilA]

7 hours ago, DSdriver said:

I think I need to see pictures, despite my art school training and years of working in advertising I am having terrible trouble visualising that

Very similar to this. Just more paisley-esque.

[eddyramrod]

On 6/11/2021 at 2:02 PM, flat4alfa said:

when I last looked the mirror was still where it should be.  I think I'll leave the exterior one (passenger's door) for next week,

(Actually that was a quote from one of my previous posts...)

Two months later and "next week" still hasn't arrived.  It may never arrive, as there is interest in Huggy now.  But you know how it is... anything can happen.

[eddyramrod]

Flashback time now for @flat4alfa!  We met up twice during his visit and on the second occasion found a stash of Rover P4s.  Walking down the lane it became clear that someone further down was a car nut, and indeed turned out to be a chap I know slightly from the Museum meets.  In his garage was the shell of a genuine 1965 Mini Cooper S, which was at the reassembly stage of restoration.  We were both very taken with it.

Yes, this one!  It showed up on Saturday in company with the white one, also a Cooper S.  I made sure to compliment him on it, on both our behalves.

[eddyramrod]

Bump, for a Facebook user who seems interested.

[eddyramrod]

He's probably read it now.  How do I know?  Because I haven't heard from him since!

[eddyramrod]

Huggy, this very afternoon...

Might as well enjoy him while I still can!