Michael Riley's Blog: Hemmings Find of the Day – 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Seventy-Five limousine

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Hemmings Find of the Day – 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Seventy-Five limousine

Sometimes one really strong aspect of a car can totally redeem it when other features might not look as attractive. Take, for instance, this 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Seventy-Five limousine for sale on Hemmings.com, a car that admittedly could use some cosmetic attention if not a little rust repair. But it also has what looks to be an immaculate interior, one that would make that work worth the effort. Doesn't hurt that it also appears to be complete and in good running order. From the seller's description:

I am the third owner of this car. The gentleman I bought it from owned it for the last ten years. He bought it from the original owner. Apparently the original owner did not want an official limousine per se, he wanted it more for personal family use. For that reason he ordered the car special, without the interior divider window nor the tilt steering wheel. The 1969 Fleetwood 75 is a very rare car, with only 1,156 made. This special order car makes it even more rare than the others.

The gentleman I bought it from was not able to use it as much as he had hoped over the past few years. He had three antique vehicles and was selling everything off. For that reason I made sure to go through the car and get everything running properly. Everything that was needed to be done was completed (tune-up, new emergency brake cable, changing of all fluids, new center link, carb rebuild, etc.). The car has been recently inspected and everything works in regards to lights, directional, wipers, etc. The only item not in use is the air conditioning, which was disconnected. The car floats down the road. It has 101k miles.

The interior is the best part of the car: unrestored, original condition in very nice shape, as the photos show. The glass is all good, the chrome is very nice, all stainless is good. The previous owner told me the paint was 75% original, with the exception of the lower half of each side, which had some paintwork done. Those portions are still in primer. There is also some primer along the front of the hood, though only about 3" tall above the hood latch. Other than the primer the paint has a nice shine to it, very presentable, though there are paint blisters in a number of spots, and a few very small dents. I was told the top was also original and in good shape. However, after looking closely it appears the car was originally black. All the door jambs and trunk match the silver exterior, but by looking closely there is evidence of its original black color.

I have an excellent auto body guy who informed me it would cost about $1000 to lightly sand the areas of primer and provide a new base coat and clear coat to match the current silver color. In my opinion that is all that I would do to the paint. I would leave the blisters and dings and enjoy the car as is. As you can see from the photos it will end up being a good looking driver.

The black roof appears to also have been painted, not original paint as I was told. There is some evidence of brush marks in various locations.

As is typical with these cars there is a couple of rust spots under the car at the rear sidemounts. Not crippling, but there nonetheless.