[Sol Prime]

Greetings all. Just wanted to get the opinion of the Ecto builders on here. There is a guy here in the Northern Virginia area selling a 1963 Cadillac Superior Hightop Ambulance.



I went to see it today (March 5th), and took a bunch of pictures. I'll post the link to the Flickr page where they are located.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15260472@N ... 878529335/

I got the rundown on what is wrong with it and what would need to be done. I trust the guy that's selling it, as he restores classic Cadillacs - I've seen his work, and it is quite impressive. However this car looks a tad on the rough side, and I wanted to get the opinion of others that have actually done restoration projects. The asking price on the car is $2500. What I can tell you about it is this:

All the important glass is intact, ie. the windshield and the curved glass in the rear. Some of the flat glass is cracked though.

Set up for dual battery, plus has the AC/DC converter installed and battery switch.

Top is fiberglass, not much damage there.

Needs lots of body work. Looks like the previous idiot owner put wood-grain contact paper (or similar) on the lower 1/2 of the body panels. Where it touched metal it rusted through. *Facepalm*

Needs floorboards. They have totally rusted through in multiple locations.

Frame looks good on visual inspection, no damage or warping, looks solid.

Engine is complete and original, not sure if it runs (Owner unable to get it running although electrical system works)

Please take a look at the pictures and let me know your thoughts. Is this a worthy candidate for an Ecto project? If so, any NoVA GB's that might want to take this on as a group project? Might be fun. Drop me a line if interested.

Thanks in advance!

-Sol

[zeta otaku]

No where near your area, but looking at it... I say it has a LOT of potential. I mean, sure, the body needs a ton of work, but it looks solid. No major damage as you said... I'd say go for it:)

[Sebastian Arms]

I am west of the NoVA area, but would be more than willing to come by and help with work on this project if you go for it.

Nothing like getting your hands dirty to learn how to do something.

Cheers

Sebastian

[jettajeffro]

Definitely alot of work in it but it has potential. There are much much worse that people are attempting to restore. It will still take a good chunk of time and funds. Ultimately I just want to see more high-tops out there.

[BSjohnson]

I don't know much about cars, but $2500 doesn't seem that bad for a unique fixer upper opportunity. Keep in mind what Jetta said though. It'll take lots of time and monies to make it beautiful.

I'd say go for it.

[Sol Prime]

I don't know much about cars, but $2500 doesn't seem that bad for a unique fixer upper opportunity. Keep in mind what Jetta said though. It'll take lots of time and monies to make it beautiful.

I'd say go for it.

Yeah, the time I'm not that worried about it's the money. The guy that owns it (And has restored another 63 to a beautiful condition) says that as it sits I'm looking at about $15k to restore it. It would cost less if I did a lot of the work myself, but I don't own many of the tools I would need to do the whole restoration. Let alone a garage to do it in. Unless I came into a large windfall, I don't think it's going to happen. Which is a shame, I hate to see it get parted out and lost.

Is there anyone else that would be interested in buying it? I can certainly pass on your information!

-Sol

[secrecyguy]

I don't know much about cars, but $2500 doesn't seem that bad for a unique fixer upper opportunity. Keep in mind what Jetta said though. It'll take lots of time and monies to make it beautiful.

I'd say go for it.

Yeah, the time I'm not that worried about it's the money. The guy that owns it (And has restored another 63 to a beautiful condition) says that as it sits I'm looking at about $15k to restore it. It would cost less if I did a lot of the work myself, but I don't own many of the tools I would need to do the whole restoration. Let alone a garage to do it in. Unless I came into a large windfall, I don't think it's going to happen. Which is a shame, I hate to see it get parted out and lost.

Is there anyone else that would be interested in buying it? I can certainly pass on your information!

-Sol

Unless you have experience restoring and fixing cars and have the money to do it, I say pass on it.

I am sure it will find a nice home in the future and it will be restored the way it should be.

[RayGBuster]

ouch!!

[DefenderDarko]

Zombie thread for a zombie car.

She's made her way around

[Ejgunth87]

I recently purchased a 62 Cadillac S&S hearse for $2600, and was in only slightly better condition than this one. I'd go for it

[DefenderDarko]

i did

[Ecto-1 fan]

Then we MUST see pics!
Oh, and congratulations.

[DefenderDarko]

Thank you

I'll throw some pics up later.

I must reiterate this ancient post about how stupid it was to put wallpaper all over this car. I have to cut and weld strips everywhere to correct that.

[Sol Prime]

Thank you

I'll throw some pics up later.

I must reiterate this ancient post about how stupid it was to put wallpaper all over this car. I have to cut and weld strips everywhere to correct that.

Congrats on breathing some life back into that car! I really wish I had the resources to do a restoration like that, it is my dream car to own.. that and a DeLorean. lol - And yes, we must see pics of the work when you are done. I'm glad I was able to help keep the car alive. It was close to being taken off life support. Heh.

Oh yes, I remember the "wallpaper" they put on the side of the car. I could only shake my head at that when I saw it.

[DefenderDarko]

She received a little CPR today on some of the door rust. Just experimenting to see where the solid metal stops so I can make some chop lines. At this point, the car is 50/50. It can become unrestorable in no time flat, but I don't plan to let that happen.

First thing's first, I gotta get me a respirator and some long gloves. There's a lot of old nasty fiberglass inside and out that will wreck your lungs. I don't need my wife ending up in a lawsuit commercial.

This car's windshield and surrounding trim are beautiful, at least.

[Ecto-1 fan]

This car's windshield and surrounding trim are beautiful, at least.

Ha! Spoken like a true pro car owner.

[DefenderDarko]

Some progress today.

Since this car got delivered, I've been losing sleep over it. I've realized that I'm afraid of the car. Weird, right? It's jagged and horrible and represents an obstacle, for me.

At this point, I've been afraid to really look at the car much or get in it. Today, I decided to just kick all that.

You guys that saw this car in 2010, you know what was going on with the door panels and flooring in the back. It was all metal and wood beneath horrible linoleum and old cracked vinyl. That had to go, first. I needed to see what was left under there, as far as metal goes.

This is how it looked when I started:



That's old linoleum flooring junk on top of 50 year old plywood. It's like damp molded sawdust under there. Horrible. I removed the weird propane plug in the center and busted out all that old flooring. Underneath, I found...



Metal! It's still there. Relatively speaking, it's in good shape. I cleaned off more of the inside trim while I was doing this. It was all old vinyl wrapped around crumbling dust that used to be sheet metal.

The tail door looks a lot better. The bottom side will have to be patch welded and remade, but that'll be a ton of fun...

Sadly, the door opening mechanism gave up the ghost(herrr), so it can't be opened from the inside anymore.



Next week, I plan to have all the missing floors grinded to clean squares(no jagged metal) and some steel tubing welded down to give the new floors something else to rest on. The seats are coming out. Once everything has been clean sanded and washed good, I'm giving the entire inside a dozen cans of Rust Converter, which settles like a black primer. Cool stuff. Any patches will be hit with long-strand fiberglass.

The interior design will be mostly a tough black paint with no liners anywhere. I'm going to accent it with caution stickers, warning labels, wire looms, tv gadgets, and the original chrome trim parts that used to be there...

[DefenderDarko]

Shhhhhh