1964 Cadillac Chop Top
"Brody"
After I found Brody for sale, it took a full 4 months of negotiating to get her purchased and finally delivered around June 2012. She is a 4 door sedan, but the previous owner cut her roof off so she's a permanent convertible. Once she arrived and ran great, except for occasionally cutting out and losing power at freeway speeds. In the next two weeks, I replaced the ignition coil, points, radiator, rear wheel bearings and tires. With the car barely tested, me and some friends fearlessly drove her to Los Angeles and back, some 1000 miles total. She never missed a beat.
Whereas Rosie was gorgeous but problematic, Brody is my rough-around-the-edges fun car that will get me to work if needed and can handle distance with ease. In March 2014 she started developing a bad vibration from the engine bay. After some diagnosing, we found she has a misfire on one cylinder and seems to have damaged a valve. I kept cruising her around until I found the courage to tackle the problem.
Whereas Rosie was gorgeous but problematic, Brody is my rough-around-the-edges fun car that will get me to work if needed and can handle distance with ease. In March 2014 she started developing a bad vibration from the engine bay. After some diagnosing, we found she has a misfire on one cylinder and seems to have damaged a valve. I kept cruising her around until I found the courage to tackle the problem.
I removed the passenger side valve cover to find a pushrod had popped up out of its hole and become badly bent and mangled in the rocker assembly. The other pushrod on that cylinder had its top smashed down. Both pushrods were aftermarket, and I found they were also 1/3" too short, which no doubt caused their failure. I replaced them, then she had a stuck lifter ticking so I went in again and checked the lifters. Then from having the carburetor off twice, the shift regulator got damaged so she wouldn't shift! Fortunately I got it all fixed and we went back to cruising around.
She still has intermittent electrical issues with the radio and turn signals, and is rusted out in multiple spots, but she's still a tough cookie that I can trust to commute to work in. Unfortunately she gets 10 MPG average, so she's not the cheapest thing to drive but she is a blast. The paint is wearing off, her motor is getting tired, she's dropped from 13 MPG down to 8, but she still is still going!
She still has intermittent electrical issues with the radio and turn signals, and is rusted out in multiple spots, but she's still a tough cookie that I can trust to commute to work in. Unfortunately she gets 10 MPG average, so she's not the cheapest thing to drive but she is a blast. The paint is wearing off, her motor is getting tired, she's dropped from 13 MPG down to 8, but she still is still going!
In July 2018, I figured she deserved some TLC and decided to pull the engine and trans for the thorough cleaning, inspecting and fresh gaskets. Well, one thing led to another and I discovered she had a cracked piston. I ended up doing a complete tear down of the engine, sent the block and heads out for machine work, and reassembled the motor in my garage. I re-installed the drivetrain in October 2018, but progress was slow until I finally started the motor in April 2019. After addressing multiple leaks and doing a brake job in the process, she finally got back on the road September 2019.
