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.
Despite being a commute capable car, in July 2018 I figured she deserved some TLC and decided to pull the engine and trans for a 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, and had a local machine shop do a full rebuild: new pistons, valves, cam, pushrods, etc, had the crank balanced, basically no expense spared... It was a lengthy process for the machine work, reassembly, and installation, then troubleshooting for leaks, etc - and I even ended up doing a brake job in the process.
Unfortunately, she did not run right. After several rounds of troubleshooting, and consulting the best automotive minds I knew, she was dialed in as much as possible, but still wasn't right. Frustrated with spending all that money with a sputtering car as a result, I rebuilt the carburetor. Finally, success! She immediately fired right up, idled smooth, accelerated smooth, and was back to the strong running car she used to be.
By the time I got this all figured out, I realized my life was different than when I first bought Brody. With a recent marriage and getting started on a family, I realized that my priorities had changed and that my attention and money (and space in the driveway) were needed elsewhere, so I made the difficult decision to put her up for sale. After a few false starts, I found an excellent home for her in April 2023, with an enthusiastic firefighter out in Illinois. She is currently awaiting pick up.
Unfortunately, she did not run right. After several rounds of troubleshooting, and consulting the best automotive minds I knew, she was dialed in as much as possible, but still wasn't right. Frustrated with spending all that money with a sputtering car as a result, I rebuilt the carburetor. Finally, success! She immediately fired right up, idled smooth, accelerated smooth, and was back to the strong running car she used to be.
By the time I got this all figured out, I realized my life was different than when I first bought Brody. With a recent marriage and getting started on a family, I realized that my priorities had changed and that my attention and money (and space in the driveway) were needed elsewhere, so I made the difficult decision to put her up for sale. After a few false starts, I found an excellent home for her in April 2023, with an enthusiastic firefighter out in Illinois. She is currently awaiting pick up.
