OK... As I've posted elsewhere, I recently bought a 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood 9 seater "formal sedan" on eBay in the US... These are some of the shots from the auction...
FIL's Fleetwood
- Thread starter FIL
- Start date
These things were about 245 inches long (a bit over 6 metres) and weighed about 2.5 tonne (so, not quite the biggest car I own)
These pics were taken by my brother at his place in San Jose...
These pics were taken by my brother at his place in San Jose...
The plan is, we're going to be in the US between the 13th of August and the 5th of September, so this is what we're planning on driving over there... then we will make a decision either to leave it there for another trip, or to put it on a boat and bring it back home...
time for an update....
I was a little concerned that getting the car through rego in California may be a problem, as the rego in Nevada had lapsed a few years ago... (And I've had to re-register a car with lapsed rego here in Australia in the past)
Turns out it's a breeze in California... because the car was built before 1975, the DMV can't insist on a smog check (ever, even on a new registration), and they can't do it themselves, because they're not a licensed smog checker anyway.... Also, the DMV don't deal with roadworthiness issues, the police do, so they don't check for roadworthiness when you register the car... All they did when he drove it down there, was check the odometer and VIN plate to make sure they matched the paperwork...
There's been a few small issues along the way, the neutral safety switch failed and needed to be rebuilt (as they couldn't source a new one...). It turns out the neutral safety is also a park brake release and reverse switch on these cars. The fuel cap needed to be replaced. The wiring to the battery needed cleaning up as there was a connection that had a bit of corrosion. And it appears the top hose needs a new clamp (or a new hose).
All in all, it's pretty good going for a car thats 39 years old, and as far as we can tell, has done around 280 miles since 2001. (at least 25 of those since it arrived in California a couple of weeks ago)
We have rego!!!!!!
I was a little concerned that getting the car through rego in California may be a problem, as the rego in Nevada had lapsed a few years ago... (And I've had to re-register a car with lapsed rego here in Australia in the past)
Turns out it's a breeze in California... because the car was built before 1975, the DMV can't insist on a smog check (ever, even on a new registration), and they can't do it themselves, because they're not a licensed smog checker anyway.... Also, the DMV don't deal with roadworthiness issues, the police do, so they don't check for roadworthiness when you register the car... All they did when he drove it down there, was check the odometer and VIN plate to make sure they matched the paperwork...
There's been a few small issues along the way, the neutral safety switch failed and needed to be rebuilt (as they couldn't source a new one...). It turns out the neutral safety is also a park brake release and reverse switch on these cars. The fuel cap needed to be replaced. The wiring to the battery needed cleaning up as there was a connection that had a bit of corrosion. And it appears the top hose needs a new clamp (or a new hose).
All in all, it's pretty good going for a car thats 39 years old, and as far as we can tell, has done around 280 miles since 2001. (at least 25 of those since it arrived in California a couple of weeks ago)
FIL;1358620 said:
The plan is, we're going to be in the US between the 13th of August and the 5th of September, so this is what we're planning on driving over there... then we will make a decision either to leave it there for another trip, or to put it on a boat and bring it back home...
Putting a boat on a boat...why?
gtsfirefighter
SM Expert on White trash
gtsfirefighter;1368125 said:
only a couple of weeks to go till i get to drive it.... and i plan to drive the arse off it while we're in California....