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'87 Brougham Survivor - Parts or sell whole?

3K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  EricVonHa 
#1 ·
Hello, I stumbled into an '87 Brougham. It was going to be part of an estate sale but they could not get the car started. A friend knew that I was into cars (and especially Cadillacs) so they asked me if I may be interested in the car. I said "sure!"

So, here it is.. it was literally driven to church and the grocery store by the wife of the estate. She had the brougham and he had a Fleetwood. Nice Cadillac pair. They did sell the Fleetwood earlier though.

It took me all of 10 minutes to get it started. It had sat for 3 years and didn't move. A little bit of starter fluid, cleaning the battery cable connectors (new battery, of course) and a bit of fresh gas.. wa-la... started and idled perfectly.

The husband was a machinist and paid a great attention to detail on most things in his life. When retrieving the car I was able to see his workshop and it was evident that he was very exacting in most everything he worked on. Everything in the workshop was impeccably placed and well thought out.

In terms of the Cadillac, I have a folder of receipts that is quite heavy. The original Cadillac owners manual and other supporting docs are in the car with the original Cadillac leatherette portfolio case.

Now for the bad.. Old cars don't do so well when they are left to the UV. The rubber seals on the car are shot. The window seals are shot and the door seals are fragile and breaking apart. They kept a heat deflector in the windshield but other areas of the car suffered. You can see the plastic behind the side of the front bumper (in front of the wheel) is cracked and falling apart. Not sure GM was thinking there. Why are those plastic inserts there?

The interior is surprisingly nice and the seat pleather is still in good shape. The driver's seat has wear on it and the outer bolster is cracked. The roof is, surprisingly, still in great shape. It only has minor cracking but on the whole is 98% passable.

The radio only plays through the right channels.

My deciding factor (I think?) to sell parts or sell the car for parts is that the HVAC blower motor is seized and/or there is something wrong with the HVAC controller. Although you can adjust the electronic temp and all buttons work, the blower motor never activates. To me, it's just too much work for a car that has a little too much rot on the plastic parts.

On the bright side? The car runs and drives very very well. Just before it was parked it had new tires put on it. And, the owner was religious about tune-ups and maintenance. Various suspension parts have been replaced etc. The documentation from the maintenance is a mile long.

The motor and drivetrain is awesome. A quick tap of the gas pedal, even after the car has sat for weeks, turn the key, and the motor comes to life in less than 2 seconds of cranking. The cold high idle works perfectly. Tap the pedal once and it falls into a silent 800rpm idle. Put it in drive and the car is smooth as smooth can be. Trans and brakes are excellent.

I think my intuition is telling me to let it go. If you know of anyone who needs anything or may be interested in buying a project car, please send them my way. There are so very many nice things about this car and all of the Cadillac factory details are still intact. I just don't think it is for me at this time. Any feedback is welcome.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Luxury vehicle Cadillac fleetwood brougham
 
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#3 · (Edited)
All those things are very minor IMO....the radio might have a failed channel in the amp. The body fillers disintegrate with age on these cars. That is normal. HVAC issues, while a PITA, are not that bad. Blower motors interchange with alot of GM cars, and the CC is not horribly difficult to diagnose and not expensive to fix, especially if you can get the parts at the junkyard. The blower motor and the blower motor resistor are very easy to get to.

Btw, if you want to try fixing any of the issues on your car, I'm sure some of the guys here can walk you through fixing them.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the input guys. I really appreciate it. I'm in a quandary of sorts because, yes, I do like the car. But, there are 2 other car projects already on for the winter.

What do you think I should list it for given the few problems that it has? The blower motor issue could be anything from a seized motor to a bad control unit/relay issue. That is the biggest issue to me. The other stuff is generally minor with only half the radio speakers playing and the driver's side door latch is seized (new one to me). Can't get the driver's door open from inside or outside! I tried using 2 very long flat blade screw drivers and a rubber wedge to get down into the latch area from the window.. no luck,yet.

Given those defects and a strong ownership documented history with new tires and a decent roof on it... ? I dunno? $1k ? $2k ?
 
#10 ·
Theres a guy locally who is parting out a super nice 86 d'elegance (and refused to sell intact). So far (6 months), he has sold: front bumper rubber, 2 fillers, 1 window, radio bezel/ aftermarket radio, rear bumper (but not taillight housings).
I called about parts, and he wanted 300 per seat (saying that he was an upholsterer, and he would charge 2k to do seats like that, so therefore it was a good value), 40 per door panel, 50 for a fender, 100 for a bumper, 40 per taillight. He was parting it out for a friend out in the country and the friend would not let people on his property so he had to pull the parts and take them back to the city with him.
 
#11 ·
I really appreciate the heads up. Thanks for the input. I'm in no hurry to do anything. Though, I guess if I were to sell it I should get to it before the cold snap occurs in the Northeast. Till then, I've been starting it every 2-3 weeks and put some gas stabilizer in the tank.
 
#12 ·
Good news. I found some time to fix a lot of the details on the car. HVAC blower motor works fine. We figured out to get the stuck door open. The door latches tend to seize up from years of dirt and grime combined with whatever lubricant/grease GM put on them during assembly. One of the rod latches was stuck in a midway position rendering both inside and outside handles useless. Hosed down the latch with a lot of lubricant through the window opening and wa-la.. door open!

Car drives awesome. I put a tank of gas through it already since 1/1/14. :)
 
#19 · (Edited)
You know it.. this car is a victim of it already. There is minor rust build-up at spots in the driver's lower door. Nothing that could not be sanded out and repainted with minimal effort. Are there any reproduction seal kits out there for the doors?

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Man I wish it were a nicer color, that flat grey color just plain sucks IMO.

If it were in my neighborhood, I'd list it for $2900, don't take a penny less than $2500.
I agree on both counts. The color is kinda meh. If I was going to purposely seek to buy one of these it would the navy (dark) blue.

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I did list it for sale. I do have one major car project going on and have a tough time multi-tasking. The Brougham isn't a "project car" per se. Though, if I did keep it I would spend some time going through some more details on it.

Listed for sale for $2900 http://www.cadillacforums.com/cadillac-classifieds/cadillac-fleetwoods-for-sale/p16665--2787-broughameastern-pa-2c-awesome-mech-cond-2c-fresh-inspection.html
 
#18 ·
My project cars seem to never get done, Ive been painting my old truck going on a year now. It sucks because I have my eye on a couple of straight Caddys that are real cheap and I know I don't have the time or money to mess with them. If I ever get caught up on some of my other ventures Im going to try to do 1 car every 2 years.
 
#20 ·
Minor door rust is very typical on 77-92 GM B/C box bodies. My caddy had it, and so does the lesabre (both minor, but still). It is due to a combination of salt getting trapped there on the door (between there and the rubber piece that hangs off the interior door panel) and water/ silt trapped in the doors due to leaves clogging the drain holes. Remove the interior door panels, clean out the silt, remove the rectangular drain plugs (they clog very easily), enlarge the small round drain holes, and sand/ prime/ repaint the bottom area of the doors.
I know that sounds complicated, but it isn't (its a weekend job if you have all the material/ tools).
 
#23 ·
Was cleaning out my "followed" threads and found this old post of mine.

Update: Sold the car to a local guy who, of all things, was looking for a late 80's or early 90's Mustang 5.0.

Opposites attract I suppose. He saw the price on the Cadillac and had to have it! This was some time ago. My how time flies! This thread was started back in 2014. Ouch!

Since then, I picked up a '77 Deville and try to participate here as often as I can. The '77 is in much nicer condition than the '87 both mechanicals and cosmetics.

That's the update!
 
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