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Labour of love: 1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville

23 May, 2018

 

 

Bruce Haye from Ace Panel and Paint in Whitianga purchased this 1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville from the original importer of the car, who had rolled it down his driveway and crashed it into a massive rock. After assessing the damage, Bruce provided the owner with a price to repair the car, but, as it was outside their budget to carry out the necessary repairs, they offered the car to Bruce. 

A 1962 Cadillac wasn’t really Bruce’s cup of tea, but he thought, what the hell, and bought the car anyway and proceeded to restore it. After completely stripping the paint and body filler out of the car, what was left was indeed daunting. The car looked as if it had been driven down a narrow alleyway — the middle swage down the side of the car was non-existent, as it had been completely filled with body filler. Then there were the usual American quick-fix repair jobs to contend with; these ‘fixes’ included drilling holes and using a slide hammer to pull the dents out through them.

“The car looked as if it had been driven down a narrow alleyway — the middle swage down the side of the car was non-existent, as it had been completely filled with body filler.”

 

 

Bruce also discovered that the original 390ci (6.4-litre) V8 engine had seen better days, and wondered how it even ran at all. A closer inspection revealed one missing cam lobe and massive lips on the bores, which meant that the engine would need to be totally rebuilt.
Bruce decided it was best to retire the old Caddy motor to the back of the workshop and fit a Chevrolet 454ci (7.4-litre) engine in its place. He was initially concerned about the fuel consumption, but he needn’t have worried, because the high gearing in the differential resulted in reasonable economy, much the same as his old petrol-powered Mazda B2600 ute. 

The Cadillac’s restoration has taken about three years of hard labour, according to Bruce. He’s actually lost count of the hours taken to hammer out the swage lines down the side of the car. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of rust to contend with, which would have made the restoration non viable for Bruce, as he was doing all the repairs himself. Choosing the colour was quite a time-consuming process, but eventually he chose a custom-made gold from Sikkens that doesn’t look mustard or green from different angles.

The final result is a comfortable car that Bruce enjoys driving — and it performs surprisingly well for a car almost 6m long. 

Britannia rules the roads – Royal Tour Cars – part 1

30 May, 2025

Today we take royal tours for granted, but once upon a time, or at any time before the 20th century, it was impossible for our monarchs to visit their downunder dominions because of the distances involved and the unreliable transport.
The advent of steam power for ships and trains, the evolution of the motor car and, finally, the arrival of passenger air travel shrank their world, and ours, considerably, and the royal tour became a feature of the empire and the Commonwealth.
The first British royal visitor to Aotearoa, New Zealand, was Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1920. During his 28-day tour, he travelled mostly by the royal train, which was both safer and more convenient for royal personages. A variety of best-available cars were used locally. Ideally, these would be Daimlers.

Motorman: Blame it on Rio!

22 May, 2025

Following the third polite advisory, I figured there had to be a fair degree of substance to the warning. “If this is your first visit to Rio de Janeiro, please be careful,” came the personal hushed dialogue from the pleasant hostesses on a far from crowded Varig flight from Los Angeles to the famous Brazilian seaside city.
The previous evening I had flown into LA from Auckland en route to the 1985 international launch of the Fiat Uno Turbo. I was prepared for another long haul of just under 12 hours across Mexico, central America, Colombia, and central Brazil to that nation’s third largest city. Surprisingly the 10,500km run from Los Angeles to Rio is actually longer than the 8800km LA-London air route.
With the journey including a brief stopover in Honolulu I expected to travel just under 44,000km for the return journey to sample what was to be a low-volume version of a popular Italian car that would sell in even lower numbers in New Zealand. I like to think this shows nothing more than my deep commitment to my craft. In fact, even though I became lost on the homeward journey my total air miles would be little different.