77 Cadillac Eldorado Radio exchange

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Hi ,

besides fixing amps I have another little job where I can spend my spare time on. That´s our 77 Eldorado. As you can imagine the cars are pretty rare over here. For interest and pics see

my Eldorado site

I´m almost done with the engine compartment and starting to get stuff together for the outside and the interior. I once saw a modern radio with CD changer control that would directly bolt into the stock radio place. Also the knobs could be used. Problem is, I cant remember what the brand was or where to get it. Any idea where to find info?

I found a digital tape radio off a 1980 Eldorado on ebay, I think that would also fit into our car, but that radio doesn´t have any RCA outputs and i would have to use a Discman-to-tape adapter thingy ....
 
Lol, how did you get one of those there? I remember riding around in those, just like a living room couch on wheels! Not the best on gas either. That looks like a normal knob deck right? You can hack the hole out to a DIN size, or you will have to get a special HU made to fit knob dash like they have for old hotrod cars. Or, you can just mount your HU elsewhere and leave the dash alone.

Car looks pretty good! I can't read the site but I have a compressor for the rear suspension out of a newer caddy around here someplace. I was going to mount it in my golfcart so I can air up tires with it. Too bad shipping is so bad, there must be plenty of parts around here for those yet. Well maybe not as many, with the cost of steel a lot of yards scrapped all the old cars.

The radios here have been sold mostly for hotrod/old cars. People want to keep them original and not cut the dash, so they make these knob style new HU for them. What I would do is just buy an old one, some did have a jack or RCA for aux input. They should be pretty cheap for a better one. They had them with CD changer ability, but you may have to match up a changer and deck. I have not looked into a new one, I imagine they have them. Look for old car stuff, restoration parts.
 
Thanks you two, that was exactly what I was looking for. :)

I dont want to cut out the dash to keep the original look of the interior.


BTW, the air ride compressor is actually a good thing on ebay, if they work they´ll go for about 100USD. I hope mine is running for a long time, had to fix the diaphragm (had a cut) and a plastic valve that we did on the lathe.
 
jol50 said:
Lol, how did you get one of those there?

You have to remember that the U.S. had tens of thousands of GI's stationed in Germany until about 15 years ago. (There were also several thousand in Belgium attached to NATO). You could ship your car over there on United States Lines or other carriers. We had a friend in Brussels attached to NATO who drove around in a Pontiac he had shipped from the U.S.
 
There still are a few 1000 stationed in Heidelberg , I think there´s also a NATO base around. You can see all those nice new American cars driving around , guess Dodge is doing pretty good in the US. Overhere you can see a lot of those nice chargers and challengers . Although there are a lot of Chrysler and Dodge dealers they don´t sell the charger overhere , some smaller US - cars dealers import them.

Well, any idea of what to put into the Cadillac trunk ? Think 2x 12" will do a good job for cruising ? I´m really not sure....the trunk is so far away from the driver´s seat :clown:
 
I have a friend in NJ who rebuilds Caddies and will send him an email. The guy had his house built on the side of a hill with a hydraulic jack such that you could drive the car in to the basement work on it. This is what happens in the U.S. if you make one great invention.

I traded my E500 Wagon for a Dodge Magnum. The Magnum is my "Moses Car" as it parts the seas going through traffic. It's an R/T with the hemi engine and AWD -- something I had wanted since I was a kid. You don't worry about somebody dinging you since the car cost less than 1/2 of the MB. The MB wagon was in the shop constantly, had the worst electrical system of any car I've owned in 40 years (I assume that the electronics were designed by the Brits' "Prince of Darkness").
 
Two 12s in a big ported box should do nicely. My inlaw was stationed in Germany at some base on a mountain. They repaired tanks and other stuff mostly. He actually bought a chevy sedan and said it got much better mpg than the same cars back home, had a straight 6 in it.

That car is the lap of luxury, they were large or about the largest here as well. I used to work on a couple for people I knew long ago. A friend of mine had a newer one with the diesel (ill fated GM) in it. Got great mpg though, had 100hp or so I think and would go through snow like a 4x4 truck.

Sure, if you want to keep it factory a remote HU may be the best bet. Get a couple amps and you will be the pimpin the whole area :D :cool: :cool: That car has to draw some attention over there, it is the age that it might here and the drop tops have some value.

AWD rules. I had a little turbo AWD and that car was too much fun. One of these days I will get another.
 
I'll have to ask him, said it was a huge place up on a mountain. Said people had it kind of rough there, they lived in town with a family for a while. They didn't have running water. Inlaws had just built a new house here and got sucked over there so about maybe '66?

People must look at that car, heck they are scarce here let alone over there. I looked at a 60 caddy once, original owner had it. I'm not into that kind of car, but for some reason I liked it.
 
I looked at a 60 caddy once, original owner had it. I'm not into that kind of car, but for some reason I liked it.

That's because it was a coherent design. They'd shrunk the fins and squared things a bit. Cadillac was still very proud of their vehicles then. Attention to detail and build quality was great.
Only a couple of years earlier, the Eldorado Brougham at $13K (?, thereabouts, anyway) was the most expensive production car. Ferrari's flagship 174mph Daytona (equivalent to Enzo today) was about that price around '70.

I prefer the late 60's models because of the powerplants. 472 cu in with 375HP, 500 cu in with 400HP in your mother's car? Yep. And they can smoke the tires for what seems like eternity. Ahh, to be young again...
It's taken decades to get back to that kind of horsepower.


Sdoom,

radio with CD changer control that would directly bolt into the stock radio place. Also the knobs could be used.

It looks like you're aware of the knob issue in these old GM cars, just be sure the shafts are correct length to fit or they provide knobs to fit the recess.

Have you taken the stock HU out yet?

Tim
 
Hi Guys,

took a "little longer" than expected.... had some major problems with the breakes and had to replace all calipers and the booster unit. While fixing the breakes I found the gas tank leaking ... and stuff went on and on. But finally i got all tghe legal stuff done and the car is back on the road.

Three weeks ago I started fixing the electrical components and also got the radio out off the car. Got some new ESX - speakers for the front. I am planning to place some 6" speakers into the bottom of the front panels . the rear 6x9" speakers also need to be replaced. Not sure if I put a woofer in, maybe when time comes ;-)

But to get back to the original topic, I now ordered a new head unit. That would be the USA-630. Bolts directly into the dashboard, custom auto sound told me the stock knobs could be used as the "rear" knobs have the half-moon shapes and the front knobs are bolt onto the radio axels with small screws. Hope the head unit will arrive soon.
 
Yea I know, I was once passenger in an early 70 Eldorado. Our car is "lacking" some horsepower as it uses the "oil crisis engine" , actaully with a remanufactured Rocherster carb gas milage is not so bad for a 30 year old car. But it still goes quite well and at least I am not a traffic block :)

Hope the radio comes soon, want to put the front together .

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I think so, those must be the power transistors that are mounted into the heatsink.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Well yes, there are a few cracks on the upper and lower dash panel but the repair shop really asks for a lot of money for a repair.

But this year we were back on the road again :) , and that safely. had to buy three brake boosters (hydroboost system) , first one didn´t operate, the second didn´t have the failover option and the third now installed works (but leaks), but on the brake - tester the Eldo has more stopping power than my Lexus SC430 on the front brakes :) I´ll order the next brake booster in USA directly, so far everything I ordered from rockauto.com worked perfectly and almost everything I got overhere failed.

Installed new 2,5" speakers in the front , the stock speakers looked like this

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


Tried to install new rear speakers in December but the magnet of the new speakers is too large and that causes the rear seat not to be pushed into it´s hooks So i´ll look and see what i can find to install there. It´s a convertible and so I need that space clear for the roof . but the year just started and maybe by summer I can install more stuff and subs into the trunk , GM was so nice to provide some space in the rear :) ....
 
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