1906 Cadillac Model H 

After a lot of searching and then negotiating we finally have manage to purchased another of the early 4 cylinder Cadillac models that were produced along side the famous single cylinders from 1905 - 1908. 

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Most people are aware of the 4 cylinder Cadillac produced from August 1908 through to 1914, however not many seem to be aware of the interesting history behind Cadillac first foray in the luxury car market. Only 2 years after entering the industry with it single cylinder 8hp model A, Cadillac commenced production of a number of vehicles that were aimed at the very top end of the market. from 1905 to 1908. Cadillac continually evolved their 4 cylinder models to define there best positioning and prepare themselves for the coming end of the single cylinder models. We were lucky enough to pick up the remains of one of the few Model G's Cadillac sent to Australia and whilst we would not say "its a car" we are working on purchasing the remain of 2 other that should complete a very unusual collection of early Cadillac's. The Model H will be the jewel in the Crown.

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Come back to see the progress of this mighty 30hp car.

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Cadillac production of these vehicles was very limited as can be seen from the list below and only a dozen or so across all years survive.

 

1905 Model D 30hp            156 produced

1906 Model L 40hp                3 produced

1906 - 08 Model H 30 hp   502 produced 

1907 - 08 Model G 25hp  1030 produced

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For detailed information on the restoration of this very rare Cadillac see the progress stories in the Newsletter attachment above.

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November 2017 update

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After the crate was delivered to our Long Beach depot, we had some tyres delivered and a 1912 Cadillac touring I purchased which now belongs to Neil Campbell in Victoria. The container was packed and fumigated as is our usual process, and then delivered to the dock. This is where the fun started! It was booked on a ship for the following Sunday and on the Tuesday I logged onto the container monitoring site and it said, "dropped to the dock booked on the ship", which is the norm but by no means confirms it was loaded. 4 days later, the site had not been up dated and a Bill of Lading had not been issued, so my alarm bells were ringing. So a quick phone call to the our agent in the US and he confirmed that US Customs had stated they wanted to inspect the container. This can happen in one of several ways - additional Documentation inspection, X-ray of the container, dog search, ie they open the doors and send in a couple of well trained Beagles looking for drugs, or a full un-pack and inspect. My concern was that a documentation inspection may require more details of the model of Cadillac's in the container and raise a red flag over this rare car. After 2 weeks of not loading (and fees being incurred), US Customs decided to send the container to Price Transfer for a full un-pack and contraband inspection. This is not something that is overly unusual (about 10% of outgoing containers have this inspection) however it is both a time consuming and a costly exercise with the customer (us) bearing the cost, despite the fact this is done all in the name of US Border Security! So after 4 weeks of delays and $4500 in additional fees, they finally released the container (after finding nothing of course!!) and it was loaded onto a ship bound for Australia and a Bill of Lading was finally issued.

 

On my next trip to the US, I decided to follow up the seller to see if he had found any more parts for the car and to my surprise he located another box of polished brass parts, & the original crown wheel, pinion 7 broken axle, which it seems is what halted the car in the first place. So after organising to meet him and collect the parts, I decided to return to the motel and sort out what parts I could bring home in my bags and what needed to go with the car. Well there were parts that I know I was looking for and to my surprise, parts that I had never known I was missing! In the end I was so excited I just stuffed everything in my bags and paid the excess weight fee upon flying home!

Once in Australia, the Customs & Quarantine process is fairly straight forward, but time consuming. So the container arrived and after the unpack which we do personally at a private facility in Western Sydney, the Caddy was finally on the ground and waiting for inspection. This occurred in the next few days and we were able to take her home and faced the task of un-packing and sorting everything out. First the body was fitted onto a rolling trolley with shelves under and mechanicals all laid out. Then over the next couple of days, these were grouped onto 2 sets of moveable shelves, motor, front end, springs, rear end & transmission. The multitude of bags were then sorted into their respective categories.

The first task was to sand blast the frame and the associated brackets etc and prime & paint these so we had a base to build on. Once this was completed, we start the rough process of assembling the motor so as to work out what was there and what was not. Fortunately, almost everything was there with only minor bolts, screws and the odd fitting not accounted for. Once this was complete the motor was again dis-assembled ready for the necessary work to be completed for proper assembly.

Having confirmed that my assessment of the completeness of the motor was correct, assembly of the transmission and it unusual engagement system was undertaken again not for final assembly but to confirm everything was there. This again proved successful with only a few nuts and bolts not accounted for. The rear end was considerably easier as this had been re-built by a specialist in, of all places, Cadillac Michigan, so only prime and paint was required there. After the production of new bushes for the drive shaft it was fitted to the rear end.

With the chassis sitting on two steel trestles, spring were next to be sorted, sand blasted, primed, painted, greased and assembled. This proved a bit of a jigsaw puzzle with 3/4 elliptic rear springs and semi elliptic front there were some 50 odd leaves in total. Whilst most leaves were marked as it turned out not necessarily correctly, so some mixing and matching was undertaken until the frame sat squarely on all four points allowing the rear end to be attached and the front end to be assembled.

 

While the mechanical components were being worked through the body sat with very little work on it. In the back of my mind was however the fact that only one of the two rear doors (NB no front doors) had come with the car and I was faced with making a new mirror image door - really a cheap price to pay on a 110 year old body, but a finicky task neither the less. Then one morning I received an email out of the blue saying that a Early Cadillac Club member was visiting a upholstery shop west of San Francisco and the owners who were closing up shop and retiring wanted to locate the owner of a door that had been left with them years before. So after some digging around, he had been told that I had purchased the car and wanted to get the door to me. Well now was that luck, this car was like the provable "bad penny" except everything just keep rolling in! I contacted my friend in the Seattle region and he organized to collect the door when meeting the fellow and it arrived in our next container.

 

So with the door located and the mechanicals loosely assembled I was in a very positive frame of mind. This process confirmed that the car was very, very complete and my gamble was well worth it! That just meant the real work of a top quality restoration could truly commence.

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