Plastic Trim on an Eldorado

[Lthardman]

I have a nice 1979 Cadillac Eldorado, only 20,000 miles. There is some plastic trim that fits between the body panels and the chrome front bumper, and again between the trunk/body panels and the rear bumper. Given the vintage of the car, I suspect these panels are painted RIM Polyurethane. Over the last two years I have found that these plastic trim pieces get a film of something that seems to form on them after about two weeks time. It washes off, but returns even with the car covered and in a garage, out of the sun completely. Waxing with a Meguiar's cleaner/wax has not helped. The metal body panels are perfect, but this heavy film keeps forming on the plastic. Do you know what it is and how to prevent it? Is the plastic degrading somehow? Why now after 26 years?

[Mike Phillips]

Personally I have know idea why this is happening?

20,000 miles on a Cadillac from 1979 is incredibly low miles... do you keep this in a garage all the time?

You might consider just replacing these items, I see them for sale in Hemming's as well as other trade magazines as it's common for these components to deteriorate and brake apart.

[Setec Astronomy]

Wow, that was an interesting car...my father had a '79 Riv (which unfortunately got stolen a couple of years later and never recovered). When those cars were put on the same platform in '79 (Cadillac Eldo, Buick Riv, and Olds Toro) they were in a cover story of Car & Driver and called the "cutting edge of Detroit technology". When I showed that to my father, he went right out and bought the Riv (he was a Buick man at the time). Does yours have the Olds 350? Or does it have a Cadillac engine?

As far as your plastic panel...some plastics (particularly foams, I guess because of the surface area) deteriorate with age. I have experience with some polyurethane hydraulic seals that just fall apart at the kind of ages we're talking about here (in air, not in hydraulic fluid). Ozone has an effect on polyurethane also; do you have anything in your garage that would produce that (electronic air cleaner, electric motors)? For what it's worth, on all my GM cars the soft bumper covers/fillers all deteriorated faster than the rest of the paint...had it on my '76, '82, '88, and '90.

[Lthardman]

I purchsed the car in 1994 from the original owner. He had purchased it new in 1979 as a GM employee, but his wife felt the doors were too heavy and they just parked it! They drove a four door Deville after that. When I bought it, I got it running quite easily but fluids were dripping everywhere, given that it had been sitting at that point for over 12 years. All fixed now, though. The engine is a 350 with fuel injection, which I am thankful for. Later years had the 4-6-8 option that didn't work out too well.

Although I bought it to drive it everyday (front wheel drive is nice in Michigan), I quickly thought better of that. It really is a pretty car. So, I put some money into simple cosmetic restorations, replaced a lot of the engine and drivetrain seals, and it only gets driven on the best days now. No rain, no snow.

Nothing in the garage should be producing the ozone you mentioned. Perhaps the best advice is to simply replace the plastic filler parts, while they are still available. Maybe 26 years is all you can ask for. I note the new replacements are ABS.

[Setec Astronomy]

Fuel injected...that must be a Cadillac engine. My father's '79 had the Olds 350 and was nice....the replacement car after the first one was stolen was an '81 with the Olds 307...what a dog.

(EDIT: I was referring to my father's Buick Rivieras)

[Mike Phillips]

How about a photo?

[Lthardman]

I will take a digital photo on the next sunny day. I assume I can post it using some of the controls below. Given that it has quite the polish and shine right now, the timing couldn't be better. It looks like you could dive into the shine on that hood. The hood is about as long as a swimming pool anyway.

[Superior Shine]

I love that body style. I have had an 82 eldo and 84 riv. The plastic parts your talking about were painted if I remember correctly.

[Pete-FWA]

The degredation of those filler panels is to be expected on a vehicle that age, regardless of mileage. Ozone and exposure to the natural elements can expedite the problem, but it happens to stored vehilces and show pieces alike.

Mike offered one of the best sources to find good replacements: Hemming's Motor News.

1979 was the first year for that body style in all the front drivers. They had such great lines and very comfortable rides. The 350, in both gasoline and diesel that year, were Oldsmobile engines. In 1980, Cadillac put its own 6.0 368 C.I.D. in the Eldorado and the new Seville. They were good engines in 1980, but in 1981, it became the Modulated Displacement V 8-6-4. That valve train and the related electronics was very troublesome.

Setec, that Oldsmobile 5.0 307 was, indeed, a dog. Cadillac didn't use them until the 1986 Fleetwood Brougham models. You're right, they were dogs in a Riviera, but worse in an even heavier sedan. They saw use in similar vintage full size GM vehicles.

[Slats]

I want to see a picture too! I love old Caddy's!

[Setec Astronomy]

Originally posted by Pete-FWA


Setec, that Oldsmobile 5.0 307 was, indeed, a dog.

LOL...let's be fair, all the GM engines were dogs in that period. '81 was the first year of new EPA emission regs which resulted in the GM Computer Command Control (CCC), including the MCS (Mixture Control Solenoid) Carburetor. These cars just wouldn't run when they were cold, they were fine when you started them, but drop them into gear and they would stall, even with your foot on the brake, even in summer. It would take a few starts and stalls before you could even get out of your parking space.

In 1984, I worked briefly at a GM dealer in the used car dept., and one of my frequent assignments, when a used car customer brought back their '81/'82 car that they had just bought for stalling, was to take the carb off, chisel out the part of the casting where the limiter caps were (there were lines cast into the carb so you knew just where to chisel..hmmm), pull the limiter caps and and adjust the idle mixture so it would run.

One of my friends remarked to me a few years ago how we had forgotten how much fun carburetors were in cold weather, how fuel injection had taken all the drama out of cold weather starting. Heh...my '82 GM HO 2.8 had an electric heater grid under the carb...which I didn't know was melted until that cold night...