Projects 1955 Cadillac Sedan Build

I've always wanted a 1955 Cadillac, finally came across a sedan on craiglist that looked decent. A coupe would've been awesome, but any I found were out of my price range. After looking at this car in person I still felt like she was sexy and I wanted her, so after some negotiating and a hand shake she was mine. Her name is Nadine.

Her story's actually kinda cool. Original owner decided to take her apart to restore, but then passed away. His family donated her to a church, the guy I bought it from got it from the church 10 years ago, parked it behind his shop and never did anything. He said he wanted to put a Northstar drivetrain and interior in it, I'm glad he never did.

Here it was after pulling it out from behind the Shop after sitting for 10 years. I was so obsessed with owning this Cadillac I didn't even think to question whether he had any other parts. Much to my surprise (and now that I've had a chance to see how much chrome is on this thing I'm really glad) he had bins full of parts. Bunch of chrome, bunch of interior, even the original seats. (Which were sitting out on a pallet the whole time collecting mice) Then just when I thought I had it all, he called me inside the Shop where he had all the door window rails and glass. I was renting a house at the time and did have a place for her so into a storage unit she went.






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According to the guy I bought it from it ran when he got it, so I threw a battery in, sprayed some starter fluid in the cab and much to my surprise she turned over. I ended up replacing the points, wires, and rotor, and running a fuel line into a gas can. Had her idling within a week. I also was curious of the disposition of my chrome, so I took a bin home and took some steel wool to it. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn nice considering its age.


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Good for you! Old Caddies are cool and that one looks pretty repairable to me.The chrome seems to have come out pretty good too.

 

That's a nice find....

 

pretty car

 

Cool cady

 

I ended up rebuilding the carb and going through the brake system, and was finally able to take her on her maiden voyage
Looking at the body tag I found the original color combo. I got ancy as to what it would look like so I sprayed some rattle can paint to get an idea of what it'll look like


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Fast forward a year to today, and having to move between 3 houses later, I'm finally able to get her apart for cleaning and paint.
This cars a boat, and all the parts are huge, having to get creative with dissasembly.
Seperated the body from the frame.Had to take the rear wheels off and compress leaf springs
It's the original drivetrain, but I think I might put a 700R4 behind the 331 to make it a little more drivable. I'm also thinking of bagging it


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never met a Caddy I didn't like. Cool build man.

 

If you're gonna bag it, might as well chop it and make a 2 door out of it

 

suicide rear doors! cool cars.

 

Wow!you are lucky that the chrome polished up do nicely!Saved you a ton of cash!

 

Awesome. Cadillac; only "real" car ever built.

 

That build is going to be REAL interesting.Good luck with her and keep us updated.Thanks Bruce.

 

I read through this cool post the other day about creative ways/tools to paint parts and saw this idea of using engine stands as a rotisserie. What a great idea! Went to HF and picked up two, made brackets out of some 1" square tubing. I started scraping the frame to start, and found some local people that come to your drive way and sandblast your frame. Once my paint arrives I'll schedule a day for them to clean.







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Got some nice solid car to start with.! Keep posting updates

 

Finally got the frame blasted and primered. Came out really nice, im glad I spent the time chiseling off the old rubber coating this thing had because the blaster had a hard time cutting through the little bit I had to leave in tight spots. I was optimistic on what they could accomplish in 2 hours (hence all the parts laid out) but I at least got the frame and differental done.
Since they're an alliance vendor and I like their stuff I'm using Eastwood's epoxy primer and chassis paint. so far the primer looks really good and sprayed out nice and even.



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looks great!

 

And now you have Munster Beach so you can sit on a folding chair and admire your work That blasting makes a mess but the job is done and it looks real nice.How many bags or how much did it take to do it can I ask??

 

This has absolutely nothing to do with your Caddy but I thought I would post it here anyway....

 

It was done by a local company that tows their set up behind a truck. I don't recall how many bags they used but they charged a flat rate of $250/hr and a min of 2 hours. Totally worth it for me from the conveniance aspect! I was also able to sweep up a majority of it and can re-use after sifting


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My first name's Herman so as a kid I had to throw out Herman Munster before they could start with pee wee Herman haha besides, who wouldnt want to drive the Koach, right?


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Hell yeah man!
Nice project. Keep us posted.
Is that your BMC scooter also?????????????

 

Yup her name's Zoe. It's an 05 GS. my lady's been to Alaska twice on her 92 R100GS so we're planning a trip up there hopefully soon


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Two coats of Eastwood's chassis paint this weekend, I like the way it came out. Looks factory and laid out easily.





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Any updates?

 

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update but mainly because it's been all boring stuff. I've taken all the undercoating off and used some Eastwood undercoating. Patched a rusty spot in the floor, and now I'm working on some rusty sections in the trunk



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Oh that frame sat outside in the Houston climate for a year, including hurricane Harvey, and still looks really good. I like that chassis paint


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Here are some pictures of the trunk repair going on right now


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coming along nicely!