Projects The Best 1955 Cadillac build

Im doing this in honor of 40StudeDude and for people who havent seen his build


PROPER!


The Coop DeVille Caddy build…in several installments. This is Number One<br />
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Now that the KIRK!! Jones/Gambino Grime ‘60 Ford paint job is out of the way, I thot I’d place a post about my Caddy… not near as cool (at this point), but it will be... <br />
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A few of you have asked about my CoopDeVille build…and what’s taking me so long??? Well, OK, here’s the project, from the beginning, to lighting the engine, to taking it around the blok. <br />
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This build started in July, ’05, I bought someone else’s (unfinished) project. Yeah, I know, I’ve heard it all before -- “NEVER buy someone else’s half-baked project.”…but, I’ve built enuff cars to know what I was getting into, I looked it over well, struck a deal and laid out my cash. <br />
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So… instead of “tell,” I using that old writer’s admonishment: “SHOW, don’t tell.” Let’s go….<br />
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The Caddy is a 1955 Coupe DeVille, complete with a 500 incher (used-not overhauled, was told it “had good oil pressure.” “Uhmmmmm, OK, I hope you’re not shitting me, but I really have no way of knowing.” A Turbo 400 tranny was attached to the engine and both simply “placed” in the engine bay (not bolted down). As part of the deal, I got almost enuff parts to build two cars …the Caddy also has power windows and power seat. <br />
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Someone needed to save it…and since we’d “built” my brother a 1954 Caddy hardtop…and were familiar enuff with them, it fell to me…why not do another? Could be fun.<br />
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Now, to put this in a bit of perspective…. As of March 19th, 2008 -- two years, nine months after I brought it home, at 2:50 PM in the afternoon, the engine was finally fired off and runs well, sounds healthy (AND has great oil pressure…!!!) and the tranny works …not bad for an engine, tranny and carb that has been sitting in my garage for well over three years. <br />
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This then, is the ‘saga’ of how I built my Cadillac…and WHY it’s taken this long. This is simply my way and done in my back yard garage with only my bro, Dan, helping.<br />
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First thing is/was, I’d been working on my ’48 Caddy Sedanet…I’d had it blasted and was working on mounting a new non-stock gas tank when this ’55 fell into my lap…I took time out from doing that to go take a look at it. And I kinda figured my bro’s ’54 Caddy needed a “running mate,” …how hard could it be to put this ’55 back together…??? We were about to find out…<br />
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Well, like anything else…it takes longer than you think…no matter how much you hurry…and hurrying ends up making you do things twice…or even three times until you’re satisfied with what you’ve done…or it’s correct. <br />
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When we got the ‘55 home and unloaded from the trailer, we put the ’48 into ‘sleep mode’ for a while, rolled it into safe-keeping in the dry shed and put the ’55 in the big garage…then we pulled the body off the frame…<br />
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The ’55 Caddy is an original ColoRODo car…so, no rust…then we set about scoping out the ’78 Trans Am sub that was only mig welded, full of burn holes and crappy piled up shit welds that wouldn’t hold anything together at 70 mph…!!! It was mounted into the original frame at the firewall. We pulled the engine and tranny out and set it off to the side…first things first, ya know…we’ll deal with that later. Before we go farther, please don’t give me any crap about putting the body up on cinder blox…they hold up a two (or more) story building just fine and they stack them higher then I ever will, they’ll work for holding up a Caddy body. Besides, no one is putting any down force on the blocks and the body certainly isn’t moving around, and, BTW, that body didn’t “bend” in the middle either, because of no center support. And that was over two years ago…not one of those blocks cracked or broke. <br />
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A note here: when you don’t have every tool for every job, you make the best with what you’ve got…it worked. <br />
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Once the engine and tranny was out, I borrowed a trailer again, hauled the whole thing up to a sandblaster and let them go at the 50 year old crud…once back, I cleaned up the frame graft, ground off some of the crap, mig welded up some spots to add a bit more strength to it and then cut 1/8” plate in order to fish-plate the two frames together…and then TIG welded all of it together I might add… <br />
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I cleaned it all up nicely and then epoxy sealed it and sprayed it urethane gloss black.<br />
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While the frame was drying, I decided to do the body… the bottom of the old Caddy body was relatively clean (old undercoating already finally falling off after all these years), so, wire brushed that, sanded a bit, sealed it with epoxy and sprayed Lizardskin…(best insulation in the world…!!!)…once that was done, I painted it all gloss black and proceeded to get ready to set it back on the frame.<br />
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That's it for this installment...More in the next installment…<br />
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StudeDude’s Caddy build…in several installments. This is Installment Number Two<br />
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OK, here we go again…I posted the first part of this build last Thursday if you want to do a search. <br />
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So, while the under side of the body was sitting and drying (after shooting Lizardskin and black paint), in the meantime, I pulled all the old stock heater crap and air “boxes” off the firewall (must’ve taken off 200 pounds of metal and at least 11 miles of ancient, rotten rubber heater hose) simply cuz I wanted a clean, flat firewall…and, with the plan of adding heat/air conditioning/defrost via under-dash Vintage Air…all that crap was just so much extra weight…and…<br />
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I welded in new panels (allowing a ½” opening at the bottom of the firewall/air box -- each side) for the outside air ( as well as rain, wash water, snow, etc) to continue the flow in to and out of the openings under the windshield stainless. These opening were used to force outside air into the heaters (one on each side of the interior). Blocking these by welding them shut would result in rust, eventually – when -- not if -- they filled with water and debris. <br />
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It took a couple weeks worth of welding, bondoing, sanding and priming to get it correct and flat…and then priming and painting it yellow (color choice at the time)…but I think I’ve since changed my mind!. I don’t think I can deal with that much chicken-fat yellow every day and all the time. This car is not small…it has acres of sheet metal. <br />
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Speaking of acres of sheet metal…here’s a story about my brother’s ’54 Caddy. We’d just painted it in Turquoise primer (this story a few years ago), took it to the April Action event in Moab, Utah. We parked in the Moab Diner lot and were watching cruisers on Main street when some guy in a’67 Mustang parked next to the Caddy. He walked around the Caddy a couple of times scoping it out, at the rear of the Caddy, he turned to his wife and commented on how big the Caddy was compared to his Mustang coop. He grinned and said, “There’s more sheet metal in the trunk of this Caddy than there is in my whole Mustang.” <br />
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He may be correct.<br />
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Note the expensive making paper below…this is a “low-buck” build…!!!<br />
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Once I was satisfied it was flat…I sprayed it yellow. I thot this was a very light yellow when I had it mixed…it was lighter than anything else I’d seen and the color chip was almost no yellow …but, once it was down, still not light enuff for my tastes. Waaaaa-aaaaaaayyyy too much yellow…!!! AND since I didn’t want to spend the time to sand it all back off…I decided to leave it alone...maybe it’ll grow on me…<br />
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With the firewall looking good, it was time to put the body and frame back together. It took a few hours to lower the body onto the frame. We raised it with floor jacks...we lowered it with floor jacks, one on each side of the car, moving from front to rear and back to front as we carefully lifted, then removed each individual block until it sat down on the frame and we removed the floor jacks. Lining up bolt holes with the body mounts was the tuffest part. But we got it remounted and mounted solid…I think we were only ¼” off side to side and front to back…remember boys and girls, necessity is the Mother of invention…or building cars…!!!<br />
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Done…after a few hours of lowering…and certainly glad that part of the build is over.<br />
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After cleaning all the grease and oil off the engine and tranny (my bro, Dan, gets the dirty jobs cuz he’s younger than I…Besides, I was busy with other stuff – thinking, scheming, drawing, supervising …and the like…oh, I did build some motor mounts, built a tranny mount and made sure everything was level and the oil pan sits ABOVE the lowest part of the Trans Am cross-member –don’t need anything hanging below the frame rails…CUZ it’s gonna get lowered…!!!<br />
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I was going to paint the engine all up…but that old color choice came back to haunt me…and I didn’t want a yellow engine…OK…put the engine back in in its original factory color. We’re gonna have to take it apart later after we know everything on the car works. We slid the 500”/Turbo 400 Caddy back in…<br />
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I hung the front sheet metal back on it to get an idea where the engine was going to set as I wanted to make sure my motor mounts and tranny mounts were built well enuff and everything going to be attachet to it would clear. If you’ll go back and look at the pic of the car on the trailer, you can see how high the engine/tranny was sitting in the car when I got it…I needed it lower than what that was. I think I succeeded. <br />
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With the front clip back on so I could scope out what needed to be built (and to me, this is the fun part of the build)…and fitted… then the real work came…mating ’55 Caddy stuff to a late model disc brake sub-frame. Already looks like that radiator support is going to need some modifying…<br />
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As you can see, sliding the motor/tranny onto the ’78 Trans Am sub has the front of the car sitting a lot closer to the concrete…and that’s the way I like it. Wait til I get the front bumper brackets built and get that 200 pound Dagmar unit mounted…!!! <br />
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After I was satisfied the firewall was “close enuff for the girls I go out with” (not that they’d care if it was off some anyway) and the body was mounted on the frame ‘close enuff,” I turned my attention to the “next” thing in line…Brakes. <br />
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I needed to figure out how and what. I wanted to keep the original floor brake pedal (and since I made the firewall flat, an ugly ol’ master cylinder hanging there on the firewall just wasn’t going to work, nor look good.). Time to put the thinking cap on, pull up a stool and do some studying…<br />
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As for a time perspective, at this point, we are about 8 months (early ’06) into the build. I don’t work on it everyday…only when time permits and that is mostly weekends only. So it takes me a bit longer to get one on the streets.<br />
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Back to the problem at hand…I knew I wanted a power booster on the brakes…big cars need help stopping…in my crazy way of thinking and building a car, I went to the junkyard, had them cut part of the X-frame/main frame section out of a ‘55 four door and I built a dummy master cylinder/booster mount out of sheet metal (not shown) for the new 7” Master Power booster/Corvette master cylinder. The photo below is an “after” shot and that’s the stock Caddy pedal showing there. Having to NOT work on my back, under the car sure made building the dummy mount easy, and to be able to see exactly HOW it would work mounted to the frame… <br />
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I then had it cut out of 3/16” plate, formed up, complete with stock brake pedal and had it all TIGed together, sent it out to be powder coated silver and hung it in the stock frame…under the floor of the Caddy…fits nice…hope it works as nice.<br />
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Well, there ya go…installment # 2 is now “in the books,” so that’s it for this one…more in the next installment…stay tuned.<br />
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StudeDude’s Caddy build…in several installments. This is Installment Number Three<br />
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The first two installments were a week apart, beginning on the 10Th of April…do a search. And the reason this one is weeks after the last is cuz I went to the Moab, Utah, April Action rod run on April 24-27…and then to Dewey, Oklahoma for the SK 500 rod run the ext weekend - May first thru May 5th…talk about a lot of miles in between those two…I like driving… <br />
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So following the last installment, at this point, basically, most of the underside is done (with the exception of fuel tank, shocks and putting in fuel and brake lines). <br />
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I started on the interior - I pulled everything out of the interior, dash included, and the cardboard heater vents (at the kick panels) that ran from the firewall into the doors (so the back seat could be heated) via the kick panels and proceeded to wire brush, sand and clean in prep for the Lizardskin on the interior --- when it was reasonably clean, I sprayed floor, firewall, doors, package tray, trunk and roof with epoxy sealer first.<br />
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In the above pic, you can see where I welded up the fresh air openings on the firewall…and the “white” is latex caulking for a final seal. The aluminum foil was used to cover wires or other items that we didn’t want Lizardskin on (simple trick cuz it wads all up, you don’t need to use tape and it covers well)…and, another simple trick -- the ‘masking paper’ is vinyl sticky used in mounting/removing vinyl lettering…it has enuff tack to stick to almost anything…so, no using bunches of rolls of masking tape and expensive masking paper, ehrr, uhm…newspaper (the really, really expensive stuff…!!!)…and since the “masking paper” is vinyl, NOTHING goes thru it. Photo below is of the trunk after spraying sealer…<br />
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Lizardskin is easy to spray, stick a heater hose tube in the 2-gallon bucket, attach the air hose to the gun and spray away (oh, you need to use a body schutz gun, tho)…credit card thickness is all you need. I used one 2-gallon bucket on the interior. Here I am shooting the roof of the Caddy…oh, and wear a cap and or glasses of some kind…the stuff goes all over.<br />
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Time perspective: removing stuff, cleaning, sanding, covering, masking the interior took the better part of a month to get everything ready for the Lizardskin…and then that only took a few hours to spray it all in. <br />
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Now even tho we’ve only “scratched” the surface of building this Caddy…time has a way of slipping away…it’s taken about a year at this point from the time I rolled it into my garage. We’re getting closer to the fun part… <br />
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Once the interior was done and dry, I put the dash back in, but NOT the original Cadillac cardboard heater crap…no sense spending good money on new cardboard “ducting” when a Vintage Air unit will cool and heat the car for what little I need. In the meantime, I placed a classified ad on the HAMB looking for a GM tilt steering column… Bob from Owens Salvage sent me up a ’66 Buick tilt column…just the right length…<br />
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All that wiring seen on the floor is stock ’55 Caddy wiring…all of five circuits/fuses in the entire car…at this point I’ve got an EZ wiring kit coming…just as well do the car correctly and add a few more needed circuits. <br />
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Well, as you can see by the column being mounted, it looks like it’ll work…but, no matter the length after all, it wouldn’t…and we trashed about ¾’s of the column. I retrieved the stock ’55 Caddy column from my storage shed and noticed it had the shift linkage arm on the engine side of the firewall and it went up over the top of the brake pedal…Oooops, didn’t figure on that one…new column and linkage shift arm needed. My friend (and hot rod builder) Quenton Sonnenfeld (of Sonnenfeld Enterprises in Denver) built me a new column, complete with required shift arm on the engine side of the firewall…as you can see in the photo below.<br />
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He also machined an adapter to mount the stock ’55 Cadillac steering wheel on to the tilt column…once it was installed, I then made all the stock column trim stuff fit the column…should blow away a few people, stock looking, stock steering wheel, but tilt. <br />
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While I was in the interior, I decided I didn’t like the stock ’55 dash… “OK, let’s change it now, before we go any further.” First choice was a ’57 Chevy dash since I know them (I’ve had a few ’57 Chevys in my lifetime) and thot that would look good in the Caddy…I’d planned on mating 3/4’s of it to the original chromed ’55 Caddy dash-pod…I called up my friendly neighborhood junkyard and asked them to remove a ’57 dash for me…cost me all of $100.00 for it. The stock ’55 Caddy dash/radio opening is so narrow (height-wise) a nice CD player (yes, I LIKE traveling music -- loud) will not fit in without cutting up the cast metal dash trim…and I didn’t want to fight that, didn’t think it would look good and besides, a ’57 dash is wider and a nice FM stereo is available for it without cutting anything. <br />
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When I went to the junkyard to pick up the ’57 Chevy dash, I walked over to a derelict ’56 Caddy sitting there…wow… it had a complete dash in it…bigger radio opening than what I had…OR the ’57 Chevy dash had. ”Hmmmmmmmm, Bill, how much for the Caddy dash?” “Do I need to cut it out?” “No, I think it simply unbolts.” “If you take it out -- $50.00.”…OK, I unbolted it, went home with two dashes and minus 150.00 in my wallet…anyone need a ’57 Chevy dash? <br />
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Note the black “cut-here” marks on the green dash (photo above). I then proceeded to cut out the ’55 dash…and mocked up the ’56 in its place.<br />
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…and got ready to mate the ’56 to the ‘55…Note: the stock ’55 dash had the glove compartment way over on the right side (passenger side) directly in the way of a soon-to-be under-dash Vintage Air unit…that simply ain’t going to work. The ’56 dash has the glove compartment in the center…Yep, that’ll work better. <br />
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Then I had the ’56 dash glass-beaded…all the better to weld on…<br />
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I kept the stock ’55 chromed dash-pod cuz I like its looks better than the ’56…and now that all the heater crap was removed, I had two pull knobs in the stock chromed dash pod that didn’t function anymore…I moved the headlight switch from the left side, alongside the chromed dash pod down onto the bezel itself…and that cleaned up the dash even more. <br />
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Once the ’56 dash was welded to the rest of the ’55 dash, I had to fill the ash tray openings on either side of the glove compartment door (Ash trays..??? Ash trays…??? We don’ need no steeenkin’ ashtrays…!!). <br />
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A little bondo here and a little there, some sealer, some primer and the whole thing’ll look stock…more confusion to those that (think they) know Caddys. <br />
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The EZ wire kit showed up and is laying on the floor there…I mounted the fuse panel up under the dash on the driver’s side and the turquoise carpet laying there is just some house runner I put in so not to scuff, or get dirty, the Lizardskin. <br />
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I must add this: Never let anyone tell you wiring an automobile is easy…it ain’t (especially a big Caddy)…and while there was absolutely nothing wrong with the EZ wire kit…it’s just not “dummy-friendly” (or user friendly) if you happen to know ZERO about wiring… there were no ‘follow this and do this’ instructions in the EZ wire kit…just basic “do this-do that” sheets…YOU, at least, need a working knowledge of electricity and how and why it works the way it does and to be able to figure out HOW to run wires to where they end up, how they work in conjunction with each other and running the wiring without getting any of it in the way of anything else. <br />
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In this pic you can see how the dash is fitting to the ’55 side…note the right side hold-er-onner…nothing is welded up yet…and if you look closer, you can see that I’ve fitted the original ’55 column covers to the new column…should look cool once painted and finished. <br />
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Once I was satisfied with the way the ’56 dash and trim fit…it did not now fit the stock ’55 door panels (Note: I was aware of that before putting in the ’56 dash and knew I’d have to do some modifying). The ’55 Caddy door panel trim is straight, runs the length of the door and the dash wraps around and into it. The same pieces from a ’56 Caddy are short, only about 18-20 inches long. Didn’t think I was going to like the short pieces…no, certain I didn’t like them.<br />
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After studying both for a while, I decided to mate the ’56 panel/trim to the ’55…that way I can keep the long panels and yet, have the ’56 dash wrap around and into the door. In this shot you can see it taped/mocked up on the ’55 panel…that should look good…again, more confusion for some know-it-all Caddy owners. <br />
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That cast metal insert will go away, BTW…Cadillac style woodgrain will replace it. Also note that the top of the dash (above photo) is now all bare metal…most Caddy dashes are leather covered, I ripped all of mine off…I wanted it painted.<br />
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A little MIG welding here and a little MIG welding there, a bit of bondo here and a bit there, some sealer and some primer, a bit of paint and it will be soon one piece and finished…Hey, that don’t look too bad in a picture…<br />
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I then sealed and primed the dash, and all the window trim and door panels…and painted everything white…the interior will be two-toned (and NOT chicken fat yellow it was decided -- for the final time), the bottom of the dash will be white and the top of the dash and most of the door panel trim will be another color (to be determined…!!!)<br />
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Somewhere in here, it was mid to late-summer of ’06…time again to get serious about rod running…work on the Caddy slowed…uhm, well, mostly stopped for a few months. So, stay tuned for the next installment…the fun starts for real…<br />
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StudeDude&#8217;s Caddy build&#8230;in several installments. This is Installment Number Four<br />
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In the fall (November, &#8216;06. ), I again turned my attention back to the Caddy. With the basic interior mostly done, it was time to turn my attention to the engine compartment again. My friend, Mad-Cad on the HAMB, &#8220;Big Tim Boyle&#8221; to everyone else, told me he was going to redo his Cad powered Bonneville Model A&#8230;I asked him where he&#8217;d gotten his blok hugger headers for his 500 incher??? He didn&#8217;t answer me&#8230;simply asked if I wanted them&#8230;then sent them down to me from Aspen, ColoRODo to &#8220;try&#8221; on my engine, but I was pretty sure they&#8217;d fit&#8230;they did and I bought them from him. I had them blasted and metal sprayed a nice gray. They look exceptional on the engine. Tim, it adds a bit of &#8220;hot rod&#8221; to the engine.<br />
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Then I had to figure out how to mate the new steering column to the Trans Am power steering box. U-joints&#8230;yeah, Borgeson u-joints&#8230;the best there is&#8230;can&#8217;t take short cuts here, not with steering&#8230;so I spent some cash and got the right stuff&#8230;here you can see how I had to snake the u- joints around those headers. They work great and are smooth. It may look like they touch the headers &#8211; it&#8217;s close, but they do not touch.<br />
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OK, at this point it was dead of winter --the fuel tank was pulled out and had been sent out and boiled out, sealed inside and coated outside with Lizardskin and mounted in its proper position. Fuel lines were ran to the engine and hooked to the mechanical fuel pump. The driveshaft had been measured and built by Driveshaft Doctors here in Denver and fit perfectly&#8230;brake lines were run and hooked up to the master cylinder&#8230;the entire underside was now as done as I could get it&#8230;<br />
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I pulled the front clip off for some minor work around the engine and run some brake lines to the discs&#8230;while the fenders were off, they were modified and hung back on&#8230;by modification, I mean, I had to open the area above the A-arms&#8230;or rather&#8230;close it up cuz the previous owner had decided to cut it all out&#8230;and I didn&#8217;t like the look of that&#8230;it was a half-assed job&#8230;so I healed it and made it look like it belonged there&#8230;.<br />
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I use a lot of round rod to build things&#8230;here I&#8217;ve bent it to add rigidity to the inner panel, the area in front of and behind it will be filled in&#8230;and&#8230; on the driver&#8217;s side, as you can see below, is already welded in and done. These took several days each to build&#8230;and get them to look correct&#8230;I hate something that looks out of place&#8230;like it hadn&#8217;t ever been there and simply tossed on cuz it had to be in that certain spot&#8230;wrong way of building things, IMHO.<br />
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Time to move on to the front bumper, grille area and radiator support area. The rad support seen in one of the first photos I&#8217;d posted simply was not going to work&#8230;I cut it in half, shortened most of it and built some square tubing mounts to bolt it to the frame. <br />
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I&#8217;d originally wanted to use a cross-flow radiator. We went to pick-a-part to survey radiators in many GM cars, but everything was too wide or too tall&#8230;time to re-think the whole radiator situation. Since the Trans Am sub is a front steer, the box was right in the way (of the radiator) and the frame rails wouldn&#8217;t let me lower a cross flow to miss the hood when it&#8217;s closed &#8230;my bro and I &#8220;built&#8221; a radiator&#8230;!!!<br />
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Well, we didn&#8217;t like the looks of a cardboard radiator, so we built another one&#8230; Hmmmmmmmmmm, OK, maybe an upright is the only way to go &#8230;<br />
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While this plywood radiator wouldn&#8217;t hold any water&#8230;it gave us the dimensions and the look I need&#8230;I then asked several radiator places for estimates to build one for me&#8230;wanting to keep the money local&#8230;but I got all the same price&#8230;and no guarantee a standard radiator would cool the 500&#8221; and run an A/C unit at the same time. At one of the last rod runs I attended (GG&#8217;s in Phoenix in late November), I found a &#8220;builder&#8221; displaying his aluminum radiators and talked to him. He could build an aluminum radiator for me, any size, any style and guarantee it&#8217;d cool the 500&#8221; with A/C on and&#8230;even at an idle. That&#8217;s what he promised&#8230;but, you know how that goes&#8230;??? <br />
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It sounded good, however if it sounds tooo-oooo good to be true&#8230;well, you all know that old saying&#8230;right&#8230;???<br />
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OK on that, gonna have to save some bucks for that&#8230;let us proceed. Problem Number two: the remote oil mount&#8230;this problem surfaced once we hung everything (alternator, power steering pump, fan, belts, etc.) back on the engine, including the stock oil pump. In case you don&#8217;t know, a 500&#8221; Cad has the oil pump mounted low on the passenger&#8217;s side, outside the block&#8230;I found the oil canister to be in direct contact with the tie rod&#8230;and upon further inspection, when I turned the wheels, found the tie rod steering arm contacted, and actually stopped the car from turning. Uh-oh&#8230;&#8217;stock&#8217; is not going to work&#8230;will have to put in a remote. I told my sad story to some friends&#8230;they came thru with some remote parts&#8230;but, what they&#8217;d given me didn&#8217;t work so I purchased several remote mounts of various configurations and proceeded to try to get one, or all of them, to work&#8230;nothing I assembled was going to get past the tie rod. Bummer&#8230;now what, raise the engine&#8230;??? Nope. As my Dad used to say: &#8220;There&#8217;s more than one way to skin a cat.&#8221;<br />
</pre>
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I e-mailed my friend Mad-Cad again&#8230;knew he was working on a &#8217;56 Cadillac and asked him how he solved the same problem when he put a 500&#8221; in his &#8217;56 Caddy&#8230;his answer was simple and straight-forward: &#8220;Pull one off a earlier 425&#8221; Caddy engine&#8230;they actually point toward the crank&#8230;that&#8217;ll give you some extra room.&#8221; <br />
</pre>
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Hmmm, sounds like it might work, may give me the room I need. Convinced myself it was the only way to go&#8230;but since I&#8217;m kind of a tight wad when it comes to ordering stuff new&#8230;I decided to wait on that and work on something else&#8230;<br />
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Weeee-eeeelllll, things have a way of falling into my lap&#8230;the very next weekend I happened to be in the local pick-a-part yard looking for some shift linkage&#8230;and there-- lookit that, right in front of me sat an early Caddy four door, complete with 425.&#8221; I couldn&#8217;t believe my luck&#8230;fortune had smiled on me again. Best of all, besides the oil pump I needed, the A/C unit was there, a new alternator was hanging there, along with better brackets than I had, the carb was there&#8230;and the HEI. I pulled them all and got a hell of a $$ deal.<br />
</pre>
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It took several weekends to figure out how to get the oil pump, and remote parts in and turned the right way for the hoses to miss the tie rod. Then several more weekends to find a good mounting place for the remote, because -- 1.) I didn&#8217;t want to mount it just any place in the engine compartment, like on fender or firewall cuz it would look out of place&#8230;and ugly&#8230;and as I&#8217;ve said before, it has to look like it belongs there (or I&#8217;ll hide it)&#8230;hanging on an inner fender &#8220;does not belong there&#8230;!!!&#8221; and 2.) I had to be able to change the oil and not make a mess when that occurred, and 3.) I didn&#8217;t want the remote hoses very long&#8230;Ok, let&#8217;s study that problem for a while&#8230;<br />
</pre>
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At this time in this build, it was late spring &#8217;07&#8230;I&#8217;d built some bumper brackets and welded them to the shortened Trans Am stub up front&#8230;and had the lower part of the bumper stripped for a &#8216;secret&#8217; project that has to do with the bumper, that won&#8217;t be revealed here as it&#8217;s not been done before&#8230;then I hung the 200 pound bumper/Dagmars on. That effectively lowered the front end another two inches&#8230;<br />
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By now, you&#8217;ve noticed I never rush into things&#8230;I do a lot of studying, thinking, measuring and just plain sitting on my as&#8230;ehr, uhm, stool looking&#8230;as I was studying my wooden radiator and the front bumper, I realized I needed some type of support for the soon-to-be-built pan&#8230;the one in front of the radiator. I fished out the old stock pan from the storage shed&#8230; nope, too many bends and too many curves&#8230;and bent up real good from years of abuse&#8230;straightening and cutting and fitting and welding that one was going to be too much messing around. <br />
</pre>
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So, I grabbed some square tubing&#8230;and fabbed up a pan mounting point&#8230;once I had it all built, it appeared to me that this area would be a great place to mount the oil remote, kill two birds with one stone (or &#8216;pan&#8217; as the case is)&#8230;and once bolted in, it would give me only 14 inch long hoses&#8230;and I can access it easily to change the oil and the canister. No mess, no fuss. I mounted it high, up above the bottom of the bumper, so no scraping it when I go over a speed bump.<br />
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I mounted the remote, angled the hoses under the sway bar and over to it&#8230;and finished it. Then I added a plate to the square tubing so the hood support/latch would bolt in&#8230;killing a bunch more birds. Keep in mind, that all the time I&#8217;m building all this stuff, I have to be aware that everything I put in place HAS to be removable and able to be replaced, in the case of an accident (fingers crossed, knock on wood), so, that alone, some times, takes a lot of figuring&#8230;and never let anyone tell you putting in a sub-frame is easy&#8230;well, wait, hold on&#8230;putting it in is much easier than making all the original stuff fit it and look like it was made that way&#8230;!!! THAT, I think, is the whole secret&#8230;to making a car look nice.<br />
</pre>
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At that point, I trimmed out a sheet metal &#8216;pan&#8217; to fit in front of the radiator, then I made some new metal side pieces and welded them alongside my radiator support&#8230;that done, I made some cardboard templates so I could bend up some side pieces out of sheet metal to cover the frame rails and steering box&#8230;I clamped a pipe into the vise and Dan (my bro) and I hand bent the two pieces around the pipe so it&#8217;d have a nice curve to them. I welded in a couple of bungs on each and used some button head bolts to hold them in. <br />
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There, that looks a hell of a lot nicer than having those ugly Pontiac frame horns hanging out there.<br />
</pre>
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In order to find out just where the hood support/latch needed to sit, the hood was put on&#8230;adjusted as close as possible and closed on the mechanism. The holes were marked for drilling and then the whole thing was removed for &#8216;surgery&#8217; leaving the hood just sorta sitting on its own.<br />
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After some measurements were taken, I took the stock &#8217;55 hood support/latch mechanism off and narrowed it four inches, that allowed enuff room to mount an A/C condenser in front of the radiator (always have to think ahead&#8230;sometimes way ahead, ya know?)<br />
</pre>
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&#8230;I do a lot of rod running in the summertime&#8230;so A/C is a requisite item, I&#8217;m not a youngster anymore, I like it livable cool. <br />
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I built a cross brace in front of the radiator and then shortened the original hood support piece 6 inches&#8230;welded it all back together and bolted it in. It fit like it was made for it&#8230;and it was&#8230;!!!<br />
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</pre>
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At this point in time&#8230;we&#8217;d been to a few rod runs&#8230;it&#8217;s mid-late summer &#8217;07. Work on the Caddy has all but stopped. <br />
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And so, that concludes this installment, we&#8217;re getting closer to the end product. OK&#8230;watch for another installment coming up&#8230;stop back after Paso Maria.<br />
</pre>
R-
</div>
</pre>

 

StudeDude&#8217;s Caddy build&#8230;in several installments. This is the Fifth and Final Installment.<br />
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If you've missed any of the first four, do a search for <i><b>"55 Caddy Build" </b></i>and you can see the whole story...from start to today.<br />
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</pre>
As we last left off, at that point in time, we&#8217;d gone to Phoenix for GG&#8217;s event in November,07 last run of the season&#8230;so, not too much left of the year of &#8217;07&#8230;but&#8230;we were getting close(r) to being done&#8230; the Caddy is close enuff to set a goal, a date&#8230;we were now working toward a February &#8217;08 drive around the block&#8230;could happen. I&#8217;d told Mick (SK 500 rod run) that I may bring my Caddy down to his run in May of &#8216;08&#8230;that gives me two months&#8230;<br />
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</pre>
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As you can see above, the radiator cash got saved and the aluminum radiator got ordered and then installed. Worse part about ordering the radiator is that it took 11 weeks to get built and shipped to Denver&#8230;after a promised time of &#8220;no more than 6 weeks&#8221;&#8230;needless to say, I was a little pissed about that&#8230;and I seldom get mad&#8230;but NO ONE does customer service or meets promised dates anymore&#8230;I don&#8217;t care what company you deal with. I won&#8217;t post a name here&#8230;nor will I recommend you or anyone else using them&#8230;but, if you insist on knowing, PM me&#8230; <br />
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</pre>
So, lots of little things to deal with on the car -- finish connecting all the brake lines and fuel lines, attach stuff to the engine, put back all the small things that make it all work, including the dash cluster and steering column (and assorted column &#8220;jackets) after it was painted, as you can see here&#8230;and put on the brake pedal, accelerator pedal, shift linkage, etc. Lots of stuff&#8230;<br />
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In this photo you can see part of the dash is still in primer&#8230;that will be painted black and then an insert (yet to be built) will cover that&#8230;then woodgrain will be added over that&#8230;black kinda hides things, ya know&#8230;???<br />
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</pre>
So, we were quite busy tying up all the &#8220;loose&#8221; ends and February, &#8216;08 sorta sneaked up on us&#8230;I missed my self-imposed February deadline&#8230;No matter, there are other days. I kept working. I hadn&#8217;t wired the dash instruments, so I took care of that and then wired the headlights (now where did I put those headlight buckets&#8230;???) and actually put them in&#8230; And ran wires to the park lights (which are still non-existent at this time), ran the horn wires and finished connecting all the other wiring that we couldn&#8217;t do before, ya know -- like run a wire to the fuel sending unit, run a wire to the wiper motor, run a wire over to where the A/C is going to mount&#8230;run wires to the new gauges that are not installed but, should go.. right&#8230; there&#8230;all time consuming. I also had to make sure the turn signal block was securely mounted at the bottom of the column since this &#8217;66 Buick column uses a separate &#8220;block&#8221; for the turn signals.<br />
</pre>
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I set new deadline: March 27&#8230;a Sunday. <br />
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By this time, everything on the &#8216;build&#8217; had been done&#8230;Yes, I said D-O-N-E&#8230;!!! Well, now, hold on a minnit&#8230;NOT everything is done, as in &#8220;completely finished,&#8221; but it&#8217;s close. There are still a lot of things needing to be finished, but none of that will prevent us from starting and driving the car around the block. <br />
</pre>
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We finally got the right combination on the plug wires and dropped in the HEI&#8230;hey, all this Caddy stuff is NEW to me&#8230;I&#8217;m a Chevy guy&#8230;!!! <br />
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The date was March 19th...<br />
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Yep, may make that March 27th date yet&#8230;!! <br />
</pre>
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The battery was hooked up on the 19th and after about six crank-overs, the engine fired off &#8230;and surprised me&#8230;it hasn&#8217;t run for three years while sitting in my garage&#8230;and who knows how long previous to me owning it&#8230;!!! But, it was loud exiting the blok hugger headers and the engine held good oil pressure, the T400 tranny moved the rear tires, and the emergency brake works (none of this was known as I bought the car without hearing or seeing any of it work) &#8230;but&#8230;small problem with the fuel pump&#8230;seems Cadillac has put three lines on their mechanical fuel pump&#8230;while it delivers gasoline to the carb&#8230;there is no return line to deliver the overflow back to the stock &#8217;55 Caddy tank. Who knew? <br />
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</pre>
I decided to go with an electric pump&#8230;and chose a Carter&#8230;which delivers more than adequate fuel to the carb. That took a bit of figuring on where to mount that&#8230;oh, and another weekend of building/mounting shot to hell. Oh well&#8230;if that&#8217;s the only problem I&#8217;ll encounter, then life is good.<br />
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On to the next thing&#8230;I purchased a chromed Cadillac A/C unit from a HAMBer and put that on the engine&#8230;looks good there, but I don&#8217;t know if it works&#8230;yet. He said it did and I took him at his word&#8230; guess we&#8217;ll find out later this summer. Once that was on and all the belts were tightened up, we fired up the engine, again, for a minor tune and to see if we had any leaks. <br />
</pre>
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We did. <br />
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Knew it&#8230;!!! <br />
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Well, OK&#8230;let&#8217;s fix that...we did and then in the meantime, small &#8216;body&#8217; stuff got done on the Caddy since the brakes still needed work and it&#8217;s not yet drivable&#8230;figuring on how to build cruiser skirts, how to modify some trim to get the &#8216;kustom&#8221; effect, when to get lowering blocks, mounting up some wide whites&#8230;and the list is endless&#8230;but, we&#8217;re getting closer.<br />
</pre>
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I had the hood blasted and decided to put on a little sealer&#8230;just as well do it now while I&#8217;m waiting.<br />
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On March 24th, 2008, I got word my new book (&#8220;Recollections, Regrets and Random Acts,&#8221; with &#8216;Introduction&#8217; by none other than Ryan Cochran) had been released&#8230;after that happened, I received many invitations to come to several rod runs, sell all three of my books and be a &#8220;celebrity&#8221;&#8230;I accepted a lot of them&#8230;but let me make this perfectly clear&#8230;I am not a celebrity&#8230;I&#8217;m a kustom guy and a hot rodder that happened to write three books. My summer &#8217;08 weekends were filling up fast&#8230;not leaving me much time to work on the Caddy&#8230;<br />
</pre>
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One more thing needed to happen before it can be driven&#8230;a high dollar item -- an exhaust system&#8230;and I don&#8217;t do those&#8230;I&#8217;ll let a pro do it for me&#8230;so, that means trailering the car to a shop&#8230;no problemo&#8230;<br />
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One final thing to be done is to get it licensed and insurance added to the car&#8230;then and only then will I attempt any kind of trip around several bloks...or miles.<br />
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</pre>
Well, it didn&#8217;t quite work out&#8230;I missed another deadline, March 27th came and went&#8230;the carb finally quit while we were &#8220;tuning&#8221;&#8230;too much dirt inside so we pulled it off and overhauled it&#8230;and I spotted another leak&#8230;seems the rear main seal is not sealing&#8230;oil is pouring, not dripping, off the rear of the pan&#8230;another problem. Oh well, mustn&#8217;t lose focus at this time.<br />
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We ended up making it to Moab, Utah&#8217;s April Action '08 show <b>without</b> the Caddy&#8230;and we got to go to Mick&#8217;s Stray Kat '08 event on the first of May&#8230;<b>without</b> the Caddy&#8230;had to eat some humble pie while there. But since both my bro and I have other hot rods and kustoms we were still able to go and enjoy both shows. <br />
</pre>
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So, back home mid-May, '08&#8230;work progresses on the Caddy in between week-end rod runs&#8230;<br />
<br />
While attempting to do the brakes, we noticed the wheel cylinders on the rear of the Caddy leaked like a sieve (as did a couple of my master cylinder line connections -- but all my other line connections held perfectly&#8230;!!!)&#8230;new wheels cylinders are needed, after all, these have been sitting since 2005 (or before)&#8230;not working&#8230;and brake fluid tends to eat metal. As long as we&#8217;re at it, we&#8217;d just as well replace/redo the front calipers and pads&#8230;start fresh with everything. <br />
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</pre>
The final item to be done, is to add fluid to the master and bleed the brakes&#8230;we attempted to do that &#8230;and couldn&#8217;t. Back to the drawing board&#8230;check with friends, ask questions about the set-up I had&#8230;so, in the meantime, I&#8217;d decided to put all new brakes on the Caddy, all the way around. I ordered loaded calipers for the front sub-frame and stock rear shoes from NAPA, wheel cylinders and a hardware kit from USA Parts&#8230;Those were installed on a Sunday afternoon and the brakes bled via the &#8220;suction method&#8221;&#8230;worked pretty good too&#8230; got a good pedal out of it&#8230;<br />
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Now that the brakes were working, I decided to throw the original interior back in&#8230;It&#8217;ll be fine for the summer&#8230;<br />
</pre>
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Here&#8217;s the woodgrain trim on the door panels&#8230;should be OK looking once I get the rest of the dash done.<br />
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</pre>
And the &#8220;cruiser&#8221; skirts are being built right now&#8230;here&#8217;s a shot of them being built&#8230;they should be OK when I skin them (and lower the rear of the car about 10 inches&#8230.<br />
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Everything was finally sorted out and water/anti-freeze added to the radiator&#8230;and now, here it is, the month of June&#8230; and the trip around the block is about to happen&#8230;<br />
</pre>
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The date was June 15th&#8230;and here I am, driving out of my garage&#8230;<br />
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...and here I am checking out the engine before I head for the street&#8230;<br />
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</pre>
And here I am heading for the street&#8230;<br />
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So, now that the first drive has been taken&#8230;and the car seems to run well&#8230;it&#8217;s time to get on with the build&#8230;The car was trailered up to the exhaust shop on Thursday, June 19th&#8230;and then I went to the MV Department and got the title and license plates for it&#8230;so&#8230;that brings us up to today&#8230;the exhaust should be done tomorrow&#8230;if not then, maybe Monday&#8230;or Tuesday&#8230;or&#8230;well, I told him &#8220;no hurry,&#8221;&#8230;it&#8217;ll get done when it gets done.<br />
</pre>
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Regrets that it took so long&#8230;??? <br />
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Absolutely NONE&#8230;if it was meant to be, it would have happened weeks, or months ago and as it is at the moment, it is only three weeks shy of three years in building the Caddy&#8230;<br />
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And now, summer is upon us&#8230;again&#8230;time to go rod running again&#8230;work on the Caddy slows&#8230;or crawls&#8230; as the weekends are taken up with events&#8230;and traveling.<br />
</pre>
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BUT&#8230;one good thing, now that it is drivable, all the really fun stuff comes into play&#8230;kustom bodywork, general bodywork, primer and paint&#8230;until then, watch for my ratty old patina&#8217;d Caddy at your local rod run&#8230;I may be there&#8230;<br />
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R-
</div>
</pre>

 

Hmmmmmmmmm,OK nowaxn5, and thanx for asking...and for those of you just reading this thread for the first time, there are four other installements of this build, beginning with the body off...do a search for "55 Caddy build"...<br />
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As we last left this thread, the car was getting exhausts...here it is on the rack, it's got Flowmasters on it and with the headers, it sounds really throaty:<br />
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Then in October, I enlisted the help of my friend, Rick C...aka "Lowliddude" here on the HAMB...he brot over his 'Spitznagle', and pulled out several creases in the passenger's side...seems whoever had the car last couldn't quite make it thru the garage doors with out connecting with something...there were four such creases, including one in the lower portion of the door...nice and straight now:<br />
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Once we stripped the body to bare metal, I found the car had taken a hit on the driver's side sometime in its previous life...the "bodymen" simply pulled out the area with a slide hammer, and then filled 'er up with concrete (very old, very hard bondo)...they didn't even bother to seal the holes they put in it, needless to say it was all cracking...I dug out about 1/2" to 3/4" of an inch, including the bondo inside the door on the pillar...looks like I'll need to replace that section.<br />
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Once I was done stripping the body, I started on the fender skirts...that took some studying... I tried to adapt a pair of Ford Cruiser skirts, but I didn't like how far they stuck out away from the body...besides they were way too short...I set about to build a framework. Using 1/4" round rod, 1/2" tubing and some 14 gauge metal for the "tabs"-mounting points. I'm using six bolts to hold the skirt on...three in the wheel well, two on the bottom of the rear panel, where the original chrome trim bolted and one inside the wheel well, where the stock skirt was attached.<br />
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When I had the framework where I liked it, my friend Ron B, offered to "roll" some metal for me...we went to his place and using his cheap Harbor Freight shear and roller, we cut the metal into 26" lengths and proceeded to roll the top most edge...as I said, I didn't like the Cruiser skirts cuz the top edge stuck out so far, so we "rolled" them so they barely have an edge that sticks out from the body...then I tacked all three pieces together and the bottom tacked in place and stood back to study it...Yep, I think they'll work... and they are <i>only </i>70 inches long...!!! In this photo you can see the ruff area, ahead of the skirt, I had to replace...<br />
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When I was satisified with the look of the driver's side skirt, I changed directions and peaked the hood...you'll note that the fenders are not stripped here yet...I'm going to have them blasted so I can paint the insides easier...<br />
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and then I moved to the trunk...I used 3/16" round rod for this...figured I'd just as well get this done too...<br />
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Remember in an earlier post I said I was going to wood grain the dash and trim...??? Well, another friend (Plumfat here on the HAMB) in ColoRODo Springs stepped up and said he could do the woodgraining for real, with real paint so I wouldn't have to use the stick-on kind of wood grained trim...so I had to build some pieces so the paint work would look smooth and look like real woodgrain...worse part is I had to weld studs on the back to hold it in place (THAT was a whole lot of fun, trying to keep it from warping, but I managed)... As you can see, I also built an under-dash panel for the A/C vents and controls (Yes, I like my A/C in the summer--if you do as much rod running as I do in the summer, it's nice to have it in the humid Mid-Western states!)......I also "hid" three gauges in said panel...the small "door" closes so you cannot see the gauges when parked. I feel a Cadillac shouldn't have any 'hot rod" type gauges showing other than what's stock... <br />
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Anyway, here's one of the pieces for the doors...should look good when they are done. The door handles (outside) are also removed, I've yet to put in the solenoids...and the seats should go to the upholsterer in February...as you can see, I'm using black plastic for door panels...they don't warp when they get wet.<br />
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So, that brings us up to date nowaxn5...I'm not sure that there is much "schooling" here, but you can see I am making progress. And since it's winter here, I'm hoping to have it all done by spring (and that is late April around here). Right now, I'm trying to finish the other skirt (framework is done) and I'm working on the rear bumper at the same time, changing it a bit cuz I hate the ugly stock exhaust ports, they tended to rust so fast. I'm also doing some mods to the front bumper...and I'm also doing some other body work to the car, which I cannot reveal at this time...but rest assured, it'll be trick cuz no one has done it before, and you can bet it'll add to the overall "Kustom" sled look.<br />
<br />
R-











big thumbs up.

 

WOW...!!! I am impressed...and I thank you profusely...

Now, at the end of the fifth and final installement, is an update...can you tag that onto this...??? If so, it'd all be in one complete thread...

Awesome thread work VonBurke...

R-

 

Now that's how to document a build! Fantastic!! Keep it going!




BloodyKnuckles

 

Damn. Just damn. So cool, well written, documented, patient... I humbley bow your direction.

So what color(s)? (and I agree that estimated 42 gallons worth of yeller would be a tad much.)

Thank you for sharing all of this. Very nice.

 

Damn, I suck. Looks great Roger. Makes me jealous I can't be working on my caddy now. I'll have to save this thread for when I need a "fix". I gotta get out there and see it in person

 

added

 

side note... your Desoto is pure awesome in the rawest form

 

Now that's a car builder right there. Great job.

Doc.

 

i want to see pictures of the finished product... no build thread is complete without one.


studedude whats the progress?

 

WOW Roger you got a lot done in a short time.The Caddy is coming along great.I like the skirts ,nice job . Cant wait to see the grill you guys are building. I know this car will see serious miles when it hits the road this summer. Roger and Dan drive there cars more than any other street rod or custom guys I know. I am sure it will be in Salina this year for all to see.

 

DAMN !! That's some GREAT work !! gonna keep looking, im loving it!!

ian

 

Great job documenting the build. I love those Caddys. Can't wait to see the rest of the build!

 

Thanx VonBurke, I'm making minor progress...just working the body...got some minor dings and dents taken care of and in sealer, got that big "hole" in the driver's quarter filled with good metal (not much to see there so no pix of it). It took some work to rebuild the inside of the pillar and the hurt part of the pillar inside the door...but got 'er done...

Also filled the license plate indent in the panel below the trunk and put it in sealer...



And one of the skirts is all one color now...(that big hole is still shown in this photo....!!!)



Door handles are off, peak of the trunk is done (you can see that in the first pic posted), took some half moon dents out of the top and I think it's all done now (not much to see there)...so I think it's ready for primer...

I'm still working the bumper...trying to get that license plate box to look correct on the stock bumper...and that's taking some real work...!!!



That's about it for now...

R-

 

Nice work. I like it!!

 

Holy Cow...Nice work!
Can't wait to see the end..

 

The car looks great Roger. You and Dan are doing a fantastic job. I hope our paths cross somewhere this summer so I can see it in person.

 

Ken, the plan is to have it all in primer by the end of April...and drive it to our "first" rod run of the season in Moab, Utah (that is, IF we can get over the mountains...!!!).

And by the time the HAMB Drags roll around, it should have the A/C in it AND a stereo for that 14 hour drive...I'd bet we'll see you there.

R-

PS, you should see Dan's Caddy...we've changed it all up too (new engine, new tranny, new flames, new...well, you get the idea...did I ever tell you I'm busy...???!!!

 

The car looks great. Thanks for the post & some inspiration to get off my .... stool more often!

 

very nice work....

 

Well documented
Keep them coming, a great read. And good photos.

 

Excellent thread. I love the oil filter solution. I wish today's auto manufacturers would put in the same amount of thought into where they put their oil filters...... Oh and the skirts are awesome.

 

Best build thread I ever read. I sure would l like to see the finished car. Thanks.

 

Wow, really amazing work. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Thanks for sharing ,Great build
very cool car

 

Hey StudeDude,
Is that Caddy done yet ??? Hurry up so I can bring the 57 over for ya to work on it. Looks good.

Roach