They are a sweet old beast.My Father used to call them"Battle Cruisers". Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
some picture from last year when got so far to hit the road. i am giving her some new oil and a new filter. the valve cover gaskets were leaking so got some new ones. i had them of so i decided to paint them. i could have gone with standerd Cadillac colors but i wanted something different so it was gonna be Daphne blue. gonna do the airfilter in that color to i have a K&N airfilter with rust on the top so im gonna re use that one but thats for later
Looking good. Would love to see the paint buffed up to get rid of that rust. I think she deserves it. One of my best mates has a white '58 Fleetwood that is about as original as they get.
i was thinking about it. but i like her like this. she has character if she was showroom condition i would have sold her already its not me. i was thinking about useing clr as you can see in the pictures its pretty cool if you want your rusty car shiny again. but its not for sale over here so i have to have it shipt in. and then there is the point of do i want my car to be shiny again its stil a big question for me but maybe one day ill decide. and get someone on here to send that stuff my way
wel my car was sucking oil into the intake manifold and smoking. so i thought it was the vacuum for the gearbox because after i disconected it the transmision didnt shift so nice anymore. but the smoke was gone. i went looking. nothing to be found searched the internet nothing. i dived after that tube with a fury !!!! its at the firewall a bitch to get to. anyway i dived in there hurt myself a little and opend up my vocabulairy. and i found that the tube originated from the engine behind the starter. did a new search online and finally found the isseu. it was the vacuum check valve from the vacuum assist pump. al the way up to the windshield wipers. and that valve is right on the engine block. i was Lucky because i heard people opend up there entire engine block after rebuilding because when you have a rebuild engine and there are white smoke clouds out of both exhaust tips you aint happy. so thats pretty Lucky im gonna pull the starter and take out that valve hopefully i just have to clean it but probably a broke spring so that not to hard either. i want to go to a meeting this weekend so thats pretty close and never really drove far with this car so a big trip is pretty nerve wrecking. but also pretty fun and im gonna drive around here to see how she drives after a entire winter of sleep. wel gotta go under the car again ill be back
cleaned the vacuum valve. didnt seem anything wrong with it. i hope this wil fix it. but i think the problem lies deeper. we wil see. ill have her drivin tommorow. or the day after. gotta do some little stuff
That's one cool Caddy! Glad you are bringing her back to life. Just wondering. Why is a license do difficult in the Netherlands? Why do they make it so tough?
money ofcourse. with the excuse of safety. but it takes 3 to 4 grand in euro,s before you are done then you got a driverslicence. wel you need a car and a car in this country needs a check up every year if you dont get one or if it doesnt make it you need to fix the problem or its illigal to drive that car because its not up to the standerts of the law. every car has a licence with licence plates wich is connected to the numbers in the car. there is stil a law that cars before 1960 dont need that check up. a guy i know build a 1953 ford pick up with a camaro front end het wanted to get plates and they test the car at the rdw its like the dmv so they tested it engine brakes lights all that kind of stuff they saw the front end he was Lucky for having the paperwork for the pickup and the camaro or he would have been sent home with an illigal car wich he could use as lawn art or part out. he got his car a licence but it thook him 6 months. its a crazy country getting worse and worse better to not think about it. we pay 1,80 euro for a liter of gas the cheap gas. that the highest price of europe. anyway thats life we cant change it so we gotta accept it and live the way we want to the best of our ability i work hard started learning again. so i can build the cars i cant afford
Try vinegar. There's a few guys on here that have left cloth dampened with vinegar on a panel with surface rust and it's loosened the rust off just like CLR. If you do a search for vinegar rust removal you might even find the posts I'm talking about.
wel its a beautifull day so i thought lets get her running and wash her outside. took a while before she fired up havent set the ignition tming yet but im close now. i got her running and outside where she started leaking engine oil. so pretty pissed i started looking and found that the previous idiot who owned her .had put those aftermarket gauches under the dash and he drilled in the engine for the oil pressure gauge that was leaking like a wound so im gonna have to pull that crap out and close up that hole. but anyway washing her and seeing her was pretty motivating to work on her again tommorow stil hope to go to the meeting saterday.
wel the cooler for the gearbox keeps leaking. gotta fix that. i hope its just the hose or the clamps. ill see that tommorow didnt get any work done today. i got a new cooler just in case
wel big surprise again today fixed the cooler leak. fixed the oil gaughe lek. checked al the fluids wanted to time the ignition. and a big leak again oil and coolant it seems to be at the crank shaft so i had a little meltdown. and decided to pul the engine and trans and start from scratch im gonna rebuild the engine or find a 390. get the transmission rebuild. put in some goodies a tri power set up. and stainles exhaust from front to back. alu radiator. its gonna be a bgig build and probably not running this summer. thats pretty sad with al the struggles finaly ready to hit the road and now can start al over again.
Where did you get the cooler if you dont mind me asking? Also if you want to see another Caddy come back from the dead click on the link right below m post. Gotta love these old tanks they call Caddys!
i had that cooler laying on my shelf bought it for a Chevy once but didnt need it. its one of those universal one,s i had the same one on my Cadillac. its a Derale Tube & Fin Transmission Cooler Kit nothing special. ill check out your Cadillac Always love those Original fixer uppers. except for mine at the moment i wanted to kick her i can start all over again pissed me of really bad. especially because the meeting season just started and i just got her ready for that and now i can start over. but hey thats what you get if you buy a heap a pretty beautiful cool heap
I Have one of those boats too ! 1956 serie 6219. I fix one thing and two new things break , Started with replacing a leaking waterpump but ended up rebuilding the whole top end of the engine! Just keep on repairing one thing after another and sooner or later you have a reliable cruiser, Sigge!
Love those 50's Caddies. '58's being one of my favorites...You are a determined individual. Would it be a really big job to slide that 472 in there? It should have an overdrive tranny shouldn't it? That would be good for that outrageous price of gas....
i wuld have but its a 429 engine not a great engine .but you are right a 472 would be a nice one to build lots of goodies for it. but i think its gonna be Original 365 or a 390 i know a guy who has got one for sale. im gonna go see him and maybe if the price is right ill buy the 390. but i dont want a 1959 390 that stil has the old oil system and i think its a 59 but im gonna have a look and deside then and there.
well im gonna rebuild the engine and trans. the engine myself and the trans ill bring to a shop does abybody know a good book on building the 365 Cadillac engine. im gonna be fine building with out but little tricks for certain engine,s are Always nice to know in advance.
Nice project. Yes, I vote to keep it original. Louder pipes are permissible. Dual quads would be nice too.
one day ill find myself a tri power set up but its crazy expensive here so ill wait. maybe on my trip to sweden they got better prices a big stock and the biggest us car meet in europe im going in juli and i want my car to be ready then. im starting Wednesday by pulling of the entire nose of the Cadillac pull the engine and trans paint the firewall paint the chassis. rebuild my gril i got a second one gonna make a good one from the 2. paint the inside of the fenders. and well the big job of the engine rebuild. im not gonna machine it in anyway its got a compression of 10:1 still so im gonna put in new piston rings new gaskets new bearings gonna freshen it up and get it thrustworthy it keep leaking in a new spot i just want to know its good when i start driving it this summer.
wel lets start the big job im gonna pul of the nose of the Cadillac grill. hood. fenders. engine and trans. gonna rebuild the engine myself and gonna have the trans done. but before i start the my entire workshop needs to be moved around got some other projects in the way and on my lift. so lets start there
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