StudeDude’s Caddy build…in several installments. This is the Fifth and Final Installment. If you've missed any of the first four, do a search for "55 Caddy Build" and you can see the whole story...from start to today. As we last left off, at that point in time, we’d gone to Phoenix for GG’s event in November,07 last run of the season…so, not too much left of the year of ’07…but…we were getting close(r) to being done… the Caddy is close enuff to set a goal, a date…we were now working toward a February ’08 drive around the block…could happen. I’d told Mick (SK 500 rod run) that I may bring my Caddy down to his run in May of ‘08…that gives me two months… 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…after a promised time of “no more than 6 weeks”…needless to say, I was a little pissed about that…and I seldom get mad…but NO ONE does customer service or meets promised dates anymore…I don’t care what company you deal with. I won’t post a name here…nor will I recommend you or anyone else using them…but, if you insist on knowing, PM me… 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 ***orted column “jackets) after it was painted, as you can see here…and put on the brake pedal, accelerator pedal, shift linkage, etc. Lots of stuff… In this photo you can see part of the dash is still in primer…that will be painted black and then an insert (yet to be built) will cover that…then woodgrain will be added over that…black kinda hides things, ya know…??? So, we were quite busy tying up all the “loose” ends and February, ‘08 sorta sneaked up on us…I missed my self-imposed February deadline…No matter, there are other days. I kept working. I hadn’t wired the dash instruments, so I took care of that and then wired the headlights (now where did I put those headlight buckets…???) and actually put them in… 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’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…run wires to the new gauges that are not installed but, should go.. right… there…all time consuming. I also had to make sure the turn signal block was securely mounted at the bottom of the column since this ’66 Buick column uses a separate “block” for the turn signals. I set new deadline: March 27…a Sunday. By this time, everything on the ‘build’ had been done…Yes, I said D-O-N-E…!!! Well, now, hold on a minnit…NOT everything is done, as in “completely finished,” but it’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. We finally got the right combination on the plug wires and dropped in the HEI…hey, all this Caddy stuff is NEW to me…I’m a Chevy guy…!!! The date was March 19th... Yep, may make that March 27th date yet…!! The battery was hooked up on the 19th and after about six crank-overs, the engine fired off …and surprised me…it hasn’t run for three years while sitting in my garage…and who knows how long previous to me owning it…!!! But, it was loud exiting the blok hugger headers and the engine held good oil pressure, the T400 ****** 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) …but…small problem with the fuel pump…seems Cadillac has put three lines on their mechanical fuel pump…while it delivers gasoline to the carb…there is no return line to deliver the overflow back to the stock ’55 Caddy tank. Who knew? I decided to go with an electric pump…and chose a Carter…which delivers more than adequate fuel to the carb. That took a bit of figuring on where to mount that…oh, and another weekend of building/mounting shot to hell. Oh well…if that’s the only problem I’ll encounter, then life is good. On to the next thing…I purchased a chromed Cadillac A/C unit from a HAMBer and put that on the engine…looks good there, but I don’t know if it works…yet. He said it did and I took him at his word… guess we’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. We did. Knew it…!!! Well, OK…let’s fix that...we did and then in the meantime, small ‘body’ stuff got done on the Caddy since the brakes still needed work and it’s not yet drivable…figuring on how to build cruiser skirts, how to modify some trim to get the ‘kustom” effect, when to get lowering blocks, mounting up some wide whites…and the list is endless…but, we’re getting closer. I had the hood blasted and decided to put on a little sealer…just as well do it now while I’m waiting. On March 24th, 2008, I got word my new book (“Recollections, Regrets and Random Acts,” with ‘Introduction’ by none other than Ryan Cochran) had been released…after that happened, I received many invitations to come to several rod runs, sell all three of my books and be a “celebrity”…I accepted a lot of them…but let me make this perfectly clear…I am not a celebrity…I’m a kustom guy and a hot rodder that happened to write three books. My summer ’08 weekends were filling up fast…not leaving me much time to work on the Caddy… One more thing needed to happen before it can be driven…a high dollar item -- an exhaust system…and I don’t do those…I’ll let a pro do it for me…so, that means trailering the car to a shop…no problemo… One final thing to be done is to get it licensed and insurance added to the car…then and only then will I attempt any kind of trip around several bloks...or miles. Well, it didn’t quite work out…I missed another deadline, March 27th came and went…the carb finally quit while we were “tuning”…too much dirt inside so we pulled it off and overhauled it…and I spotted another leak…seems the rear main seal is not sealing…oil is pouring, not dripping, off the rear of the pan…another problem. Oh well, mustn’t lose focus at this time. We ended up making it to Moab, Utah’s April Action '08 show without the Caddy…and we got to go to Mick’s Stray Kat '08 event on the first of May…without the Caddy…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. So, back home mid-May, '08…work progresses on the Caddy in between week-end rod runs… 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…!!!)…new wheels cylinders are needed, after all, these have been sitting since 2005 (or before)…not working…and brake fluid tends to eat metal. As long as we’re at it, we’d just as well replace/redo the front calipers and pads…start fresh with everything. The final item to be done, is to add fluid to the master and bleed the brakes…we attempted to do that …and couldn’t. Back to the drawing board…check with friends, ask questions about the set-up I had…so, in the meantime, I’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…Those were installed on a Sunday afternoon and the brakes bled via the “suction method”…worked pretty good too… got a good pedal out of it… Now that the brakes were working, I decided to throw the original interior back in…It’ll be fine for the summer… Here’s the woodgrain trim on the door panels…should be OK looking once I get the rest of the dash done. And the “cruiser” skirts are being built right now…here’s a shot of them being built…they should be OK when I skin them (and lower the rear of the car about 10 inches…. Everything was finally sorted out and water/anti-freeze added to the radiator…and now, here it is, the month of June… and the trip around the block is about to happen… The date was June 15th…and here I am, driving out of my garage… ...and here I am checking out the engine before I head for the street… And here I am heading for the street… So, now that the first drive has been taken…and the car seems to run well…it’s time to get on with the build…The car was trailered up to the exhaust shop on Thursday, June 19th…and then I went to the MV Department and got the ***le and license plates for it…so…that brings us up to today…the exhaust should be done tomorrow…if not then, maybe Monday…or Tuesday…or…well, I told him “no hurry,”…it’ll get done when it gets done. Regrets that it took so long…??? Absolutely NONE…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… And now, summer is upon us…again…time to go rod running again…work on the Caddy slows…or crawls… as the weekends are taken up with events…and traveling. BUT…one good thing, now that it is drivable, all the really fun stuff comes into play…kustom bodywork, general bodywork, primer and paint…until then, watch for my ratty old patina’d Caddy at your local rod run…I may be there… R-
Thanks for sharing, Roger. I see the firewall's still yellow......I thought you were gonna change it "I" kinda like that yeller myself.....would look chic with a blak roof Hope to see it at Mokan(and get a copy of your new scribe, too)
Thanx Guys...and Earl Scheib, the yellow is going to go away...but not until I decide to pull the engine (prolly this winter)...and then I'll do the inner fenders and under the hood all the same color... R-
Geezzzzz...I keep missing your build posts! Love what your doing here and I'm bringing it back up where it should be! Dash/doors are wicked. Having a soft spot for those era Cad's I'm loving the whole car! We need more posts like this.
Thanx Bill...and the rest of you guys... AN update: the exhausts sound real good...picked the car up Saturday...all done and ready to go... So, BTT for a Sunday evening... R-
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"... 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: 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 p***enger'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: 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. 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. 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 only 70 inches long...!!! In this photo you can see the ruff area, ahead of the skirt, I had to replace... 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... 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... 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... 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. 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 ***ured, it'll be trick cuz no one has done it before, and you can bet it'll add to the overall "Kustom" sled look. R-
Nice job Roger, guess I need to get over there more often. It's come long way from when I seen it last. Roach
Hey Roger, thanks fer the update. I've been waiting patiently until they finally ran out. It's a cool build and I especially like me some '55 Caddy (lil bias)
Very Kool Roger!! I love the idea peaking the trunk to match the hood. Kan't wait to see the two Kaddy's kruizn down the highway..... I didn't see anything wrong running the stock interior. I wish it was Spring, Winter ****s!! Happy Trails, Mick
Man, I didn't think an update would generate this kind of response...but thank you all anyway...I certainly enjoy working on my Caddy...and it's coming along nicely, getting kind of antsy now for spring...can't wait to drive it again. R-
Nice Coupe! Do you have any sketches or design descriptions of what you are going for? There is a lot of potential there. More pics! And what model 40 Stude? Couldn't find anything on your profile. I'm a former Stude nut that also loves Caddys. My first restoration was a '39 limo= huge!
Thanx...no, no sketches even tho I'm a graphic artist, I build what I see in my mind and I can see the finished product. See pic below...your '39 must have been similar in body style to my coop and mine is a Commander. R-
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