OK, I have been lurking for a while on this site with a minimum of posts, but finally bought a cool project so I thought I would share. It's a 57 Cadillac 2 door that has been sitting since 1983. I have tried to attach a photo, we'll see if it works. I am on my way to my friends shop/garage in town, we are gonna pull the motor. It's 15 degrees here so hopefully the heat is on. My plans for the car right now is to get the motor and trans operable. After the mechanicals are complete (may take a few months I have 4 kids) I would like to lower it and get some bias ply wide whites with radir wheels, remove all the chrome along the side, paint it "rescue green" (a kind of funky green color that I have seen on the new Jeep) maybe paint the roof white?, oh yeah and have the front and rear bumpers rechromed and of course do the interior as a 60's custom. Some of my friends think I have 'lost it' with my exterior paint choice, but I have plenty of time to decide.
Nice Caddy !!! And will make a great project for you... Colors ??? Hey, your project, your choice....with that car you can do most anything and it will be neat ! Good luck....
Ok, So I pulled the motor out today, it went really well. Jeff the shop owner came down and gave me a hand. Everybody should have a friend like Jeff. Anyway there were no obvious cracks in the block (there were several core plugs missing) although there was a lot of gunk still on the engine. The oil looked cleaned with no sign of water either. Under the intake manifold a spare rib fell out, no doubt the last meal of the 2 dead rats that I found on the motor when I picked up the car about 2 months ago. So check this out we were in the middle of doing this job when this young tot came a knocking on the garage door, as luck would have it her new BMW got a flat right in front of the shop. Jeff really didn't want to have anything to do with her as his current wife is one more than he can handle right now but me on the other hand, not wanting to turn down a damsel in distress, put the spare tire on for her. It took me longer to find the spare and get it out than it did to put it on but she tipped me forty bucks! It was great. I went out and bought the kids a pizza they were watching a video in the office of the shop so it bought me another couple of hours of wrench time. Just when I thougt the day couldn't get much better the movie, "The worlds fastest indian" was waiting for me in the mail box from net flicks so I have something to watch tonight. Tomorrow I will attempt to pressure test the motor while keeping my finger crossed. Hope my luck continues.
The biggest issue I know of with the 365/390 caddy engine is cracked heads near the center exhaust ports. It is a heat cycle problem not a frozen coolant problem. Just pull the valve covers and look around the heads for some stuff that looks like grey clay. If you are going to preasure test it remember is needs to get up to operating temp to get a good test. some cracks will seal when cold and open up when hot. While you have the engine out drop the trans and put a front seal in it (you might need to take it to a trans shop for this as the taurus does not slide out) Also while it's out take a close look at you exhaust manifolds for cracks. Lastly drop the pan and take a look at the vacuum pump attached to the oil pump. If it's intact that is great! If it's not you will want to take the pump vanes out of it si it doesn't consume itself and clog the pickup tube with it's parts. If you do end up looking for a replacement engine any 57-62 Cadillac 365/390 will drop in as long as you use your 57 water pump and accessories. My 57 had a 58 365 with a neoprene rear main seal (a mid year 58 upgrade). Good luck. Carmak Riverside, IA
Nice project, I'm working on something fairly similar, a '58! Carmak is right, most of the 365/390 parts are interchangeable. I have a '61 390 in mine while my 365 is in my garage awaiting the eventual rebuild. I've swapped out several brackets, and such on the 390 with 365 parts (which I have a lot of by the way, message me if you get stuck and can't find something). I know a bunch of places to get some hard to find parts, so feel free to message me, and good luck. I've come to learn that these Cadillac's aren't cheap, but they sure are cool
Looks like it could be a nice Caddy...hope there isn't any significant rust in it tho...seeings as how you're in New York... Don't know why you'd want to remove the side trim...it's a Cadillac...Cadillacs have all kinds of chrome on them...why change it..??? In case you haven't ...here's the build of my '55 Coop DeVille... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the+best+55+caddy+build Be prepared to spend a couple of hours reading and looking at pix tho... Hi Kimber... R-
Cool project, Love love 57 Cadillacs. Find time to check out this build from Don of Don's Hot Rod Shop. He is on the board. DRD57 http://donshotrodpage.net/Project-57/projectindex.html JT Orlando Misfires C.C.
The 57's are so sweet. I question your color choice also, only because these are spectacular cars that don't need a wild color to be seen. I love more comservative "tasty" colors myself. It is your super ride, enjoy the build and the super cruzing ahead. Not a critic only an opinion. ~sololobo~
I chose the mild look with mine. We removed the side "gills" behind the rear door and the emblems on the sides or the tail fins. I wanted to loost the "crest" and keep the "V" but mi wife wanted to keep the both so they are still there. The pictures below show the side gills before we did the car with the green roof and then after with the amethyst roof and the gills are gone. Carmak Riverside, Iowa
Did you see this restored engine and ch***is on e-pay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Rest...6668956?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item230de0741c You might want to shoot him a lowball offer. If you could get that ch***is for 5K you would be money ahead big time!! Carmak Riverside, Iowa
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