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Sunday afternoon/evening I sealed it...tonite I'm going to primer it, but thot I would put this photo on to give you a peek...I also finished the top and put it in sealer last nite...it'll get primer tonite as well...so that will make 2/3's of the Caddy done (other than sanding, blocking, more primer and more primer)...and paint of course...
Here's a better shot of it...
I work on it EVERY weekend (except in the summertime, when I go rod running - and the first rod run around here isn't til the end of April...so I've got a couple of weekends to go) and the Caddy is my mistress...last weekend I finished the passenger's door and primered it...notice absence of door handle...
Do you remember the passenger's side quarter that was creased bad...??? I turned the car around (backed it into my garage) so I could work on that side and be able to view it better--hard to see the forest for all the trees, understand...??? Well, I got into the trunk and my bro held the dolly on the outside and we hammered out some more of the crease...got it a bit flatter. Oh, here it is before sealer:
After that, some bondo (Rage Gold bondo is your friend) and the good ol' air file and then more sealer and...well, it's done...took the weekend to get 'er done...but it got put in primer Sunday nite (March 8th)...
So the entire rear of the car is done, from the front fenders back...leaving the front fenders and hood to go (with the exception of taking off the driver's side door handle and installing the remote opener)...so, while I was finishing up the rear quarter, my brother (and perennial helper) went to work on the front fender...took it down to bare metal...as I said, this is a ColoRODo car...so zero rust to worry about...just a few small dents to work and fill. Oh, and then I'm going to put a shroud on the lower fender for the Lakes Pipe...this is a "sled", remember.
So, as we were finishing up, I decided to form some metal to make it a real "sled"..Here is a sneak peek of a "kustom touch". I'm putting on...shades of the fifties...!!! And no, those are not '58 Chevy Impala scoops...here's a clue: you gotta think outside the box when building a car...
As you can see it's not only bodywork being done...it's the FUN stuff of the build, too...and there's more to come...
In these you can see it's all bondoed up and the sealer is shot on it..
And here is the finished "project," with the chromed scoops screwed in...
Finally got around to finishing the fender skirt...and while I have been working on the passenger's side I decided to get one whole side of the car done...so, took the skirt off and built a "block-off" inside the scoop, about two inches back from the leading edge. This is so you cannot see the tire/wheel/hubcap while the skirt is on.
Also note I removed the round rod that was against the body...
Determined to finish one side of the car, I went ahead and started working on the Lakes Pipes shrouds. I started with 2 1/2" exhaust pipe, bent 90 degrees...my Lakes Pipes are 2" diameter, so that leaves a quarter inch all around to center the pipe in the shroud.
No rocket science here...it's called the "KISS principle" (Keep it simple stupid...!!!), no sense trying to reinvent an age old method. That said, I tacked the exhaust pipe to the lower fender...and then built a filler to bridge the gap. While I was at it, I added a little "flair" to the pipe by welding on the same round rod I used on the hood --3/16" rod. I also welded a plug in the end of the pipe, under the car, left a "tab" on it and bolted it to the side of the frame...the whole thing is quite low, and I'm sure I'm going to banging it off something out on the highway...so to keep it from moving when that happens, it's bolted to the frame.
Please note that I did not weld the shroud to the rocker panel...I wanted to be able to remove the fender (if necessary) and didn't want to have to cut the weld off the rocker (gotta think ahead, ya know...!!!), thereby screwing up the paint (when that happens) and having to redo the body work. Speaking of...I had a dent in the fender, so I hammered it out a bit and then bondoed it (Rage Gold is my friend, could be yours too)...and while I was at it, I did the shroud too.
When it was sanded smooth and sealed, I primered it and the whole front fender...
AND, that side is completely done...all I have to do now is seal and primer the rocker. WOW, one whole side of the car is done...well, at least most of it is in primer...lots of block sanding coming up...
so we moved the car over and started on the driver's side. In this pic there's the last of the original green paint going away.
When that was done, I sprayed some sealer on it (note the expensive masking paper) and proceeded to take care of some small dents...
and of course, match the Lakes Pipe shroud to the passenger's side...doing one is easy, matching the other side is always the hard part.
Once the body was done, I sprayed the final coat of sealer on it and then proceeded to start spraying primer...Note that it's still up on wheel stands. I've found that it's extremely hard to spray primer on the bottoms of the wheel wells and rockers when the car is only 4 inches above the ground...the spray gun won't even fit under it and it's hard to maneuver it back and forth while it scrapes the concrete.
And here it is, in it's final coat for the summer (below). Note also that the Lakes Pipes and skirts are not on it in this shot and I've yet to take it down off the wheel stands...also note that I do not have the park light housings built, they'll go in that big hole above the front bumper...also note the stainless around the front windshield is off the car...
Here's a pic of my brother's '54 Caddy and another Cad at the Kansas GoodGuy's show, note how each Caddy is two-toned and note where the trim is to separate the colors, how close it is to the rear window.
In order to be "different" (and to confuse Cadillac purists) allow me to show you how to do just that. The first thing you must do is remove the old trim, remove the old paint and throw down some sealer...
Then you get out the MIG and weld up most of the holes, grind them down and skim them with a little Rage Gold...note there is only one hole left.
Little bit of sanding, re-seal the area and spray on some primer...
NOW we're ready to attach the NEW stainless...let me just say here that very little is impossible when building a car...I didn't like the way the stainless trim was so close to the rear window...it didn't allow much color separation...I took two sets of rear stainless trim, measured one set very carefully in all the correct places and cut all of the pieces, keeping each cut square to the other. I then built four sheet metal connecters to fit inside the trim and assembled them for a trial fit. In the meantime, I asked around to see who was the best stainless welder in Denver...and phoned him. He was extremely busy as he does a lot of stainless polishing, I explained what I wanted, took the stuff to him, he said no problem. It took 7 months to get welded up and polished...I just got it back on April 10th. In essence, I ended up lengthening the trim pieces on each side by about 12 inches, so it goes all the way to the front edge of the trunk. As you can see in the photo below...it will give a lot more room for the top color to come down into the trunk area.
Now all I have to do is decide on the colors...and that'll come soon enuff...
Continued on next page......
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