Garage Shots

These are pictures of Roger’s latest build project that he has been working on when he is not writing. Roger is the Author of “Bangin' Gears & Bustin' Heads”, “Fast Cars, 4-speeds & Fist-fights”, “Recollections, Regrets & Random Acts” and "Accidents & Incidents".  www.RAJetter.com
 
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. 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.

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.

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.  So… instead of “tell,” I  am using that old writer’s admonishment: “SHOW, don’t tell.” Let’s go….

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		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
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 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		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…
I cleaned it all up nicely and then epoxy sealed it and sprayed it urethane gloss black.		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		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……in the way.
I welded in new panels (allowing a 1/2” 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.		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.   Note the expensive making paper …this is a “low-buck” build…!!!
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…		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 ” off side to side and front to back…remember boys and girls, necessity is the Mother of invention…or building cars…!!!		Done…after a few hours of lowering…and certainly glad that part of the build is over.
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…!!!.. 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…		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
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…!!!   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.		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… 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. This photo  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…
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.		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.
		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.
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. 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.		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 3/4’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.
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.		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?  …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.
…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		Then I had the ’56 dash glass-beaded…all the better to weld on…
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.		That cast metal insert will go away, BTW…Cadillac style woodgrain will replace it. Also note that the top of the dash is now all bare metal…most Caddy dashes are leather covered, I ripped all of mine off…I wanted it painted.
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…		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…!!!)
		Then I had to figure out how to mate the new steering column to the Trans Am power steering box. U-joints…yeah, Borgeson u-joints…the best there is…can’t take short cuts here, not with steering…so I spent some cash and got the right stuff…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 – it’s close, but they do not touch.
I use a lot of round rod to build things…here I’ve bent it to add rigidity to the inner panel, the area in front of and behind it will be filled in…and… on the driver’s side, as you can see in next pic that it is already welded in and done. These took several days each to build…and get them to look correct…I hate something that looks out of place…like it hadn’t ever been there and simply tossed on cuz it had to be in that certain spot…wrong way of building things, IMHO.
I’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…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’t let me lower a cross flow to miss the hood when it’s closed …my bro and I “built” a radiator…!!!		Well, we didn’t like the looks of a cardboard radiator, so we built another one… Hmmmmmmmmmm, OK, maybe an upright is the only way to go …While this plywood radiator wouldn’t hold any water…it gave us the dimensions and the look I need…I then asked several radiator places for estimates to build one for me…wanting to keep the money local…but I got all the same price…and no guarantee a standard radiator would cool the 500” and run an A/C unit at the same time. At one of the last rod runs I attended (GG’s in Phoenix in late November), I found a “builder” displaying his aluminum radiators and talked to him. He could build an aluminum radiator for me, any size, any style and guarantee it’d cool the 500” with A/C on and…even at an idle. That’s what he promised…but, you know how that goes…???
OK on that, gonna have to save some bucks for that…let us proceed. Problem Number two: the remote oil mount…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’t know, a 500” Cad has the oil pump mounted low on the passenger’s side, outside the block…I found the oil canister to be in direct contact with the tie rod…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…’stock’ is not going to work…will have to put in a remote.  I mounted the remote, angled the hoses under the sway bar and over to it…and finished it. Then I added a plate to the square tubing so the hood support/latch would bolt in…killing a bunch more birds. Keep in mind, that all the time I’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…and never let anyone tell you putting in a sub-frame is easy…well, wait, hold on…putting it in is much easier than making all the original stuff fit it and look like it was made that way…!!! THAT, I think, is the whole secret…to making a car look nice.		At that point, I trimmed out a sheet metal ‘pan’ to fit in front of the radiator, then I made some new metal side pieces and welded them alongside my radiator support…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…I clamped a pipe into the vise and Dan (my bro) and I hand bent the two pieces around the pipe so it’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.
In order to find out just where the hood support/latch needed to sit, the hood was put on…adjusted as close as possible and closed on the mechanism. The holes were marked for drilling and then the whole thing was removed for ‘surgery’ leaving the hood just sorta sitting on its own.		…I do a lot of rod running in the summertime…so A/C is a requisite item, I’m not a youngster anymore, I like it livable cool.   I built a cross brace in front of the radiator and then shortened the original hood support piece 6 inches…welded it all back together and bolted it in. It fit like it was made for it…and it was…!!!
		As you can see, 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……
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…???		I had the hood blasted and decided to put on a little sealer…just as well do it now while I’m waiting.
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…).
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…
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…		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:
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  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.
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....!!!)
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...!!!		Got tired of working the small dings and dents and decided to tackle one other thing I wanted to get fixed...under the hood. The driver's side inner fender panel had an indented area for the 'automatic headlight dimmer' box...huge area, and I didn't like it...so decided to fill it so it would match the passenger's side...I made a cardboard template to see if it would simply "wrap" from the bottom up...found out it would so cut a piece of 20 gauge and proceeded to weld it in .  Figured I'd clean up the welds later and then seal it after the front fenders are blasted.
With that taken care of, I proceeded to weld in the panel. Of course, I'm not proficient enuff to do all this by myself, so my brother is a big help to me. I got him to get inside the car and hold the metal piece to be welded in against the edges of the hole, that way, the metal conforms to the shape of the body. I welded about 3/4's of it and cleaned the welds...		I then turned my attention to the door pillar, which I'd straightened as much as I could, but it also would need some new metal welded in - as you can see, there were parts of it missing...time to make new cardboard templates. Since I'm not so good at bending sheet metal around corners, I figured a bit more stiffening couldn't hurt anything...I grabbed a piece of square tubing, put it in the vice and bent it to match the curve of the body and tacked it in place...There, that'll give me a lot of area to weld the replacement piece to...and stiffens up the whole pillar...and, better yet, makes a nice "corner".
It took ten hours on Super Bowl Sunday to take care of this section...but it was well worth the time I spent on it instead of sitting in front of the TV, one more thing done...!!! By 8 PM Sunday nite, it was done...and I was done...my hands actually hurt from holding the air file. As for the amount of bondo I put back in it...a skim coat to cover the welds and to smooth out the panel...nothing like what was there...  Healed and sealed....The area you see there that looks like it isn't welded solid is...from the back side...and this is where a stock piece of chrome trim will cover it.		I'm still about half a car away from paint...but I did get the complete driver's side quarter in sealer...And got started on the passenger's side quarter this past weekend. I've got some final welding to do on that skirt...and then I'll have another go at the top...want that in sealer AND primer by this weekend so that'll make about 2/3rds of the bodywork done. It's getting closer...
Saturday morn...decided to work on the passenger's side skirt again...went ahead and made a cardboard template (of the "done" side-the driver's side) with all the measurments on it and cut out so that I can match this skirt to the other (and matching is the hardest part)...		As you can see, the front of the skirt needs some help...but the round rod I use is dead on to the pattern...a little metal fill here, a little welding there...and it "should" look like the other one...
the car is getting closer to done for the summer...hope to have it all sealed and primed in the next month or so...
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...
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... In essence, I ended up lengthening the trim pieces on each side by about 12”, so it goes all the way to the front edge of the trunk. As you see in the photo...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......
Here we are getting ready to head out on its maiden voyage 2009: As you can see in this photo, the grille got built and placed in…and that’s my brother’s ’54 Caddy waiting to go rod running with me. But, I’m getting a bit ahead of the pictures here…so let me back up.		the grille pattern I sent just wasn’t going to work). So I cut it up, added some to it, modified it a bit and sent it back and asked for another sample. He sent a new one back and this time it was perfect. He and I then discussed how I was going to attach it and how I was going to “space” it…he offered to cut “washers” out of the same material for literally no additional charge…such a deal…! I gave him the go ahead on lasering the required number of “bars” I needed -- 55 to be exact, plus the required number of spacers. Little over a week later, a package, weighing 70 pounds showed up at my door…my grille bars and waaaaaaaaaaay more aluminum washers than I’ll ever need. The grille was now into its second phase of completion
BUT, first I had to modify my stock Dagmars…the original stock egg-crate grille extends behind the Dagmars and the Dagmar is about 2-3 inches away from the stainless grille surround…I didn’t want mine that way…I wanted the grille full width…so a little plasma cutting and a little Mig glueing got me the look I wanted…As you can see, I closed up the area between the Dagmar and the stainless...gives the grille more of a full width look...and as you see here, I haven’t gotten the Dagmars finish welded yet and rechromed…that’ll prolly come this winter when I tear it apart again.		The first thing I had to do was to paint all the washers black so they’d “go away” inside the grille, I also had to drill some out so the nuts that held it all together would fit inside the washers.
Once they were painted/drilled, I began assembling the grille…in this pic you can see the seven “rods” I used to hold the grille together and how the spacers worked in between each bar.		In order to make the grille look “satiny”, I had to sand all 55 of the bars -- tops, bottoms and the front sides, (yeah, I chose to make them satin instead of polished. I did each bar individually and then slipped it over the seven rods with a set of spacers in between each bar.When I had about 35 bars assembled, I dropped the whole grille and the 7 “rods” holding the grille together into the holes I drilled in the bumper and added nuts to the bottoms to secure it and make it part of the bumper…I didn’t know exactly how many bars I’d need to be to the hood to complete the look, but 48 bars later it was done. With a little pre-planning, it worked out exactly like I had envisioned it…and the best part of the whole deal: the grille bars fit behind the Dagmars…I had planned on trimming each bar to fit around the Dagmars, but it wasn’t necessary in the long run…unplanned surprises are always the best kind...and the least work some times...!!!
The temporary park lites you see hanging out in the open, on each end will be turned into small, round, bullet shaped ’47 Cadillac park lights once I get the filler metal welded in…then again, I just may extend the grille bars to the sides and put the park lights directly below the headlights…guess that depends on my mood when I start fitting metal…!!!  Now, to the opening wording at the top of this update: “Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma’am”…that means when things go right, they go right and most times they go in a hurry…I’d sanded and epoxy primered all my garnish moldings, dash and package tray in the week before I started on the grille in anticipation of getting them painted…		And, in the weeks before that, I was laying the ground work for the very same thing (gotta think waaa-aaaay ahead some times)…by that I mean deciding what color(s) I was going to use in the interior and on the body…turns out when we went to Moab, for the April Action car show (last weekend of April), I spied a perfectly good looking 1955 Ford over there done in a nice purple and white…I asked the lady that owned it and she told me it was a stock 1955 Ford color…I liked it and since I’d decided on not doing the car yellow, that color would complement the other color I’d decided on. Well, surprise, surprise (another unplanned surprise that went well and just sorta fell into place), when I got back home I asked my local PPG paint supply guy to look it up, “Sure, got it. 1955 Ford Regency Purple, we can mix that in BC/CC. How much you need?”
Here is a  profile shot of the Cad...well, this is close...this is the only one I have right now...but I'll shoot a couple more now that it's out of the garage...		so here's a mild update...I spent everyday last week working on the Caddy, getting it ready to go to GoodGuy's event at THE RANCH in Loveland, ColoRODo on June 5,6 and 7...the first thing I did was to add some jute to the trunk to quiet all the stuff I carry, took care of a few rattles...
The next thing I did was to unwrap all my newly polished stainless trim (and find all the clips) and attach it all to the body...it all looks killer against the primered body...		So. long about Thursday, after finally checking everything that turns, rolls or moves, and all the fluids in the car, I decided the Cad was ready to make a road trip at hiway speeds...we hit the hiway at 8 AM Friday morn heading north...with some trepidation...but about 20-25 miles into the trip, my anxiety eased...the car is running good.   Hour and one half later we rolled into the event and cruised around until we found a parking spot...  And so, here we are at GG's:
Dan's '54 is running like a top with the new engine/tranny...my engine is running...it burns a bit more fuel than I'd like, but maybe new plug wires will help and maybe even a new Edelbrock carb might help some...So, the Cad is not a garage virgin anymore...the engine has lots of torque and runs good and the tranny works fine...and, best part, it rides like a Caddy should...smooooooooooth...!!!		So, in just a matter of days, the Coop DeVille went from this...
All the way to this...		And then starting at the top, it went to this...
To this...		and finally this...
The wheel is held on with five lugnuts...it's a simple twist of the wrist with the wrench in hand and they'll come off...the skirt is removable...all it takes is a 7/16" socket to remove six bolts...and the whole skirt comes off (both sides are removable, BTW)...then you can "change the wheel..."		When we last left this Caddy building saga (thread)...the interior was just getting finished up...I still hadn't finished the grille..note the area alongside the Dagmars and the square park lites...that's the area I'm going to finish.
This is what I got back ...note the square area in the middle of the bars...I had to have 16 of them done this way ...		Next I laid out my "stuff"...the threaded rods that would hold it all together...the spacers for between the bars and my lone wrench...gotta KISS, ya know...???  Assembly began...bar, spacers, bar, more spacers...bar...more spacers...oh, BTW, I painted all the spacers flat blak (horrors--flat blak on one of my cars...???) Yep, I painted them flat blak so they'd "disappear" ... read into that last statement what you want...!!!
With the bottom bars in place, I had to determine where the park lite would set, it needed to be in the middle of the bars...eight bars later it was in the perfect spot.		The finished piece...I purposely left the rods long at the top because I didn't know quite yet how I was going to mount the piece to the body...
It looked great and would make the car look even wider...I couldn't wait...with one side completely assembled, I had to see what it was going to look like, even tho I had a lot of work building the brackets to hold it in yet to do...I positioned it in the 'hole'...note the top piece of trim has been removed...all the better to see how it would fit and to figure out the brackets.   The easy part was done...now I had to remove the tire and wheel and climb inside the well to figure out how to build the brakets and mount the grille solid so it wouldn't rub, squeak or make noise against the bumper or the body...		When all is said and done...the whole front end looks like this...
and this...		So the summer was a whole kick...my brother, Dan, in his green flamed '54 Caddy, my pal, Ron, in his white '56 Caddy, and I went rod running...can you just picture three Caddys rolling into an event...??? Talk about turning heads...and isn't that what it's all about...??? Why we build our cars...to turn heads...???
We do our best "head turning" out on the hiway...it's probably a really strange sight to see three Caddys rolling down the hiway...and parked together at an event.		I have two more 'local" events to go to before the car comes apart...and the teardown will happen in mid-October...I won't be doing any more bodywork, it's close but not flat...and I won't be doing the paint...I want this car to be good...and neither my finish bodywork or paint work just isn't that good. This is a Cadillac...it HAS to be good.  The first thing that will happen is to pull the front clip, then the engine goes to the rebuilder...then the interior will come out as well as the glass...then the doors and trunk will come off...and the car will be trailered to the body man...
Probably should add a photo of the park lites lit up, eh...???		Lots of things have been happening to the Caddy since it made its last trip in mid-September...the most important thing was to get the hood hinge assembly taken care of...the passenger's side arms were bent so bad that the hood would not lay flat against the cowl...so, much to my chagrin, I had to seek professional help. I happen to know a very proficient rod builder, have known him for over 25 years...when I have a problem, of any kind, he's the first guy I go to. Quenton Sonnenfeld (Sonnenfeld Enterprises) can figure anything out...and I mean that...at one time he was on the cutting edge of building hydrogen powered city buses...needless to say, any small thing I have is child's play to him. Anyway, I took my Caddy up to him, he studied the hinge assembly as I opened and closed it about 20 times...then asked if I'd remove it from the car...
It took four hours to remove the springs and the old yellow assembly simply becuz I didn't want to remove the fenders to access the bolt that was on the bottom of the hinge...but we got it...and it took all of 15 minutes to slide the new one into place and bolt it down. The rebuilt assembly looked like it laid flat and even with the cowl...but the final test was putting the hood back on and getting it bolted on, which, at one point when I was building the car, a real pain in the ass simply becuz the mounting portion of the hood was hard to get at. Well, my bro went and purchased some new cage nuts for me, we put them in place and slid the hood on and it lined up perfectly with the new cage nuts...the new bolts slid in like they were supposed to and it went together so smooth I thot something was wrong...   I gently lowered the hood and it closed and latched like it was new...I checked the rear of the hood at the cowl...and voila, we didn't even need to adjust it. It fit perfectly.		With that major item out of the way, I moved on to building some pieces to finish off the grille. I dug out the topmost pieces of the original grille and trial fit them.
Sean Cleary, Cadillac engine builder extraordinaire, put this one together for me...good friend Tom Boyle, turned me on to him. He's been building Caddy engines for Tim for a couple of years now...and Sean built Tim's Bonneville record-setting Caddy engine in his Model A sedan. Tim grabbed three new records at B-ville this past August. I think the engine is going to be a good hiway screamer...		So, while waiting for the engine to get built, I pulled apart the front end...the hood was to the first to come off after we fitted the new hinges. It's down at the body shop right now getting its final finish before paint. I pulled the driver's side fender off first...
and then proceeded to pull the passenger's side....both fenders are being sandblasted as we speak...I'm going to do some body work on the inner fenders so those will be smooo-ooooth like the rest of the car...once those get back home that is...As you can see, I've got to pull the engine yet in order to remove that chicken-fat yellow from the firewall...on most kustoms, you seldom see the hood or doors open...reason being it breaks up the lines of the car...but in my case, I didn't want to show off the combination of yellow, blue engine and purple...so I almost never opened the hood while at car events this past summer.		Finally got the engine pulled out...and found out the oil pan Sean put on the rebuilt engine is not going to work in my frame...I've got an Eldo pan and apparently the one he put on mine is an early stocker. Now I'll have to pull my pan and have him swap the two...and probably the oil pickup as well...it's always something that slows you down when building a car. Everything else on the engines simply interchanges.  Now I can start on the firewall ....again...I'm simply going to sand it and then seal it...no sense taking it all the way down to bare metal again. I've also decided to paint the toeboard and firewall/body mounts black...that way it will all disappear.
In the meantime, I've started filling the inner fender panels...they are getting smooth as well. When Cadillac formed them, they apparently didn't have a press strong enough to keep the panels from wrinkling...so I'm smoothing the wrinkles out as well as smoothing the area I welded pieces into to make the A-arm openings. Both inner fenders need to be smoothed and just as soon as I'm done with them, they'll go to the body man.		It’s been a tuff row to hoe this last few weeks…not only because of the weather (we’ve had more snow, and cold, this winter then any I can remember in the past) but every time I tried to do something on the car, it simply didn’t work and I got stymied…but, I’m not a fatalist, I’m the kind that’ll keep at it until it gets done… So…once the front clip was completely off and gone to the bodyman, it was time to pull that dirty, tired engine…
The very last thing I needed to do was sand the firewall…until I realized I hadn’t given any thot to where I was going to place the bulkhead for the A/C unit. Hmmmmmm, better do that before I put on new paint. I crawled under the dash to scope it out…		In the meantime, my bro, Dan, asked if I would help do some small things on his ’54 Caddy since “you’ve got a small opening and there isn’t much to do on yours.”
In the meantime, as I’m working on Dan’s car, I have lots of time to think… I figured there was no sense simply painting the firewall when the door openings need to be jambed, too…guess we’ll sand all that stuff and get it ready, too. I pulled the doors apart – meaning -- the power window motors came out, the glass came out, the vent windows came off and the doors came off the car.		With the doors off and the glass out…I decided it’d be best to remove the interior…it doesn’t need to get painted, or overspray all over it…I removed the rear seat, moldings and armrest and stored them in my bedroom (when you’re single and a bachelor, you can do that…!!!). BTW, the rest of the car’s trim and moldings are in my living room, I seldom use that room.
When I’d taken the doors down to my bodyman, we got to talking about timing as far as getting the car done as he knows I want to have this car ready to debut at GoodGuy’s event here in ColoRODo in June…he asked who was going to paint the firewall and jambs…I said I was and hoped it would turn out well. He said, “If you want, I can come up and do it.” I didn’t expect that…and since he was well aware I’m not the world’s greatest painter, and since I have an ancient spray gun, and since I tend to get in a hurry when I paint, I asked when he had some free time. “Sunday afternoon/evening would be good,” he said…works for me, that’ll give us Saturday to mask it all off…		It took us most of Saturday to mask the car…the doors were the tuffest part…but it got done.
Sunday afternoon at 4:00 he showed up, box of materials and spray gun in hand…he inspected my handiwork and mask job and pronounced it workable. He mixed up the sealer, cleaned the painted area with wax and grease remover, tacked it off and set the air pressure on his gun……the yellow was going away for ever…!!!		After waiting for the sealer to set, Len mixed up the color…three coats later it was lavender…matter of fact, right now I’m calling the color “Lilac.” I’ll think up a better name later.
We waited for the color to set and Len mixed the clear…three coats later it is mighty shiny…note the difference between the straight color and the clear on the edge of the cowl…it has a good gloss to it and at this point, a week later, it doesn’t need rubbing out…but it will get rubbed/polished when the rest of the car gets shot…		So, now I can put the engine/tranny back in (if it ever gets back here…“Hello Sean, you’re really holding me up on my project…I need that engine out here this weekend.” Sadly, a recording doesn’t talk back to you so I still don’t know if Sean will get my engine out here…I guess I’d better call my friend Tim Boyle (Mad-Cad) and ask him what’s up with Sean…
Once the engine/tranny gets back in, then we’ll take the rest of the car down for the rest of the body work…we ARE getting closer…
here's some of the most recent pix, starting with my bro and a friend, Clint, messing with the motor mount...it's hard for me to take pix and appear in them, that's why my bro is in most of the pix...		And as stated above, the doors are finished and hung back on the car...I'm not going to put anything back in them (glass, electic motors, traks) until the car gets painted.
In this pic you can see the engine and the rad support...had to have all this mounted in order to fire the engine...the engine now has a grand total of 45 minutes on it...That's my bro's '54 Caddy in the background		After our 12 inches of snow last Tuesday (March 23rd) and the threat of snow on the weekend (which didn't amount to much), I couldn't take the car to the bodyman...the weatherman predicted nice weather for the first of the week...he was correct...It turned out to be 78 degrees here on Tuesday, March 30th). It was determined that would be the perfect opportunity to drive the car down to his shop, about 8 miles from my place...and the first opportunity to drive the car since October First, 2009.
From that point, my drive was almost over...it was fun to drive the Caddy again...here I am turning into his drive...		As soon as the body is done, it'll go for paint...I'm thinking right at the first of May...
So, we go down and now the hood is on and is looking good...now one half of my car is assembled...the trunk and fenders are next...and they are at my place.		Here's the body man and I discussing the finer elements of doing body work: adjusting the doors, adjusting the hood, heating and shrinking metal, straightening fender skirts, sanding bondo, spraying sealer and primer, guide coating, blocking. All the elements that go into bodywork before laying on the final coats...it's been a long journey and I've still got a ways to go.
		Well, guess what...since the huge local cruise wasn't that far out of the way...and it was still daylight, and one of the nicer days we've had around here -75 degrees (we got two inches of snow on May 11th/12th and it's been rainey and cold since then), I thot why not take the Caddy over to the cruise and show it off...!!! So I did.  Here I am at the final right turn before heading into the Sonic
Lots of good comments on it...and lots of "Hey, you lost some parts on the way to the cruise" or "It's legal to drive this car without fenders or glass?" (I answered that one with - "fenderless roadsters do it all the time.")		I had to figure out how to mate the new steering column to the Trans Am power steering box. U-joints…yeah, Borgeson u-joints…the best there is…can’t take short cuts here, not with steering…so I spent some cash and got the right stuff…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 – it’s close, but they do not touch.
I pulled the front clip off for some minor work around the engine and run some brake lines to the discs…while the fenders were off, they were modified and hung back on…by modification, I mean, I had to open the area above the A-arms…or rather…close it up cuz the previous owner had decided to cut it all out…and I didn’t like the look of that…it was a half-assed job…so I healed it and made it look like it belonged there….		I use a lot of round rod to build things…here I’ve bent it to add rigidity to the inner panel, the area in front of and behind it will be filled in…and… on the driver’s side, as you can see below, is already welded in and done. These took several days each to build…and get them to look correct…I hate something that looks out of place…like it hadn’t ever been there and simply tossed on cuz it had to be in that certain spot…wrong way of building things, IMHO
I’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…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’t let me lower a cross flow to miss the hood when it’s closed …my bro and I “built” a radiator…!!!		Well, we didn’t like the looks of a cardboard radiator, so we built another one… Hmmmmmmmmmm, OK, maybe an upright is the only way to go
So, I grabbed some square tubing…and fabbed up a pan mounting point…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 ‘pan’ as the case is)…and once bolted in, it would give me only 14 inch long hoses…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.		I mounted the remote, angled the hoses under the sway bar and over to it…and finished it. Then I added a plate to the square tubing so the hood support/latch would bolt in…killing a bunch more birds. Keep in mind, that all the time I’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…and never let anyone tell you putting in a sub-frame is easy…well, wait, hold on…putting it in is much easier than making all the original stuff fit it and look like it was made that way…!!! THAT, I think, is the whole secret…to making a car look nice.
At that point, I trimmed out a sheet metal ‘pan’ to fit in front of the radiator, then I made some new metal side pieces and welded them alongside my radiator support…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…I clamped a pipe into the vise and Dan (my bro) and I hand bent the two pieces around the pipe so it’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.   There, that looks a hell of a lot nicer than having those ugly Pontiac frame horns hanging out there.		After some measurements were taken, I took the stock ’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…sometimes way ahead, ya know?)
…I do a lot of rod running in the summertime…so A/C is a requisite item, I’m not a youngster anymore, I like it livable cool.   I built a cross brace in front of the radiator and then shortened the original hood support piece 6 inches…welded it all back together and bolted it in. It fit like it was made for it…and it was…!!!		Now that my living room is getting full of Cadillac parts, just the opposite is happening in my garage. It sure is strange to walk into my garage and listen to an echo…for the first time in months, with both Caddys gone, it was empty…but no matter, I still had work to do. I put one front fender up on the table, masked it off and sprayed paint and undercoating on the inside of the fender…that should keep it from rusting and since it’s flat black, hide it from prying eyes…not that anyone will be peering at the inside of the fender once it get all bolted in. The second fender went a bit quicker...
Looks like a brand damn new piece for Pete's sake!		Getting ready to be painted
As you can see, the painter takes all necessary precautions when laying paint...here he is mixing the final color...and at this point I can tell you the paint is gorgeous...and the car is at home...however, it'll be a few days before I start hanging stuff on the car...gotta let it set a bit...		I'm still waiting for several pieces of the car to return home...the trunk and fender skirts...once the trunk returns, I'll hang it...then I think I can start assembling the whole car...
		About half way done now...getting closer...and closer...and closer...
The first couple of coats went on very well...I love watching a "pro" work...sure wish I was as concious of what I was doing (all the time) as the painter is...		Here it is, sans a couple more coats of color (four total) and sans clear...and, of course, the polishing of said clear
		It took two of us 12 hours to pull the 200# stock power motored seat, rip out the old carpet and sew up the new and install it and the trunk...of course
		Last but definitely not least...the engine compartment (and engine/tranny) is ready to go...I have one more thing to do and that is to put on the radiator shroud...but that's not going to take much. I now have 76 miles on the new engine...and will have close to 100 by the time I take it to the glass shop and get it back home.
All the tinted side glass has been cut and is waiting		Last update I told you the Dagmars weren’t going to get done…they didn't and I had to go get them, (3 ½ hour drive one way...it was actually cheaper than shipping them, other than my time) clean them, sand them up and paint ‘em silver…I couldn't simpy use another pair cuz I'd modified these to fit my grille), stockers weren't going to work. My "paint job" on them looks like dogshit…especially next to the polished grill…and the gorgeous bumper…but I’m bound and determined to drive the Caddy to Salina…and I’m not going to let a lack of chrome keep me home…
Side grille not in here, but the polish on the grille is nice, right...???		As you can see, when you can read the newspaper in the reflection, you know it’s good…I’m happy and for once, someone I depended on got it done. IF you look real close, or enlarge this photo, that dark refelction is the grille and font end of a '59 Caddy.It's also about six feet away from this table and bumper...!!!
So, now…looks like KKOA Salina will be the debut of the Cadillac…IF the new engine will get me there		Was not to be.....After completely busting my ass for the last two plus weeks putting the Caddy back together, and really looking forward to the Salina KKOA 30th Anniversary event, I can definitely say that excrement occurs (or for those of you that prefer plainer English -- "shit happens,") and I can feel right about saying it.
Do I look happy here...???		I thot why not try to raise the engine enuff to eliminate the remote oil filter? Now would be the time to do that. When I first put the engine in, I’d put on a 425” oil pump to aim the filter toward the crank in an attempt to miss the tie rod (that was accomplished, but the knuckle that holds the tie rod to the spindle hits the bottom of the filter)…that’s the major problem, it hits the tie rod when I make a left turn…(if I didn’t have to make left turns, I’d be OK with it the way it is…!!!) BUT, life’s highway doesn’t allow for right turns only all the time…
The "offending" part...I figured a 'remote' was the way to go...education sometimes hurts...!!!		One more fender to pull...it'll get done sometime this week.
One of the first things I did when I finally felt like working on the car again was finish up the trunk…I figured as long as the car was sitting, doing nothing, I had time to build some panels to cover the trunk uglies		As you can see, the panels add a lot to the trunk...Ed is currently making a tire cover for me out of the same material….
I kept the “stock” look of an old AM radio, but have the creature comforts of a modern stereo and I certainly like my tuneage when taking a long trip.		I placed three gauges in a small opening and welded a hinge onto the cover…I kinda figure a Cadillac shouldn’t “need “extra gauges showing anywhere, so built the cover to close it up when parked.
		While I was slowly taking care of small projects…I decided to send the modified Dagmars out to Ogden Chrome to finish…
The only other thing I had to modify was the fan shroud I’d built…since I raised the engine, the mechanical fan raised, too…I had to trim an inch off the inside of my newly painted shroud…tore the paint up good…but at that point, that, too, was a minor thing. Besides, the valve covers needed painting so I had that done at the same time…   It took a couple of days to reassemble the front end – my bro is always there to help me, and between the two of us, we got it all shimmed, adjusted and aligned a lot better than it was before we made our ill-fated trip to Salina in July.		Once we had the hood and fenders fitting nicely, I turned to the bumper. Ogden Chrome kept their word and 6 weeks after I’d sent them out, Fed-Ex delivered them to my door…they were absolutely stunning and I couldn’t even tell where I had welded them together, and once in place on the bumper, they really finished off the front of the Caddy  Check out the color and the headlight reflection in those Dagmars now…Ogden Chrome outdid themselves…and for that I am grateful. Thanx Charlie…!!!
The LONG-AWAITED DEBUT of the “ROADLINER” 1955 Cadillac....The Greybeard’s indoor show  in Denver over Thanksgiving weekend
Here’s the Caddy in “full show trim”…!!!		The ’55 Caddy won First Place in “Full Custom Hardtop,” and the one award I was really surprised at receiving : “Outstanding Paint- Custom.”
Awesome 55 cadillac!  Thanks Roger for all the build pics and writeups.