Top pic is from Aug 2018 - 2nd pic is from Fall of 2014, shortly after I first got her Purchased this baby in June 2014 and started work on her immediately - Named her after my two awesome Grandmothers - Emily Jane and Mary Jo. Ripped out the stock interior first, because it was a freakin' mouse motel - Replaced it with a badass Grey & White Tuck & Roll vinyl interior. Did all the work myself, with the help of my friend Bob. Moved on to performance upgrades and rebuilt the engine, transmission and brakes. For the engine, she's now running a rebuilt .060 over and Isky-cammed original 365ci (now a 376ci). Original power output was 300hp at 3000 RPM and 400 lb-ft of torque at 2800 - I'm guessing it's substantially increased!!! Everything but new pistons/rings, cam & air cleaner on the engine is stock - Just painted to look nice and fresh. Rebuilt the stock Jetaway dual coupling transmission with some difficulty. The seals on the secondary coupler are a real beast to get installed correctly - Took us 4 sets to get one in there right. The trick turned out to be polishing the inner surface to remove all traces of sharpness, push the seals to the top of the groove when installing them, and lubricate the whole mess with a combination of STP and Royal Purple Engine Break-in Oil. You also have to BE SURE you mark the coupler before DISassembly, to ensure you REassemble it correctly - It DOES make a difference, even though the parts are symmetrical. Brakes were replaced with stock shoes & drums - Replaced the stock hydrovac with a modern power brake system kit & replaced all wheel cylinders/hoses. Engine, trans & brake mods/upgrades performed with the extremely valuable assistance of my good friend Lee. Body repair and mods are next, but they will have to wait for a few months. Goal here will be to cleanup and paint the interior floor, remove the side spears, rocker and wheel well moldings, shave the door handles and outside mirror, fix all the little dents/rust spots, fab a custom bar grill, louver the hood and eventually paint her flat dark blue with a silver 'flake roof. I also want to run Rocket Strike unpolished wheels on her with 4" wide whites - But she's running One Red Rim in the meantime! I'll post pictures from the build - Hope y'all enjoy them! Wish me luck - Everything has gone well so far and it's been both an adventure & a challenge, yet VERY satisfying! Best regards to one and all! **NOTE: She's changed dramatically from when all this was first written - You can jump here to see more of her end state, if you don't want to roll through all the hundreds of pics on these pages. But if you want to see the build in exceptional detail - Drive on through the pages, and thanks for looking! RESPECT JR
Moving her from storage to the shop, slapping tires on her that'll hold air, and getting a better look at the interior
Good luck. My very first car at age 19 was a white 57 Sedan de Ville in 1985. Was same condition as yours. I sold it but still have a 57 love affair happening with a Biarritz that sits forlorn waiting for me. One day. I like your plans . . .but maybe keep her glossy. The lady has class.
Looks like a solid start on a great project. Consider shiny paint, when the suede fad dies out an otherwise great car will look very dated, its a lot of paint to redo later. Let's see some pics of the new interior.
Thanks, fellas - Here are some shots of the new interior part of the project, starting with the front passenger door:
And here's part one of the driver's seat - This was an INCREDIBLY difficult seat to re-do, but it came out GREAT!!!
Brakes - Replaced the shoes, wheel cylinders, rubber hoses and associated hardware. Repacked the bearings, turned the drums and painted them with POR-15, which worked excellent - But DON'T get any on the threads - Voice of experience!!!
Transmission - Hydramatic "Jetaway" dual coupling original. What a pain in the ass it was to rebuild this item!!! Didn't get any isolated pics of the reassembled unit, because we were rushing to get it back in the car - But there are some with the engine pics I'll post next. The pic of shredded seals is a reminder to prep the secondary coupler properly before reassembly!!!
Looking good so far & interior looks great...not sure about the flat color tho, but I'll hold my opinion on that for a while... R-
Engine Part One - The poor girl ran when I found her, but her cylinders were badly scored, some of her valves were badly burned and I found over an inch of nearly solid sludge in her oil pan. She's now running a fully rebuilt .010/.010 crank, new .060 over pistons and Isky-cammed original 365ci - Which is now a 376. Original power output was 300hp at 3000 RPM and 400 lb-ft of torque at 2800 - I'm guessing it's substantially increased now. She sure runs nice now and I'll bet she's a lot happier!!!
Engine Part Two ~ Showing all the new parts and part of the rebuild phase. I had a local paint shop spectrum-match the Cadillac Dark Blue engine enamel, which I used to paint selected engine accessory items, including the valve covers. I painted the exhaust manifolds with Duplicolor 1200F High Heat primer and paint, and for the rest of the engine items I used Duplicolor 500F primer and engine enamel, as well as the Cadillac Dark Blue.
Engine - Part Three The only non-stock part on the outside is the air cleaner, which really makes it look badass - In my opinion!
Engine Part Four ~ Showing the silver pinstriped lettering and fins on the valve covers (which came out GREAT), as well as the valve train assembly, final assembly and test running.
Beautiful job on the interior. I agree with the others on the paint choice to go gloss. Actually easier to maintain than flat finishes in the long run.
Thanks for all the kind words and nice responses, guys - Really appreciate it! I'm going with the flat finish because I only have 3 months to do all the bodywork and get her painted, so I won't have time to do any color sanding and gloss finish final prep. I'm most likely gonna sell her when she's all done, so I don't want to leave her unfinished.
These are my reference photos for the color I want to paint her (with a silver metalflake top) and the wheel/tire combo I want to run on her:
Wow. Looks like a great job....I am impressed that you fixed up the transmission as well! Full credit to you. Whick Isky cam did you install? I went with the 262H and am hoping it does the job. I have a whole lot of similar pictures on my blog, however the engine is a slightly different colour ;-). I would be really interested to hear how it sounds with the cam - do you have a video posted anywhere?
I took a 6 month break from school and just pulled her into the shop last week to start on the body work
Very nice work you're doing on the old Caddy!! I noticed that the paper envelope the rings came in say "STD" and the pistons are .060 over. Based on the rest of the work you've done, and the fact that one of the pics shows you checking the ring land clearance, I assume you also checked the end gaps with the rings in the cylinders, and that was simply a package labeling error. I sure as hell hope so..'....
What the hell?!?!?!?!? Maybe THAT explains all the freakin' blue smoke I'm seeing... JUST KIDDING!!! That was one of the first things I noticed when the rings arrived, and YES - We made sure they were right. Good eye, though!!!
Dimadee - I don't remember the specs on the cam right now, but I can find them I have a few videos on my FB page - Send me a PM if you wanna be my "Friend" so you can see it
The Jalopy Journal
