Register now to get rid of these ads!

Projects The Best 1955 Cadillac build

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by VonBurke, Jan 26, 2009.

  1. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    Well, since Dan Greenburg posted some of his better pix of the auto show (instead of those pink things he had posted the first of the week- the lighting caused that...not his camera) ...guess I'd better get mine up before he beats me to the punch...

    OK…one more time.

    As I said previously, it’s been an interesting four months in the RE-build, and finish, of my Cadillac… I worked on a lot of small things while the engine was out and at the builders, so much so, that it’s time to put those final things in this last update …

    Needless to say, the Cadillac is finished (and that’s a relative word…it’s close enuff to drive as you’ll see), I’ve put some miles on it already and it sounds good and feels good running down the highway – got lots of thumbs-up, too.

    Despite the cold winter weather around here…we do have some nice days for a short cruise, in the sunshine…and we haven’t had enuff snow yet to get the streets covered with sand/rock/gravel/mag-chloride chemical (we don’t use salt around here to melt snow off the streets, although the chemical does make a mess on a car).

    So here we go, again, let’s call this update:

    The LONG-AWAITED DEBUT of the “ROADLINER” 1955 Cadillac

    So, the trunk got done…one more thing scratched off the list…!!! I turned my attention to the interior…I still had to figure out a new place for my CD stereo since the A/C was going behind the dash and the panel I built below the dash was going to have to be shortened…to 4 inches deep…a 9 inch deep stereo certainly wasn’t going to work there.

    Up on the dash, I’d used real woodgrain to give it some class (and to also hide all the stock holes since I didn’t weld any of them closed)…and I got to thinking where can I put the CD player when it hit me - the stock ’55 radio hole was still there…maybe I could enlarge it a bit to make the CD player fit…then I figured a modern CD player, with a digital face and everything and no knobs, was going to look sorely out of place in the dash…!!! Out to my storage shed again…I knew I had an old radio stashed out there (I don’t throw much away…!!!) so I grabbed it to study it. By the time I was done studying, I’d figured out how I was going to do it, and the dash.

    I started at the “front”…as you can see, I eliminated the entire rear of the old radio – kept the knobs and face plate, and built a ‘cover' for it so it’d fit it into the dash (after I’d trimmed the hole a bit larger). Then I cut the woodgrain and fit the cover so it would fit tightly.

    [​IMG]

    One nice thing about a ’55 Cadillac, the top of the dash comes off…sure makes it easy to work on something in/behind the dash when you can look down inside it. For the ‘modern’ stereo/CD player, I first built a “shelf” from the back side of the dash to the firewall, and then built a small box around the CD player so dirt/dust wouldn’t accumulate on it. I drilled a couple of holes for locating screws to hold the CD player in place and placed it far enuff back so that the backs of the old radio knobs wouldn’t hit the face of the CD player, but far enuff so that I could still feed in, and retreive a CD. It was close, but it all worked out exactly as I envisioned it.

    I love it when a plan comes together.

    [​IMG]

    So, that done and looking good, 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.

    [​IMG]

    Time to move on to something else…since I already had the panel built to house the A/C hoses/outlets, I decided to put my CB down there (gotta be able to talk to my “Caddy” cronies out on the hiway) …it’s a small Cobra unit and not very deep (BTW, I drive my cars –they are not trailer queens)…it fit, but just barely. Over on the other side, 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.

    [​IMG]
    Closed

    [​IMG]
    Open

    While I was slowly taking care of small projects…I decided to send the modified Dagmars out to Ogden Chrome to finish…my old biker buddy chromer in Nebraska had them for three months (taken up in April, 2010 and had to go get them a week before Salina at the end of July). He couldn’t get them done for me, so I figured I’d ask Charlie Thornblad @ Ogden Chrome if he could take care of them for me and get them back to me in reasonable time. Told him they were ready to pick up and he sent FedEx a day later…he called me three days later and said he’d gotten them and “Yes, we can finish them. I’ll put my best man on it,” and when I asked a time-frame, he said, “might be a week or so longer than our normal two-week turn, can you live with that?” I said I could, especially since the engine wasn’t back yet and I didn’t know exactly when it would be…

    [​IMG]
    Here you can see where I shortened and welded them together and then painted ‘em silver for the trip to Salina.

    In the meantime, since the engine was gone, I spent a few hours cleaning up the frame and repainted the places that had been scratched up…FWIW, I’d painted that frame black urethane a little over two years ago and went rod running with the car last summer (’09 – before I pulled the engine for the first rebuild in October, ‘09 ), Confused yet…??? Great, read on. I couldn’t believe how dirty it got in one summer. Oh well, rod running is what I built the car for…and that means driving in all kinds of weather, and we did…!!!

    The “new” engine finally came back home October First, 2010…gone a lot longer than I had anticipated (two months instead of two weeks like was promised )…and with it came the old rod bearings…all scored, including the mains. The number 8 rod bearing was scored the worst (into the copper) as it was “starved of oil,” according to the builder…good thing I decided not to drive any farther that sad day in July…no doubt there would have been a new block, plus many other assorted parts, in my future. The engine builder says it was dirt in the hoses, or the remote, that caused the problems…but I don’t see that as I’d cleaned it all out and added a new filter…but then again, what do I know about engines (just enuff to make me dangerous…!!!)…??? Regardless of the cause, the builder replaced the crank, the rods, too, and all new bearings. Fortunately, he stood behind it and all it cost me was the time and effort…!!!

    The engine/tranny was lowered into its proper place the next weekend. Once it was bolted in, I knew I’d be changing the exhaust head pipes…and I was correct…they had to be cut off and they had to be remade because the engine now sits higher. I also figured on changing the shift linkage, and had to once the engine was fired up…it wasn’t in Park like I figured when we fired it, but in Reverse (I always pull on the E-brake and block up the tires so nothing moves –good thing I did/do otherwise I’d be repairing a back wall right now.)…so I had to modify the shift arm on the tranny…but that wasn’t much of a big deal. 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…

    [​IMG]

    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.

    [​IMG]

    Check out the color and the headlight reflection in those Dagmars now…Ogden Chrome outdid themselves…and for that I am grateful. Thanx Charlie…!!!

    Once the bumper was on, the grille was next to go back in…back in July, it didn’t fit exactly like I built it when we left for Salina, but it was close…of course, we were in the midnite rush mode then to get it all together to go, so let it slide as “close enuff for me and the girls I go out with.” Now, with plenty of time to assemble the car and adjust things, my bro, Dan, and I worked at it and got it to fit exactly like I built it…always amazes me when I build something and get it to fit exactly like I want it…and then remove it and try to put it back on some weeks/months later, nothing lines up…never have figured out why that is. Maybe it’s just me…think…??? I think the whole key is not getting in a rush when putting things back together…no more midnite thrashes for me…!!!

    The new engine sounds good now…and it feels a bit stronger than the other one…hopefully it’ll stay together now…

    It took several days to finalize everything (assembly) Dan and I did…I’d ordered some new chrome stuff for the engine, modified the stock Caddy air cleaner so it sets in the middle of the engine now, built some “covers” to hide the burnt purple head/exhaust area on the engine and had them painted, and of course, spent several days cleaning the car in preparation for the Greybeard’s indoor show here in Denver over Thanksgiving weekend. It’s been almost twenty years, the last one was 1994, since I had a car worthy enuff to put in an indoor car show…and since the Caddy is all fresh and new, I thot why not…???

    Are you ready for the “glamour shots”…??? OK, here they are:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    In this shot, the rear bumper you see here is a stocker...and the chrome isn't very good...I've got another that's been modified extensively that didn't get back in time to put on the car.

    I have a couple of other things that’ll need doing on the car toward spring…one will be to have a few more trim items chromed that didn’t get done, install the “new” rear bumper that didn’t get done (when it gets back here), align the front end, purchase a couple more Diamondbacks for the front, finish installation of the Vintage A/C unit…and the last thing will be installation of a cruise control unit, if I can find a good one, any suggestions…???

    Suffice to say, the Thanksgiving weekend show was good…had a lot of fun with all the other “kustom” guys in the show and got to show off my handiwork…

    So, there you have the whole sordid story…well, I guess I shouldn’t say “sordid” story, as 95% of the build went close to how I had it figured (as I went along)…there were a couple of glitches, stuff I couldn’t foresee…and as everyone knows: “stuff” happens, and Murphy is always hanging around…!!!

    BUT, much to my chagrin, and after a 5 ½ year build, the long awaited debut of the “Roadliner” 1955 Cadillac Coupe DeVille was NOT at a rod run like I had planned…!!! Its debut was at the annual indoor car show, Crème de la Chrome, here in downtown Denver. It looked good sitting under the lights, amongst a bunch of other kustoms in a special kustom display. We had 13 very koooooolll kustoms in the display…if I said it was worth the wait, I’d be lying…I’d rather had the debut in the summer at a rod run somewhere.

    Well then, here’s the “show shots”…

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And here’s the Caddy in “full show trim”…!!!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    For those of you that enjoy indoor car shows, and everything that goes with it…the ’55 Caddy won First Place in “Full Custom Hardtop,” and the one award I was really surprised at receiving : “Outstanding Paint- Custom.”

    However, fear not, THIS ’55 Cadillac (MY Cadillac) is NOT a show car and it’s NOT a trailer queen…it is simply a nice street driver…nothing more…!!! I drive my cars and this one won’t be any different…there’s really no sense in owning a hot rod/kustom and keeping it in the garage to look at, pet and polish. Ya gotta DRIVE ‘em…it just isn’t any fun otherwise.

    My Caddy will be making multiple Debuts at many, many rod runs next summer, beginning at the April Action event in Moab, Utah…then on to the SK 500 in Dewey, OK, and perhaps Laramie, Wyoming for the Capital City Memorial Day show, and of course, more than one GoodGuy’s event, and then …??? Hopefully, gas prices won’t go crazy and being what they are now…maybe it’ll be a 12,000 mile summer, the Good Lord willing…and the creek don’t rise…!!!

    Looks like the summer will be off to a good start…see you there…???

    Now then, I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t say a huge THANK YOU to all the HAMB readers of this thread, especially Von Burke that put all my threads together, and those that commented and for keeping this thread alive. Thank you to Ryan, keeper of this place, for allowing me to use so much bandwidth, and to all the local Denver people, and especially my brother, Dan, for helping me with another of my crazy ideas…

    AND, now that this one is done, I can get back on my ’48 Cadillac Sedanet sitting in my shed.

    [​IMG]

    Lemmee see: the body is stripped and sealed already…a Nova sub is out back waiting, under the tree, an extra 390” Caddy engine stored, or I may find a 500” again, got a spare B-O-P T-400 tranny laying around. Guess I’d better go find all the stainless in the shed and send it out for polishing…FWIW, I’d talked to Bass about chopping it for me awhile ago…but…naw, I’ve already got one chopped car and not every car needs to be chopped…hmmmmmm, think I’ll just build another nice street driver (FWIW, the ‘Roadliner’ ’55 Caddy could be purchased, if you’ve an interest)…

    Layta,
    R-
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2010
  2. Rat Rod Roach
    Joined: Sep 8, 2005
    Posts: 261

    Rat Rod Roach
    Member
    from Aurora CO.

    Roger..... Awsome... It will be nice to see it out running through the hood,
    our friday Sonic cruise and the many, many car shows to come this summer. It's was cool to see it go from start to finish.... all the while Im still trying to finish my stinking roll bar, you built a whole car.....:D:D:D

    Congrats, and a job well done... on to the next one....

    Roach

    PS.... sure you don't want one of my projects to finish.... :eek:
     
  3. Considering how awesome the '55 turned out, cant wait to see what you are going to do with the '48! Could be some good inspiration for me!
     
  4. BrerHair
    Joined: Jan 30, 2007
    Posts: 5,005

    BrerHair
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Stunning, Roger ! Great job, congrats.
     
  5. Man oh Man... looks stellar Roger. Congratulations!
     
  6. Woo Hooo. All dressed up and everywhere to go.Turned out gorgeous Roger. Now hurry up with that 48 already. hehehehe
     
  7. Hackerbilt
    Joined: Aug 13, 2001
    Posts: 6,254

    Hackerbilt
    Member

    That is beautiful Roger...absolutely beautiful.
     
  8. riseabove_xxx
    Joined: Dec 3, 2010
    Posts: 219

    riseabove_xxx
    Member
    from Michigan

    BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
    that looks amazing.
     
  9. No Cents
    Joined: Feb 28, 2009
    Posts: 335

    No Cents
    Member

    That is one beautiful caddy.
    I am now officially a Cadillac fan/lover.
    GREAT job on this build.
     
  10. surfcaliforniasurf
    Joined: Sep 17, 2007
    Posts: 402

    surfcaliforniasurf
    Member

    might be my favorite caddy!
     
  11. tommy v
    Joined: Mar 4, 2005
    Posts: 1,981

    tommy v
    Member

    dam,that turned out very nice
     
  12. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    Many thanx for all the kudos...it's much appreciated.

    R-
     
  13. Rolf
    Joined: Jul 23, 2002
    Posts: 1,835

    Rolf
    Member

    Thanks for sharing your build, nice work.
     
  14. Already been said, but I'll say it again...

    BEWDIFULL! :)
     
  15. hot-rod roadster
    Joined: Aug 30, 2005
    Posts: 3,108

    hot-rod roadster
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Omaha Ne.

    Damn thats a nice build Roger...REALLY NICE !!!
    Can't wait to see you the Caddy and your brother on the road somewhere next year. It's been too long. Congrats on getting er finished up. Gary
     
  16. Stunning Roger. Your workmanship is amazing. Congrats on the show results so far, just the beginning of the trophies me thinks.....

    Man, I need to get going on my Cad!!

    Bill
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2010
  17. Roger, this was worth the wait! You have what I consider one of the top three cars on this forum, and I mean that sincerely! That '55 is absolutely stunning. The chrome work on that front bumper, and especially the Dagmars, really brought the front of the Caddy out. The color of the car is beyond cool!

    I will absolutely be in Dewey this year, no if, ands or buts. Gotta get a ride in your car!
     
  18. rockable
    Joined: Dec 21, 2009
    Posts: 4,428

    rockable
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Outstanding build and awesome looking Caddy! Congratulations!
     
  19. froghawk
    Joined: May 9, 2008
    Posts: 857

    froghawk
    Member

    Just beautiful!
     
  20. publicenemy1925
    Joined: Feb 4, 2007
    Posts: 3,187

    publicenemy1925
    Member
    from OKC, OK

    I love it when a plan comes together!!!!!!!!!! Awesome cadillac!!!!!!!!!!!
     
  21. Ian Berky
    Joined: Nov 28, 2007
    Posts: 3,644

    Ian Berky
    Member

    Amazing!!! Great job man!!!!
     
  22. Nads
    Joined: Mar 5, 2001
    Posts: 11,862

    Nads
    Member
    from Hypocrisy

  23. Lazer5000
    Joined: Dec 7, 2007
    Posts: 729

    Lazer5000
    Member

    I can't wait for the 48 build thread! Great job on the 55.
     
  24. caddy-man
    Joined: Oct 8, 2009
    Posts: 49

    caddy-man
    Member

    Congrats on the Show !!!! She is stunning !!!
     
  25. bryan6902
    Joined: May 5, 2008
    Posts: 1,137

    bryan6902
    Member

    Well done Roger! Looks really nice! Any aspirations of making it to Goodguys Des Moines?
     
  26. 40StudeDude
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 9,536

    40StudeDude
    Member

    Bryan, we'd talked about it...but nothing is set in concrete yet...we usually make out our rod running schedule in January/February and GG's Des Moines is one of our favorites. We've only got two for sure so far...Moab, Utah, which we never miss...and the SK500 in Dewey for pal Mick Bryant...it's always a good one...and it's a 13 hour drive from here...I think Des Moines is closer for us, but we'll see...

    Thanx to all for the compliments...

    R-
     
  27. What he said.
     
  28. VonBurke
    Joined: Aug 24, 2008
    Posts: 98

    VonBurke
    Member

    Amazing, Hands down.
     
  29. LeadSledMerc
    Joined: Nov 29, 2003
    Posts: 4,105

    LeadSledMerc
    Member

    Awesome job, Roger!!:cool:
    It's been fun watching your build from the start...thanks for sharing all the updates.
     
  30. fat141
    Joined: Jul 30, 2006
    Posts: 1,575

    fat141
    Member

    x 2 Well done Roger
    Rod
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.