Projects The Best 1955 Cadillac build

Yep...and original 331" V8...gets 20 mpg on the highway at 70 mph as well...

R-

 

Very nice... That's a relief... It was one of those things that I was worrying about going down the highway. Want to keep all stock, plus I had never drove Hydromatic before. Thanks.

 

I just read through this entire thread, and I'm going back to read through it again. What a gorgeous car. Kudos for bringing it back to life. That sounds like the biggest understatement ever uttered after seeing the end result.

 

VintageC - if the tranny is in good shape, there's not much to worry about driving a HydrAmatic...we had Dan's rebuilt by an old school tranny guy that knew all about them (the clutches were burned)...and have put a lot of trouble-free miles on his Caddy since the rebuild...

1/4Life-thanx for the compliment...I put a post in another thread yesterday that the car has been chosen as the "Featured Car" at the Albuquerque, NM indoor show the first of February...it's received quite a few accolades this past summer and continues to do so...and it's a real kick to drive...!!!

R-

 

Hey, you've been very helpful in all your posts, quick question…do you have an original gas tank? How low is it from the ground? Do you scrape on speed bumps?
And goodluck with GG homebuilt, you've got my vote. Thanks.

 

Hey, you've been very helpful in all your posts, quick question…do you have an original gas tank? How low is it from the ground? Do you scrape on speed bumps?
And goodluck with GG homebuilt, you've got my vote. Thanks.

 

Well, since you asked TWICE (and please go delete one of those posts), I'll answer...but only once.

Yes, the gas tank is original...and it's tucked up inside the rear frame rails -stock (the exhaust pipes are lower than the tank). Yes, the car does scrape on speed bumps, mainly cuz they are ALWAYS taller than the four inch clearance on the Lakes Pipes shrouds on the sides of the Caddy..but that's the only thing that scrapes...unless of course, I attempt to get into or out of a steep driveway like some gas stations have and at that point, the exhaust tips take all the punishment. Four inches of clearance is plenty of room on the highway...in town it's a different story...!!!

Thanx for asking...

R-

 

Spring, 2013 …or the “Yearly” update

Well, it’s been a while since I updated this thread…the last full update I did was 2-22-2012…and that’s a whole year ago…time flies when you’re having fun…and we have been…!!!

So, today is February 11, 2013 and I thot I’d tell you a bit about my Cadillac adventures…needless to say, the summer of 2012 went by fast…our first event was Moab, Utah, and the April Action show the end of April. We’ve been going to this ‘first-of-the-summer’ rod run, over our Rocky Mountains, past the western slope for over 17 years…and sometimes we drive in snow -going- and sometimes we drive in snow coming back home…and the reason for that is the mountains can get snow up until mid-May…!!! In 2012 we had good weather both ways…and most of the rod runs in ColoRODo usually start in May so Moab is our first rod run …we have strange weather around here…!!!


Here I am leading a pack of cars on the Friday morn "rod run' up the Moab "River Canyon" to the burger joint for some wine tasting...

The Cadillac continued to rake in the awards during the summer… at every rod run and/or event I took it to…it even enjoyed a “Double Hit” in June, 2012. First the Caddy won the “Traditional Homebuilt” award at GoodGuy’s event at the Ranch in Loveland here in ColoRODo…(and my bro, Dan, even won the “street rod” class in the Autocross with his ’54 Caddy)…so we both got to drive thru the awards ceremony on that Sunday afternoon at the end of the event…more on Dan’s “win” in a minnit…then two weeks later - late June, my Caddy won the “Luxury Lane” pick at the NSRA Nats in Pueblo…and I got to drive thru that awards ceremony too…so that was cool ‘back to back’ awards from the two biggest summertime event producers.

Throughout the rest of the summer, we just did local rod runs and events even tho we put on about 4000 miles just around ColoRODo…we didn’t even get out of the state of ColoRODo for the rest of the summer of 2012, altho we got close by going to Grand Junction, on the western edge of the state, in August, to an event called “Hot Summer Night”…put on by Tammy Allen’s automobile museum and that was another big win - I won “Best of Show” (otherwise known as the Tammy Allen personal pick) and I got a really nice leather jacket and a very nice award for “Best of Show.”



Dan and I took our Caddys to 12 events throughout 2012 and my Caddy won 15 awards…not bragging here but…oh hell, I am bragging, I am certainly not kidding anyone here…!!!

The last “event” of 2012 was the most fun tho…and that was the Shelby’s Rod & Custom/ HAMB event in December, 2012 (no, I didn’t have to drive anywhere for this one…!!!) …and I have to thank all of you that read this thread for your votes enabling me to win it…the competition was tuff (3 nice rods and my Cadillac), but for once on the HAMB, a custom came out on top and I was honored to accept the award given by Mark Cain for Shelby’s R & C…I certainly appreciate that award…I was given a very nice hand-made plak for it –




I also got some other great prizes. Mark even had a T-shirt designed for me by Ger Peters (Dutch Courage here on the HAMB)…and that is a special honor. I plan on wearing that T a lot this coming summer.



So 2012 is now history and what a fun summer it was…and we’re on to 2013…at the beginning of 2013, January to be exact…I was “entered” into the Speedway/GoodGuy’s “Traditional Homebuilt” national on-line contest via my “Traditional Homebuilt” win back in June, 2012, at GG’s “The Ranch” event here in ColoRODo. The voting was hot and heavy and I once again called on all my friends to vote in that one…and I won it, too. For that win, I got a $500 Speedway gift certificate, a really nice Speedway plak for the wall, and I understand the Cadillac will be featured in GoodGuy’s yearbook they hand out to participants at their events nationwide.

But, I have to backup a bit here…because somewhere around the first of December, 2012, my Cadillac was invited to the Albuquerque “SuperNationals” indoor auto show and by invited, I mean I was “paid” to take the Caddy to the show and display it…to say the least, I was honored…and I accepted. The promoter had seen my Cadillac at the NSRA Pueblo Nats and we’d talked then to him about entering the show into the competition in February …but was really surprised when he contacted me and said he’d pay me to bring it down. Just to give you an idea of what goes on in that show –they give away over $10,000 dollars…cash…!!! I’m not talking gift certificates, I’m talking cold hard cash.



Here I am standing in my display…even got to sell posters and books… Thank you very much Reggie T and Matt T…



And look Mick B...I didn’t even have to open the doors, hood and trunk on the Caddy…we had people standing three and four deep all weekend to get a look at the Cadillac…

We had a great time at the show, met some really great people in Albuquerque and the Cad was voted “People’s Choice” by one of the radio sponsors. It was a great hit there…and what a great honor it was to meet all the Albuquerque “car guys” that attended the show. Now, to give you another example of how the show is produced, and what kind of turn-out the show gets (the aisles were crowded all weekend) the promoters of the SuperNationals gives McDonald’s 400,000 “kids get in free” tickets that are distributed by all the McDonald’s in Albuquerque…of course, the kids want to see the show and they bring Dad and Mom with them (and what a fantastic marketing ploy that is)…!!! There are a quite a few shows around the country that could learn something from that…!!! But the best part is the kids love seeing hot rods, muscle cars, customs and four by fours and cars of all kinds…and some of the kids we saw there were so enamored with my Cadillac, I stepped up to Mom or Dad and asked them if they wanted to sit inside my Caddy… have their Mom or Dad take their picture… some kids jumped at the chance but others were a bit intimidated and reluctantly agreed but each of them had their pictures shot by Mom or Dad and they now have a memory of them sitting in my Caddy …and that’s a great feeling for me to have a kid go away with a great memory of “some old guy” letting them sit in a “show car”…!!!

I had some pinstriping added to the Caddy by “Alex” while I was there…I love very thin striping and he had donated a couple of panels for the McDonald’s silent auction (one sold for $150.00-shows you how good it was) and I absolutely fell over when I saw his work so I asked if he could add some striping to the Caddy while it sat in the show…he did and here’s a pic of him “working.”



As for Dan’s win…what a kick that was…Last summer (2011) he wanted to do the Autocross at the GG’s event, take the big Caddy thru the course just to see what it would do…but like anything else, time got away from us what with seeing and talking to so many friends, he didn’t get a chance to. This past summer (2012) he made it a point to get over there. Well, the “homebuilt” section wasn’t far from the autocross and we’d entered both cars in that section of the show…and while sitting there, he decided to go do it…

I think most of the people that were sitting and watching the autocross thot Dan was nutz trying to wheel that big Caddy around the course…I got to ride with him and help watch so he wouldn’t kill any cones, and have seconds taken off his time. First pass was about 70 seconds and we had that big ol’ Caddy laying on its side couple of times thru the corners…he decided to do another pass later and improved his time to 54 seconds (and that’s less than a minute for a big car, while the “Pro” class was doing it in 37 seconds and the “Street machine” class was only cutting it at 33 seconds…!!!) He got the Lakes Pipes tipped to the side and close to the asphalt on that run…after that run, the time keeper said he was in first place for the “street rod” class - which was 1920-1954…my Cadillac would have slipped into the street machine class (1955-present) and wouldn’t have a chance in hell…so I didn’t even try…!!! Anyway, I guess most of the guys that own street rods or hot rods didn’t want to attempt it, so Dan won. He got a really nice plak, several gift certificates worth about $500.00 total…and we’re using all of those certificates on the ’60 Chevy two door wagon we’re building right now…matter of fact, one of those certificates got us an AFCO aluminum cross-flow radiator for the ’60…not bad huh…???



Here’s Dan being photographed in front of the Autocross sign by Brandon F. for the GoodGuy's Gazette…and no, unfortunately no one got any pix of the big Caddy running the autocross course…sure wish we had tho.


Speaking of the ’60 Chevy, here’s a pic of me me standing in front of the wagon with the newly painted firewall (Cadillac Champagne) and the frame (Mopar Dark Charcoal)…as you can see the front suspension is off for a complete rebuild.



It’ll all go back together soon, then we’ll paint the engine, and in the coming weeks, put it back in and then start on the front clip and get it hung.

Anyway, as I said, 2012 is history...this coming summer we’re kinda planning on a trip to Canada the end of July…we found an event called the “Western Canada Power Cruise” and contacted them…found out the cruise starts in Winnipeg, follows Canadian Highway One all the way to Vancouver…then the cruise will drop into the US and end up at the GoodGuy’s event in Puyallup, Washington. Dan and I have been wanting to get to the Puyallup GG’s event for a few years now…so this may be the year…it’ll take us two days to get to Regina, Canada from our homes in Denver (straight north of here), where we’ll join the WCPC tour on the first night of their trip…we’ll stay with them and go thru Banff National Park…always wanted to see that one too and what better than a bunch of gorgeous hot rods/kustoms cruising thru some beautiful scenery…??? The “tour” will take five days to go across Canada and we are looking forward to a 3500 mile (one way) trip in the Cadillacs …should prove how well we’ve built our cars…I’ll file a report here if we go…

Anyway, I think that’s about it for this one year update…looking forward to seeing some of you again this summer...we've not finalized all of our rod running plans for this summer, but we already have a few on our list we are definitely going to make...see you there...???

Layta,
R-

 

Couple of pretty cool old farts and a couple of real cool Caddys! Enjoyed the update Roger, and I'm sure there are plenty more awards waiting for your gorgeous creation . . . Happy Trails!

 

That is so slick. Well done!

 

im just amazed how cool your caddy is
good luck with 2013 and the new show season

Matt

 

Forget the Caddy update; I want you to start a post for the '60 wagon. I love the choice
of color on the firewall. I'm close getting mine on the road. We are debating about taking
it to Salina and leaving the Merc behind. My Impala is not kooler then the Merc but it will
be not as hot. Are you planning on driving the '60 out to Salina? It would be kool to see it
in person. I plan on driving out for the Gunnison car show in August. Maybe I can check
it out then... Good luck with the build.

You did a great job on the Caddy and it is on my list of favorite Caddys. All of the
success and awards is deserving. Now you can drive the sombreros off of it. LOL!
No your running Olds caps. Well you get my drift....

Happy Trails, Mick

 

Congrats to you both, I wish I could have seen you guys more in 2012, but maybe that'll change in 2013. Can't wait to see the wagon in person!

 

It keeps snagging them awards. Why not? You and Dan put a lot of yourselves into all of your cars. You have come along way on the 60 since I last stopped by. It looks like I will have to stop by more often so I can keep up with your fast progress. A thread build on the wagon might be in order..John

 

Damn! Forgot all about this build. Worth every minute of looking at build tricks and details. Home made skirts are incredible
Wish i would have seen this before i attempted to stuff a 500 into a '64 Fleetwood. Should have cut the whole front frame clip off the '76 Fleetwood. Would have saved me and Paragon Customs tons of time and hair pulling.
Thanks for sharing. Gotta love the HAMB!!
JT

 

Roger? I bet if we polled it would be a landslide. Your threads read like a novella, very entertaining and informative. I vote Yes!

 

Thanx Brer and Mick...and the rest of you that posted...OK, OK, if I can think up some funny/interesting stuff about the wagon, I may start that thread...but there's really nothing spectacular about the '60 Chevy station wagon build right now...

R-

 

Nice update Roger. Congrats on all the awards. And yes autocrossing in a Kustom Cadillac IS a hoot. Can't wait till I get to try the new C4 suspended Caddy

 

Thanx for the compliment and LOL Hoboy...it was a kick wheeling Dan's big Caddy thru the course...and it looks like you got yours tipped over good too...

I certainly wish you would get that "new" Caddy done...from what I've seen in your thread, it looks like it's going to be bitchin' if you could stay on it long enuff to get it done...

R-

 

WOW.....great stuff man...I am sure I will be referring back to this thread a lot !! the first thing I need to do is get my hood hinges fixed mine are broke on both sides ! Does your friend work on them for other people ?

 

I some how missed the update.Man I just love this Cadillac .

 

Updates and pictures are a pleasure as always Roger...

 

Now then, the plater’s company name is Ogden Chrome, out of Ogden, Utah…you can e-mail Steve at: [email protected], check out their website at www.ogdenchrome.com or actually phone them at 1 801 394-9449…I’d recommend them highly…



R-[/QUOTE]

Yes, Steve does some amazing work down there, have used them to replate a ton of chrome over the years.

 

Hooray, it’s May First and time to go rod running…NOT…!!!


We've been abuilding away on the '60 Chevy wagon but thot you might enjoy this little story.

So, here it is May...and it's time to update this thread...

As a foreword to this, despite driving my ’55 Cadillac, virtually trouble-free I might add, for the last two summers and logging over 10,000 tires-on-the-road miles, it’s the little things that always cause you to pull out your hair…!!! I’ve always said: “If you can’t fix it on the side of the road, better stay home or trailer your car…!!!”

We stopped working on the ’60 wagon (in case you've been following that thread) in order for Dan and I to get our Cadillacs ready to go to the Stray Kat 500 on May 3, 4 and 5…we were really looking forward to this trip as it had been several years since we’d been to Mick's event at Dewey…and the weather around our place was feeling really good, what with the 80 degree days we had after our last snow storm…I’d read ‘TravisfromKansas’ was leaving from Salina at about 2 Thursday afternoon so I PMed him and asked him if he’d wait in Salina for us, and if we left Denver early, we’d make Salina in 7 hours…and we’d run to Dewey with him. He asked if we’d like to do a couple of shop tours on the way…”Sure, I’m always up for looking a new builds and such.” Kool…he'd set up a couple.

Problem was, for the fourth Monday in a row, the TV weatherman was calling for snow…!!! Sunday it was 80 degrees…Monday it was 60…yep, on the First of May - snow…and it’s not unusual for it to snow in May around here…matter of fact, I’ve seen it snow as late as the 24th of June here…it doesn’t stick to the ground much, but it does snow. When we go to Moab, Utah, the end of April for their show, we usually fight snow going over the mountains…or coming back home.

But we forged ahead getting our Cadillacs ready…we planned on leaving Thursday morn at 6 AM since it’s a 13 ½ hour trip from here to Dewey…

Sure enuff, the snow showed up Tuesday…temps dropped to 30 degrees…snowed all day Tuesday…and Tuesday nite…and Wednesday it snowed as the temps dropped to 20 degrees-typical ColoRODo…the Oklahoma trip didn’t look good. We got 8 inches all totaled, most of it piled on the grass…the roads were warm from the 80 degree weather we had, snow melted…so we didn’t think the roads would be bad…at least around Denver. At about 7 PM Wednesday, a blizzard warning was issued for eastern ColoRODo so CDoT closed I-70 east between Denver and Burlington, ColoRODo (170 miles). The snow had stopped, in Denver anyway, around 6 PM Wednesday…but to the east, there were blizzard warnings and that was the direction we were to go. To top that off, I-70 was closed to the west as well, between Denver and Breckenridge (100 miles). Snow was heavy, no one was getting out of Denver…

Guess the 6AM departure isn’t going happen. Dan said that was OK because at 6AM it’s cold (it was 21 degrees)…and he doesn’t have a heater/defroster in his car. We decided, IF I-70 was open, we’d leave at 8AM, and maybe the roads would be clear by then. Dan phoned me at 7:30 AM… “We going…??? It’s starting to warm up.”


Here's Dan trying to stay out of the slush...fortunately we didn't allow any eighteen wheelers to pass us, get the windshield dirty and spray sand all over us...

We left about 8AM and we drove in slush to past Limon, the roadway cleared as we drove east and we ran on wet highway for a while. We never saw any 18 wheelers until we were about 10 miles west of Limon, apparently CDoT had just opened the highway to the west.

I had a full tank of gas when we left home...as we approached Burlington (170 miles) I told Dan I was almost out of gas, according to my gauge...the Caddy was using gas fast...eight miles out of Burlington, going up a hill, the car quit. I rolled onto the shoulder and tried to start it...it fired and I chugged the car to an off ramp a block or two up the highway. It was 10:30 AM. Dan carried a gallon can of gas, but we found it was only half full and trying to pump gas up to the carb on a hill wasn't going to work with only half a gallon. We got out the tow strap...just north of I-70 we found a frontage road into Burlington. Dan towed me in and I filled up at the first station...Caddy fired right away, we cleaned the W/S and hit I-70 again...15 miles up the highway, just inside the Kansas state line, and two miles into single lane construction with cars coming at us...my Cad quit again...there was no shoulder because of the construction...I rolled off into wet mud...hit the starter and it fired...at the first opening I got back up on the highway...what’s going on? The car ran for two more miles then died again...now I realize I got a problem...carb's got crap in it, accelerator pump is bad, fuel pump is quitting...something wrong but not electrical.

I dropped off the highway into the mud again and so did Dan. We had about 30 cars behind us and I'm chugging along at 20 mph trying to find a wider spot. I found a highway patrol crossover and whipped in...didn't tell Dan via CB and he stopped mid-lane as I was whipping into the turnout...he almost got clobbered by an 18 wheeler - the truck locked up his air brakes and honked like crazy...Oooops, sorry..!!! After I’d “parked,” I told Dan via the CB the trip to Dewey was off and we'd better, at least, get back to Burlington...figure out what’s wrong with my Cadillac.

With the highway clear of cars in either direction for a minnit or two, the car started and idled, I backed out into the highway and took off west...the car ran fine for the few miles we were in construction and I remembered we'd passed a county road off-ramp, just then the car died again and I rolled onto the off-ramp...started the car and proceeded thru two stop signs. All the time Dan is asking what the Caddy is doing... as I was rolling I'm telling him what's going on with it. It died again, I started it on a roll and it ran fine for 9 miles. Once more time, the car starts faltering…as it was choking, I flipped it into neutral and tried to feather the gas...this time it didn't die...OK...it’s not the fuel pump...carb or filters getting plugged. We made it to Burlington and stopped at an auto parts store, checked the filter - nope, it was clean - now I don’t know what the problem is, can only surmise it’s internal in the carb.

"We should find a place to leave the car, go home, get the trailer and come back," Dan said. I said "no, that's two and a half hours home, two and a half back, then two and a half more home. Maybe I can nurse it home, it wants to run."

"Can we get it home?" Dan asked. “Well, it starts each time and runs for a while...maybe if I don't run 70mph and nurse it along, I can.” We took the two-lane county road out of Burlington, didn't want to get on I-70 what with all the trucks...as we ran along at about 45-50 mph, it seemed to be OK...every once in a while it'd try to die, but if I flipped it into neutral and played with the foot-feed a bit, it wouldn't die and I could keep going. We got to Limon and I had half a tank of fuel left, knew I couldn't get home on that (90 miles)...so filled up and then we had to get on I-70...there aren't any country/county roads going to Denver from Limon. It ran fine for 45 miles before it quit. Completely died this time. I pulled onto the shoulder and started it...it idled fine...got out on the highway and made it all the way to I 4-70 just outside of Denver...it died once more but we finally made it home at 6:30PM...a 10 hour “adventure”…Oh the “FUN with cars”…!!!

I put it in the garage, mud and all. Friday nite at the local cruise, I checked with a few friends on what they thot was the problem...most said it was simply running out of gas, somehow - fuel pump going bad wouldn't do that, it’d just quit…!!! That left only one problem to be sorted thru – fuel: the carb, the in-line filter, in-carb filter, or lines clogged somehow. Saturday morn, while the SK500 guys were getting wet or standing in the rain, I was in my warm garage contemplating my next move. I sure didn’t want to pull the carb so I pulled the plastic in-line filter off the front of the engine and cut it open...nothing. Clean. Then I remembered I had put an in-line metal-cased filter between the tank and the electric fuel pump, in the rear wheel well...jacked up the car, took the skirt and tire off and removed the filter...cut it open and there it was.

Looked like a tan grocery-type plastic bag jammed into the filter. I immediately surmised someone, somewhere last summer had stuffed a plastic bag down the fill tube (I don't have a locking gas cap), maybe trying to get even with me for who knows what (yes, believe it or not, I do have a few enemies)...or maybe they didn't like the Caddy winning awards everywhere it went - the mind conjures up crazy things trying to figure out "why"...!!! I then pulled the sending unit out of the tank, grabbed a flashlight to see if there was anything floating in the tank –nope, couldn’t see anything floating.
Well, to make a long story longer, we'd taken the '60 Chevy's tank up to get it cleaned and sealed a couple days before we left and I got to wondering if the sealant on the Caddy's tank could be coming off...I'd had the tank cleaned and sealed six-seven-eight years ago by a guy that's now out of business. It was one of the first things I did on the build. We took the clogged up in-line filter up to the tank guy and asked him if that's what he thot it was. "Yep, the early sealant wasn't that good and with the crappy gas nowadays, the sealant is releasing...obviously whoever did it for you didn't get the tank very clean before they sealed it. Bring it up and I'll do it correctly. The new stuff is so much better." Oh great, now, I get to drop the gas tank...more fun with cars, eh...???
Well, suffice to say I can’t go anywhere if the fuel lines get clogged up…so…guess I’ll pull the tank.

While I had the car up in the air, I took a chisel and hammered off most of the Kansas mud, it was good Kansas clay...and stuck to everything...even the stuff jammed into the bumper was still wet underneath the dry outer part and it'd set since Thursday nite...it was hard as a rock...and wouldn't even dissolve in water. I piled what I chiseled off in one of my flower gardens - got most of it off but will have to let the summer rains clean the undercarriage on our Caddys, and we'll prolly be driving in plenty of that. Didn’t think I’d ever get the whitewalls clean, boy, were the Cadillacs dirty…


Some really good hard-as-a-rock Kansas mud...!!!

Dan said he wasn’t going to bother chiseling the mud off his…he’d just take it to a car wash and try to clean it that way.

FWIW, I only got 10 miles per gallon on that short trip...gotta find some way to get more mileage...don't know if I should put on an 750 cfm Edelbrock...or buy a new Q-jet...Caddy guys tell me a Q-jet is best for the Caddy engine but I’m not a carb guru, I just don’t know which is better...

Anyway, I read on the HAMB and saw pix that it was only 40 degrees and rainy in Dewey all weekend...and that ain't no fun at a car event...at least, my garage is heated.

FWIW, as of today, May 14th, I've decided to go with an Edelbrock 750 CFM carb...I know them a lot better than Q-jets even tho the Cadillac engine gurus tell me the Q-jet is best for the engine...and I figure the mileage the engine is getting cannot suffer much more...if it does, then the Cad goes up for sale and I move on to the '48 Cadillac Sedanet sitting in my shed...I've got big plans for that...!!!

R-

 

Sounds like a crappy start to the season Roger!! It can only go up from here lol!!

We have had snow this week here in South Western Ontario too. Sure don't see that too often.

The Q Jets are a great carb when set up right, hopefully the Eddy carb will work for you. One mistake I have seen folks make is to go down in jet sizes to try for more MPG. This work opposite as the throttle has to be opened much further to get any power so the car uses more gas!! Usually the factory settings are very close. Summit sells reman Q-Jets that are tuned for the bigger cubes.

Good luck with it!!

Take care Roger....

Bill

PS: The Sedanette project sounds real cool!!!

 

Sounds like a crappy time, but you're right. If you cant fix 'em, better buy a trailer. I've had some "FUN" times on a run too, but it makes for a good story after the blood stops boiling. Glad your Caddy won't be out of commission long. I will be down wrenching on mine this weekend. I posted 2 new pics on my build thread. See ya bud

 

Roger...what can I say that hasn't been said by dozens of others? I've spent the entire evening reading this thread from page one til the very end. I am in awe of the ability of the ones that can "see" the end result then just jump in feet first and get it done.
I distrust myself to the point where I'd measure three or four times then still hesitate while holding the plasma cutter in my hand.
Though I'm not entirely sold on the final color choice, I am totally dumbstruck on the way bodywork, skirts, bumpers etc. were envisioned then conceived with two hands.
My hat is off to you sir.

By the way, you say you'd sell the '55..what would you accept dollar wise?

 

boy o boy

 

Just finished reading this! I forgot how cool your Caddy is!

 

Thanx guys, appreciate you looking at this build...and thanx for the compliments...

R-