Projects 55 caddy my first start to fininsh

Sup everyone!!! This is my first Project car that I am attempting from start to finish. I will try to document this project the best I can if you have any suggestion let me know. I will need help which I have received from this site just from Google brining me here in the past. I have been working on this caddy for almost two years and have only completed the frame. So it will take some time. I was inspired by Roberts post with his 1955 custom Caddy. His post is very good check it out if you already haven't. This project started with one to many beers, I was on eBay when I bid on this caddy and I keep the bid very low because most caddies where out of my price range. Three days later I found out I won the bid and was the new owner of a non-running 1955 caddy located in Arizona. I live in south Florida about 2500 mile away with no trailer. It was a long trip to get the caddy but fun. I borrowed a friends trail and was of to see my new project. Three days later I was face to face with the seller. The seller said he could not get the car running and thinks the frame was bent. While loading the caddy I found the axle in the back seat and asked about the trans, the seller said he took it out just to make it easier to push. Great I was thinking the trans mission was bad and engine was locked. No big deal I was going to purchasing a newer Cadillac from the auction and just transporting the drivetrain in to this car. Until I got home and started looking at the caddy closer, I found that the engine and frame had numbers that match and the engine could be hand cranked with a ratchet. Yes the engine is free, now get it running. I did the normal stuff, change the points, replaced the battery, added oil, and setup a fuel pump. I found the neutral switch was bad so I had to by pass this with a jumper for now. The engine started YA! and ran for 30min before the water pump broke. It was completely rusted out from the inside. OH before starting the engine I installed the axle. During this time the engine was running I put the car in drive, it moved and backed up. So I think the transmission is good as well. I hope so the conversion kit is a lot of money. Now I know the car is running and driving and had numbers that matched. I decided to build the car as it may have been done in the late fifties. Adding my style to the car and some new parts here and there to replace any broken hard to find stuff to make the car safer. Well that's my story, OH I got the car for $1300.00

 

Here is my Caddy on day one from Arizona. I wasn't much to look at but had a ok interior and all the trim in the trunk I think.








Ya I know it got four doors, But I will just have to suicide the back two that should make it cool.

 

going to be a cool project good luck and remember to have fun!

 

Super cool car brother,

I know, I know, the general rule of thumb is the 4 doors is 2 doors 2 many. However I dig the look of the ride. I personally think a cool look is to shave the door handles on the back two doors. I would also work on the stance but that is just my opinion.

 

Thanks for the support guys I will be posting pic tonight on my progress and stories on how I got parts.

 

Four doors, schmoor doors, still a cool car! I wouldn't suicide the back doors, just shave the handles. It's your car of course, so it's up to you. When I was a young lad, many years ago, my dad had one of these. He always had Cads; 50, 52, 55, 59, 60, 65, etc. Along with old Buicks. We went on trips in them, from MN to Cali, Washington, NYC and none of them ever missed a beat! Think it was the 55 we went to LA in in the 60's great trip in a great car! Very jealous!

 

I will try to tell the story from the beginning but I started this two years ago so I forget some details but ask me questions and I will get back to with what I did and where I got parts ect... So let’s get started, once upon a time…..
Now it is time to move the caddy to the small two car garage to begin disassembly. I don’t have the funds to rent a warehouse so this will be tight because the caddy is a very big car. I had to make a stand for the body and roll the frame in and out of the garage. So a nice 6x6 piece of wood and some large jack stand was setup for the body. The frame is kept under the body with small tires to fit under the stand. Now I can roll the frame in and out for the work. I am now ready for disassembly. I started with the front end and worked my way to the back removing wiring and body mounts. The electrical wiring is shot in this car all the insulation is cracked so a wire kit will be needed later. Note: Remember to label and take pictures of everything. It is two years later and I am starting reassembling and I refer back to them often. I normally remember how to put most things back together but after two years it hard to get all the details correct.

 

Once I got the frame of the body I started to clean the frame. This frame was so dirty that I had my sister help with the cleaning. I pressure washed this thing three times and it is still dirty. 50 years of crap fights to come off. It look like the frame was all rust, but the sand or dirt from Arizona must be the same color as rust. Now that I could see the frame and suspension I started to check to see if the frame was straight or if the seller was right about the bent frame. I found that the rear leaf springs were different and one was from a truck. This made the rear end stand way up in the air on the left side. I did some cross measuring and found the frame nice and square once the leaf springs where out. My plan is to Airbag this caddy, hot rod the engine mildly, and suicide the rear doors.

 

Getting started with the front air bags I had to find out what size bag to get and mounting hardware. Of course there is no bolt-on kit for this year caddy so I will have to make it myself. Looking at the caddy frame it is very similar to an S-10 frame but just a little bigger. Spring upper pockets with arms in front leaf spring for the back. Did some looking and found a Universal (word used a lot with this caddy) front kit for the air bags online. Some modifications are coming whenever you use any Universal kit. Here are some stock pics of the front end.







See all that Dirt! I took these pic after I did the cleaning WOW.

 

Finding the right air bags for this heavy car was not too hard plenty of trucks with air bag kits to I used the larger 2600lb air bags that have a 7” OD. These bags are normal used in full size trucks and can handle heavy loads. I will be using the same bags in the front and rear of this car just because the bags have a good travel distance when inflated fully. (12” of travel) Here are some pics of the cutting of the front end to make room for the air bags. I tried to only cut what was in the way of the bags so not to lose too much of the strength of the parts. Reinforcements will be added.



Upper spring cup all cut out to make room for lower arm and airbag.

Removed upper cup

I notched the upper cup so the lower arm could get the car lower.

 

The Air bag kit came with a 5” metal tube and bag mounting plates that needed to be welded together. The tube was 18” long and I found I only needed 2.5” per side for the front. I cut up the tube center it to the bag upper mounting plate and welded it together. The lower plate was useless I had to make a new one from plate steel that I got from a local metal shop. I cut the lower section to fit inside the lower A-arm and drilled the mounting holes for the bags. Once test fitting the bag with the mounts was completed I welded up the lower bracket to the arm and did some reinforcing to the upper pocket and lower arm. When cutting up this much of the upper pocket I found the frame to be made up of two separate pieces that must have been made by pressing them together in a mold. I welded all this together along with any parts that had rivets.


Flat stock used for lower bag mount and box the lower arm.

Welded all area with Rivets

Primed the welds

 

The rear end was much of the same as far as the parts. Universal over the springs airbag mounting kit was used again no bolt on kit available. I found some nice axle mounts for the lower side of the air bags and used a Universal four link kit for a truck. I had to remove all the mounting hardware for the factory leaf spring mounts and create new mounting brackets for the four link. If you are going to try this setup take a lot of measurement and triple check them. I tack welded this kit in four or five times before I got it right. If I had a lift and a frame mount I may have got it correct the first time. Doing this on the floor sucks but got to work with what you got.

Stock font leaf mount

Removed mount to weld on 4 link

Tack in and test articulation and measurements

I forgot to mention the c-notch, see cant remember everything.

 

Finally done with the frame modifications and it sit .25 inches off the ground and with the airbags full it is 10” higher up.

.25" off the ground

 

Now moving on to the brakes, I was going to just rebuild the original system but found two major issues. First the master cylinder was leaking completely dry by morning. Second the front brakes were shot and would have cost everything was bad with them springs, pads, drums, even the hoses. The rear just needed new pads. So I found a conversion kit at OPG for less. So I went with the new disk brake system up front and new pads and hoses all around. Some pic of the work….

Spindle before

Cleaned and brackets installed

kit installed

This was a big brake kit which requires a 17" wheel or larger so I had these 22" wheels made for the car. Had them ordered with not bolt pattern and had them drill to fit.

 

Now THAT is a WAY COOL Project. I say 4 door is even better for a Caddie as the 4 door gives you that oh so cool roof line. When lowered and cleaned up this bad boy is going to flat out stop traffic. VERY cool ride...

 

Now that I had made a clean spot on the spindles I needed to complete the frame. I orders some POR15 and started the frame painting. Research and advice from other on this site said that POR15 is the best for frames and is easy to apply. Instructions were simple wire wheel the frame then clean frame with supplied degreaser hose of with water let dry, clean with rust pre-spray wash and let dry, then paint frame with POR15. I used a 4” paint roller for the large areas and a paint brush for the rest. Prep work was easy, I installed a large wire wheel to my 4” grinder and knocked of all the loose rust. POR15 works best if rust is on the frame just not any loose rust or grease. Frame was done in one day very easy.

Start and finished in 5 hours easy stuff POR15

Touch up where done the next day with real small brushes.

 

This brings us up to date with the caddy. Last week I had some time to work on the engine and this took some time because I wanted to use parts from the 50’s to create the look of a hot rod caddy engine from bad in the day. It took me almost 18 months to fine the parts I wanted. I found an original Edelbrock dual bank intake manifold from some guy in the Virgin Islands of all places. This 6x2 setup was hot for drag racers bad in the 50’s and looks really cool. I also added a race cam that I found online, I think from Kanter not sure on that but I can look at my receipts if any wants. This cam was still in the original box I think is real but might be reproduction. I was told to buy new carburetors because finding and rebuilding original 97’s Rochester’s would cost way too much. So I got the 97 reproductions from speedway motors and I will be ordering the linkage kit from Rochester today. I will have to make brackets for my new 140amp alternator this week if I get the time. Here are some moc up pic of the engine.

I am also adding some bling...

 

Other than the wheel choice, it's looking pretty good

 

Thanks bigfoot once on the ground I think the roof will look smooth as well.

 

Ya I thought that may mess with some people but white walls wont look right once this caddy is done..

 

It's your car man, build it how you want. Although be prepared, you will lose a lot of people here with that choice of wheel. I'd like to see the body on and the car laid out, I'm sure it'll look sick.

 

Yea, I'm just going to look at them as temporary rollers while I watch the rest of this beautiful job unfold.

 

You're correct, whitewalls would look ugly on those wheels...and I'm not 100% certain those wheels look correct on a four door...or even on a '55 Cadillac...!!!

But, I'll watch this build to see how it comes out, I can use my thumb to block out the wheels in any pic...

Thanx for putting up a build thread...

R-

 

OK guys had some time this week to install the new alternator. I replaced the Generator because it was not charging and it needed replacing anyway. I found a nice 140amp chrome alternator cheaper than getting a new generator so it was a no brainer. I made a spacer and used original bracket and a longer bolt to do the install. I may have to make a completely different set of brackets in the future to link the AC compressor to this belt but that can wait, I just want to drive this caddy before the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona Florida this year. My plan is to install a vintage air kit with all new ac parts later. I called them and they have a large universal kit that will cool the hole caddy. So if anyone needs part for a REAR mounted AC from this caddy let me know.

 

Front end moc-up this weekend to see what will need to be cut out so the wheels and suspension will clear.

 

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OK did a little Moc-Up of the front end and it needs some wheel well work but clears. I think it may be easier to make new ones instead of modifying these. The pics still has the frame about 2” off the ground. I have planes to add that 57 lower bumper to this 55 but we will see if I have enough ground clearance, it should be fine. The lower 55 bumper is shorter in height and was 2” of the ground before I took it off.
The hood may be an issue with the velocity stacks you can almost see the tips over the fender. I think it should close but that’s a other issue for later.

oh I covered the wheel so everyone won’t have to use their thumb….

 

Man , just pic some wheels that match that gorgeous engine.
At least some that look like they might go on the same car.

 

I was going to the car show but its raining now . I wanted to talk with my body guy to see what he has cheap.

 

Love that engine.