Technical Anyone with experience on putting caddy quarters on a 50ish Chevy

I havent done this before myself so figured i might ask. Im talking about putting '48-53 caddy rear qtrs on a '49-52 chevy Deluxe. Is it easier or possible to graft the entire outer quarter? Better to graft jut the rear portion of the caddy taillight section to the chevy? Any reason the esrlier '48 -50 would be bettervthan the 52-53? The taillights differ a hair...any preference?

Thanks, Hans

 

I'm curious too as I have the same plan on the back burner. Have the parts and they seem like an easier mesh.

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Do the quarters bolt on?

 

chevy has weld on, Caddy has bolt on.

 

Hey,

The '48-'49 Caddie quarters have a way different look than the '50-'52! You'd do well to study the early "little pages'' for Chevrolets or other GMs that had Caddie quarters added to them. You could also photoshop the rear of your '49-'52 and add photoed Caddie quarters until you hit the look you're after. Are you planning a complete rework of the rear of your vehicle? Coupe Caddie quarters are longer than sedan's, and would be harder to find, whyle the sedan's may require more fabrication to produce the look you're after. The improtant thing is to get whatever quarter you go with plumb, true and in alignment with the other side

 

yeah, I realize if trying to use the whole qtr you would need 48-49 2dr versions, but if just grafting the rear section, then next few years have the nice tail light as well. It will be a revamp of the ass end, extending the qtrs , splashpan and bumper. the trunk lid will be taken into consideration depending on how the qtrs are done. I origially thought for sure to take a slice out of the truck lid, but it might not need it. The 2dr sedan chevys have a pretty tall trunk lid and short at that. I wanted a sedan due to kids though. a business coupe looks a bit better for a full custom, but I need a back seat.
I'm only talking stretching a few inches to make the rear flow a bit better and not seem so stubby with the chop.
Here's a few pics of the car in question.

 

Nice chop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


BB

 

This is my buddy Chris' 51. He used 55 Cad light housings. Only used a section about 10" x 12" of the Caddy quarter.

 

Hey,

You may wanna look up fellow HAMBer Flop for a post he did back a couple or three years ago, on a tin indian he sectioned the deck lid to fit other body mods. Sectioning the deck lid and adding the quarters would amount to some serious hours in planning, cutting, shaping & welding, but would probably yield the most cohesive end result.

" Do not reach greedily for the Kool-Aid "

 

Thanks Bob!

Yeah, I remember Flop's thread. I do realize it takes many an hour for these types of mods. I've done them before and the sheet metal work doesn't concern me, it's always way more work than you plan for no matter what...
I didn't lay the back window down too much as I don't think the sedans look good trying to make them look like a fastback, which means I can get away with little or no section on the trunk. It will likely get an inch taken out of the back though. I'll make the qtrs match the car/roof then let the trunk decide itself...


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Thanks for the pic, I prefer the '53 and earlier fins as they are a bit more subtle and would fit my car better. Acutally if they were 2% lower it would be even better....maybe just hammer some out, its only time right...I do like the 48-49 lights better as they have just the red portion and are a bit cleaner, but then its nice to have the backup lights in there so the rest is clean...if you even have bu lights...

 

Doug Thompson built one in the late '80s for a guy named Larry Cochran. It was a '50 2-door hardtop with like '52-'53 Cad lights, very kool car. Look Doug up on Rik website I believe theres pics of it on there

 

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Goran Lassell, Sacremento Kustoms


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Hi Hans,

I was going to do this on mine and after discussing it at length with a very experienced metal guy he said donor quarters were the way to go. This was grafting the taillight section on and having enough panel to make it work. I was looking for 4 door quarters as less loved and therefore cheaper.

Cheers

Stephen

 

A friend of mine, Rob Gerring wrote a tech article for Custom Rodder magazine back in Nov 98, showing how to install the cad fishtails on achevy. I believe he also used part of a caddy trunklid too. He built the award winning custom 50 chevy hardtop "Morning Star".

 

I have these vintage pics from and old builder in St Louis.

 

That candy striped roof is pretty wild.

 

That's too cool, that old custom is really something. I would have thought they would be to bulky, I was wrong, that front end is rad.

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I want to keep the round part of the leading edge, so im planning on sectioning just the back part. These are headed my way...

 

Would be great if someone had this article. Im not messing with àny other cad parts, i think by the time i could cut out a Cad tail pan and modify it to fit my chevy, I could make one from scratch without any compromises that you quickly fall into with trying to mate panels like this..

 

could you find someone to do a sand casting of the fin and lead them on, add some weight to the tail dragger ?

 

sorry forgot to add, do a sand cast and fill with brass, then lead on...

 

The bonus of using a grafted on qtr is you can add a bit of length to the qtr as well. My 2dr sedan is, in my opinion, with its relatively short decklid, REALLY benefits from extended qtrs to make the ass end not look so stubby. It will never be as long and swoopy as a chopped, extended catwalk 2dr business cp...but they dont have my back seat either...

 

This one belongs to a friend of mine

 

Shit Hans, judging by these photos I'd say you'll be schooling us on how to do it.

You're spot on about the profile of the trunk on these 49-52 chevys, I'm working on extending and raising the ends of my 51 rear fenders with 49 Buick tail lights for all the same reasons (and because I'm pretty sure sectioning the trunk is beyond my skill level).

Have also seen a few people modify them to look more like the 53-54 rear fenders with the same effect.

Whatever you do please keep us in the loop.

 

Like this...

 

Chop looks great ! Any more pics ? Or a thread ? Thanks


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You know I have been thinking about doing a thread on the car, but havent...ill try to post some more pics of it in my album. My next order of business is grafting some '56 Olds fender/headilghts on as its a shorter project than the qtrs. I wont have all the parts for the wtrs til end of January at the earliest. I live in Norway so unless i can get the qtrs done before spring hits, it will likely have to wait until next winter....our driving season is short over here. You just DONT do a long modification on your car when the sun has a chance to come out...

 

Damn, that is good looking! Great proportions.