Customs caddy roadster High School shop build

Any progress on the roadster? I saw the bus setting up at blackwell's body shop. The painter myra is a really good friend of the wife and i. They do some nice work there.

 

No pics yet. We have got all our measurements to start the frame.
We also had district competitions last week. Got a gold and a bronze. Progress is slow in a school setting due to our schedule and testing.
Still hope to have a roller by summer

Blackwells has 3 of my students there. Sending another for an interview.

 

How big is their shop?

 

About a dozen employees
2 frame benches
2 paint booths

 

we finally got the frame bench cleared off
looks like we are going to start the chassis

 

I was thinking about this thread earlier this week, good to see some progress Anthony.

 

Thanks. Been super busy. We are starting spring break. Hope to pick up the tubing to start the chassis.
Hope we can use this old Plymouth axle. I read where you can use Ford spindles on it. I like the shape it has. It’s missong a hub. I don’t want to run discs if I don’t have to. I like the drum look on fenderless rides.
Going to look up if later drums can fit. It’s supposed to be easy to run mopar discs on these spindles so some 60s/70s drums may work.
The goal for this project during this school year was to have a roller.
Fingers crossed.
Right now I’m super stoked one of my students just got hired in a shop
I have 4 more working in shops during spring break. It’s a work experience /job audition. We have an upcoming visit to a well established hot rod shop. Hoping to maybe get an apprentiship for a student.

 

got a little mock up work done this morning

 

The students marked the centerline of the frame bench and front axle. Will locate the rear centerline tomorrow. Once we string the centerline we will start squaring up the axles and start preparing the tube for the frame. Thinking about using 3x1 1/2 rectangle for the rails and 1 1/2 square for the upper part of the body structure. The frame should resemble a truss from the side.

 

How do you plan on pinching the front fenders?

 

made a slice in the qtrs
the taper will start just in front of the rear axle
this made a nicer transition than doing this in the cowl area

 

The second I saw this I thought of your project...I know the year is off but perhaps some cool inspiration. If this was already posted I apologize...



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the wife seen the caddy for the first time this weekend
got a strange look
dont know if it was shock, disgust or confusion

 

Making a fantasy a reality can be a slippery slope...you have to deliver the product and the art show begins and in this case the art drives and makes a wee bit of noise.

 

yep
may should have waited until I was a little further along

 

Have her watch Rat Fink and it'll open the blinders a bit. You and your team will make believers out of the naysayers and there is a saying about art...it doesn't have to match the chesterfield. That said some would never warm to the wild side of Hotrod/ Custom. This truly is art becoming reality.

 

thanks for the encouragement

she knows what we are capable of and loves cars in general, I think I just caught her off guard. This was the first she has even heard about this build.
she was a huge supporter of the bus build
she may not share my love for radical custom stuff .......yet

we started with the chassis plans on paper, should start building it soon

 

This was posted in real time. Your students will have fun.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ay-how-about-build-2-t-bucket-frames.1025433/

 

school is about out
we tried but still not a roller
We had a successful last couple of weeks with a 3rd and 2nd at state competition and a 3rd out of 20+ teams with our electric car race team
We will continue on the Caddy this fall. Hopefully they wont run me off
We are up for a big re certification (lots of paper work)

meanwhile, I will continue to scrounge parts for it. I keep thinking about the 429 that is still in the parts car
we have a 671 supercharger.......I bet we could make it work on the 429
does anyone know if the stock bottom end (minus pistons) would handle a mild super charging?

 

429 in a light car like you are building no need for a supercharger. So build the supercharger for low boost and you will be fine with all stock parts. In fact you might even be able to take a little off the top of the pistons to lower the compression.

 

If you underdrive the blower so it has only a few pounds of boost then certainly the stock bottom end should hold up fine. The blower would be mostly for appearance rather than significant performance boost. In the lightweight car you are building, the engine will never be in much boost anyway.

I hesitate to suggest this, but there is also the fake hollowed out blower case route. Either run tubes under the real carb on top of the blower down to the manifold if you can to minimize plenum volume, or run a carb inside the blower case and have a fake carb up top. I really don't like the fake blower, but just putting it out for discussion.

 

I remember giggling at fake blowers on show cars
I think it would be a fun experience for the students to build a blower motor
I found intake flanges to start the manifold with. We have a machine class that could help make some pieces
We haven’t started the 429 but it turns and is very clean under the valvcovers
It has a rail rocker set up and looks like the only cams are regrinds. Will have to look into this before making a decision

 

I agree with Oldolds and 38Chevy 454. The 429 had plenty of low end grunt to move those big ass Caddys so underdriving the blower wouldn't hurt the bottom end and in a light car like yours would let copious amounts of smoke out of the tires.

 

after a lot of HAMB research, looks like a 390 intake may be a posibility
this is one of those odd engines you have to build everything for
we aint skeered on building an intake
and pulleys will have to be modified to fit
cam geometry will require a little thought

this is an idea we are kicking around, we dont want to build another SBC powered car
we also want to stay true to the style of build
being different can be painful

 

An update
Started back at school this week, just teachers. Students have another couple of weeks.
After a lot of thinking and consideration I think we will go with a caddy engine but not the 429
Not a lot of support plus trans options swayed me.
I lucked into another big block caddy
Located a complete and running 472. That is a little newer than I wanted to go but hard to pass it up. Please don’t hate us. It will still be built as close to a crazy 60s contraption as we can
I also have a 500 that we plan to put in the bus. (Might have to think about the 500 in the roadster ) hmmmmm
I have a lot of sbc stuff but think this one needs something different
Going to pick up the tubing for the chassis and we will have all the major parts to start building

I have one issue to work out and that is room for a radiator. We have plenty for width but the pinched nose will limit length May kick the idea around for a rear mounted one

 

Under the circumstances, a 472 sounds like a good choice.

 

the 429 would be killer in it but i see nothing wrong with either the 472 or 500.

 

any you guys run intakes like this?

we got to have multiple carbs
4 2g Rochesters would look cool
using the 671 we have is still a possibility
getting the 472/500 compression ratio suited for forced induction is a little easier than the 429

 

The cool thing about the 472 is that there is plenty of stuff available for it and even in stock form it will make your roadster smoke the tires like an old 1950's Digger. That three deuce intake looks pretty cool but the blower would be cool also. Do you know what year the 472 is? If I remember correctly, the 472 was originally about 10.5 to one, but like everything else 1972 and on, dropped to a lower compression ratio, maybe 8.5 to 1 or so.
As for the radiator, stick it in the back and have pipes made up for supply and return. Years ago when I was a field service generator technician, I'd come across old 2 stroke Detroit Diesel v motors with big ass hoses running from the t-stat housings to the radiator, two each at about 30" long. Changed them out with exhaust tubing that a company bent up and rolled lips on the ends to hold the clamps. Simple and easy fix, didn't cost much.

 

its a 73
8.5 engine
freash tune up and cpmplete for 300 bucks with the trans pulled and delivered to the school
the intake does not have any water cross over so making an intake will be easier
the 429 was 10.5 so pistons would have had to be made if using the blower and todays gas doesnt like that even if we didnt use the blower. The bearings cost more than I paid for the 472
and the trans adaptor was over $500
more than likely we will use the 472 in our bus and put the 500 in this roadster