I bought this car in 2001. I tjust sat in the drive for about 3 years while I was too busy to start. You know how that goes. Thought I would get a hobby found out I did not have time. I hung in there though and in 2003 I decided it was time to make the time. Here it is as it sat in driveway.
What are your plans for the cadillac (business coupe i think)? Full restoration or some kind of resto-mod/customizing?
Near thanksgiving of 2003 I moved the car out back to my shop. I am in Arizona and winter is the best time to work on the car. Summer gets way to hot and my shop is not fully enclosed. So I tore down all the body panels and trim then the engine and transmission leaving just the tub and frame with suspension. I had playfully restored a 1940 Buick and 1946 Chevy P/U when I was 16 and 18 years old and had always wanted to do a real restoration someday on a worthy car. Over the years I played with cars but life gets in the way of fun sometimes and raising a family and career demands kept me at bay. I finally committed myself to this and went all out, full nut and bolt restoration. It is a bit overwhelming for a guy with a backyard shop and no mechanical training except what I teach myself but that was the point, to challenge myself. I wisely took thousands of photos along the way and labeled and even occasssionally sketched out parts as they were removed. I soon discovered that there is no such thing as too many photo's. I also learned that sticky labels don't last more than a couple years in this heat before they fall off (whole nother blog on this someday). In any case I got it broken down and catalogued in 2003. Then took the summer off. In the fall I tore the engine down. I thought the 346 flatehead would be salvageable it did turn and the heads were not too bad. I broke it down and took it into a machine shop to have it cleaned and the surfaces decked. While they had it I began the search for all the parts to rebuild. I used Egge for some, Kantner for some and Coopers for some. I found all three were easy to deal with knowledgable and quick to respond. By spring of 2004 the engine was completed. During that time I also built myself a jig to remove the body from the frame. I do not have limitless funds so fancy machines and lifts were not in the budget. I used jacks, blocks and scrap steel to lift the body off and create a cart to roll it away. It worked fine but I later got myself a rotisserie and built my own body cart so I would never have to do it this way again.
I will post pics of the engine and the body jig soon.
Nice to see another car guy with not much mechanical knowledge doing a full out restoration. One of the reasons i decided to restore an old car is to gain some knowledge and experience in mechanical stuff(without going through college that is).
Here is the body comming off the frame with the Jig stand. I rolled the frame one way and the body the other.
Here is the engine before machine shop cleaned and decked it. I did have it magnafluxed and had them rebuild it into a short short block as i did not have the proper tools to deal with some of the assembly.
Back from the machine shop with shinney perfect surfaces.
Wish I could post more but I went to a 5 megapixel camera in 2004 and my files are to large now cant seem to post pics, any suggestions appreciated.
G'day Craig,
When posting pictures, you need to reduce them in actual size, that is to around 100 to 200 Kb, for easier downloading.
There are a number of programs out there, and I use Paint Shop Pro 7.
Bruce. >:D
In a Mac or Windows environment the viewing program provided will usually have the ability to resize an image (in Mac it is called "Preview"). You shouldn't have to buy any software. But if you do, Bruce's recommendation of Paint is good. Also, Photoshop Elements is a good bargain for an abbreviated version of Photoshop.
Alrighty then I will give this another shot, here is the front suspension, while the engine was at the machine shop I dove into the frame and suspension. Complete disassembly of all components and media blasting to clean up. Replaced all the rubber and links used Steele products as well as Kantner. I also sent shocks out to Apple Hydrolics for rebuild. The frame snd suspension components were all painted with black zero rust and a matte satin clear coat. the finish is very close to factory and very tough .
I also took each leaf from the leafsprings apart and media blasted, checked for cracks and used spring liners from Bob Drake Ford to line them as I reassembled. Put the rearend back together replacing all bearings and seals and rebuilt the brake system. By the time it was complete it was almost winter and another year gone by.
For 2005 I spent much of the time finishing up the small details on the chasis, rebuilding the transmission and finishing assembly and paint on the engine. I took the transmission into a local shop with some old school knowledge and they worked on it for about two months locating parts and rebuilding. I used cadillac green from Bill Hirsch for the engine color. By the time I was ready to mount on the frame it was January 2006.
Even though the engine and tranny are mounted there are lots of little details to attend to which will take up the rest of 2006.
With the chassis about 90% done I moved it into the barn and covered it up. It was time to begin body work. I finished stripping off any misc moulding pieces and took out all the glass and trim. I mounted the body to the rotisserie and prepared it for media blasting. You never really know what you have till it is down to bare metal. I knew I had rot in the fron floor pans ans some in the trunk. I did not want to expose the metal longer than necessary and knew it was not going to be ready for primer till the rust issues were addressed. I wanted to get the floorboards fixed first and I figured the repair would take me a month or two at least. First I had to find a donor floorboard. I could easily see where the rust issues were and slectively media blasted these areas only.
I could not locate another 6107 model, and have quickley learned that there are not going to be many resources and very very few body parts for this model. 46-47 model 6107's have a number of items that are produced only those years for those models and thats that. I did find a fourdoor and was able to purchase the front half of the pan we cut it at the top of the crown for the seat supports, shich gave me extra lenght for what I needed. The bad part was the frame bracing is different so then I had to cut those out and tweek mine to fit. Then it was the tedious drama of welding the pan in. All in all it came out good but took me several days of welding and grinidng just for the front section and bracing. These pictures show the floor pan after I cut out the section, I took out the whole section in front of the seat mounts in one piece. I also had some smaller areas of cancer to attend to.
Here you can see the floorpan tacked in place. I also had to address the rotten door sills over the rockers. Both side neede replacing. I made them myself creating the dimples to match the factory using a drilled hole in a 2x4 beveled on the edges and a socket that fit the diameter. You get one shot with a 5 lb. sledge. Worked like charm.
The front floor board was easy compared to the trunk. I really had to try several things befor I figured out the best approach. Ideally a donor patch would have been the route but that was not happening. I am no metal smith and have few tools at my disposal. shaping this from a single piece was not hapenning the extent of damage was worse than I thought and involved numerous compund angles and curves. Stamped metal from the factory be damned I was gonna make a quilt. Check it out!
by the time the welds were ground down and finished of you cannot tell from the underside and it isnt too bad inside either. All metal finish no fiberglass filler. Then it was back to the rotisserie for media blasting. Once the media blasting was done it into the homemade paint booth for primer.
Did I mention it is now 2008 and I am putting the first coat of primer on the tub. I am using DTM 2k epoxy primer by Sherwin Williams. I will spend the next several months on block sanding and dinging out dents etc. A rotisserie is a must for prepping. I am not a paint and body guy but I am learning. I will have the final primer and paint coats done by someone who is a pro.
I spent 2009 blocking and sanding and collecting up some parts I needed. I also dusted off the chassis in 2009 and finished off the last of the engine details and fired her up. other than getting the disltributor in backwards all was fine and after I sorted out the distributor it fired right up. Need to make better reference points in the future when removing a distributor. I was off 180 degrees on the initial , took days and lots of phone calls to figure that out. spent much time on the body as I was learning the ropes of metal dinging. I can do a whole other blof on that needless to say I have tons of repect for old time body men and I am sure there are many tricks and tips I could learn from them if I only knew any. With the help of some old books and some tools off ebay I think it is in pretty good shape. I mounted the body onto the frame in the spring of 2010. Of course that tooo was an adventure I had a buddy come over and help me out but is definatley going to take more guys once the final paint is on. Now I am working on the car in sections. I will completely mock up the rear and move foward to the doors and then the hood and fenders. I am repairing the trim as I go and mocking up the trim fit as well.
By the way I am in need of rear fender spears and fender skirts if anyone has any they would part with.
If you can't find the spears, contact Northfield Forming and Machine. They will make new stainless trim for you.
Their contact info is in the link below.
For somebody learning as he goes, you're a quick study. Your work looks great.
Craig,
Your car is looking great.
Keep up the good work.
Ken
Nice work, really enjoying the resto. I wish I could have found a 2 door 46 when I bought, but I couldn't find one. Had to settle for a nice 4 door fastback. Keep posting pics.
Been wworking on trim and chrome for a bit. a real challenge. My trunk handle and assembly were in bad shape the housing was cracked along the top and when I removed it I discovered the housing backing plate was completely broken in half. I have spent several years looking for a replacement that was any good for core. No luck sooo I figured I might as well give repair a try. Now the backing plate is pot metal and my chrome guy pretty much said no way. I did some research and found a product called muggyweld which claims to fix broken pot metal and have structural strenght to boot. I ordered a starter kit for $60 and gave it a try. I must say it works and I am very pleased with the results. while witing for the product to arrive I had my chromer dechrome the parts in preperation for repair. The muggy weld came and I got right to it. It takes some playing with to get it right but it is strong and files down easily. It is much like leading in body work which I have never done, but think I will experiment with that next since thye now have leading product that have no lead(???). In the pictures you can see it is not pretty to start with, I got so excited to try it out I did not take pictures of the brekage but you can get the idea from the repair area.
I was pretty generous with the stuff and it does sand down with a dremel and then flies nicely with metal files.
Here you can see the back and housing fitted and the repairs complete and sanded down. The top of the housing was cracked and had expanded a bit and the back piece whifh is pot metal of course was also deformed from expansion and the break so alignment is not perfect as it was when manufactured. It is by no means show quality but it is presentable and funtions. As you can see once it was chromed it is certainly driver quality. The chrome guy was stunned by how well it worked.
Very well done, Craig. Probably better than finding a brittle replacement.
Nice work, Craig. Thanks for posting that.
Geoff N.
Craig
If i were a show judge i'd give you points for efforts!
Well done, it looks great,
Joe Hunt
That car is going to be great when its done!!
Craig - lets have some new photos . You're doing such a great job . Paul Tesone CLC #6876
Not much work done since September. Been too busy to work on it. Now it is too hot here in Arizona. Here is as far as I got since last posting.
worked on front clip a bit and put the front seat frame and steering in have been working on some more chrome. The Hood Ornament has been a real project sucking up many hours since it is heavily pitted. I have had to stike it in copper about a dozen times and sand it down to smooth it right. I even took my dremel and recarved the face fearures since they washed out with all the plating. I will post some pictures of that soon.
Well I have not been able to keep on a the pace I had hoped. By now my wife has given up hope of ever riding in this beast. I just had my 4th grandchild and expect they may be graduating high school before this is done. I am currently piceing together the wiring , and having my interior dash and garnish hydro dipped. Since my last post i had mocked the car up and drove it about a block just to say I did. It is now back apart and off the frame so I can jamb it and fine tune the body work as well as get the wiring. Here are a few pics of the tub as I jamb it in. Had to put it back on the rotisserie to do the underside. Never painted a car before lots of learning on this. Learned alot primering but finish is seriously stressful. Using single stage for the jamb areas. seemed to go on easily. Slight orange peel ( I am learning after all which after a couple days cure I color sanded smooth and shot another coat on came out good enough for government work (lol)!
I will post again when I get the dash and parts back from hydrodipper.
Wow been almost a year. Well little progress is better than no progress. Body is back on frame and wiring loom is installed. Thanks to the folks at Rhode Island the loom was an easy install. wires are exactly as factory and tracers match up perfect with the factory diagram. They do provide a set of instructions showing which wires are what which helps alot as well. Marked my wires before installing so it went pretty fast.
i promised pics of the hydrodipped dash. took the guys way to long to get this done but it dud come out amazing. All the garnish molding matches and the grain is really nice. Probably not as originally done by the factory but I saw so many examples of different grains on show cars and I am not going for points on this anyway. I liked this pattern.The picture showing it installed with the guages doesn't do it justice.