my 86 FWB 350 project ("hooptielac") thread

I figured I'd finally start a thread on my 1986 fleetwood brougham project car. For those of you who don't know the backstory on this car (or forgot), keep reading.
In April of 2010, I decided to look for a V8 RWD mid size or full size car for my first car. After finding nothing but lemons on craigslist, I finally found a good one. I was at my mechancis shop with my dad because he needed to pay the mechanic for work on his wagon. When we pulled in, I noticed an old tan cadillac sitting on the parking lot. Wen I was talking to the mechanic, I mentioned something about how I liked that old tan caddy on the lot. Well, the owner walked up behind me and said "so you like my car?" I said yes, to which he replied "you wanna buy it?" I laughed, figuring he was joking. My mechanic then said, "no, he's seriously selling it." I asked him how much and he said $1500, which was within my $2000 budget. I looked it over and figured it was worth it (it had some body damage and reeked of cigarettes, but it looked nice). He told me that the car belonged to his boss' mom, who was the original owner (she was 90 when he bought it, so she would have been 67 or so when she bought it new). He said that his car died, and his boss sold him the car because his mom hadn't driven it in 5 or 10 years and he needed transportation to get to work. It did burn alot of oil thanks to the leaking valve covers. The niece of the owner and my dad met the next day to buy the car (since both of us were busy) and my dad paid $1500 for it. the leftover money went towards plating the car and fixing the severely leaking head gaskets and missing exhaust pipe.
I then spent a few weekends cleaning the interior to make it smell less like a nasty bowling alley and cleaned off a couple years worth of dirt off the body.
pics right after I got it. Oddly, despite the rust on the doors, the body is clean.






I originally bought the car with the thought of getting cheap reliable transportation to take me to and from college. I had no plans of fixing it up or keeping it for anywhere past a year or 2. Then I got attached to it. In december of 2010, I was sideswiped by an old lady in a malibu, and the impact blew the headgasket on the left cylinder bank. I already had a couple grand into fixing pretty much everything that goes wrong on these old cars (well, everything except the shocks), so I parked it while I saved up to do a drivetrain swap (which I was planning on anyways).
this is what happens when an old lady in a 90s malibu changed lanes across your front end. I don't have a pic, but her drivers side rear door was caved in 3 inches.

Fast forward 1.5 years, and I had bought a set of bravada buckets for it. not bad for $42 + $3 of goop to clean them (matching console was an additional $15)


I also started treating the rust on the car. Paint hides alot of damage.
I left the rust holes (treated the rust with naval jelly and duplicolor rust converter in a can) and have had 0 problems with the door holding water anymore.




Thanks to the local junkyard, I also picked up some clear front signal lights, fillers, and audio equipment for my car (spend $40 or $50 total).

Since then, I have also picked up a set of rear fillers for a whopping $30 (for all 4 and an extra left filler)

After buying a dud engine from my neighbor for $350 (and subsequently returning said engine for a refund), I picked up a new motor for $650, in the form of a clapped out 1987 silverado slathered in bondo

when I first came to the shop that had the truck, I was very leery about the condition of the truck (which was owned by the owner of the shop (named cheapie's used tires). ...yeah, that seems totally safe and not shady at all

the truck actually died during test drive when my dad turned it off to change fuel tanks and couldn't get it to refire. The worker who was selling the truck drove down with his truck, swapped batteries, fired up the silverado, and switched the batteries back. Aside from the burnt out trans (due to a shoddy rebuild), and a slightly leaking valve cover, the test drive went smoothly and I was able to drive the truck an hour and a half back home.

aside from modifying the drivers side motor mount bracket to allow the motor to drop down 2 inches, the motor fit right in.
old motor out

new motor in

I then ran into a problem with the (new) transmission
it leaked

thankfully the transmission company took it back and sent out another one for free. total delay was about 2 weeks (including installing the new trans) due to shipping.
I also picked up another center console for the caddy. It was ugly as is, but it had potential under the dirt and finish (or lack thereof).
donor vehicle:





mockup

which leads me up to this week, when the drivetrain installation was completed and it was fired for the first time by me

more console pics









and firing up the 350
note: crank the volume if you want the real experience
I highly recommend turning down your volume though, as the car is incredibly loud.
sorry my hand kept getting in the way, but I'm left handed

Hey, how about a shot of the engine bay! Only got a glimpse from the vid...but looks good!

brokecello wrote:

Hey, how about a shot of the engine bay! Only got a glimpse from the vid...but looks good!

I'll get a pic tomorrow or early next week. I have to take it to a body guy I know to have him make it a dual crossmember (either notch the current one or weld the proper frame bracket on and install a LT1 RMS crossmember

here a pic from a couple weeks ago

definitely give us pics of the finished console. what are you gonna do for an exhaust? i assume the vid was open headers, sounded Sweet! you should drive it to school like that! what are you taking in college?

benn wrote:

definitely give us pics of the finished console. what are you gonna do for an exhaust? i assume the vid was open headers, sounded Sweet! you should drive it to school like that! what are you taking in college?

the video was open headers
no I am not driving it around like that. I can't afford the tickets I would incur (noise violations), plus the sound with the door closed is deafening. its like someone put a dragster in the passenger compartment. It also reeks of exhaust in the cabin.
I am going to college for a degree in mass communications- radio broadcasting (this is my second degree...first was associate in arts in general studies (aka the first 2 years of college/ a transfer degree). I am serving an internship next semester.

Looks like the caddy is coming along nicely and your engine seems to sound solid.Guess you
dont plan on doing any dating with that monster console between you and your lady!
Wont be long before the Brougham will be cruising along!

Flasheroo wrote:

Looks like the caddy is coming along nicely and your engine seems to sound solid.Guess you
dont plan on doing any dating with that monster console between you and your lady!
Wont be long before the Brougham will be cruising along!

that engine was actually the biggest surprise in the swap. Finding a solid engine in a less than solid truck (chassis and underbody was rock solid, body not so much). It didn't leak oil, the old set of spark plugs was on the floor of the cab and they were clean, and it ran like a top.

as for the console getting in the way of dating, thats what the 83 lesabre is for (although I'm currently single)

restained my console (tried polyshades first and it didn't work so well)
I went with sedona red color stain and helmsman to protect it
2 coats of stain and 1 coat of helmsman



stained the side boards


second coat

put it together








flip forward dor to hide switches for seats, fog lamps, and TC lockup


the plate will also have an amp face up



engine pics

Nice engine pics!! What fasteners will you use on the console pieces?

The console pieces are held in place with 1.5" screws (what held them in place originally)
The new divider will be screwed into the side of the floor of the storage bin in the console. I will attach the top with some of the leftover (approx) 3/4"x3/4"x2" strips that were used to hold the console together until it was screwed together.

Console wood has some beautiful grain and looks great stained!

Is that you Kevin over at the Guild site? I am over there also.

I have a Hoboken Mark V & Mark VI Classical. Same handle, you'll see me over there.

Tom C.

silverfox103 wrote:

Is that you Kevin over at the Guild site? I am over there also.

I have a Hoboken Mark V & Mark VI Classical. Same handle, you'll see me over there.

Tom C.

Yes it is, Tom. I've been on LTG for several years.
I have a '78 B301 with a fender jazz bass p'up (and love it).

picked up some junkyard parts 2 weeks or so ago- the yard got in a sweet 86 black/ black/ tan leather interior d'elegance that got hit on the left quarter panel pretty bad. I walked away with 3 door panels, floor mats, glove box and surround, autodimming rearview mirror, a set of nice power mirrors, near mint radio surround, factory CB radio, and a d'elegance back seat for 90 dollars



also cut a front piece for the console
radio and gauge holes will be cut in this week or next week

(copy of posts from my thread on cadillacforums)
exhaust system is on and I drove it home.
It has a severe miss (car shakes every 5-10 seconds at idle and feels like its a couple cylinders short of 8 while driving.) It also smells bad (the taste is still in my mouth....dad says it smells like a motor thats been sitting a while whatever that means) and smoked grey for a little bit while driving away from my mechanics (my dad was following me and said it cleared up pretty quick).
Also, the red "no charge" light came on as I pulled in the driveway. I'm guessing the alternator died (it is a 78 amp unit from the truck and is who-knows-how old. It looks like it may be original to the truck- 1987)
But it's back home, and I have some work (ok -alot of work) to do to it.

Edit: miss is burned spark plug wires (because of headers)
Bad smell is most likely a leaking valve cover (mechanic thought he fixed it, but theyre uuber cheapo valve covers and may be warped.)
Grey smoke might have been oil burning off of new exhaust pipes since it went away pretty quick
Pics of exhaust system to come later. It look good and sounds pretty good.
Funny that a 350 with a bad miss has just as much power as the old 307 when it was in perfect tune

heres a pic of my new cut down console

exhaust pics


anyone see whats wrong in this photo?
heres a pic of my new cut down console

exhaust pics


anyone see whats wrong in this photo?

Got my turbine rims in this afternoon....pics to come tomorrow (been rather busy and haven't had time to open up the boxes and look at them. )

This 21 year old young man has done a lot of nice work on this Caddy. Hats off to him!

Tom C.

It must feel good to finally get those wheels! Now get em on it!

Console came out great, btw!

silverfox103 wrote:

This 21 year old young man has done a lot of nice work of this Caddy. Hats off to him!

Tom C.

Agree,now whats wrong with that picture?

Flasheroo wrote:

silverfox103 wrote:

This 21 year old young man has done a lot of nice work of this Caddy. Hats off to him!

Tom C.

Agree,now whats wrong with that picture?

Oh Oh...I know I know.....its not a wagon

Spent about 2 hours cleaning the crap out of the rims. I still need to get the road grime off the backs of them. Its crazy thick.
I'm thinking about getting a set of vette centers for them, but don't recall which exact years will work.
I'll put up pictures of the rest of them tomorrow, but here's the worst one. Oddly, these appear to be cleared and have metallic silver inset parts as opposed to my 2 I already had which were brushed finish with dark grey inset parts.

cadillac kevin wrote:

Flasheroo wrote:

silverfox103 wrote:

This 21 year old young man has done a lot of nice work of this Caddy. Hats off to him!

Tom C.

Agree,now whats wrong with that picture?

Oh Oh...I know I know.....its not a wagon

Spent about 2 hours cleaning the crap out of the rims. I still need to get the road grime off the backs of them. Its crazy thick.
I'm thinking about getting a set of vette centers for them, but don't recall which exact years will work.
I'll put up pictures of the rest of them tomorrow, but here's the worst one. Oddly, these appear to be cleared and have metallic silver inset parts as opposed to my 2 I already had which were brushed finish with dark grey inset parts.

Go get some Aircraft Stripper paint remover and a paint brush. Paint that stripper on those wheels and once it bubbles up blast them with a garden hose. Repeat until all the clear is removed, and then use some Mother's mag and chrome polish on the brite areas, followed by a coat of wax. If you want to paint the rough finned areas, you can. When I did mine I left them bare, but when I sold the car to my friend Rich, he painted those areas black. See below.

Re-used the white-walls


New T/A Radials


Rich painted the fins black




The center caps you need are for '77-82 Corvette mag wheels. The 77-79 are black and chrome, the 80-81 are solid chrome, and the '82 are silver and chrome. They sell them on Ebay cheap. I used '80 style solid chrome on my wheels, with Olds SSII center cap decals over the Vette crossed flags. One more tip, while these do just snap on, it's not a bad idea to dab a little 3M trim adhesive on them (yellow or black gorilla snot), just for extra protection. My old '79 Vette would throw these centers now and then and the 3M trick is well know with Vette owners. Don't cake it on, just a few dabs, and that's it!

Good luck...still LOVE this style wheels!

-Mike

OH I like the black on those rims, Makes the shiny parts stand out more.

Mike, I also love the rims. IMO they look much more sporty than the wire baskets without looking out of place.
Thanks for the tip on the aircraft stripper... what if I get a little bit on the inset parts? Will it hurt the paint (is it paint?) I do plan on painting the inset parts to match the top (which is firemist metallic brown)

cadillac kevin wrote:

Mike, I also love the rims. IMO they look much more sporty than the wire baskets without looking out of place.
Thanks for the tip on the aircraft stripper... what if I get a little bit on the inset parts? Will it hurt the paint (is it paint?) I do plan on painting the inset parts to match the top (which is firemist metallic brown)

I painted the entire wheels with that stripper. Took 2-3 coatings and sprayings to get it all off. Just watch out getting it on your hands or skin...it burns. They were bare metal the entire time I had the car. I just kept the shiny parts waxed. When Rich bought the car he just masked off the shiny parts and shot the rest black. Easy.

-Mike

When I bought my wheels the clear coat was shot, much worse than yours. Once the clear was removed and I used the mother's polish on them, they looked great. Just need to was them about once a month.

scoffman wrote:

OH I like the black on those rims, Makes the shiny parts stand out more.

AGREED!!

2 nights ago, I was looking on CL just for the hell of it, and decided to look at audio equipment sicne I had been wanting an old school crossover/ eq. Found a Phoenix Gold EQ-215ix, along with a zx200 v2 "cheater" amp (75wpc rms x2 @ 13.6 vdc, but only 18 wpc rmsx2 @ 12 vdc) and a PLD1 line driver for 70 dollars total. Called the guy and talked with him. He's the original owner and pulled the system about 2 years ago when he put his car back stock. I told him that I did not want to haggle the price and that I felt it was fair. He was shocked and took 10 dollars off the price (he said everyone who called before me had been offering him 10-30 for everything!!!) and agreed to hold them for me. Went to pick them up yesterday and found them to be in pretty good shape given their age, with only a couple scuffs on the finish. I took these pics before I cleaned them up a bit.
I'll be going back in a few days to look at his old speakers and a 3.5 foot orionamp

81X11 wrote:

cadillac kevin wrote:

Mike, I also love the rims. IMO they look much more sporty than the wire baskets without looking out of place.
Thanks for the tip on the aircraft stripper... what if I get a little bit on the inset parts? Will it hurt the paint (is it paint?) I do plan on painting the inset parts to match the top (which is firemist metallic brown)

I painted the entire wheels with that stripper. Took 2-3 coatings and sprayings to get it all off. Just watch out getting it on your hands or skin...it burns. They were bare metal the entire time I had the car. I just kept the shiny parts waxed. When Rich bought the car he just masked off the shiny parts and shot the rest black. Easy.

-Mike

Does Rich buy all your cool vehicles when you decide to sell them?

Flasheroo wrote:

81X11 wrote:

cadillac kevin wrote:

Mike, I also love the rims. IMO they look much more sporty than the wire baskets without looking out of place.
Thanks for the tip on the aircraft stripper... what if I get a little bit on the inset parts? Will it hurt the paint (is it paint?) I do plan on painting the inset parts to match the top (which is firemist metallic brown)

I painted the entire wheels with that stripper. Took 2-3 coatings and sprayings to get it all off. Just watch out getting it on your hands or skin...it burns. They were bare metal the entire time I had the car. I just kept the shiny parts waxed. When Rich bought the car he just masked off the shiny parts and shot the rest black. Easy.

-Mike

Does Rich buy all your cool vehicles when you decide to sell them?

So far he's bought my '93 S-10 pickup, my '89 Olds Custom Cruiser, my '96 Roady wagon, and the '79 Buick Electra.

I bought my '88 T-top Cutlass from him. He said he only sold it to me so I could fix it all up, and then he wants it back....

I think his wife Robbi blocks my messages to him, afraid I'll sell him another project that takes up all his time...ahaha.

-Mike

picked up some more stereo stuff....I'm not gonna use all of it, but I'll definitely be using some of it

81X11 wrote:

Flasheroo wrote:

81X11 wrote:

cadillac kevin wrote:

Mike, I also love the rims. IMO they look much more sporty than the wire baskets without looking out of place.
Thanks for the tip on the aircraft stripper... what if I get a little bit on the inset parts? Will it hurt the paint (is it paint?) I do plan on painting the inset parts to match the top (which is firemist metallic brown)

I painted the entire wheels with that stripper. Took 2-3 coatings and sprayings to get it all off. Just watch out getting it on your hands or skin...it burns. They were bare metal the entire time I had the car. I just kept the shiny parts waxed. When Rich bought the car he just masked off the shiny parts and shot the rest black. Easy.

-Mike

Does Rich buy all your cool vehicles when you decide to sell them?

So far he's bought my '93 S-10 pickup, my '89 Olds Custom Cruiser, my '96 Roady wagon, and the '79 Buick Electra.

I bought my '88 T-top Cutlass from him. He said he only sold it to me so I could fix it all up, and then he wants it back....

I think his wife Robbi blocks my messages to him, afraid I'll sell him another project that takes up all his time...ahaha.

-Mike

She obviously cant stand the competition!Women are funny that way.

2 weeks ago I prepped my fillers for paint



Also had to epoxy 1 of them together


got my fillers painted last week. cost me $80 to get them painted (so for under $115, I got color matched fillers for my caddy). I'm happy.

Keep it up, Kevin!
That's going to be a very nice ride.

I think the wheels will look great!

Everything is coming along nicely,when do youi think it will be done?

Keep it up, Kevin!
That's going to be a very nice ride.

I think the wheels will look great!

"done" LOL....it's a project car. It's never "done".
I got everything in for the stereo system. Wire came in yesterday. I've been having problems finding 8 AWG ring terminals that will go around the large seat belt bolts.
I'll put up some pics of the console tonight. I'm almost done with it.
I've got new KYB gasajust shocks to go on....one was missing the hardware to put it on, so I'm waiting for KYB to send me hardware.
My mechanic offered me bay space to put them and the 9C1 rear springs on

got one of the carpeted side panels for the trunk done

also worked on the console

I have since cut in the other toggle switch (these are for the seat lumbar)

realized I forgot to put this on here....did this last week
wire wheeled and primed 3 of my 4 doors. the drivers door was getting crusty again. I used a wire wheel on a drill for most of it, then a dremel with a small wire wheel for getting right up against the seam at the bottom where the door skin folds over the frame.












still got some more random rust to tackle



My body guy is seeing if he had any paint left over from my fillers so I can paint over the primer....if not, I'll get a fairly close color in a spray can and spray can it

----------

also, anyone got any tips for removing the door edge guard trim and door handle (theres some rust creeping out from behind the passengers front door handle)

got one of the carpeted side panels for the trunk done

also worked on the console

I have since cut in the other toggle switch (these are for the seat lumbar)

got the other switch cut in for the lumbar (ignore the print on them....I have no power sofa bed in my caddy)


pick a fan


need to make some aluminum L shaped plates for the top so I can bolt it in (not moving until then)

got the ends on my 0 gauge



new radio....found a harness for it. it's a pioneer double DIN with a CD, tape deck, 13 band eq, and a bunch of other cool features

also buffed out my cornering lights (not perfect, but better than yellowed plastic)

installed an under headlight filler. need to use a comealong to pull the other side of the bumper into shape before I can install the other fillers

snagged a set of rust free dent free doors



door donor (this was actually a very nice caddy prior to being wrecked)

decided to move my guages up to the radio opening


removed the seat belt covers so the belts would clear the console

made a board to go under the rear deck to hold the crossover for the rear deck/ subs and amp for the rear deck (RF punch 150 from 1980 with new main caps and FETs)
decided to make my drivers seat an actual drivers seat (its actually a passengers seat- recline is on the wrong side)
picked up a skinned junkyard blazer LT seat for $20 for the seat back and mechanism

removed drivers seat and set aside for skinning it and swapping the back/ mechanism

seat waiting to get stripped

took some videos of it idling the other day while I cut the grass. I flipped the camera around to get better sound quality (ignore my crappy house)
https://s987.photobucket.com/user/jetthreatkevin/media/cadillac/VIDEO0027_zps435dcab3.mp4.html

https://s987.photobucket.com/user/jetthreatkevin/media/cadillac/VIDEO0026_zpsf66af89f.mp4.html

also worked on making my drivers seat a real drivers seat (instead of a passengers seat). I needed a drivers side S10 tahoe seat, which I used the seat back and mechanism from.

took my seat out of the car and took it apart

skinned the seat and added some foam while I had it apart


got the seat back skin back on


also got the fan shroud back on

and got my engine bay brackets back on

Looks like your caddy is coming along nicely,damn rust never gives up does it?

Flasheroo wrote:

Looks like your caddy is coming along nicely,damn rust never gives up does it?

nope....I ended up getting new doors from a formerly nice 120k brougham (was nice until it got in a bad wreck that got it junked)
I still need to find a new trunk lid and fenders (I'm super anal about parts....I figure for $40, I damn well better get a mint part)



I have 2 other doors, but I couldnt get a good pic of them. paid $40 a piece with everything on them.
btw, I also need to get a left inner fender. a leaking battery ate it

Nice project, I wish my dad would have let me "buy" his old '87 Brougham when he traded it in after an accident, they gave him scrap price for it after hitting a telephone pole (up a hill, curve, sun at just the right angle...) Looking forward to seeing how nice this is when you're done!