Pictures of the '76 Caddy... (finally got a Digi-Cam)

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Well... it was painted in the fall, finished the motor and trans too, and straightened everything out under the hood, but I finally got a damn digital Camera this week...

Lemme know what ya think... (fyi - there's a panasonic MP3 Head Unit under the dash tucked away that you can't see in the pics... and there's 3.5" MB Quarts in the dash with 6x9 Polk EXIII's in the back deck and two 8" subs under the 'JBL' grille in the deck -- The amps are JBL GTS180x1's and Xtant 400.4).

36,000 Original Miles, 1 owner. There was only about 23 until a couple years ago... and then I started beating the **** out of it getting it back in working order... this is set of tires #2 since I started.

As factory Equipped...
-GM 500CID 8.2L V8
-GM Turbo Hydramatic 400 (TH-400) Automatic Transmission
-12 bolt rear end

What I did...
-Out with the Quadrajet, in with the Edelbrock Thunder AVS Carburetor, electric choke
-Sanderson 1.5" primary exhaust headers
-dual 3" exhaust courtesy of Muffler Man on Deleware Ave in Tonawanda, NY (removed the catalytic converter and went with Magnaflow glasspack flow through mufflers and an H pipe halfway down the line.
-removed the air conditioning system (out with the evaporator, out with the condensor, out with the plumbing... all that's left is the core which also houses the heater system, so i had to keep it)... fabricated a bracket and idler pulley to replace AC compressor pully.
-Monroe Sensatrac shocks
-Michelin XLE tires
-knotched the intake divider between the two planes.
-Removed the Generator and replaced it with an Alternator out of a 80's GMC Pickup Truck... same casing, same pulley, they're almost identical except the new one's an alternator instead of a "i wanna take a **** and die every day" generator.

Everything else like the HEI distributor, radiator, steering column, driveshaft, suspension, etc were all either replaced with over the counter direct fit maintenance replacements for the OEM parts or completely rebuilt as needed.

it now develops 22 inches of vacuum at throttle, and 20 at idle. This is an increase of 4 inches at throttle and 3 at idle from when I started playing with it. Conversely, most motors will have a dip in vacuum as you nail the throttle, and then return to an inch or two above the previous reading... there "dip" on this motor is so brief that it does not even register on the vacuum gauge.

and yes... the tires chirp on occasion. 5,500 something pounds curb weight with a GVWR of around 6,500 pounds... and packing a massive 400+ horses under the hood that are all motor... torque is around 500 ft lbs... its a sick little monkey.

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bobman1235

Pretty pimp.

Greg Peters

That's downright...ominous. And in excellent shape, too.

Red230SX

You put the GRRRR in Swinger! Yeah baby!!!

I dig it

daniel_paul_

You should throw on some big **** breaks to stop that boat. It sounds like you did everything else already.

MacLeod

Way to go Vinny! Youre a pimp now! Now all you need are 40" rims with spinners!

I dig that old school Xtant ya got there too! Very cool!

PolkThug

Awesome!!!!

deepinya

holy crap old school batmobile!

1996blackmax

That thins is nice.....


You just need some of those Vogue tires now .

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I'd love to do vogues but they're way too modern for it... What I wanted was American Racing Smoothies with the 3" whitewall all the way around. But the old man said, "no, black Michelins were factory" --- so XLE's it was... he's partial to hub caps too... stupid old people. I did however at least have the rims blasted and painted before putting the afore mentioned hubcaps back on.

This piece of **** has drums all the way around. It's got the stopping power of ... ... of ... ... of ... a 5,500 pound cadillac. Takes about half an hour to go from 60 to zero.

What I find amusing is the insurance. Before we went with a Classic Ins. Company, Met Life was giving us a book value of $200 on the car. Well, at that rate we figured we shouldn't even bother taking collision out on it... So just for liability, one of the lines reads something along the lines of "Bodily Injury, 500,000 / 500,000" -- and the cost for the 99 Ram 4x4 is like 80 bucks every 6 months... the cost on the cadillac was almost 250 dollars. Reason? 4,000 pounds of plastic covered crumple zone steel does a lot less "Bodily Injury" than 5,500 lbs of solid detroit iron.

I'm a friggin force to be reckoned with.

exalted512

wow, thats beautiful. My only complaint is the white zip ties in the engine bay...get some black ones:D

That is among the top 5 best-looking caddies for being how old it is that ive ever seen.
-Cody

Toxis

I don't get it. I don't understand what the hooplah is about. No offense but I think it's big and ugly. No appeal to me whatsoever.

exalted512

Toxis wrote:

I don't get it. I don't understand what the hooplah is about. No offense but I think it's big and ugly. No appeal to me whatsoever.

maybe because its a 30 year old car with only 36k miles and have been beautifully restored?

its an old school caddy, big and ugly??? More like long and classy.
-Cody

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exalted512 wrote:

My only complaint is the white zip ties in the engine bay...get some black ones

Honestly, I don't know where to get black zip ties... else I would have used some. The white bugs the hell out of me too, but its the only thing holding up the 2 awg power line for the audio as well as a heater hose (factory, the hose lay on the valve cover and go 'melty melty')... I've seen black zip ties in packs of like 5 (literally -- just 5) but they're the little ones that you use for like 24 gauge wire... Do you know any websites that have like bulk packs (say 100 or more in a box) of black ? I'd really like to use black in the other cars too... white's kinda fugly.

toxis wrote:

I don't get it. I don't understand what the hooplah is about. No offense but I think it's big and ugly. No appeal to me whatsoever.

Eh... it was a project.

I won't lie to you dude... I never liked the car myself. I thought it was kinda doofy. But the old man had it shacked up in the garage for 20 years and it bothered me... I finally told him to either sell it or drive it... mostly because it was in the way of me working on audio stuff inside the garage --- picture this, a nice big garage with a goddamn car taking up all the space, a car no one drives.

He told me that he didn't want to drive it because it wasn't in any condition to be driven... the fender inserts were falling apart... bumpers looked like crap, and the paint was so badly spidered that it looked checkerboard... that and rot was creeping up the wheel wells through the fenders.... not to mention the damn thing wouldn't start for ****.

So... I said, "Imma fix it"... and a couple years later... I finished it... adding enough "get up and go" to make me enjoy the project, and making it look as close to new as possible - to make it respectable. So while it's not a 69 Charger by any means, nor do i ever intend to tout it to be on the same level of coolness as any muscle car... it's a project that I successfully completed, and the family is really happy with it... so... eh... it is what it is...

Back in 60's and 70's, owning a Cadillac was equivelant to owning a Lexus or Mercedes Benz is now... it was a symbol that you had "made it". So I figured it was worth putting back together.

God knows my '88 Ram is going to leave many people saying "why would you restore THAT thing?"...

Ricardo

I love it; maybe because I just love big old cars. I had once a 1977 2 doors Ford Fairlane and I think I enjoyed that car more than any other I've had.

You did an awesome job..congrats.

Black zip ties at Home Depot

disneyjoe7

Love it nice job.

audiobliss

Wow! That thing looks phenomenal, and you did no less than a spectacular job getting that thing to look so good! That's just amazing! I must admit I don't care for the style, but it looks perfect!

And there's a 500CID engine under the hood?! :eek: *knees melt*
That would be AWESOME!!

HiPerf360

PBD-

Nice job on the caddy...

Look for a company by the name of Ty-Rap

They are the original locking plastic tie and are by far the best ever made. You can get them in ANY size and a ton of colors. I buy them by the box from a tel-com supply wholsaler here in town but you can get them at most contractor electrical or data supply houses.

You owe it to yourself to try them, in fact if you get some and you dont ike them i will buy them from you. (As long as they are black.)

Red230SX

There is enough room in the trunk for two, tree dead bodies at least!

Capiche!

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HiPerf...

Searched for Ty-Rap online, found a place called www.waytecwire.com -- didn't get the Ty-Rap brand as they're WAYY expensive (but the steel insert explains why)... but I snagged about 400 various size black ties for 14 bucks total shipped. THANKS!

Red...

There's actually room for 3 bodies. I considered, many many years ago, putting "Jimmy Hoffa Boxes" in there. A Jimmy Hoffa box is a 5 foot long subwoofer box with 5 10" subs in it. I was able to smoosh 3 in there before deciding it was a not so good idea. "let the bodies hit the floor"

daniel_paul_

A friend's uncle had a 79 Caprice. He used to smuggle mexicans into the US in the trunk. Spent some time in jail too! He could fit 14 mexicans in there, so if you loose the tire I'd say you have at least room for 10 bodies.

swerve

Very nice. beautiful

HiPerf360

Try e-bay, found that on a google search....


...you really can find anythinh on e-bay

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mexican bodies are smaller in comparison to gringo bodies.

audiobliss

Looks like you've found your target market, then!