CabDriver Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 A friend gifted me this kit a few months back, and whilst I don’t build a lot of factory-stock projects I’ve always liked this year of Caddy and was super grateful to get the chance to build one. The kit itself is complete (actually, with some extras from a second kit) and had only some light assembly done to it already, so it’s practically like getting to start one of these in 1966 when they were originally issued! There’s not a tonne of detail on the underside of this thing (typical molded-in fuel tank, exhausts, driveshaft, axle etc etc) and I really don’t think there’s much point in getting a cool old vintage kit like this and redoing every little thing…but also, I really like the kind of detailed factory stock builds that people like @StevenGuthmiller build so well - so I’m thinking of adding to and optimizing what IS there but not getting into 3D printing frames and axles and leaf springs and whatnot. I picked up an original dealer brochure for reference… …and thanks to @SfanGoch and a few others on the board, I got a good lead on factory-correct Nocturne Blue paint which arrived this week: Should look something like this, once I get that far (only, a 2 door, obviously…): Like most of these old kits, the body looks GREAT - can’t see anything too obvious that it’s missing or that needs correcting (although I need to study it properly to see…and figure out if there’s meant to be a pillar behind that driver’s door or not on this particular model…) First order of business was to fix this one oversize mould line where the rear fin meets the rear pillar: Need to clean up that window moulding now, but some careful sanding made it look a LOT better already: Getting those big long flat planes along the body is gonna to make or break this build, so I need to do my best work on prep before I shoot any color, but hopefully it’ll all be worth it once I start laying down some paint. Just getting started on this one - any tips or tricks from any Cadillac experts would be much appreciated! More soon, soon as I do more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charger74 Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 WoW thats an awesome gift your friend gave you, and really cool project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Repstock Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 Three references for you...lots of pictures. Good luck on this, very cool. Video is a 4 door, but you get the idea... https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicles/1385/1966-cadillac-coupe-deville https://www.savannahclassiccars.com/vehicles/196/1966-cadillac-coupe-deville Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 Thanks guys - and thanks @Repstockfor those REALLY helpful links! I’ve been referring to those all day! A little more progress today… First job was finishing up the cleanup on those pieces of window trim behind the door. Took WAY longer than it should’ve but it’s a tricky spot to sand without damaging anything or sanding a dip where I didn’t want one… Worked through and scribed all the panel lines - if I was going with a lighter color I would’ve gone deeper to help add more depth to them, but honestly with a dark color the difference won’t be as noticeable… 3D printed raised-print license plates…went for era correct NY plates (unsurprisingly) 🗽 The chrome on these bumpers is still pretty nice so I’m hoping to keep it that way and not have to refinish them… I don’t know if it’s something particular to this car, but all the reference pics I found of this particular generation Caddy only have a drivers door mirror - nothing on the passenger side. Regardless, my kit didn’t have one so I made one… And then final job of the day was checking the fit of those bumpers to see how they’re going to work out. Front is pretty good, not perfect but close… …and the rear looks pretty good to me - won’t need much finessing at all: Should be a handsome car when it’s done! Still a little more fine detailing to do on the body before I’m ready to lay down primer (which is when we’ll REALLY see how straight this is…) but it’s closer than it was! More soon, soon as I’ve done more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Beautiful year of Cadillac and seems you have a great color choice picked out". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 I'm enjoying all the attention you're giving to the finer points of the build. It should be a spectacular model when completed. David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Thibodeau Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 Hi David! Nice start, it looks very well preserved. I did a 64 convertible recently, that I converted to a Mirage Coachbuilt Camino-style PU. My issue was a late one, (Seville Industries), molded in yellow. The body was great, but the chrome parts had lots of flash, and the plating was marginal, at best. Lucky you! CT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 24, 2022 Author Share Posted May 24, 2022 (edited) Thanks fellas! A little work on the chassis this evening. It’s your standard one-piece type deal with everything moulded-in, and I’m not intending to hack up a somewhat rare old kit to redo it all (tempting as it is…), but I had a couple of little tweaks that I wanted to make to add some realism - or at least to improve what you’d see if you were standing at a curb looking at this thing. Unmolested frame: Most obvious thing that was missing was a tip for the rear exhaust, and if you peek underneath the rear of one of these cars you see the back edge of the frame a little so I wanted to fix a gap that shouldn’t be there too: Looking forward to the rear axle; this kit doesn’t include any brakes, and there’s a decent sized gap visible where the axle, trailing arms and shocks disappear into thin air so I made some little filler pieces and printed some rod ends to make that a little more realistic: Starting to look more like the 1:1 already! Tomorrow’s job will be figuring out brake drums and then the front end… Meanwhile, whilst glue was drying, I worked on the firewall a little. I wanted to remove the moulded-in wiring and replace it, but I really didn’t want to ruin that nice kit piece either. Lucky this kit came with an extra firewall (allegedly for the same kit, but different enough that I had to modify it some). Kit part top, modified part bottom: I know that, from left to right, we’re seeing the heater, then the brake master - but what are the two parts to the left? Coil maybe, for the smaller part? Not sure what the pill-shaped part represents, and haven’t fully researched…if anyone knows I’d be interested to know too! And that’s about all I got done this evening, aside from starting some clean-up on the engine…more to come on that when I’ve actually made some progress. Thanks for looking! Edited May 24, 2022 by CabDriver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 24, 2022 Share Posted May 24, 2022 Nice touches with the added detail. David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Thibodeau Posted May 24, 2022 Share Posted May 24, 2022 8 hours ago, CabDriver said: Thanks fellas! A little work on the chassis this evening. It’s your standard one-piece type deal with everything moulded-in, and I’m not intending to hack up a somewhat rare old kit to redo it all (tempting as it is…), but I had a couple of little tweaks that I wanted to make to add some realism - or at least to improve what you’d see if you were standing at a curb looking at this thing. Unmolested frame: Most obvious thing that was missing was a tip for the rear exhaust, and if you peek underneath the rear of one of these cars you see the back edge of the frame a little so I wanted to fix a gap that shouldn’t be there too: Looking forward to the rear axle; this kit doesn’t include any brakes, and there’s a decent sized gap visible where the axle, trailing arms and shocks disappear into thin air so I made some little filler pieces and printed some rod ends to make that a little more realistic: Starting to look more like the 1:1 already! Tomorrow’s job will be figuring out brake drums and then the front end… Meanwhile, whilst glue was drying, I worked on the firewall a little. I wanted to remove the moulded-in wiring and replace it, but I really didn’t want to ruin that nice kit piece either. Lucky this kit came with an extra firewall (allegedly for the same kit, but different enough that I had to modify it some). Kit part top, modified part bottom: I know that, from left to right, we’re seeing the heater, then the brake master - but what are the two parts to the left? Coil maybe, for the smaller part? Not sure what the pill-shaped part represents, and haven’t fully researched…if anyone knows I’d be interested to know too! And that’s about all I got done this evening, aside from starting some clean-up on the engine…more to come on that when I’ve actually made some progress. Thanks for looking! HI! The part next to the booster and master-cylinder is the wiper motor, and I suspect the pill-shaped reservoir is a vacuum tank, common on certain luxury cars of the era, to provide ongoing action of certain vacuum-operated components when the driver stepped on the gas and vacuum dropped... Ah, the rich Caddy drivers had everything... CT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 24, 2022 Author Share Posted May 24, 2022 1 hour ago, Claude Thibodeau said: HI! The part next to the booster and master-cylinder is the wiper motor, and I suspect the pill-shaped reservoir is a vacuum tank, common on certain luxury cars of the era, to provide ongoing action of certain vacuum-operated components when the driver stepped on the gas and vacuum dropped... Ah, the rich Caddy drivers had everything... CT SUPER helpful - thank you Claude! Yep, those Caddy drivers were living the dream - they even had seatbelts in these things! 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 I’m quite enjoying making a special effort to make some good progress every day on this thing…but tonight I took a nap because my wife told me I was getting cranky. To keep the ball rolling though, couple of tiny projects achieved and off the list. First up, these Coupe De Villes ran really nice finned brake drums which may or may not be the same as the Buick (I think?) finned drums in the Revell 29/30 Ford kits. Either way; they look close enough to me so all I needed to do to add this missing detail to this kit was sand the lug-nuts off the kit Revell pieces and they’re good to go: I printed some wheel backs this evening too - I didn’t want to ruin the kit pieces if I could just make some that didn’t need to be modified. With the back end mostly handled, next job is to mock-up the front suspension and steering. I stripped the chrome from the front clip - it was a nice pink under there! Who woulda thought! The steering linkage was broken, and rather than try and reglue that tricky little piece I just replaced the broken center bar with some brass rod - a little more in-scale and a stronger piece as a result… Just a small update - but I’m trying to keep making good progress on this! Tomorrow I’m hoping to modify the drum brakes to fit the front end properly and start to prepare the frame for paint. More soon, soon as I’ve done more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 Good call on the brass rod. The brake drums look great too. David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve H Posted May 25, 2022 Share Posted May 25, 2022 Hi Jim, nice details as always. I really like how you approached the rear axle. Keeping it somewhat simple, but also adding some much needed detail and filling in the big voids. These are big beautiful cars, the trunk could sleep six! I’ll be following along sir. Cheers, Steve 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 Thanks fellas! Keepjng this train rolling - finished up the front end tonight… Made some little brass inserts to fit into the kit pieces so that I can fit matching brakes to the front end too: That gray 3D printed piece replaces the standard kit wheel backer and sits the wheel in the same spot once the brake is on there. Bonus - still got possible steering! And with the brake drum on for a test-fit: Looks like we almost got a roller! Time for a test fit with the body… The nose sits a little low here, but the window glass and the dash bump it up about a scale inch so I think it’s going to work itself out just fine…cleaning up the dash and test fitting the glass is tomorrow’s adventure. Really like how this thing looks though…that view! 😍 Next jobs to do - make sure everything’s still copacetic with the dash and glass in place and then onto the engine and interior. More soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 It looks like you worked out a good stance on it. David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino246gt Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 Beautiful big Caddy in the making, and those added details really make it! Can't wait to see more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 27, 2022 Author Share Posted May 27, 2022 15 hours ago, David G. said: It looks like you worked out a good stance on it. David G. You know, I’ve kinda been struggling with the stance…it LOOKS too high, but then I like building little low hot rods. Then I look at reference pictures and compare…and it’s MARGINALLY too low, if anything 🤪. Comparing where the wheel centers sit on a real one versus this build, I could add a hair to the ride height and have it correct, but it looks kinda high to me right now. If this wasn’t a relatively rare kit, and an incredibly generous gift from a friend, I’d be getting it much lower… 14 hours ago, dino246gt said: Beautiful big Caddy in the making, and those added details really make it! Can't wait to see more! Thank you sir! Keeping the productivity streak going again tonight - did some un-interesting work like drilling holes for brake lines so that I can get the frame in primer, and cleaned up a bunch of parts - nothing worth photographing, but worked on a couple of interesting mini-projects… First up, I wanted to check fitment with the glass and interior in place so I mocked up the interior tub with the dash, steering wheel and seats - the dash especially has some really nice fine detailed engraving on it: I believe I’m missing a seat back, so that’ll be something to tackle before I get too far - but it’s a pretty simple little piece… Figured out a clean way to run all the lines and hoses on the firewall that wont look like a bird’s nest…I want to add this detail to the build but I don’t want a hundred little wires making a mess back there either. Drilled holes now before I get this part in paint along with the body, hood and dash… And finally, I knew I had plenty of room under that big old hood for the engine so I hadn’t really mocked it up properly - I ground off the moulded-in distributor so that I could add a more realistic 3D printed part but otherwise I’d like to keep it roughly as Johan made it… Will need to figure out what to do about this broken fan belt though… More soon, soon as I’ve done more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 27, 2022 Share Posted May 27, 2022 Nice mockups. Do you plan on leaving the chrome on the valve covers and steering wheel as it is or stripping and refinishing? David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted May 28, 2022 Author Share Posted May 28, 2022 16 hours ago, David G. said: Nice mockups. Do you plan on leaving the chrome on the valve covers and steering wheel as it is or stripping and refinishing? David G. Thanks buddy! Good question! The chrome on the steering wheel is still nice and intact, at least where it needs to be, so I think I’ll try just painting the hoop and leave the spokes in the kit chrome. The valve covers, fan, carb and air filter aren’t chrome on the 1:1s, so I stripped those tonight. Which brings me onto tonight’s update… Stripped the chrome, and another mock-up of the engine: As you can see from that one yellow piece, the fan belt was broken and a piece missing…but luckily there was a spare (also broken, but in a different spot) in the box. I’ve just tacked the two together with some white glue for now, but if I can salvage those two into one good piece that matches what was in the kit originally I’ll be happy… In other progress, I’m prepping everything that will be body-colored ready for paint this weekend - so I cleaned up the dash and got that ready to roll. The top of the dash will be body colored, and the lower portions white and chrome… And finally, a light coat of primer on the body to see if anything immediately pops out to rectify…nothing major so far! Will wet sand this tomorrow to see how straight I’ve got those big long sides… Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spottedlaurel Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Great to see you tunring your attention and skills to this one Jim, I enjoyed reading through and seeing your progress during yesterday's lunch break. That colour will look fantastic, and with just a little extra attention to detail it looks like you're going to give it the classy look it deserves. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brudda Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 This is super cool!!! My aunt had one, and I loved that car. Great job and love how you are building it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Good call on the chrome, and a lucky find on the fan belt. Everything looks great so far. David G. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokidsnosleep Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Oh she is a big beautiful boat. Love the added details Are you designing the parts yourself or printing stuff from files you find on the internet? I am still in the latter mode, needing to learn the 3D design software 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bainford Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 This is looking great, Jim. Nice attention to detail. Good clean work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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