1964 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

[Maindrian Pace]

This car is fairly far along, so here's an abbreviated build thread.

History: I built this kit, a Johan '64 Deville convertible back in the early '80s, painted it Testors Star Blue (dark metallic blue) and used the wire wheels and tires from the Monogram Corvette America. Box stock otherwise. It was one of my favorite cars, and one of the many that got tossed by parents who didn't understand attachments to hobbies. I always wanted to build this car again, but a bit different this time; converted to an Eldorado. Before it was spun off as it's own model in 1967, the Eldorado was basically the Deville convertible with top of the line Fleetwood trim and revised rear wheel openings with no skirts in the '64 and some other model years. I got the kit several years ago, the wheels came from a member here, but I forgot who - if you see this, please chime in.

I collected aftermarket parts including the Model Car Garage '59 photoetch set, Pegasus whitewall decals, Modelhaus taillights to replace one missing light, dash decals from an ebay seller, and a pair of correct bucket seats from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland. These don't appear in Norm's catalog, you have to know he has them. I forgot how I knew this. All of the '64 Cadillac kits come with '67 seats, because Johan did this sort of thing.

That engine is a 3D resin printed LSA from Jay's Resin Wheels on ebay, a 6.2 supercharged LS as used in the 2013 era CTS-V. 556 horsepower in stock form, easily tunable to 700, we'll call this one 600, which seems about right to enable a 4,900 lb. car to keep up with traffic. LS the world, eh?

One thing that held the project up a bit was the hood, the worst short shot I'd ever seen.

Fortunately, a member of my club had an extra, amazingly enough in the same color.

So the first step was to un-Deville the body by shaving the trim to start the Eldo conversion.

The skirt opening is filled with super glue so it will never shrink and reveal the bodywork. Thanks to the late Donn Yost for this tip. Then the new wheel opening shape is sketched in following a picture.

A template is made to duplicate it to the other side.

And another template is made to ensure that both opening shapes are exactly the same.

More later, much more.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Maindrian Pace

[NOBLNG]

Excellent work going on here Mike!? Shame about the hood.? I like your methodical approach to the modifications required. Carry on.?

[Bills72sj]

Following. My Dad had a 64 Caddy in dark metallic blue when I was a kid.

[Maindrian Pace]

The next step was to add the Fleetwood side trim and the wheel well trim. Various sizes of Evergreen strip was used, along with .040 half round for the wheel openings and forward front fender trim.

The top up is from the Monogram '59 Cadillac, modified to fit the '64 by trimming about 3/16" off the front header bow, adding a bit of wedge to the C pillar bases, and re-shaping the window openings.

The trim goes up around the rear 1/4s, just inside of the rear bumper.

Since I am using a top up as well as the top down boot, I wanted to add a detail that almost no '60s convertible kit had, a top well. You just got a flat extension of the interior tub, slapped the boot over it, and that was that. This top well was taken from a Monogram Fox Mustang interior tub, the 1:24 Mustang well was just the right size for the 1:25 Cadillac tub. Very easy conversion.

The dutchman panel was trimmed to match the well. The windshield frame on the Johan kit is entirely the wrong shape, it's a cut down hardtop frame with visors attached.

Rather than correct it entirely, which would require a new windshield to be made, I trimmed the front forward curve back a bit. The frame was also split in the middle, so I made a piece of brass sheet to brace it, epoxied it to the bottom side, and clamped it.

I then added several strips of Evergreen styrene to the top side to build it up, so I could file and sand it back down to the correct shape, and also to match it to the shape of the bottom of the up top.

I feel a mock-up is in order.

 

[Kah puts]

This is just fantastic, all the extra details are paying off big time! Try and take your time, I’m enjoying this and don’t want it to end ?

[thatz4u]

looks great so far

[Maindrian Pace]

2 hours ago, Kah puts said:

This is just fantastic, all the extra details are paying off big time! Try and take your time, I’m enjoying this and don’t want it to end ?

Thanks! If you want, I can string it out for awhile...

Kidding. I had 28 days to get this car finished for the club Cadillac theme meeting, so it went fairly quickly. The next items on the list were the engine and the interior. The 3D printed engine does not come with a transmission, accessory drive, or manifolds, and the seller says to use that stuff from whatever car you're putting it in. Ah, not gonna work in this case, not all of it anyway. I raided the parts stash and came up with the belt drive from an AMT '97 Mustang Cobra 4.6, and the exhaust manifolds from a Monogram '80 F-150 kit. The belt drive was a near-perfect fit to the LS, even the blower pulley lined up all factory-like and the A/C and alternator wound up in happy places. The manifolds were a perfect fit to the heads, with great port alignment. I sanded them smooth to make them look more like LS manifolds and reworked them to aim the outlets off to the sides to line up with the kit's molded-in exhaust. I used the kit's original Turbo 400 trans for expediency.

Then it was all dropped into the chassis, minor mods had to be made so the A/C compressor would clear the cross member. My stash gave up a Delco lettered battery, so that was used as well. The radiator and fan came from a '95 Mustang kit, and the K&N filter was a parts box item. I used '94-ish F-150 wheel backs and bushings to eliminate the axle through the block at the front.

The interior was painted Tamiya racing white (off-white) and semi gloss black, and the dash got the first round of detailing. The Johan kit comes with no pedals at all, not even molded to the floor, so those were donated by a parts box Mustang dash, and I widened the brake pedal to automatic trans width. The carpet was done in black embossing powder, but I forgot to take a picture of that, and other stuff, because the styrene was flying at that point.

 

[Roadrunner]

Body and dash look awesome.

[Maindrian Pace]

Got the body in paint, Eldorado Firemist Red was the idea.

Coming very close to that turned out to be Tamiya metallic red followed by Tamiya red clear coat.

Masked it off for the lower body color, Tamiya aluminum.

It was cut and buffed with a Micro Mesh polishing kit and Treatment model wax. At that point, I dropped the ball on the build pictures, so it sort of goes from that to a few near-finished shots, like the engine bay.

No pics of the finished dash or interior, BMF application, photo etch emblems, or the like. I'll try to make up for that a bit in the Under Glass section, as soon as I can take some finished shots.

[Kah puts]

Ah shoot, you done finished it up lickitey split ? looking forward to under glass ?

[beeRS]

That looks great. I’m looking forward to seeing it under glass. 

[David G.]

Fabulous work on this!

David G.

[250 Testa Rossa]

Following. I need to modify the two that I have! That reminds me, I need to get those seats!