Project Omaha 1956 Eldorado Biarritz

[Guest South_paw]

Hi All, time to share my project with my AACA buddies. I'm almost two years into this restoration so I will do my best to get everyone up to speed quickly.

The car is a 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz with 66k original miles. She spent all of her life in Omaha, NE. I am only the third owner. A full rotisserie restoration is on tap for this one.

This first batch of pics is from when it arrived via carrier back in Nov, 2008.

More to come....

[Guest South_paw]

Disassembly begins, Dec, 2008

Stay tuned....

[Guest South_paw]

More from Dec, 2008

The body is just about stripped down to the shell. No major surprises. The passenger side front foot well and the driver side rear foot well floor needs to be replaced but I knew that. I have a complete rust free floor from that 55 Coupe I parted out, so making a factory correct repair shouldn't be to difficult.

The driver side rear foot well / tunnel area will have to be replaced. I find it very odd the way the floors in these Cadillac's rust out. The passenger side front floor is rusted out, but the drivers side front is good ??? Usually it's the drivers side that is the first to go. And the rear tunnel area makes no sense. There is no spot welds to accelerate the rust. Anyway, I'm glad it is being restored now, if this rust was left unattended to for a few more years the car may have been a goner. Here's some better pics of the floor rust

In this first pic, notice how the driver side is in good shape but the pass side is a mess (that black spot by the gas pedal is a piece of tape)

and the reverse is true in the rear, driver side is bad but the pass side is good! Go figure

Edited August 8, 2010 by South_paw (see edit history)

[Guest South_paw]

Dec 31st, 2008

Prepare for transplant surgery Doctor ;D In place of a scalpel and prongs will be a welder and drill

No, I won't be doing a total transplant. The floor is good on the donor, but the rockers are on their way out. Plus the drivers side front well is different from a '55 to '56. Fortunately I don't need the drivers side front. Time to prep this donor floor by stripping all of the undercoating and paint off.. Loads of fun

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

Jan 25th, 2009

Inner and outer rocker panels are done

The floor is next

[Guest South_paw]

Feb, 2009

The donor floor is prepped, the bottom of it is primed & the floor is trimmed to size.

The floor is set in place Everything lined up & fit in to place like it should. What a relief! It doesn't matter how many times you measure... There is always the fear that something wont line up. One small set back, I decided to replace a piece on the drivers side front which at first was good, but the more I played with it, it became evident that the piece should be replaced.

Here it is installed and finished. Welded, primed, seam sealed, rockers too! The biggest part of the project is complete. Have a look

Next up is the quarter panels.

More to come in the next day or two.

[Scotts_DG8]

Looks like a interesting project and the photos show you know what you're doing, great job on the floor and rockers. I'll be watching for your updates and am interested in how it all comes out. Are you going to stay with the color scheme it arrived with or going for something a bit different? Scott...

[Guest South_paw]

Hi Scott,

This one will retain it's factory color scheme.

March, 2009

Although the quarters look decent. I will have to remove them. The inner quarter sections near the rear bumper are rusted out & where the inner meets the trunk floor. This car has most of it's rust issues on inner panels because the second owner kept & stored the car in a barn on a dirt floor for almost 47 years. Once again the 55 Coupe will provide rust free replacement parts. I saved both driver and passenger side rear quarter sections complete with the inner quarters,wheel wells & adjacent trunk floor pans just in case.

Here's what lies beneath,

Took the quarter panel off to reveal this mess,

Here's what is left after cutting away the body rust

The replacement metal from the 55 gives you an idea as to just how much metal has been eaten away. The coupe wheel house opening of the 55 will need to be modified to the skirt-less opening of an Eldorado but that shouldn't be too difficult.

More to come.....

[Guest South_paw]

March, 2009

Did I mention I hate rust :mad::mad: With the inner panel now complete, it was time to deal with the drivers side quarter. I had to replace much more metal than I anticipated. Tons of body filler covered lots of weak rusty sheet metal. All thats left to do is to weld the quarter back on. The reward is, I get to do it all over again on the passenger side :-\ Getting closer and closer to taking the body off of the chassis

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

Spent another 6 hours on the quarter panel getting the metal work factory correct. It's finished. Pretty much have to do the exact same thing on the passenger side.

(damn pole. one day I'm gonna take that out) :mad:

Pass side up next.

More to come....

[Guest South_paw]

April,2009

The passenger quarter is just about done and as mentioned, it wasn't much different than the driver side.

At the factory they put gobs of seam sealer on the joints(you can see it in the first pic). I did my best to duplicate the factory application. It went against every grain in my body to take a nice clean panel and purposely make a mess with the seam sealer

I just got to weld the quarter back in place to finish up.

Next update, body will be off The rotisserie awaits!

[Guest raywilks]

super work!!! beautiful pictures and detailed explanation. you are very good at what you are doing.

please let us see all of it. thanks!!! ray.

[Guest South_paw]

Thanks Ray.

May, 2009

The body is off and mounted on the rotisserie. Definitely a nerve racking job. Fortunately everything went smoothly 8)

All thats left with the rotisserie is to balance the body so it will spin evenly. This is my first time using a rotisserie and so far, it doesn't' look like I will ever go back working from the floor. It will be nice to work like a gentleman. Finish off some brackets and clean up the welds, prime and paint while standing up.

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

May, 2009

The underside is ready for paint. It will be a four step process.

Metal conditioner(on bare metal)

Self Etch Zinc primer

2K Corrosion Primer

Single stage 2k top coat (gloss flat and color matched to red oxide primer)

During the week I managed to get the under-body painted. I used a single stage urethane finish which by nature is very high gloss. It took a ratio of 1 part paint to 1&1/2 parts flattening agent to kill the gloss for that primer look. What I didn't account for was the paint catalyst raising the gloss level to semi gloss. Not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. By the time I'm done painting the body there will be enough white over-spray under there that I will have to apply a one final coat of a flat clear over the entire under-body for a uniform low gloss finish. Regardless, I think it came out great. Have a look

Now that the under-body is complete. I can get to work on stripping all of the old paint from the body. I'm not a fan of sandblasting car bodies. So chemical paint stripper was used to remove the existing 3 paint jobs. The two non factory paint jobs are no match for the paint stripper, but the factory paint took three applications to soften it up Even after 3 attempts to strip all of the paint, the factory primer would not budge! The balance of the job was buzzed down by DA sander. Here is the passenger side quarter panel so far. Notice how that stubborn factory primer is still hanging around in some spots(not for long).

[Guest South_paw]

July, 2009

The body shell is just about ready for paint work. They'll be updates on that soon. Here's a few shots of the chassis that I started working on. I'm stripping it down for sandblasting. What a job cleaning off the dirt and grime. There must have been 100 lbs of Omaha dirt stuck to the chassis. BTW, I have seen alot of chassis's. This thing is no joke. 1/2 thick I beam construction for the X, the rear rails are boxed & a monster front cross member :eek: Unmistakably Cadillac!

The chassis is sandblasted and painted. You had to hear the sandblaster complain about how big and heavy the chassis was:p He did a great job blasting it, the chassis cleaned up better than I could have imagined. Once home I primed it and painted it semi gloss black. All of the "heavy" suspension parts have been sandblasted and painted as well.

[Guest South_paw]

Aug, 2009

The chassis is almost 100% complete. Just missing a couple of rubber stops and the vent line for the gas tank. Here's the before and after pics of the chassis.

Pay no mind to the old tires. I had to put the sabres back on for that Eldo look.

Edited August 9, 2010 by South_paw (see edit history)

[Guest raywilks]

one fine car!! quqlity work on the rotisseree and roll-a round body jacks also.

just how many cars have you done? this can not be your first effort? best job i have seen for a home type garage. thanks for sharing, ray.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Lou, I just saw that you anticipated my advise! What I loosed on the other forum is a gain here!

[TexRiv_63]

Lou,

That is great work on a beautiful car, thanks for sharing your progress.

[West Peterson]

Incredible amount of work in such a short period of time. When I saw the first few photos, my first thought was, "why restore such a nice solid car with so much character." Obviously you answered that question almost immediately. What a can of worms this could have been for an unsuspecting buyer. You obviously knew what you were getting into since you said there were no major surprises.

Good work!

[Guest South_paw]

Thanks Guys!

Aug, 2009

Motor and tranny are in!

Exhaust too! It won't be long now (yeah right)

The valve covers need a coat of paint & I need to get rid of that silly oil vent cap. She's good for now. I have enough of the chassis assembly ready that I can mount the body back on after it's painted

More to come....

[Guest South_paw]

Sept, 2009

The shell is primed and ready for paint

Getting everything 100% straight and true almost drove me to brink of madness. I now know why most Eldos are sans the rear wheel well moldings. What a nightmare getting them to fit properly. I must have test fitted those moldings 50 times each. There is easily 40 + hours invested into getting the bodywork on the quarters to this point. We went out of our way to test fit every molding. The last thing you want to see is a gap between a molding and the metal. Just in case you are curious, the quarter panel is 8 feet 4 inches long from door jam to the end of the fin. The next car I'm gonna restore will be a Fiat. Here's the latest pics.. Paint will going on within the next few days.

More to come...

Edited March 20, 2011 by South_paw (see edit history)

[keiser31]

WOW!!

[Guest South_paw]

Sept, 2009

It always nice to reflect on all of the blood sweat and tears one puts into a job :cool:

It will look even better after I block and buff it out

More to come...

Edited March 20, 2011 by South_paw (see edit history)

[keiser31]

I spoke too soon......I should have said double WOW!!

[Guest South_paw]

Sept, 2009

Blocked and buffed her out today. It's always best to get this task done within the first few days after the paint has dried enough. After about 3 days the finish becomes very hard. You can still block and buff but it's twice as hard to get the sand scratches out.

A Mirror finish

The body is back on,

It was a lot easier putting it on than it was coming off. Building this bridge high enough to clear the rolling chassis saved the day.

It also helps to have access to a set of 10 ton truck stands

Then it was simply a matter a lining up the chassis with the body and rolling it into position

Once the chassis was in position. I used the engine hoist to lift the shell from the firewall. The rear of the shell still had the rotisserie end atached to it. Then all I had to do was hydraulically lower the body down, a little at a time from front to back. Smooth as silk :cool:

It's starting to look like a car again!

[Guest South_paw]

I spoke too soon......I should have said double WOW!!

Double thanks!!

More catching up to do tomorrow. Stay tuned

Edited August 10, 2010 by South_paw (see edit history)

[Guest South_paw]

Oct,2009

Here's a few shots of the assembly work done in the engine bay. Only a few parts to go, most notably the carbs.

Getting busy looking in the engine bay. New wiring harness, heater hose & vacuum lines installed. Scored a NORS Delco regulator new in the box from 1987 last week. The starter is back from the rebuilder. He was surprised that it still had the original Delco brushes in it. The carbs should be back from the shop soon, good news there too. Nothing wrong with either one according to the rebuilder. Hoping to fire it up soon. I'm getting tired of pushing it around :eek:

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

Nov,2009

I had some time to install the carbs! Won't be long now till I fire her up.

Switching gears now to the interior. The shop doing the work insisted on having all of the interior metal parts blasted and painted. I had the choice to prep the parts myself or pay the interior shop to do it. Prep and paint is right up my alley so it should be a cake walk, boy was I wrong. Stripping the seats down to the frame involves snipping off hundreds of hog ring clips, which by the way go flying in every direction when you cut them. The door panels and quarter panels metal had a thin layer of cotton over them. This cotton is glued on, so you have to scrape it all off to get down to the bare metal. When you get to this part you now understand why the interior shop wants the metal parts blasted and painted. When the interior parts were made. These steel parts were left bare, then covered with a cotton layer and then covered over in leather. A perfect recipe for condensation which ultimately leads to rust because the cotton lining holds the water. Here's the stripped down interior parts.

Cotton lining

Here's all of the interior parts blasted, painted. Ready for the upholstery shop.

Stay tuned.....

[Guest South_paw]

Dec,2009

Work on the interior continues. Completely disassembled the the steering column for a repaint and general inspection/cleaning. I was pleased to see that infamous brass horn ring and wire were in excellent condition.. Here's the column all done :cool:

Installed the column & the balance of the wiring for the car. I had to fabricate new wire harness rocker covers because as you could imagine, the originals were rusted away. Also cleaned up & painted the seat track assembly including greasing up the 6 way power seat works. Installed a new conv top pump, pistons and hoses. Disassembled the top switch, cleaned up all of the contacts and got that working like new.

More to come....

[Guest South_paw]

Jan,2010

Work continues on the interior. The convertible top frame has been completely disassembled and will soon be stripped of old paint.

The chrome top frame arms, off to the plater they go!

all parts hung and painted. Looks like wind chimes

Late Jan,2010

The top frame is assembled and installed.

Edited March 20, 2011 by South_paw (see edit history)

[Scotts_DG8]

Lou,

Your skills have really been something to see. This car really is turning into one heck of a beauty. Although you've only recapped the story from Nov 2008 to Jan 2010 si far there sure has beem a whole lot of work, wonderful work too, done in a short period of time (in my opinion). I really enjoy reading your recap of your restoration. I can't wait to see where it's currently at as of Aug 2010, I have to believe that it is already finished. Again, awsome work. Scott...

[Guest South_paw]

Thanks Scott! It ain't done yet You'll get to see it finished in realtime.

[Guest South_paw]

March,2010

Still going at it with the interior,

Here's the dash as it looked when removed

Completely sandblasted and prepped for primer

Here it is painted. I ain't done painting it though, now I have to paint the red two tone and blackout the speaker area.

all of the smaller parts are painted as well.

There's another 7 or so interior parts that need to be painted red. One thing is for sure, Cadillac interiors will certainly test your patience

More to come...

Edited August 12, 2010 by South_paw (see edit history)

[Guest South_paw]

Late March, 2010

Finished painting the dash and installed it. Plus all of the related parts have been painted as well. Lots of two tone paint jobs in this batch. Very time consuming stuff. Got some chrome back and installed that too. Also happy to report the car runs and moves under it's own power again Here's a few pics

Here's one of the time consuming paint jobs I tackled. In my stash of parts I had this perfect set of kick panel heater grilles. The only problem was they were the wrong color

I had to scuff the parts and tape off the chrome using a razor blade to trim the tape down to size, what a pain. There was still some trimming to do to this one.

Here's the end result. Good as new and now the correct color :cool:

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

Late March, 2010

Worked all weekend on the dash assembly. Completely disassembled the dash cluster for a cleaning prior to installing it into the freshly chromed dash bezel. Made sure all of the heater cables were freed up and then installed everything. After connecting all of the cables you need to adjust them to operate properly. Thats a lot of fun :'( When I installed the dash cluster I inadvertently routed the vent cable the wrong way causing it to bind. All it took was a couple of pulls on the knob and I snapped the damn thing:mad: I had to pull the whole cluster off again and disassemble most of it just to get to the nut. All part of the fun I guess. Here's the latest pics,

Dash cluster backside view. All ready to go. Dated Dec 27th, 1955. Car was built on Jan 3rd. Now thats cutting it close!

Yes I had to repaint every grid black on the dash trim :eek:

Chrome baby

All thats left is the clock, radio and steering wheel resto.

More to come...

[Guest South_paw]

April & May 2010

The quarter glass is set in the rechromed channels BTW, did you know the lower rear window channel is made of cast aluminum? There's your fun fact of the day

Top is installed

Carpet and interior too!

Hopefully should have this thread up to speed in the next day or two.

[keiser31]

Spectacular! It just keeps getting better and better. I gotta ask....have you done other cars before this one??

[Guest South_paw]

I gotta ask....have you done other cars before this one??

I've done 4 others but this is my first chassis off.

[Guest South_paw]

June,2010

Work on the body panels continues. Deck lid is done(minus the hardware). Completed stripped down to the metal in and out. New waffle style insulation installed, then primed, painted and installed.

The last of the metal work is done as well Lower ends of the front fenders looked good at first with no rot but once I started poking around it was evident that the metal was just too thin to save.

Rough work is completed, you can see the old section on the floor in the background Had to do the same on the other side as well.

The last step was to test fit the fenders to make sure the gaps are good.

Now I can take them off and prep them for paint. While I'm at it, I will be doing the hood as well.

This method of painting the body panels as needed is not for the faint of heart and should not be considered with a metallic color. A metallic color could change simply by the way it is applied. Thats why it is important to paint all of the parts at the same time, in the same direction by the same painter with the same spray gun using the same can of paint.

I have two big things working in my favor. One is that the car is white, no need to worry about how the metallic lays out because there isn't any

The second thing is that I am the paint shop. No need to schedule to have parts painted, no transportation of painted parts. I don't have to store painted parts which takes up a lot of space. It's straight up. Paint the parts and install them. Sure, there is a risk of scratching something during the installation but if you take some precautions it goes quite smoothly. First and foremost, be sure to tape off adjacent panels just in case of any contact. Then plan out the installation. Have all of the necessary hardware and tools ready to go and in position. I went as far as to re-tap the bolt holes so as the bolts would thread in easily by hand. You don't want to drop any tools on the good stuff

There are also a few features about this car that works in my favor. The door hinges allow the doors to open up and away from the body. You can mount them without too much worry about hitting anything. Also note that the doors are bare. Which make them light and easy to maneuverer. The fenders although bulky mount up in a simple manner. They kinda fall in place because the rad support is only held in place by one bolt in the center you have a lot of wiggle room. When the time comes to mount the painted parts. The hood will be installed first, this way we won't have to be leaning over the freshly painted fenders. Then the fenders will be installed and then I can do a final alignment of all three parts.

More to come...