Fleetwood Meadow

Floating car ghost in my rear view camera.

Thanks Gary. That’s how I look at it. I have the fender sitting on the bench to be stripped and it’s so unmotivating so I had to do little things to feel like I’m making progress.

The first headlight assembly is completed. The wiring is hooked up to the bulb and it is ready for installation when the fender is painted.

After using some rubbing compound on my wife’s car I decided to play with the paint on the Cadillac. It’s amazing how the paint comes back after some buffing. Too bad the paint on the car is not good.

The first headlight pigtail has been rewired. A before and after of the wires. The ones I replaced were bare.

I was looking at the headlight buckets and I couldn’t understand what this round thing was at the end of the wire. It was only on one headlight assembly. So I removed the black tape and what do I find.. a spare key. Apparently Mr. Lincoln Fung hid a spare key on the car. It seems like a someone ingenious idea; you lose your keys somewhere and you reach under the fender and remove the tape attached to the wires and you have a key to get back into the car.

Was looking back at early pictures of Ricardo. This was taken when I was waiting for my wife and friend to get out of the gym. The fog/parking lights looked cool in the dark parking lot. While I’m still waiting for the engine to come back I have been fixing the fenders. With them off it will be easier to put the engine and transmission back in. Then I can put them back on and the front end will be rewired and finished. I ordered the new wires, well a large amount of the wires to rewire the whole car. At that time the engine, transmission, and electrical will be all set. The brakes are still good and working. I was rereading this whole story and I really appreciate all the comments and help, even when I sounded upset and frustrated.

I’m planning to rewire my 1952 Cadillac and it has a mismatch of wire gauges. There are 2-8 gauge, 3-10 gauge, 3-12 gauge, 4-14 gauge, 14-16 gauge, and 11-18 gauge wire colors. With that being said, many of the same color wires show up in the 16 and 18 gauge wires. Can I replace the 18 gauge wires with 16 gauge wires? I’m sure that is ok but I want to make sure before I order my wire. The reason I would be switching the wire gauge is because I have a good deal on 16 gauge wire and it comes with 10 different colors.

After months of spraying and fighting the frozen tumbler finally freed and I was able to get it out. Now it’s getting cleaned so I can put it back in and turn the ignition system on.

I spent some time in the garage tonight and got a lot of the green paint off of the outside of the fender. This is the driver’s side fender and the paint is a little odd. The base coat is black, then green. The other fender was red then green. It would appear that the top of the fender needed to be repainted when the whole car became a different shade of green because the top of the fender had a brown layer over the patchy green with the new green over that. I could probably get away with wet sanding the black and the brown layers and then painting over them but I feel I should remove all of it and start fresh. I knocked out a couple of dents and creases in the front under the headlight and near the antenna hole. Luckily the inner side of the fender doesn’t have the undercoating like the other fender did so that will save a lot of energy and time.

What to do… might need to make a checklist. Interior-wise, I need to rewire the car. Might be time to clean it out and start wiring. The engine should be back sometime soon.

If I remember correctly the inside of a vacuum wiper should be lubricated. If this hasn’t been used in years it will be very dry inside and the flap inside won’t move very easily. I was always told to put a little brake fluid or ATF into the vacuum port and move it back and forth a couple of times to lubricate the inside before you rely solely on the vacuum to pull the flap back and forth for the first time.

How different was Lincoln in comparison to the Cadillac bracket? My ‘52 has a square bracket with the same washer system. Right now there is one on eBay for $40.00.

This is attached to the underside of the rear seat of my ‘52 Cadillac. I understand the first date but I don’t know what the other numbers mean.

Four months later and the engine rebuilder is “waiting for electricity in the shop to be repaired.” Almost two (2) years after I sent it to him and the last thing I heard was they had machined the heads. That’s all I know that has been done. This is why I hate relying on others. I will have another conversation and listen to his list of excuses about why it’s taking so long. In the meantime it’s been too cold to work on metal in my garage so I’m at a standstill with everything. I keep vacuuming the interior to keep the mice away while I wait. Once it gets a little warmer I will repaint the engine bay before I put the engine in. I also plan to rewire it so everything is new.

It’s back up for $13,950

That makes sense. The other reasons that were given for my question had not made sense. What was the engine that would have been in this car and would it be difficult to locate another one to make the car more correct on that part? At least he went somewhat appropriate with a Cadillac engine versus a sbc.

So long story short, the guy changed the engine, reupholstered the car, and added features to make the car drivable to a wider band of people and it’s garbage now? I don’t get it because people change the very life-blood of vehicles on here (6-12 volt conversions) and people cheer them. This guy added added air conditioning and power steering/brakes and he’s a monster? Maybe I misunderstand the word shame..

What makes this car a shame?

I went to see the engine rebuilder. He has moved to another building. I didn’t see any work done personally but the work order states that they cleaned it and bored the block. He also said that the parts should all be in and they will begin steadily working on it as they get the new shop up and running and claim that it could be finished in December. The carburetor has to be sent out to be rebuilt. My Dodge Meadowbrook has been battling me lately so I have been focusing on that. But as the winter comes along and the process on the engine begins hopefully it will start to motivate me to work on the car more.

I did not use that guide originally. I had always been taught that bolt diameter was center to center. Nobody mentioned that 5 bolt was an exception. 4.25” didn’t make any sense to me either, that’s why I finally had to post it here to figure this out. With it being 4.5” I can find a drum much more easily. Just had to talk it out because the local auto stores were clueless. If it wasn’t in their system they didn’t know and didn’t bother to even try to measure it for me.

Based on this I was measuring for a 4, 6, or 8bolt pattern. Based on the measurement I made in the picture and this guide is it showing 4.5”? It looks like it to me.

In 2019 he posted on here saying he was selling everything off due to health reasons. Shows he was on here last in August.

I’m losing my mind trying to find rear brake drums for the 1951 Dodge Meadowbrook. They came with a spindle hub for the axle that was held by the lugs. With the hub removed I need to find a new brake drum. It’s 11”x2”, 5 lug at 4.25” diameter. I can’t find any. Any help would be appreciated.