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My Fast Caddy Build!

28K views 99 replies 23 participants last post by  BoostedOne 
#1 · (Edited)
BoosteOne's Caddy Build

I'm gettin to old for this:D But I love it.
Long story short, I commute about 85 miles a day for work. I have a nice new car to drive, but its racking up miles at sickening pace, and the best I can manage out of it is an average of about 23mpg. I don't want to drive my dually as a daily because, well, it only gets about 18. I was considering getting my MkII VR resurrected, but that thing only gets around 23...

So, on July 26th, I picked up my new project. a 1982 Caddy Diesel with a broken timing belt. Body is in fair shape. From what I could tell, body was in decent shape. Shock towers seemed solid, floors seemed good.. Had some rust bubbling though in one fender, one A-Pillar, and one B-Pillar. Its a 5 speed truck, with a gutted dash.
Plans are get the 1.6D running again, but later replace it with a 1.9TDI or AAZ.. Roll on 14x8 and 14x9s and coils and rear axle flip. Paint to be BMW Leguna Seca Blue.. I have a friend with an 01 M3 and I love the color.
The rest of the details will sort themselves out.. But I originally planned to have it repainted and together by the first week of October or so..

Here she is when I first got her...

July 26:
Still on the trailer as I day dream with excitement through the back window..


Got her offloaded into her temporary parking spot out back. The truck came with 2 bed loads(the caddy and my dually), and a cab load of spare parts..
Interior Looks pretty good.. Too bad theres nothing behind the dash..








The very, uhhh, lively painted 1.6D


Since I have always preferred round lights going back into the mid 90s, first thing I did was source a round headlight swap. I found a wrecker who had a 90 Cabby that was in pretty good shape. I ended up buying the front clip. Since there is nothing behind my dash, and hard top rabbits that arent already half stripped are getting harder to come by in these parts, I also decided to get the dash, A/C stuff and all.. So the Caddy will be getting a Cabby dash swap.
 
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#30 ·
Thanks! I agree. Couldn't be happier with where it's at.

I kinda look forward to it moving on its own power and parking it next to the Ford for comparison..

Yes. Im a mess and have lots of vehicular interest.
I don't think the caddy is going to handle the mud as well...

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#31 ·
That's a super sweet looking ride! You did a fantastic job on the body work! :beer:
I wish I lived closer... I'd try to talk you out of those late westy fenders and grill.
I hope my Cabby turns out half as nice as your Caddy!
 
#32 ·
Nice job on the paint! Looks great!

I'd drop off my Rabbit and let you paint it, but I'm afraid when I got it back, it'd be round eyed. :laugh:

I think that truck is going to be awesome. I'd stick with the diesel and maybe turbo it. You were saying you wanted to do this to save money on fuel. You can't argue with 50mpg. :thumbup:
 
#33 ·
Nothing wrong with round eyes!
Although thinking way back in the day on my buddies mk1 gti, on the other caddy I may consider doing Rocco 2 euros. Gives a real chunky look to a mk1.

Welp I found a motor. I hope it runs. Stopped off for the night in Stuart to get a few hours of sleep, then up at 5(I hope) to head down to lake worth to be there by 7 to pick up this 1.6D....:)

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#35 ·
Yeah! I think yours is one of the posts I saw. What did you do to flip it? Did you get the shift resolved?(without a 1/2" spacer on one wheel)

Good morning! 4 hours of sleep, let's dtive south an hour and change, go pick up this diesel, then about 4 hours of driving back to the house:D

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#36 ·
Get that motor in :thumbup: that thing is looking so sexy!

If I knew you were coming my way I would have seen if you could have brought a passenger side diesel motor mount. I am at the point now where I will just cut one down to use it! :banghead:

Sucks being ready to drop a motor in and not being able to find a mount local.
 
#37 ·
Well I got the motor in.... in the back pf the dodge lol. Its dirty rusty and ugly but supposedly runs.

I tell you what.. I know there's a mount in the wrecking yard. Make it worth my while to pull it and I will go get it Monday and mail it to you.



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#41 ·
Thanks! Me too! What part of town you in? I will see if I can look you up next time I come down.

Just woke up. Long day. On the way back I detoured through orlando and stopped by Triangle ... pair of vented rotors, pads, front and rear wheel bearings, control arm bushings, timing belt roller, and some clutch bits to go with the new disc an pp that came with the truck(pushrod bushing, pushrod seal, input shaft seal, throw out bearing). Then stopped by a naps to pick up a timing belt, oil, filter, and some "engine rebuild in a can" ie spray paint.
Going to cook some dinner and get everything unloaded and figure out what im going to do next this evening

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#43 · (Edited)
Damn, what a weekend:confused:

So yeah.. Drove all over creation yesterday between getting the motor, getting parts from one place, then going to NAPA to get the timing belt...
Last night go to get the new belt on so I can drop the motor in today...
FREAKIN NAPA... They gave me a gasser belt.:mad::mad::mad::mad: Boy was I pissed.. Had to drive waaay the hell out of my way to get it after being on the road all day in a dually, and to make it worse it costs almost as much in fuel to return it now since I don't go over to that hell hole area very often. I dont understand how it got screwed up.. Called the location I usually go to, they say they dont have one but Eatonville does.. Go over there, pick it up.. The receipt even says 1.6L diesel.. Part number is even using the OE vw numbers.. So last night I go on Contitech's website and punch the part number in, its for a gasser like I suspected.. Get the diesel number off Autohaus AZ's website, then go back to NAPA's site and look up a belt for a 1.6 diesel, and get the same number as Autohaus AZ's site...
So up til 2am trying to figure out who has one of these bastards in stock, and the closest I can find is the main hub store for Autozone clear down in another sh!thole area in the heart of the Orlando hood, over an hour from the house..
I get to bed about 230, drag myself out of bed by 7 something still tired from the day before and head down to Autozone.. Decided to get a water pump, thermostat, v belt, hoses, etc as well. Ran by Harbor Junk while I was in the 'hood as well to pick up some sh*tty tools. Im sure the 5 pack of wire brushes will fling all the bristles off and lodge them into my leg in the first 30 seconds of use on a cordless drill, but figured they were worth a shot..
Long story short, finally back to the house by like 2pm.. Spend some time with my girl and head out back...

I decided its been long enough since the bead blaster was working, so I finally got my bead blaster operational first.. My dad bought it used for his business in the 90s, and when he closed in like 98 I had him hold it in his garage for me until I got a place I could keep it.. Finally in 2007 I took posession of it, and in 2012 I made it work again.. I wonder why I waited so long...

So, back to the engine.. It looked like royal sh*t when I got it, covered with flaky rust but supposedly a good runner... One thing is for sure, it has hardly any miles on it or it NEVER had the oil changed, or the previous owner was meticulous..Because it had a genuine VW filter on it.. Not even a MANN, but genuine down to the huge VW Audi logo.. I havent seen one of those in a good while..







Today it doesn't look a hell of alot better... I am not sure how long this motor is going to be in there, and I just want it to run... I didnt want to have to fully retime the pump, so I didnt take it off to clean the brackets all that good.. So it got a spray can rebuild, and not a very good one...

After the spray can rebuild, I replaced the timing belt.. I went to replace the water pump, and the second bolt broke off.. Third bolt felt like it was twisting.. Since the clutch looked like new, I figured maybe this thing has had some decent maintance and rather than get into a big can of worms with busted bolts I decided to quit while I was ahead and not worry about the water pump or thermostat. I did replace the rear main on the engine.
I wasnt aware that VW decided not to put ANY timing marks on the pulleys, so I switched gears and pulled the tranny off the engine from the caddy.. Replaced the throw out bearing, pushrod bushing and seal and input shaft seal. Cleaned about 1/4 inch of grime from the bellhousing. Mated the tranny to the motor, and got the timing belt put on and started dressing the motor out..

With the bead blaster running, my girlfriend was cool enough to blast the timing cover, valve cover, intake manifold, AC comp tensioner, and the alt tensioner. Thanks babe!

So TONIGHT, I went to paint those parts.. I cant wait to see the contrast.. Rather than spray bombing the parts that came from the bead blaster, I went ahead did something special...

Also, I am not a fan of clipper kits, but I hate the look of MkI's with absolutely no bumpers.. Since a clipper bumper is all I have laying around, I decided the other day to go ahead and use it until the financial pain of this build dies a bit and I can spring for some chrome euros or find some nice us bumpers to mod..
Since I plan to put the engine in tomorrow evening, and its a royal mother to get the bumper bolts in with the motor in and dressed, it meant I had to paint the bumper tonight... Yay, 9pm and I am fixing to BEGIN prepping the bumper for paint... Wheres the "yawning" emoticon?



Dont worry, it actually looks like hell, LOL... It was chipped and gouged to hell and back... Im partly in a hurry, and dont plan to keep it very long, so I just wanted to make it look better than nothing...


Remember the parts my girl cleaned in the bead blaster? The rest of the engine may look like ass, but some of it wont :)



 
#48 ·
LOL.. that hood bench is pretty good, but its dented in the front.. If you werent 1400 miles away we could problably work something out.. I just needed a clean flat surface to spray the parts.

I agree though, the rest of the engine needs some serious help.. But everything is so rusty Im afraid of breaking off bolt after bolt in an effort to just clean it.. I will focus the pretty effort on one of my other core motors once I get the truck mobile.

i like what goes on here. and I See A Bug:eek:
Thanks, and yeah, thats my 60 Euro bug in the background you see. After another 4 or 5 projects get done, I will probably work on that. Its a mostly original, very solid 60 model complete with a 36 horse and semaphores..

Back to the truck!
Got the motor "in" last night.. Not much is really hooked up to it. Its basically just bolted in the truck. No accessories. I crushed the fuel line in the rear when I put it on my trailer so thats going to have to wait til the next time I lift the truck in the rear to get fixed. I still dont have the dash wiring in yet either..





So I grabbed the gas tank from an old briggs engine, ran it to the filter, threw the battery in and hotwired the cut off solenoid and starter solenoid just to see if it ran before I went any further..

At first I was getting nervous. Crank and crank and crank and nothing coming out of the injector lines.. I opened the vent on the filter, nothing. I removed the banjo from the pump and managed to suck fuel with moderate effort.. Not sure how much suction it was supposed to take I put my finger over the hole in the pump and cranked, sure enough I was sucking harder on the banjo to draw fuel than the pump did... Long story short, found a damned dirt dobber manged to plug up the banjo fitting on the line that feeds the filter. Apparantly it doesnt take them long to build a nest in anything.

Got that cleared out, slopped diesel fuel over EVERYTHING putting it back together...

Cranked the starter and bled the lines, and she fired to life!!!!





THAT THING BLEW SOME SERIOUS COAL LOL....

Since I dont have anything hooked up to the engine, especially things like a radiator, I ran it just long enough to prove it ran..

After a few startups the smoke did die down too.. That kind of made me happy, kind of disappointed, LOL..

One problem I didnt realize until now is the bolt is broken off that holds the ac compressor to the main bracket.. so I need to figure something out since I am not taking the engine back out to fix this bolt hole.. I dont need ac until another 8 months or so at this point, and I might have a different motor in it by then. But i need to come up with an alternator pulley that sticks out further so its in line with the water pump and crank pully, and the right belt length.
 
#50 ·
Lol wtf!
Your car is 90% assembled!
Im here ordering parts hoping they get here in time.

My to do list by next week:
Figure out alternator belt issue so I can have a belt
All underwood wiring
Strip and paint and install doors hood and taillight fillers
Front brakes wheel bearings etc
Rear brakes wheel bearings etc
Radiator and associated crap
Windshield back windows door windows and wipers
Install cab wiring. Hope chassis wiring works
Weld axle to spring perches
Remove clean gas tank reinstall
Work my job@50 hrs a week
Two nights out with girl friend
Get front tires put on
Tag.


That's to be at the gtg with no interior lol
And im sure I forgot stuff

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#51 ·
Well seeing your motor in got me moving today. I am still waiting on that freakin mount! Can't believe I could find one within a 100 miles of here!

I am hoping you make it. I don't know how you do it, that's for sure! Keep it up though, it is keeping my fire lit :laugh:
 
#53 ·
Maybe someday when my Rabbit is plated and running, I'll take a drive up and check out your truck. Since moving to Orlando, I've only seen one Caddy and I think a Cabriolet. They're really rare out here.
 
#54 ·
What part of town you move to?
I work by UCF, so I go down that way almost everyday..

And since I am building this as a DRIVER, not a show truck, it will be on the road a lot.. I do admit, some of this did get a little out of hand for what I originally intended...

Today, not much went on.. Girlfriends birthday was today, so had to go out to dinner tonight..

Last night tried to see if I could make heads or tails of the belt setup, since its got that busted A/C compressor bolt which will make keeping a belt on it challenging.

Tried umpteen million different things, and then finally remembered the truck came with like 4 different alternators. I found one of them was a long snout Motorola. I found a belt laying around I think I bought for my tractor that I didnt use, and its perfect. Today I went down to Ace Hardware and bought some spacer material for the pulley, a turnbuckle, and another 10 bucks of sh*t I ended up not needing..

I took a MkII diesel alt tensioner and cut it and welded it to the turnbuckle eyes. its not real pretty but its better looking than a lot of other Geri rigs I have seen. Fired the truck up, alternator charges, belt stays on but it does flap a little.. I guess for a while I will keep a spare belt and a 13mm wrench under the seat.

Im looking at probably having a wiring problem though.. The "seat belt warning" light on the cluster is lit when the key is off(goes out when the key is on)... And none of the lights work.. Honestly I havent had a chance to even look at fuses or anything yet though..
 
#57 · (Edited)
Oh cool! Yeah I work right near there.. You in Oviedo or Orlando? I drive the entire length of Lockwood to get to work.

Until then, if you see a 2012 Grabber Blue Mustang GT that looks like its been mud bogging, thats me, LOL:laugh: The "road" I live on makes it pointless to wash a car this time of year.. Anyone thats been to my house will testify to that...

It would probably flat out amaze yall that I am even building this thing if you knew what kind of road I lived on. Everyone out here owns atleast 1 truck.. And of the ones that also own a car, I'm the only one who has something that owns something thats remotely considered a sports car or is lowered.


Here's a shot of a drive to work one morning last month that didn't go so well:D



And the same spot yesterday evening



Although it could have been worse. This is my from my friends "road" about a half mile away lol
 
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