58 Caddy Coupe de Ville, pt2

[DanStokes]

Re: 58 Caddy Coupe de Ville, pt2

My friend David here in Wilmington put Dynomat on the floors, doors, and headliner on a coupe street rod for a customer. He said the difference was UNBELIEVEABLE both for noise and heat.

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

Re: 58 Caddy Coupe de Ville, pt2

I was going to suggest it to Gregg; but since I'm not doing the interior work, it's up to him and his interior guy.


I met Gregg's Nash Metropolitan mechanic who's been wrenching on his two since the 80's. She turned 74 last Saturday. That's right, a she.

[Scott Liggett]

Gregg's '58 Caddy came back to my driveway. He's been driving it a lot, but the drum brakes were making it not so much fun. Everyone else has discs on the road. I found that ABS Power Brake makes a bolt in kit for the '58 Caddy using the car's original spindles. Also, they make a power booster/master cylinder bracket to replace the original Bendix Treadlevac set up. I drove down to the cool town of Orange, CA to pick up the setup yesterday, but a miscommunication over the phone resulted in me leaving without the booster/master cylinder setup. They needed to build the brackets, but are shipping them to me on Weds. I started working on the car anyways with the axle parts.

This is the Bendix Treadlevac power booster and master cylinder. It's vertical set up is quite unique and only used a couple of years. It cost us $375 to have these rebuilt three years ago.


After I removed the rear half of the inner fender, you can see the bell crank that comes from the brake pedal, then turns vertical to go into the bottom of the booster.



The car's drums were not tiny by any means, 12x 2 1/2 brakes are large for a car. Consider that Chevelles got measely little 9 in drums. We just replaced the wheel cylinders, shoes, and hoses.


The first order of business is to get the rid of all the drum brake parts off the spindle. Gregg isn't having me rebuild the front end right now. I did chip away 20 lbs of petrified grease away from the parts. The grease zerks were totally covered. Now they can at least get greased.


Next, the custom caliper is bolted on. ABS uses '87-91 Caddy full size calipers and pads. They make their own 12 in. rotors similar to the Caddy's but designed so not to increase track width of the car.


Here it is with everything connected.


Next weekend, I'll get after the booster/master setup.

[jays67]

If ya don't mind me asking what the whole kit run ? I would like to do my 58 caddy when I get to working on it .

[Scott Liggett]

If ya don't mind me asking what the whole kit run ? I would like to do my 58 caddy when I get to working on it .

$1200. The custom brackets needed to replace the Treadlevac up the cost from $950. Keep tuned in to see how easy it is to install the rest.

[Scott Liggett]

I pulled the factory master/booster setup off, but kept the bracket. I will be reusing it. I cleaned up and repainted the firewall.


I pulled the bracket off to paint it and because I needed to drill a new hole on the bellcrank. It needs a 4:1 ratio, so I drilled a new hole one inch higher than the old.




Next came the new bracket which has another bell crank. The new 8 inch dual diaphram booster as well.


Finally, the new master cylinder. I had to run to the store to get a couple adapters. I just rebent one of the old lines and bought a new one to connect to the rear brakes.


I had to stop at this point because I am going to put an adjustable proportioning valve in the rear line.

Oh yeah. Pep Boys has definitely improved their product line to include a bunch of brake fittings and adapters in stock.

[HillbillySailor2]

Nice! But is it just me, or is it going to be an absolute pain in the ass to change plugs on the driver's side now?

[Scott Liggett]

Nice! But is it just me, or is it going to be an absolute pain in the ass to change plugs on the driver's side now?

It went from easy to mildly annoying.

[Scott Liggett]

Today I got an adjustable proportioning valve from a local speed shop and installed it to finish off the brake lines. Then filled the master cylinder and bled it on the car. I ran out of time to bleed the whole system.




Here's a shot of the brake lines and how I rearranged them. The rear was disconnected from the junction block and that port was plugged. Then the rear line was connected to a new line going to the proportioning valve.

[Scott Liggett]

I got the car running and driving yesterday after bleeding the system twice. I had quite a bit of pedal travel before engagement and a lack of stopping power. After some thought, I took a guess and thought the brake booster rod to the master cylinder was out of adjustment. I unscrewed the threaded adjustment nut on the pushrod two threads and immediately improved both travel and stopping power, but not enough to get the brakes to lock up. So, I adjusted it out some more, with more improvement.

At this point, I want to do some checking to make sure the brakes aren't dragging and measure the rod length compared to the depth of the hole in the master cylinder. I ran out of light so I'll be back at it tomorrow.