I have been in the process of tearing down the Cadillac 500 lately so no pics really for that. I should be getting my Detriot TruTrac sometime this month and having that installed. Then I can get the drums, bearings, etc replaced and have the rear end put back together and hung on the frame. College just started this week so time will be sporadic to work on the truck for now. Should have the rearend put together by the end of this month though.

 

I wish I had the time, the money and the know-how to do all that to my truck! Beautiful work man.

 

Thanks for the compliment salf100. Its been alot of fun so far and I have learned alot in the process. I am at the more expensive stage of the truck with the drivetrain so waiting to save up money for parts is also slowing me down right now. Once the drivetrain is complete then the bodywork stage starts which is the area I know the most about compared to other areas of this truck. That stage doesnt require as much money but does require more time which I do have compared to money lol. I will have pics of the engine build soon once I make a little more progress. So far so good.

 

AWESOME thread and resto!!!
Just happened upon it as well - lovely job you're doing. Wish the truck I was doing was that clean to start!! I'm into hour 60 of RUST work! Oh well, they are worth saving....

Good luck with the build, I'll be watching!

 

Thanks e-tek. I've been watching your thread too and you have some serious skills to tackle that amount of rust lol. Your doing a great job though and I admire your courage to tackle a task like that. Im not envious of the work you have to do but I am envious of the skills you have to complete it lol. Best of luck to you on your build, you do great work.

 

Again great job on this! My F250 is going to be a handful in itself. once I get my garage back ....

 

My Eaton Detriot Truetrac arrived in the mail today. Should be dropping it off at the speed shop within the next week to have the gears installed, etc. Only thing left for the rear end will be new drums, axle bearings, and rebuild the brakes.

 

Got the center chunk complete. New everything, new axle bearings and seals as well. Got 3.73 gears installed, he told me it installed really tight so it should stay nice and solid for a long time. Just got to finish cleaning out the housing and press the seals in. Its been cold here in IL so I cant get outside to pressure wash the housing out again so gotta wait till it warms up. Its clean but I can get it cleaner if I spend some more time getting it spotless. The cleaner the better. Next on the agenda is to work on the drum brakes. Gotta replace everything in that area including the drums. I will take the drums and have them powdercoated once I get them. I cant wait to move on to something else on this truck lol.

 

TSCchmitt,

Looking Good!

Make sure they use High Temp powdercoat material, the type they use for headers, turbos, etc. as the brake drums can get pretty darn hot!
I'm sure you don't want it peeling off after a few sessions of stop n' go traffic.....

BarnieTrk

 

I never even thought to ask for that, thanks for the advice ill be sure to make sure they use it on the drums lol def dont want paint peeling. Thanks barnietrk

 

Looking great TSCchmitt!
Coming along nicely!
You will find the gearing just right for around town and the open road!
I changed my diff gears to 3.7s from 4.1s and it has done the trick!
It backs a C6, not sure what box you will be using!

 

I will be using a beefed up 2004r from the buick grand nationals which have a .67 overdrive, so hopefully driving on the highway with the Cadillac 500 it should stay around 2100 rpms at 70 depending on what size tire I run. Should have atleast 15+ mpg on highway maybe a little more with the cam I have.

 

So this is also one of my favorite posts. Just wondering how this is going ....

 

looks good so far pretty good attention to detail. dont mean to burst your bubble but it looks like the sand blasting ruined the spindel surface that the bearings ride against. or are you getting drop spindels? just making sure you know before you have porblems if this is the case. great job!

 

stumbled upon this site tonight, loving it so far. i just picked up a 65 f100 today so im loving the info. keep the progress updates coming.