I actually cut off the "alignment knubs" on the motor mounts because I don't think they're necessary, if I'm wrong I'll go back and add holes and replace the mounts.

The fan is close but does not hit the radiator support. You can see the crappy brackets I made to align and fasten then middle cut-out section of radiator support.

 

8/3/25
Now I needed to find a way to mount the transmission, I decided to buy a Gear Vendors and that meant everything wouldn't fit like a normal 500/TH400 swap. I needed two issues solved: 1) how to mount trans to x member, and 2) how to mount x member to frame of car. I absolutely should have figured out how to mount the x member to the trans out of the car but I didn't.

The trans sat too low for me to be able to lift the original trans cross member into place to allow me to position it compared to the cars frame rails and see what I'd need to do, so I jumped overboard and cut 2-3" off of each side of the crossmemeber and then tried fitting it. This eventually showed me that it didn't need to be cut for the most part.

The original xmember is mounted on TOP of the original frame, the new orientation would simply put the x member BELOW the factory frame mounts. But simply bolting to the original frame underneath woulda been a pain because the original holes wouldn't have lined up and I woulda had to find some wonky way to drill vertically under the car with little space, I didn't wanna do that.

After I had mistakenly cut the x member I decided to weld back on one side of the x member and restart from there.

The plan was to weld verticle plates to each side of the x member that would bolt horizontally to the original frame, instead of the factory vertical bolts(which also employed lock nuts).

You might be able to see in the second pic the double weld, from where I first cut the x member, and then had to re-weld it back, then secondly where I cut it again at the correct length and welded the horizontal plate.

I welded heavy nuts on the back of the plate for ease of installation. The holes use 3/8" bolts and are drilled with 3/8" drill bit so they are "perfect fit" with no play at all, so the x member can only be installed on the frame of the car one way. I can go back later and grind the holes open for adjustability.
In the first pics of my next post you see I added little pieces of metal on the side of the x member at the ends to help add strength just in case.
I don't understand why people waste the time or money on welding certifications, look what I can do?

 

More pics from x member install.
Last picture shows the end of the x member painted red and bolted in fully supporting the trans.

 

t400 with a gear venders , why didn't you simply go to a 700r4 trans? there's still many of the gm universal cases to be found,

 

If you find yourself in need of a genuine 70's Cadillac quad horn set, let me know. I got a new truck so these are going to a new home eventually. The people I got them from are a business and they are refurbished so they're in excellent shape.

 

Now addressing the braking system.

Firstly I have Bendix brakes. '67 Cadillacs and many other GM vehicles switched between Delco Moraine based braking systems and Bendix
. According to basic searches: Original Bendix Boosters are Usually Painted Black; Original Delco Moraine Boosters Are Usually Gold-Anodized. My brake booster had black paint melted away by brake fluid.

Things I learned along the way:
It is very difficult to tell which master cylinder you have, so you typically have to discern which braking system you have by the booster, and then work from there.
The only unique parts are the booster/master; the lines and parts at the wheels should all be the same.
The internet says you can switch out Moraine for Bendix systems if you switch both the booster/master at the same time, but a Bendix master will not work with a Moraine booster, and so fourth. But both systems to the same job and aren't any better than eachother.


I found that obtaining a new/rebuilt booster of either type was not necessarily easy. I added my self to the rockauto waitlist and got the chance after about two months. However after buying it I decided to take the chance and run my original booster first to see if it works. It looks like getting to the nuts of the studs that belong to the booster are a PITA so I chose not to replace it right off the bat without even trying. I have a booster waiting either way. It was about $130 I think.
Once I had a remanufactured booster in my hand you can faintly see it says Bendix in script on one of the flat areas on the face of the unit, same side which the master mounts to. But those square "flat faces" are the general identifying characteristic of the bendix booster along with the color.

 

The hardware and shoe linings for the rears were inspected when I bought the car and looked pretty good, so I figured with a basic replacement of all hydraulic parts, we should be good.

I first started at the rear and simply replaced the wheel cylinders, along with the rear brake hose from chassis to axle.
I then moved to the fronts where things got a bit harder. I had originally tried to get the drums off when the car was purchased but they didn't come off, but were very much free from the shoes. I assumed they were an integral hub/drum and I'd need to take the spindle nut off which was more than I wanted to do that day.
So I looked at them and remembered that the drums for these cars are same all four wheels. This made me look closer and realize that the drums slide off like most normal cars and they were simply stuck to the flange face of the hub.

Stuck is a weaker way to put it.

Fused by the flames of hell might be better. Hammered on the drum for a couple hours and got nowhere, tried devising a few plans but all were way too complicated, so I had an idea. I finally gave up and just removed the spindle nut and I'd find that both front drums would come right off--no resistance-- when I did that.

I then took the drum/hubs and put them on a piece of 2x8" wood with the hub on the bottom so the drum would fall down to the ground when hit from the top. I then found a 230 pound railroad tie(sleeper) and stood it up and let it fall down and pound the couple apart which worked very well and immediately, it partially bent up the drum where it mates to the hub, but I hammered it back and we'll see how well it works or how long it lasts.

The passenger(second) side actually took a bit more effort, had to drop the railroad tie a few times but it worked.

After finishing the wheel cylinders and hoses, I put a new master cylinder on it; I painted the master with a coat of clear coat first and bench bled it.






Rear^^^^




Front^^^^^

 

👍 I’m going to go back to the start and review your thread.

When I retire, I’ve got a frame off restoration to get back to on a 1959 Impala Sports Sedan that I bought in 1997.

That’s a lot of steel….keep up the good work🙂

 

Yesterday I replaced a rear brake line that had what looked to be a small dent/wear , honestly I doubt it needed replacement and I doubt my replacement is any better than what I removed.

 

In post 15 I deleted the "top passenger" brace that goes from the engine crossmember to a frame rail below the rad support. I did a terrible job re-welding it back to the frame, but if it's welded to the car that means it's not stored on a shelf being forgotten.
I also welded the lower "rubber radiator pad cradles" to the original rad support. I decided to move the radiator forward so I could use a traditional mechanical fan. I also welded the AC condenser "rubber pad cradles" to the radiator cradles.

 

8-17-25
I need to install the trans shift linkage, but because I moved the trans to a different location(probably lower and further to the rear), I'd need to mess with it. There's a hole in the frame with a small bracket that holds a plastic "bearing", which resembles a doughnut. That plastic donut is considered a bearing and allows the trans linkage to move and slightly pivot as the trans rumbles and shakes when in use. The original pvot-ability of the linkage bearing doesn't accommodate for the change in location during the trans/engine swap.
I tried simply installing the linkage/bearing into the frame hole and tugging on it to see how much it would give, and I didn't wanna break the bearing so I quit and decided I'd make my own bearing that's allow the linkage to "pivot and move" to the extent I needed it to. I'm not good at fabrication and figured I'd make a new bushing/bearing out of a really hard wood. I cut it using a metal cutting disk on a 4" angle grinder--not what it's meant for but it worked fine. I drilled the hole and wallowed it out a bit which would allow the linkage pin shaft to wobble a little more and accommodate for the linkages new position. I was originally going to fabricate a small sheetmetal piece to hold the wood in, but it fit snugly so I simply hammered it in, hopefully it stays put, if not I'll make the sheetmetal thing to hold it in place. Trans shift level moves fantastic.

First pic shows plastic donut bearing covered in new grease.
Second pic shows it installed into frame to test fit.
Third pic shows the new wooden bushing hammered into frame with linkage in.

 

I've never been good at creative things, I can't fabricate. I am no good at it and what I do is ugly.
When you put a 500ci caddy into a '67 deville it moves the engine forward and generally this requires the use of electric fans, but I don't like that and really wanted a mechanical cooling fan. This meant the radiator would have to move forward; which meant everything in front of the radiator would have to be moved as well: AC condenser, AC drier, horns, some rigidity brakets.

i want two pusher fans and a stand-alone Trans cooler, so now all of that stuff had to be crammed in there. It looked like I'd have plenty of space, but the further I got, the more desperate I got.
I had no idea how much of a pain this would be, but I knew it'd be an atrocity.

In order to move the radiator forward I decided to cut the bottom radiator support, which is a U shaped piece of heavy sheet metal that is stamped into a U shape for rigidity. I cut the front-most "wall" of the U. i planned to add some more metal for rigidity but decided it'd be too much trouble so I gave up. I then welded new lower radiator mounting pads for the rubber isolators. Naturally they weren't put in the exact perfect space but that's just alright. The last image in post 25 shows that done.

I took the two upper radiator brackets from a 1972 Chevy truck(4 core versions) and welded them up to give the ability to use them for the upper condenser mount brackets as well.
So now the radiator and condenser are located and held tightly.

The factory used a brace from the lower rad support up to the bottom of the grill, kinda a wierd way to brace the grill but now that space would be occupied by the radiator etc. So I "fabricated" a new grill support bracket that I'd also use to help mount the fan.



Pic 1 is a rough install of rad and condenser.
Pic 2 is close up of my bracket that holds the rad and condenser.
Pic 3 is the new grill support bracket.

 

8-23-25

Now for Fan #1 (came outta '70's Mercedes)
I "fabricated" a bracket to hold the bottom of the fan in place--the things I did are so hap-hazard that I can't explain them so you're just gonna have to guess how I actually mounted things up--, the top would be wedged between the condenser and the front grill support. But the upper grill support was in the way so I use a C-clamp to crush it and give me a micron of extra room.

Pic 1 shows Fan mock up
Pic 2 shows Fan1 lower mount bracket.
Pic 3 is C clamp "clearancing"

 

Fan #2 came out of a GMT400 era truck, and I basically bent the original mount straps to work, it is only held at the top, doesn't move around.

 

Altering the cooling systems has easily been the most miserable automotive job I've ever done. And I still have to cram AC hoses and the drier in there



I decided to not use the trans cooler in the radiator because the plumbing would be a nightmare, so I bought a HD cooler to mount in front of the radiator. Mounting it wasn't hard, but I decided to try to use as much hard line as possible, apparently my crappy line tube bender wasn't up to the task, it bent itself instead of the tubing and it would also not bend the tube, it would crease it; then I broke it after throwing it into a wall. So I just put the line in my vise and bent it the easy way, if the line kinked I "straitened" it out by squeezing it in the vice jaws(pic 4). Looks great and probably flows.

I thought about buying a proper bender, a 25' roll of tubing, and a flaring tool, but I decided against it because that was just gonna be more money down the drain and all that stuff would just sit on the shelf for the next 7 years till the next time I needed it--no thanks.

The cooler is Hayden 778 and came with only 1 option for lines: AN fittings. I'm not rich and can't afford AN style lines and their proprietary BS, so I went a bought some galvanized plumbing at went to town. The inside diameter of the AN fittings coincidentally is almost the exact diameter needed to tap for 3/8" NPT threads, so that's what I did. Then threaded the galvanized into that with a mess of adapters and collars. But the hard lines I bought were too long and I don't have the tools to shorten them so I tried bending them to take up slack, but then my crappy tubing bender just magically broke itself against a wall so I bent them in a vice and here's how that turned out:

Pic 1 rough mockup of all radiators installed, no lines
Pic 2 return line/plumbing "finished"
Pic 3 same
Pic 4 Feed line a thing of beauty(lower line)
Pic 5 shows both lines.