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Decided to upgrade the head unit to a touch screen Pioneer. The larger display makes using the Ipod much easier. Also got the dash back together. Just need to hook up the volt meter to the distribution block out back. I tried to angle it toward the drivers seat a little to make the screen easier to see. All lit up and looking good.

Everything is looking A-1. Love all the custom tabs and brackets, makes everything so nice and clean. You have some serious time invest in this build. I know how long it takes just to make all the cables alone. Much respect for doing it all right the first time.

13x7" with 155-80-13 rubber. I keeps it reel ! (in my best Dave Shapell voice)

Got to keep wires and whitewalls on the oldschools. It's very thick. I'd say close to double what a spray in bed liner typically is. I did 3 applications on the 1/4 panels since they are the largest/flatest panels that will resonate the most.

Missed a pic. Decided to paint the rings on the door with the same paint I used on the kick pods. I can tolerate how they look now at least until I have time to do something nicer.

I won't be able to tell honestly. I've never even drove the car aside from the test drive prior to me buying it. I had a friend drive it home for me when I bought it and it's just been sitting in my garage or driveway being worked on since then. I'm pushing to get all the audio done before this coming weekend so I can at least take it out for a cruise over the holiday weekend. After that it's on to doing the hydraulic set up.

Those pumps in the pic are for my homies ride. I do have my pumps already though. I'm working on getting my batteries and steel for the racks to get started on the hydraulic set up. I'll post that also since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the other chassis/hydraulic build pics I posted. Yeah!!! We want to see all the upgrades of this build!! Keep it comin'!! Well it's settled then. I'll keep posting until everybody gets bored of my topic. Made some pic worthy progress this weekend. Installed the new wheels and tires which required a bit of modfications. Opened up a window to allow the spare to be removed from the trunk by removing the upper section of the back seat. I will not be bolting the upper seat section back in for easier access. Added a piece of angle before cutting it to keep the rear deck and belt line of the car from warping. Also used some 2 part expanding foam to fill the cavity in the 1/4 panels to keep them from flexing and making noise. This is as good as I can get for a pic. Added some wire holders under the amp rack to keep the power,ground, and remote turn on wires tidy. Prepped the trunk, masked off the car and sprayed an extra thick application of spray on sound deadener. It's actually a modified urethane bedliner that has rubber crum in it to give it more weight to help stop panel vibration. I used 3 gallons to give maximum build up. I can't say I really like the heavy texture finish but very little will be seen after all the gear is in so I'll see how I feel then.

Good to see there are still a hand full of guys out there striving to do great work. Very nice job on going full custom while retaining a tastefull OEM feel. t

Thanks. I need the temps to get into the 70's the clear is taking forever to dry enough to sand and do additional coats. I want to get a good build up of clear so I can wet sand it and polish it to a glass finish. Those pumps in the pic are for my homies ride. I do have my pumps already though. I'm working on getting my batteries and steel for the racks to get started on the hydraulic set up. I'll post that also since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the other chassis/hydraulic build pics I posted.

All of the fancy brackets look smooth as hell. Keep at it man. This has officially became my new favorite build and I'm not easily impressed by much these days.

Finished staining the box and laid down the first coat of clear. It's a good bit darker now. Another 10 coats of clear and it should look like glass.

More rain equals no progress in the trunk. So I moved the box into the garage and got started sanding and prepping for stain. Did a coat of stain prep first then moved onto the first coat of stain. I'll need to do one more coat of stain to get a good match to the interior "wood" trim. I'll be working on getting several coats of clear on it during the week if it warms up a bit more.

Thanks. I do have a plan for keeping the trunk rattles in check. I have to fab up all the hydraulic racks and get all the openings in the trunk floor cut before I can do it though. Warm dry weather is also needed. Thanks I was going for a "factory" apperance with the pods. Only problem is I'm completely not happy with how plain and cheesy the doors look now. Oh well, I'll come back to them at a later date. Thanks. When I was trying to decide about the colored LEDs I wasn't sure if I'd like the blue but after seeing it I'm pleased. It was either blue or red and I've never been a fan of red instrument panels. The EQ offers only blue or red for it's lighting and I wanted all the lights and gizmos to match when lit up at night. I hate the interior looking like a carnival at night. Managed to get the batteries in and completed all the wiring in the engine bay. New power and ground to the alternator and to second battery. Just need to make some hold downs for the batteries and machine some terminal adaptors for the second battery and it's all done under the hood. Also got started on the trunk wiring. Mounted the fuse and distribution block. I did a quick wire job for the amp to the highs for a test run. Sounds pretty good. Now I need to get the sub enclosure stained and installed.

I found the source of the water leak and sealed it up. Easy fix luckily. I also gave the carpet a good cleaning while it was out and let everything dry completely before putting the interior in. Thats why I haven't posted much progress. It's just not very entertaining watching water evaporate. However... ...Pods are in for good now . I fiber filled the pods and also stuffed some behind the oem kick panels to help keep pressure on them to keep them from buzzing or rattling. I also glued a layer of sound blocker foam between the 2 for the same reasons. I didn't get the step by step pics but here is the end result. Hood release still works with no interference. Installed the blue LEDs in the dash also. I miss counted though and need to get a couple more for the gauge pod still.

Thanks. She may end up getting this Caddy if she has anything to say about it. When I first showed her a pic of it inline for sale and asked her if I should buy it, she didn't even hesitate when she said "you should definetly buy it thats cool". So 2 days later we took a road trip and bought it. I think she looking forward to riding in it than I'm almost. The holes in the pods were an oops on my part. I didn't account for the fiberglass thickness that was added to the inside so I had to open them up for clearance. I'm debating wether to seal them back up or not. Thanks. I thought the cables would fit with ease on the passenger side but the dam heater/ac box is huge on this thing and left me with no room. I'll be adding a battery to the drivers side anyways though so it all works out to be the same amount of wire used. Honestly I've ran wires together and never had problems but since I had to pull everything out to dry everything I figured might as well keep them seperated. It goes along the old ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure theory. Problem with the opening on the pods is there isn't a good place to vent them into that gets the backwave a good distance from the front wave. Will that matter? I don't know. I'm still sorting that out. I wanted them sealed but as I stated above I screwed up a little.

Killer work man. I love seeing builds like this. Too many people follow a cookie cutter approach to everything. Good to see ther are other willing to take the hard route in the interest of quality.

For once they werwe right. It was a perfect day for working outside. I'm thinking the same thing. The leds should be here Tuesday, too bad I didn't order enough bulbs to do the entire dash. I forgot to count a few things in the dash that are not connected to the instrument cluster. Nothing like getting pimped out of another $15 shipping and handling on a package that won't even weigh a pound. Nice weather equals good progress. Primed and painted the pods today. I found a textured brown color thats a very close match to the darker section of the dash so I went with it. Pulled all the carpet to run all the wires through the interior. I had some help today for the clean up at least. My daughter loves helping out so this was a perfect job for her. Found a location on the firewall to run the 1/0 power and ground. It just needed a little modification and it worked out. I was able to tuck the power wires neatly into the factory wire holder and used some hold downs for the section under the rear seat. Also ran all the patch cables, remote turn on wire, and speaker wires. I tryed to keep all the cables seperated. I had to cross one of the speaker wires over the other cables up front but ran it at a 90 to them at least. I've ran into a little set back though. The car seems to have a leak at the fire wall or windshield that lets a significant amount of water in. All the factory sound deadener was soaking wet when I pulled it. Im letting it dry out and will try to seal the leak up prior to reinstalling the interior.

But wait theres more... Added a digital voltmeter to the lower right corner and did a test run of the lighting. The gauges will be blue and should be much brighter once I get the LED bulbs installed in them. The 3rd gauge in the pod doesn't light up like the others. It has a series of lights that sweep from left to right when the car is running thats why it's not lit up in the pic. If the rain stays away I'll be painting the pods tomorrow.

After searching high and low for tinted lexan I came up empty handed. So I had to pick up some clear lexan and some window tint. It worked out alright but set me back a day. I blacked out the pod and installed the gauges. Glued the lexan into the bezel. I shined a flash light across the face for this pic. They are completely unseen otherwise. I just ordered all LED lights for the instrument panel and gauges to brighten up the dash. These old GMs never did look good at night.

Come on don't be a pansy. It's only a car not brain surgery, nobody dies if you slip a little. Sorry watts09, but that's damn funny! Ya'll are just haters Just curious, why put gauges in? Just added security? I like to keep an eye on things. The car only has dummy lights and by the time they flash on (if they even work) the car will already be worse for wear. Nothing worse than the radiator boiling over being the indicator for the motor over heating. Now if only I had all the time in the world I could really dazzle you.

Chop it up. You got to love GM with their bastard sized radios. Curious to see how it looks when your done.

Come on don't be a pansy. It's only a car not brain surgery, nobody dies if you slip a little. Sorry watts09, but that's damn funny! It was meant to be. I can crack a good joke from time to time. Thanks. I've had the gauges for years from an old ride I got rid of. This car is still carburated so an air fuel meter isn't a bad idea to help me fine tune the carb. I don't think I would have bought it for this project but since it's just collecting dust I figured what the hell throw it in. I do have a Stinger digital volt meter also that will be mounted similarly in the little square opening on the bottom right of the bezell.

Thanks, thats the goal. It's all about the mods. Stock is just so boring. Come on don't be a pansy. It's only a car not brain surgery, nobody dies if you slip a little. Started the gauge panel. I'm using some gauges I had left over from an old ride. Since there basically is no modern gauges that will look good I'm going to recess mount these behind smoked lexan so they aren't visible with the car off. Cut out the radio slot and painted the cut edge black. Used some scraps of MDF for the panel Test fit looks like it's going to work out good.

:trippy: Thats a small set up. I usually do much larger. Thanks. I expect to see pics when you do. Of course! Keep a lookout, should be happening soon. This friday is payday, that means i can get these little things that are holding me back ordered and installed There is quite a bit of space still available in the trunk. It will be very full when I'm done though. I will drive this as much as possible this summer. I have a feeling $5.50 a gallon gas is coming soon though so I may just have to find good spots to park and hang out instead of cruising. Well things are moving along. Tackled mounting the head unit and EQ tonight. Decided not to use the factory location for the head unit because there is nothing but empty space once the factory radio is removed and don't want the trim bezel supporting the weight. So I removed the ash tray and modified it to hold both the head unit and EQ This was fun to weld. I didn't have any .023 wire so had to weld it with .030 wire. Tabs for the EQ Nice and compact. Test fit. I'll need to make a trim piece to hide the sides and give it a more finished look but it's a nice sturdy mount supported by 4 bolts that go into clip nuts. This is what I was saying about there being nothing to support the head unit. It's all just open space. I'll be converting the original radio location to a gauge pod. This car only has dummy lights and I want to be able to monitor the oil psi, water temp, and volts.

Thanks. I expect to see pics when you do. Thanks. I'm going to stain and clear coat it. The spare idea came out of neccessity and desperation. I just simply could not fit everything and keep the spare accessable from the trunk. I will be adding 7 group 31 batteries and 2 hydraulic pumps into the "empty" space in the pics.