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CadillacPimpinNOLA's 95 Fleetwood buildup 56K your computer will blow up

199K views 1K replies 54 participants last post by  CPN504 
#1 ·
since several people asked me too...ill start from the beginning, its in progress so as I do more work ill update it.

this is my 1st time seeing the car when a co-worker found it after i told him a few different models i was interested in. took a month to get in touch with him cuz no one lived at the house.





was really dirty from sitting all them years after the owner passed away. the uncle didnt want to fool with it and it wouldnt start. he said make an offer. I made an offer for $1000 how it sits with 16,495 miles on the odometer, he accepted and i towed it home a few days later. dropped the fuel tank and put a new fuel pump in, cleaned the injectors and it fired right up the first day i got it home.

then i gave it a good cleaning inside and out



started with the chrome rocker moldings


cleaned the factory dry-rotted tires and rolled them for a few months till i had a blow-out


carpet was kinda funky so i pulled it out and cleaned it, new jute and it put it back in, good time to run some wires for the radio and future stereo





cleaned up shortly after i got it, sitting next to my lil mini truck


still had the other guys handicap plate


looks pretty nice on the underside



not long after getting the car I had to change the tires and A/C compressor was leaking out the seal.

First Day of driving it i had to clean the engine. this is what it looks like 365 a year. gets a lil dusty but i just clean it again

 
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#796 ·
dont think im going to do any modification on the pod, just have to figure up something to keep it held in place besides the jack and 2x4, ill fix a few cracks and such, repaint it and wire it back up, then make a mirror sign to cover the amp hole...test fit today and now temp dropped a lot and it started raining so im back inside


 
#798 ·
it depends on the light. it was sunny the other day and hard to read against the mirror...today it was overcast and you could read it fine, way better than the pic shows. and with the flip of the switch it lights up red so you can miss it, even in the day time.


with the pod if i have to do any mods it will be for the tank pressure sensor relief, if it hits
 
#800 ·
no, they are different but those pods are easy to make, I had a better way to make it work , fit and use no supports as they arent needed but I dont feel like doing all that extra work, this will be good enough for me. I didnt check exact size but each oval has 2 i think they are 5 1/4" pioneer 3 ways...so 8 total


I was just sitting around thinking, Mardi Gras is right around the corner, I need to get my ass in gear and get this stuff finished.

----------

ok, i was way off, they look like 6.5"s and they are 4 ways

 
#805 ·
the guy who built the trunk pod,i never liked him as he tried to rip me off one day for getting some work done, on top of that he was supposed to give me the friends price...now I have seen him do some great work and ppl ride his nuts like hes the best but I have seen crap from him, coming out of a professional shop.

now this pod has some of his crap features...I couldnt figure how to get the 2nd grills out, the top ones where screwed in...heres the outside view



this is the back view


now one crap job he done is, why choke the speakers down to whatever size hole that is, just messing with the output and quality

the other thing is i couldnt unscrew it b/c the screws come from the other side of the panel..so im trying to figure out his black magic installation and decided, screw it, im just pry it off from the backside...He liquid nailed the grills on, 2 screws from the back would have been perfect and easy on/off

makes me wonder how shops stay in buissness and all them holes on the back, the screws are in backwards so you cant remove them.unless you pry the grill off
 
#806 ·
He just depends on people being too stupid to look. I suppose most people who have them built for them wouldn't even know how to take them apart, much less what they should see if they did. I have never built a box and am not real knowledgeable about system. Even I can see that's some real BS you got there! Just goes to show...you gotta open your own shop!
 
#807 ·
not everyone has the money for me to invest in a shop and I like what I do in bodywork working my own schedule, with tax's going up, i been getting alot of tax free side work so im lovin it right now...now even though he done a lil crap work, the time materials and labor for what he done wasnt bad...it was that pod, wrapped in suede, all 8 speakers, molded fiberglass, 1 JL amp and a big custom amp rack metal bracket to hold it up was $1,500...he tried to charge me $1,000 to install my trunk actuators when I had all the stuff to do it, he just had to install it (i was being lazy till i got that price)...then i found out he put a tablet in my friends car, $1,000 and its stuck to the factory radio trim with just dynamat...on the other side of things ive seen great work from him, wonder how much it cost though
 
#808 ·
lunch time i grabbed the pod and brought it to work to fix a few areas and get it ready for paint, still havent figured how ill keep it hoisted in place yet.

during sand the liquid nail off, the grinder spit oil all over so those wet spots are that, hit it with some solvent and its all gone

layed a lil bondo in a few places and smoothed it out



hand scuffed the hard to reach areas and now its ready for a lil primer, sand, sealer, paint and clear coat
 
#809 ·
I get paid $150 tomorrow for a side job, I have a few dollars in the wallet, have to see what I made this week as work is a lil slow at the moment but I may purchase 2 more optima yellowtops and 8 post terminals so I can have a lot more juice, help the alternator out some when at full tilt till I can get a 2nd alt and figure how to mount it
 
#810 ·
2 optima yellowtops and 8 battery terminals $375.90...going to get 2 junk batteries from the main dealership to return for core charge as each on has a $12 core charge and I could sure use that $24 back

then I threw the pod in the new booth that we just got done after a fire and man is it nice...laid down some red primer and left it there till tomorrow...there are 2 cracks that will be hard to see, if i fixed them, they would just crack again so im leaving them




 
#811 ·
for a second I almost went outside to drill and try to get the batteries mounted, WTF was I thinking,for one I live in louisiana not just b/c I was born here, but I hate cold weather, my hands dont work right when they get cold and when you hit them on something, it hurts a lot more than when its warm...so im not going to go out in the 35degree weather with a ton of humidity in the air. ill just wait till tomorrow and put the car inside in the warm shop, plus ill have some light to.
 
#814 ·
got more done than i thought i would, working around normal work and such...was a paint to get the battery hold downs mounted as i had to get a nut between the frame and floorboard on both sides, but i done it...the batteries are wired up but not how I plan to keep them. I need to get some washers and 4 bolts so i can put the wires on the second battery how i need them...

also after lunch, I sanded the primer, threw the pod in the booth and decided that since I went with red primer and didnt blow through to many areas that sealer wasnt needed...so I based it with 3 nice coats, then 3 nice coats of clear and its drying now

I gotta clean the trunk up





sanded pod


Base Coat



Clear Coat #1


Clear Coat #3



had to put some air in the shocks, them extra batteries got it sagging and beating the skirts up, those will be cut soon
 
#815 ·
went to the hardware and bought some bolts so I can wire the batteries how i need them, then bought 2 turnbuckles...ima use those and some 2x4 scraps I have to make a tool to push the pod up and hold it there tightly...

do that tomorrow, also have to stop by the stereo shop to get some speaker wire for all the speakers, retune the amp for 6.5"s instead of the 6x9s and put it all together.

then my friend wants to wrap his panel and install his neon. or at least get the neon drilled correctly so it can be thrown in wuick when we ready...busy weekend and top it off sunday with atlanta losing to the 49ers
 
#818 ·
ok, made some quick brackets out of 2x4's and turnbuckles...enough to get it in place...think im going to have to do something else to fit it good and permanent...bought some lugs today as to hook the batteries how i need them, 2 wires need to be longer and 1 shorter

thats a project for tomorrow, maybe ill bolt the speakers up and wire them up too.


then onto the green fleet...hooked an amp up so he could have some sound...after measuring twice and cutting once the trim panel was way off, so, im going to cut it more and use on my car and go get some wood, cut him a new one

 
#819 ·
headache after headache, its getting there...i placed the upper covers on and had the wrong side on one end and of course the screw made an outty dimple which i pushed down, hard to see now and it chipped the edge of the paint

then the work that was done on this from a professional shop is just embarrasing...look at how each speaker was in the pod....


it took me all of 10 seconds each speaker to hold it center and drill new holes so it looks like this...hopefully they done the top right, i cant view them as they are covered


then i pick the pod up and part of it falls off holding 2 speakers, it was liquid nailed once already so im waiting for my fix to dry in 24 hours...

got my batteries wired right but now one gauge either is going bad or has a loose wire so gotta figure that out...


getting there though
 
#820 ·
think I fixed the gauge issue but the headaches dont extend to just my car...dont ask how this got screwed up but we placed the neon sign on the trim panel for the green fleet, the neons have a plexiglass backing that is wider than the sign...I centered the sign, traced the edges, then heres the trick, I drew a line 3/4" inside of the neons plexi outline...please can anyone tell me how after cutting that out, that the panel hole is too big...doesnt make sense.

so, my fix will be to cut him a new panel of course with a correct size opening and the panel I have now, I will open it up and fit it to my sign

its dark now but I may go out at halftime and try to mark and get my skirts cut, its been too long
 
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