[BoostedOne]

BoosteOne's Caddy Build

I'm gettin to old for this But I love it.
Long story short, I commute about 85 miles a day for work. I have a nice new car to drive, but its racking up miles at sickening pace, and the best I can manage out of it is an average of about 23mpg. I don't want to drive my dually as a daily because, well, it only gets about 18. I was considering getting my MkII VR resurrected, but that thing only gets around 23...

So, on July 26th, I picked up my new project. a 1982 Caddy Diesel with a broken timing belt. Body is in fair shape. From what I could tell, body was in decent shape. Shock towers seemed solid, floors seemed good.. Had some rust bubbling though in one fender, one A-Pillar, and one B-Pillar. Its a 5 speed truck, with a gutted dash.
Plans are get the 1.6D running again, but later replace it with a 1.9TDI or AAZ.. Roll on 14x8 and 14x9s and coils and rear axle flip. Paint to be BMW Leguna Seca Blue.. I have a friend with an 01 M3 and I love the color.
The rest of the details will sort themselves out.. But I originally planned to have it repainted and together by the first week of October or so..

Here she is when I first got her...

July 26:
Still on the trailer as I day dream with excitement through the back window..

Got her offloaded into her temporary parking spot out back. The truck came with 2 bed loads(the caddy and my dually), and a cab load of spare parts..
Interior Looks pretty good.. Too bad theres nothing behind the dash..

The very, uhhh, lively painted 1.6D

Since I have always preferred round lights going back into the mid 90s, first thing I did was source a round headlight swap. I found a wrecker who had a 90 Cabby that was in pretty good shape. I ended up buying the front clip. Since there is nothing behind my dash, and hard top rabbits that arent already half stripped are getting harder to come by in these parts, I also decided to get the dash, A/C stuff and all.. So the Caddy will be getting a Cabby dash swap.

 

[Vegeta Gti]

:beer::beer:

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[BoostedOne]

Due to the ton of new parts, for the first week I didnt get to actually work on the truck. I had to organize my storage connex and build new shelves.

But by first week of August, I had the new clip.

August was a rough month. I got slowed down pretty bad. Work has gotten really busy, and I have cows. One of them got pretty sick and took constant care for a week until she died, then I had to deal with that. This is also grass growing season, the stuff grows like mad this time of year and cutting it takes all weekend every two weeks.. It didnt help that the mower threw a rod through the side of the block, so I had to shift gears and drop 1800 clams on a new engine for the mower and get that installed and working and caught up around the property.:banghead:

SOOO, finally in late august I start working on the truck.. Got her inside, and threw the Clipper bumper on it just to see what it fit like... Not sure Im crazy about it.. But hey, it was included with the clip so I figured I would atleast look..

August 15 I start actually getting going on the truck. Out comes the motor...

Get over to the new clip, and start working on that..
I used a torch to hack the frame rails down by the mounts, then gradually cut the frame rails away from the cross member in little peices in order to leave the round light cross member un hacked.

I didnt get any pics of it, but from there I drilled out ALL the spot welds between the inner fenders on the donor clip and the core support, and the spot welds holding the cross member to the inner fenders

August 17th, I moved over to the truck.. I did just the opposite to the truck, removing the Westy core support in sections in order to preserve the frame rails and inner fenders.

August 18, got the new core support test fitted and tacked in!

 

[BoostedOne]

Over the course of the next week, worked on work, house, etc. Managed to get the core support welded in.

On August 25, pushed the truck outside for a date with the sandblaster.. Rather than sit and try to strip all the paint from the engine compartment, I just blasted it..

The interior looks like a beach!

Got it back inside, and the next day I got a coat of epoxy primer down...

While I was on a roll, went ahead and blew the paint in the engine compartment
BMW Leguna Seca Blue

On August 30, moved on to the fenders.. Deleted the marker lights and the antenna hole.

I actually thought at this point the hard part was done, and that I would breeze through the rest of the truck.
Between the 30th and the 7th, I stripped the interior, the glass, and pushed the truck outside and blasted the rest of the rust..

Welded a patch in the A Pillar..

Cut out a section to patch in the rear of the cab..

I didnt get any after pics, but heres the hole in the B pillar.. previous owner was nice enough to use VW in a can(Bondo).. I hate that halfass crap.. I will say making that patch across 3 body lines in 5 inches was FUN...WITH A CURVE..

 

[BoostedOne]

Between the 7th and the 16th.. This thing sucked..LOL.. Like I say, I thought the hard part was behind me.. But no.. it was a tedious week of sanding, smoothing, and more sanding.. I managed to get the A and B pillar done and interior patched. That was the fun part.. the crappy part was the previous owner painted the truck with some cheap acrylic enamel.. The stuff just laughs at 220 or 180 grit... I ended up stripping through several layers of enamel and primer using 80 grit on the DA.. It was just a pain because the truck was covered in chips(what else is enamel good for other than chipping!).. Feathering all these chips was a pain in the buttocks..

The previous owners love affair with bondo extended to the flair holes, which were bondo'd shut..

SAY NO TO THE BONDO! LOL....
Welded the holes shut...

I don't know how much filler the previous bonehead went trhough on this truck, but after shaving the side markers, antenna hole, repairing the A pillar and b pillar, the wheel wells, and hammering out various dents, I've used less than a QUART of filler on this entire truck.. That includes half of it ending up on the floor in the form of dust and what ended up in the trash can not used after being activated..

 

[BoostedOne]

THIS WEEK THINGS GOT INTERESTING

Of the more not so fun, I continued sanding and priming...YAWN....

BUT, my wheels started showing up on the 20th.. 14x8 and 9 Steffan Cups.. Bald 195-45's in the front, 225-40s in the rear. Unfortunately as of today, the 23rd, one rear wheel still has not shown up, and theres no tracking update since Germany on the 8th... I hope it isnt lost

Yesterday I finished sanding the shell and fenders, as well as tried to help gsusmaniac try to get some bolts out of his manifold..Sorry Erik that it didnt work out....

Today the truck got rolled outside and washed....

IN PREPARATION OF PAINT!! I feel like a giant weight just came off my shoulders...

No more rust holes!

I couldnt resist putting the stuff together tonight, even though I was exhausted from working on the truck every waking moment that I am not at work the past several weeks.

Next I need to get the doors stripped down, cleaned up and primed.. The hood is in pretty good shape and already degreased, ready to prime and paint..
I actually had the tailight fillers ready to paint today, and the first batch of paint was all messed up and made a mess of the fillers.. so I get the strip them, and redo...

Then on to mechanical. The brakes are shot, wheelbearings are shot, suspension is shot(found some ground controls in the junkyard, but they are cranked all the way down and I still have a gap too).. need to do the rear axle flip, etc.
Going to try to get the rest of the body panels painted this week and maybe start messing with the engine.. Goal is to atleast have it mobile for the MkI GTG in st augustine October 13..

 

[SpeedieD]

Awesome build! Excellent color choice as well.

I hope you get your last wheel quickly!

 

[twinscrewcaddy]

I approve this thread...!
:beer:

 

[Stan Marsh]

At first I wasn't sure how Laguna Seca Blue would look. But now after seeing it on the truck, that looks awesome. I am excited to see it with the suspension dialed in. :beer:

 

[SouthernRoads]

looking good! hope i can see it Oct 13th!

 

[MicroCADDY]

I support progress like this

 

[BoostedOne]

Thanks yall. Its been stressing, LOL..
I want to go to the show so bad on the 13th, and it would suck to go without it so I am pushing myself like crazy to get it there one way or another..

I hope the 3rd wheel comes in too! But in case it doesn't, whats the deal with 16s on a MkI? I have 16x7 and 16x9 keskins with 195 40's on my MkII I could put on the truck. I think I heard they don't fit, but why? I think the OD is the same as a stocker..

Going to run over and get the head from one of the engines that came with the truck checked for flatness in a few minutes. The truck came with the engine that was in it, a spare block and head, and a complete motor and tranny from a 1.6L MkII. I have no history on it. The timing belt was off it, so I was thinking it also slung a belt, but the pistons look fine. Im hoping the head is flat, because its a hydraulic lifter engine. I havent had a solid lifter car VW since the early early 90s, so I dont have shims and the tools laying around anymore. Would be nice to freshen up a hydro headed motor than the solid..

Tonight, not sure what I am going to do.. Probably sand the base coat eff up off the taillight fillers, and maybe start prepping the hood.. I ran out of clear coat so I need to order more.. My blaster needs a part, need to get that too.. Once i get the blaster part, I can get the doors ready.. Im not going to mess with trying to strip them with paper, I lose motivation just thinking about that.

How do you remove the vent windows? Are they riveted in?

 

[BoostedOne]

At first I wasn't sure how Laguna Seca Blue would look. But now after seeing it on the truck, that looks awesome. I am excited to see it with the suspension dialed in. :beer:

Yeah, I pondered about color for a while.. I was trying to think of something other than blue since I have done a bunch of blue cars, and I own a few of them now. I was wanting something that would stand out, but not TOO much.. Low key but still pop, if that makes sense..
Then one day I was coming back to the office from my jogging, and as I came through the parking lot I saw my buddies M3 there and I pictured it on the caddy. That was it!
The pics really arent showing the hue all that great in my opion. It actually has a little teal to the color, which is one of the reasons I picked it because its not "just a blue", LOL...

 

[avw4me]

love the color :beer:

 

[rallydiesel]

This is going to be one nice truck! :thumbup:

 

[BoostedOne]

Thanks y'all.
Didn't really do anything yesterday on the truck. I think I was wore out from the weekend.
Only thing I did(if you can call it doing something ) is take a head into a shop to get it checked out. On that note though, I think they are phucking me.... its like 220 bucks to have the head cleaned up and a valve job, plus parts. I was so tired when I dropped it off it didn't even hit me. Going to call another shop this morning that i really like, and if they give me a better feeling im going to pick it up and take it to the other place even though its way across town.

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[BoostedOne]

YES!
The last wheel arrived and is waiting to be picked up! Figures that yesterday I went through a huge pain to get a tracer put on the package with the Duetsche Post since the last update for the past 3 weeks was like the second step of the journey.

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[allklrnoflr]

boosted,
local homie, looks great, good progress:thumbup:keep up the work. cant wait to see it

 

[SouthernRoads]

keep it up! would be sick to see this at the a1 classic.

 

[BoostedOne]

Thanks!
Trying to figure out what im going to do for an engine.. Just got the call from the head shop.. to get the head done is going to cost 657$. needs 8 valves and 8 guides.
I want to keep it a diesel, but I dont want to have over a grand in a na 1.6... But I dont have the money laying around to make it a TDI either..
I guess in the mean time I will throw the 2.0L 16V out of the other caddy in there while I figure it out..