What's the best and not so best modification you've done?

[Tosh Dickenson]

Would love to hear what modifications you've done to your Caddy that you are very happy about; and those that you wished you'd never done.

[Dan McNarry]

Here's the link...

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/saginaw-steering-boxes/

To pick the right part number I went on Rockauto.com and searched steering boxes on various cars mentioned by the Hemmings chap. I picked the 70 Monte Carlo 454 SS as it would have been the heaviest of the mid sized cars and looked at the ratios available. I picked a part number and called around town to see who had one. Turned out NAPA did so I unbolted my old one and headed over and swapped, plus some cash of course. It took about three hours all told.

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Dan 

Nice job with the research and final outcome 

As much as I ever wanted to know about Saginaw steering boxes for sure 

Stay Safe 

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Dan 

The keep it in the family thing with these early 60’s Cadillac is a very interest aspect of our  own interest and hobby with these unique great cars 

They often do not leave the immediate circle of a given family and are well cared for by there owners for sheer love of the cars as in your case mine and many others 

I know many older performance minded individuals that eventually gravitate to the Cadillacs of the 60’s and 70’s 

The 62 - 64 being some of the very best Cadillacs for the sheer quality of the parts that went into them when new 

Some place on here there is a video  made by GM that show the the  detail attention  testing and quality of the parts that went into the 62 Cadillac there engines being built to aircraft specification for that space and time which is rather remarkable ( posted by Jeff Kinsler - hope I got the last name right ) 

You might enjoy seeing that 

Stay Safe 

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Jeff’s last name is Kinzler 

He may be around soon to help find the GM 1962 Video production 

[Dan McNarry]

That video is pretty cool. I have watched it many times and can attest to one of the talking points as being very true. They talk about the quality of steel used in the crankshaft and connecting rods. Well, I have taken several first gen 390's apart and some of them were woefully neglected. My mock up motor for example was choked with sludge and oil deposit buildup and likely never saw regular oil changes during it's later years. One of the local high performance machine shops sought me out to see if I had a crankshaft and a couple of connecting rods for a 390. I took the crank and rods out of my mock up not expecting much. They were perfect still, just needing a light polish to be put back in to use. I was amazed to say the least. 

A side note on the 331, 365 and 390, the original designer was Ed Cole who went on to design the small block Chevrolet. If you have had both apart, you will see the genealogy as there are many similarities. And now for something really obscure that I found out while trying to get a better timing chain for my car. The 331, 365 and 390 have the same distance between crankshaft and camshaft centre lines. They also have the same number of teeth per gear. What's more, the early 327 and Caddy engines share the same timing chain. Other small blocks have a narrower chain with fewer link plates. So the happy upshot is you can use an early (small journal) 327 high performance aftermarket timing chain in your first gen 390. Which is exactly what I now run in mine. If someone can tell me how many teeth and links the second gen 390 and 429 have in their chains I could probably find out if Cloyes has a chain that works for them. I went down this rabbit hole after putting an aftermarket chain in my engine that only lasted about 5 years of regular driving. My "hot rod" heads have much stiffer springs than stock so I needed a good chain. The aftermarket stuff you can find online is crap.

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Dan 

As always very interesting and informative information that I surely enjoy 

[Dan McNarry]

I need to call off the dogs, Rockauto now lists the 390/429 timing chain from Cloyes. Just for giggles, you can check Rockauto for a 1965 327 and see that it is the same part number. The number by the way is C489. 

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Dan 

Thank you for the follow up and part number of the timing chain 

Basicly the low end of our year Cadillacs are built proof only having seen one Rod go thru the block since 2006 myself on this site and god only knows the  time and maintenance schedule of that particular  engine 

[Russ Austin]

Just been doing this for so long now. My 63 4 window series 62 sedan is a rolling test bed of improvements.

Disk brakes up front before there were kits.

electric fuel pump.

LED tail lights

electric windshield washer pump

new box style rear lower control arms

upgraded original AM/FM radio, and it has blue tooth, audio jack, flash drive plug and microphone capable.

Reworked water pump by a specialist who machined the pump to be true to the impeller.

Restored dash, steering wheel and door panels. (the most expensive job)

Power vent windows

Front seat arm rest

Adding AC to the non AC car. I used an under dash unit by Vintage Air. 

Getting rid of the manual vacuum valve on the NSS and adding in an electric vacuum valve that is controlled by a relay wired to the NSS.

What I didnt like was the electric fan I had o the car at one time. To noisy for a classic car. 

Putting an aftermarket radio in the glove box.  So glad I had an original radio redone.

[Ian Osborne]

Kind of like Jason, I have added options that my plain jane '63 convertible did not have originally.

I found a super clean am/fm radio in a junkyard and installed that. I installed power vent windows and bucket seats and console. That is the one I like most as it was quite a project to complete and came out great with all the wiring done correctly. Everything works as it should. I still need to find the plastic covers for the floor brackets. They are really hard to find for the bucket seats so I may have to fabricate them or adapt a bench seat set.

After a lengthy search, I found a sway bar from a hearse and put that on and like the improvement.

Pertronix ignition was an easy install and works great.

I did the front brake conversion with the '69 equipment and this is the one I'd like a do over on. I liked the idea of using GM parts but It requires spacers and I just don't like that. Stopping power is great though. I may still switch to an after market kit and sell the stuff I have now. The master cylinder can stay and I already have the proportioning valve so it will be an easy job.

Somewhere out there is a tilt steering column destined for my car.

[Dan McNarry]

Ian..."After a lengthy search, I found a sway bar from a hearse and put that on and like the improvement."

I have been looking for years to no avail. Still hope to find one but I may end up having to build a custom one. Rare as hen's teeth up here...