I thought you guys would like to see my little project.
Little background first...bought the car this past summer. It is a 1926 Cadillac Hearse, the body was made by the Superior Motor Car Company. The car was originally from a Long Island Funeral Home and then someone bought it up in Hall, NY in the late sixties. It was last registered in the seventies sometime. It's in great shape for its age. Barn fresh as they say. It's pretty amazing there is very very little wood rot and hardly any rust.
Storage barn in Hall, NY:
Loading her up:
Lunchtime:
Backing down the driveway to her new home in NJ:
Unloading it off the trailer:
Me laughing that the mechanical brakes and clutch still work:
A whole bunch of spare parts and other goodies were inside the car:
All cleaned out:
Pulling in next to my dad's 1936 Packard...which should give you an idea of what this will look like when done:
Another garage shot:
All done:
I don't have any pictures of the pictures of the disassembly/engine removal/etc. sadly they are all on my fathers computer back in NJ. I'll post them up when I go home for Thanksgiving.
Here's how the car sits now.
Notice the drivers side frame rail is bent out a little bit. It appears the car did originally have a front bumper (they were an option back then). There was a busted off bracket on the passenger side splash guard...and that's where the bumper bracket connects. What's weird though is that there was no body damage.
We took all the measurements and stripped the suspension off the frame. However, we need to know the outside diameter of the wheel and tires so we can get the suspension done correctly. We used my dad's rear wheel/tire as the Cadillac's front. It's an 18" Boyd Coddington wheel. I like the wheel/tire size, I think it looks good. However, for the rear, we used a 20" wheel off the pickup in the background of one of the pics. The entire diameter is 33". I don't know how I feel about it. I want to say the wheel should be larger, but once you go over a 33" tire, you start going to truck tires, which have a more aggressive tread. I don't particularly like the ~1" space that sits around the outside diameter of the frame. The frame is angled/blocked up to roughly how the stance will sit.
So, my question is what do you guys think? I am very open to ideas so PLEASE help me pick out some wheels. We also want to get wheels sorted out rather quickly so that we can get the frame and suspension all done. I think 18s for the front, not sure if 20 will do it for the rear, so help me out. I prefer chrome to aluminum because aluminum polish sucks. I think my dads wheels look good, so similar to that style...and no spinners.
Oh, and I do have a color picked out...and it is a BMW color. :D
Little background first...bought the car this past summer. It is a 1926 Cadillac Hearse, the body was made by the Superior Motor Car Company. The car was originally from a Long Island Funeral Home and then someone bought it up in Hall, NY in the late sixties. It was last registered in the seventies sometime. It's in great shape for its age. Barn fresh as they say. It's pretty amazing there is very very little wood rot and hardly any rust.
Storage barn in Hall, NY:
Loading her up:
Lunchtime:
Backing down the driveway to her new home in NJ:
Unloading it off the trailer:
Me laughing that the mechanical brakes and clutch still work:
A whole bunch of spare parts and other goodies were inside the car:
All cleaned out:
Pulling in next to my dad's 1936 Packard...which should give you an idea of what this will look like when done:
Another garage shot:
All done:
I don't have any pictures of the pictures of the disassembly/engine removal/etc. sadly they are all on my fathers computer back in NJ. I'll post them up when I go home for Thanksgiving.
Here's how the car sits now.
Notice the drivers side frame rail is bent out a little bit. It appears the car did originally have a front bumper (they were an option back then). There was a busted off bracket on the passenger side splash guard...and that's where the bumper bracket connects. What's weird though is that there was no body damage.
We took all the measurements and stripped the suspension off the frame. However, we need to know the outside diameter of the wheel and tires so we can get the suspension done correctly. We used my dad's rear wheel/tire as the Cadillac's front. It's an 18" Boyd Coddington wheel. I like the wheel/tire size, I think it looks good. However, for the rear, we used a 20" wheel off the pickup in the background of one of the pics. The entire diameter is 33". I don't know how I feel about it. I want to say the wheel should be larger, but once you go over a 33" tire, you start going to truck tires, which have a more aggressive tread. I don't particularly like the ~1" space that sits around the outside diameter of the frame. The frame is angled/blocked up to roughly how the stance will sit.
So, my question is what do you guys think? I am very open to ideas so PLEASE help me pick out some wheels. We also want to get wheels sorted out rather quickly so that we can get the frame and suspension all done. I think 18s for the front, not sure if 20 will do it for the rear, so help me out. I prefer chrome to aluminum because aluminum polish sucks. I think my dads wheels look good, so similar to that style...and no spinners.
Oh, and I do have a color picked out...and it is a BMW color. :D
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