Restoring my Cadillac 'MaXiMe'

As she looks now (28/3/1999)

I started to dismantle MaxiMe in September 96 and soon found massive amounts of rust.

To get better she had to look worse.

After various enquires I was given, by a fellow yank owner, the details of a guy in Medway who would be able to do the welding. Kevin done the restoration work during his spare time and was just finishing his 1956 Cadillac Sedan and agreed to take on the work.

Much much worse.

During the winter various components were cleaned, repaired and painted. The welding was finished in March 97 and Maxime returned home. The next job was the respary. At the time I hoped that this would be done by the begining of summer, pity I was out by a year! After sripping the offside rear wing by hand I decided to have the other panels shot blasted, this turned out to be a big mistake. Cash was getting a bit thin and so the work slowed down. I continued to work on component pieces before the panels were collected from blasting. By the begining of autumn MaXiMe had been moved, along with a 57 Buick and a 57 Olds, into a large dry barn. Here the panels were primed before winter set in. Subsequent months were spent fixing problems with the body panels and chassis mounts as by now money was running low.

During late spring of 98 I started to prepare to spray the top coats of paint. As the panel were still far from straight I decided that black would highlight all the imperfections of the bodywork. After looking through hundreds of paint chips i was still no closer to picking a colour for MaXiMe. In the end a just thought "Sod it let's make her loud and lary" and chose "Chrom Lemon Yellow" one on the 12 base colours. This may not be a Cadillac colour but she don't half stand out from the crowd.....

During the winter of 98/99 I spent a bucket load of dosh on rechroming the bumpers, grill and some of the rear light fittings. As work progressed I was sure that this year she would hit the road and go to a few Yank car shows.
One problem I was constantly having was fuel starvation. It would stike after running the car for about 5-10 minutes and would usally kill the battery trying to get her going again. After "curing" the problem by re-building the fuel pump, installing a custom made fuel tank (my brother-in-law blew the old to bits trying to solder up the lose pipe connecter with a blow torch, the git laughed for days and told the guys in the pub it was my fault) I set out for the MoT.
It was early one Saturday morning in late spring and the sky was blue and the sun was shining (still had no top for her). I got to the testing station and was first in the queue for that days testing. "Turn her around and park over by the lamp post" said the examiner so I drove 100 yards up the road, turned round and she cut out, refused to start and flattend the battery. Lucky for me that my Classic Car insurance had free recovery.
Air was still getting in the fuel line and collecting in the glass bowl of the fuel pump thus slowly lowing the fuel level untill it would not enter the main pump chamber. As I had previously fitted a Jaguar electric fuel pump to my old '53 Pontiac I set out for the local breakers yard and got a pump off an old Jag. As the Pontiac was 12 volts and the MaXiMe was 6 volts I was a bit worried that the pump would not deliver the fuel quick enough, lack off fuel was not the result. I fitted the pump along with some more new hose and turned on the ignition. within 10 seconds the pump had burst the fuel hose an sprayed petrol everywhere.....lucky nothing worse happend. After checking the pump I found that that the pump on the Pontiac was proberbly off a Jag with carbs and the one on the Cadillac was off a fuel injected Jag. The pump for a fuel injected jag delevers over 200PSI and even at 6 volts was too much for the hoses.
Remebering my basic electronics lectures I decided to drop the volts by fitting a voltage divider using some resistance wire, rubber hose and lots of insulation tape. The amount of resistance had to be adjusted to provide enough petrol without overflowing the carb and drenching the engine.
A few weeks later MaXiMe was MoTed, Taxed (free due to age) and insured and it was off to the August Bank Holiday american car show at the Belvedere Hotel, Basildon, Essex. Skoota's 57' Buick was temporarly out off action so he had borrowed a '58 Slobmobile. Both having badlt blowing exhausts we gave it some wellie through the Dartford Tunnel and made a 2.8 Capri owner cower....lovely jubbly........
Got to the show and would you beleve it all the other '50's Caddy owners from the south east were no shows....

As I had some days after the August Bank Holiday I went crusin' ( and why not? ). I was on my way from Maidstone to Canterbury via Ashford to avoid a big long uphill section due to the engine having a slight bottom end knock. As I got into Ashford there was a big pop, hiss and steam belowed out from under the bonnet. The top hose was split.. I found a Halfords a mile or so up the road and managed to get a piece of hose the right width, cut it to length and bodge fit it to get me home. I Drove back to the Halfords as there was a petrol station next door and I needed to top up the radiator. True to form after I had filled up with water she refused to start......After much swearing I remembered that I had a spare small 6 volt battery in the boot, if I crank the moter on the main battery and run the coil from the second she may start (another electronics lectuer well remembered). I balanced the spare battery on the fron wing, attached some wire and got a volanteer to press the start button...VROOOOM..on the button....The rest of the journey home was wondering how to incorporate two batteries into the existing electrics. The last four days of the holiday was spent removing the engine and transmission for a much needed rebuild.

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