Thread: 500 Caddy/G Body Swap

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It’s back down on the ground and the hood is back on it. I’m very happy with the results so far. In spite of the size of the engine compared to a SBC everything fits well and the engine compartment doesn’t look nearly as “busy” as the engine compartment in the Wife’s 84 with the 350 in it. Of course a large part of that is not having the AC box on the fire wall. Everything looks like it’s going to be easily serviceable and there was plenty of room for the Quadrajet with a 1” spacer and 2” air cleaner.

I have been working on getting the Hot Rod Air unit in which is the compromise for having the clean firewall. From some of the postings I have seen around the net I’m under the understanding that HRA has gone out of business. I know I had a lot of aggravation with them when I originally tried to buy the unit a while back. They did have a reputation for making a quality product so I just hope everything works well and gives me a good service life (I have already bench checked all the electrical and vacuum controls and everything seems to work as it should).

I’m using the biggest unit they make, which makes things a little snug, and in retrospect it might have been easier to have gone with the unit that was the next size down ( I really thought I had a bit more room LOL).

With a little bit of trimming on the inside of the dash I was able to get the unit up where I wanted it. I will have to modify the inside of the glove box somewhat to clear the blower motor, but that shouldn’t be too bad.

As this is a universal type setup I had to fabricate some simple brackets to hold it in place which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

What I’m currently working on is trying to tie the system into the factory duct work rather than running a bunch of hoses to all the vents. I think I have it figured out and but it’s going to involve a bit of fiberglass work over the weekend.

I got back on the AC unit over the last couple of days. I used the same trick I did on the heater box for the 57, using metal tape to form what I needed to then covering it with fiberglass.

For the defrosters I ended up making an extension that completly covers the defroster outlets on the HRA unit. As this will never be seen again I didn't spend a lot of time smoothing the outside on this one.

Then to seal it it was just cut a piece of foam to fill the gap.

I actually had a heck of a time finding a piece of foam to make the seal out of. The 2 places I used to be able to buy it before no longer carried it. What I ended up finding was one of these contoured foam pillows which turned out to work great. I compresses easily and seems to make a really good seal. It also cuts pretty well with the wife’s electric knife .

Once I got it all put back together I put the dash and vents back in to check how well it moved air. I was able to do a direct comparison between this system and the wife’s 84 El Camino with factory AC. The airflow thru the dash vents is at least as good as the factory setup and the amount of floor air flow is better. The defrosters do not flow as well as the factory setup but it should still be sufficient.

As usual it never seems to end, now that I’ve gotten this far I’ve decided I don’t really care for the controls that came with the unit. Comparing how the HRA controls work and the factory setup, I think it should fairly easy (famous last words) to make it work with the original controls.

know where your coming from. I got rid of the great big non efficient space robbing, not real efficient ac/ heat stuff myself, and yes It can be done.Not exactally the same car/ P/U as mine, but close.You can use the what used to be kinda dash/ electronic/ vacuum controls in the origional cabin, which is what I wanted to achieve.and like you went aftermarket.Much better. Im trying to post picks, no dice right now. jeeze 500 Caddy who would'a thought. Wow

Nice lightening rods, I had thought about picking up a set for this at one point.

Well I’ve finished up the controls for the Hot Rod Air set up. I spent yesterday tracing down the vacuum and electrical circuits on the stock controls as I couldn’t find any diagrams for them…..AHH quality time with an Ohm meter and vacuum pump .

Using the supplied controls would not have been hard but I don’t think I would have been have been happy with how the control panel looked compared to the factory setup. I also kind of feel that using the 3 electrically controlled vacuum solenoids (one to change modes from dash vents to floor heat, one for defrost, and one to turn on and off the heater (water) control valve) was a bit over complicated, let alone having to mount all the solenoids. Also with the vacuum controlled heater control valve the heater would either be full on or full off. I do like the feature of the AC temp control switch that controls the amount of AC cooling by cycling the compressor so I will be retaining that feature.

When all was said and done this is what the modified control panel looks like. Vacuum to the HRA vacuum pods is now directly controlled by the switch, and instead of a vacuum heater control (water) valve it is cable operated so I can regulate the temperature from the stock slide lever. I have all 3 fan speeds from the stock switch fan switch and the whole unit is shut down by the mode lever just like the OE setup. I’ll be mounting the HRA AC temp switch right beside the controls in the whole the lighter normally goes in. If I choose I can even have “blend” (heat and AC) on the defrost setting. It works just like the OE setup with the exception of not having the ability to draw outside air in the vent position (an option I did not order with the HRA setup as I never use it anyway).

I am kind of glad I went this route from the standpoint of being able to get replacement parts should I ever need them. I have a couple of spare OE controls laying around so I have spare switched etc should I ever need them.

Looks like a good plan to me, Mike, should work out great! I have a similar unit going in the '36, probably going to steal some of your ideas!

I hadn’t given too much thought to the windows on this figuring they would just drop into the Monte Carlo doors, in fact I was just going to leave the windows in the old El Camino doors until it was time for final assembly. I went to put the doors somewhere out of the way last weekend when I was reminded never to assume.

The back of the El Camino windows angle forward quite a bit more than the Monte windows did. To make up for this the inner sweeps are wider, more forward and there is a guide pin added to the rear of the sweep. A couple hours with a cut of wheel, MIG and die grinder and that little job was done.

Same on every project, isn't it Mike? Always got to be a minor little snag or two or three that shows up!!! But, remember--if it was easy, everybody would be doing it!

Here is my current steering project upgrade for the El Camino. I had read where the 84-96 Jeep Cherokee Steering shaft was an almost bolt in swap on these and replaces the trunion and rag joints with U Joints,

You can still buy the shafts new but they are a bit pricey……there is not much demand for used ones however so they are pretty cheap at the local yards or on E Bay. Even though I had solved my steering shaft to manifold clearance problems the Jeep shaft does give some additional room.

The only mod that needed to be made was a small groove cut for the clamp bolt on the steering column end. It also saved me having to take the original intermediate shaft apart to lube and put a new boot on.

I really didn’t think there would be much difference, but you can actually feel that th steering is smoother now with the different shaft.

Mike great info on swap read all 6 pg on post going to start my swap 1987 cutlass .

I've made a bit of progress over the last few weeks.

One of the things I was going to get around to was doing something about the gap left after the under hood portion of the AC was removed. With the housing removed any water coming off the windshield would end up running down the passenger side of the fire wall and probably hitting the exhaust manifold among other things. It turns out there is an outfit that already makes the panel I needed….at a decent price and it actually fits as advertised. I figure that saved me at least half a day of fabricating.

Next I got everything taken apart and ready for the body shop. I found a “nice” surprise waiting for me under the rear window trim. Guess I figured out where the water came from that rotted the section of floor.

Over the weekend I picked up some flat-stock and finished up the frame mounts. I slotted the passenger side mount to allow the engine to be installed and removed with the motor mounts attached to the engine. It only seems like I made 100 trips in and out of the engine bay measuring, cutting, welding, grinding and painting to get it all done (I figure I’ll feel that in the morning).

Hopefully I’ll get an estimate on the body work this week and maybe even ship it if to the body shop. With some room freed up I’ll be able to get started on the 500.

Yup, that's why the floor was wet!!!! Looking good Mike, what colors are you thinkin' for the outside or you gonna wait and surprise us????