Thread: 500 Caddy/G Body Swap

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Pope, I have a friend who actually had a copy of that Hot Rod issue that he let me make a copy of. Between the article and some of the posts on the Caddy engine forum this almost looks too easy.

I’m pretty much in the information/ parts collecting stage (as long as the parts are either free or extremely cheap or I can work a swap )

Actually as it sits now the truck is a little rough, the front clip is nice, but as I found out when I got it home the doors have some rust in the bottoms. The interchange books show the only doors that are a bolt on are El Camino and Malibu which are just not around here any more.

Looking around the net though I found out that if I use the entire front clip and doors (windows have to be changed) from a Monte Carlo it will work and I think it gives it a pretty neat look. The second picture is one the conversion has been done to. I can live without the visor but I do like the looks. I’ve located a donor Monte at local wrecking yard that has all the straight rust free sheetmetal I will need it’s been there for years and would likely go in the next crush otherwise. I should be able to get pretty cheaper than doing the body work to repair the doors I have.

I can’t believe how well the parts collecting is going at this point. I already have the 500 Caddy El Dorado engine with the correct pan (and a 472 for parts that will donate the drivers exhaust manifold and non-EGR intake). My Pontiac TH 400 turned up MIA, but a friend donated one from a 455 Pontiac he no longer had a need for. Another guy donated a pair of new rear springs and shocks that he never got around to installing before he sold the car (the rear springs currently on the El Camino had been cut).

Yesterday was a good day for parts collecting. While I was wondering around the wrecking yard after looking over the blue Monte, I wandered over to the crush pile (cars that are already prepped and stacked waiting on the crusher) and there on the middle of a three car stack was another Monte (too rough to use for sheetmetal). I HAD to climb and take a peek inside. It had a red interior (I’m leaning towards doing the El Camino in red anyway) with really nice door panels and the red kick panels and windshield trim I will need. It also had a gauge cluster with gauges instead of idiot lights unfortunately it clock instead of tach equipped but it’s a start. As I’m one of the guys that often helps out during the crushing they told me just to take what I wanted as it was going on the crusher anyway.

For this is a project I’ve decided to keep a record of what I’m spending on it (usually not a good idea you usually don’t really want to know how much you really have in a project ) . Out of pocket to date (including the parts I spent money on or traded for over the last 10 years or so which includes the motors), I’m into it for around $500 at this point.

When you subtract the things like the truck itself that was bought as a parts car and the needed parts used on another project the El Camino basically ends up being free. Then their things were bought as a package deal and pieces sold off (like buying 2 caddy parts cars with 472s for $100 and selling one 472 for $50 etc). When all that is factored I’m right at $200 total for the project t this point. Of course the really expensive stuff is still down the road (rebuilding a big inch Caddy appears to be around the same cost as doing a Hemi…..but that’s down the road.

I'm willing to bet it's a lot more work to install the 9" than the engine and trans.. Oughta be a piece of cake in the G body..Nice combo too