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Allow us to introduce you to "Devilla".

She is a pretty solid 1965 Cadillac Deville sedan. She appears to have the original V8 Cadillac engine.

It seems to be in decent over all condition.

The client has booked it in for a custom "Resto Mod" type of restoration.

It arrived at our spa in non running condition. It had been sitting for many years.

We inspected the overall condition, the frame appears to be in very good condition. It will require metal fabrication in the floor, trunk & rocker panel areas. It is structurally a very sound car! Other cosmetic fabrication will be done as required.

The factory original power four wheel drum brakes were checked over. The suspension was also inspected and required parts were noted to make Devilla a nice roadworthy driver.

Devilla's fuel tank was removed and inspected it for corrosion. The nasty varnish smell old gas was drained and the tank was pressure washed and cleaned out, it now looks like new, no rust!

We replaced the rear brakes (new brake shoes, new drums, new wheel cylinders and spring kit. The original looking front tie rod ends were also replaced.

The factory front drum brakes were removed and replaced with an upgraded power front disc brake conversion kit.

We will have an alignment done after the restoration is completed.

The original Cadillac engine was checked over, there was little to no compression. The client decided to have the engine replaced with an upgraded power plant, instead of rebuilding the original one......Guess what we are going to put in Devilla?

An "LT1" fuel injected V8 engine, with an upgraded transmission! Talk about a great engine choice!

Devilla will have lots of power, be much better on fuel and also have the reliability of fuel injection.

We located a used low mileage "LT1" engine and transmission. We ordered an inline high pressure fuel pump, top of the line ceramic coated headers. We will be fabricating a complete dual exhaust system from scratch.

Devilla is going to be a blast to drive...a real "Sleeper".

We removed the old engine and transmission. We cleaned the "LT1" engine. We de-greased the engine bay area, sanded, and painted the engine bay area a semi gloss black to show off the Devilla's new heart!

The LT1 engine was set in the engine bay area to mark where the new motor mounts needed to be installed. Lots of fabrication was required. Once all the rough in work was completed, we re installed the LT1 back into the engine bay.

A "top of the line" Painless Wiring Harness was installed to ensure years of trouble free enjoyment.

The old rusty radiator was upgraded with a special four core aluminum radiator and we added a high volume electric fan with a thermal switch to control the temperature.

Devilla now starts, stops and lot drives...she is quite loud. The custom dual exhaust system was next. The exhaust system sounds almost normal (close to stock) at idle, but has a much more aggressive sound (deeper tone) at higher rpm's.

All of the exterior trim and bumpers were removed. We also removed all of the glass.

The interior was next. The seats, door panels, headliner and all other interior components were removed including seat belts, carpet and trim and exposed the interior floor.

Once the interior floor was cleaned and scraped we noted the rusty areas that needed to be cut out and replaced with new metal. With all new steel welded where needed, the welds were all ground smooth and a special black anti rust paint was applied to the complete floor area (two coats).

We installed sound insulation to the complete interior of the car.

The rear trunk outer support brackets were badly rusted. We cut off the rusted sections and made new replacement brackets for both passenger and driver sides.

They were welded in and ground smooth. Two coats of anti rust paint was applied followed by a light coat of commercial grade rocker guard.

Our attention turned to the exterior of Devilla next.

There was obviously numerous layers of paint. Our paint depth gauge had no reading (meaning the paint is over 19 ppm thick).

We needed to replace the passenger front fender (it had been damaged previously and had excessive body fillers and rotted out sections behind the wheel area.

We were able to source an original passenger front fender (red) from the southern U.S. to replace the damaged one.

The damaged fender was removed and the replacement southern fender was installed.

The original factory colour is code 44 "Sierra Gold"...a very attractive colour. We supplied a sample to our client to decide if this will be Devilla's colour once again.

We removed the rusted out battery tray and made a new one and installed it in its proper location.

The exterior of the car was sanded down to the original layers of factory gold lacquer paint. Grey primer was applied to the complete exterior before Devilla was placed into temporary storage

Our client had Devilla stored for numerous months and recently decided to have the custom build continue.

The exterior of the car needed to be sanded down to bare metal (all of the original lacquer paint needs to be removed) before any new primer or paint is applied.

With all of the panels sanded down to bare metal a special two part black epoxy primer was applied to protect the metal before the grey high build primer will be applied.

The special black two part epoxy was covered with two coats of a high quality grey high build primer.

Several different grits of sandpaper will be used between coats of grey primer. Smoother will be added and sanded where needed until Devilla's body is laser straight.

Stay tuned as this fun build continues......







Stay tuned for updated photos as we progress on this fun project in the coming months!

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