This month’s feature Cadillac is not one from our club but it’s owner is the one who directed me around the GM system in Oshawa in order to acquire permission to use the Logo and the names for our club. We would like to thank Frank Agueci for his assistance and also for relating the history below on his beautifully done ’38LaSalle Phaeton. If we could get this story out to many of the high school shop classes, it may encourage more of the younger folks to join the hobby.

    Just a short history on my 1938 LaSalle Convertible Sedan, I purchased the car locally in 1986 from a fellow who had brought it with him when he moved back to the Toronto area from Montreal. He had the car for over 20 years and was slowly trying to restore it when he gave up. My brother in law worked with him and he told me about it. After a very quick look at car that was sitting in a barn, covered with everything you can think of, I made him an offer he quickly accepted. I was happy and he was happy.

    The car sat in my garage untouched until 1994 when I decided it was time to either do something with it or get rid of it.

    So I started to disassemble it. I found patches brazed on top of patches that were brazed on top of rusted out panels. What a mess. I ended up replacing the complete floor pan rearward of the front seat.

    After what seemed forever repairing body, floor and fender well rust out, the body and fenders were sent out for chemical stripping. What a mistake. Everything that was non-ferrous dissolved. That included the door hinges, window regulators, door opening mechanisms and all the body lead work. Try and replace those on a carline style of which only 265 cars were built, especially the window regulators.

    It was right around this time that I decided restoration was not worthwhile, and decided to build a street rod, install a Cadillac Northstar engine with a 700R4 transmission, Jaguar rear end, Camaro front clip, etc. I located a 1938 LaSalle frame in an antique wrecking yard, cut off the front part, and grafted on the Camaro clip. Easy to say but a little more difficult to do because there aren't too many people you can ask that have done this on a Lasalle before. I kept the original chassis intact in case I ever wanted to put the body on it.

    Everything was trial and error. Keep in mind that at this time (1995) the Northstar was a transverse mounted, front wheel drive brand new engine, and no one had put a 700R4 behind one. I took a pattern off the bell housing part of the engine and found it to be almost identical to one for a 2.8 liter V6 or 4 cylinder S10 truck. So I went out and bought a used transmission, and except for one bolt hole everything lined up perfectly, or so I thought,.

    Making motor mounts was no more difficult than making them for anything else. A little more complicated, but not too bad.

Once everything was mounted it was time to wire everything up. I did my own wiring harness, based on an OEM computer. Amazingly, the car started at the first attempt. Revs up great. Put it in gear to see if the rear wheels turned and they didn't. When attaching the ring gear to the torque converter, the torque converter pulled too far forward and disengaged from the front pump resulting in no drive. Make up spacers and longer torque converter bolts. Drive the car on the road and it won't rev over 2000 RPM in what is called 'limp-home mode'.

    Try to talk to "professional people" who have worked on this type of stuff and amazing nobody knows anything because you didn't buy their computer and wiring harness. Finally get a company out of Michigan to make a new prom for me blocking out all the transmission inputs and it worked.

    Not to bore you, it was one problem after another. Everything had to be fabricated. The throttle cable/TV cable bracket must be of a specific ratio, the water pump now is at the rear of the engine with outlets going in the wrong direction, the intake manifold had to be turned 180 degrees (making number 1 fuel injector now firing number 8 cylinder), exhaust headers had to be fabricated and on and on and on.

    After almost ten years of working on it and two summers of working out the bugs, the car now runs great. Would I do it again? Summed up in one word ----- NEVER.

Best regards,

Frank