HOT ROD to the Rescue! How to Get a Car Back on the Road After a Decade of Neglect

It’s an all-too-common fate in the world of classic cars: something comes up and you decide to park your pride and joy with the honest intention of only letting it sit for a month or so. One thing leads to another, and all of a sudden, it’s been over a decade and your ride is still just sitting, only now it’s going to take way more work to get it going again. This was also the case for a friend of MotorTrend tech center manager Jason Scudellari and his 1952 Cadillac.

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Instead of letting his buddy’s Caddy sit any longer, Jason, with the help of MotorTrend tech center technician Christian Arriero, decided to take on the challenge of getting the old Cadillac back on the road again. It’s HOT ROD to the Rescue!

Could Jason and Christian have picked an easier car to put back in running and driving condition? Yes, they could have, but what would be the fun in that? Luckily, our friends at Duralast jumped on board to help supply the guys with everything they needed, or, as it turned out, hunt down or rebuild everything they needed. This was, after all, a 1952 Cadillac with its original 331ci V8 engine, so off-the-shelf parts are not readily available no matter who you are.

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After driving our shop truck and trailer from Santa Ana to Yorba Linda to pick up the Cadillac, Jason and Christian got to work bringing it back to life. They decided to start with the basics: clean out the gas tank, replace all the fluids, install all new ignition parts (plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc. ), and rebuild the carburetor. Things started to get interesting when a replacement distributor was nowhere to be found. Pertronix jumped in to supply an electronic ignition conversion kit. Then the starter needed help, so Jason and Christian rebuilt it. Then the steering box was leaking, so a new box was sourced, the reservoir seals were replaced, and new lines were made. Then it was on to a new alternator and battery along with all new hoses, belts, and filters.

Just as Christian was pouring in new coolant, he found a pencil-sized hole in the bottom of the water pump. So, all the accessories had to be removed again to replace the water pump with a new one from Duralast.

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After splashing in some fresh gas, it was finally time to see if the old 331 would fire. Once they made sure the carb was getting gas and the squirters were working, they crossed their fingers that they’d done everything right. Crank, crank, crank, pause. Jason give the throttle a pump. Crank, crank, whoooom! It roared to life, blowing out over a decade of cobwebs from the exhaust.

Jason took the 1952 Cadillac for a quick cruise around the parking lot and found the transmission was slipping under power. Luckily, all it needed was a couple quarts of ATF, and it was as good as new and ready to go back to its owner and hit the streets once again.

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