G'day, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia & Custom 59 Camper

[caddydaddy]

G'day everyone, my name is Milton aka CaddyDaddy as I drive a 61 Cadillac, you know the ones with the big fins hanging out the back and some call them land yachts, but for my wife and I its just a big cruiser that can attract a lot of attention, so why am I here, well last year in March we started on an adventure while raising money for a kids charity, I organised an event called "Cadillacs Cruzin Cross the Nullarbor" with 7 other Classic 1959 to 1968 Cadillacs we drove from the Gold Coast half way up the east coast all the way over to the bottom corner of the West coast picking up other Cadillacs on the way, we were headed over to the Cadillac Nationals near Perth in Western Australia.

The whole trip took 5 weeks, we travelled over 7500 miles seeing some absolutely beautiful land including the Nullarbor, located on the Great Australian Bight coast, that big bit at the bottom of Australia, with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single exposure of limestone bedrock, and occupies an area of about 77,000 sq miles. At its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia. With a number of straight roads that are very long, one of the longest is 90 miles long, and dead straight, the road is beautiful and smooth with parts of it every now and then opens out as a run way for the Royal Flying Doctors Service or any other plane in trouble while crossing this vast distance. One of the gas stations we pulled into had a small 2 seater plane in there filling up with premium fuel ready to continue their trip to Sydney, on the other side of the country.

Anyway at the time of the trip we were towing a customised rear end of a 59 Cadillac, which we turned into a trailer, it is moulded out of an original 59 Cadillac rear end, made of fibreglass, we turned it into a trailer for the specific purpose of the trip, we had fitted out with our supplies and we camped under the stars using our Double Swag, which is quiet comfortable, its like a roll up tent that sets up very quickly and is very low as it is just for sleeping, we often talked about when we returned home of turning our Caddy tailer into a 59 Caddy Custom Camper and well what do you know, we have started it.

I have attached some pics of what it looked like half way through our trip and what we have done so far and a photoshop version of what it will look like, has now had the tool boxes removed and the chassis stretched 1.5m and a Continental Kit custom made for the rear instead of the front, my mate was clever and copied the movement of a 4x4 one that he knew, so it shifts to the left to get it out of the way so we can access the boot of the 59 which will now be a kitchen to our Tear Drop trailer, I am having sides computer cut out of Motor Home/Caravan foam & Fibreglass siding thats 28mm thick with a fitted door each side while we cover it front to back on the roof with polished aluminium, the inside will be a little plush, as I am a bookbinder by trade and restore old books, I specialise in Leather bound books, so I will be fitting it out with a timber with leather gold tooled inserts, it should look really good, and more practical than the trailer, not to mention a much better resale value and much more protected from the weather than we were in the Double Swag.

So I have attached pics of what we have so far, sorry for such a long email, I look forward to reading all your posts and getting some tricks and tips.

IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE LIMITED TO 3 PICS, SO I WILL POST THE OTHER PICS AFTER THIS MESSAGE SENDS

[caddydaddy]

Here is some more pics of our 59 Custom Caddy Camper

[Redneck Teepee]

As my age group used to say in the 60's........."Bitch'n". I love it

[pchast]

[dales133]

Hi from victoria and welcome! Awsum looking trailer can't wait to see it finished

[bc toys]

you going to turn the trunk into your galley all I can say about it so far is SWEET

[Vedette]

Hi Milton
Sorry I missed you yesterday.
Put a 16 hour shift in on Kermit in the shop after a couple hour gab session here on the Forum.
So I was a little groggy last night?
But, at lunch today, I did see you proposed project.
Love it!
It inspired me to go up back and take a couple of photos of the Caddys I have out back.
Will post tomorrow or send you via e-mail if you PM me your e-mail address (easier to send pictures than it is to load to my album...which is the only way I know how to post pictures here on the Forum).
Really looking forward to following your build!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[caddydaddy]

Thanks everyone for your welcome, nice to see so many people on here, will be great for some tips for sure, Brian & Sandi, love your work, being metal what total weight did they come up too? Would love to know.

[Vedette]

I don't know what it weighs empty (or dry), but with Beer, ice, wine, food, clothes, bedding, tools, etc. etc. (or everything we load into Miss Piggy....she weighs 1450 lbs. You do the metric conversion . Did I mention BEER!
My goal with Kermit is to be much lighter, even though we don't even notice Miss Piggy behind us??? Don't know if this has something to do with her aerodynamics, but we get better mileage with her in tow than when we are empty. And we tow fast. Over 90 mph on many occasions and over 100 mph once just say we could.
To bring Kermit's weight down, I am being very selective about materials, and material sizes. With not so much overkill, but without compromising strength and safety.
Remember....thin wall automotive tin weighs less than 3/4" plywood.
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi