Lee was to do some mild dechroming, shave the door handles, get the engine freshened up, and maybe paint the top in some sort of Watson-style Metalflake. That was going to be it. Pratt, however, didn't have much better luck getting the engine rebuilt in California. In the meantime, Jimmie saw an ad for Larry Kruzick's C.M.D., which specializes in big-inch late model Cadillac V8s at about the same time he heard that the 472 and500 cubic inch Caddys fit the earlier chassis without much modification. Jimmie ordered a 526-inch longblock from Kruzick and had it shipped to Pratt. Rumors of the swap being virtually a bolt-in turned out to be false. After completing the shaving and dechroming, Lee shipped the car and engine back to Texas. At this point, however, Jimmie realized that his plan for a quick and dirty mild custom driver were not to be.

Vaughan studied the history of Cadillac and other big American cars from the late Twenties through the early Forties and discovered that

performance and luxury had gone hand in hand. It wasn't until the post-war and later muscle car eras that performance was associated with the less expensive and lighter marques. In the early days of motoring, performance was expected in the larger luxury cars, many of which were supercharged. At the same time, Jimmie was becoming infatuated with Italian automobiles and styling of that same era.

While studying the works of Pininfarina, he was surprised how many show cars featured things like rounded hood corners and dechromed bodies that would later, independently, become mainstays of the American customizers' repertoire.

Jimmie's reading material also included a Rod & Custom magazine from the mid-'50s that had a road test on a '46 Cadillac Sedanette with a 4-71 blown '52 Cadillac overhead V8 and some tasteful mild custom touches.

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