9000rpm Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 For those who haven't read my profile I am a machinist/mold maker. I work right down the road from my house at an aluminum investment casting foundry that makes parts for NASA, Raytheon, BAE Systems, etc. Anyway, I found out the coolest thing last week at work. I was in my bosses office waiting for him to get off the phone. I always poke around and look at whatever is new in there, and that day I noticed he had a CAD drawing of what looked like a hub cap. So first thing I did when he got off the phone was ask him if we were going to be making some alluminum hub caps, and he said that we are.. for "some limited edition cadillac" I was rather confused as to why there would be a limited edition caddy with hub caps, not alloy wheels. So I brought up that point and all he knew was they were going to be chromed when they are done. Well a couple days later he came up to me and said "remember those cadillac hub caps you asked about, well they are for a secret service cadillac for the president". Apparently it's bullet prooft, grenade proof and probably has a billion features that the public doesnt get I assume the wheels are some kind of extremely high strength solid material, that doesn't look very pretty and thats why it has got chromed alluminum hub caps, to make it look more normal/classy. I did some searching on google an found a couple of neat pictures of the "cadillac one" "The vehicle was custom built by O'Gara, Hess, and Eisenhart, armored vehicle builders who have been building armored presidential limousines since the 1960s. The base platform is a Cadillac DTS, but little of the original vehicle remains. For example, DeVille's flush-style door handles have been replaced by a loop-type design apparently borrowed from the 1992-99 generation Buick LeSabre, doubling as grab-handles for the Secret Service agents running alongside the car. Exterior examination suggests that the head/tail lights, and the wreath-and-crest emblem atop the grille are some of the few stock components. Similar to its predecessor, the 2001 Presidential Limousine, the stretch Cadillac features an executive leather interior with a rear foldaway desktop, an extensive entertainment system featuring a 10-disc CD changer, and adaptive, massaging cushions. The president sits in the rear, facing a console-mounted secure communications panel connected to five antennas mounted on the trunk lid. The vehicle has a flag of the United States mounted on the right front fender, and a Presidential flag on the left front fender. Flush-mounted high intensity discharge (HID) spotlights illuminate the flags at night. Like a standard Cadillac DTS, the presidential limo is said to have a night vision system, but the camera moved to an undisclosed location. The exterior is paneled with five inches of ballistic armor, and is said to be able to withstand anti-tank grenade launchers. The underside of the car is also armored. The windows, which do not open, are transparent armor thick enough to block sunlight, which is the reason the interior is illuminated with naturalistic artificial lighting. The doors require automatic systems to open and the car has a run-flat tire system. The limousine is also environmentally sealed against chemical and biological attacks. A four wheel drive system to improve traction might also be fitted." Sounds like a comfortable ride to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 Recently read a article in the paper... It talked about the '63 Kennedy and '81 Reagan event limos. Both at Henry Ford museum near Detroit. Greenfield Village is the place. Interesting...both cars have been updated. Kennedy with a bubble top. The '72 Reagan one has a updated front clip....maybe to a '76 or '77. Also interesting to note. All the bullet proof glass on the Reagan car has faded. So much so you cannot see into the car... See them here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...8859-1%26sa%3DG Been there before and seen them. Anyway, it seems no more Cadillac Ones will end up in museums. The S.S. plans on 'testing' the durability of the armour etc. Basically, try to blow them up, shoot them up, whatever and learn from it. Logan Diagnostic LLC www.airbagcrash.com www.logandieselusa.com www.ledfix.com www.ledfix.com/yukontaillightrepair.html www.ledfix.com/ledreplacements.html www.ledfix.com/j42385toolrental.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMachine Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 That really something, AWD deville, and look in that picture its cleary a "standard" mounted engine not transverse. Presidents Limo is a head of the curve The Green's Machines 1998 Deville - high mileage, keeps on going, custom cat-back exhaust 2003 Seville - stock low mileage goodness! 2004 Grand Prix GTP CompG - Smaller supercharger pulley, Ported Exhaust Manifolds, Dyno tune, etc 1998 Firebird Formula - 408 LQ9 Stroker motor swap and all sorts of go fast stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 I was going to point out the longitudinal mounting of the engine. Looks like it could possibly be a Vortec V-8, maybe paired with an Escalade-style AWD system. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprucegoose Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Yup, the equipment for the Pres and the secret service is truly second to none, that's for sure. I was out at Andrews AF base a couple month back, as my brother was retiring from his long-standing career in the Air Force. Our family got a personal tour of the AF-1 hanger, including one of the planes (there are two identical) and it was awesome! Security was super tight, that's for sure!! Then there were over 20 guys that were litteraly hand-waxing that plane from tip to tail while we were in there! I would love to look over some of those presidential limos some time! 9000rpm, I am a mold maker by trade also, and it is really cool to see some of the fantastic projects that come down the pipe over the years, isn't it? Back in '85 I machined some prototype lay-up mandrels used to form some of the first kevlar wing parts for the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Very few people even knew what it was going to look like back then. When I saw those first sketches of the "flying V" I had a hard time imagining that thing flying! We also built a lot of permanent alum. casting molds for the automotive industry. I remember molds for Corvette steering knuckles, and machining some of the first protoypes for the first GM "Quad-4" motor... '09 Cadillac CTS-4 3.6 direct injection, 128 K mi. '15 Chevy Tahoe LTZ, 5.3i V8, 125 K mi '70 Firebird Formula 400, Bored+.04, RAIII heads, M21 4spd., in-process restoration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breeza_Brown Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 That really something, AWD deville, and look in that picture its cleary a "standard" mounted engine not transverse. Presidents Limo is a head of the curve I don't think it can be AWD w/the tranverse engine because of the transmission. Everyday Is Saturday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Recently read a article in the paper... It talked about the '63 Kennedy and '81 Reagan event limos. Both at Henry Ford museum near Detroit. Greenfield Village is the place. Interesting...both cars have been updated. Kennedy with a bubble top. The '72 Reagan one has a updated front clip....maybe to a '76 or '77. Also interesting to note. All the bullet proof glass on the Reagan car has faded. So much so you cannot see into the car... See them here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...8859-1%26sa%3DG Been there before and seen them. Anyway, it seems no more Cadillac Ones will end up in museums. The S.S. plans on 'testing' the durability of the armour etc. Basically, try to blow them up, shoot them up, whatever and learn from it. The front of Regan's limo is definitely a 1977-1979 Continental Town Car. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9000rpm Posted February 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Yup, the equipment for the Pres and the secret service is truly second to none, that's for sure. I was out at Andrews AF base a couple month back, as my brother was retiring from his long-standing career in the Air Force. Our family got a personal tour of the AF-1 hanger, including one of the planes (there are two identical) and it was awesome! Security was super tight, that's for sure!! Then there were over 20 guys that were litteraly hand-waxing that plane from tip to tail while we were in there! I would love to look over some of those presidential limos some time! 9000rpm, I am a mold maker by trade also, and it is really cool to see some of the fantastic projects that come down the pipe over the years, isn't it? Back in '85 I machined some prototype lay-up mandrels used to form some of the first kevlar wing parts for the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Very few people even knew what it was going to look like back then. When I saw those first sketches of the "flying V" I had a hard time imagining that thing flying! We also built a lot of permanent alum. casting molds for the automotive industry. I remember molds for Corvette steering knuckles, and machining some of the first protoypes for the first GM "Quad-4" motor... Well I haven't been a machinist for long at all so I have only worked on a few molds that have meaning to me, haha. While I was in high school, which I recently graduated from, I did an internship at a BAE Systems facility a couple towns over. The one I worked at wasn't production based, it was all prototyping, which is why they called it a "model shop" not a machine shop, even though they had about fifteen fully loaded 2 axis bridgeports, 6 cnc's, and 6 lathes. While I was there I had a special ID badge and a pin number to get into and out of the building. That building had the highest/most security of any building I have ever entered, it was unbelievable... Anyway, I worked on very small projects here and there but my supervisor usually had a hard time finding stuff for me to do, so about 70% of the time he had me take one of the company vans out to deliver parts, or take parts to an outside source to get chemically coated or plated, that was boring and I didn't sign up for an internship for driving a van around. I did that after school for several hours everyday, and when I finished school they offered me a full time position, which was exactly what I had wanted, minus the parts chauffeur. But I was led to believe that when I would be hired for full time, I would get all the benefits, like health/dental/eye insurance, retirement plans this and that. Come to find out several weeks after working full time and wondering when I would get papers to sign up for the insurance, my supervisor told me I was hired as a full time temporary, because unfortunately there were "no openings for a permanent position". I basically told him, if I couldn't get health insurance I would have to leave. A week went by and I found a job at the foundry right down my road. I gave my old supervisor 2 weeks and said see ya. I was first hired as a casting straightener, even though I wrote machining on my application. Did that for a couple months and when one of the two guys in the tool room decided to be a second shift wax injection supervisor, they gave me a new position and its been really good. Funny thing is some of the castings we make for BAE Systems I have actually done final machining on while I was doing the internship there, and I have actually seen the finished products, painted, with sensors, lasers and other interesting things installed. The cadillac hub caps, are the only thing car related I have seen at work so far, but theres been a couple other things that have caught my attention here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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