Full Bling Eldo Pimpmobile
(originally posted 11/24/2012) I had just lost my job at a well-known New York design house and was looking for a way to make some bucks to finance a trip to Spain to work on a documentary film with one of my college buddies. I found a job close to home in South Norwalk, CT at an eclectic joint that did a variety of auto-related stuff. We installed sun roofs; we did high-end custom interiors; we armor-plated all sorts of vehicles; we built riot control trucks (basically a self-propelled water reservoir and fire hose powered by a Mopar 318—great for knocking pissed-off Chileños off their feet and into the gutter); we designed and built a Lincoln for the Shah of Iran who liked Nixon’s ride; and we pumped out a ton of Pimpmobiles.
One of Nixon’s Lincoln Limos
I had been hired to prepare presentation boards for the Shah’s car. It had an incredible number of sub-systems that were to be built into the car, everything from life support, armor, communications, and upgraded performance. The chassis, engine and driveline were sent to Holman and Moody in Charlotte, NC to be upgraded/hardened to handle the substantially weightier package.
Another one of Nixon’s Lincoln Limos
I had been tipped off to the job possibility by another former co-worker. We both worked on the Shah’s presentation and I made the princely sum of $5 an hour. My friend’s name was Vince but the Bavarian owner of the shop couldn’t handle that, so Vince was always “Wince”. I’m not sure the owner, I can’t remember his name, ever knew mine. Probably not. But Wince and I cranked out the presentation boards. The highlight of our day was when WOR radio in NYC began broadcasting the Bob and Ray show in the afternoon. Let’s say our productivity took a nosedive towards the end of the day, we were too busy cracking up at Bob and Ray’s exceedingly dry humor.
OK, the Shah’s Lincoln was interesting, but the other stuff going on in the shop was far more compelling, notably the ”Pimpmobiles” that the shop cranked out.
Magnum Force Eldo Pimpmobile
Pimpmobile? Don’t know what a Pimpmobile is? Check out Magnum Force, one of the Dirty Harry movies. In that film a pimp (Albert Popwell) drives a Cadillac Eldorado that does a pretty good job of establishing what an early ‘70s Pimpmobile was all about: Super Fly headlights; a fake Rolls Royce grille; an overstuffed landau roof, with, duh, landau irons (that the Dirty Harry car is missing). Plus other bits of gagtastic design details, as if the un-modified cars weren’t bad enough.
A rather restrained Mark pimp
We pumped out a steady stream of Eldorados and Marks, but also a bunch of Electra 225s and Lincoln Marks. I don’t remember any Oldsmobiles.
Pimpmobile 101: Super Fly lights; faux RR grille surround; and a Winged Victory
I think that our shop was fairly conservative. Obligatory add-ons were a big assed faux Rolls grille; Super Fly headlights; padded landau top with chromed landau irons (we had our own plasma cutter that cut these things out of half-inch steel plate); a tacked-on Continental blister on the ass end (Continentals didn’t need this addition, but vinyl snakeskin on the bump was appreciated). Shag carpeting on the padded dash was always a good idea, but I’m not sure our shop did that. I don’t recall that we did the Duesenberg-esque side pipes or the fake side mounts, but I’m sure that if the end user wanted them, we were willing to provide whatever crap they wanted. We were high-end whores. I’m sure that we cut in sunroofs to most of the cars.
The Blank Canvas, a 1974 Cadillac Eldo
So who bought this garbage? The Saudis (sunroofs in Saudi Arabia?). We would regularly truck these turds down to the Port of Elizabeth in New Jersey and kiss them goodbye. We couldn’t build enough of these things, but I’m glad most of them headed to the Middle East. There must be a huge junkyard over there with a whole bunch of crappy US iron. Pimped out with padded landau tops and SuperFly headlights.
The Saudis also Jonsed for Lincoln Marks
At the time I was the happy owner of a Fiat 128. Nuff said.
I think that your work represented the best and highest use for the 1974-76 Eldo and Mark. An enjoyable read. Now, I will never be able to look at a picture of one of these without thinking of Bob and Ray, an association that I never would have made before today.
I kind of liked the non-pimped editions, which were rarely seen up here. Mind you, there were a few Fiats up on blocks shortly after purchase. Shelf life of less than 5 years before they were rusty and non-functional.
I have this Bridge for sale.
You mean that one in Brooklyn?
Most of the few of these I ever saw around here had diamond-shaped rear windows too.
What monuments to bad taste! Pimpmobiles that would make Elvis himself blush. I had no idea they were popular in the Middle East.
Ahh but did you pimp any stutz vehicles?
The stutz was already pimped out.. They were early to mid 1970’s Pontiac Grand Prix’s chopped up to look like a European coach. Not much else you could do without making them look like sh**!
I thought making them look like sh** was the point.
Never saw a real Stutz pimped out. But there were at least three Pimpmobiles driven by real pimps on Chicago’s Westside in the 70’s, all started as Cadillacs. A good traffic stop and you could enjoy watching it go off on the end of a city tow truck.. Days of my youth…
One night while in the Drake Hotel cab line in Chicago, a guy came by handing out (forcing) matchbooks for a club in Cicero (on the west side). There were some cryptic numbers on the back that I didn’t understand. I got out of my cab and asked an older cabbie what the numbers meant. The cabbie told me that if I delivered my fare(s) to a certain bar on the west side of S Cicero Ave (in Cicero, Al Capone’s headquarters), then pulled a u-turn and waited on the east side of the street (in Chicago), that some cretin would come out and pay me X amount of bucks for the number of passengers that I had brought to the club. Never did have the opportunity to take advantage of this fabulous offer.
“gagtastic” — great word!
Sir, you are obviously a person of demonstrable taste and perspicacity. I applaud you.
One of my absolute fave “pimpmobiles” was the 1971 or ’72 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham from the movie “Live and Let Die”. It had a huge padded half-vinyl roof and a smaller rear window. The ultimate in 1973 coolness!!
Here’s a screenshot from the movie:
That “rather restrained Mark pimp” is nothing less than a Bugazzi. Quite the car…
This mention lead to a fun meander through the byways of the internet, and a link to the Barris 70-X Toronado. Prefer the Bugazzi, I think…
I have to say I’ve never heard (or seen) of the “Superfly headlights”. And I thank my maker for that. They’re horrid!
and were a factory option on the Lincoln Mark VI
This reminds me that I saw an Excalibur in town yesterday – factory pimpmobile. Couldn’t get a picture, but it looked immaculate.
I can’t take my eyes off of the lead photo… It’s mesmerizing! A Cadillac, with a Rolls-Royce grill and giant Mercedes-Benz emblems over the headlights… With non-functional landau arms and fake dual sidemount spare tires, with bites taken out of them? My practical, form-must-follow-function head is about to explode… Let me guess: this car also had a fake spare tire on the trunk, for a total of three, right? The continental kit would add Lincoln to the Cadillac + Rolls + Mercedes equation. And is there any practical advantage to the Superfly headlamp treatment, other than to alert the local constabulary to the presence of a coke-snorting criminal?
I think the lights are modeled on some of the early (1920/30s) headlights that had a 3-armed bulb holder, such as the Lucas P100. I would be surprised to learn that these things are anything other than a cover over the real headlight.
I bought my 78 silver Eldorado from a very conservative older gent in year 2000. The car has vertical divisions in the quarter windows and a chrome hood header, the only items to distinguish from stock. A few months after purchase, I happened on a estate sale of a local wealthy contractor. He had been a Cadillac collector, and had dozens of cars. I did not see any cars for sale, but I bought 6 new Eldo hubcaps for $ 1 each and a Eldo continental kit still in the box for $ 20.
The most amazing thing about the guy’s 3 stall garage was the tile floor. So clean, you could eat off it. Anyhow, I’ve never installed the continental kit, probably never will. It would make a long car almost a foot longer.
It’s funny, I’ve never really loved Eldorados, but I’ve owned 2. A few accessories, OK, but I could never figure why anyone would want a fully “pimped” version.
Back in the 1970’s, in my town, there was a guy who fully pimped out a Pontiac Lemans coupe to look like a Stutz. It had the side pipes, fuzzy roof, and a continental hump.
I wonder what it cost to deck an Eldo out back then.
Admitting to being a party to the most awful creations ever Your a brave man
I always liked this mod. Opera Sconces rule.
LOL! LOL! Where the hell did this come from? Sir, those are Opera Chandeliers not sconces. 😉 I would love to go to the Opera in this ride! … NOT!
Escape from New York, if memory serves me.
The Duke of New York, Big Number One. My man, Issac Hayes.
Kevin, I now understand your aversion to anything Brougham. With the Brougham trauma (Brouhauma?) you experienced, who could blame you?
I may like some of the factory Broughams–’77-’79 Bonneville Brougham, Fleetwood Brougham, etc.–but not these custom, over-the-top parade floats. Ugh!
Ah, the 70’s….I came back to Kansas City, Mo. in 1975 to finish my degree. I vividly remember one vehicle, it’s a long time ago but I believe it was an Olds 98 with a candy apple magenta paint job, the mandatory landau padded roof with irons with a continental kit on the rear and another pair of fake continental kits on the front fenders behind the front wheels. I also remember seeing a VW beetle with a padded vinyl roof along with a Opel Manta with a padded vinyl roof–that was really one incongruous looking vehicle.
Ho ho holy $#!£.
$#!£.
Hey! No swearing on this website!
Didn’t you notice it was CENSORED in the same way it is done in comic strips?
Also, CC has had it’s fair share or UNCENSORED swearing on the site in the past…
FYI: my reaction was me first thinking of this as a joke but eventually coming to the shocking realization of this article’s truth.
What I want to know is who saw something like this and said….nah, it needs MORE……
By the late 70s some of this firm’s clients must have wanted pimped Benzes. Did the German owner oblige?
AMG?
When I was a kid in McKeesport, PA in the early 70s, there was a pimp who lived mid-way between our house on the hill and my school downtown who had a pair of pimpmobilies – a raspberry Eldorado with a”rolls” grill, side exhausts, padded white vinyl roof, and a white and white Mark IV with superfly headlights and “fur” seat covers and a padded continental tire hump. We had a few other tricked out cars in town – I particularly remember an orange 71 or 72 Coupe De Ville with a roller grille and, landau bars and trunk straps – but those two stood out. Not least because they matched Bad Bad LeRoy Brown’s “Custom Continental and an Eldorado, too”.
Got a .32 gun in my pocket full of fun, got a razor in my shoe……….
That sounds like Johnny Winter’s “Dallas” !
…”Goin’ back to Dallas, take my razor and my gun”…
I find it sad that no one is saving these things ~ .
I recently ran across a pristine one in a Self Service Junk Yard , all the ‘ pimp ‘ stuff was there , it had been seriously re worked ~ no back seat and the dash / driver’s compartment had been moved 2’ back .
Really well done , someone had $pent $eriou$ ca$h on it in 1973 , only the standard Cadyy bits werre missing .
it wasn’t even dusty , must have been lovingly stored in some old man’s Garage for decades . shiny paint , perfect chrome and upholstery…
-Nate
What your describing sounds like a Corvado, which was a Corvette with 1971-1973 Eldorado body panels on the outside, do you have any pics?
Did you check to see if the mirrors fired poisoned darts out of them?
Was the previous owner named Whisper?
That’s a ‘Vette ?! .
This thing I saw was a Caddy , rear wheel drive and a MONSTER in size considering it was a two door Coupe .
I wish I’da had my iPod thing but the battery is usually dead when I try to use it anyway .
-Nate
Re the Corvorado: If there was a ’74 XLR, this would have been it!
Here it is with a cleaner design – less orientations.
That’s one tame Superfly car. Check this monstrosity out. (link below not the video)
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/05/03/super-fly-cars-to-appear-in-aaca-museum-pop-culture-exhibit/
My favorite pimp-mobile has to be the Caddy featured in the movie “Escape From New York” in 1981.
After all, you just can’t beat candelabras on the fenders!
I still can not believe that vinyl roofs and other pimping elements like opera lights, hood ornaments, crownings/wreaths, etc. are somewhat outdated from the market in general…
Few years ago I’ve found a shop who had upgraded early and mid ’80’s & ’90’s GM cars with this stuff. I thought then that I could add a neat “quarter- or half-landau” vinyl top to my 1995-2001 Lumina with decorative slats and wraths…but finally when I wanted to got contact with them…it failed…as the shop was busted earlier than their webpage had disappeared from the net… Anyway I like this article. Thanks for posting…
Some bow chika bow bow Pimpmobile music, your older co-workers may wonder what you’re listening to
THANX ! .
The whole album ~ I’ll be diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean now .
-Nate
hehehe
By the way…from the aspect of non-american car enthusiast folks…pimping is an interesting and accepted genuine North-American style… As you are mentioning that the majority of the buyers had been from overseas… Maybe this fashion wasn’t so interesting in the homeland…but nobody else can do (did) pimpings like in the U.S.! From time to time when some of my car builder friends in Europe release a restored and/or pimped american car…it smells from the remote distance that it is a euro-upgrade…which (by obvious reasons) lacks its genuine american pimping philosophy…
…and of course I’m always gettin’ sick/tired when somebody in our amcar community argues (after its euro-kind of american car upgrade) why they are casting down the chrome and vinyl from their old Buicks, Cadillacs, Pontiacs…
There was pimping in Europe at that time but it was called “Tunning”, here’s an example. A lot of these went to the Middle East too, where bad taste is shared by everyone.
Oh yes….the Acme Testarossa body kits from the eighties.
Why drive when you can superfly?
Just a little bit of extra chrome (wheel arches !) and bigger aftermarket rims. That’s all it takes to turn any Benz from the seventies and eighties into an instant pimpmobile. Especially the C107 and W116.
That’s OK – it’s a pillarless hardtop!
All right, all right….
(Photo courtesy Kassander der Minoer, Wikipedia)
I love the trailer hitch on the 280se. This pimp could give you whatever you want, and a pony!
Got me a hitch on mine. Don’t have the chrome arches and still have colour-coded hubcaps, but I feel pimp enough behind the wheel anyway.
An introvert pimp.
Not when its (factory) fluorescent yellow/green.
Come on Don, show us your W116 !
With neighbour’s C107…
d’oh
Oooohhh !!
Two unmolested and clean classic Benzes, very nice. Thanks !
Another good name for these things would be “pupe wagons.”
Pimpwagons were fairly common in Oklahoma in the ’70s, especially with nouveau riche oilfield workers. I knew a professional gambler who had a ’71 Pontiac fully pimped, with the big “MB” headlights and all.
It didn’t look quite as “classy” as the Caddy pimpwagons…. but then I’m pretty much profaning the word “classy” by using it anywhere near these machines.
Back in 78 at Ford, where everything was part of some “Decor Group” (“Luxury Decor Group”, “Sport Decor Group”, etc.), my first boss called these the “Inner City Decor Group”.
” Johannes Dutch: Oooohhh !!
Two unmolested and clean classic Benzes, very nice. Thanks !” .
Come to La La Land (home to fruits , nuts & flakes) ~ they’re littering our landscape .
I have three , regular old W-123’s , two are Euro Spec. .
my brother has two S – Klasses , W-126 one is an SDL .
-Nate
Nate…”La La Land” ??….That sounds like the Land Of Pleasure….
We’ve got a large fleet of classic Benzes too, must be the most collected brand here when it comes to classic cars. But I’m always pleased when I see them completely untouched / unscrewed, like the two above.
The W123 is an old soldier who will never die, you still see them as daily drivers. As you may know we never had a W126 diesel in Europe.
For a Farm mechanic who grew up in salty New England , yes , it’s _PARADISE_ .
For folks who’s knickers tend to bunch up a lot , not so much , knowhutimean ?.
All ours are daily drivers , my Diesel Coupe is also one of my Rally cars .
We’re about to take a 1,300 mile Road Trip in his ’87 SDL .
There’s still lots of ” Barrio Bombers ” out here ~ nice older cars that folks just run and run and run until they’re dead .
Kind of a shame to us rust belt folks but you can’t save ’em all .
I wasn’t aware no W-126 Diesel in Europe , that’s odd as they made zillions of W-116 S-Klasse Diesels , well into the 1990’s they were being grey marketed here for good $ .
-Nate
The W140 was the first S-class with a diesel in Europe. Until then a diesel was “not done” in a Mercedes flagship sedan in Europe.
What about the W-116 ? it was an S Klasse and had Turbo Diesel engine when the W-123’s only had N.A. Diesels…..
-Nate
Nate: The S-Class W116 and W126 diesels were strictly US-only models, not available in Europe.
And the W123 certainly did have turbo diesels in the US: the 300D Turbo Diesel was/is quite common; it was the hot seller in LA at the time, especially the TD wagon. There were three W123s for the US: 240D, 300D, and 300DTurbo Diesel.
If you’re into W123s, it’s the one to have! It actually scoots right along, in relative terms. 🙂
The W116 300SD was USA and Canada only, just like the W126 diesels.
Neo-pimpmobiles:
Possibly the Ninth Ward there ? .
-Nate
Ugh. Where the hell is the eye bleach.
How do these folks get the money for all that garbage, plus the headgaskets, and suspensions and paint jobs? They don’t exactly sound like investment bankers or doctors…
The nicest Pimp Mobile I ever saw was a `74 Fleetwood Talisman. A blue four door with a lowered roof, large opera lights, the Rolls Royce style grille, the big round headlight covers, a swan hood ornament with light up wings, the fake sidemount covers, Ben Hur chariot style wheel covers with fake blades in the center, chrome trunk straps, and an extended rear bumper with a leather covered “box” trunk, like on 20`s or `30s type cars. Inside, it had four seats seperated by fixed armrests in a blue velour material,a leopard skin type carpeting, and a fuzzy steering wheel cover. It was parked on 59th st.and 5th.Av.in NY near the Plaza Hotel, probably in `78 or `79.Really stood out among the Cadillac and Lincoln limos, and chauffered Rolls Royces!
Thanx for the clarification ~
I know Tom’s ’81 300SD (W-126 turbo Diesel came from Canada , I’ve seen many W-116’s non U.S. Spec. Diesels too , I thought they were European Spec. because they all had non U.S.A. colors and upholstery….
Didn’t have the certification tags either .
Canadian Direct Imports I guess then .
Same deal in the 1960’s with VW’s , especially the Notchback Typ III that was never offered to us .
-Nate
Working for the Pinochet and the Shah-I guess Citroen building that stretched CX for Erich Honecker wasn’t so outrageous after all!
Anyone remember when subaru made their own version of a pimp mobile!
Behold the 1999 Casablanca edition impreza!
You lucky dog! These are some awesome cars you got to work on.
I can think of one person today whose personality would fit one of these vehicles.
As they used to say on “MythBusters,” it’s plausible……
How did the conversation turn from Pimped out Eldorados to old Mercedes?
I think that it’s all about being “in your face!” I grew up in Oakland Calif. during the 60’s and 70’s. Cadillacs and Lincolns were the hot set up. If you wanted to set your car apart you could add the regular bundle of accessories; Wide whites, chrome grill cap, chromed skirts, TV antenna, half landau top with the obligatory landau bars. These ultra Pimped out cars were not that common, but the movie Superfly publicized the style. We called these Pimp cars back then, but I wonder how many real Pimps wanted to draw so much attention to themselves and their activities? Or are they just a manifestation of the urban “Pimpin’ ” style? I saw the movie Superfly and all the Blaxploitation movies of the time. Were these cars driven by young men that wanted to extend their index finger to the “Man” and the rest of White society? If that’s the case then maybe they aren’t much different from a Donk, Rat Rod, SLAB, Lowrider, BroDozer truck, and maybe even a “Ricer.” These vehicles are all ways to differentiate ourselves from the crowd. Your car’s got to be a little outrageous to accomplish that.
Oh, this brings back memories. There was an actual pimp in my childhood steel town, who had not one, but two of these: a raspberry Eldo with a padded white top and various do-dads, and a white -on-white Mark IV with Superfly headlamps and faux fur seats. Both had mini-TVs with boomerang antennas on the trunk.
His mother supposedly lived near our neighborhood, and I got to inspect them closely when he frequently parked them in front of the Methodist church at the end of my block. Even at my tender age, I could appreciate the irony.
Of course this was contemporaneous with Jim Croce’s Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown, so having a guy with “a custom Continental, and and Eldorado too” was a special thrill.
There were other lesser pimpmobiles in town, notably a white over orange Coupe de Ville with trunk straps. All were Cadillacs. I would love to see what those Electra 225s looked like.
“Diamond in da back, sunroof top, diggen da scene inda gangsterlene”.
That would be William DeVaughn:
All this talk of pimpmobiles, and not one mention of the oft-seen “Afro Bubble” in the roof sliding down Woodward Avenue in Detroit in the early 70s.
I was able to scrape this one lone artifact off the interweb showing the dual variant.
A Superfly-Eldorado was just sold on Facebook Marketplace. Asking price 26 000 $.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/935582313829319