As long as there have been Cadillacs, there have been custom and coach-built bodies for them. We are most familiar with hearses and other funeral cars today, but all manner of vehicles have been fashioned from Cadillacs. The custom body that has held the most fascination for Caddy drivers not ferrying the dead to their eternal rest was the station wagon, if for no other reason that for more than 100 years, Cadillac wouldn’t make one itself.
Photo credit: conceptcarz.com
One-off custom Cadillac wagons were made as early as the 1920s. But as far as I can tell, the first Cadillac wagon built in any volume was this, the View Master of 1955 and 1956. This flawless conversion that looks like genuine GM was made by Hess & Eisenhardt, a custom coachbuilder perhaps best known for building the limo that carried John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated. This prototype lacks the fake wood paneling applied to the sides of production cars – but can you use the words production or volume when just seven were built?
Photo credit: The Cadillac Database, cadillacdatabase.com
Caddy wagon fever ratcheted up during the 1960s and 1970s, with other low-volume manufacturers getting into the game. Some 1970 Fleetwoods were attractively converted to wagons. It looks like the coachbuilder dropped on the top from some B-bodied GM wagon. It looks reasonably natural.
Photo credit: stevesclassiccars.com
Some of these conversions were …unfortunate, like this one, which awkwardly mates an Oldsmobile clamshell wagon top to a ’72 Fleetwood.
Photo credit: autoblog.com
And…facepalm.
Could this conversion be the best known? It’s the one I’ve seen photos of most often through the years, at any rate. While I was surprised to find a Cadillac wagon conversion at an auction last year, I wasn’t surprised that it was this one. Traditional Coach Works fashioned these out of 1975 and 1976 Fleetwoods, calling them the Fleetwood 60 Castilian Estate. By the looks of it this coachbuilder made its own wagon roofs and liftgates. Or on second thought, maybe they’re modified A-body wagon roofs.
This conversion is pretty good, though not as natural looking as the earlier Fleetwood above. I’m sure you don’t want to know what welding horrors lurk under that aluminum landau panel.
In 2010, Cadillac finally built us a wagon. And what a fine wagon it is, based on the widely lauded CTS sedan of the previous generation. I’d have one! And depreciation on these has been steep, putting the early ones within reach.
Or you can just buy one new – Cadillac carried the wagon over, despite redesigning the sedan for 2014. But you have to wonder how long Cadillac will keep offering it. In the five years it’s been available, fewer than 10,000 have sold. Consider that during the same years Cadillac shipped 232,000 of its similarly priced SRX CUV.
Call it bad timing – SUVs and CUVs truly fill the wagon’s former role now. But I have to wonder whether a Cadillac wagon was ever going to be anything more than a curiosity.
Related reading: Since Cadillac Didn’t Build This 1971 Eldorado Wagon, Everyone Else Did – Just Not As Well
The one you refer to as the best known looks like they copied the back end of a Plymouth Suburban wagon.
The Castilian is bar none the absolutely best execution I’ve ever seen of a custom caddy wagon job. Every other try has some kind of compromise, they just never get the lines perfectly right.
The gaps around the lift gate are positively huge…
On the Fleetwood 60 Castilian Estate, I see a mid 70s Malibu wagon roof and top tailgate hiding in there.
Hunh. You may well just be right about that. The lines do match.
I don’t get the ‘ facpalm ‘ comment ~ that’s *just* the ticket for cruising Hollywood Boulevard and picking up chicks , non ? .
=8-) .
-Nate
Only if you’ve a shirt unbuttoned to your bellybutton, chest hair as thick as a rug, and nineteen thick gold chains.
! THIS ! .
It’s the very definition of ” Pimping ” ! .
-Nate
IIRC this car (or one very much like it) was owned by Dean Martin.
Like this one.
The 55-56 Viewmaster is my speed. The rest you can have.
I have a dim memory of being a kid in the late 60s and seeing a late model Cadillac station wagon in traffic as we were stopped at a light. I remember being wowed by it, as it was the only Cadillac wagon I ever saw. This would have been before the Castillian, maybe 1968-69-ish?
Fortunately, there was always the New Yorker Town & Country. 🙂
I like it best too , I wish my Caddy Hearse was a ’53 or so but for free and with only 130,000 miles on it , I couldn’t turn it down nor complain .
I still feel badly about the Packard Hennessy bodies Hearse we made into a hay rack for feeding cows in 1967 but hell , it wasn’t even a $25 car at the time and we _did_ still have the ’55 (IIRC) Caddy Hearse running at the time , driving the younger boys to school in it every day .
-Nate
Check out my Cadillac hearse! Spills oil, check out those wire rims! No problem! Check out the oil my Cadillac hearse spills! LOL!
Interesting conversion. I like the chrome C-pillar landau bar. The rear end is a bit too dramatic for me.
On the CTS wagon, despite my general love and appreciation for wagons, I never cared for it. Can’t quite say why, maybe it’s because I’m not a huge fan of the CTS. I remember at the auto show sitting in a CTS wagon back when they first came out. Space seemed very tight inside and claustrophobic (and mind you, I’m 5’7”, 120lbs.). And, if those rear windows look small from outside, they’re virtually nonexistent from the inside. I remember this past winter Herb Chambers Cadillac still had a new 2011 CTS wagon for sale.
I was interested in trading my 2007 SRX for a CTS wagon. A dealer had a new 2011 that was on my route to the Mayo Clinic. The 2013 were in production at the time, so I thought they should be anxious to sell. The sales manager seemed unsure of my SRX though and my offer was turned down. Eventually the dealership was taken over by some other chain and the Cadillac franchise left. Not sure what became of the wagon.
As much as I like the old Cad’s, I’m not sold on several of the 70s era conversions, including this one. The B-body rear wagon windows don’t fit the profile of the Fleet at all, which pretty much ruins it for me…a constant reminder it was nothing more than a professionally done hack.
Other conversions of that era include the many modifications performed on poor, hapless Seville’s, by removing the rear doors and seat and turning them into crazy monstrosities. Only ones that were any good were the San Remo’s (only about 100 built) which were the only very credible, high quality Seville conversions of the 70s I’ve seen.
Nice article Jim! The first couple of examples look good IMO, excluding the auction car although that is not bad. The Eldorado shooting brake is interesting, I think the trim added to the top of the door to emphasise its taper is a brilliant touch and not factory? The clamshell wagon is unfortunate, I wouldnt be happy paying for ‘well we stuck it all together but couldnt figure out how to make the lines match’. Surely using a rear door window and c-pillar section from the donor wagon would have looked better? For the the CTS wagon I wonder if Bob Lutz was behind that, and whether they were sold in Europe which is where wagons are very popular.
How about a hardtop station wagon… Cadillac style! (For 1974 anyway).
Substitute Di-Noc for the two tone, and run it out to the tail light, and you have one of my favorites here. Very cool as a hardtop.
A ’74 hardtop clamshell wagon? oooooooohhhhhh . . . .I am in envy : )
Paint `em black and they will look like hearses. And speaking about hearses, my neighbor had a very somber blue `76 Olds 98 Custom Cruiser that REALLY looked like a hearse.His wife and three daughters absolutely hated it, so about a year later, he bought a Volvo wagon-in white.
No thanks. Why pay to have someone turn a Cadillac into a Buick Estate wagon?
I think Cadillac was smart not to make a wagon in those 100 years, too bad they caved.
Cadillac station wagons always remind me of a hearse.
Great find Jim. That C-pillar really works. Will be bookmarking this article.
I love what-ifs, and when they come to life like this, it’s fantastic. Awesome find Jim, and love the other pics you posted too.
here is a woody: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/468304061224136525/
Hmmm… Take off the trim below the side windows and integrate in a top a bit more like the ’71 B wagon roof where it forms a B pillar behind the rear side light, but keep the D pillar creased sharply, and you have my favorite. This is pretty sharp as it is.
They’re really nice looking cars.
While the Castilian’s smooth exterior lines lack the awkwardness that some of the clamshell based conversions do, its design introduces other compromises. The issue faced by anyone wanting to convert a 60’s or 70’s Cadillac into a wagon is what to do about the gas tank and filler location. The gas tank is located under the trunk floor and the filler is in a central location behind the license plate — i.e., thoroughly in the way of where a station wagon tailgate would be. GM full size wagons of this era have a sidesaddle tank located in the left rear fender, with the filler on the left side of the car.
The conversions that involve grafting a clamshell wagon rear (or 1969-70 Buick wagon parts) onto a Caddy also use the wagon gas tank, thus moving the tank and filler out of the way. The rear bumper gets reworked too so as to allow the lower tailgate opening. It’s a lot of cutting and splicing but the result is a full tailgate and normal wagon cargo area (even with third seat if desired). In fact, I think you have to use the leaf springs from the clamshell wagon if you don’t want the towers for the sedan coils intruding.
The Castilian, on the other hand, preserves the stock rear bumper, gas tank and filler location. The rear liftgate/hatch uses the factory trunk latch. The result is greatly reduced cargo space and increased liftover height versus the other conversions. If you have a 1975-76 Cadillac, lay your spare flat in the middle of the trunk floor, then cut a piece of plywood to the shape of the trunk opening and set it on top of the tire. That’s about the cargo floor height on a Castilian. Obviously, no third seat.
Aside from the CTS Wagon (which I love), most of the others there really don’t appeal to me much. To my eye, the 1969 or 1970 wagons look the best in terms of integration of the long roof. Those have always been a favorite of mine and the addition of the long roof doesn’t hurt it all, IMO.
If I had the $50+K to spend on a CTS of any variety, I would have done so. In my area, there’s a person who has a CTS-V Wagon triple black (including the wheels) with yellow brake calipers. Even though (in relative terms) it’s small(er) that car has presence like nothing else. I’m highly envious.
I think Coachcraft did the best job of conversion. I think I would have liked a CTS wagon. I was sort of interest in getting a 2012 used one with the touring package (has Recaro seats), but when they were available at distant dealers, the winter weather made travel quite iffy. The dealer with the aging new 2011 seemed uninterested in getting it off the lot. She did ponder my SRX for a while before making a counter.
The 1971 Kingswood Estate Wagon looked far better than any of these butchered-up Cadillacs.
Don’t forget the BLW, based on the SAAB 9-3 Wagon
I’d like one of those please.
Elvis Presley and Dean Martin both had custom 1972 wagons that were modified by American Sunroof Corporation. The Elvis car still survives.
Also found this picture of an ASC-modified 71 Eldorado Cadillac.
There’s something about that 55 Caddy View Master … it’s pretty cool looking, for a station wagon, or estate as our British friends call them.
I’m surprised the General didn’t appropriate it and put it into production. Another example of the NIH syndrome from which the General suffered for so long.