I am very fortunate to live near a street with consistently excellent Curbsiding. This classy ’54 Cad, for example.
I’m not conversantly familiar with Cadillacs, but I suspected this was a ’54 on account of the taillights—the gasoline filler is hidden by the left one—which I remembered from Coupe de Ville, a 1990 movie with Daniel Stern (no, the other one).
Those’re called Dagmar bumpers after Dagmar, a television personality of the era known for low-cut gowns and conical bra cups. Tee hee, et cetera.
Whoever built this did a magnificent job with the lines, angles, and proportions…
…and the fit and finish. I don’t know what this backglass might be from, but it surely looks like it belongs here.
Through-bumper tailpipes have been retained—nice touch, though I don’t reckon it’s very good for the very-nearby chrome.
The magic seems to work from any and every viewing angle.
The tailfins and fintop taillights are made even more perfect by the resected upper body; their airplane influence is clearer than ever.
Highly stuffed upholstery. Looks comfy.
It says what it means. It means what it says. This is a Cadillac.
I believe that started out as a funeral director’s flower car, thus the professionalism in the conversion of the body. The interior is amazingly original (no, I don’t know for certain of the seat pattern of the fabric is original, but it looks close).
Overall, it looks like this could be converted from a street rod back to a real antique car without a lot of effort.
Where’s any street rod? Okeh, the wheels, but other than that…?
That´s exactly what I was thinking. A funeral company here in Uruguay had a fleet of those (a fleet here meaning no more than 4 probably), which were used in their more expensive services. They were used until the late 80’s and perhaps into the 90’s. I guess they had a sedan as a basis, I think the doors were shorter….
I found a couple pictures, though they are of older models (49-50 I believe). They probably didn’t get all of them at once. I remembered a funeral higher roof ’59 and the same in ambulance version, both also owned by the same company.
An older one in sad shape
That is wild. I love the cross on the top. This thing has a horseman of the apocalypse vibe to it, especially from that angle.
You are right, Corey. The sheer mass of the thing wass sacry for me as a kid. It was’t unusual to see 2 or even 3 of them, two full of flowers and one with the casket. I suppose that in the late 40s or early 50s this was a way to show you had arrived (pun intended)
Exactly right. Not as common they used to be, but many funeral homes had flower cars such as this to transport flowers from the funeral home to the church and the gravesite.
Most if not all of the flower cars I’ve seen from the era, and even the much more modern ones leave the back door openings and they usually still open.
Most flower cars just move the original rear of the roof forward and thus use the original rear window.
Most flower cars do not have a tail gate.
So for those 3 reasons I’d say it was done more recently and not for use as a flower car.
The rear glass appears to be the late 50’s GM truck “big back window”.
Might that back glass be from a 1959 or so Ford wagon??
DFO
Very cool but those wheels are foul. Agreed this needs to be returned to a stock looking flower car.
I have never been a fan of these conversions. But then I have never ever seen one as perfectly laid out as this. I really enjoy seeing this ElCaddy. Thanks for posting this!
The Corvette in front of the featured Caddy is also worthy of some love.
Looks like Fraser Street.
Commercial Drive.
Corvettes, like Mustangs and Challengers and suchlike, make me roll my eyes and look elsewhere. They have their merits, sure, but massive overexposure has made me permanently tired of them—like a pop music song that gets played three times an hour for seventeen freakin’ years.
Which explains why I detest the song “Hotel California”. That song motivated me to add Sirius to my car.
EXACTLY like Hotel California.
A Corvette with a 327 small block is still interesting, since like 99% have a big block planted in them, which ruins the drive in my opinion.
It would be really cool with 327 and Powerglide.
Exactly, overexposure. I’ve seen enough of all these (and ’55-7 Chevys, remember those? 😉 ) to last more than one lifetime. I’ll go look at the Studebaker, or the Packard, or something made in (gasp!) another country, something you don’t see every–damn–daaaaaay. And I can’t stand the wheels either.
I think the back glass might be from a circa-1957 Chevy pick-up… the high trim level that had wrap around back glass.
I do believe we have a WINNER! 🙂 The ’57 Chev 3100 series pickup’s backlight does look vertical enough and with the end wrap. GOOD MEMORY peekay….. 🙂
DFO
I propose a new law: “As the commenters post on an article featuring a car with aftermarket wheels, the probability of a comment bitching about said wheels appearing approaches 1.”
“approaches 1” ? It’s an absolute.
“1” in probability theory means it’s gonna happen 🙂
If someone would make, and people would install, non-freakish aftermarket wheels, we’ll stop complaining. No wheel can make an ugly car attractive, and they can only distract from a good-looking one.
That looks like a chevy big-window rear window, as someone else note. Production Cadillac “Flower Cars” of the period had a much different roofline..
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=1954%20deville%20flower%20car&tbs=imgo:1
I’m with Syke that this had to be a funeral car. This thing is so professional it looks like a concept car from the era, less the lowering and wheels. I sure as hell know where they got the front bumper design from.
It’s not a flower car. It’s a conversion. Well done conversions of all kinds of cars are not uncommon, especially Cadillacs converted to pickups or station wagons. Very common.
Flower cars of that period looked quite different. Google “1954 Cadillac Flower Car” to see for yourself.
I agree with Paul that is not a flower car. That said, some flower cars that were produced in the 50s & 60s did have a smaller wheel base and only two doors. There’s a 1953 that seems to be in some Google searches, and then of course there’s the famous 1967 that is in the blues Brothers (made by a company called McClain?). I don’t think this is one of those conversions, again, but it is interesting to think that there’s a possibility it could be. http://imcdb.org/vehicle_10142-Cadillac-Flower-Car-1967.html
The ’54 through ’56 models look almost identical to most people. The ’54 is the first edition of the series. The center hood section is narrower and sits taller then the following two years. It almost resembles the front end of a 1040’s model. The driving lights are in the upper corners of the grille, and the Dagmars, bullet bumper over riders, make their first appearance in the grille. These grew from bumper guards that flanked the front license plate. There was a continued increase in size and prominence from 1949 to 1956, they became more integrated after 1957.
This is a well done conversion, though the utility would be limited due to the shallow bed, much like the ’59-60 Chevy El Caminos. Back in the early 70’s I used to see an early Fifties Cadillac that had been converted to a wrecker, parked at a gas station in Napa. I like aftermarket wheels provided that they fit completely within the original bodywork of the car.
No driving lights on a ’54 Cad; those are the parking/turn signal lights.
Featured car has fog lamps.
Yup the factory Fog Lights like this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/254229585540
Cars w/o the factory fog light look like this https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0119-357893/1954-cadillac-fleetwood-sedan/
Yes, and fog lamps are not driving lamps.
the utility would be limited due to the shallow bed,
I strongly suspect utility was not high on the list of objectives in building this.
Gate probably not functional with the bumper guards.
I well remember these cars from my childhood. The driver’s interior door handle appears to be in the wrong position – it almost blocks the power window buttons. See photo for correct placement when closed.
The combination of the conical steering wheel hub and lack of seat belts caused Sammy Davis Jr. to lose his eye when crashing his 1954 Cadillac convertible near San Bernardino, CA. Too bad the owner of this car did not at least install seat belts. The hub was flattened for the 1956 model year.
The horizontal orientation of the door handle in the picture car is a whole hell of a lot safer than the vertical placement you show here; one is much less likely to grab it and inadvertently fling the door open in a panic.
Good point. I believe the photo is an example of original placement – however less safe – as I looked at several other images on the web to confirm. The power window controls appear to be located in an awkward position. By 1957 they were moved to the dogleg and the door handle to a position farther forward and hence less likely to be grabbed in a panic situation. These Cadillacs were not great examples of how to design an interior for crash safety!
You know you’ve got something special when people are just dying to ride it in.
Featured car appears to have started out as a 2dr hdtp.
Probably a modern creation rather than flower car.
Picked up a hanging brake pedal and PRNDL looks modified, so probably significant upgrades underneath too.
Or PNDL, I should say. lol
You are right, Corey. The sheer mass of the thing wass sacry for me as a kid. It was’t unusual to see 2 or even 3 of them, two full of flowers and one with the casket. I suppose that in the late 40s or early 50s this was a way to show you had arrived (pun intended)
I wonder why they left the name but removed the crests and Vs.
A restored ’54 Cadillac will garner plenty of attention, so I don’t see the point of the modifications, unless the backlight rust problem was tremendous.
Nice ute, tidy conversions used to be popular here with panel shops buying write offs roll overs usually and doing properly executed ute conversions then factory versions became easier to get and that craft died away
A nicely done modern Hot Rod .
They raise the bed like this to hid the hydraulic air air bag suspension .
I too think the wheels look jarring, there _are_ modern custom wheels that don’t look out of place like this .
I remember the factory flower cars of this series still being used in the 1960’s .
1953 Caddies had Dagmars too…..
-Nate