Let’s keep the ’64 GM theme going a bit longer with this ’64 Caddy wagon. It’s a one-ff by Victor Auto Service in New York. I assume it was built at the request of a customer; coach-built, just like the old days. It’s got a rather unusual D-pillar treatment, reminiscent of the Breezeway Mercurys and Lincolns.
A bit different, but works well enough.
I am going down Stupid Street with this one, wondering how the air currents behind that “reverse Plainsman” roof would leave their mark. Would it be a dead air area? Or would it attract schmutz and exhaust fumes? It’s kind of a hollowed-out kammback. Frequently, there is a reason for a design element that nobody introduced in production. On the other hand, if there’s a rear-facing seat, I’m sure the shade was welcome!
Yes there is a rear facing seat
I doubt they checked the aerodynamics of their addition. With no B pillar, the structural integrity is a more important question.
Are those real knock-off wire wheels, and isn’t that an oxymoron?
Structural integrity, yes, and a note of distinction to what is otherwise a B-body wagon roof grafted onto a Caddy. You have to really look to get that, and a lot of observers wouldn’t get past Sister Bertrille’s hat hanging off the back.
It’s not as wimple as that.
Was this thing made from a funeral car?
No, those had a higher roof than sedans so flower arrangements could be left on the caskets.
I have a fairly vivid recall of sitting in traffic one day in the way-back of my father’s 66 Country Squire (probably in the spring of 1966) and looking in the next lane to see a 63-64 Cadillac station wagon. I think my parents even noticed it, and I sure as heck knew there was not supposed to be any such thing. It was painted gold and may have had a white roof – that part I am not sure about. There were a couple of teen girls in the way-back of that one, and I was really jealous that I was not in that one too.
I have always wondered about the story of that car, and now wonder if Victor built a few rather than just one. That promo postcard suggests to me that Victor was gunning for some kind of limited production rather than commemorating a single car. But a little searching yields nothing on the company or the vehicle.
Seeing NYC/1964, I figured the photo would either be at the World’s Fair or (here) at the very new Lincoln Center. I do believe photo-artist has matted in some sky where there are semi-tall buildings, but can’t vouch without photo research.
The trailing end of the roofline doesn’t quite do it for me (and I’m a big Mercury/Breezeway fan), but it’s a distinctive vehicle for sure. Perhaps some poking around in greater-NYC want ads in the 1970s-80 would find it, though perhaps it did eventually get turned into ambulance or livery.
Neat to see this—-I wonder what the premium was over the cost of the car?
I agree about the trailing end of the roofline — doesn’t quite do it for me, though I appreciate the creativity.
Looks to me that Victor Auto Service was a body shop that also did restorations. I didn’t find any other example of them making custom-bodied cars. Here’s a circa 1980s picture of the front of their shop, located in what I believe is the West Village area of Manhattan:
Would you buy a custom body from there? 😉
I’m a bit stumped by this because the image that Daniel posted below was a publicity shot from a New Jersey company called Cadillac Wagons Limited, who marketed (or tried to, at least) this design. I wonder if Victor Auto Service did the actual bodywork, or built the prototypes? It’s clearly the same design, so there must be some relationship between the two firms. I’d love to know.
But to answer your question: No, I’d think twice about paying $14,000 in 1964 dollars for a custom Cadillac from a streetcorner NY body shop.
Well, I’ll be very oowonest wit tyoo, I nonno. I mean, if w’toowawking gabout doin’ just da one boowody fuh dat kinda money…ouch, let goa my owahm; fuhgeddaboudit! But if yoo take ceeyeah of awlll five a deez boowodies inna trunka dis cah heeyuh, well den, my friend, we goowot sumpin’ tuh toowalk about! Oowall o’ dis is strictly preliminary; deyeah’s no deal gets made widdout it don’t get approoved by da boowoss, yoo unnersteeyand—right? Right. Now I’m gonna goduh da beeyat troom. Yoo tink aboudit.
Good eye. That’s Lincoln Center for sure, with some extra sky.
While similar to the Breezeway, I’m going say the Caddy station wagon’s D-pillar looks more like the Packard Predictor showcar’s C-pillar.
In fact, I think the 1956 Predictor’s roof beat the Breezeway’s introduction by at least a couple of years and was likely the inspiration for the Lincoln stylists. At least the timing fits.
It looks like the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the background. Perfect for a photo shoot of a ‘64 Cadillac.
On its hood, there’s a standup wreath and crest, which I didn’t think was made by the factory until the 1971 Eldorado. At least, that was the first car to have it standard. I’ve assumed any on older Cadillacs were retrofitted in the Broughamtastic 70s, but were they available earlier? Until ’85, the factory didn’t put wreaths on non-Fleetwood cars, which the side molding indicates this is.
Could this be the earliest example of a blacked-out C pillar, or is it chrome and just looks black from this angle?
Here’s a better view of the trailing-edge roofwork:
Isn’t that a rendering?
The C pillar is tiny, and the sunroof is gigantic. The curvy roof doesn’t really work with the straight-edged ’65 Cadillac. It was probably designed during the bulbous years.
Looking again at the ’64, the C pillar is thinner on the far side of the car than the driver’s side.
It’s a photo. The C-pillars are equally barely-there on both sides; the colour pic at the top of this post was taken at an angle such that the driver-side C-pillar gets lost in the darkness also comprising the opposite-side D-pillar. That’s what’s creating the illusion of an extra-thick C-pillar on the driver’s side.
Oh, you’re right, I can see a little of the seatback behind the thin pillar. What holds that roof up? I’ll bet the windows rattle after a few years.
I have the same question—even more so in re Paul’s idea of a completely pillarless version!
Great sleuth work (as always) Daniel. I find the Mercury-like addition just cheapens it. If I were GM/Cadillac, I would not have endorsed this look. The thin ‘C’ pillar doesn’t work either, unfortunately. Takes away from the presence of the overall design.
It would have worked better as the car of choice of late 70s surfer bums. 🙂
The presence of the C-pillar doesn’t bother me, but its angle is wrong —and it must be really wrong to bother me, given that I like the ’60-’62 Valiant-Lancer C-pillar area.
As to that bonnet-visor-deflector thing tacked on above the tailgate: I’m not opposed to the concept of creating a Mercury-like counterangle here, but the implementation falls short. I reckon they were stuck: leave it off and risk that part of the car looking too plain—like any/every workaday wagon—so they felt they had to do something. I think they’d’ve done better to use a lighter, more restrained hand at it.
I’d have liked to see the C pillar gone too, and turn it into a real hardtop wagon.
Even odder from that angle — looks like a sun bonnet, or the trailing edge of a Conestoga Wagon.
Also, this picture shows a sunroof, which is mighty interesting for the times.
Without a ‘C’ pillar, with the reversed ‘D’ pillar effect, I’m reminded of the Monkees car.
A replica of which brought a cool $242,000 (including buyer premium) at Mecum’s Houston auction earlier this month.
While not my cup of tea, starting at the front it doesn’t look too bad for the era. Continue back and it evokes a hearse, but I agree, the roofline isn’t high enough. But it’s still got that look. Then you get to the end and that backwards D pillar, and it’s oh no. But the view from the back is even worse! I’m not sure if I’d call them flying buttresses or what, but that roof looks like it has no support past the windshield and it’s ugly. The sunroof is a nice touch though, particularly for the era.
But I bet that thing rattled after a few thousand miles with that roof and it’s lack of support.
It took a long while for Cadillac to get the idea. Now Cadillac station wagons are their most popular products. Oh, can’t call them that. SUV/CUV.