Bob’s Uncle Earl passed away in 1962. He had treated the Cadillac like a member of the family. Aunt Effie couldn’t stand to part with it, so it sat in the garage until she died in 1974. It was still quite nice, but the tires were flat and it had not run in ten years.
Bob bought it out of the estate. “I’m gonna fix this up one of these days”, he said to his neighbor. Bob didn’t have room inside so the car sat out under the pine trees until 1981. By then, the chrome was shot and the interior had suffered sun and water damage.
Bob’s son-in-law had a place in an old service station building he owned, and convinced Bob to have it moved indoors. Sadly, Billy and others stacked all kinds of crap on the old Caddy, but it didn’t matter because the old GM Magic Mirror lacquer finish was toast by then anyway.
Both Bob and Billy have turned down multiple offers to buy the car. “It’s a classic. I suppose if someone came along and offered the $30,000 that it’s probably worth, I would have to think about it. But everyone comes along and lowballs us with $1,500 offers, which is just ridiculous. I wish these people would stop wasting my time.”
Bob has since died, and Billy is trying to decide what to do with it. He is looking around for an SBC 350/350 combo and maybe a Chevy pickup so that he can cut out the front part of the frame and suspension with disc brakes and weld them onto the Caddy.
So, there we have today’s Curbside Fiction entry. 🙂
Looks like the same model in the bottom picture, next to the Fleetwood Seventy-Five, but it doesn’t have a white top. There was quite the lineup in ’58!
They sold more extended deck than standard. The extended deck was a 1958 only version. I think the de Ville was extended deck. During the 50’s there were quite a few various body styles.
Nice Town Car. So what are you going to drive in the winter to protect them?
I thought of you when I went to look at a 2003 TC at a local dealer. It was a nice car inside and out but it seemed a bit small interior wise and not as much foot room in the foot well as I would have liked.(even with the seat all the way back and the adjustable pedals adjusted back.)
I sadly passed on it and ended up buying a nice 1995 Deville Base with the reliable(if not stellar performing) 4.9l from that same dealer. It has gobs of room. I never thought of myself as a Caddy person though. I then picked up a “winter beater” 1992 Lebaron Sedan for winter driving duty to spare the Deville.
Leon
Posted October 16, 2015 at 4:34 AM
Side profile with the rear skirted wheels
Tom Klockau
Posted October 16, 2015 at 5:27 PM
The Cartier is the daily driver now. Originally I was going to use the new one as a daily but after it got buffed and detailed at Strieter, I saw that it was even nicer. And luckily the Cartier has Michelin mud/snow tires already. It just got waxed before the weather turns. The new one is a 2004 Ultimate edition with 53000 miles. One owner and sold new at Courtesy L-M in Moline. It even came with the window sticker.
Nice job on the Caddy. I briefly entertained getting a White Diamond 2009 DTS but worries about the Northstar made me pass on it.
’58 was the year when Caddy said “We’ve had enough of Chevy trying to look like us! We’ll turn the tables, by golly. We’ll look just like Chevy but uglier. Ideally we should even look clumsier and weirder than our Soviet imitators.”
And GM’s vast resources came through with drooping colors. I don’t know why anyone bought these things.
Down the street from my buddy’s shop in Gardena, just barely visible behind the fence, is a ’62 Cadillac Fleetwood. The property is currently for sale or lease. I plan to call the realty company and ask about that car.
There used to be a suprisingly clean ’61 / ’62 Thunderbird and a malaise-era, landau-roofed two-door Nova in there, but both those cars have recently disappeared.
I’m scheduled to separate in three weeks and my back yard is full of dead cars and Motos I’m planning to fix up and sell off one by one once I do retire……
Several blocks from my house there is a first generation Dodge Charger sitting in a garage, buried under cardboard boxes and slowly disappearing under a thickening film of dust. I have lived here for over 15 years and I’m sure the Charger has not moved in all that time. The people who live there don’t seem very friendly so I’ve never been tempted to stop and ask why the Dodge is just sitting there; I suspect that someone is “going to fix it up” some day. At some point whoever owns the car will finally realize that they lack the money/skills/time to get the car back on the road and it will get sold to someone else.
” Hey boss that Caddy with Jimmy Hoffa in the boot is on a site called Curbside Classics, you want me and the boys to pay a visit to this Ed Stembridge guy?”
So two weeks ago I went out to my friend’s parent’s house for a listing appt. After I toured the house and property we went into the shop. It has wall between two of the garage stalls and the third/shop area. We walked to man door between the two halves. In the far stall, I could clearly see the tell tale upper corner of a 59 GM car. He reached in and hit the opener. and it was a 6 window Caddy. It was thoroughly buried, mattress on the roof, boxes on the trunk and hood and stuff piled all along the side.
Of course I asked for the story. Turns out at age 18 her purchased one “just like it” and within a year he totaled it when he spun it and slid sideways into a bridge abutment sideways. He walked away with a bruised shoulder but the car was totaled. So about 10 years ago he found his current one. It had been stored for a number of years and after about a year or so of driving it for fun the trans started leaking like a sieve. He said he thought about pulling out the trans himself but decided he was just too old to do it himself. At the time I was focused on getting the listing so I didn’t ask about his plans for the car but I figure I’ll bring it up in the next week or two.
To be honest I’d rather have a 59 Buick but I could live with a Caddy.
A college friend of mine had an aunt who was the widow of a retired funeral director from beautiful Venice IL. He was in the habit of buying the used Cadillac Series 75 limousines from the Bishop of Belleville IL. Each time the Bishop got a new car, this guy would buy the old one. I visited the residence where the now-elderly woman lived, and lo and behold there were 2 old Cadillac limousines in the garage…both dark blue with light grayish interiors. As I recall, there was a ’59 and a 62 or so.
This would have been around 1990. I have no clue what became of the cars.
There was an early-60s Cadillac limousine, white in color, behind St. Charles Foreign Car Repair in St. Charles MO, as recently as 5 years ago. It was tired and rusty, but probably worth saving.
If I had a lot of land, and a couple of barns, I’d be dangerous…my wife keeps me in check, and I avoid bringing new toys like this home.
Looks like a builder to me too ! .
Of course once it’s out you may find serious rust but in general this looks too good to part out .
-Nate
The most likely response would be : “That car is not for sale. Go away.”
+1, heard that line a couple of times.
Then at some point the car vanishes..
Owned by a man who liked to go on safari’s. I base that upon the pith helmet sitting by the back of the car.
Perhaps purchased by this gentleman after his Jeep Station Wagon was wrecked?
Firestone battery acid….American Brakeblok???? Is this a colorized black and white print or something??
Bob’s Uncle Earl passed away in 1962. He had treated the Cadillac like a member of the family. Aunt Effie couldn’t stand to part with it, so it sat in the garage until she died in 1974. It was still quite nice, but the tires were flat and it had not run in ten years.
Bob bought it out of the estate. “I’m gonna fix this up one of these days”, he said to his neighbor. Bob didn’t have room inside so the car sat out under the pine trees until 1981. By then, the chrome was shot and the interior had suffered sun and water damage.
Bob’s son-in-law had a place in an old service station building he owned, and convinced Bob to have it moved indoors. Sadly, Billy and others stacked all kinds of crap on the old Caddy, but it didn’t matter because the old GM Magic Mirror lacquer finish was toast by then anyway.
Both Bob and Billy have turned down multiple offers to buy the car. “It’s a classic. I suppose if someone came along and offered the $30,000 that it’s probably worth, I would have to think about it. But everyone comes along and lowballs us with $1,500 offers, which is just ridiculous. I wish these people would stop wasting my time.”
Bob has since died, and Billy is trying to decide what to do with it. He is looking around for an SBC 350/350 combo and maybe a Chevy pickup so that he can cut out the front part of the frame and suspension with disc brakes and weld them onto the Caddy.
So, there we have today’s Curbside Fiction entry. 🙂
And as Paul Harvey would have said “Now you know the rest of the story”.
And if you look carefully, you can see the ghost of Uncle Earl on the right side of the picture. He always did wear his hair a little long.
LOL! That’s actually my wife… Shot this in a tiny town in Kentucky last year.
Ha! Couldn’t see much beyond the long hair and the gray shirt.You’re a lucky man to have a wife that participates in automotive window shopping.
“Tolerates” is more like it. (c:
Looks like the same model in the bottom picture, next to the Fleetwood Seventy-Five, but it doesn’t have a white top. There was quite the lineup in ’58!
Wow. A sixty-two sedan with extended deck. Didn’t know their range was this broad.
They sold more extended deck than standard. The extended deck was a 1958 only version. I think the de Ville was extended deck. During the 50’s there were quite a few various body styles.
Hi Tom, haven’t heard from you in a while..
Hi Doug, all’s well here. Bought Town Car #2 in August–traded in the Ovlov. I love it!
Welcome back Mr. Klockau
Nice Town Car. So what are you going to drive in the winter to protect them?
I thought of you when I went to look at a 2003 TC at a local dealer. It was a nice car inside and out but it seemed a bit small interior wise and not as much foot room in the foot well as I would have liked.(even with the seat all the way back and the adjustable pedals adjusted back.)
I sadly passed on it and ended up buying a nice 1995 Deville Base with the reliable(if not stellar performing) 4.9l from that same dealer. It has gobs of room. I never thought of myself as a Caddy person though. I then picked up a “winter beater” 1992 Lebaron Sedan for winter driving duty to spare the Deville.
Side profile with the rear skirted wheels
The Cartier is the daily driver now. Originally I was going to use the new one as a daily but after it got buffed and detailed at Strieter, I saw that it was even nicer. And luckily the Cartier has Michelin mud/snow tires already. It just got waxed before the weather turns. The new one is a 2004 Ultimate edition with 53000 miles. One owner and sold new at Courtesy L-M in Moline. It even came with the window sticker.
Nice job on the Caddy. I briefly entertained getting a White Diamond 2009 DTS but worries about the Northstar made me pass on it.
I love Cadillacs
’58 was the year when Caddy said “We’ve had enough of Chevy trying to look like us! We’ll turn the tables, by golly. We’ll look just like Chevy but uglier. Ideally we should even look clumsier and weirder than our Soviet imitators.”
And GM’s vast resources came through with drooping colors. I don’t know why anyone bought these things.
Look at a 1958 Lincoln, and then read about the “quality” of the 1958 Imperial.
Both cars probably sold a fair number of Cadillacs that year.
Down the street from my buddy’s shop in Gardena, just barely visible behind the fence, is a ’62 Cadillac Fleetwood. The property is currently for sale or lease. I plan to call the realty company and ask about that car.
There used to be a suprisingly clean ’61 / ’62 Thunderbird and a malaise-era, landau-roofed two-door Nova in there, but both those cars have recently disappeared.
It is a huge, powder blue Cadillac. Ergo, I love it, despite the condition.
I’m gunna do it up when I retire, now get off my lawn.
Holy crap ~ that’s me ! .
I’m scheduled to separate in three weeks and my back yard is full of dead cars and Motos I’m planning to fix up and sell off one by one once I do retire……
Uh , oh .
=8-) .
-Nate
Several blocks from my house there is a first generation Dodge Charger sitting in a garage, buried under cardboard boxes and slowly disappearing under a thickening film of dust. I have lived here for over 15 years and I’m sure the Charger has not moved in all that time. The people who live there don’t seem very friendly so I’ve never been tempted to stop and ask why the Dodge is just sitting there; I suspect that someone is “going to fix it up” some day. At some point whoever owns the car will finally realize that they lack the money/skills/time to get the car back on the road and it will get sold to someone else.
” Hey boss that Caddy with Jimmy Hoffa in the boot is on a site called Curbside Classics, you want me and the boys to pay a visit to this Ed Stembridge guy?”
“Nice little web site you got there. Shame anything should happen to it.”
(c:
So two weeks ago I went out to my friend’s parent’s house for a listing appt. After I toured the house and property we went into the shop. It has wall between two of the garage stalls and the third/shop area. We walked to man door between the two halves. In the far stall, I could clearly see the tell tale upper corner of a 59 GM car. He reached in and hit the opener. and it was a 6 window Caddy. It was thoroughly buried, mattress on the roof, boxes on the trunk and hood and stuff piled all along the side.
Of course I asked for the story. Turns out at age 18 her purchased one “just like it” and within a year he totaled it when he spun it and slid sideways into a bridge abutment sideways. He walked away with a bruised shoulder but the car was totaled. So about 10 years ago he found his current one. It had been stored for a number of years and after about a year or so of driving it for fun the trans started leaking like a sieve. He said he thought about pulling out the trans himself but decided he was just too old to do it himself. At the time I was focused on getting the listing so I didn’t ask about his plans for the car but I figure I’ll bring it up in the next week or two.
To be honest I’d rather have a 59 Buick but I could live with a Caddy.
A college friend of mine had an aunt who was the widow of a retired funeral director from beautiful Venice IL. He was in the habit of buying the used Cadillac Series 75 limousines from the Bishop of Belleville IL. Each time the Bishop got a new car, this guy would buy the old one. I visited the residence where the now-elderly woman lived, and lo and behold there were 2 old Cadillac limousines in the garage…both dark blue with light grayish interiors. As I recall, there was a ’59 and a 62 or so.
This would have been around 1990. I have no clue what became of the cars.
There was an early-60s Cadillac limousine, white in color, behind St. Charles Foreign Car Repair in St. Charles MO, as recently as 5 years ago. It was tired and rusty, but probably worth saving.
If I had a lot of land, and a couple of barns, I’d be dangerous…my wife keeps me in check, and I avoid bringing new toys like this home.