It’s not often that you find a car of this vintage where it has been refurbished to be a driver but still needs a lot of cosmetic work — or not! This 1936 Cadillac 60 Series is listed for sale here on craigslist in Shoreline, Washington, and is priced at $7,500. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Nevadahalfrack for sending us this rather unique find!
The seller explains that the car sat from 1963 until they purchased the car in 2018 and then undertook a great deal of work to turn the car into a runner. It’s now licensed and the seller has driven it to swap meets and shows. The car has been sympathetically refurbished in areas such as new oak and steel floors, a new windshield, all the switches and latches working (except the right outside door handle), a rebuilt fuel pump, and one of the four doors. There’s a long list of items the seller suggests need improvement, but it could all be done as a rolling refurbishment, especially if you want to leave the patinated look alone.
The Series 60 was produced from 1936 to 1939 and originally retailed for $1,700 (a little less than $34,000 in 2021 money). The body design was completed by famed GM stylist Harley Earl and was considered sleek for the day. The car was Cadillac’s entry into the lower luxury car market and competed with the Packard 120. I’m not sure whether it would be considered successful, as there were only 6,712 Series 60s sold in 1936 versus over 55,000 Packard 120s.
As you can see, much of the floor has been repaired or replaced, but there’s little interior at the moment. Some would view that as a blank canvas, others as a money pit!
The original engine is a 322-cubic-inch V-8 with an L-head design and a cast-iron block. It features 6.25:1 compression, three main bearings, hydraulic valve lifters, and produced 125 horsepower at 3,400 RPM when new. The seller modified the original water pump for better cooling and reports that there’s no summer overheating now.
I’m sure that you would attract crowds wherever you decided to drive this vintage Cadillac, and that’s certainly what I’d want to do. How do you feel? Have any of you driven a Cadillac 60?
You know what makes me want to puke( among other things) how a grand old lady like 1936 Cadillac, one of, if not THE most prestigious cars to own then, is reduced to some derelict looking crap bucket, like this. Surely, going on the current “P” word fad, and not what a glorious car this was. Not any schmoe owned a Cadillac then, unlike today. It showed, for whatever reason, you made it. You were a success. Hard to figure what IS a successful person today and Cadillac has all but faded from the luxury car field and wouldn’t be surprised, if it’s the next marque for GM to axe. You know, people are so out of it today, I wonder if even painted, people would notice. Even black, my most hated color, would be better than this blotchy crap. Sheeesh,,
Howard, why are you such an angry person?
It’s a survivor that’s worth saving.
Come on, Howard, there’s room for all tastes. I wouldn’t want to see it painted screaming pink, but I would not abuse anyone who liked it. Be nicer!
I’m not angry, consarnit, I’m,,,seasoned. Got ya’ll talkin, huh? If you follow todays trends, I bet this person had no intention of painting it, going on the attraction of “it’s an old car and should look like one” mentality, it’s a 180 to how most of us thought. For many, making a car look nice was our primary concern, sometimes before all the mechanical stuff was done, it was that important. With todays attitudes, there’s no way most folks would know, or care what a magnificent car this was in 1936. It’s just an old crappy derelict car to them, and somehow that sells? Coo-coo,,coo-coo,,,( spinning finger around ear)
100%, Howard, and someone needs to restore this sweetheart. My BIL found this while we were looking for a ‘47 Cadillac Club Coupe project; this guy got this one running/drivable so someone could finish the job right.
Hope it goes to the right home!
The car is what it is. It takes nads today for someone to commit to a full fledged mechanical restoration on a 1930’s Cadillac sedan. Props to the people who found it and did the monumental work to bring it back to life when it could have been just as easy to part it on the internet or worse left for yard art or finally scrapped to make a Honda or Toyota. Now wouldn’t that be fitting? Who would have thought in the 1930’s that the Japanese would dictate and rule the automotive landscape
What’s nice is they obviously enjoyed the fruits of their labor and actually drove it. Attended shows etc. Had fun. Obviously the guys were on a budget and and got it running first. Pretty sure the people who viewed it in person didn’t have the heart to brow beat on the paint and just appreciated seeing something that was very well left for dead.
Thanks Halftrack for trying to help the guys find it a home eventhough many are not receptive at seeing it without fresh paint. Hopefully whom ever is interested doesn’t come here.
Dear Howard,
In contemporary parlance we do not refer to a lack of uniformity of surface paint on an old Cadillac as a ‘crap bucket’ as the appropriate term today is ‘patina’ instead.
One man’s ‘blotchy crap’ is another woman’s ‘patina’, eh.
It’s not a ‘patina bucket’ either.
It’s a classic 36 Cadillac ‘with patina’, Howard.
Bob
I have to agree with Howard it’s a crap bucket. I would paint it as fast as I could. It would look great in a Root Beer color.
Just what are you trying to say here Howard? Sounds like you just might pull the trigger on this rolling piece of art !! I could see driving it all the way east,.after this winter that is.
HoA-
I agree with you but as I’ve learned ,,,some people like chocolate and some people like vanilla………..a lesson that took me a long time to accept. It doesn’t mean the Caddy is not a crapcan it just means it’s not for you…or me……
But it’s a little over the top to call your comment angry,;it’s merely an expression of certainty!.
Well, this is one story that makes me smile. The seller found this beauty and understood that modifying it would be a crime. Did a lot of work repairing and not modifying, cleaning her up, got her running and registered. Now is willing to pass it on to the next person at a reasonable price. Kudos to the seller and would love to see her gracefully back on the road.
Remember this is a wooden car, although the all steel top went a long way towards preventing rot, it’s still prevalent in pre ’37 fisher bodies. Apparently the seller addressed this problem, but one would need to make a first hand examination of the body structure. I learned the hard way about wooden cars on my ‘1929 Pontiac (my first car that I still own)
Quite the find, wow, sitting since 1963 until now. Now wear & tear for 58 years on the car. Fairly high end model, not all could afford it. More would buy Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets & Pontiacs.
Always nice to see old cars
Howard,
I read an article some years ago when automobile manufacturers started axing brands, that if anything were to happen to General Motors in the way of a demise, Cadillac would remain as it’s own company. Kinda like before GM purchased Cadillac from Leland.
Gone would be Oldsmobile, (already is), and Pontiac. Buick and Chevrolet would follow, and GM would be no more, but Cadillac would carry on.
Weather this is true remains to be seen, but GM will never axe Cadillac.
Until you’re ready to restore this fine old car, you could build a bed in the back seat area, install come curtains and make new friends in every campground you visited. Maybe cause a few other people lock their doors too.
Wow… What a classy car this was and could be again! I mean if you have the ability to see past the beat up paint and lack of interior you can clearly see what a grand machine this beauty was. I tip my fedora to the person who brought it partially back to it’s former glory. I just hope someone with a level head and deep pockets gets this car and gives it a restoration worthy of it’s pedigree!
I don’t think you can refer to a car as “restored” until they capably resume their original function. We can get by with “patinated” Fords, Chevys, and Plymouths: folks will look at them and muse: “isn’t that cute”! Yep, it can be amazing that these modest minimal people haulers have survived at all. Back in the final years or days that they were still in use, they were already severely “patinated”. That’s the way most of us old enough do remember them. We have since marvelled, indeed, winked at them on the rare occasion we see one that has survived.
But a Cadillac of the ‘30s through ‘60s is so much more than an old “people hauler”. Much of it’s “value” was symbolic. Yes, there was a time just before they faded from use, when due to wear and age, these cars were doomed to “cheap transportation”, but memories of that only sadden us. When we see them now, we don’t want to feel sorry for them, we want to celebrate their elegance and prestige.
The cars most common to my earliest memories were ’39 Chevys – and none of them were cause for celebration. The best of them were always faded and dirty, and most of them were dented as well. If you followed one for any more than two blocks, you would see and smell tell-tail blue smoke. Lotsa final owners bought these cars for less than $100 and drove them for many years thereafter, also acquiring regular misses. They were often crudely adapted to other uses: home-made roof-racks loaded with ladders and/or lumber. Patinating these cars celebrates their most essential usefulness – and how long they had to last as World War II interrupted the supply of old cars as well as new ones, and thousands of them were still humbly working, day-to-day, well into the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. But the ‘mid-30s prestigious Cadillacs survived WW II in elegant garages, retaining their prestige well into the late ‘40s, wherein we remember them. Patinating them is an insult to our memories, as well as the cars themselves, and the people who designed them, built them, and bought them. You want to patinate a ’37 Plymouth, or a ’41 Ford? Be my guest. I might even chuckle in admiration as it passes by on a Christmas parade. But a Packard? A Lincoln? An Imperial? A Cadillac? Patinating only turns their original funtion into a laughable nightmare – a cruel joke. It makes fun of the cars. ‘Twould be better to tow the thing, totally unrestored, through a Christmas parade. Let the irony simply pour out to the observers. Gotta ’36 Plymouth pickup? I’ll celebrate it’s every dent and scratch. That’s the way these things looked after a bit of the hard use they were put to, but a ’36 Cadillac? C’mon now! It better look like the function it served. Loyal owners celebrated ther beauty and maintained them accordingly. You better do the same.
This owner has done a magnIficant job on the functional part. Patinating will not add to it’s value – it may even detract!
Someone’s gonna have to daddy up, and spend some coin to get her painted. If she’s now in running and stopping condition along with all the metal work done thats a great start. So.eones going to enjoy her.