It’s amazing how far once great cars can fall from grace, but conversely, it could also be that the most exclusive cars when new stand a far better chance at being preserved for future restoration because of their legendary qualities for luxury, speed, or what have you. The Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine is certainly a vehicle that falls into that category, as it was the top of the food chain for luxury cars in the 1960s and 1970s, used by Hollywood elite and heads of state. This example is described as a barn find that the seller was holding onto in hopes of restoring, but is now listed here on Facebook Marketplace upon admitting he won’t have time to get to this one. The asking price is $6,000 and it’s located in Minnesota.
The Cadillac certainly has all the trappings of a car used by the iconoclast set, from the rear bumper mounted full size spare to the TV antenna on the trunk lid. These were likely later additions to keep the Caddy current when it began to appear a little long in the tooth compared to the next generation of luxury transport, but I’m sure the Fleetwood still stood proud even as the Town Cars invaded the space it dominated for so many years. The bodywork actually looks incredibly straight for a car that hasn’t been used, and despite being found in Minnesota, I don’t see any significant rot along the vulnerable areas of the body. The seller even says “….the body is great.”
The interior doesn’t look too bad either, and with its acres of leather and wood trim, it can certainly look pretty tired in a hurry if left unattended. The cabins were certainly spacious, with a middle row of jump seats that popped up if you needed more room for passengers. The seating surfaces appear to be relatively unscathed, and there’s no evidence of rampant sun damage, a benefit of being stored somewhere in the land of 10,000 lakes. The dash doesn’t show any cracks and all of the door panels look to be in good order, with wood trim still showing good luster and not much in the way of cracks or other damage. The photos also show a front bench seat in very nice condition, certainly far better than I’d expect for what was likely the seat that got the most use.
It even still runs and drives, with the seller noting that the 427 V8 is original to the car. Overall, there’s a lot to like about this Fleetwood limousine, from the straightness of the body to the lack of rust to the fact that it still runs and drives. It’s a big project no matter how much of it still remains in working order, as limos automatically increase the complexity of seemingly ever major system by tenfold. But if the body isn’t rusty and the cabin hasn’t been torn up or previously modified to be more “modern,” you’re starting from a pretty good place to make this factory limousine a top-shelf cruiser once again. Do you have the room for project this big?
Probably 472 c.i. rather than 427 …
Ha! Minus the dust, the limo my parents insisted they provide for my 2006 wedding was of this ilk – and in slightly-worse shape.
It made quite an entrance.
$6000 seems to be a very good price for a lot of motor car.
Agreed. It’s only about a dollar a pound.
Limos once serving the purpose made for do not really bring much money.
That 472 could be turned into a monster rat engine .
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a serious limo with that pimptastic continental spare kit. So unless Super Fly was a head of state, I’m not thinking that this particular car was ever at the “top of the food chain” for luxury transport.
Good point.
Probably an old funeral home car. If I bought it, the continental kit comes off right away, it’s a Cadillac, not a Connie!
Then it gets an exorcism.
This car has a divider window, funeral home cars usually don’t have that feature. The funeral director usually would rather save that money.
I had one like this once. Same year & interior (except no didider window), dark gray body. I got a bunch of friends into it one day, drove down to Chicago & we went to see a live airing of the Jerry Springer show. Fun day!
I guess I”ll never understand why some of these guys can’t take five minutes to hit the thing with a garden hose before they take a photo.
Drag it back to a trailer park and use it as overflow guest housing.
wash the damn thing!!!!
I could be wrong, but I thought a 500 cubic inch engine was used across the line by 1973.
Nope, the 472 was the standard engine in all Cadillacs except the Eldorado through 1974, from 1975 and on the Eldorado 500cid engine was standard on all cars.
So did I —I know the Eldorado did.
Nope only the eldo got the 8.2l 500 c.I. engine although the GM engine code on the emissions sticker was 501…I had a 73 coupe triple black everything but a sunroof and split bench and a 73 Fleetwood brougham Triple midnite blue fully loaded except for leather and roof…it was a factory test vehicle meaning if it came in for service at a caddy/gm dealer the factory was to be notified it also had a primitive abs system with dual vacuum boosters and a hearse rear end might have been a two speed experimental got good gas mileage surprisingly…my .02$ worth
The 501 is an emissions certification logo from GM 5=Cadillac 01=version of the engine, nothing to do with the displacement which is 500.
The primitive ABS was Track Master, a rear wheel ABS system Cadillac offered from 1970 through 1976.
I think the 500 was used starting in 1975
My old man had two ’73 Caddys, a Sedan de Ville and a Fleetwood 60 special Broughm, both fantastic cars, like driving in your living room! Both had the 472. The 500 might have been an option, but I dont think so, the 500 as standard engine didnt show until about ’75. By then it was detuned to meet fed regs but still needed more cubes for the same grunt you got in the early 70s with a higher compression slightly smaller engine. Still, all you had to do was set the cruise at 75, and it stayed there, up hills, down hills, past trucks, sports cars, anything that got in the way. It was great! Yeah.. just get the hell outta the way, Caddy comin’ through!
At least it is a real Cadilac, nice cars. Now days Cadilac is just an over priced Chevrolete with plastic name tags.
I believe the 500 came in the Eldorado only. My ’73 coupe had a 473.
So many of these were destroyed in the TV show Gotham and one was destroyed in The Hunters, Sad that movie car guys will never say no to destroying anything if the price is right