If you’ve been looking for a cool 2-door project or a classic Cadillac at a decent price, this might be the one for you! This 1958 DeVille can be found here on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $3,495. Located in Lexington, Kentucky, there is very little information in the ad, but as you’ll see from the photos, this doesn’t look like a bad project. Let’s take a look and thanks to Jamie for the tip on this cool Caddy.
The interior has definitely seen better days and is a long way from how it looked when new. The aftermarket doesn’t support Cadillac as it does with its other General Motors cousins (Chevrolet, Pontiac, etc.), so finding parts for these classics can be expensive and time-consuming. Although there seem to be some parts missing, it looks like some are stored inside the passenger compartment and trunk. There are some headlight trim and various other pieces in the truck.
There is no information on the engine other than it’s a V8, but the engine should measure 365 cubic inches. This car was produced ten years ahead of the massive 472 cubic inches (and subsequent 500 ci) V8’s that would power Cadillacs through the late 1970s. Based on the photos in the ad, this engine is going to need some work to get fired up. Hopefully, it isn’t too far gone and can be saved.
Here you can see the trademark fins that feature really classy “CADILLAC” lettering. For 1959 the rear end was dramatically re-styled including bullet-style tail lights and even taller fins. While this is a full-blown project car, it’s hard to beat a classic 2-door Caddy for under $3,500. What do you think?
Well, not to be negative, (and $3500 is an entirely fair ask for such a Cadillac) but $3500 is the ticket price into a $50,000 rabbit hole. Probably more.
I haven’t looked on ebay or Hemmings, but I’d guess that a Caddie like this could be bought for 50K in excellent running and driving condition, saving you the agony/work/expense of a years-long restoration. Unfortunately at this point it makes little sense to undertake a restoration of a basket-case car like this one.
I did look and immediately found a really nice CA car for 32K. Also found an Eldo Biarritz droptop for 60K. This one is best used for parts.
Rex is spot on! These Cadillac’s cost a fortune to restore. My son did a ’57 convertible for someone that was a rust free near perfect condition car before he started and the guy had close to 100K into it.
Nice write up Montana but calling it a “cool 2 door project” leads me to believe that you have never performed a full restoration before. A cool project would be to make a love seat from the fins and rear bumper (+or- $1500 for a re-chrome) and part out the rest. I mean no disrespect but unlike a Mustang or Camaro not everything is available in the aftermarket.
$3,500-ish may be a good price for a local person to haul it a short distance to a garage where it can be stored and completely parted out. I would imagine the front and rear bumpers (if solid-ish) should have pretty good value on their own.
Don’t forget the matching barbecue grill made out of the front clip!
$34.95 sounds like a fair price to me.
…and they have to pay me to haul it out.
I recently sold a similar car to a young Latino man who had the ability and drive to turn it around. Tip Of the cap to the young and enterprising! Great to see motivated young people. Some folks don’t have 32 large to get into a restored caddy. Oh and the Scandinavians are taking these projects on too. They are masters of working with what’s there. It’s a matter of pride for a scandinavian fella to turn a car like this around in one looooong winter-
Parts car. If that.
Yup. $34.95 sounds about right
The new trend for cars like this is to just get running and driving. Not full on factory perfect restoration….they are cool cars to drive with the real “patina” look…..then let the next buyer picks it up to another level….each consecutive buyer adds another $8,000 to $10,000k before you know…it back and everybody enjoyed a little piece of the restoration and not one person bore the brunt of the entire restoration cost..everybody losses a little Money in lieu of the fun and experience!
sitting on the ground for who knows how long. window open. carb wide open. 2 tons of junk. couldn’t even take the time to clean the leaves off it or make an attempt to blow up the tires or put some baloneys on it to get it off the ground. it does have some stainless and other goodies on it, but to me its a $200 parts car.
Good luck. SMH.
Cheers
GPC
Think I’d rather have the ’30s car next to it. Looks in much better condition.