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Cheap Coupe DeVille: 1961 Cadillac Project

1961-caddilac-project

This may be your chance to get some big Cadillac fins on the cheap! Well, at least the entry price will be cheap. The restoration, not so much. This thing needs everything, but it does have a clear title. This could be a big project for the right person or it could at least donate a few parts to help one of its brethren live on. It’s listed here on eBay where bidding is currently at $360 with only a couple of hours left!

auto-dimmer

It may be hard to tell from this photo, but this was once a very nice place to be. The accommodations were comfy and there were lots of luxury features such as power windows and even auto-dimming headlights!

390-v8

There was plenty of power to move this big land yacht around too! These came stock with a big 390 V8. This partial shot doesn’t give us much hope that this will be easy to get running though. A rag stuffed down the intake usually isn’t a good sign.

lots-of-rust

As you can tell from this photo, this car was not stored in a dry climate. There’s a lot of rust and just about every area needs attention. These were high quality machines though so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone can restore it or at least get a lot of usable parts off it. Perfect examples can go for anywhere between $20k to $30k, so unless you are able to do all the work yourself and have a large parts supply at home, it may be hard to come out ahead on this one. Still, at a couple hundred, there’s not much to lose!

Comments

  1. Avatar Chebby

    Man this heap is roached. Rockabilly rat rod is the best you can do with it.

    Like 0
  2. Avatar Rich

    Yup. Do up the interior, get er running, slam it and drive it. Anything else is just tossing money out the window.

    Like 0
  3. Avatar DrinkinGasoline

    Dingle Balls and the Little Doggie in the back window on the package shelf with it’s head bobbing up and down……No Mas !

    Like 0
  4. Avatar Dave

    My Dad had one of these back in the sixties. Black with white leather. A beautiful car.

    Like 0
  5. Avatar packrat

    How I hate dealing with a car/machine tools/anything/that’s been stored extremely damp and mossy, especially cars. Everything smells like decay. Reach up in the instrument cluster, and come down with watery rust streaks, even though the car’s been airing for a week. Dissimilar metals eaten into each other and fluffy with white corrosion. Tiny springs broken, relay fingers snapped, Sheet metal screws so fuzzed up you can’t get a screwdriver into them. Once you hit the door panels with cleaner, you find that somehow the mildew blooms have etched a pattern into the vinyl and the texture’s different–it still looks like mildew in the right light, even when you’ve performed the exorcism. Beat myself up trying to breathe life into one that’s too far gone, and I find it as enjoyable as I would trying to refinish a secondhand coffin.

    Otoh, it’s under five hundred with thirty minutes to go. If you get this one running with an interior that doesn’t make you gag, you will have done enough work to *know* how one of these comes apart and goes back together, and that is valuable experience, hard to get any other way than just doing it.

    Like 0
    • Avatar Junkfixer

      You’ve called it exactly right, packrat. The decay is in the details. There’s not much left save for a workable body – and that’s well perforated. I personally wouldn’t pay much for this carcass, maybe 5 bills. I wouldn’t try to save it, oh no. But a Dodge 3500 chassis with a Cummins & a 5 spd, a diamond plate interior, and a Jolly Roger painted on the roof?

      Yeah, I’d rock it. Let the coal roll.

      Like 0
  6. Avatar Rustytech Member

    Run! Run! As fast as you can Ruuun!

    Like 0
  7. Avatar Mark S

    Not worth the money it would cost to get it to the crusher.

    Like 0
    • Avatar packrat

      1,575 at close. Let’s see if it gets relisted, or if it has gone to someone who will undertake this epic adventure. anti-snag gloves for the rusty bits and a big box of N95 Niosh face masks are recommended. I truly wish them well.

      Like 0
  8. Avatar Dovi65

    Sadly, I think ‘rodding’ is the best way for this once elegant lady to ply the highways of America again. As much as I prefer keeping classic cars factory stock, the restoration costs for such a task are just too great.
    1961 ismy favorite year for Caddy’s, right after the 1959s

    Like 0

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