“Car has been customized,” begins the ad for this ’63 Cadillac flower car shared with us by reader Greg F.—well, yeah, that’s for sure! Check out those sky-high fins! They say fully loaded luxury pickups are “Texas Cadillacs,” but apparently one of the past owners of this Caddy sort-of-pickup said, “Why choose?” and then added an extra heaping dollop of Texas on top. Now it’s available here on craigslist out of Lanesboro, Minnesota, of all places, for $4,500. At that price, could it mooooooo-ve you? (Sorry, couldn’t help it.)
While the entire car sports a custom bovine motif, the most significant modifications seem to be centered around the rear, where the tailfins have been, er, amplified, the rear deck lowered, the rear window embiggened, custom fender skirts fitted, and a Continental kit added—the better for advertising the Saturday night entertainment at the Lonesome Armadillo in downtown Amarillo. There’s a fair amount of variability in these largely handcrafted “professional cars,” but most other flower cars of this vintage I’ve seen also still have a rear side door, which seems to have been closed off in this case.
The quality of workmanship on some these additions is suspect—check out that nasty corrosion along the seam of the fin cap—but, then, so is the overall condition of the rest of the car. It’s described as an “art car,” and perhaps that’s where the seller perceives its value to lie. It’s certainly not being aggressively marketed as potential transportation—mechanical condition, any work done, or even whether or not it runs all go unmentioned. Besides which, the title is missing, and there’s no telling when those Texas plates were last valid.
The Continental kit is a good tip-off, I think: this car would work perfectly parked outside of a Texas-style barbecue joint as an advertising landmark. Heck, turn the rear into a planter and make a real flower car out of it. If you look at it as part of your annual marketing budget, $4,500, amortized over several years with only the occasional fresh coat of paint and load of fertilizer, seems like a bargain!
Just about when I had forgotten this. The song remains the same. Time to lower the price. https://barnfinds.com/stories-tell-1963-cowboy-cadillac/
So Barn Finds doesn’t go “hey, that looks familiar” when they post stuff for a second time? They’ve done it on several occasions. Don’t they monitor their own website?
I haven’t seen it so it’s not the end of the world if it pops up again, crazy machine
Appearing tonight at the Lonesome Armadillo. W.T. & the F’s.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
No! Please no!
I’ve got nothing…..!!
You had me at “embiggened”….
Already on here this year…
The unholy alliance of poor taste and unstoppable ambition. We’ve seen it before and we will see it again.
Are the tailfins made of wood? Lol. Just kill it. Kill it with fire.
Thanks you made me laugh…!
But then again these were just junkers after 5 years or so Miguel – no need to be shooting people for saving for another time….it would have been crushed in our wrecking yard for weight with plenty of motors in the back !
Yes there is.
They took a very rare beautiful flower car and destroyed it.
That is reason enough.
We already saw this car, as leiniedude points out. These redundant write-ups seem to be getting more frequent….
Just pull into the local honky tonk/steakhouse….with this and your gonna be like a Boss……Boss Hogg.!!… lol 😎….. would be great for parades…and…. scaring towns people…haha….😂
All I can say is …..
You’re right Mike, I’ve seen this one about
8 months ago. At that time though, I just
couldn’t find a use for this beast until now. Since we gave up our paper route
earlier this month, I’ve been thinking
going back out on the road (At my age)
and playing music again–this time doing
a 2-person karaoke show with my neice.
Since Sis landed a really good job with
Blue Cross/Blue Shield, I’ve gotta find
something to do before I go stark raving
bonkers, and I realized that this “truck”
would be ideal for hauling our sound
equipment from show to show. Of course, I’d have a really good body man
remove all that crap from it, fill in all
those mounting holes, restore the body
and then repaint it a more dignified
color than it is now. Even in this second
post, the seller/flipper makes no mention
of the 390 V-8, its condition, or that of
the rest of the driveline either. All he
can do is hope to sell this monstrocity
with those god-awful photos he’s using
right now. To be frank and honest, I’d
offer him $500 for it as shipping registration, and repair codts would
make this project sooo not worth it
unless you could get this thing dirt
cheap. And yes Miguel, if I decide
to do this, I’ll do my best to put this
thing back in as original shape as
possible. I hear this poor car crying
SAVE ME, PLEASE SAVE ME!
Say Kenneth, sorry to hear you gave up the route. If you can make music man go for it! Do some live shows Kenneth, I’d much rather pay to see live music than a karaoke show. You can do it! Best of luck Bro, Mike.
Who would pay $4500.00 for this?
Come on, I was going to eat breakfast then I saw this abomination. Now I can’t eat.
Looks worse than it did the first time. Hire an arsonist and spare us from having to see this a third time.
Wait a second! A flower car with Air Horns?? What’s wrong with this picture?
This one looks infected with Mad Cow Disease.
Frankly, I’m amazed that “The Big Texan” restaurant on I-40 in Amarillo hasn’t snapped this up. It would fit right in….
If you could eat that 72 oz. steak dinner in under an hour, while staring at this horror, and keep it down, they should give you free meals for life.
@P.Melvin, If he was still alive John Candy could do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc_5tx7xRlg
Oh, Johnny, we hardly knew ye! It was this kind of thing that took him so soon. I once weighed a good bit more than him, I believe, but I could never push myself this far.
I was told once that one of favorite meals was the Mickey D’s surf and turf-a 1/4 pounder and a filet o fish crammed together. I tried t. It wasn’t that good.
That and a heavy smoking habit was it for him.
I was not reading Barn Finds 8 months ago, so thank you for bringing this back. How sad someone destroyed this old flower car. I say crush it!
There have been so many repeats lately checking in every few months is probably OK.
I’m with Ike. It looks like the second time around and it’s still fading away. And all the gee gaws mounted on it will likely soon fall off. If I bought it, I would try to bring it back to its original flower car livery but there has been a lot of hacking to that body on panels that never should have been hacked! Shame.
Missing title? So what if the cowboy that built this beast decides it’s his again and wants it back?
Gunfight at the OK Corral.
Miguel,
I’ll bring the bullets!!!
Now I remember a ’55 Mercury on a pole along Route 33 between Columbus and Lancaster when I was a kid. I thought that Merc was cool, and the fact that it was up on that pole, (advertising something), was just the bomb.
This would be a good use of this Caddie: Up on a pole along some Texas highway, advertising belt buckles, boots, or barbecue. Here’s an internet photo of exactly what I’m talking about!
the real money is to restore those erector set oil wells on the front. I have seen those pieces go for 3 and 4 dollars each
C’mon. that’s pushing it. They would have to be in immaculate condition.
This this could take flight with those wings…..wait, maybe not……they might break off.
WTF could you do with this???
If a car could wear a bag over it’s head this poor Caddy would be begging for one.
Words fail me…..