An online auction running from now until November 17th features a whole host of classics that are currently bidding at exceedingly small amounts. The brand selection ranges from Dodge, Chrysler, and Desoto to Cadillac, Ford, and Oldsmobile, along with a massive stash of spare parts. This 1959 Cadillac Coupe Deville is likely the most desirable car there, and certainly the most unique: it’s a funeral flower car replica. Find the entire auction catalog here on the Hamilton Auction Company website and you can view the cars in Osaga, Iowa.
None of the vehicles are in particularly tidy condition and most seem as if they have been sitting outside for decades (if not longer). The virtual bidding is making for cheap action at the moment, with most cars way below $1,000. This 1968 Chrysler New Yorker is a complete car with a big, honking 440 four-barrel under the hood. It’s stuck at the moment, but with bids at just $315, this one seems worthy of a roll of the dice.
In addition to the flower car, there are two hearses as well, showcasing a mild fascination with the morbid among whoever the original caretaker of this collection was. This is a 1957 Cadillac with a 390 engine and listed as being for parts only. The Cadillac appears quite complete with its many panes of glass all accounted for and minimal rust, not to mention the original hearse-specific interior still intact. The current bid is $1,525, one of the pricier cars on display.
Another interesting Mopar is this 1970 Chrysler Newport Custom with the D32 “heavy-duty transmission” option. The D32 is referenced online to being a tow package of sorts, with extra cooling capacity added to the transmission and radiator, and an engine oil cooler. The dual exhausts poking out from under the rear bumper likely helped the 383 breathe a bit more freely, and despite being sold for parts only, it looks nearly complete – with bidding up to a mere $205. Which find would you bring home?
For some reason the ’59 Cadillac flower car replica looks bizarrely, insanely impractically cool!! :-)
I like it when you list a location on your postings,
why not do it on every one?
When you click on the link to the ad it will almost always tell you where it is listed for sale.
I know that,but I like to see it in the posting,
so I don’t have to use the link.
I’ve been fortunate to have traveled all over
the US,& sometimes like to know where things
are located.
Yeah, I hate when I have to make another mouse click!!!
AngliaGT,
I 100% agree with your suggestion. Many times I wished the location was listed as part of the barn Finds write-up. [Just the town, not the street address of course.]
Keep the Caddys, I want those two big-as-a-whale Chryslers!
Almost any of these would be perfect to park in front of the house just to piss off the neighbors.
Unfortunately, most of these are destined to either become parts cars or scrapped outright. For the most part they aren’t particularly desirable or interesting, their condition seals their fate.
I can’t understand why the auction house actually bothered to take pictures, catalog and list individual window cranks and other small, nearly valueless parts. That is a waste of recourses and suggests they aren’t familiar with the product they are selling. Those sort of items are usually sold in lots in order to make the process operate more smoothly.
Steve R
Steve R,
I’ve always said that auction houses who generally don’t handle multiple vintage cars, and especially where spare parts are concerned, should stay away from automotive auctions.
Too many times I see cars under partial restoration, sold without the matching parts, only to see the parts for that car sold off in bulk lots with other parts, because the auctioneer & staff doesn’t have the ability to determine what parts belongs to what car.
The auctioneer needs to hire someone who knows enough to handle these situations. Or contact an antique car club for assistance. Many clubs can find members willing to help identify cars & parts. If they can’t do an accurate job for the owner of the items, they should pass on the job.
I’ve been selling off a huge 50 year collection of auto related stuff, buy both online and in person auctions. One of the auction companies who does both types recently auctioned an item of mine online, when it was supposed to be at a live auction.
The item was a set of solid gold [14K] Cadillac blazer buttons, in the original box, with the paperwork showing they were an award by GMAC for the Cadillac salesman who sold the most Cadillacs with GMAC financing, for 1966.
They listed them as a set of blazer buttons, “gold tone” [even though they were marked 14k], and never mentioned the Cadillac emblem, or listed the GMAC connection. The set sold for $10. The scrap gold value was at least $800. I valued it at $1,000 to $1,500. The auction company had packed up and transported a huge amount of stuff for me. They ended up not charging me for about $1,000 in services as a result.
I looked at the auction and it says that, at least the cars I looked at, there are no titles so they are all being sold as parts cars.
I know titles aren’t that hard to get, but it is just an extra thing that will need to be done.
Oddly enough, the ’59 flower car replica has the highest bid, which is the car I would want the least.
Nothing really astounding among the offerings, although I myself would be partial to the white `61 Cadillac Hearse. Those don’t grow on trees. Other than that, the scrapper can have the rest.
Osage, Iowa not Osaga.
The flower car El Deville is sure fun! Most of the other 4drs are mostly just parts cars
The 390 Cadillac engine came out in 1959. That 57 hearse has a 365 if it is the correct engine. 331 from 49 thru 55. 365 from 56 thru 58. 390 from 59 thru 62. All these engines look so much alike as they were all derived from the new for 49 block. 63 was a 390 but it was a one year to itself engine.
I wonder what a flower car “replica” might be. All funeral flower cars were conversions. I doubt someone made a replica, or tribute, to a conversion.
More adjectives, more better.
There is a 1956 Chrysler NYer convertible in there although it is rusty. Also a 1962 Mercury Monterey convertible also rusty as well as several old Hemi powered Chryslers.
I love that ’59 Cadillac pickup truck. Whoever came up with the design made the right decision in using the tailgate from the 1961-63 Buick Skylark/Olds Cutlass, and keeping the knife-edge design of the original back roof area. It looks like it had been an inside Cadillac design.
The actual build quality does not match the workmanship. The builder actually left the original rear seat bottom in place, and when I look at the photo showing the front seat backs & the interior area of the rear window, along the door glass seal surface of the body, the tack welds were never finished off. The rear liftgate handle was even left on the tailgate!
I suspect this was a combination of 2 wrecked vehicles; the front half of a Sedan De Ville, and the back half of a Coupe De Ville. The driver’s door shows that it originally had 4 doors due to the 4-switch power window unit on the door panel.
All that said, I absolutely love the overall look of the vehicle, and I can imagine Cadillac creating this back in 1959. Had this been available 20 years ago, I would be bidding like crazy for it, and after I was high bidder, I’d finish it off as if it was a factory one-off creation.
I don’t care about the execution of the Caddy pickup so much. I just want to roll up with those Mack Daddy fins and park it in a “Pro Parking” slot at Lowe’s / Depot.
The ’61 white Cadillac is actually an ambulance – note the seat in the rear section.
What’s the first one? An “El-Doradaco?”
I dont know about the rest of you, but I wince when I look at these pictures. All of these cars have just been left to rot, I’m guessing, in a junkyard that needs to move them off the land. Just a damn shame.
I personally love old funeral cars and flower cars in particular. From a different era for sure!