Nineteen forty eight was a transitional year for Cadillac; it was the first year for the tiny, stylish fins inspired by the Lockheed P-38 “Lightning,” and it was the last year for the 346 cubic-inch Cadillac flathead V8. Harley Earl’s styling department was churning out hit after hit, but it would take another two years for Cadillac to finally overtake Packard in sales. It was an exciting time for GM’s halo division, and you can buy a ’48 of your own if you’re up for a little mechanical work.
Before getting our hands dirty, a little background: This car was originally purchased by an ex-California senator named E.H. Christian and has remained in that family ever since. It is now being sold as a part of an “estate liquidation” in Oakland, California. Judging by the trim, I’d say it’s a Series 62 model rather than the more inexpensive Series 61.
Unfortunately, the driver’s side cylinder head is currently removed as the result of a stuck valve. As a man who’s worked on plenty of long-static old cars, a stuck valve is often the result of being run with bad gasoline or simply having sat idle too long. Either could be the case here, but if one valve is stuck, I’d be willing to bet the others are in similar danger. If I bought this project, I’d probably pull the other cylinder head and be ready to do some spraying and tapping for quite some time before assembling the engine. Other mechanics would investigate even further by disassembling the valvetrain.
Then, you want to clean the fuel system. The seller says that s/he will negotiate a price with the repaired valve, so that’s one option if you’re not handy with a wrench. (But you should be handy with a wrench if you want to buy this car, in my opinion.) The seller does state that the car ran well before the valve stuck.
Aside from that, the car has been treated to some restoration work over the years. It apparently has had one repaint, some chrome work, and some interior work. Being packed in a warehouse surrounded by other cars, its main issue is clearly a lack of use. It will most likely clean up beautifully, but then the mechanical work begins.
As a side note, although I prefer the massive grille of the ’49 Cadillac, the more delicate ’48 is growing on me. The idea of having the last of the flatheads is also appealing – your thoughts? ’48 or ’49?
I’d guess that the upholstery is not the original pattern, but perhaps a ’48 Cadillac expert can shine some more light on that in the comments. This car has the Hydra-Matic transmission, as one would expect from a Cadillac of this vintage.
This ’48 Cadillac is for sale on Craigslist for $13,000 with a clean title and a seller who will work with you to arrange shipping. My take is that you’re buying a solid California Cadillac that needs a little work to get back on the road. I’d be interested to see what it eventually sells for – what do you think? Thanks to T.J. for another cool find.
Way overpriced. I sold the same one in perfect working order for 12 g. I hope the buyer can turn a wrench.
The engine, at the end of its run, was sweet. Not as powerful as the new one for ’49, but put in a dual master cylinder, new brake lines and cylinders, and radial tires, bias look if you insist, and seat belts (no, this is not a museum or concours winner, so make it safer and drive it) and you can go all day at 70 mph. Yes, you need to pay attention to the steering, rack and pinon was a real game changer in that regard, and it is sprung quite softly, so you need to “drive it” but the muscle memory soon accomodates the necessary steering attention, but you cannot take your eyes off the road, or it will drift. Texting would be a killer as in any pre-rack and pinon car or truck.
Texting while driving, are you nuts. Tell me when you’re going driving, so I can stay home.
That interior material looks correct to me. Very similar to my 1950 62 series.
Yes, that is the original upholstery pattern, and it looks pretty good.
Very unusual number plate. I wonder what the significance is. Beautiful shape, probably the nicest Caddy made IMO.
Purists will hate my thoughts but if this beauty landed in my garage, I would pull the engine and tranny and install a later model 472 or 500 cid Cadillac engine with an ac compressor. The big block Cadillac was a great engine for its light weight, packaging and quiet operation. Other than that, I would keep it as stock as possible except for adding tunes, cruise control, front disc brakes. I sent my 68 442 amfm mono radio to a guy in port charlotte fl that updated it to 4 speaker stereo with input jacks to plug in a cell phone for music streaming. Looks totally stock. Very cool car. Fix the flathead engine and set it aside to go back all original for the next buyer.