There is a saying that is common both in the military and disaster prepping communities concerning the importance of redundancy: “Two is one.  One is none.” The idea is that you should always have two of something important is a talisman to ward off one of Murphy’s most important laws: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” While having a spare is always a good idea, having a spare Cadillac is always a costly proposition. The only guy I have ever heard of that likely had two of the same Cadillacs was Elvis, but he was in a higher tax bracket than most of us. His advantage was that he was buying the Cadillacs new at a dealership, but I think I have found a more expensive way to double up on Caddys. Take a look at this pair of 1957 Cadillac Coupe De Villes being sold here on eBay out of Litchfield, Michigan. The cars have just six bids as of this writing, and the current bid of $2,075 has not hit the reserve yet.

The first car appears to be painted a great color combination of baby blue with white trim.  Both cars are almost completely free of rust, or so the owner claims, and that is a good thing.  GM cars of this era often have problems with rust, and Cadillacs were no exception.  I don’t think the owner counts surface rust as rust, but that seems to be a common theme I see in ads.

Above are two interior pictures of the baby blue Cadillac. As you can see, restoring the interiors of  these cars is going to take a boat load of cash. The dash will need to be disassembled, polished and painted, and the instruments will probably need to be refurbished. The seats are in such rough shape it is hard to figure out if they were vinyl, cloth, or leather. My guess is that they were some combination of leather and cloth. Thank goodness the material hasn’t been thrown out, so the upholsterer can use it for a pattern.

Above is a picture of the tan car. The owner hasn’t provided many detailed pictures of either car, and that hurts the sale. There is a lot of car in a Cadillac of this vintage, and missing pieces and parts won’t be as easy to source as those of a Chevrolet of the same vintage. Still, the body doesn’t look too bad here. I just wish we could see more of it.

The same goes for the passenger side. It looks restorable, but there seems to be some problem with the panel alignment between the fender and the door. This could be because the car was disassembled, then the fender was loosely bolted on to try to keep all the parts together, or it could be the result of shoddy body work in the past. The cracking in the paint around the wheel well looks to be more than the standard lacquer cracking, making me think there is Bondo underneath. A magnet and a close look under the car would tell you a whole lot here.

Perhaps the most frightening part of this ad is pictured above. Seeing that back glass taped in with duct tape is scary. Seeing the surface rust around there is as scary as crossing the streams in Ghostbusters. Obviously, this car sat outside for a long while, and that is not good for the rubber that holds in the back glass. The sun makes this material dry up and crack, and the rain is funneled into some very hard to repair places. Pulling off this tape and inspecting under the glass and in the trunk would be a non-negotiable if I were purchasing these cars. A whole lot of hours and money could be spent in this area fixing rust related problems.

The one sign that God is watching out for whomever purchases these twin credit card melters is sitting on the hood of the tan car. This appears to be the front bumper, complete with all its parts and pieces. The owner does state that the rear bumper has been chromed and is included as well, but we don’t know if this applies to both cars. These are either new reproduction pieces, or they are the original pieces with a fresh re-chroming. I say that because one of the major problems in the collector car world today is the cost of re-chroming any bright work. This work is difficult, dirty, and the by-products are very harmful to the environment. Environmental Protection Agency mandates have driven a lot of plating companies out of business. It is often cheaper to buy reproduction parts up to and including bumpers from suppliers who get them from other countries who are less concerned with the environmental effects. This problem also extends to paints to a certain extent, and, when combined with high labor costs here in the United States, I have heard that restoration shops are opening up in Eastern Europe. The lower costs of labor and more lax environmental regulations there can more than offset the costs of shipping. It also doesn’t hurt that there are a number of real craftsmen in those countries that are grateful for the work.

Coming back from that tangent, you are going to need to be a craftsman to refurbish these two cars. Restoring Cadillacs of this vintage is frightfully expensive, and it demands a lot of different skill sets if you are going to complete this one on your own. Unfortunately, you will probably be totally upside down financially when you finish, as these appear to be run of the mill Cadillacs of the era. However, if you want a fifties era GM car to enjoy for a long time, and you plan to use the car for tours, there is probably no better car for the job. These are fantastic road cars, and you can’t even describe how one of these vintage Cadillacs rides to someone who has never experienced one. This isn’t some confused eighties Cadillac.  The Cadillac slogan of “Standard of the World” applies to these cars. You couldn’t find a better American car in 1957.

If you were dead set on buying these, probably the smartest thing to do is put all of the best parts on the baby blue one and re-assemble the tan one with the rest.  Once re-assembled, then try to sell the tan one to make as much of your money back as you can.  From there, you would have to decide if you were going to go to the extra expense of making it showroom perfect, or if you were going to personalize and restore it to fit your tastes.  Either way, you will soon find out what poverty really means, but the ride to the poor house be really nice!