Customs question on early 60's gm convertibles

my question i have a 63 caddy convertible, are all the convertible specific parts the same as the buick,olds, pontiac and chevy cars? what about the ch***is also? thinking of converting a 63 chevy to convertible.. thanks hot rust

 

I would bet that the Cadillac parts are unique to Cadillac.

 

MOst all parts are unique to the cad...

 

63 Chevy is X frame ..63 Pontiac is perimeter frame (61, up)
What are you going to do about the 63 sedan frame?

 

look up the convertible parts and you might find they are the same as Chevy. The gl***....that will tell you a lot. If Chevy gl*** fits a Caddy, then it's likely the top is the same. I think they are, but I'm not going to do your homework, because I'm on a trip right now and my laptop isn't really the best for things like gmpartswiki or looking up part numbers from reproduction places, or the Hollanders book I have at home.

 

Not sure about Cadillac, but the other GM brands of that era share many parts from the beltline up if you're talking about the convertible top frame, window gl***, hydraulics, etc.

As mentioned by others the frames (and suspensions and drivetrains) were all brand specific, so there's little interchange there.

 

Even in terms of gl*** Cadillac was often on its own.

 

did you look up the part numbers for the car in question? or just generalizing in a way that may not be very helpful?

 

My post wasn't any more speculative than yours, no need to be defensive. I've observed over the last 30+ years that very little interchanges between a Caddy and a Chevy.

Either way, the side windows in the cars below aren't the same. The Caddy rear quarter windows are longer. Not sure about the height or length of the door gl***, but it will clearly make the top longer.

I'm unclear if there's also a width difference.

 

Cadillac, olds 98 and buick electra 225 share the big body.
Olds and buick used big and medium bodys.
Pontiac had small and medium.
Chevy was always small body.

 

Here you go.. Door gl*** CADDY ONLY !

Now here is the interesting thing.. Sez w/shield fits ALL 63-4
so the header bow would work on the chev but I dont think the whole top ***y. being caddy a longer car.

 

I have a Hollander book that covers this period, but unfortunately as you can see, the "roof" section does not cover convertibles. But I was able to look up the quarter window and confirm that the Chevy and Cadillac have two different part codes (2364 vs 2214) so at least that is confirmed different by the book, and if the quarter window is a different shape, I think it's no stretch to think the top is also different.

It's not always a guarantee that Cadillac is different though, I am currently selling a whole bunch of stuff from a '60 Olds Dynamic 88 convertible and a surprising amount of pieces from 1959-1960 GM convertibles are shared from Chevy all the way up to Cadillac. Not everything, but a lot.

 

Looks like I got beaten to the punch on this one.

 

Just by that much !

 

And the Frame is 63-4 Cad Conv ONLY

 

Thanks, looks like we have the answer. I recall the 61 Chevy and Cad lower door gl*** channels were the same, but 63-4 is a different setup.