So I bought a 1961 Cadillac Deville last month. I loved it as soon as I saw it and had to have it! To me it was worth what I paid for it but if I'm ever looking to unload it whats it worth to everyone else? Here is everything that was done to the car and what was in the for sale ad. I paid $5,000 for it....... Fontana Rose ( original) paint Power steering, brakes, windows, and seat "newer" gray cloth interior (has been redone in the last 10 yrs) 390 cu engine wonder bar radio ( needs tube) 69,000 miles on odometer; which doesn't work any more, but the speedometer works just fine... New...( All since Sept of ' 08) starter fuel pump water pump brakes dist cap wires plugs rotor,condensor, and coil 2 1/2" exhaust (manifold's back) w/gl*** packs flushed trans, engine, radiator, brake fluid and rear end belts hoses battery battery cables lowered (old school way) poly sway bar bushings and links shocks front end alignment water,volt and oil gauges added 3" wide white walls (less than 1000 miles on them!) Also has new lake pipes, cat eyes, dummy spot, custom "naked lady" hub caps, and "Voodoo Larry" pinstriping done at Hunnert car pile up and featured in Ol' Skool magazine. floor pans are super solid and so is trunk! Car runs GREAT and would drive cross country and back no problem! Thanks guys!
You, Gene and Bobby G have good taste! I'll have a '61 someday, but mine has to have a rag top just like my "Daddies Caddy"
61 and 62 are a couple of my favorites, fins on top and bottom in good moderation. trash the lake pipes, dummy spots and put the original hub caps back on it and you have a cool cruiser.
Beautiful Caddy, I'm in love too! In '63, I 'found' a black '61 Cad Cp De Vlle on a side street next to a retirement apartment building. Real dirty, had leaves under it, been sitting, but tags were current. Nice widow woman owned it, her husband bought it and p***ed away. Then the ****** went out. She had AAmco look at it, they diagnosed it at over $1,000! She had it towed home, asked what I'd pay. I told her I wasn't well off, she said "Give me $250, and it's yours. Just ***ure me you can fix it." I asured her, then had my pal tow it to my house 25 miles away. I bought a new adapter and stick flywheel, and slid my '37 LaSalle box in. Did the driveline myself, and used a '6o Olds clutch pedal, home made bellcrank. Gearing was tall, but downtown... "Hey, that Cad's got a floorbox!" I'd s****e reverse while shifting from 1st, just to get 'em to notice! Loved that Caddy!
Exactly...1950's custom stuff on a 1961 car. I'd drop the pipes, spots and find some cragar star wire wheels and narrow whites myself.... As for your question of falling in love...if your in love, who cares what it costs, unless you actually married your car, then it can take half when it divorces you.
No way is it worth 5 large. You defiantly paid waaaaaaaay too much. Here is the deal. I will give you $2,700 for it right now that way you don't end up screwing some poor guy like just happened to you. Deal? I know. I know. I'm a nice guy being selfless and helping others. It's not easy, but I am here for you.
Agree, dump the cheese and cl*** it up including shiny new paint when you get the chance. Looks like a good start to a nice project. After college, a buddy of mine and I were going to drive across country and back in a nice '62 4-door he bought a couple of months earlier (for about $2500 if I recall). That is until his mother convinced him to sell it and get something 'safer and more reliable' when I wasn't around. So, we drove across in a Toyota Landcruiser he got instead. It was his car we were taking one way or another so I wasn't going to complain and it did treat us well for the trip. But, 20 years later, I am still kind of disappointed to this day that we didn't take the Cadillac.
A buddy of mine loaned me his '61 Caddy for a day. It hadn't been on the road in a while, and when I took it home (5 miles away) the brakes completely went out. I was on a downhill cul-de-sac with no way to go but straight. Parked cars lined both sides, and at the bottom were 4 cars parked, including my brothers '65 Baracuda. I tried everything, but she was a locomotive, and nothing was going to slow her down. I had enough time to let go of the steering wheel, grab my head, put my feet up on the dash, and just wait for it... I had veered away from the Cuda, and aimed for a Mazda RX-7. At about 30 MPH I plowed that RX-7 into a gaurd rail, sent it flying with the Mazda down into the woods, and proceded to follow it. The Caddy landed on the steel hand rail of the staircase going down into the revine, tore it off, and ripped one of the uprights from the cement, and lodged it between the frame, and engine. I had been profiling on the way home, and I had the 2 left windows down, so when it came to rest nose down in the woods, I just stepped out through the windows. I tried to explain to my buddy that it could have been his wife and kid instead of me, and they may not have been so lucky, but that didn't help. That was the end of that friendship. Later I found out these early 60s Caddy's are prone to this problem if not driven regularly.... check it out before it happens to you. Good Luck. P.S. Dump the glitz
No, you didn't pay too much. Was at an RM auction a few years ago when an older gentleman paid $100,000 for a mint restored 51 Merc convertible. He asked me "Did I pay too much?" I told him, "If you can afford it and it's what you want you didn't pay too much."
Looks like a nice start to a project. If you paint it, rebuild the motor and trans and make it roadworthy like a newer car, you'll have 3X that in it anyway. At some point it just doesn't matter anymore if you're driving what you love.....
I gotta admit, I have NEVER seen dumb***-y spots mounted on the front fenders before. UGH!! As far as asking if you paid too much... Are you retarded or just going fishin for compliments and congratulations with some virtual "good-job-buddy" slaps on the back??? As posted previously by others, loose the new "additions" and it'll vastly improve that poor Caddy.
Thanks for all the comments. Yea it drives great! I take it to work almost everyday unless its raining, have had it on the interstate a few times and it does fine at 65mph. And yea, I'm going to be taking some of the extras off that were put on prior to me buying it(lake pipes, spot, hub caps). I don't have the original hubs....should i find some originals, powder coat the rims black, or something different? As far as the brake failure goes what causes them to fail?
Yea, not looking for any good jobs or anything like that.... Lord knows I'll find another car that I'll love just as much and will be looking to sell this one. So just wondering what its worth so I know when I find that next car. So to answer your question.....maybe I am retarded because I dropped $5k and don't know what this thing is worth. Those extras have to go! It seems like he was just putting **** on it to put **** on it! not a good look....
That is a pretty good deal for $5000 if all that work was done and it runs and drives great. I'm with everyone else, lose the dummys, pipes, hubcaps, they just don't work on these cars. Maybe a set of supremes or wires and bellflower tips are more in keeping with the style and era of the car. Enjoy the drive... ps. note the website in my signature hint hint...
Lose: dummy spots, lake pipes, and hub caps. Add: Thin whites, bell-flowers, and Supremes. Oh, you paid a fair price. I think it's worth that.
Looks like a decent buy to me, but I love those big-fin Caddys. I do think the bling needs to be toned down though.
it's not Caddy brakes that fail, it's brakes that sit for long periods of time on any old car that could fail..
Get a professional appraisal done if you want to figure out a rough market replacement value for the car. You should have one for it anyway for insurance purposes. You DO have an agreed value insurance policy on it right? right? I see the previous owner sure liked to buy stuff for his car. In addition to the lakes, spots and nekkid lady wheel covers, I also see chrome dice tire valve caps, a hula girl on the dash, a second one hanging from the rear view mirror, and a plastic shrunken head to keep her company. That's dandy. Do those tire sidewalls look pretty cracked to **** for "new" tires? How's the tread? Anyway - I'm with the majority of opinion expressed here so far: Get to work unbolting shiny things and go for cl***y and understated, not "Ol' Zkool" cheeseball. But what do I know -- I've got masking tape holding up my license plate in my back window.
You stole that thing for 5k! I love the '61 and '62 Cadillacs, beautiful cars. I'm not going to repeat everything that has already been said, but I prefer my Cadillacs stock.
The Jalopy Journal
