In 1953, three of the automotive divisions of General Motors celebrated their 50th anniversaries. Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac brought out fancy models for the occasion. The top of the line of GM’s top line that year was the Cadillac Eldorado which sold for $7,750 or about $80,925 in today’s dollars. It was America’s most expensive car, but only 532 were manufactured, apparently because of the price.
It was a good year, though, for the American auto industry, which sold more than six million cars, 42.7% of them from GM. Styling and horsepower were big factors in the growing automotive sales. The lighter, overhead-valve engines were being introduced, and half of the cars manufactured had automatic transmissions by 1953.
Cadillac by this time had entrenched itself as “The Standard of the World” by surpassing Packard, the previous standard. The famous “fishtail” taillight which debuted with the 1948 Cadillac models was well established by 1953 and became the industry styling trend that lasted well into the late 1950s. Cadillac used a 331-cubic-inch engine rated at 160 horsepower and was one the fastest cars of the day. The engine was teamed with GM’s four-speed Hydramatic transmission but due to a fire at the Hydramatic plant, some 1953 models used Buick’s Dynaflow transmission.
Edward Glowacke was the chief designer of the 1953 Cadillac, and many considered it one of the most beautiful cars ever built. It was certainly America’s Number One status vehicle. The Coupe de Ville was a closed vehicle but had the flamboyant style of a convertible with pillarless hardtop styling. It had two bench seats with a pull-down armrest for the back seat. The car came with a big gold-plated “V” on the hood and trunk to emphasize the engine type. The front bumper guards were enlarged and were sometimes referred to as Dagmar bumper guards in reference to the actress by that name.
The headlights were slightly hooded and there were perpendicular faux air vents behind the doors that added to the distinctive beauty of this luxury vehicle. Even the interior headliner had chrome bows to simulate the interior of a convertible top.
This week’s feature is a 1953 Cadillac Coupe de Ville owned by Chip Sparks and his wife, Nicki, of Danville. Chip’s dad bought the car in 1955, and Chip acquired about 50 years ago. The owner has spent a sizable amount of money to get this car to look like it does today. He had been slowly renovating the car when disaster stuck about nine years ago. A fire in their garage substantially destroyed the uninsured Cadillac.
“So we decided that we would just open the garage door and throw money at it,” Nicki said. There was no other reasonable choice but to start the renovation over again. Surprisingly it went fairly fast, about two years, but of course, with classic cars the restoration is never really done. The body was OK, but the paint was burned.
“The chrome was gone, the interior was gone,” Chip stated. Fortunately, the engine, transmission and other mechanical parts were not damaged. “But after the fire, we couldn’t live in the house,” he said. We were out about six months.”
The Cadillac was towed to a body shop in Oakland right away to get started on the restoration.
“All the chrome had to be redone, and the interior had to redone by an upholstery shop,” he added. “The interior wasn’t burned because the windows were up, it looked pretty good, but it was damaged from the smoke.”
The car was completely repainted, of course, and it was done in period-correct colors of a pale green bottom and a dark green top. All the electronics and wiring also had to be replaced.
“It was done fairly fast, as the body shop didn’t want the car sitting around and the neither did the upholstery shop. The only problem was with the (chrome) plater because they don’t plate in California anymore. You have to go to Mexico, where things get lost and the quality isn’t as good as it used to be.”
Once done, to further enjoy their classic car, the owners added air conditioning, a sun roof and an AM/FM/CD radio. This Cadillac is definitely used, as it has been driven more than 250,000 miles with three different engines. It is currently powered by a 350 Chevy V8 teamed with the appropriate GM four-speed Hydramatic transmission.
The only things I noticed that didn’t match original specifications were the big, bold “V” on the hood and truck. After checking out the cost of gold plating the two “V” symbols, the Sparks couple decided to paint those symbols the car’s top dark green color, which looks great against the pale green body. It’s currently only driven about 1,000 miles a year, mostly to car shows and special events, but there are no plans to sell this beauty.
Have an interesting vehicle? Contact David Krumboltz at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To view more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles or to read more of Dave’s columns, visit mercurynews.com/author/david-krumboltz.
Source: www.mercurynews.com