Canadian Find: 1959 Cadillac Coupe De Ville
Canada has a wide array of classic cars from Europe and Asia, but how about this old heavy metal American Coupe De Ville? Well it is no secret that rust is an issue in Canada, but there are those beauties that escape total rot. While this Coupe De Ville isn’t perfect it has a fabulous interior, a straight body, and a nice interior. Throw some rust repair and paint work at this beauty and you would have a fine American jewel. With an opening bid of $13,500, this could be someone’s entry into their dream machine. Check it out here on eBay out of Kenosse Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.
From what we can see in the listing, the interior looks to be in very reasonable condition. The rear parcel shelf upholstery appears to be burned up, but the seats look fabulous, and the door panels look manageable. Unfortunately that is about as good of a look as we get of the interior. Both driver side windows have cracks, although the rest of the glass looks fair. The seller mentions that the previous owner claims to have installed a rebuilt engine, but that it has been sitting for quite a while. Apparently the engine turns over nicely, but the engine is not a runner at this time. A photo of the engine would have been a welcomed addition to the listing to help in drawing conclusions to that possibility.
As a whole I would dare to say that this heavy finned American has aged fairly well for the cool wet winters that can be seen in Canada. There is surface rust on the trunk, roof, and hood, and there are a few areas where the paint has been sanded off to bare metal. The chrome is very fair, and the body is quite straight, the catch 22 with this Cadillac lies with the passenger side rear quarter. A bit of an eye sore at first glance, looking a little closer, you can appreciate that the body is straight, but that quarter will definitely need to be replaced. The under body is an unknown quantity that could be an issue. Although that is a possibility, the driver side of this Caddy appears very reasonable, and the rockers on both sides look very reasonable as well. So who knows, this De Ville may not be so scary coming from Canada. It certainly has many good highlights, and a lot of potential for a restoration candidate. Would you take the chance on this Canadian find?
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Comments
Had to do a report on Saskatchewan in 4th or 5th grade. No… was supposed to do a report. Oh, well, statute of limitations & all that. One of the other pics shows the hood with rust & sans primer… almost like they realized an afternoon & a sixer wasn’t gonna do it & decided to sell. Hope this old lady someday soon is rocketing about, annoying the Prius drivers & frightening the children.
I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever bought a “sixer”, I don’t think I have.12’s or 24’s is all I get.
No 30 packs?
George, that’s probably cans, I buy bottles, cheers.
Lots of prairie provinces and parts of BC where rust is not such an issue. I have rust free 1969 triumph Gt6 that spent all its life in Alberta
Ya.. things out west fair quite well. Comparable to west coast US cars —it’s the same continent after all.
Similarly you can usually spit through something from Ontario the same way you could north east US vehicles.
I would prefer to spend an additional 30K and purchase this super sano, rust free 59 California Cadi.
https://classics.autotrader.com/classic-cars/1959/cadillac/de_ville/101023475
Looks like the car Robert DeNiro drove in the ‘Deerhunter”. If you kick the rear bumper and the trunk opens it’s a winner. There’s also a town in Saskatchewan called Cadillac. Cool place, spent time there with some folks who raised Bison. Good ribs.
The side windows are flat safety glass that can be cut. Back around 1990 I had a customer who bought two 1960 Sedan DeVilles for a whopping $700, one was a parts car. The good one had a 1972 inspection sticker, so apparently it was off the road that long. Me and another guy got the windshield out of the parts car and installed it in the good car. That was one big, heavy and thick piece of glass.
LOTS of rust! I’m sure being parked on the wet ground didn’t do the entire undercarriage any favors either. I think he’s dreaming. You’d have to drop so much coin and labor into this poor thing you’d be into it for twice what you could pick up a nice one for. Unless of course you like working for free. Even then, it’d be close.
So this Caddie has 3 interiors? A “fabulous” one, a “nice” one, and a “reasonable” one? Which is it? Geez, the editing…
Quarter-shmorter…This one needs 9/16ths panels.
Looks like one my parents owned when
I was a kid in Jr. Highschool. Ours was
a butter yellow with the same black and
white intetior. It also had crank down
wimdows and factory A/C too. I can
still recall the time when that huge back
window blew out due to too much heat
in the cabin. We were having Supper
when we all heard a very loud boom
that came from.the driveway. We went outside to find out that the back window
was toast. Dad called Glass Specialty
auto glass, who had it fixed in no time
at all. The owner told Dad to bring it
in after Supper and he did just that.
He also called our insurance agent,
who met us at the repair shop with.
check in hand to cover the whole
repair. Sure wish that would still
happen today! Last time I dealt
with a modern insurance firm, it
was follow the prompts and hope
your call wasn’t dropped. Those
were the days!
The underside is going to require plating .
The engine not original so there’s that issue for some.
It can be saved but much labor or cash 💰 required and another restored is probably cheaper
with time spent .
I hope this guy has its papers in order as getting thru the Canada 🇨🇦/ US boarder is no easy feet for non running.
FYI the deer hunter which started showing a 59 is one my three fave war movies with Street, Denero . Waikeken followed by Appocalypse now with Duvall and Sheen then ending son Sheen with Platoon .
I will guarantee when you sit down on that seat you are going to hear the crackling of the dried out padding Cadillac used.
Starting bid is $10K with no takers at a day and a half left to go.
I would not advise replacing the whole quarter panel,
if the rust doesn’t go too far up,I would just do the lower sections.
there is a lot of alignment issues that could arise, also
the cars original integrity/strength could/would be affected.
these 59’s are really awesome,but cost a fortune to rehab,
and take a lot of time.Nice project for the right person,but price
may be prohibitive..?
I work at a chrome plating shop and I see a easy $20-$30 grand to re chrome all interior and exterior plating,including having all the stainless steel trim repaired and polished. I’m always suprised when people come in for chrome plating and they are disapointed that it’s expensive like body work, we can’t use bondo either, and it has to look as good as the body work, go figure.