1960 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible
This example, wearing 73,045 non-verifiable miles comes to our Hallowed Halls from our consignor who has owned the car since 1995 and performed a host of upgrades throughout the years, not limited to a rebuilt drivetrain, a new top, new interior, updated brakes and some extra lighting, as if the opulence of the design wasn't enough...
Exterior
Keeping in true early 1960's mantra, the larger the chrome and fins, the more it will sell, and this car ranks up there with some of the largest fins to roll out of Detroit, and the massive chrome adornments are not too shabby either! Dual visored halo style headlights with the rounded over trimmed visors almost appear to be snarling at you in their design. These flank a chromed egg crate grille with a mid wide chrome trimming with added illumination at the flick of a switch. At the bottom, the front end is framed with a large mirror like chrome bumper with its large duo of portholed lighting on either corner. The bumper wrap arounds start framing the wheel wells and ground the front quarter panels. A strip of chrome runs rearward from the headlights to the windscreen and highlights the edge of the front quarters. A raked rearward windswept windshield keeps the low and slow look, and the nearly new dark red canvas convertible top, in pristine condition, almost appears "chopped" from the side view. Big steel side slabs all draped in Red Wine Metallic have decent gaps and very few notable flaws without getting right up against the finish. The side trimmings have been shaved, much like an El Dorado, as our consignor felt they hindered the lines and those iconic rear quarters are the piece-de-resistance, the Harley Earl magnum opus in the rear tail fins to this day yet to be outdone. These are topped with a chrome trimming and have integral tail lighting that sweeps forward to match the fin design. As they melt into the rear roll pan, a large bumper takes over with a central egg crate filled in design, and much like the front grille, has been filled with extra lighting that illuminates when the brakes are engaged, and massive jet engine like openings which have the reverse lighting along with more tail lighting. Large steel for the hood and trunk, and rear fender skirts have this car looking more like a land rocket ship than a luxury car. 16-inch chrome wire wheels are wrapped in white and gold striped radials for that period perfect look. Who said wretched excess is a bad thing?? It would be like someone saying I have too much money!
Interior
Top down and a swing of the doors and more excess can be sniffed out and create more eye candy. The door panels have a tango going on between the white vinyl with a cut in of red carpeting, and chrome trimmings and accenting badging. These trimmings are near showroom and the only rear flaw we note is some slight staining that should clean easily. Feasting our eyes on what we are about to sit on we see white leather tuck and roll stitched inserts with white bolsters and loads of buttons for the front and rear benches. The front bench sports an armrest in the center and the chrome tub with power adjustment controls cradle the front bench, all sitting in a blood red sea of beautiful clean deep pile carpeting. A futuristic styled GM dash with and new padded topper and deeply inset central gauge speedo cluster and dual heater slides of encased metal controls is in front of a red leather wrapped steering wheel. Some more toggles in the corners of the wrap around dash as well as the wiper and washer buttons just below are within easy reach of the pilot. The dash also has the standard ash receptacle, a big glovebox, and updated AM/FM/Bluetooth radio and plenty of shiny trimmings throughout. The trunk also has been treated to a redux with new side paneling and matting.
Drivetrain
A heave of the long hood, and we see a restored and detailed engine bay with a rebuilt 390ci V8 topped by a single 4-barrel carburetor. A rebuilt Hydramatic 4-speed automatic transmission is attached to the back, and a 2.94 cruising rear axle is on this model. The engine bay has been restored and matches the rest of the car in its nearly pristine condition
Undercarriage
Clearly restored and now showing with a slight patina, some light road dirt and surface rust, and finely aged but well kept surfaces and structure on this undercarriage. A reinforced X frame is below and attached are independent coil springs for the front ride and a 4 link with coil springs for the back. Power brakes are all around with an upgrade to discs in the front and retaining drums in the rear. Dual exhaust is solid and ready to expel spent fossils at the turn of a key.
Drive-Ability
The luxurious cruiser fired right up, and I was off like a land rocket ship on a mission. She ran swimmingly, turned about 1000 heads, and all worked well. My cohort and I did manage to take up half of the drive thru at our local McDonalds with the sheer length of this car. Now if we only had an A&W Rootbeer in the locale just to see if they kept the parking stalls the same size. We noted the speedometer, odometer and heater blower were non operational. While Classic Auto Mall represents that these functions were working at the time of our test drive, we cannot guarantee these functions will be working at the time of your purchase.
Harley Earl nailed the excess with the design of this Caddy. In this writer's mind it is one of the best examples of the Caddy bar none. Plenty of conveniences, plenty of chrome, and those tail fins and grilles just bleeds mid century spaceship, pushbutton, pills for meals lifestyle. An awesome example made better with the custom touches performed by our consignor, and I may have a hot nut for this as it's the year following my birth, although I'm not nearly as excessive but equally as
