1951 Cadillac Convertible

Incredible find: here’s the story

Last spring after seeing an ad in Hemmings Motors News for a frame off restored 1963 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. I made arrangements to go look at the car. The car was located at Lou Schafer & Sons Classic Car Restorations in New Richmond, hio. They had been building custom show cars and restoring classic cars since 1962.

When I arrived I met with Lou Schafer’s two sons (Lou Jr. and Darin) who showed me the 1963 Eldorado which was a bona fide frame off nut and bolt high quality gorgeous restoration BUT in the garage next to the 1963 Caddy was a Blue 1951 Cadillac Convertible with California plates mostly covered and surrounded by years of stuff. I inquired about the car and asked if it was for sale.

The brothers were caught off guard and said they never had considered selling the car because it was their father’s car (who recently passed away) and that as long as they could remember while growing up that car was always sitting there in the garage. It was always the fathers plan to someday restore the car. Turns out it had been sitting in the garage since 1983 (32 years)

I asked for a closer look and then we began to clear away just enough stuff so I could open the hood and sit in the car. Even covered in dust and dirt I could tell this was a find. California plates, itting in a climate controlled garage since 1983, ncredibly straight, ll stainless and chrome intact, ndmostly original paint. An unmolested car.

The car currently has 60, 81 original miles with an actual mileage title, n oil change sticker in the door jamb from 1981 at 56,868 miles, nd the Schafer brothers filling in the history of where the car sat since 1983. I have included their website link below. Under the heading, other cars", here are a few pictures of the car and you could always reach out to them to verify the story.

After much discussion and a lot of emotion I was able to purchase both cars later that day.

51 Caddy arrives at my home

A couple of weeks later the car arrives at my home.

Drained the gas tank and blew out the lines. Cleaned the carb and points and the car started. Over the next couple of weeks I changed all the fluids and gave the car the once over. I did the following:

New Coker WW radials all round New all rear lenses, eplaced all bulbs

New 6 volts battery and battery cables New front stabilizers both, reased front end

New front and rear correct heavy duty shocks New front stabilizer bushings both

New master cylinder, ew coil New grounding straps engine to firewall

New power steering hoses both New fuel filters

Since that time I have put a few hundred miles on the car and it runs and drive beautiful.

I cleaned and detailed the car and was amazed at the beautiful shine that the paint still has but not without nicks, crapes and scratches BUT NO RUST. The stainless, hrome, mblems and badges for the most part are outstanding.

The only issue the car has currently is that the under the hood hydraulic pump that operates the windows and top had been removed and is missing. We could not find the removed parts. The plan that Mr. Schafer had for the car was a conversion to 12 volt, dd AC, onvert windows to electric, nd then upgrade the top to a more modern designated hydraulic 12 volt system. So currently the windows and the top areoperated manually. All the mechanisms for the windows and top are intact, ust currently no pump or hydraulic lines hooked up. Also, he car has no carpet. I chose not to replace it at this time to easily show how solid the floors are.

Lou Shafer and Son’s Classic Car Restorations website: http://lscustomshop.com/othercars.php