Jay Leno's 1957 Cadillac Coupe de Ville - Jay Leno's Garage

**A Cadillac Enthusiast's Tale**

As I sit here with my 2012 CTS-V, I am reminded of the good old days when Cadillacs were truly kings of the road. This beast of a car, with its almost 600 horsepower and six-speed manual gearbox, is a testament to the brand's rich history of producing exceptional vehicles. My father, a man who had never owned a Cadillac before, was finally able to experience the luxury and power that only a Caddy could provide.

I recall my mother's embarrassment when she first laid eyes on this car. She would often complain about the attention it drew from strangers, who would stare in awe at our vehicle. One particular incident still makes me chuckle to this day. My father was driving the car, and we were stopped at a red light when someone in the other lane started yelling at us. My mother, in an attempt to diffuse the situation, rolled down the window and told them that we weren't really "Cadillac people" - that my son had gotten it as a gift for me, not because of any personal preference. The resulting commotion was so intense that people would drive away, leaving us alone at the intersection.

My father adored this car, and I'm sure he still does in spirit. He had always dreamed of owning a Cadillac, but could never quite afford one until my parents surprised him with the 225 Bu Collector as his gift. While it wasn't exactly the Cadillac experience we're having today, it was still a thrill to see him so excited about a new set of wheels.

One of the things that I love most about this car is its tropical package - a clever solution to overheating issues that plagued many Cadillacs back in the day. The package included larger radiators, bigger fans, and other upgrades designed to keep the engine cool even in sweltering climates. My friends and I would often joke about how we had "tropicalized" our car, much to the amusement of those who didn't know better.

As a car enthusiast, I've always been fascinated by the aftermarket scene surrounding classic Cadillacs. It's amazing what people can do with these old vehicles - from restoring them to their former glory to adding custom trim pieces and accessories. My friend Ed, who runs a business selling vintage parts for Caddies, has become a close friend over the years. We've had our fair share of adventures together, and I'm sure he'd be thrilled to see this car in all its glory.

Speaking of which, my 2012 CTS-V was actually purchased from Ed himself. He's an old friend who knows his way around a vintage engine, and we struck a deal on the car that just worked out perfectly for both of us. While I didn't pay a fortune for it, there is certainly some money involved - maybe $20 grand worth of chrome and paint, not to mention the transmission work and interior refinishing.

As I look at this car now, I'm reminded of why I love driving it so much. It's not just about the power or the prestige; it's about the memories we've made together as a family. My father may have loved this car back in the day, but now I get to enjoy it with my own children and friends. And who knows? Maybe one of them will inherit it someday.

**The Ed Brock Story**

One of the things that sets us apart from other classic Cadillac restorers is our partnership with Ed Brock - a renowned expert in vintage engine design. We've been working with Ed for years, and I'm thrilled to say that his products have become an integral part of our restoration process. The 1406 carburetor he designed specifically for this car has been a game-changer, eliminating the issues we used to experience with our original carb.

It's no secret that classic Caddies can be finicky when it comes to maintenance - and sometimes, the old cars just won't start without a little coaxing. But with Ed Brock's expert guidance, we've been able to overcome these challenges and bring this beauty back to life.

As I look around the interior of our Caddy, I'm struck by the amount of chrome that adorns its surfaces - over 20 grand worth, according to my estimates. It's a testament to the craftsmanship and attention to detail that Ed and his team bring to every project they work on.

**A Love Letter to Cadillacs**

As someone who grew up with a deep appreciation for classic cars, I can tell you that there's just something special about a well-crafted Cadillac. From its majestic proportions to its rich history of innovation and performance, these vehicles have always captivated me.

I remember watching my father drive our 225 Bu Collector - it was like a work of art on wheels. He loved the way it handled, the sound of the engine purring as we cruised down the highway. It may not have been a Caddy at the time, but to him, it was the closest thing he'd ever had to the real deal.

As I sit here with my 2012 CTS-V, I'm reminded of why these cars are so beloved by enthusiasts like myself. It's not just about the power or the prestige - it's about the memories we make together as a family. Whether we're cruising through the countryside or taking on the Autobahn, this car brings us closer together and creates experiences that will be cherished for generations to come.

So here's to the Caddies of the world - old and new, classic and modern. May they always continue to inspire us with their beauty, performance, and timeless style.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enfact when I made it in Show Business the first thing I did was buy my dad a new Cadillac I got my dad the Italian Cadillac white with the red velour upholstery it looks like Elvis's coughing inside my mother was so embarrassed to rideing that car CU I remember pulling up to a light and my dad is in one lane and there's somebody else in the other lane and my mother notices the people looking at the Cadillac you know my mother puts the window down and says to them we're not really Cadillac people our son got us this and of course this infuriates my D course we Cadillac we're driving a Cadillac course we Cadillac people and then they'd be yelling at each other and then the people would get scared and drive with kind of need a tugboat to change lanes in this thing but here we go help W that episode with Jay lon's garage the car featuring today my 1957 Cadillac coup toille let me tell you a story how I acquired this car I got a letter from a gentleman named Edmund Tac he's an old Marine you know the greatest generation one of those guys guat Canal veteran pretty impressive in fact he was even invited by President Clinton to go to the anniversary of D-Day in 1994 the 50 Anniversary because he was a genuine hero as as almost everybody in that war was anyway a nice old boy and he lived in a trip trailer park not far from here and he I think he bought this car new I got the pink slip going way back to 57 and I think he drove it his whole life and like a lot of us you get to be a certain age they take your license away you got to stop driving you know war hero not you know reality is reality but he wanted to go to somebody to take care of it so I drove out to look at it and you know a lot of times when you're dealing with older folks like this and they say things to you're not quite sure if there's some problem there you know so I I said well before you give it to me isn't there somebody in your family that you would want no no I want you to have the car I said well okay I don't want to take it well why not you know I one of those guys you know gets it away real quick I said okay I'll tell you what I'll call you back in three weeks okay and if you still want to give it to me I'd be honored to do it I'd fix it all right all right I'll call you three I call him up hey I'm I'm calling you out but you GNA take it or not yeah yes yes Ed I'm gonna yeah I'd love to take it thank you Ed you know why' you take it three weeks ago I said well I just wanted to make sure just well you get the idea anyway Kind of a Funny Story anyway just just one of those erasable sort of characters you know he didn't really talk about what he did in the war very much like a lot of guys in that era but when I got to know him got to be friendly showed me the picture of him with President Clinton and some of the you know some of the medals he'd won the awards it was just it's just nice it's just nice to carry it on so I I just put his name out there in honor of just all those veterans there not many of them left you know not that long ago we were losing 1,500 a day just through attrition and old age and whatever and pretty soon there'll be a time when there aren't any left so if you got one in your family you know God bless him thank you very much for your service we appreciate it and uh yeah throw them a little you get a chance but okay let's get back to the car it was a horrible tan color uh he had the upholstery done kind of on the cheap I I think he bought the car new cuz I got the original pink slip it wasn't too rough it ran but barely barely ran it' been neglected for a long time uh you're getting a lot of rust and lower quarter panel a lot of the uh a lot of the trim here was broken off uh he would bump into things when he parked it and drove it as he got older you know so it was kind of dilapidated and it just sort of sat in the back here and one day I just went to look at it for the first time in a while I like you know this is a Coupe DeVille it's got the electric windows he had this vinyl upholstery in it that he had done on the cheap I think he took it down to Tijana for a couple hundred bucks they did it for him and looked okay but not great I mean it just it was just uh just kind of in rough shape so I said let's put it back to what it should be and this is a Ferrari Color actually we had a Ferrari here and I love the blue I found out the paint code and that's what we did this in I didn't want to make it a hot rod what we did was we uh rebuilt the original engine this is a 365 cubic inch engine with 300 horsepower which is which is pretty good back in the day it it looks like a big heavy car but it's probably not as heavy as you think cuz there's no steel door guard beams or collapsable steering col or any of those safety features which weigh weigh a lot so it's it's probably 3,800 maybe 4,100 lb something like that not crazy we put modern air conditioning in it the original one had Freon you can't get that anymore we went to Vintage Air they're just a great company we use them for everything and and they they make you so you can hook up the original controls you know they're mechanical but you can hook it up so it looks mechanical here but it's electronic under the dash and and it really turned out terrific um they they do a nice job here let me let me open the hood I'll show you what we're talking about we pulled the engine out to redo it of course we painted the Vintage Air Compressor the same blue as the block so would look original it's not you know what I wanted to do with this car was make it something I could drive every day especially in the summer in California here it gets to be 110 here in the valley these had a tendency to overheat uh and it did overheat when we first got it back together uh we started to figure out what we could do to keep from overheating uh we found a guy named the Dutchman up in Oregon guy named Wade he does a beautiful job he builds these custom water pumps that are just fantastic extremely efficient so he rebuilt that Forest we changed his brace it was here put in a much larger radiator got rid of the mechanical fan off the belts and put electric fans on it and now she runs 180 degrees no matter what the temperature is it really works out good the only thing that's not original well this air cleaner is not it's an aftermark but it looks like the 1955 air cleaner and underneath this air cleaner we replace the original car with an edel Brock uh 1406 which it just works great just works great uh oh we put an electric fuel pump in it too but other than that it's it's pretty stock and we put a GM 400r transmission and it with the overdrive it's an automatic again it's a cruiser but you know it's got plenty of power I'm I'm surprised at how quick it is and how much fun it is to drive it's a big comfortable car this is one the name Cadillac oh that was Cadillac you know Cadillac outsold Lincoln and Packard and Chrysler with the Imperial like 5 to one all of those those those guys sold maybe 18 20,000 a year Cadillac sold 125,000 a year the Cadillac was the car in America you know my my dad used to say Cadillacs are Rolls-Royce automobiles I go pop Rolls-Royce is the Rolls-Royce automobiles he never quite got that but anyway you get the idea so that's basically what it is you see nice installation we want it to look stock you notice the battery is not here because with the air conditioner and the improved air conditioning uh the compressor unit rather than and the air conditioning we move that to the trunk a little better weight distribution and uh it keeps it a little cleaner not quite as crowded in here but everything else that's the original power steering pump and all of that original generator we take the we took the generator we converted the internals to an alternator so it looks like a generator but it's an alternator so it puts out more than enough power to run all the accessories uh you know the air conditioner and the electric windows and all that other stuff yeah as you can see new padding under here we prettyy much went through the whole car this was just going to be a quicky restoration then well you do the paint well chrome doesn't look all right let's do the Chrome let's get the new rubber here you know so you know how it is you know you you sort of it's like doing sideburns and next thing you know you got no hair yeah but anyway it wasn't it wasn't a Resto mod we didn't want that we just wanted to be exactly what it was just a little bit updated get a little better mileage because of the overdrive transmission actually the stock braks are okay I mean I don't do Panic stops on a regular basis with this thing we could have done the discs but I I just want to keep the original wheel coverage original tire size all of that the interior we uh we went back to we looked at the catalog from 57 to see what they had with blue and and this is exactly what Factory had there are a number of places that make this uh these retro interiors and they do a wonderful job uh well yeah take a look I'll show you I us like the ads for these back in the day join us now as we enter the world of Cadillac yes the spacious interior and look how much Rumors in this thing if if you want to fight with your passenger you you you really have to slide across to punch him in the face you see actually it prevents family fights you've got enough room so see you can look how big it's huge in here you had you had this this is the uh this would what they call it something eye but what it did was when it saw high beams it would lower your high beam so it automatically I mean all cars do it now but that was like a big deal back in the day had electric windows a lot of chrome in the dash Big Horn ring big steering wheel now you'll notice my transmission looks different than stock because we put in a modern 400r in this with Park and the original Cadillac revers was down here at the bottom I think it had a park earlier years didn't but as I remember so we we we took that to put that interface in there and get those uh to make it look sort of period correct we have all the original controls for air conditioning and using uh all the stuff we got from uh Vintage Air we're able to have the controls work exactly as they should but now they're electronic rather than mechanical but it all appears as it did back in the day the big speaker down there for the radio uh these are your knobs for the radio you know what's so funny when I drive modern cars now do you wish to change the station yes how much do you want to change it very much would you make this change again yes I would back in the old days just press the button you reach over you don't have to look at it you know modern radios you got to look at it what am I no you know then you run into something but this is is so simple and clean um you pull this out and it lowers the antenna you push the knob in and it raises the antenna this is volume control here nice big glove box in here even have the original book your new 1957 Cadillac yes look at that that's pretty cool look at all the stuff all your warranty warranty there you go and I even got the original pink slip from this car uh these see you got lighter here and another ashtray here the everybody has an ashtray in these catalogs people got they' be smoking like that driving this stuff uh here's your electric windows here's your headlights um power brake here your vents up here for your air conditioning air conditioning was a huge deal back in the 50s and 60s it was usually almost a third the price of the car it was a huge it's probably the most expensive option you could get if a car was like $33,000 air conditioning was $600 to $800 uh and it was pretty effective too we did it in the sort of brocade that was very popular back in the day um and you got your big armrest down here we put seat belts in it which it didn't it didn't have back in the day because back in the day when you got an accident you just wanted to be thrown clear that was the idea just you just be thrown clear you know but no we put seat belt in it okay all right and the blue really offsets it nicely and you know just dashes we've done a piece on them before uh go back and uh look it up just dashes a video we did they will make you a factory perfectly fitting dashboard for almost any car because a lot of times I go to car shows and guys have done a beautiful paint workor and everything and the dash is all cracked they don't even know this company exists but they sort of do it the way they did it back in the day they've got the vacuum molds and as you see they did a nice job here you know what a real cool feature I think this is the first year they had it the automatic trunk open the glove box press this button you can hear the electric motor it unlatches the trunk you open it up and just a huge trunk the battery as I said before moved to the back here's the original pink slip going back to the day I won't show his address but you get the idea and uh a lot of paperwork every oil change there's our hero right there with President Clinton pretty cool nice to see these guys get the recognition they deserve now here's the cool part I think this is the first year of the soft closed trunk I'm not sure but every you know they all have this now this feature but this is you know 60 years ago almost watch then it pulls it and seals it all right let's take it for a ride I love these massive steering wheels and these things it just makes me laugh you know I was a little kid my uncle is part own of a place called The Green Tree Country Club in Nell New York and and I used to love to go down there on a Saturday because all the valets which I guess they seem like grown-ups to me but I guess they're probably all 17 18 19 would be parking giant cars like this you know and it was the 50s so you had a lot of Cadillacs a lot of Imperials big Buick you know pastel colors all that kind of stuff and it just seemed uh like the most exotic place in the world cuz back then you know American cars were really the Envy of the world I mean there they sure you had Rolls-Royce and a few others but most European cars are very tiny so yeah Small Engines whatever these massive V8s giant Cadillacs with air conditioning I just mindboggling I'm just astounded how nice this car rides I mean it's all stock 57 Cadillac it's not like we made a lot of changes as I say made a few but the interior is basically what it would have been back in the day power steering steing power brakes all the options electric windows were a huge deal not many cars had electric windows certainly in the ' 50s not many at all but if for a Cadillac that was like a a big deal you know when you bought like a Ford like a falcon or something you paid like $2 for the clock so if you didn't buy the clock there's a big plate there it said clock just to show if you weren't so cheap that's what what would have gone there but as I said before we set this up to be a car I could drive on the hottest or the coldest day of the year it doesn't really get that cold in California but in the summer you got that blistering heat and most 50s cars would overheat but we wanted to make this one that wouldn't massive radiator the biggest most powerful electric fans thermostatically controlled that we could find and it's it's worked out to be great cuz I this thing is just dead Dependable just unbelievable starts all the time elar carburetor very nice this is just a great Cruiser it looks good you know put it in front of a restaurant this thing people go oo that's a Cadillac this car was about probably a little more than $5,000 in 1950 7 which didn't seem like much but my in 1959 my folks paid 1995 for our house so you realize oh my God this is like a third the price of your house you had a button on the floor that you would press it would change the radio station that was like a huge deal back in the day another one of those options like the massive armrest here they just pull this thing down it's like another whole seat that's a real armor you can't get you get five half a dozen arms on this thing you even can control the outside mirror from in the car that was a real Cadillac feature you had a for a shev had to reach out move it with your hand ah how barbaric always been a fan of Cadillac I've got a 1918 Cadillac and a 1925 Cadillac you know everybody thinks Henry Ford invented the V8 but Cadillac had the V8 from 1915 on it just wasn't mass produced like the Ford one was the common man could not afford a V8 you had to go to Cadillac or one of the you know Prestige manufacturers to get that option Cadillac is one of the few marks that was able to change their demographic you know I mean catalogs don't we always perceived when I was a kid old as an old man's car but in the last couple of decades you know they come out with all sorts of high performance uh manual stick shift Cadillacs that uh rival BMW and some of the other hot hatches you know I've got a 2012 uh CTSV and that thing's fantastic almost 600 horsepower six-speed manual gearbox it's basically a four- seater Corvette it's it's it's terrific but this is the era I really remember Cadillac really controlling the market as I said they would outso all the other manufacturers combined but I wouldn't hesitate to drive a long way and this I I wouldn't mind taking this to San Diego or even San Francisco very comfortable yeah I mean it's pretty fast it goes good kind of need a tugboat to change lanes in this thing but here we go help you know you put a set of radial tires on it makes all the difference everybody gives you a thumbs up in this car Cadillac was one of those marks that was attainable you know if you're a guy and you got your own business you're reasonably successful most most of them aspire to own a Cadillac fact when I made it in Show Business the first thing I did was buy my dad a new Cadillac I got my dad the Italian Cadillac white with the red velour upholstery it looks like Elvis's coffin inside my mother was so embarrassed to rideing that car CU I remember pulling up to a light and my dad is in one lane and there's somebody else in the other lane and my mother notices the people looking at the Cadillac you know my mother puts the window down and says to them we're not really Cadillac people our son got us this and of course this infuriates my course we Cadillac we're driving a damn Cadillac course we Cadillac people and then they'd be yelling at each other and then the people would get scared and drive away I me hilarious hilarious my Dad loved that car my dad had never owned a Cadillac closest my dad got was The Bu collector 225 with the brocade upholstery which my mother H thought that was just the height of Elegance it's a bit like command during a yacht you know he gets his exter wheel kind of floats along as I said before I remember cars these cars especially Cadillacs in 57 had a tendency to overheat and what you used to able to get from all the manufacturers for GM Chrysler or something called the tropical package it included a bigger radiator more water Capac capacity you know that type of thing uh options you could get for for different parts of the country I remember they would sell a block heater and you know if you're in Alaska or Northern Minnesota you could plug the car in at night to keep it warm and you would uh get the cold the hot air the tropical package I remember it being I think that's what Ford called it at the time so that's essentially what we did here made a huge oversized radiator giant fans and it's done the trick it works great you know when I was in college you could buy these for nothing $600 $450 now they've obviously gone back up again it's quite an aftermarket business for these old Cadillacs people seem to love them you know I always see ads and magazines for uh you new new trim pieces whatever and that's what we did here that's I showed you those pictures before with the side trim where some of the pieces were broken off from you can still get a lot of that stuff I think Ed would be happy to see what uh we're able to do with this car I think he would have liked this color combination too he was a character interesting interesting guy that El BR carburetor works great I'm we didn't get it for free I bought it I'm just telling you we've always had a lot of luck with Ed Brock products cuz with the original carburetor it would flood flood and then we'd have problems and then if it sat a long time you have to crank a lot you keep cranking it to get you know fuel into the bowl although it's an electric fuel pump it still took a long time but this it's a brand new edbrook 1406 and yeah works great works great you know this what we kind of call a good old girl it's one of those cars you can restore it but it's not going to be worth more than the money have into it so it better be a car you want to enjoy you know and I enjoy this I liked it I mean I got the car for free so that was that worked out okay and we probably put quite a few bucks in it transmission and the painting and the Chrome oh my god there must be 20 grand worth of chrome in this thing uh so we're not too underwater but it doesn't matter because I'll never sell it I like driving it it's fun people get a kick out of it and uh I hope you did too Hey listen we'll see you next week and we'll have some more new stuff thanks for watchingfact when I made it in Show Business the first thing I did was buy my dad a new Cadillac I got my dad the Italian Cadillac white with the red velour upholstery it looks like Elvis's coughing inside my mother was so embarrassed to rideing that car CU I remember pulling up to a light and my dad is in one lane and there's somebody else in the other lane and my mother notices the people looking at the Cadillac you know my mother puts the window down and says to them we're not really Cadillac people our son got us this and of course this infuriates my D course we Cadillac we're driving a Cadillac course we Cadillac people and then they'd be yelling at each other and then the people would get scared and drive with kind of need a tugboat to change lanes in this thing but here we go help W that episode with Jay lon's garage the car featuring today my 1957 Cadillac coup toille let me tell you a story how I acquired this car I got a letter from a gentleman named Edmund Tac he's an old Marine you know the greatest generation one of those guys guat Canal veteran pretty impressive in fact he was even invited by President Clinton to go to the anniversary of D-Day in 1994 the 50 Anniversary because he was a genuine hero as as almost everybody in that war was anyway a nice old boy and he lived in a trip trailer park not far from here and he I think he bought this car new I got the pink slip going way back to 57 and I think he drove it his whole life and like a lot of us you get to be a certain age they take your license away you got to stop driving you know war hero not you know reality is reality but he wanted to go to somebody to take care of it so I drove out to look at it and you know a lot of times when you're dealing with older folks like this and they say things to you're not quite sure if there's some problem there you know so I I said well before you give it to me isn't there somebody in your family that you would want no no I want you to have the car I said well okay I don't want to take it well why not you know I one of those guys you know gets it away real quick I said okay I'll tell you what I'll call you back in three weeks okay and if you still want to give it to me I'd be honored to do it I'd fix it all right all right I'll call you three I call him up hey I'm I'm calling you out but you GNA take it or not yeah yes yes Ed I'm gonna yeah I'd love to take it thank you Ed you know why' you take it three weeks ago I said well I just wanted to make sure just well you get the idea anyway Kind of a Funny Story anyway just just one of those erasable sort of characters you know he didn't really talk about what he did in the war very much like a lot of guys in that era but when I got to know him got to be friendly showed me the picture of him with President Clinton and some of the you know some of the medals he'd won the awards it was just it's just nice it's just nice to carry it on so I I just put his name out there in honor of just all those veterans there not many of them left you know not that long ago we were losing 1,500 a day just through attrition and old age and whatever and pretty soon there'll be a time when there aren't any left so if you got one in your family you know God bless him thank you very much for your service we appreciate it and uh yeah throw them a little you get a chance but okay let's get back to the car it was a horrible tan color uh he had the upholstery done kind of on the cheap I I think he bought the car new cuz I got the original pink slip it wasn't too rough it ran but barely barely ran it' been neglected for a long time uh you're getting a lot of rust and lower quarter panel a lot of the uh a lot of the trim here was broken off uh he would bump into things when he parked it and drove it as he got older you know so it was kind of dilapidated and it just sort of sat in the back here and one day I just went to look at it for the first time in a while I like you know this is a Coupe DeVille it's got the electric windows he had this vinyl upholstery in it that he had done on the cheap I think he took it down to Tijana for a couple hundred bucks they did it for him and looked okay but not great I mean it just it was just uh just kind of in rough shape so I said let's put it back to what it should be and this is a Ferrari Color actually we had a Ferrari here and I love the blue I found out the paint code and that's what we did this in I didn't want to make it a hot rod what we did was we uh rebuilt the original engine this is a 365 cubic inch engine with 300 horsepower which is which is pretty good back in the day it it looks like a big heavy car but it's probably not as heavy as you think cuz there's no steel door guard beams or collapsable steering col or any of those safety features which weigh weigh a lot so it's it's probably 3,800 maybe 4,100 lb something like that not crazy we put modern air conditioning in it the original one had Freon you can't get that anymore we went to Vintage Air they're just a great company we use them for everything and and they they make you so you can hook up the original controls you know they're mechanical but you can hook it up so it looks mechanical here but it's electronic under the dash and and it really turned out terrific um they they do a nice job here let me let me open the hood I'll show you what we're talking about we pulled the engine out to redo it of course we painted the Vintage Air Compressor the same blue as the block so would look original it's not you know what I wanted to do with this car was make it something I could drive every day especially in the summer in California here it gets to be 110 here in the valley these had a tendency to overheat uh and it did overheat when we first got it back together uh we started to figure out what we could do to keep from overheating uh we found a guy named the Dutchman up in Oregon guy named Wade he does a beautiful job he builds these custom water pumps that are just fantastic extremely efficient so he rebuilt that Forest we changed his brace it was here put in a much larger radiator got rid of the mechanical fan off the belts and put electric fans on it and now she runs 180 degrees no matter what the temperature is it really works out good the only thing that's not original well this air cleaner is not it's an aftermark but it looks like the 1955 air cleaner and underneath this air cleaner we replace the original car with an edel Brock uh 1406 which it just works great just works great uh oh we put an electric fuel pump in it too but other than that it's it's pretty stock and we put a GM 400r transmission and it with the overdrive it's an automatic again it's a cruiser but you know it's got plenty of power I'm I'm surprised at how quick it is and how much fun it is to drive it's a big comfortable car this is one the name Cadillac oh that was Cadillac you know Cadillac outsold Lincoln and Packard and Chrysler with the Imperial like 5 to one all of those those those guys sold maybe 18 20,000 a year Cadillac sold 125,000 a year the Cadillac was the car in America you know my my dad used to say Cadillacs are Rolls-Royce automobiles I go pop Rolls-Royce is the Rolls-Royce automobiles he never quite got that but anyway you get the idea so that's basically what it is you see nice installation we want it to look stock you notice the battery is not here because with the air conditioner and the improved air conditioning uh the compressor unit rather than and the air conditioning we move that to the trunk a little better weight distribution and uh it keeps it a little cleaner not quite as crowded in here but everything else that's the original power steering pump and all of that original generator we take the we took the generator we converted the internals to an alternator so it looks like a generator but it's an alternator so it puts out more than enough power to run all the accessories uh you know the air conditioner and the electric windows and all that other stuff yeah as you can see new padding under here we prettyy much went through the whole car this was just going to be a quicky restoration then well you do the paint well chrome doesn't look all right let's do the Chrome let's get the new rubber here you know so you know how it is you know you you sort of it's like doing sideburns and next thing you know you got no hair yeah but anyway it wasn't it wasn't a Resto mod we didn't want that we just wanted to be exactly what it was just a little bit updated get a little better mileage because of the overdrive transmission actually the stock braks are okay I mean I don't do Panic stops on a regular basis with this thing we could have done the discs but I I just want to keep the original wheel coverage original tire size all of that the interior we uh we went back to we looked at the catalog from 57 to see what they had with blue and and this is exactly what Factory had there are a number of places that make this uh these retro interiors and they do a wonderful job uh well yeah take a look I'll show you I us like the ads for these back in the day join us now as we enter the world of Cadillac yes the spacious interior and look how much Rumors in this thing if if you want to fight with your passenger you you you really have to slide across to punch him in the face you see actually it prevents family fights you've got enough room so see you can look how big it's huge in here you had you had this this is the uh this would what they call it something eye but what it did was when it saw high beams it would lower your high beam so it automatically I mean all cars do it now but that was like a big deal back in the day had electric windows a lot of chrome in the dash Big Horn ring big steering wheel now you'll notice my transmission looks different than stock because we put in a modern 400r in this with Park and the original Cadillac revers was down here at the bottom I think it had a park earlier years didn't but as I remember so we we we took that to put that interface in there and get those uh to make it look sort of period correct we have all the original controls for air conditioning and using uh all the stuff we got from uh Vintage Air we're able to have the controls work exactly as they should but now they're electronic rather than mechanical but it all appears as it did back in the day the big speaker down there for the radio uh these are your knobs for the radio you know what's so funny when I drive modern cars now do you wish to change the station yes how much do you want to change it very much would you make this change again yes I would back in the old days just press the button you reach over you don't have to look at it you know modern radios you got to look at it what am I no you know then you run into something but this is is so simple and clean um you pull this out and it lowers the antenna you push the knob in and it raises the antenna this is volume control here nice big glove box in here even have the original book your new 1957 Cadillac yes look at that that's pretty cool look at all the stuff all your warranty warranty there you go and I even got the original pink slip from this car uh these see you got lighter here and another ashtray here the everybody has an ashtray in these catalogs people got they' be smoking like that driving this stuff uh here's your electric windows here's your headlights um power brake here your vents up here for your air conditioning air conditioning was a huge deal back in the 50s and 60s it was usually almost a third the price of the car it was a huge it's probably the most expensive option you could get if a car was like $33,000 air conditioning was $600 to $800 uh and it was pretty effective too we did it in the sort of brocade that was very popular back in the day um and you got your big armrest down here we put seat belts in it which it didn't it didn't have back in the day because back in the day when you got an accident you just wanted to be thrown clear that was the idea just you just be thrown clear you know but no we put seat belt in it okay all right and the blue really offsets it nicely and you know just dashes we've done a piece on them before uh go back and uh look it up just dashes a video we did they will make you a factory perfectly fitting dashboard for almost any car because a lot of times I go to car shows and guys have done a beautiful paint workor and everything and the dash is all cracked they don't even know this company exists but they sort of do it the way they did it back in the day they've got the vacuum molds and as you see they did a nice job here you know what a real cool feature I think this is the first year they had it the automatic trunk open the glove box press this button you can hear the electric motor it unlatches the trunk you open it up and just a huge trunk the battery as I said before moved to the back here's the original pink slip going back to the day I won't show his address but you get the idea and uh a lot of paperwork every oil change there's our hero right there with President Clinton pretty cool nice to see these guys get the recognition they deserve now here's the cool part I think this is the first year of the soft closed trunk I'm not sure but every you know they all have this now this feature but this is you know 60 years ago almost watch then it pulls it and seals it all right let's take it for a ride I love these massive steering wheels and these things it just makes me laugh you know I was a little kid my uncle is part own of a place called The Green Tree Country Club in Nell New York and and I used to love to go down there on a Saturday because all the valets which I guess they seem like grown-ups to me but I guess they're probably all 17 18 19 would be parking giant cars like this you know and it was the 50s so you had a lot of Cadillacs a lot of Imperials big Buick you know pastel colors all that kind of stuff and it just seemed uh like the most exotic place in the world cuz back then you know American cars were really the Envy of the world I mean there they sure you had Rolls-Royce and a few others but most European cars are very tiny so yeah Small Engines whatever these massive V8s giant Cadillacs with air conditioning I just mindboggling I'm just astounded how nice this car rides I mean it's all stock 57 Cadillac it's not like we made a lot of changes as I say made a few but the interior is basically what it would have been back in the day power steering steing power brakes all the options electric windows were a huge deal not many cars had electric windows certainly in the ' 50s not many at all but if for a Cadillac that was like a a big deal you know when you bought like a Ford like a falcon or something you paid like $2 for the clock so if you didn't buy the clock there's a big plate there it said clock just to show if you weren't so cheap that's what what would have gone there but as I said before we set this up to be a car I could drive on the hottest or the coldest day of the year it doesn't really get that cold in California but in the summer you got that blistering heat and most 50s cars would overheat but we wanted to make this one that wouldn't massive radiator the biggest most powerful electric fans thermostatically controlled that we could find and it's it's worked out to be great cuz I this thing is just dead Dependable just unbelievable starts all the time elar carburetor very nice this is just a great Cruiser it looks good you know put it in front of a restaurant this thing people go oo that's a Cadillac this car was about probably a little more than $5,000 in 1950 7 which didn't seem like much but my in 1959 my folks paid 1995 for our house so you realize oh my God this is like a third the price of your house you had a button on the floor that you would press it would change the radio station that was like a huge deal back in the day another one of those options like the massive armrest here they just pull this thing down it's like another whole seat that's a real armor you can't get you get five half a dozen arms on this thing you even can control the outside mirror from in the car that was a real Cadillac feature you had a for a shev had to reach out move it with your hand ah how barbaric always been a fan of Cadillac I've got a 1918 Cadillac and a 1925 Cadillac you know everybody thinks Henry Ford invented the V8 but Cadillac had the V8 from 1915 on it just wasn't mass produced like the Ford one was the common man could not afford a V8 you had to go to Cadillac or one of the you know Prestige manufacturers to get that option Cadillac is one of the few marks that was able to change their demographic you know I mean catalogs don't we always perceived when I was a kid old as an old man's car but in the last couple of decades you know they come out with all sorts of high performance uh manual stick shift Cadillacs that uh rival BMW and some of the other hot hatches you know I've got a 2012 uh CTSV and that thing's fantastic almost 600 horsepower six-speed manual gearbox it's basically a four- seater Corvette it's it's it's terrific but this is the era I really remember Cadillac really controlling the market as I said they would outso all the other manufacturers combined but I wouldn't hesitate to drive a long way and this I I wouldn't mind taking this to San Diego or even San Francisco very comfortable yeah I mean it's pretty fast it goes good kind of need a tugboat to change lanes in this thing but here we go help you know you put a set of radial tires on it makes all the difference everybody gives you a thumbs up in this car Cadillac was one of those marks that was attainable you know if you're a guy and you got your own business you're reasonably successful most most of them aspire to own a Cadillac fact when I made it in Show Business the first thing I did was buy my dad a new Cadillac I got my dad the Italian Cadillac white with the red velour upholstery it looks like Elvis's coffin inside my mother was so embarrassed to rideing that car CU I remember pulling up to a light and my dad is in one lane and there's somebody else in the other lane and my mother notices the people looking at the Cadillac you know my mother puts the window down and says to them we're not really Cadillac people our son got us this and of course this infuriates my course we Cadillac we're driving a damn Cadillac course we Cadillac people and then they'd be yelling at each other and then the people would get scared and drive away I me hilarious hilarious my Dad loved that car my dad had never owned a Cadillac closest my dad got was The Bu collector 225 with the brocade upholstery which my mother H thought that was just the height of Elegance it's a bit like command during a yacht you know he gets his exter wheel kind of floats along as I said before I remember cars these cars especially Cadillacs in 57 had a tendency to overheat and what you used to able to get from all the manufacturers for GM Chrysler or something called the tropical package it included a bigger radiator more water Capac capacity you know that type of thing uh options you could get for for different parts of the country I remember they would sell a block heater and you know if you're in Alaska or Northern Minnesota you could plug the car in at night to keep it warm and you would uh get the cold the hot air the tropical package I remember it being I think that's what Ford called it at the time so that's essentially what we did here made a huge oversized radiator giant fans and it's done the trick it works great you know when I was in college you could buy these for nothing $600 $450 now they've obviously gone back up again it's quite an aftermarket business for these old Cadillacs people seem to love them you know I always see ads and magazines for uh you new new trim pieces whatever and that's what we did here that's I showed you those pictures before with the side trim where some of the pieces were broken off from you can still get a lot of that stuff I think Ed would be happy to see what uh we're able to do with this car I think he would have liked this color combination too he was a character interesting interesting guy that El BR carburetor works great I'm we didn't get it for free I bought it I'm just telling you we've always had a lot of luck with Ed Brock products cuz with the original carburetor it would flood flood and then we'd have problems and then if it sat a long time you have to crank a lot you keep cranking it to get you know fuel into the bowl although it's an electric fuel pump it still took a long time but this it's a brand new edbrook 1406 and yeah works great works great you know this what we kind of call a good old girl it's one of those cars you can restore it but it's not going to be worth more than the money have into it so it better be a car you want to enjoy you know and I enjoy this I liked it I mean I got the car for free so that was that worked out okay and we probably put quite a few bucks in it transmission and the painting and the Chrome oh my god there must be 20 grand worth of chrome in this thing uh so we're not too underwater but it doesn't matter because I'll never sell it I like driving it it's fun people get a kick out of it and uh I hope you did too Hey listen we'll see you next week and we'll have some more new stuff thanks for watching\n"