Greetings all! As my user name implies, my name is Matt. Back in June, i acquired my latest, biggest project I've ever tackled: this lovely 1963 Cadillac Superior Crown Royale Combination. Considering how rare this car is and this also being my first professional car I have ever owned, I wanted to share my restoration progress with others that may appreciate the effort as well as be able to supply advice and/or provide from their great depths of knowledge if I have any questions while on my journey.
(I'm gonna apologize ahead of time, because I'm gonna share a decent amount of photos in this thread)
The car is originally from St. Charles, Missouri and was owned by the Dallmeyer Funeral Home. She hasn't been inspected since 1984, has 47988 original miles on her and by my guestimation, still about 95% complete. The only things I can see that are missing is one emblem on the back and the stainless steel molding that went on the bottoms of the rear quarters. The whole interior is there as well as everything else on the exterior. The car was originally GM's "Silver Blue" color, but at some point, someone decided to do a bad job taping off the chrome and spray painted her black.
My plans for her are to keep her as original as possible, restoring her back to an ambulance. Like I stated in my introduction thread, the only thing that will make her more an ambulance than a hearse will be trading a casket for a gurney and I also plan to give her a 2 tone paint job of white and diplomat blue. Other than that, she's staying the same.
Now, I know they didn't make a lot of commercial chassises in general in 1963, and the Crown Royales were the top trim line of Superior and they didn't make a lot of combos, let alone combos with suicide doors. My question is, are there production numbers some where or does someone have any way of knowing how many were made like this? Heck, it still has the factory A/C in it! I know there weren't many, but I was curious if anyone had any insight into just how many there were?
Okay, that's enough of me rambling on about it, here are some photos I have of her original state she showed up to me in.
(of course it started to rain on me while trying to push this beast into the garage when she first showed up)
And here she is currently, jacked up and awaiting new tires so I can at least roll her if I need to.
(I'm gonna apologize ahead of time, because I'm gonna share a decent amount of photos in this thread)
The car is originally from St. Charles, Missouri and was owned by the Dallmeyer Funeral Home. She hasn't been inspected since 1984, has 47988 original miles on her and by my guestimation, still about 95% complete. The only things I can see that are missing is one emblem on the back and the stainless steel molding that went on the bottoms of the rear quarters. The whole interior is there as well as everything else on the exterior. The car was originally GM's "Silver Blue" color, but at some point, someone decided to do a bad job taping off the chrome and spray painted her black.
My plans for her are to keep her as original as possible, restoring her back to an ambulance. Like I stated in my introduction thread, the only thing that will make her more an ambulance than a hearse will be trading a casket for a gurney and I also plan to give her a 2 tone paint job of white and diplomat blue. Other than that, she's staying the same.
Now, I know they didn't make a lot of commercial chassises in general in 1963, and the Crown Royales were the top trim line of Superior and they didn't make a lot of combos, let alone combos with suicide doors. My question is, are there production numbers some where or does someone have any way of knowing how many were made like this? Heck, it still has the factory A/C in it! I know there weren't many, but I was curious if anyone had any insight into just how many there were?
Okay, that's enough of me rambling on about it, here are some photos I have of her original state she showed up to me in.
(of course it started to rain on me while trying to push this beast into the garage when she first showed up)
And here she is currently, jacked up and awaiting new tires so I can at least roll her if I need to.