1960 Cadillac Superior custom

Vastly appreciate your knowledge Martin but respectfully disagree with you on this one. 100% positive there were four. I've pulled a fair share of original junkyard windshields and have first hand experience learning that a coupe windshield was too tall for a convertible. When you eat money you remember the differences! A discussion then followed suit with a prominent '59 Cadillac collector who confirmed that I wasn't crazy. Before that, I also thought three heights.

Flattop/convertible glass is almost an inch shorter in height than that used in coupe.
 
Very interesting Atti! I stand corrected. So, Coupes are taller than Conv. but shorter than Six Window Sedan?? I've also removed and/or installed more than a few of these windshields over the years and always found most Coupe and Conv. stuff to be interchangeable.. I still have parts left from a '59 Coupe I had eons ago...
 
I will try.......

Nedra and I walked around this car at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale.....it was on display to promote the Florida auction.......I'll try to load my short video from the phone/camera into my laptop, and then onto this message board. Wish me luck! :confused:
 
I can weigh in a bit on this, if anyone is curious. I'm the guy that sold the private party the car that they built into Thundertaker.

That particular 1960 was in very sad shape. I purchased it off of Ebay in Eldora Iowa years ago. The seller was not up front about the damage to the car. Things like it having been repainted black with a brush and roller, the entire drivers rear quarter panel being a horrible sheet of inch thick bondo that cracked off when I tried to pop a dent out, or that the ENTIRE ROOF AND HOOD had hail damage and looked like a golf ball.

The car was cheap. $1200 or somesuch, and they claimed it was in great shape for it's age. I have my suspicions about who was involved in dolling it up for the ebay ad, but at this point it's irrelevant.

At any rate, the engine was shot, ran poorly, had bent valves and a way bent push rod from someone firing it up without checking that the valves weren't stuck. the brakes did not work at all, and never did in the time I owned it. It would drive, but not very well.

The floors, rockers, firewall, casket floor, doors, literally every part of that car had some major cancer in it. The frame was solid, but as we can see that was discarded. These folks essentially built a brand new car with only a few parts of the old rotted 60.

I was pretty thrilled to find out that one of my ex-vehicles was a centerfold in Hotrod Magazine, and featured around the web and in SEMA coverage. It's a good looking car in my opinion and takes an uncommon tasteful route, something that hearse and ambulance modification rarely sees. There's not an autozone chrome skull to be found on that car.

With a build like this it really becomes a 'Ship of Thesus' conundrum. They replaced so much of the original car, up to and including the vin tag, that at what point is it even the original hearse any more? If you've replaced the frame, wheels, tires, interior, dash components (all of which were pitted, dash pad cracked), the windshield (the stock one had a huge wiper burn, and not being able to find one is probably why they used the stock height one and chopped the roof down to match it), and 80% of the sheet metal, how much of that car is original as shipped from the factory?

As I said, and was told by the builder, they more or less used the VIN and some sheet metal and trim from the old car and discarded the rest. Someone restoring it to factory stock would have done the same thing, though in a less customized manner. The car was ROUGH.

I'd posit as a point of debate wether a car like this hurts or helps the pro car fandom. I'm of the opinion tasteful builds like this will only inspire new people to pull things out of crush piles and swamps and put vehicles back on the road. It may not be to our taste, but at least it's still around so that we can, if we so desire, later on down the road take the car they saved, and save it in our own vision of correct.

Had nobody had the interest in the first place because of being scared off by negativity, then the cars would not survive at all and would be discarded like the mornings recycling.

We are, as they say, in this together regardless of our personal views on the matter.

For what it's worth, last I saw the other 1960 Superior that I sold to New York that one is running around in totally stock trim and has been sold a few times. It's only slightly less rough than the Tundertaker was, so by all means someone with deep wallets could find that one and restore it factory stock. I'm sure it would appreciate it after the guy I sold it to had it piled full of horribly tacky halloween crap.

Happy Motorin'
 
Jay

Thanks for the post and info.

It sounds like you have been around procars for quite a while.
Another like minded car guy.

Thundertaker, love it or hate it, in my opinion, is a very cool custom.
Likely the coolest custom hearse ever. Far better than Gargoyle.

Smooth lines and not that far from stock in many ways. A lot of people wouldn't even be able to tell you what the major changes are.

Be proud you once owned a part of it.

If I had the money, I would buy it myself when it hits the block.

Besides, it sure brought a lot of attention to the "not so loved" car of most peoples choice, a hearse. Lots of people now would want to own a hearse, where to the average person, would newer own a hearse.

Enjoy the ride,
Darren

:thumbsup:
 
Darren Bedford said:
If I had the money, I would buy it myself when it hits the block.

Besides, it sure brought a lot of attention to the "not so loved" car of most peoples choice, a hearse. Lots of people now would want to own a hearse, where to the average person, would newer own a hearse.

Enjoy the ride,
Darren

:thumbsup:
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It actually has sold a couple of times. I got contacted about the car asking if I still had the original title and VIN number for it. I did not, as those all left with the car. The caller said they were putting it up for auction and needed that info. I'm VERY curious why they did not have this info, since it seems very very strange to me to not have it on a car that is selling for 150k or more. I suspect someone was trying to claim ownership of it or something. It was all very suspicious.

Hopefully they didn't lose the VIN number. It should have been on the drivers windshield pillar. It would be unthinkable (but not impossible) if they screwed up that bad and couldn't register it.

Wouldn't that be a trip if I still technically owned the thing. Ha. Where does one even park or drive a car that expensive and specialty? Having nice hearses and other hotrods was enough of a pain fretting about someone damaging them. You'd be surprised how many people will just hop right in an old car and start playing with things. had it happen more than once.

There's a reason I'm more about the ratty patina rods these days. Drive it anywhere, park it anywhere, enjoy it without worry. To each their own I spose.

I'm pretty curious to see where Thundertaker shows up next. I am guessing it will vanish into the ether for a decade and show up as a long lost magazine show car.
 
you can rebuild anything it to anything all it takes is money. as long as they don't call it a restored Hearse I happy to walk past.
 
Jay Gryph said:
I can weigh in a bit on this, if anyone is curious. I'm the guy that sold the private party the car that they built into Thundertaker.

That particular 1960 was in very sad shape. I purchased it off of Ebay in Eldora Iowa years ago.
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Would this by any chance be the coach that was picked up and stored by Dan Paulson in Latimer, IA until you could come get it?
 
John Royark JR said:
Would this by any chance be the coach that was picked up and stored by Dan Paulson in Latimer, IA until you could come get it?
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That would be the one. Blue and silver interior, rough body with a lot of rot and bondo and hail damage. Had a hell of a time getting that car up on a trailer. Much appreciated the indoor storage of it and the help getting it loaded up and out of there.

That was a hell of a long road trip with a car trailer! It was also the reason the car trailer got modified after that trip to not have upright sideboards, hah. Yeah great it's on the trailer...now I get to climb out the window because the door won't open.

And out of curiosity, why didn't the wheel covers go with the car? It would have been nice to have those.
 
Kurt Arends said:
I guess it didn't matter much in the end.
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Ultimately no, it didn't. I hadn't intended to sell it when I purchased it, so having them at the time would have been nice.

Either way, no real worry on that at this point. I think I've still got like 10 of those 60 wheel covers anyway. Probably aught list them on ebay or somesuch.
 
Jay Gryph said:
That would be the one. Blue and silver interior, rough body with a lot of rot and bondo and hail damage. Had a hell of a time getting that car up on a trailer. Much appreciated the indoor storage of it and the help getting it loaded up and out of there.

That was a hell of a long road trip with a car trailer! It was also the reason the car trailer got modified after that trip to not have upright sideboards, hah. Yeah great it's on the trailer...now I get to climb out the window because the door won't open.

And out of curiosity, why didn't the wheel covers go with the car? It would have been nice to have those.
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Awesome. Now I can saw I photographed and drove "Thundertaker" before it was turned into that thing it is now.
As far as the wheelcovers, I cant say, Ive never seen them on the car.
 
Jay wrote

I think I've still got like 10 of those 60 wheel covers anyway. Probably aught list them on ebay or somesuch.
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What condition are they in ?

I would like to get some excellent condition caps if you have any.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Darren
 
Darren Bedford said:
What condition are they in ?

I would like to get some excellent condition caps if you have any.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Darren
Click to expand...

I have a lot of Cad covers, going through them for a swapmeet at the moment actually. What do the 60's look like, refresh my memory. I haven't really looked at the ones I have in a few years. I seem to remember they were pretty nice overall. At this point could probably use a good polish. I'll see what I can dig up. Was kinda wondering if my set of 55 Desoto covers were in there also. Eventually I'll have to find the set of S&S center's that came off a set of 70's wheel covers. I know those things are here somewhere. Such is the curse of a giant barn full of parts, hah.

Seems like Thundertaker is the town bicycle, everyone's had a ride!
 
Those standard '60 Cadillac wheel covers were just about as plain as anything Cadillac ever used. Probably only to be toped by the '73 Cadillac standard wheel covers, which were aweful. The '60 Cadillac wheel covers definitely looked better when they were color-keyed!
 
I think this should be mentioned somewhere so it's on record.

Thundertaker just sold at Barret Jackson for $110,000.

Too bad it wasn't Thundertaker.

Read this carefully. http://www.barrett-jackson.com/Even...LAC-FLEETWOOD-CUSTOM-LIMO-THUNDERTAKER-192455

Thundertaker now has a reconstructed title, and the information lists it as a limousine. It has a center divider with TVs in it. If that divider looks funky, it's because it wasn't ever intended to be there. The Hotrod Magazine shoot of the car does not have it, nor is there any mention of it ever having been in there.

Thundertaker was NOT a limousine. Ever.

Several months ago I was contacted by someone purporting to be the owner of that car. They were very pushy and shady about why they were calling, and were very interested to know if I had the original VIN# and a copy of the original title.

I did, but was not going to give it to some random person that called, and would not identify themselves properly or say why exactly they wanted that information. I did not give it to them. They mentioned they were taking the car to Barret Jackson in a few months but again, wouldn't give me any further information or credentials. I told them I wanted to know what they needed it for, and who they were exactly and they never contacted me again.

Now I know why.

Somewhere along the line, they must have lost, destroyed, or otherwise screwed up the title to that car. The title was sent with it when I sold it.

They mentioned that they scrapped the frame and engine of the car, as they did not need it and were building a new one.

I would bet that in order for the wrecking yard to take it, they scrapped it with a title handed over.

If they did this, and I'll be blunt here, they are completely f*cking moronic.

They spent 4 years and untold thousands of dollars building a car, that they could not title as what it started as, and did not think to actually look into this until later on.

I will bet you money that if you look at the VIN that is now on the car, it will match that of a 1960 Superior limousine, and NOT the 1960 Superior hearse that it started out as. If they said they started with a limo, it's a flat out lie. The build pictures are easy to find on the internet. There is NO limo anywhere in any of them. It's the hearse body on a modern frame.

Thundertaker has most likely been VIN swapped to become a different vehicle, and had parts added (the divider) to lend credibility to the lie. The build pictures show where the ID plate was on the car, but the rivets have clearly been drilled out and the tags removed.

I spose this is a good example of not being a pushy jerk when someone has information you desperately need. Had they been clear about their intent I wouldn't have had a problem helping them out. Instead, to me it seems anyway, they did something the government isn't keen on, and then sold the car in a very public way.

$110,000 is a lot of money for a car with a reconstructed title, and the wrong VIN.
 
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