The Heston Caddy

[Angrydicky]

I was down in Lahndon recently and was tipped off about an old Yank parked in a nearby street, in a very sorry state. Went to investigate, and this is what I found. A once-glamorous ‘58 Coupe de ville left to rust by the side of the road. Remarkable similarities to the Jaywick Chevy.
A total eyesore and it makes me wonder just how much longer it’s going to sit rusting here.

 

 

[Matty]

Significant os panel damage. Was it once someone's pride and joy then that happened and they lost the will? 

[500tops]

Showing as taxed and insured. Last log book issued in 2005. 

MoT history up until it's last in 2014 suggests it was doing literally 3 or 4 miles between tests!

[barrett]

Parked here until relatively recently - looks like it took a big knock whilst parked and the owner has parked it up round the corner from his house while he figures out wtf to do with it. Lots of other Yank shit still on the drive according to the most recent google view so maybe he's just short on space. Looks pretty comprehensively jiggered to me but I guess it's a big separate chassis on these so possibly still straight and true where it counts?

 

[Angrydicky]

How TF did you find that, have you seen it?

[barrett]

No, I'm just very good at Google Maps and Heston is a small district

[Angrydicky]

Impressed.

Yeah it looked a mess to me, very rusty, plus the obvious accident damage. Can’t really see anyone throwing the kind of money needed to get it back on the road at it, but you never know.

 The interior looked remarkably good though.

[MJK 24]

27 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Showing as taxed and insured. Last log book issued in 2005. 

MoT history up until it's last in 2014 suggests it was doing literally 3 or 4 miles between tests!

That’d be a tenner in petrol!

[Matty]

Shame it's pink. Almost as much a cliche as a black cadillac. Is it desirable enough to the right kind of people to live on?

[Angrydicky]

42 minutes ago, barrett said:

Parked here until relatively recently - looks like it took a big knock whilst parked and the owner has parked it up round the corner from his house while he figures out wtf to do with it. Lots of other Yank shit still on the drive according to the most recent google view so maybe he's just short on space. Looks pretty comprehensively jiggered to me but I guess it's a big separate chassis on these so possibly still straight and true where it counts?

 

Just found that myself on Google maps.

It’s actually now parked over a mile away from there. In one of those spaces that isn’t really outside any house in particular.

[bigstraight6]

What a crying shame, it’s just like the Jaywick Chevy…

[Dick Longbridge]

It looks like it was part of a car hire fleet. Business looks to have since folded - no updates in the last decade. It looked like nice patina previously, whereas now the poor old girl looks rogered. 

 

[Rustybullethole]

What.

Pink paint blue interior.
Rainbow roof, bit of wob and big coin from private hire. 

Maybe. 

[AnthonyG]

It’s had it.

Even the undamaged side looks full of wob and lifting paint that may or may not have any metal left underneath.

The 2012 pic shows the rust coming through at the corners of the bonnet. I doubt it was particularly well cared for even then.

It’s probably not been garaged for at least a decade, and looked pretty damn rough even before it was comprehensively bashed down one side. 

Useful for spares though, if there are any others in the country! 

[Schaefft]

This would probably a well preserved classic easily worth 30k in someone's collection back home. Meanwhile in the UK...🤦‍♂️

[sierraman]

It’s a sitting duck I’m afraid for some men with a hi-ab to take it to be raced. 

[Rustybullethole]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

It’s a sitting duck I’m afraid for some men with a hi-ab to take it to be raced. 

As is absolutely everything. There’s always a way for scumbags to nick your shit sadly.

 

[sutty2006]

I bet it’s still rolling around. Even with the damage, it’s MOT exempt. Get it making fire and run it until it gives up. That’s what I’d do. 

[AnthonyG]

On 3/31/2023 at 9:03 AM, Schaefft said:

This would probably a well preserved classic easily worth 30k in someone's collection back home. Meanwhile in the UK...🤦‍♂️

Yes, the UK is not a good home for classic American cars. You need proper money to look after one properly, and our climate really does them no favours. They don’t take well to living outside in shitty damp weather. Plus, I’m sorry and obviously no reflection on anyone on here, but some of the owners are simply moronic, with a penchant for Confederate flags etc. 

[Angrydicky]

8 hours ago, sutty2006 said:

I bet it’s still rolling around. Even with the damage, it’s MOT exempt. Get it making fire and run it until it gives up. That’s what I’d do. 

Apparently, it appeared in its current space about 18 months ago and doesn't seem to have moved in that time. But yes, a battery and some fresh petrol and it would probably fire up.

[Matty]

2 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Apparently, it appeared in its current space about 18 months ago and doesn't seem to have moved in that time. But yes, a battery and some fresh petrol and it would probably fire up.

How desirable is it in the UK market though? Harsh as that might sound, that'll be the difference between resurrection and about 1600kg of light iron

[Angrydicky]

I have no idea. I don't know much about septic cars. Perhaps @eddyramrod might be able to enlighten us?

Edit: There's a '59 on ebay for £55k. Don't know how overpriced that is, mind. 

1959 cadillac 2 door coupe deville | eBay

[AnthonyG]

It would probably be pretty desirable if it was in good condition, albeit not as much as the iconic 59-60 models.

The cost of restoring it to even half decent condition would be considerably more than importing a reasonable example from the US or a drier bit of Europe though. 

[danthecapriman]

3 minutes ago, Matty said:

How desirable is it in the UK market though? Harsh as that might sound, that'll be the difference between resurrection and about 1600kg of light iron

It’s a fins n chrome era yank, that does increase desirability somewhat over and above the 70’s land yacht era and 80’s downsizing era. It’s also a Cadillac which is pretty much the king (no pun intended!) of that style car. 
The killer is the damage and rot, you can still get a solid nice looking one from the states and bring it here without the hassle of restoration. My personal observation with the American car thing, is that the vast majority of people don’t want projects, they want a good, solid dry state car they can use.
Unfortunately cars like that have a fairly small fan base over here of people that can realistically take them on and keep and then run them. Once they get like that particular car the pool of interested buyers becomes much more of the short circuit oval racing variety, if you catch my drift! 
The other issue is parts. That one will need panels. You almost certainly won’t find any good ones (or even bad ones!) over here for repairing that, which means getting them from the US and shipping them here which all adds up.

Personally I’d love to take it on. I’d make it safe and just run it as a scruffy one that works well and is safe on the road.

[AnthonyG]

The sheer size of these cars is one of the reasons that Brit lookalikes such as Crestas and Zodiacs are worth serious coin  - I reckon a really decent Zodiac convertible would be well over £20k these days. 

You get four-fifths of the style for two-thirds of the size, plus it will fit in a domestic garage (ok not in a new build😂) and do 20-25mpg instead of about 10-15.

Of course, you miss out on the V8 ‘throb’ but otherwise they are generally easier to live with. 

[Schaefft]

As elitist as it'll unfortunately sound, anywhere in continental Europe this thing would have been worth enough two decades ago that someone operating a wedding car business out of a concrete 2 bed home with a pair of garish neoclassical pillars at their entrance wouldn't have been able to afford it in the first place. The '58 Cadillacs aren't as desirable as their big finned iconic successors. But anyone owning this would realize what they have and do everything they can to make sure it never gets this bad. And even if it was in this state, there would be 5 guys waiting to take it off you, not to smash it up on the oval but actually get it into halfway decent shape again. The values of these cars and mindset of enough people for that to happen sadly isn't there here though. Hence me having zero issues with inflation actually keeping values at somewhat more reasonable heights right now.

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

As elitist as it'll unfortunately sound, anywhere in continental Europe this thing would have been worth enough two decades ago that someone operating a wedding car business out of a concrete 2 bed home with a pair of garish neoclassical pillars at their entrance wouldn't have been able to afford it in the first place. The '58 Cadillacs aren't as desirable as their big finned iconic successors. But anyone owning this would realize what they have and do everything they can to make sure it never gets this bad. And even if it was in this state, there would be 5 guys waiting to take it off you, not to smash it up on the oval but actually get it into halfway decent shape again. The values of these cars and mindset of enough people for that to happen sadly isn't there here though. Hence me having zero issues with inflation actually keeping values at somewhat more reasonable heights right now.

Honestly, if I was ever to sell my 70’s Mercury I decided a while back I’d advertise it in Europe in preference to here. I’m convinced that with people on the continent there’s much more chance of the old thing being looked after and cherished rather than over here some meat head buying it just to destroy it. There seems a very different mentality between two places that are so close together.

[Dick Longbridge]

34 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

As elitist as it'll unfortunately sound, anywhere in continental Europe this thing would have been worth enough two decades ago that someone operating a wedding car business out of a concrete 2 bed home with a pair of garish neoclassical pillars at their entrance wouldn't have been able to afford it in the first place. The '58 Cadillacs aren't as desirable as their big finned iconic successors. But anyone owning this would realize what they have and do everything they can to make sure it never gets this bad. And even if it was in this state, there would be 5 guys waiting to take it off you, not to smash it up on the oval but actually get it into halfway decent shape again. The values of these cars and mindset of enough people for that to happen sadly isn't there here though. Hence me having zero issues with inflation actually keeping values at somewhat more reasonable heights right now.

 

26 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Honestly, if I was ever to sell my 70’s Mercury I decided a while back I’d advertise it in Europe in preference to here. I’m convinced that with people on the continent there’s much more chance of the old thing being looked after and cherished rather than over here some meat head buying it just to destroy it. There seems a very different mentality between two places that are so close together.

I think the other issue for classic Americana here is our shit climate combined with most garages being barely big enough to squeeze in something the size of a K10 Micra.

It's inevitable many of the big barges will end up left out in the elements as there's nowhere else for them to go. Add a dusting of winter road salt to the mix and many of these old girls end up aging faster than Pete Doherty during his wonder years. Sad really, especially those cars which lived in dry states for decades. 

[danthecapriman]

9 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

 

I think the other issue for classic Amurican tin here is our shit climate combined with most garages being barely big enough to squeeze in something the size of a K10 Micra.

It's inevitable many of the big barges will end up left out in the elements as there's nowhere else for them to go. Add a dusting of winter road salt to the mix and many of these old girls end up aging faster than Pete Doherty during his wonder years. Sad really, especially those cars which lived in dry states for decades. 

Exactly that. 
You can help things by using cavity wax, underseal etc and keeping them clean, plus not using them on salty wet roads, but most of them had no proper rust proofing when they were built. Most of the ones in the US ‘rust belt’ states are long gone by now, as they suffer the same issues as ours do (shit climate!). 
Mind you, most of the European, Jap, and British cars didn’t fare very well either!

Thinking about it, in general I only get to use my classic’s roughly 6 months out of the year. Such a shame! But I’ll be fucked if I’m going to let our wanky weather ruin them again!😆

Id still love to go move to a hot dry US state, minimal rain and damp. The winter 6 months over here makes me miserable and depressed too.

[Schaefft]

The weather conditions aren't different to say northern Europe where road salt is probably a much bigger issue (certainly is in large parts of Germany). Because of that having enthusiast cars like this on seasonal plates has established itself for a while now, people simply have another car as daily. The garage sizes (or access to dry storage) really is the big difference though. Not only are garages much larger (because people actually spec new builds to their desires instead of buying pre-built cookie cutter designs with useless, cost-cut garage spaces), the people who do own these usually have larger houses or the money for proper storage anyway. I cannot remember the last time I've seen something as basic as a car port around here (my brother just built one for the sake of keeping his T3 dry). Just completely different mentalities to owning and maintaining a car, or a different ratio of who does and doesn't care. At the core it's the low car values to blame, and while prices are currently higher, Brexit has only isolated the used car market here further (instant hassle and 20% cost increase in any vehicle sale), no matter where you sell to across the border now.