Remember when Cadillac built a vehicle that was taken just as seriously by this continent’s rich and famous as its foreign competition but wasn’t called Escalade? Me neither. However, Tomsk the Elder and I spotted this three-owner, large-and-in-charge barge Thursday while walking along the town’s northerly east-west artery (less than a mile west of the famous Aztec Hotel) and just had to stop and check it out.
The ’65 Fleetwood Brougham was only offered as a four-door post with a three-and-a-half inch longer wheelbase than the lesser Calais and DeVille models for a base price of $6,479. Production totaled 18,100 units, according to the American Car Spotter’s Bible 1940-1980. This year also marked Caddy’s first year for stacked headlights (Cue Michael Scott!), and a return to perimeter frames for the first time since the ‘56s. It’s a black plate car, so it’s most likely spent its whole life in California, though the old man reckoned it’s been resprayed at least once; however, it wasn’t recent, judging by the a) oxidation and b) the fact it isn’t basecoat-clearcoat. The vinyl top is starting to shrivel and curl in some places (Again with the Dunder Mifflin manager?!), and there are some letters missing from the emblems (No, “LEETWOOD” is not, in fact, what gamers get when they raid their dad’s Cialis stash.), but it seems pretty
complete otherwise. The for sale signs list the work that’s been done to it recently, including a new radiator, water pump, timing chain, starter and distributor. Of course, if there’s anything else it needs, Original Parts Group now sells Cadillac parts, so you’re less likely to have to journey to junkyard after junkyard and swap meet after swap meet and get a third-degree sunburn or two in the process scour eBay and other sites from the comfort of your home in search of replacement components.
Did I mention the owner’s asking $3,500? That’s a screaming deal whether you’re going by the pound or by the foot (or for Dearthair, POLAЯ, Maymar, et al, by the kilo or by the meter). Also: If you don’t buy it, some 909er will and either donk it or put it on airbags, paint it fuchsia and reupholster the interior in yak hides. Do you really want that kinda crap on your conscience? Huh? Do ya?
(Apologies for the craptacular cameraphone photography.)
’65 Fleetwood Brougham Drops Anchor on Route 66, Needs a New Home
About
-
It must the looming even-decades anniversary, because recently I've started feeling like I really want a Cadillac, and these stacked headlight models look really good.
-
Putting it on bags is EXACTLY what I would do! 😀
Though I just moved out of the 909 after spending a year there. 😛
I would keep it as original looking as possible, but on bags though. I just love the look of these old barges slammed to the ground.-
Here's a thumbs up from one former 909er to another.
That reminds me, I need to call my mom. -
yep yep
-
-
I've got a major weakness for old Cadillacs, having had a '56 Sedan DeVille and a '71 Fleetwood 75 Limo, and I'd fall for this in a heartbeat if I were standing there with that amount of money burning a hole in my pocket. This has the 429, not the mighty 472, but I'd still be proud to steer this dreadnought. Air bags on this? Heresy. Maybe air overload springs on the back so it can tow a period Airstream trailer, now that would look just right.
-
Funny you should mention an old school Airstream; there's been one parked one street north of the Cad for the last week or so. Doesn't appear to be for sale, though.
-
I was storing a friends '61 Caravel (single-axle like a Bambi, but two feet longer) in my yard for a year or two, and it was amazing how many people would ring the doorbell and without even saying hello ask, "How much for the Airstream?" After pleading with my buddy to just give me some outlandish price just to shut them up, he told me five thousand dollars, enough so he could buy another one in similar shape and make a tidy profit as well. Two days later he calls me and says that there's some guy up where he's living that is selling one one not nearly as nice as his for, you guessed it, five thousand dollars and his was now "Not For Sale". I made a little sign stating this and put it right up front on the tongue of the trailer, and this didn't slow down the curious one little bit. So I made an even bigger sign, and hung it so it took up almost the front half of the trailer and when people would ring the door-bell and ask "How much for the Airstream?", I would walk out with them and stand in front of it right where the sign was and ask them, "I don't know, what do you think?" As often as not the reply was, "I dunno', five hundred bucks maybe?…."
-
-
I had a '71 Fleetwood Brougham w/ the 472 that I bought for $350 in 1986 that we used mainly to go to races and festivals in the early days of mountain-biking. I got the biggest Yakima rack they made with attachments for six bikes that cost about $750. First run to Moab made us realize how under-utilized the trunk was when it came to Utah beer. Installed some air-shocks, filled the trunk with AZ beer and piled our gear between the bikes on the roof. It got about 6 mpg like this, but split six ways it wasn't unreasonable especially when we got there.
-
Whatever the cost and hassle may be, it's worth it to not have to drink Utah 3.2 beer. The last time I went back to SLC to revisit my old stomping grounds I brought a few cases of Dave's Electric Beer from right here in Cochise County to show them what real beer tastes like. All my old drinking buddies were jealous.
Sure, they have microbreweries in Utah but that's still 3.2 beer and it's weak.
-
-
-
$3500? Hell, that's pretty much 90's DeVille money (provided the head gaskets are in working order). Very nice price.
I'm also embarrassed to admit I sort of use metric interchangeably. I can only sort of wrap my head around weight in kilos (usually by roughly doubling it to get the pounds anyways), but then I can't entirely visualize 15 feet of car. I mean, I come up with the measure at the contractor's entrance at a Home Depot, and try and imagine a car standing on its rear bumper, and it just doesn't work. But 5 meters? I know that's the size of a Chrysler 300M. On the other hand, I stick to inches for wheelbases. It's my conflicting public school education and automotive magazine education.-
This fine automobile is roughly the length of a modern crew cab truck, has a drivetrain that is at least as powerful and durable, is built on a frame that is as strong (maybe more so, given the metallurgy), and the rear end is I'll bet the same as you'll find beneath a Chevy 1/2 ton truck from the same year. Maybe a 3/4 ton, but that's irrelevant. I have found the same rearends beneath my Limo and my '65 Chevy 3/4 ton. These cars were built with the same parts and pieces found throughout the GM inventory of the day, and that's not a bad thing. Yeah, it's alarming nowadays to realize just how big these cars are, but they worked just fine back then, were really the standard of the world. Live with one for a while and it becomes plain as day that, yeah, they just plain rock.
I really need another Cadillac.-
This is probably only the better part of a day away from you, and there are plenty of hotel rooms here and in the next town over.
Just sayin'…-
If I had the money to spend on another Caddy I'd be sorely tempted. However, this is AZ and finding a deal like this isn't too inconceivable. Hell, right up the street from here is an Eldo convertible that's pristine that I could probably get for just a little more than this. The same people have a sixties Chevy van with a Cadillac drivetrain that's definitely hoonerable (had to try out my new word) that I've been meaning to take some pictures of for Hooniverse.
-
-
-
-
Someone is in for a whirlwind Broughmance with this very special plus-size lady.
-
$3500? Hell, that's pretty much 90's DeVille money (provided the head gaskets are in working order). Very nice price.
I'm also embarrassed to admit I sort of use metric interchangeably. I can only sort of wrap my head around weight in kilos (usually by roughly doubling it to get the pounds anyways), but then I can't entirely visualize 15 feet of car. I mean, I come up with the measure at the contractor's entrance at a Home Depot, and try and imagine a car standing on its rear bumper, and it just doesn't work. But 5 meters? I know that's the size of a Chrysler 300M. On the other hand, I stick to inches for wheelbases. It's my conflicting public school education and automotive magazine education. -
While I tend to be attracted to smaller, sportier cars…like an Austin Healey Sprite…there is something to be said about these old Caddys. They are almost distilled Americanness. Large, a bit excessive, and you know they are there when they enter the parking lot. I love them for that. We tend to have this American guilt that we are the way we are. I say celebrate it. And if some eurosnob talks down to you because of it, throw them in the ginormous trunk. It's probably bigger than their flat, anyway.
-
I smuggled three of my buddies into a drive-in movie in the trunk of the '56 once. Aside from being dosed with CO, they weren't even all that uncomfortable in there.
-
-
I like that this appears to have been taken with a film camera.
-
It's actually a fairly old (but pretty high-res) cameraphone. But yeah, it sorta has "the look" of film.
-
-
Sorry, but I'd just have to bag it. That thing would look killer sitting on the ground.
-
[…] enough to install a hot tub in. He brought it through a truck stop scale one night… 6200 lbs. https://hooniverse.com/blog/2010/02/2…ds-a-new-home/ […]
-
jus bought a brand new 65 i ,love it!!!, is this 1 sold yet?
-
would some1 like 2 see my new 65?
-
We stumbled over here different page and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking into your web page again.
Leave a Reply