Garage fiftynine - Cadillac 1959 Coupe De Ville

[Antti A]

A little boys dream
As elementary school aged kids we drove our bikes along the alleys of Lapua (Finland).
One night we ended up in front of a suburb house to look at this old poor car that was incredibly huge.
The car was obviously American, no doubts about it; I had already listened to my father’s experiences from his childhood in Canada.
The gigantic wings and the smooth look was something, that wasn´t seen in those districts before.
For some reason, this particular vehicle bothered my mind and we went to look at it with my friends. Sometimes I went to see it secretly by myself.
As a teenager my dreams of a car were in another European car brand, but still somewhere in the back of my mind there was this thought about buying this car, which turned out to be a Cadillac.
Time went by, but we went to look at the car once in a while just to see it was still there.
As an adult I decided to do something about it, so I called the owner of that car.
Of course they were not selling it, although it had done nothing but lied there on the same place for over a decade.
Finally it happened in the year 2008.
I was just selling my long term hobby car and I had to get an American car instead. That American car also had to be a 1959 Cadillac.
For a long time I had watched car selling pages, but did not find anything and the financial situation didn't allow to purchase anything big.
Still it was obvious, that with the money I got from the old car, I would have enough to buy at least a blank of a Cadillac.
I asked from many dealers to import the car to Finland, but the expenses were too much.
Accidentally I noticed a small note in the Finnish Veekasi-magazine, where they said simply this: hobby cars.
It was quite a surprise that the company had a picture in their website of "a fifty nine" that was still in America.
The pictures of the car didn't give me a very good mental image of the cars condition, I was still looking for a drive able car and this one wasn't.
We kept contact with the seller for a couple of weeks and looked for better individuals from the USA.
It just didn't work although we tried.
One day a friend of mine mentioned in passing, that the car from the website was now in Finland and only 60 km away from my home.
I and my girlfriend went to look at the car, with a little adventure on our minds, on one Saturday of the early autumn in 2008, with no intensions to make a deal of it.
There we were looking at the supply of the company which was in a remote village farm, no sign of the Cadillac.
As the seller came he told us that the car was still in a shipping container that was locked.
The moment when the container doors opened and the dust landed, will always be in my mind; pink.
The whole time I thought that I was going to look at a white Coupe De Ville, that I had already decided to change to Vegas turquoise green, but the surprise that it was a genuine pink Cadillac.
My girlfriend mentioned there in a quick meeting, that if the color stays then you can buy it.
The seller dropped "a huge bomb" and lowered the price - I was sold, and so was the car also.
The dream came true!

Here's the complete restoration blog: garage59.blogspot.com

You can use google translator for it to translate it in english. I'm working with the english version too.
I'm a member of the Cadillac club of Finland which has made a deal of co-operation with Cadillac-Lasalle club. Maybe one day this will be ready in some european meeting!

br,
Antti Asunmaa

[R Schroeder]

Beautiful car. Love the color. Very nice work too.
Roy

[Blade]

Great story and nice work with the restoration.

I wonder though in the case of the other car why some people keep holding on to them and many years later (in more deteriorated condition) they let them go anyway.

[MY 59]

Great story ! I hope the other poor Caddy finds a new home someday

[Antti A]

Thank you!

The other -59 is still there, in other location though. I'm now familiar with the owner and I've been seeing the car few times just for checking out its condition and some help for assembling my own car. The guy has regarding my own calculations 12 roof Cadillacs and 10 convertibles from years 50-59. Also -57 Eldorado etc. He will not sell anything.. I've been assembling lots of parts  to the engine compartment and few days ago I attached the lower part of the dashboard. There's lot of work to do still. All the Chrome in exterior must be redone and upholstery must be renew completely. Yesterday I got mail that all chroming for the window frames are done in Poland so in few weeks I can start assembling those. The blog is slightly delayed, but I'll update it as fast as I can. I've been working with the caddy for five years now. I bought it when I was 22yrs and hoping I'll get it done by 2015 for my wedding car.

[Thule]

nice to see another semi scandinavian here! cheers from iceland

[sjocad]

Antti.
Is the car for sale,??
Thanks,,svein in Norway

[Antti A]

nice to see another semi scandinavian here! cheers from iceland

Cheers!

[Antti A]

Antti.
Is the car for sale,??
Thanks,,svein in Norway

If you ment my car, no it is not and will not be for sale and if you ment the other -59 no it will not be for sale as long as the owner is alive. 

[Antti A]

Lot's of new stuff added to the blog. Check it out! There's a translate pop-up-box in the right. Some words will not translate but I think you'll get the main points.

-Antti

[C.R. Patton II]

Hello Antti

You have exhibited a great amount of dedication, devotion and persistence for the Standard of the World.  This is a example for others to follow. Thank you very much.

[INTMD8]

WOW!!! Crazy attention to detail.   Inspiring work, that is a gorgeous machine to be proud of.

[Antti A]

Thanks guys! I appriciate your comments. I added two posts regarding windows and weatherstrips. It was a major work to do with the rear sidewindow plastic rollers. I need to buy new windshield and rear window now. I was willing to use my old rear window but it has some bad scratches and other marks. Within few months this car will run first time in decades. It's only matter of money to get it finished. There's lot's of expensive restorations to do like both end bumpers, interior, dashboard etc. There's a 25th. annual Cadillac club of Finland meeting at summer and I've heard that there will come people from US too? Unfortunately this car will not be seen in there.. unless I win in lottery

[Antti A]

I designed and manufactured a set of Wheel centercaps for my wirewheels. Check it out!

http://garage59.blogspot.fi/

-Antti

[INTMD8]

Very nice! Fwiw I've had good results with flowing in a gold leaf paint pen vs using actual gold leaf.

[Antti A]

Yes, in my point of view everything else looks good except the gilding. I have thought to mediablast the rear sides with glassballs and try use only paint. Actually one of the caps turns out to be quite good with the real gilding, but the three others are not so admirable. The picture of "ready" is from first one made.

[Antti A]

Lot's of new stuff in the blog. Sorry about the lack of english texts..

[57eldoking]

Impressive work and attention to detail! From what I could understand from the pictures and google translate you've had some of the trim (like the V's) gold and chrome painted? Did you get this done in Finland? How was the cost and how does the finish compare to original?

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Antti,

Your restoration efforts are to be commended.

Incidentally, what color is that? 

[Antti A]

Impressive work and attention to detail! From what I could understand from the pictures and google translate you've had some of the trim (like the V's) gold and chrome painted? Did you get this done in Finland? How was the cost and how does the finish compare to original?

Yes it is a Finnish company, it is called Vacuum metal coating. It is a aluminium which has gased and transferred to the object. The finish depends how you do your preparations for the part. It can be prepd like anything when using a normal car paint. So you can use bondo, fillers etc. The last step is a solid fille which is watersanded with 600-1500grit paper.

These "Vees" were something like 150â,¬, but they do have a minimum order of 250â,¬, but officially you can plate more parts for that too. You can see the other plating from the blog too. Almost every "chrome" in the interior is plated with this method. Exterior parts I have Re-Chromed with normal ways. The finish is quite durable, as car paint as it can be described. It shines as chrome if the preparations are succesful. The "Gold" color is done by adding a thin coat of colored clear coat.

Antti,

Your restoration efforts are to be commended.

Incidentally, what color is that?

It's a BMW special color Used in Late 90's. Quite similar to GM Desert rose.. It was quite hard to find a color what works with the other pink variations in interior.