1969 Cadillac Pick Up with wood bed

[CADILLAC52]

Hello together, i just purchased a 1969 Cadillac "Pickup" with a wood bed ,from an 81 year old gentleman in San Diego.
The gentlemen called the Car a "Cadillac Caballero".Unfortunatelly, he was not able to tell me any history facts about the car.The only think he told me was,that the car was build in the Los Angeles Area and that he bought the car back in the late 1970´from the original owner,but lost all the documents exept of the title.(VIN:J9306661)
However i am shipping this car to germany right now, but would be happy if everone knows a bit about the history of this unique Cadillac. I know,that several Cadillacs has been converted to Pickup style vehicle by special order thru cadillac dealers.Maybe somebody can tell me who build this car and how many has been made with the wood bed.
thank you

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Mitch,
This appears to be a "one-off" conversion.  The only "factory authorized" conversions were done in 1975-76, and for conversation sake were all metal.  The 75-76 conversions, called the "Mirage" were not special order, but were done on completed coupe deVilles that were delivered directly to the coachworks where the conversions were done and then delivered to the dealers.  The conversions were not done at the Cadillac factory.
Greg Surfas

[DeVille68]

nice car! 

[76eldo]

Welcome to the CLC Message Board

Really interesting car!

I have never seen one of these conversions on a 69-70.

The rear wooden tailgate does not fit the contour of the back of the car which is unfortunate because the rest of the car looks really nice.

If you can find a station wagon rear hatch with the hardware from a similar year Chevy, Olds, Buick, or Pontiac you could have a body shop attach it to the car.  Maybe an El Camino unit could be adapted but would need filler panels on each side.

You can also check out the Professional Car Society, http://www.professionalcar.org/ to see if anyone has some parts from a Cadillac flower car available.

Brian

[CADILLAC52]

Hi Brian, thanks for your feedback; for my opinion the tailgate fits very well ! i attached a few new pix with the Bed-Cover on it.
Anyway i think this was a good deal for me to buy this one, cause the Cadillac drives like a new car with (seems) 58000 miles on it. makes easy 70 miles on the highway without pulling the steering wheel (freehand-drive )and has almost no bondo on it .Of cource the Car has Power Windows and all typical Cadillac Options.(the small one also work!)  Over all it looks like a very professional Body work to me,and i have worked for more than 30 years on cars.
As soon as the car is in germany i will inspect the whole car, i hope that i will find a factory sheet,or a note,who converted the Cadillac into this"Caballero"... And then i am go to restore this vehicle..  Any idea of the Value  of the car ?  Mitch