1967 Hood Trim Mystery

[MikeLawson]

I recently purchased my first Cadillac, a virtually all original 1967 Deville Convertible. The car has a hood ornament and chrome center strip that was not factory installed. The son of the original owner told me he clearly remembers his father had the trim added by the selling dealership shortly after buying the car.  Also, a friend of mine has another low mileage 1967 Cadillac purchased from the original owner that has the same trim. The ornament and center strip appear to be made for the car and not something "transplanted" from a later year. Does anyone know if this trim was an accessory item offered by Cadillac dealers at the time?

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

There was no such thing as Cadillac "standup hood ornament accessory" officially sanctioned by Cadillac.

All that was done is that someone had the dealer install a part from a later model car. 

[fishnjim]

I tend to agree with Eric.   If you're wanting to research this further, look in the '67 parts list and/or go to gmheritagecenter.com archives and pull up the '67 specifications manual and look at some of the sales brochure images there.   There has to be a P/N for it to have existed as factory, or it's some after market/transplant.   There might be some cast numbers on the underside that may help ID.
That's too fine a detail for me to recall after 52 years nor am I able to discern what trim may fit that hood "like factory", if it wasn't offered.   They tended to run in odd/even pairs back then so '68 maybe but that's a pure guess.   The center emblem as used to line up the car with the center of the lane by the old timers, so maybe that's a clue.   You kind of eyed it from the drivers seat while driving with the yellow line and the vehicle was centered in the lane.   That's how i was taught.   We didn't have lane assist in '67.   So if it didn't have one, he wanted that.   (guess)

It's a nice car, and one of my favorite convs. so good luck with it.   

I recall any Cad hood emblem in the day was heist candy.   They used to fold over and they were easy to twist off the spring in seconds.  Replacements were expensive so many did not replace.   So I don't know of many that put them on, if they didn't come with it.   

[MikeLawson]

I took your suggestion and checked for numbers on the hood ornament casting. I found the number 1602288 and a quick Google search shows that this was for a 1973-1978 Eldorado hood ornament.  Looks like the mystery is solved, thanks for your help.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Standup ornament first appeared in the 1971 model year and on the Eldorado models only.

For 1971 & 1972, the Eldorado is the only model series that got the standup. Not correct for any other model in those years.

[D.Smith]

Eric is 100% right.

That ornament couldn't have been on that car new as it didn't exist then. 

When the 1971 Eldorados came out with the stand up wreath and crest hood ornament many people ran right down to their Cadillac dealers and ordered one for their older cars. 

[wrench]

Interesting mystery. I have a 1969 Eldorado that the original owner did this to the car. Having both emblems on the nose of the car offends my sense of style, but apparently, as you can see, people did this back in the day.

I don't know about your hood treatment, but my problem was when I went to remove the standup and put the original tip piece back on, I found that they had cut the length of the strip to accommodate the dimension of the stand up end piece, so I couldn't return the car to the original configuration without replacing the hood strip.

I just looked on ebay, someone has a strip and they want like $300 bucks for it. Plus I have to remove the hood blanket to access the attaching hardware, it's gonna be a project to do this task.

I would look close at it to see if the bonehead who modified the car, cut the hood strip to do this. Then you would be in the same boat.

I will fix this at some point, but it isn't a priority at the moment.

There is no accounting for taste.

The double emblem thing drives me nuts tho. I guess I could remove the emblem on the fascia and replace it with some Texas bull horns.

[67_Eldo]

I've been messing around with the strip down the middle of the hood of my '67 for a while now. The glue in the supports had dried up creating a little depression in the very center of the hood. Then water accumulated in the depression, rusting away the central cross brace and a bit of the hood sheet metal.

I fabricated a new cross brace and welded in a chunk of new hood sheet metal, but I haven't reassembled the whole kit and caboodle because once I put that hood blanket in place, I never want to look underneath it again.

So in the meantime, I've been contemplating options. I bought a length of 1/4" x 5/8" rectangular steel that fits right down in the slot, thinking I might want to further reinforce that loooooong hood. (Since mine is a '67, it isn't quite as long as your concealed-wiper hood is.) But I've cooled on that idea.

I'm still considering making a 3D-printed translucent "ornament" (essentially aping the '67's original abstract metal "bump") and lighting it with amber or white LEDs. It would be like Mies van der Rohe reworking the old Pontiac Chieftain illuminated ornament. :-)

At the end of the day, though, I'll probably just put all the original pieces back on and call it good.

[D.Smith]

Interesting mystery. I have a 1969 Eldorado that the original owner did this to the car. Having both emblems on the nose of the car offends my sense of style, but apparently, as you can see, people did this back in the day.

My 68 Eldorado had two.    I had the flush one removed and repainted.   I preferred the stand up one.

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

Eric is 100% right.

That ornament couldn't have been on that car new as it didn't exist then. 

When the 1971 Eldorados came out with the stand up wreath and crest hood ornament many people ran right down to their Cadillac dealers and ordered one for their older cars.

I'm SOOO glad I wasn't one of those crazed lemmings that did that. My all original 68 Eldo is untouched!!!

[wrench]

My 68 Eldorado had two.    I had the flush one removed and repainted.   I preferred the stand up one.

After driving the 70 with the tip spear and driving the 69 with the stand up, I found I preferred the tip spear due to my use of it to line up the spear with the white lane stripe on the RH side of the car in order to 'sight in' the long nose of the car while driving down the road. I feel it provides a more accurate indication of lane position. My opinion, of course.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The '72 Coupe de Ville which is now in transit has both ornaments too. I don't know if I will let it that way or remove the stand-up ornament.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I think the people that install the upright ornament like to see that they are driving a Cadillac, but not removing the bottom one, plus the V is against design function.

Bruce.

[D.Smith]

I think the people that install the upright ornament like to see that they are driving a Cadillac, but not removing the bottom one, plus the V is against design function.

Bruce.

Totally agree!     I like to see the stand up one on any car I have.    But you have to eliminate the redundant one.

[D.Smith]

The '72 Coupe de Ville which is now in transit has both ornaments too. I don't know if I will let it that way or remove the stand-up ornament.

Here ya go Roger!   If you right click and save these three photos you can click thru them and see the instant transformation.  Then take your pic. 

[Roger Zimmermann]

Dave, logically I should to what the third picture is showing. The car is painted with acryl paint which is no more available in Switzerland. That's the dilemma!
Anyway, thanks for your "play" with the pictures!

[D.Smith]

Dave, logically I should to what the third picture is showing. The car is painted with acryl paint which is no more available in Switzerland. That's the dilemma!
Anyway, thanks for your "play" with the pictures!

My 68 had the double ornament too.  There was a blemish in the paint on my hood so I had to get the hood repainted anyways so that was my excuse to do the front emblem removal.

My body shop had no trouble matching the paint (Firemist too no less) and used the fender top lines as the paint edge. 

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Redundant standup with wreath on non-Fleetwood series car is a double sin; that combined with drilling holes on cars built prior to standups having existed is triple condemnation.