1977 Seville wagon

[colinlikens]

I've never seen a Cadillac wagon conversion done from a Seville.  And after a quick search of our club's posts I think it hasn't been seen here.  (Apologies if it has.)  I found the photo and the description on StationWagonForums.com. 

The photo and this description (below) are both provided by the poster in that forum.

"This is a custom built 1977 Cadillac Seville wagon. It was originally built for the wife of the dealership owner of Hoff Cadillac in Virginia Beach. The dealership wife was a client of my Grandparent's hairstyling business and my Grandmother took the picture of the wagon for me. I have seen it in person as well. As a kid I was extremely excited to see it.

The wagon was custom contructed using the rear roof section and tailgate of an AMC Hornet/Concord wagon. The side windows are either modified AMC glass or custom fabricated. Because the AMC quarter window openings were not tall, a horizontal trim piece was installed that had multiple horizontal ribs. On the forward edge of the trim was a script nameplate that read either "Estrada", "Entrada" or "Estada". I forgot which one is correct!"

[TJ Hopland]

Interesting.   Also interesting that AMC stuff fit better than GM stuff or was AMC buying those parts from GM by that time?

[Roger Zimmermann]

Interesting.   Also interesting that AMC stuff fit better than GM stuff or was AMC buying those parts from GM by that time?

You just don't know the eventual work needed to fit the parts!

[colinlikens]

It looks like a first-generation Seville is less than an inch wider than an AMC Hornet. 

Whereas pre-'78 GM intermediates were about 5 inches wider than a Seville.  So that Chevelle/LeMans/Cutlass/Century donor roof that was used on DeVille, Fleetwood and Eldorado wagons would have been a problem in '77. The downsized '78 and later A-body wagons would have been perfect.  But they came a year too late for this conversion.  And a quick online search produced no results for '78 or '79 Seville wagons.

With all of these wagon conversions I'm always wondering how they felt and worked.  Did the custom bodies and interior parts torque and creak a lot?  Did those tailgates open and close with the expected precision?  This Seville wagon would have been EXPENSIVE!  Wouldn't the owner have been really disappointed to hear excessive noise and vibration?

[78Elegante]

That picture of a real existing car (or existed) is much more exciting than that of a non-existing car that I found on Pinterest.

[D.Smith]

What's even more shocking is that there is only one known photo (that has surfaced) of that car since 1977.

[TJ Hopland]

You do kind of wonder how well a custom car like that would have aged outdoors.   Maybe after a few years outside it kinda looked like a hack job so no one really gave it a second look.  It just looked too far gone or hacked up for someone to want to 'save' it in the 90's?