1953 Cadillac questions

[e.kempton]

I have more questions about a 1953 Cadillac, as I am thinking of buying one and would like to know as much about them as I can.  I have three new questions:   The first one is about Power Brakes....was that a dealer add on and if so what was involved in putting them on a car, also how can you easily tell that a car has power brakes?  The second one is Power Seat....where is the switch, is it 2 or 4 way, etc?  The third question is about the paint or maybe a decal on the dash that extends on to the door panels.  I have seen very fancy ones on the Fleetwood 60 S models that looks like wood grain and also nice looking ones on the Coupe DeVilles that are just nice lines that are very good looking. It looks like the plain 62 series cars are just painted a color to match the interior color. Thanks much for the help.

[G Pennington]

Power seats are included in the power window package.  Standard on the CdV & convertibles, not sure about other models.  It's all hydraulically operated (it's called a Hydro-E-Lectric system).  The seat was powered fore & aft only, no raise/lower or tilt.  Operated via a switch on left/lower side of seat (looks like a window switch).  The hydro system is a PITA to maintain, but parts are available and it's really cool when it works right.
The insert in the dash and upper door panels was referred to as a "Di-Noc decal".  They are not reproduced.  The DeVilles and convertibles were a vertical line pattern to match the interior colors.  I believe the Fleetwoods used a burreled word pattern.  I had a local print shop reproduce the line pattern on self-stick vinyl and that's what I used on my convertible.  Tricky to apply.

[Caddieman53]

As for the power brakes, no 53 Cadillac came from the factory with power brakes. However, after the 54's came out which did have power brakes, GM offered a dealer installed power brake modification for the 53's. (not sure if other years prior to 53 was offered). As far as determining if a 53 has power brakes, look for a vacuum operated booster unit. Since these were dealer installed, some were mounted under the hood on the left side and some were mounted under the car near the master cylinder. As for the power seat, when the seat is moved forward, it does move upward some but not a lot.

[e.kempton]

Thanks so much for the answers to my questions.  This web site is the greatest. Everyone is so helpful.