1961 Eldorado Concept Motorama Show Car

[Walter Youshock]

And make me 3.  This car has been off the grid for 50+ years and Nadeem has generously shared his experience wit everyone.  Furthermore, he has been able to produce AND POST documents and photos seen by very few people ever.

It's far easier to prove than disprove THIS IS THE CAR! 

I think a lot of us would like to figure out where it's been and who owned it over the last half century.

Or should we waste 50 years trying to find the "real" one--the other one with the same SO number written on the interior pieces in the same color and same interior and same unique trim and unskirted fenders as the photos of the car that was at the Chicago show.

[Eldovert]

Ray,
After seeing your behavior on here I am glad I didn't tell you the location of the two '53 Eldorado's...they are now in the hands of happy owners.

Mr Kahn,
Your car is awesome. Congratulations on your purchase .
Cheers,Pat MacPhail

[N Kahn]

Thank you for your support, gentlemen.

There are two holes next to the cowl plate which may or may not indicate the presence of an SO tag at one time, if there are owners of 1961-62 Cadillacs that could verify whether these holes are on production cars I'd appreciate it.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

My '62 doesn't have them for whatever it's worth. It's sure looking looking more and more convincing, from where I stand. The documentation & numbers 50110 recorded on the car is the most convincing evidence to date, beyond the car itself and the period photos of the Chicago Motorama. As far as I'm concerned, everything else is just the proverbial icing on the cake. Obviously any  document directly connecting body 554 with order 50110 would turn that icing into cast iron.

I'm convinced at any rate. 

[rwchatham CLC 21892]

Ray,
After seeing your behavior on here I am glad I didn't tell you the location of the two '53 Eldorado's...they are now in the hands of happy owners.

Mr Kahn,
Your car is awesome. Congratulations on your purchase .
Cheers,Pat MacPhail

Pat I have never said a discouraging word about this car or Nadeem so I have no idea what you are talking about. In fact I have said it is a cool car many times. It must be some type of crime to have the opinion of wanting to see the so car connected to body 554. That is just my opinion, big deal.And about the eldos you new about, I talked to the owners of the cars and they were pretty ratty cars so no prize lost there. One was made with a coupe. so please keep your comments about me to yourself.

[wrefakis]

I would like to know more about that list from gm,as a long time researcher of  "SO" cars,the date and origin of a list like this is quite a find,but when and why would it have been compiled if it includes cars of multiple years ?

the extra holes on the cowl may well have been from a second body tag, I have seen these once or twice if memory serves they were on commercial cars put on by the body builder,as this car had custom body features,that may have been the case

the real killer doc would be the actual car spec sheet like the ones I have on the 59"s, the build sheet that is the source of so much interest will show only what is on the body tag,99% chance this car was a standard production car modified after initial production,and it may well have been done by GM as all the modifications are body and trim,a completed unit would be sent to the trim and body works to be restyled as shown

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

Bill,
I totally agree. You have a lot more experience with SO cars of that era. I'd sure like to see a list like that covering  prewar cars. I can dream ,right?
Bob

[76eldo]

The list could be from a vendor that supplied parts common to all of the vehicles on the list, or just a list of one off vehicles used for experimental styling.

Looks like Nadeem has plenty of paperwork to substantiate the validity of the custom work on the car.  He had me as a believer with the one-off custom Parade boot.

Brian

[N Kahn]

The parade boot was one of the things I saw through the gap behind the seat sitting in the trunk when I went to look at the car, the trunk key was missing so I could only see in there with a flashlight. The owner said they were fender skirts, I told him, "no, those are parade boots for the top, this car never had fender skirts"
Through all those years of ownership I don't think anyone in the family knew what the car was, but they certainly cared enough to keep it in dry storage and covered otherwise I can't imagine the damage it might have suffered.

[wrefakis]

I have no doubt that this car was built as a show car,all the modifications are GM period correct,the interior patterns, (63 riviera) open wheel wells (64 Eldo), lower body side trim,( many full size gm,63 electra,etc) these were the hot styling cues of the day

the additional body tag would be the killer item to go with the car, looking at the standard tag,you will see surface rust right at the edge of the tag,the same exact rust is on the area where the second tag lip would be,and the area beyond that is clean and original.
this tag has not been gone that long,I would search every inch of this car,it may well be somewhere in the car, as a post assembly line gm custom that tag would have been the one that referenced the custom work

this is why body tag # 1 will only show the pre-modification configuration,this does not mean that this car was not done by GM, as a completed unit sent out for custom work,it would have had a second tag indicating the specs,or codes( no clue what this tag would have contained,would vary by shop and internal codes)

[blue68deville]

Love it, I'm following this on the HAMB as well. Congrats on finding a rare survivor.

I bet you can't wait to drive it more.

I have to say, I like the car best in the configuration from post 156. Clean!

[N Kahn]

Agreed, so much cleaner

[David King (kz78hy)]

Nadeem,

Finding those holes next to the body tag has now convinced me that is the car. 

I shared Ray's skepticism about how that production body ended up being used as special build/converted show car. I thought I remembered seeing a history sheet from the GM Heritage Center, but I could not find it in the thread any longer.  I was remembering it came in showing a standard car with no mention of any GM ownership.  I must have imaged seeing that.

The shots of the car from the GM design patio and Chicago auto show clearly show a car without rocker moldings, so those were added later, maybe to cover up some rust?  When looking at your photos on the other site, the close up of the door bottom shows the repaint has a more gold color than the original, or at least that is how it looks to me.

The 2 holes next to the body tag are where the XP tag would have been placed.  To bad that is missing.  The car must have been ordered as a company car and then modified.  The XP sheets you acquired show 50110 as a running car, which is not normally the case with show/studio car development and that would help understand why a production car was used as a starting point.

I am attaching a reference shot of the additional tag that was mounted on the 59/60 Eldorado Brougham's.  These cars bodies were made in Italy and assembled to chassis' that were made in Detroit and shipped to Italy.  The body has an extra tag to the inboard side of the body tag.  So in your case, the XP tag would have been in that same location (as the Eldorado Brougham"s) as the witness marks indicates.

I had the though that the tag was removed when the car was retailed.  Again, normally these cars are not made available for sale, but are destroyed. The witness mark though would indicate the tag was there for awhile, so I think it remained for some time before someone removed it. 

Great looking car and when you get it looking like the factory shots, you will really have something special. 

Well done.

David

[jagbuxx #12944]

Hello-
Just wanted to post in about my '61 Coupe deVille, regarding the 2 holes adjacent to the trim tag-mine has them as well. My car was an "SO" car also with full leather interior delivered to 870111, Los Angeles.
The door panels also had the writing pictured, "Special 1274"
Not sure if they(the 2 holes) were of any significance but on the tag itself are the 2 staples that I think had a supplemental paper listing the special order.

[David King (kz78hy)]

I wanted to note that the Brougham's extra tag was because of the body being made in Italy and your tag was because it was the GM assest tag for the special use.  All prototype cars have tags/numbers.

David

[rwchatham CLC 21892]

I have got to say I was very skeptical but those 2 extra holes for the so tag and with big bill w. saying its the real deal I am now a believer. Congrats on a fantastic find.

[N Kahn]

David King, the pictures are not reproduced very well here, but if I could show you the pictures I have, you can see the rocker moldings are there, clear as day. I'll try and blow them up and repost.

I'll search through the car again but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find the tag.

[N Kahn]

Well, I tried, I'm just not computer savvy enough to do it, if anyone knows how to blow them up, this picture shows the rocker moldings best. You can see the line shadows by the front wheel where the area is in light.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Finally got the pics scanned from the book, The Greatest Auto Show On Earth.

Here you can clearly see the double whitewall tires exactly like the one in the trunk and these are hubcaps for sure, albeit custom ones that would be very difficult to duplicate.


Here's a picture from the 1963 show showing a similarly mildly customized Eldorado with opened up rear wheelwells and real wire wheels, but not your typical Kelsey Hayes, these are much finer looking.


I urge all of you to buy this book, it's terrific.

In the GM Design patio photo of the side, I don't see any rocker/door molding in that photo.  I see a bit of reflection off the chrome trim on the fender feature line.  There would be some reflection if the trim was there, broken up due to the ridges in it.  The faint lines on the lower corner must be a reflection off of something in the background, wheel cover, or photo setup.  The door cut lines where it fits the body would also indicate the presence of a molding.

The side/frontal shot of the auto show also does not reflect anything and it appears to be body color.  The shot of the next year  you can see reflection off the rocker molding.

In the beauty queen photos, the rocker molding really stands out when taken from the front/side angle, so to my eye, that molding was done later. 

Another thing would be if done at GM, there likely would not be exposed fasteners holding the trim on.  They would be hidden and not exposed.

But hey, that's my opinion of looking at the photos and the early photos look better to me than the later ones.

It's all good stuff.

David

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

After carefully studying the courtyard pic, there appears to be indications of the ribbed texture of the special rocker trim. It's very difficult to make out but I believe it's there. They should've painted the damn car black is all I can say. lol!