Is it a 38 or 40?

[Eric Quarnstrom #17675]

Have you guys seen this car on ebay? Ad says its a 38 but the dash looks like 40. I dont know enough about 38 cars but something doesnt look right.

Eric Q.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4532730152&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT TARGET=_blank>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4532730152&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

Eric,

i believe its a 38.

Ralph

[Matt V16]

    I did not pick that up right away.. Pretty good..  Everything on this car shows a 1938, from the steering wheel, headlights and complete frontend, to the plate being over the drivers rear stoplight..  A 39/40 had the plate in the center.. The 39/40 75 had a different frontend all together.. At some point, the dashboard was changed..  Thats my guess.

[Doug Houston]

OR....as you say, its a 38 in just about all counts, BUT, the dash is a 40; no question about it.  I notice that the VIN is "unavailable". Isnt it on the title, hmmmmm? Id love to see the body plate on this job. The walnut garnish moldings have obviouusly been refinished: Stripped and probably varnished...no stain. The interior looks too new, and it probably is. Nice job, though. The car is clearly a 7533F.....or could it possibly be a 40-9033F with a 38 fromt clip installed. That would go right on with no problem.  He didnt show the engine, though he said it is a V8, bvut WHAT V8??  Whatll ya bet that the VIN starts out with 532?

I snell a "franken-car". No, I dont believe that the dash was changed. I believe that this is a 40 car that could have been a 90 at one time.

[Matt V16]

   This is interesting.. I do not think this car is a 1940.. The only thing on this car from 1940 is the dashboard and they can be changed on this car in an hour or less..  I guess it could at one time have been a V16.. Maybe someone had a 38 75 convertible in good shape and switched all the 90 items from this closed car to the open 75 car but all the 40 cars had different rear lights.. This car had 38 rear lights..   Someone should Email the seller and ask for the codes and numbers off the firewall..

[Rusty Shepherd CLC 6397]

Doug,
I know that leather interiors were optional on special order on those cars three ways (leather throughout,leather below beltline and leather only on seat cushions and backs..similar to what now is considered leather interior)and two leather qualities, but did the buyer have a greater choice of leather colors than the tan,red,green,blue, and black that came as regular equipment on convertibles?  If not, then the dark brown (root beer) leather would not be correct.

[JIM CLC # 15000]

03-07-05
From what I can see, it is a 346CID flat head.
If it has a data plate, it has been painted-over.
It has Dual Exhaust, looks like factory made.
Does not have an air-cleaner.
As to what year, dont know.
Good Luck, Jim

[Douyg Houston]

O.K., Matt, I took another (and better) look. Indeed, the dash panels are easily removed/replaced. I did it on my 39-90 coupe when I regrained it. Not too difficult at all.  The car is most assuredly a 38, and it has had a lot of work done on it, at least cosmetically. The engine room wouldnt score too high, but the rest of the car might be cited as an "auction baby". I suspect that, while the car was being worked on, the plastic work on the original dash was probably horrible, and someone had the 40 dash handy and stuck it in the car.It had to come from a 75 or a 90, of course. We know that the 40-72,75 and 90 instrument panels are burl wood grained, and they did this one in body color. Looks good, but very wrong.

The wheel covers are 38 or 39 with 37-38 emblems. The rear doors tell you that the car is a 38-9033F, as the ventilator windows are in the doors. Custom conversions rarely, if ever have the door vents, as that was originally in the quarters.

Interesting car. It shows well. The paint appears to be a coarser crystal metallic than was used in those days, and possibly not an authentic color.

[Doug Houston]

While the options you cite are probably so, when a customer wanted a perfectly ridiculous interior, Cadillac would do it, for a price, of course.

For instance, one of the 39-9057 coupes was ordered by Dr. Brinkley in Texas, and he wasnt exactly a shy guy. The body color was carnival red, and the interior was green. After his passing, his widow had the car repainted in sort of a leaf green, which it still is, as far as I know. All you had to do was pay for it, and you could have it. Now, on this car in question, the story could be told only by looking up the invoice. Im sure that this interior is new, or very recent. It wasnt common for a formal car to have a rear compartment in leather.

And one other item: body name plates were always painted in body color in those years, or at least, the firewall color. If one is bare (and often polished), take off points!!

And if that aint enough, many of the 90 series cars had black firewalls, with a different body color. My 39-90 coupe is that way. Cadillac built up a few cars, complete, but not painted or trimmed, awaiting an order. They had to paint the firewall, of course because the engine compartment was complete, so it was done in black. When an order came through for the car, it was painted and trimmed per order and as mine was done, body color in Cavern Green, with the black firewall. On my body plate, no color code is shown. But it is on the invoice. The last V16, a 40-9019 was done in Luzon Green with that black firewall. Probably most of the 90s were done in black, so whod ever know?

[Barry Wheeler #2189]

Just putting my two cents worth in... Back in ought 65 or 66, when I had a 1938 Series 60 coupe, I was checking out a parts car. I found a 1937 LaSalle coupe with the same body, that had a complete 1938 dash and column shift. I always assumed it may have been a styling unit, for someone to go to the trouble of changing the entire shift from floor to column and install the complete new dash. I showed a picture of it in the only issue of the S/S that I (guest) edited...(I was giving Agnes Uhlir a "break" in Nov/Dec 1967, and did a consecutive picture issue.) I asked, "Whats wrong?" under the picture, which showed enough of the hood to see it was a 1937, and the only reply I got was someone wanting to know if the dash was for sale. Go figure.