Television in a 1960 Cadillac Convertible?

[Mike Phillips]

Hi all,

I was at the Barrett-Jackson Auction a couple of years ago on the auction stage taking pictures of the cars going over the auction block and I snapped these pictures of a television mounted in a 1960 Cadillac Convertible.  It looks like a pretty clean installation can anyone shed some information on the story behind a TV in a classic Cadillac like this?











Thanks,


Mike

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Oh dear, the Luvdg car again.   Oh the memories.

This vehicle has been the talk of the town many months, or was it years, ago.

It didn't reach the Reserve, and he purchased it back, again, but now I think it is somewhere in the North-west USA.

Bruce.

[Ted in Olympia WA]

You sure did a good job taking pictures of your TV.

TED

[Mike Phillips]

You sure did a good job taking pictures of your TV.

TED

Used a Cannon Digital Rebel with the factory lens.  I'm not a photographer by any means, it just caught my attention.  I've owned 5 1959 Cadillacs and 2 1960 Cadillacs so I'm very familiar with the dashes along with the rest of the car so when I saw the TV I quickly snapped a couple of pictures of it.  I probably took 300 to 400 pictures a day of all the cars at the auction, mostly the swirls in the paint.  When you're watching the auction on TV the cameras make the paint on all the cars going over the block look like they're in swirl-free, show car condition and that's just not the reality of it, at least the year I was there. 

There's a thread on the Meguiar's forum about under dash record players and I added these pictures to the thread and someone asked the question about the background of the TV in the Cadillac, I said I belonged to a Cadillac forum and came over here and started a thread to see if anyone over here knew anything about the history of TV's in cars in general and this car in specific.  No harm intended.

I don't remember this forum using Simple Machines Forum software when I was last on it and when I tried all the e-mails I've had in the last 5 years I still couldn't retrieve any account information so I created a new account because if you have changed forum software then chances are good all active members had to re-register with the new forum and all members of the old forum software have been lost during the change.  This is just a guess as it's been a number of years since I've been on this forum.

Last time I was posting question over here it had to do with my 1960 2 door coupe and probably had to do with engine and brakes as I was rebuilding both.  Here's a shot of the 60 right after painting the firewall.



Mike

[35-709]

Guess this car will never go away and it has certainly created a lot of discussion here.  Below is a copy and paste from Yann Saunders' Cadillac Database about the car.  The car is a custom and not done by GM, despite the phony claims by luvdg (Marv).   

[Unknown, USA] This strange, "hybrid" 1959 Cadillac Series 62 convertible is fitted with the body from a 1960 Series 62 convertible. It is the imaginative creation of, in my opinion, an unscrupulous used-car vendor in Florida by the name of  "Marv", a "Power Seller" on eBay who uses the ID,"luvdg".  Marv appears to have restored a '59 Series 62 convertible that had got a '60 body put on it during the first 45 years of its life. He used a simplified Series 62 design for the leather upholstery. Despite an alleged restoration cost of over $110,000 (!) he "cut a few corners" (e.g. he did away with the recessed buttons on the seat backs and the distinctive, embossed Cadillac "V" and crest between the rear seat backs (costly and difficult to make up from scratch). He restored  the B&W TV that a previous (?) customizer had installed in the modified dash. Then he attempted on a number of occasions and at different venues in 2005 and 2006 to sell it at auction for a HUGE sum of money); it was advertised, first, as "the" 1959 GM Motorama showcar, then later as a unique GM design experiment direct from Harley Earl's skunk works and, finally, as the first car in the world [and the LAST, we hope] to have TV installed in the dash. Fortunately, nobody fell for "Marv's" outrageous claims, although in one instance (August 2005) bidding appeared  to reach nearly $167,000; however, it failed to meet the vendor's reserve.  He eventually got himself tied in a knot with his incessant false claims. He even had two "witnesses" supply written testimony asserting they both had seen the car at the NY venue of the GM Motorama in October 1959 [when, in fact, it had taken place in October, 1958].  Both witnesses asserted the car was blue; in my opinion, this was because the vendor had "coached" them by showing them a copy of the factory build-sheet with a code "20" in one column.  Unfortunately, "Marv" confused the trim code (#20 - black & white leather) with the paint code (#12 - Dover white). He tried to wiggle out of his obvious mistake asserting, later, that the car first had been white, then re-painted blue.  Even later, he included as further "proof" of his fanciful claims, a picture of a "future Cadillac design"  taken in the Cadillac styling studio; he had found that photo in a GM publication and immediately asserted that this "probably was his car". Trouble is, that car was painted red ...despite "Marv"s insistent, prior claims that it was blue, as attested by the two "reliable" witnesses who had seen it close up,  in New York, in 1959. In fact, the paint code on the build sheet (#12) shows that the car was initially white. Many Cadillac enthusiasts raised doubts as to the car's authenticity and a lively debate ensued on the Cadillac-LaSalle Club forum. Anyway, after three unsuccessful attempts to sell the car on eBay (although there were - apparently - "private" bids, the highest being in the region of $170,000), "Marv" consigned it with the Barrett-Jackson auctioneers at their "no reserve" Scottsdale venue in January, 2006.  Bidding topped out around $50K (for a UNIQUE GM show car that he had offered, in August 2005, to a collector friend of mine, for ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!  Just after the auction ended, I learned from the consignor himself that HE had bought the car "back". I learned also (and to my great surprise) that a "valid sale" may occur even if an auction item remains in the ownership of the consignor ...provided he/she pays the sales commission! Well, well, well! Who among us will ever believe an auction result again? Late Extra [Summer, 2006]: apparently the car found a new home, in Colorado [as per its license tags] ...but the buyer put it up for sale AGAIN! Despite it being "a UNIQUE creation for GM by Harley Earl", someone has undertaken to make a few modifications: for example, the Fiberglas hard boot has been replaced by a cheaper, vinyl tonneau cover, the expensive, Fleetwood wheel discs have been replaced by modern wire wheels, the steering wheel has been changed from a 1960 to a 1959 model, seat belts have been added, the floor mats have been replaced by a modern set, the engine bay has been detailed following many suggestions by enthusiasts who saw errors there.  CAVEAT EMPTOR !!!   Latest [4/2008]: this message was posted on the Forum of the Cadillac & LaSalle Club by Peter Kulzer, the son of the current owner: Ok, let me set this straight for everyone.... My father now owns this Cadillac.  It is a '59.    It is titled as a '59 Cadillac. Let me start off by saying that this is one of the worst resto jobs ever. The thing is a bondo bucket. It sat outside for several years before the resto and it still had leaves under the dash when my father and I pulled the dash to rewire it all. The seats were beat up when we received it and now they are reupholstered. The motor was never rebuilt. The engine was repainted in the car; parts of the chassis are spray painted blue due to overspray. The car had tons of rust on it and it shows where they covered it. The finish of the body has terrible orange peel. The car was white with black and white interior originally. When we got the car off the car hauler when we got it, the driver's side window was broken and all the other windows were un-aligned. The only brake that was working was the left front and it isn't easy stopping a 6-7 thousand pound Caddy that way.

Marv1.JPG (15013 bytes)
In this bird's eye view you can see the open door that encloses the TV set;
the seat pattern and interior trim are neither from 1959 nor 1960; there
is also no chrome radio grille in rear seat back; vendor probably will argue
that this is "normal"; why install a radio in a car that has a TV in the dash !

Marv03a.jpg (18172 bytes)    Marv03.jpg (9100 bytes)
Note how Eldorado-type stainless steel molding along the body sill stops abruptly, level with
the wheel skirt and does not extend up to to the trailing edge of the rear fender;
Eldorado turbine vane wheel discs and hard boot also are intended to accentuate the car's custom nature

Marv01.jpg (10197 bytes)    Marv00.jpg (11190 bytes)    Marv02.jpg (10190 bytes)
Seat pattern is similar to the 1960 Series 62 design but does away with the seat back buttons
as well as the elaborate, embossed  Cadillac "V" and crest between the rear seat backs
[ Photos:  Internet, 2005 ]

[Eric S. Maypother #15104]

Seeing the topic of this car came up again I'll post a link to this car I saw on Youtube recently and have been meaning to post.

Everyone seems to have a different take on this car.

1959 Cadillac With TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIp4ZM_wJsE

1959 Cadillac In Pictures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_iwS6UDL4M

Heres a site I never knew of, story on car.

http://www.cadillaccountryclub.com/1959-cadillac-special.htm

[Mike Phillips]

Apoligies for bring this car back up on the forum.  I had no idea it had such a "Beating a Dead Horse" history.

Thanks to everyone that has kindly replied with information about the car and hopefully this will be the definitive and last thread on this car?

Sorry...

Here's the thread about it on our forum, this 1960 Cadillac doesn't kick in till page 4

My 1960 Plymouth's 45 rpm RCA Record Player

[David #19063]

Hey Mike,

Please send me a few pictures of your '60 Plymouth...I haven't seen any '60 Dodge's or Plymouths in quite a while.

[Mike Phillips]

Hey Mike,

Please send me a few pictures of your '60 Plymouth...I haven't seen any '60 Dodge's or Plymouths in quite a while.

That's not my car, I wish...

I post to all the forums I belong to under my real name.  If you click the link above and read the page you'll see that the person that owns the Plymouth in question is a forum member by the name of bencar, Here's another one from his website,

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Lane/2712/BensHomeInCy6.index.html

[veesixteen]

A German web site ran the whole story of this car for 2-3 years. Unfortunately, the comments (many of them were my own) were lost when the site URL was changed.  Now, only the photos remain.  I'm surprised that The Imperial Palace ever accepted to have this car on their premises.  Here is the new site where you can view all the "evidence" :
http://forum.classic-cadillac.com/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=47760&g2_page=2
_____________________________________________________________

[veesixteen]

I'm glad you posted these images, Mike.  I sat in front of the TV for three days, waiting to see this car go over the block. It did ...right smack in the middle of a commercial break !!!   May I add your pics to the Cadillac Database, "Dream cars" section for 1959, giving you full credit of course.

[Mike Phillips]

  May I add your pics to the Cadillac Database, "Dream cars" section for 1959, giving you full credit of course.

Completely okay with me, I work for Meguiar's and took them while working at that particular show and then uploaded and shared them on our forum thus the watermark in the right hand corner.  Feel free to do with them as you like.

[veesixteen]

Much appreciated, Mike.  Thanks.

[Vinny O'Hare]

Hi all

Sorry to beat a dead horse again

My name is Vinny and I run the site Cadillaccountryclub.com where this car was posted about. It looks like after seeing all this info the nice people at the Imperial Palace were either fooled or something. I appreciate the heads up and will change the pages I made asap.