As it’s not a factory job, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Caddy could easily have looked more Fisher-Price than Fisher Bodied, but instead, it totally pulls it off. Let’s see if it can also pull off finding a buyer.
It’s been a big week for polarizing prices and over-the-top outcomes on NPOND. Whether it was addressing outrageous mods, questionable motor swaps or special tuner bodied luxury sedans, this week’s voting also went to extremes, one way or the other. Yesterday’s 2000 BMW M5 proved no different. That car is offered with a ton of miles under its belt and a $13,500 price that, while claimed to be the cheapest around, wasn’t cheap enough to avoid 88 percent of you giving it a No Dice loss.
Since this has been a week of extremes, let’s wrap it up with one of the most extreme old-school luxury wagons you could possibly find, this custom 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood by ASC. I mean, if you’re looking for a car to make a grandiosestatement, this surely will shout it.
Now, as we all know, back when this Fleetwood was new, Cadillac simply didn’t build station wagons. No, this is the work of the American Sunroof Company — which is still in business today as American Specialty Cars. ASC had been offering sunroof conversions for popular luxury cars of the time, and in fact, did a short run for Cadillac in 1969 before the carmaker took the option in-house.
This wagon conversion shows far more work than just cutting a hole in the car’s roof, but thanks to the availability of similarly-sized models from other GM brands at the time, it still looks like a factory job. ASC made a handful of these over the course of a couple of years, all commissioned jobs, with one ’71 edition even going to stunt man Evel Knievel. It was yellow.
The ad doesn’t provide any history for this 1970 conversion, but does offer plenty of pictures and a brief description:
This 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood Wagon for sale has a 472c.i. Numbers Matching V8 w/ 4bbl Carb, Turbo 400 Automatic Transmission, Converted to a Wagon By ASC Custom Craft, Very Few Of These Wagons Were Ever Produced, Said to be 72,904 ORIGINAL Miles! Correct Condor Blue Exterior w/ Vinyl Top, Correct and Original Blue Leather Interior, Power Sunroof, Power Rear Glass, Rear Facing Third Row Seating, All Rear Seats Fold Down, Factory Air Conditioning Converted to R134a, Power Steering, Power Disc Brakes, Power Seat, Power Door Locks, AM Radio, Tilt Wheel, Rear Seat Footrests, Very Rare ASC Built Cadillac Wagon That Is a Head Turner!
The low miles and stately nature of the car are reflected in its presentation. The Condor Blue paint looks stellar and is accented by a padded landau roof that is audaciously matched with more of the material on the door tops. Full wheel covers and whitewall tires — which, by the way, are ok to drive on after Labor Day — offer even more luxury adornment. The overall condition of the car is quite remarkable since, like painting the Golden Gate bridge, washing something of this size must be a never-ending job.
The interior is equally handsome and is swathed in button-tufted blue leather upholstery with deep-pile carpet below and color-match door panels and dash to really tie the space together. You get three rows of seats here, with the first two fully three-passengers wide for a total of eight seats.
This being a Cadillac, there are a ton of convenience features in here, including auto-dimming headlamps, power windows, and set-it-and-forget-it automatic climate control.
For power, this Caddy goes big too. There’s a 472 cubic inch displacement V8 under the aircraft carrier launch deck disguised as a hood, and according to factory brochures of the time, that made 375 horsepower (gross) without breaking a sweat. A three-speed auto with column shift sends the lazy ponies to the back wheels since that’s how it was done back then. Speaking of lazy, take a look at that upper radiator hose in the engine bay pics. That looks like some sort of massive snake sleeping off just having eaten the world’s fattest rat.
It’s obvious that in constructing this special, ASC didn’t scrimp on the details. This wagon goes so far as to feature the dual-action tali gate (sideways or fold-down) that was popular in more plebeian wagons of the time. It even has the little step cutout in the bumper!
The title is clean and the asking price is $38,995. That, by the way, is a substantial discount from what was asked for the wagon — and apparently not received — back last fall.
It’s up to us to decide if it’s worth its new price or, if not, to determine what it should actually go for. What do you think, could this custom Caddy command that much cash? Or, does this ASC conversion have you saying GTFO?
You decide!
eBay Classifieds out of St Charles, Missouri, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Stan R. for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.
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