I am on my 4th year of college and work part time during the school year and full time during the summer. I got the car when I was 16.
My dad has always had custom cars and he has pictures of some of his cars hanging in our garage and one was a 57 Cadillac. I had gone to lots of shows with him and his friends that also have cars and decided I would like to have a 57 Cadillac.
We found the car in Northern California and it was owned by an 87 year old doctor and he was the second owner.
The first year was getting it to drive and stop as it wondered all over the road and wouldn’t stop. Then I put air bags on it. Then the next 2 were paint, SS and chrome.
My original idea was to shave everything and candy paint but the more I looked at the car and people made comments about how clean it looked I decided to paint it the original Leghorn cream. This was a hard decision because I was thinking full custom from the beginning. It became even harder when I was at the Belmont Shore California car show with my dad and his friends he grew up and I was showing them pictures of my car (They are in the Sultans Car Club) asking what color to paint it. One of them made a call on his cell phone and was telling the person on the other end about my car and then handed me the phone and it was Larry Watson! We talked for a couple of minutes and he suggested candy root beer.
It was never very dependable so we decided to install a LT1 Crate motor with fuel injection and a turbo 400 transmission.
We were at a car show at Indian Wells California when a gentleman from a Cadillac club mentioned he noticed the original drum brakes and said he manufactured disk brakes from a Chevrolet truck. I bought the kit and now it actually stops!
I have taken the car to the Indian Wells show. We have two local car shows which I won best at Show at one and 3rd at the other.
The interior is original and in pretty good shape but I would like to redo it. I have been trying to locate the original material to keep the car looking original. I have a couple of Leads. The dash needs work so that is also on my list. Working with my dad and his friends has been a lot of fun. The people I have met and talked to at shows has been a great experience because they all feel the same way about their cars. I will never sell this car.
Thank you,
Kyle
Steamboat Spring, CO