{"id":42437,"date":"2017-08-02T06:32:28","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=42437"},"modified":"2017-08-02T06:32:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:32:28","slug":"elvis-presleys-restored-1957-cadillac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/elvis-presleys-restored-1957-cadillac\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvis Presley’s Restored 1957 Cadillac"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elvis
1957 was the beginning of the “tail fin era” as carmakers attempted to emulate the supersonic jets of the day. With only modest fins, the Sedan de Ville was still packed with styling cues throughout its exterior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In December of 2015, RacingJunk.com<\/em> posted<\/a> photos and the backstory of legal entanglements and state-to-state shuffling of Elvis Presley\u2019s pink 1957 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. As the story unfolded, the iconic car landed in the capable hands of Dale Warrington at Custom Paint & Body of Ft. Pierce, Fla.<\/p>\n

Warrington had speculated that restoring the Caddy would take roughly a year, but due to the rarity of some parts and the slow progression of refurbishing the car\u2019s elaborately designed interior, the project chugged slowly into a 2-year venture.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
Classic big bumpers and bumper extensions were typical of ’50s luxury. Note the single hi-low headlights. The customized Elvis license tag frame is said to be worth $2,500 alone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was over $110,000 invested in this project,\u201d explained Warrington. \u201cThe owner even brought in an investor to help cover the rising costs. But it\u2019s finally completed and is headed for auction in the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warrington\u2019s reputation as an automotive perfectionist has spread well beyond Fla. Ratty old cars have been shipped from as far away as Chicago for him to transform into award-winning masterpieces. His recently acquired 9,000 square foot facility is jammed with antique cars, muscle cars and even a few European models \u2013 all in various stages of restoration. In fact, the youngest car in the shop is a 1970 Chevelle SS.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
The highly detailed interior took several months to complete.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have cars on a waiting list that haven\u2019t even arrived yet,\u201d Warrington says. \u201cI\u2019ve hired a great shop full of craftsmen and we\u2019re getting the cars done on schedule.”<\/p>\n

As shown in our December RacingJunk story, Warrington and his team gutted the car and started a rotisserie frame-off. The frame itself was media-blasted and recoated. No body filler of any kind was used; all panels were checked, rust was cut out as needed and patches were welded in. The body and dozens of parts were then primed and finish coated with five coats of PPG Concept acrylic urethane paint in \u201cMountain Laurel\u201d pink.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
It would be exciting to see a local buyer acquire this ’57 Sedan de Ville. Dale Warrington’s exceptional restoration reveals an incredible eye for detail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe wanted the traditional single stage paint versus the two-stage (for authenticity),\u201d Warrington revealed. \u201cBy the way, that \u2018Mountain Laurel\u2019 color later became known as \u2018Mary Kay Pink.\u2019 You\u2019ll see the same color on all of those Mary Kay Cosmetics cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of polishing, all chrome pieces were sent to Space Coast Plating in Melbourne for refinishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the inside-facing surfaces were chromed,\u201d said Warrington. \u201cEspecially because this car has bumper-mounted exhaust outlets, because these Cadillac bumpers tended to rust out fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
A completely rebuilt 365 cubic inch V8 is cradled inside a nicely restored engine compartment. Notice the forward-mounted battery position.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To Warrington\u2019s credit, the car was structurally restored and painted in late 2016, but the interior restoration took several months to complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy interior guy had to drive all the way up from south Florida to work on it,\u201d said Warrington. \u201cHe\u2019s pretty much in retirement now, so he couldn\u2019t be rushed. He did a perfect job, but it took him a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley had ordered the car with every available option: a power antenna and trunk release, air-conditioning, power steering, brakes and windows. It also had the \u201cAutronic Eye\u201d mounted atop the dashboard. Introduced by General Motors in 1952, the\u00a0Autronic Eye\u00a0used a light-sensing phototube to detect oncoming headlights, which would trigger the activation of low beams. A floor mounted radio switch allowed the driver to switch radio stations on the fly.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
The ’57 Cadillac featured dual exhaust outlets which were built into the bumper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe floor switch was a hands-free way to surf the radio stations \u2013 as you\u2019re looking for an Elvis tune,\u201d Warrington laughed.<\/p>\n

The car\u2019s owners, Bill and Linda Kinard, are hoping to see the car sell at an online auction in September. Bill would like to see the bidding run as high as $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

Kinard inherited the Presley \u201857 Cadillac, and some additional Elvis memorabilia, from the estate of former Los Angeles Dodger Bruce Buseman after he passed away in 2004.\u00a0The Kinards were surviving board members of Buseman\u2019s ‘Professional Sports Hall of Fame Museum’ in Eugene, Ore. A court awarded many of the items to the Kinards.<\/p>\n

The car has become famous worldwide and was recently featured on The Guardian UK\u2019s news website. Bill Kinard believes this historically significant Caddy could bring upwards of $3 million at the auction, but indicated he’ll probably set a reserve at $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

\"Elvis
Vero Beach’s Dale Warrington wipes down his masterpiece project at Custom Paint and Body of Ft. Pierce.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warrington had speculated that restoring the Caddy would take roughly a year, but due to the rarity of some parts and the slow progression of refurbishing the car\u2019s elaborately designed interior, the project chugged slowly into a 2-year venture.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":42438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470],"tags":[1579,5471,3897,3894,4157,41,1024],"class_list":["post-42437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cadillac","tag-custom-paint-body","tag-dale-warrington","tag-elvis-presley","tag-keith-macdonald","tag-news","tag-restoration"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/RJ_57Cad_01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-b2t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42445,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42437\/revisions\/42445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}