poor Cadillac. got stripped by a nar-do-well of some kind I would guess? :P

After the gas shortages of the mid-to-late 70s, I wouldn't be surprised if the owner just wanted rid of that guzzler.

Charmingly bleak. I wonder what this Caddy's story is?

These are great.

What happens when you leave your car for too long in the hood.

Cleo and Wordsworth look really off-model there.

It looks like a 1976 cadillac fleetwood brougham, maybe a '77. Fairly recent in this picture but these cars were horribly unreliable and because it said Cadillac on the side mechanics had dollar signs light up their eyes whenever one came limping their way. These cars were highway cruisers that well off salesmen drove the wheels off of and this car could have over 100,000 miles on it and in 1980, a car was considered worthless with that many miles. In 1981 I bought a 1972 Lincoln Continental with 80k miles on it for $200 which would be $450 in 2016 dollars and there was nothing wrong with it.

Great story!
Around my home city, such a roadboat in good condition could expect to sell for several thousand dollars.
And needless to say, many low-rider types covet these crusiers.

Today, one in excellent condition can fetch $20,000, back then they were junk yard fillers. Now that they are rare, the value holds pretty well. Back then though, the price of gas was so high that these cars were too expensive to drive and lost value by the day. In 1977, the Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz was the most expensive production car in the world. By 1980 you could buy them for chump change. The total mismanagement of the Cadillac brand in this time period nearly put Cadillac out of business. They were sticking Cadillac emblems on anything GM made (and some imports as well) and hiking the price into orbit. I remember going to a junk yard in 1981 and seeing a 1977 Cadillac badged Caprice, (1977 cadillac seville to be precise) sitting in the junkyard with 20,000 miles on it with the entire top of the car rusted and the engine bad.

"Badge Engineering" wasn't just for alleged performance cars, was it? Who can forget the lovely Cimarron?
And of course, Lincoln was right in there with their Versailles.
Some of my favorite pre-Reagan American automobile advertising gives the list price. Brand-new Caddies, post-Vietnam, selling for four digit sums. Are you aware of this site?
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/

Big difference between a '76 and '77 model. The '77's were the new "downsized" models. This is one of the early downsized models while it was still wearing Bill Mitchell's original body work.

The engines didn't get better in the near future either HT-4100 anyone. Third failure no wonder they went with Chevrolet engines afterwards.

It always hurts to see a beautiful car like that in that shape.
And knowing that some person would just let it waste away

The oldest and the biggest of these three alley cats gets the best part of the car, of course.

Oh, stop pouting, you two. There's a Caddy right next to this one, you can live next door.

hehehe^^

awww... that looks like one heck of a restoration job to be done... Love old school tech stuff! Just don't start it or your environment karma goes down to negative 10 ;)

I wonder: Have you tried adding a bit of grain to the drawn parts to make them fit the photograph?

That reminds me of a song:

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/s.....tvarious.shtml

Well, I got a gal, six feet four
Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet out the door, but...
My gal is red hot
(Your gal ain't doodly-squat)
Yeah, my gal is red hot
(Your gal ain't doodly-squat)
Well, she ain't got no money
But man, she's a-really got a lot

My grandpa used to always drive Caddies,
got them used from a fleet dealer.
I wish I had photos of the black one with the fins!
Quite the land-yacht! So comfy for long drives.

I'm really loving these photo background pieces <3

79 or 80? And that beast of a car had 4 wheel disc brakes? I thought it would have rear drums.