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1964 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Headed To Indy Auction

The Cadillac Eldorado was first introduced for the 1953 model year as a celebration of the Cadillac’s fiftieth anniversary. The name Eldorado was a contraction of El Dorado, the mythical lost city of gold in South America. The Cadillac Eldorado had a trademark wraparound windshield and a cut-down beltline to Cadillac standard production.

1963 marked the beginning of the sixth generation for the Cadillac Eldorado. Along with the Sixty Special and the Series 75, the Eldorado Biarritz rounded out the trio of Cadillac offerings clad with Fleetwood bodies, carrying the Fleetwood wreath and crest on its rear quarters and rocker panel moldings. The 1963 Eldorado Biarritz marked the first time a Fleetwood bodied convertible had been made since before World War II.

The 1963 Cadillac Eldorado featured a completely redesigned body, with a cleaner, bolder appearance. Front fenders were elongated while the rear tailfins were more subdued resulting in a lower profile. The profile sculpturing was muted, and the grille was taller. The list of available options was extensive, with one hundred forty-three appointments to personalize your Eldorado to taste.

For the 1964 model year, the Cadillac Eldorado received a mild facelift. The V-shape in the grille was more pronounced, with a horizontal body-colored bar splitting the upper and lower portions. The tailfins were slightly revised. The engine grew from 390 cubic inches to 429 cubes, producing 340 horsepower and backed by the new Turbo-Hydramatic transmission. An industry-first completely automatic climate control system called Comfort Control was introduced.

Our feature Cadillac Eldorado convertible is one of only 1,870 produced for the 1964 model year. It has had a frame-off restoration with a high-quality respray in Firemist Aquamarine Metallic over a cream interior and matching convertible top. It is equipped as one would expect with air conditioning, power windows and vent windows, power locks, power seats, power convertible top, power antenna, signal seeking AM/FM radio, and tilt steering column.

The Cadillac Eldorado is resplendent in Firemist Aquamarine Metallic paint that shows plenty of attention was paid to prep and application. Chrome bumpers and trim appear to have been re-plated or replaced. Stainless and other brightwork is quite brilliant. Painted steel wheels wear Cadillac turbine-style hubcaps and thin whitewall rubber. The canvas convertible top is a spot-on match for the ivory interior.

Inside, the Cadillac Eldorado has no appreciable signs of wear. The seats show only minor wrinkling, and the carpets are as new. There are no cracks or fading noticed on the dash pad, the dash has been repainted, and the gauges are clear and legible. The wood trim on the dash and doors has been beautifully refinished.

Beneath the hood of the Cadillac Eldorado, the engine bay is highly detailed and polished. The 429 has been reassembled with correct components, and looks as if it just rolled off the assembly line.

This 1964 Cadillac Eldorado convertible will cross the Mecum Auctions block at their Indy Spring Classic taking place May 13th through the 21st at the Indiana State Fair Grounds.

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Comments

  1. Nice write-up, Brett. This ’63 is a beautiful car with quality that is apparent in photographs. The quality of the carpet, wood, and metal on the interior is simply not found on cars wearing the same nameplate today. These were glory days for Cadillac. They’d perhaps built grander cars in the V-16 era but in the 1960’s they still built a fine car with a sterling reputation and had come to dominate the luxury car field with nearly all their former competitors vanquished.

    It’s also quite striking that this Bill Mitchell-era Cadillac is a remarkably different car from the Earl-era ’59 Cadillac from only four years before and four years later, in 1967, the Eldorado would take another giant leap. GM, in this time period was constantly outdoing their own prior brilliance. I can’t imagine being a car fan and living through it all. Each fall there was a stunning new sculpture to replace the current one.

    I hope whomever buys this lovely car doesn’t hide it away.

    Reply
    1. Ci2Eye:

      Cadillac advertising in that era reeked of taste and class. The Harry Winston designed Cadillac crests were stellar. Also the horn sound on a Cadillac in that era was distinct and authoritative.

      So if these new EV’s are so efficient and non polluting why don’t they resize Cadillacs back to their former comfortable scale with lots of leg, butt, back and arm room?

      This thing of small scale for the skinny jeans, organic food eating, white wine drinking crowd is ridiculous.

      I like vehicles that are whales for safety, comfort and impact protection. Not a luxury enclosed electric golf cart.

      I’m going to install a large chromed I beam as the front bumper on my three quarter ton Suburban.

      Eat a medium rare grilled Porterhouse steak tonight at the Big Texan in Amarillo.

      Sad that Americans have become wimps, gutless and Feh. Their car designs are showing it. Look at Tesla as an example and their insane pickup design. What weed were they smoking or chewing?

      Reply
  2. This was when a Caddy was a Caddy. Not the lettered numbered modules of today.

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    1. When you said Eldorado, Sedan De Ville you knew what car was being talked about. Does anyone know what XTS, CT5, XT4, XT5, XT6 is? I read twenty years ago Cadillac trying to compete with the European luxury cars that did not use names but numbers and letters and it was also to force to use the name Cadillac. It also eliminated any royalty payments who might have registered a name. There are people all they do is trademark names looking for a hook.

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    2. Good looking car but IMO this is when Cadillac started to get cheap. The Eldorado in the ’50s was a unique model with it’s own version of it’s body with no other GM, like certain other Caddies until ’58, this is a loaded DeVille (in which many people bought instead) with a 3 speed instead of the 4 speed auto. The Eldorado got some of it’s glory back in ’67 when it was fwd and again in ’79 before the killing of the 6.0 in ’80. IMO the “unique” Cadillac models returns with the EVs.

      Reply
      1. Ehhh..gonna have to disagree with you a little there, the 1953-1966 Eldorado was always a modified version of the standard Cadillac, the 1953 has some custom touches like the wrap windshield and some changes on the body, but its a 1953 Cadillac. The 1954 Eldorado is even less unique, just adding the stainless trim on the quarter and fancier interior.

        The most unique ones from the 1950’s are the 1956-1958 Eldorado with the different rear “sharkfin” treatments, but the rest of the car rear-forward is the same Cadillac. By this point they were giving the Eldorado more carburetors under the hood to differentiate it from the “standard” Cadillacs, but even the dual quad and tri-power options were available on the standard Cadillac.

        The 1959-1963 along with the 1965-1966 Eldorados are the least unique body wise, where they are no sheet metal differences between the Eldorado and deVille convertible except for the fancier trim. The 1964 is special on its own for the unique rear quarter with the open wheel well and no fender skirt.

        You might be thinking of the 1957-1958 Eldorado Brougham and 1959-1960 Pinninfarina bodied Eldorado Broughams which were completely unique within the Cadillac line up, but they are separate model on their own.

        Reply
        1. I agree with the comment above – excellent summary of the Eldorado series through 1966. As for transmissions, I give credit to GM/Oldsmobile for the development of the very reliable 4-SPD Hydromatic transmission. It was not until model year 1964 that both Buick and Cadillac both received the TH-400 3-SPD, which may go down in history as the best automatic transmission manufactured in terms of both performance and reliability.

          The Cadillac Eldorado and Olds Toronado GM E-bodies introduced FWD to GM. They were the first E-bodies that actually had rear seat leg room and improved trunk space, which the Buick Riviera lacked.

          Reply
  3. I thought the clear look tail light were super cool when they first appeared. Still do.

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  4. I LOVE this 1964 Eldorado! One of my favorite CADILLACS in addition to the 1966 models. I had an all white 1964 Coupe de Ville Caddy. Wish I had the means to buy this beauty. Those were the days when a Caddy was a Caddy and not these plastic, aluminum race cars of today ala Blackwing or whatever they call them now! So sad.

    Reply
  5. Classic Detroit iron as the saying goes. The ’64, in my opinion, was the best looking caddy of that era when Detroit pushed bigger is better. If you ever watch “The Vanilla Ice Project”, Ice himself, Rob Van Winkle, has a ’64 convertible. You’ll see glimpses of it on the shows, just a gorgeous car.

    Reply
  6. What an incredible era in American luxury car design. Imagine being able to choose between the Eldorado convertible and the Continental suicide-door convertible. Even the Imperial convertible was a stunning looking car, if not a plush as the Cadillac or as unique as the Lincoln. How I wish we had a choice like that today.

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  7. Beautiful car. Also, that building looks very cool.

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  8. Sorry to intrude on the love fest, but this is a very poor example if the type.

    Neither the paint nor the interior color are authentic. Neither were offered in 1964.
    The rocker moldings at the bortom of rear quarter panel (between the trailing edge of rear wheel opening and the bumper) are missing entirely.

    Reply
    1. The trim piece on the passenger side is there, the drivers side it is missing. However, take a look at this MECUM site from 2018. It claims the AQUA is original and the interior or at least part of it. The dash pad is a replacement and a different shade of blue.

      On ebay search 1964 Cadillac colors and someone is selling paint cards. Firemist Aquamarine was an available color.

      mecum (DOT) com/lots/LN1118-334934/1964-cadillac-eldorado-biarritz-convertible/

      Reply
    2. Several things are certainly incorrect but the paint color isn’t one of them, should be perforated leather seats , the boot should have the seat pattern embossed, minor engine details , need better shots of the rocker moldings they have a brushed and polished area . Still done relatively well

      Reply
    3. Its a bit over restored and the color does seem off, It could be the photography. “Very Poor” is a bit of an extreme description there Mr. Carini….. the leather isn’t correct, but it does look likes its leather, these didn’t have colored piping on the seats either…..someone must have liked the Rolls look….

      A Very Poor example “if” the type would be boat vinyl interior with small block 350 under the hood and “dakota digituhl” gauges with vintage air.

      Lets say this car goes for “extra credit” when its not really needed.

      Reply
  9. Designed and built in the era when America was America. Central Cadillac on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio during Cleveland’s heyday before foreign industry captured Cleveland’s metalworking industries would sell over 3,000+ Cadillacs a year. John Z. DeLorean’s brother had a Cadillac dealership on Cleveland’s West side. He also sold train loads of Caddy’s. It was when Cadillac was Cadillac. A glorious era.

    Reply
  10. In that era GM had developed a huge engineering binder on ergonomic design, cabin and seat design and layout. It seems that book got lost or tossed. The seats on that vintage Cadillac invite comfort and roominess. Sad to see that go in favor of confining bucket seats with no wiggle room and a huge ice chest positioned between the two front bucket seats.

    Maybe Americans have become smaller on their vegan / salad diets and Starbucks coffee.

    Reply
  11. Very nice restoration. Awaiting an immaculately restored ’67. Hopefully the Celestiq will recapture the exclusiveness of it’s automotive ancestors.

    Reply
  12. Now this is a Cadillac !!!!! A beauty !!!!! Not like a plastic one today

    Reply
  13. Yes..times change..true..back then Cadillac..stood on its own..even their
    Names..came with elegance..describing the model..not numbers..even today..we’re just a number..somtimes..guess names and titles
    Are hard to remember Cadillac..must be in a leaque..of it’s own..and if it is..dont worry about the competition..Cadillac..will speak for itself..bring back..the.styling..elegance..
    Beauty ..creativity..utmost luxury..so i can say
    .yes..i have a Cadillac..what do you have..

    Reply
  14. Great era in automotive history! These were real works of art. If only some of the pride and craftmanship that went into these cars existed today!! My Father worked for GM and as a young boy I was able to hear first hand about the assembly and design.

    Reply
    1. Where’s the fender skirts wrong color was not a 64 color

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      1. They didn’t have fender skirts in 64.

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      2. I like how you manage to try to sound like an expert and are ignorant at the same time…..

        The 1964 Eldorado had open wheel wells, the deVille had closed wheel wells with fender skirts.

        Reply
  15. to me it doesn’t look like a professional rebuild , besides the molding missing, LR quarter look funky , even the plug wires aren’t put on correct.

    Reply
  16. T bought a 64 Deville covertable new was the fastest Caddie I ever owner out of 10 bought new

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  17. WOW …love the model, mainly as hardtop, Wonderful Turquoise, Wonderful Interior, just do not like the wood panels

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  18. Notice how everyone above loves the two tone , bright colors, quality, real GM product from a real era, car is beautiful. Look at the sh!t boxs GM turns out today. all models look the same built out of plastic.

    Reply
  19. Where’s the fender skirts and that car didn’t come in that color

    Reply
  20. I have one it’s electric mirror blue lacquer paint from the factory

    Reply

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