1950 Cadillac Fleetwood

Limousine Limousine

8 - Cyl.

Automatic

Clear

Gasoline

You are looking at the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s "ONE-OFF" custom built 1950 Cadillac Fleetwood/Derham Series 60 Special Limousine offered at NO RESERVE. This is a once in a life time opportunity to own this car with so much great history and style. My modest opening bid (which is less than what someone paid for a piece of their wedding cake) has no bearing on the true value of this car—just a very low starting point for this true auction without any reserve above its opening bid. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever! Bid to win. I have too many classic cars and it’s time to scale back and let someone else enjoy this great looking automobile. I had it listed on eBay a couple weeks ago. I posted all the photo's of this car on my free limited Earthlink webspace, but so many viewed my auction on eBay that it exceded my monthly traffic for my Earthlink free webspace and crashed all my photos. When people viewed my auction they could not see any photos of the car. You can't bid on a car without seeing it, so I ended the auction early and am relisting it now this time with NO RESERVE. I was overwhelmed with questions as to the condition of the car and overseas shipping. Shipping overseas is NO PROBLEM! I also added better detailed descriptions and more photos showing the condition of the car. I've had it about 6 years and taken it to a couple cars shows where it has always been the hit of the show. Otherwise it has been in dry good storage since I've owned it. I really don't know much about 1950's cars or Cadillacs and only have driven it about 20 to 50 miles each year. It runs good, cools, stops, and shifts good. From what I was told it had a cosmetic restoration in the 1960's or early 1970's. It had a new paint job, upholstery, and trunk kit. Maybe that's when the original engine 506009561 was replaced with another 1950 Cadillac engine 506036698. Back then nobody cared about matching numbers. Who knows, maybe it was changed in the 1950's by the dealer? The engine in the car now is a 1950 Cadillac engine and exactly the same type of Cadillac engine that came with the car—only the last 5 digits of the engine number are different. I think it was all the Corvette guys that got hung up on matching numbers and it carried over to other collector cars! I really don't care, as long as its OEM parts. Sorry I have no interest in trading for a muscle car or cars from the 1940's 1950's 1960's or even sports cars from the 1970's 1980's or 1990's like Ferrari, Porche, Jaguar,Lotus, or Lamborghini. I've been offered trades for Harley-Davidson and Indian Motor Cycles, a large Gas & Oil porcelain sign and neon sign advertising collection, and even a bi-plane airplane. I appreciate the offers, and greatly appreciate the generous offers, but again, I only want to sell it outright on wonderful eBay. My main interest in cars is my first love 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 CCCA Classics. Big straight 8's, V-12's and V-16's or pre WWII custom body cars. Someday I hope to own a open a 1936 Cord 1937 Cord open car. I've never been into Brass Cars, 1900's, 1910's, or cars from the teens or early 1920's. The car features the Duke and Duchess Monogram “WE” on the rear of the trunk and the two rear doors—W is for Wallis and E is for Edward. Also, on the roof there is a blue light. I'm told that when the Duke was in the car his chauffeur would turn on the light to let everyone that royalty was in the car and maybe to make the car stand out on the streets of New York. There are also two English style parking lights on the hood—great for double parking in New York City in the 1950's! This couple thought by many to be the most stylish couple in the 20th Century. As Fred Astaire once said, "Do it Big, Do it Right, and Do it with STYLE". And thats how they lived. They owned only the finest clothes, jewels, furniture, and cars like this one that money could buy, and all with class. The back light (rear window) is the most striking feature of the car. This was done by Derham and they were famous for this style. Also, features the famous Lockheed P-38 Lighting WWII fighter aircraft inspired tail lights. The car has a great art deco look about it with a chopped top fast back lead sled street rod look. The cars interior has the feel of a great coach built car from the 1930's with the compartment area's behind the front seat and the radio control dial in the rear. There are some extra switches below the dash board for the special lights etc. for the ex-King. If you like the custom cars from the 1920's 1930's and 1940's like Packard, Duesenberg, Pierce Arrow, Lincoln, Marmon, Lincoln, Stutz Dupont, with custom body coachwork like Waterhouse, Lebaron, Hibbard & Darrin, Willoughby, Barker, Murphy, Franay Van den plas, Henney, Hess & Eisenhardt, Brewster,Dietrich, Holbrook, Brunn, or even if you own a Rolls Royce, Delahaye Bentley, Hispano-Suiza, Isotta Fraschini, Jaguar, Lagonda, Mercedes Benz, Horch, Aston Martin, Maybach, Voisin, Bugatti, you will appreciate the wonderful style and flow of this Harley Earl/Derham design study. I did do some research on Derham on the internet. They were the longest-lived American body builder and the only classic era coachbuilder that survived the depression. Derham Body Company 1887-1971 Rosemont Pennsylvania & 1916-1930's Philadephia, PA. A quote from the story about Derham. "Derham had a April 22, 1950 Business Week magazine article on the firm reprinted in brochure form for distribution to prospective clients. Included in the article/brochure were a number of Derham’s current and former clients who at that time included: industrial designer Raymond Loewy, Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Spellman, The Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward), Harry S. Truman, songwriter Cole Porter, Gary Cooper, Louis B. Mayer, James Forrestal, publisher Herbert Pulitzer, opera diva Lilly Pons, symphony conductor Leopold Stokowski, ex-criminal Charles Allen Ward of Brown & Bigelow, retailer Rodman Wanamaker, financier Bernard Baruch and heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post Davies." Also, this is a car you could give to your wife, because they love the love story of the Duke and Duchess and you can bring it home without getting any grief from the wife!!! Easy to drive automatic, easy to steer and brake. Keeps up easily with modern traffic!!! My intention was to do a restoration by today’s standards and take it to Barrett and Jackson Auction in Arizona to sell it and then buy some more full Classics from the 1930's. But I already have a 1934 Chrysler Airflow Custom Imperial CW Limo in the middle of restoration and want to spend the time and money on that car. I think this 50 Caddy could be a big money maker for a dealer, collector, restorer, or a person who wants to start up a Limo service. On ABC Nightline a few weeks ago they had a story on the wedding business and how the recession has not had any affect on it and it’s a multi-billion dollar business. Maybe some high end resort or restaurant could use this car for their high end clients. Maybe a business tax write-off? I've been doing some research about this couple on the internet. There is a wonderful fan club for the D & D located in Palm Springs, California. The Duke & Duchess of Windsor Historical Society. Members in there 20's up to members in their 80's around the world. They publish a wonderful high end quarterly magazine. 1987 Duchess of Windsor sale in Geneva fetched 75.4 million Swiss francs ($71.7 million), which remains an auction record for a single-owner collection of jewelry. From the New York Daily News its reported the former love nest 5 acre estate, named Severn on Horse Hollow Road where the Duke and Duchess vacationed in 1948 is on the market for $5.995 million. Sothey's will also be auctioning off 20 pieces of her jewelry coming up at the end of this year. Estimates of the 20 pieces range from 4.6 million dollars. Also, Madonna is directing a biopic about the couple. The movie is set to release in 2011. All of the above should make items owned by the Duke and Duchess hot properities. Just like Tucker automobiles went up crazy after the movie about Tucker!!!Several years ago at Sotheby's, belongings of the Duke and Duchess brought in $23.4 million. Just a piece of their wedding cake fetched $28,600. More than my meager starting bid of my auction. This car would be a center piece for any Antique & Classic car museum. I bought the car from a classic car collector out east in 2004 who had owned it for over 30 years. This car has never been offered to the general public, so its fresh to the market. Along with the clear title, you also get the Original 1954 New York license plate registration with the Original signature (autograph) of the Duke of Windsor which is signed “Edward - Duke of Windsor.” Address-The Waldorf Astoria Towers. 1954 must have been the year he sold or traded in the Caddy. The winner gets this original sign registration with the car.The Duke and Duchess of Windsor had an apartment at the Waldorf Astoria Towers and this is fully documented in many books about this famous couple. From my reading, they spent the fall there doing the Cafe Society Party circuit, New Years Eve, and visiting places like the Stork Club. The Duke of Windsor was born Prince Edward of York in 1894, the great grandson of Queen Victoria. In 1911 he was invested as the Prince of Wales. Upon the death of his father King George V in January of 1936, he ascended to the throne of England as King Edward VIII. In December of 1936 he abdicated the throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American woman. His brother became King George VI and the former King Edward VIII became known as His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor. He is the uncle of the current Queen Elizabeth and great uncle of Prince Charles and great great uncle of Prince William and Prince Harry. Was this the greatest love story of the 20th century or was he a just a fool to give up his kingdom to marry the woman he loved? The abdication decision involved great leaders of the time, Prime Minister Baldwin, The Archbishop of Canterbury and Winston Churchill. This car should be of great interest to collectors in Paris France, England, Queen Victoria, the UK United Kingdom, Great Britian, Ireland, Hong Kong, Scotland, India,Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Bahama's, or any of the British Empire—spent some time in Florida, Spain,even Germany. I welcome overseas bidders. I sold 2 cars on eBay over the past 10 years and one went to Canada (1957 Eldorado Biarritz Convertible) and the other to Norway (Ford Thunderbird). I also sold a 1936 Bowlus Airstream Travel Trailer to Japan. I am selling the car F.O.B. St. Paul, Minnesota/Hudson, Wisconsin. No refund or returned of your purchase for any reason. The winner is responsible for all shipping charges and duties. I expect a $2,000 PayPal non-refundable down payment within 24 hours after the auction ends. Full payment is due within 10 days. I can help the winner out with storage until May 1, 2011. Please DO NOT BID if you do not have the money and can not follow up on the transaction within 10 day. Thanks for looking and I hope you’re a WINNER!!! Bid to win on this once in a lifetime automobile!!! More people are getting out of the risky stock market and into tangible items. Bid with confidence—see my perfect feedback. Thanks again!!! Condition of the interior: I was told that the interior was replaced when the car was repainted in the 1960’s or early 70’s. Overall it was a nice job. The headliner is in excellent condition. The door panels are in good condition as well as the seats (see photos). The carpet is good in the rear. The front carpet needs to be replaced. One button on the rear bottom cushion is loose. The interior would benefit from a good cleaning and detailing. On the front drivers side, down by the door sill, there is some discoloration of the leather. You only see this when the door is open. I see a seam on the right & left rear arm rest has a split but should be an easy repair. Same for the front. There are some slight cracks in the leather on the arm rests of the doors. The steering wheel is solid and I can’t see any cracks in it. The dash board is in nice condition. The electric/hydraulic windows do not go up or down. The electric pump was removed and sent out to be repaired but I never put it back in the car. The rebuilt pump goes with the car. One stainless strip on the driver’s door is broken, but I have a new strip to replace it. One courtesy light is missing on one of the rear doors and one door lock pull is missing. Both are common parts that fits any 1950 Series 60 Special. The car trunk mat and liner must have been replaced at the same time the car was painted and reupholstered. It’s OK, but not up to today’s restoration standards, but a very easy fix. New kits can be purchased from Jenkins in North Carolina. Condition of undercarriage and engine: I was able to put the car on a lift and take some pictures of the underside of the car. The fellow who owns the lift was impressed with how solid the car is. The only rust hole I see is in the spare tire well on the lowest point in the well where the 2 drain holes are located. The hole is about the size of a golf ball. The rest of the trunk is very solid. The surface rust under the trunk mat looks bad in the photo, but it’s just surface rust. A wire brush and some POR 15 will make it look like new. The same is also true for the front floor pans. The carpets and padding must have got wet and there is a rust hole on each side about the size of a tennis ball. It should be an easy fix with a couple patches by a metal fabricator, followed by a wire brushing of the floor pan to remove the surface rust and applying POR 15. The door sills and door jams are solid as well as the bottom of the doors. There is a little surface rust on the bottom of the doors. The rubber seals on the bottom of the doors are bad and need to be replaced. The undercarriage has undercoating on it. It is very dirty and greasy, but solid. The exhaust system is in good condition and quiet. The car starts right up—after sitting for a year it started within 2 cranks of the engine. The same fellow who owns the lift was there when I started it was impressed that it started so fast. The battery I was using belongs to another one of my cars, but I will purchase a new battery for the new owner and that will go with the car.The battery hold down is missing, but common to all 50 Cads. I have only driven the car about once a year since I’ve owned it. I would bring it to a local cruise-in car show near my house about 8 miles away. It was always the hit of the show every time. I did drive it about 5 miles last week. It has always run good, steers easy, cools and doesn’t overheat, and stops good. The brakes did stick a couple times, but that’s from lack of use. The speedometer doesn’t work and the radio doesn’t work. The engine and engine compartment is dirty and greasy. It appears that in the 1960’s or early 1970’s when the car was painted some detailing of the inner fenders the inside grille and radiator was painted as well as the valve covers. That’s about all they did when doing a cosmetic restoration on a 1950’s car back in the 60’s and early 70’s. Condition of the paint: The paint has some issues. Overall it has a nice shine and looks good from 10 to 20 feet away, but has some scratches and a couple very slight dents. The roof has some cracks in the paint and some lifting of the paint here and there where it meets the trunk area. The trunk lid paint has some cracking and lifting like the roof and not smooth to the touch with paint touch-up by the trunk lid on each side where it meets the fender welting. A paint chip has flaked off about the size of a half dollar to the left of the chrome V on the trunk. From what I understand this car was repainted in the 1960’s or early 1970’s. The paint is much better and smooth on the hood, the fenders, rockers and all four doors. For some reason there are some very slight scratches/creases no deeper than 1/16” to 1/32” on the right side of the body, doors and rear fender. There is a dime size dent by the right rear door handle and another small dent on the left front fender (see photos). Depending what the new owner wants to do with the car would determine if they want to leave it as is or repaint it. If you want the car for a museum maybe just touch up the paint and the car will display very nice. If you plan on showing the car at Pebble Beach or have it judged by the Antique Automobile Club at Hershey, then a total repaint would be called for. It would be a very easy car to repaint. The solid rockers, body, fenders, doors are very straight and line up well. The doors close with a bank vault thud. The rubber seals around the doors and trunk lid should be replaced since they are 60 years old. Having the car on a lift I could not see any accident damage to the car and the fellow at the storage area commented that is looks to be a very solid. I am pointing out any flaw I see and in my opinion all the flaws are small and cosmetic. All can be fixed and made like new. I can not express in words what a dead straight car this is!!!!!! Mainly cosmetic blems. Condition of the chrome and stainless: It appears that some rechroming has been done over the years and some left original. The chrome on the blue light on the roof is fair to good. The V’s on the hood and trunk are good and the flying lady hood ornament is good with a few bubbles in the V area. The front bumper has a scuff on the right and left end and some slight scratches in the middle. The front bumper guards are OK with a couple slight flea bites on the front edges of the bullets. Rear bumper is good and looks to have been re-chromed like the front. Front light rims are good. Center grille OK but some area’s have a look of some haze in it and a flea bite ding in the center. Hubcaps are rough to the touch and have a haze to them and the emblems are fair. The chrome around the taillights is OK but the chrome below the tail light is dull. The left rear door handle is dull, but the others are good. The outside mirrors are dull and the right front stainless under the headlight has a slight crease. The stainless around the bottom of the roof and top of the doors is good with a little scratch on the left front door by the mirror. The tail lights and emblems have the common sun stress cracks. The rocker stainless is good. Front fender/door spears are good and the back up light rims are good. The rear door vents and louvers are good with maybe a couple flea bites here and there. Overall the chrome and stainless is in good condition. Like the paint, it all depends what the winner wants to do with the car. Drive it as is to cruises or put in a museum just as it is. If you want to use it in a limousine service you may want to re-chrome a few parts to make it look better. But if you’re looking to have the car judged, then it would be an easy job to polish the stainless like new and re-chrome the other parts. That's up to the winner!!!!!!!! On Sep-17-10 at 20:30:32 PDT, seller added the following information:I want to thank everyone for all the questions and compliments on the car. Yes, the Duke and Duchess memorabilia that you see in the photos go with the car. I have about 2 full cardboard boxes of it. I can also give the winner the name of a great professional transporter. He has a closed semi-trailer transport and can deliver door to door in the lower 48. I'll have to check if he can go into Canada for those Canadian bidders. Also, I can provide a free heated garage through October 31. Any longer than that and the heated garage rent will be $200.00 per month. You can store it in that heated garage until May 1st. I'll do what ever I can on my end if the winner lives overseas to help get it loaded on a transport or container for either an Atlantic or Pacific voyage. Since I've owned this car I've followed cars owned by famous people, movie stars, gangsters, heads of state as reported in Old Cars Weekly and Keith Martin's Sports Car Market Magazine (The Insider's Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values, and Trends in the Old car Hobby). Most of these car such as cars owned by Elvis, Howard Hughes, Al Capone, FDR President Franklin Roosevelt, JFK President John F. Kennedy, have sold anywhere from $150,000 to $650,000. Some even more, such as the WWII Mercedes-Benz that was used by (I don't think eBay will allow me to say his name--but he was the leader of Germany in WW2 with a funny looking mustasche). I think that just sold for over a million dollars. Also, unlike live classic car auctions or auction houses, the eBay winner of this car pays only the winning bid. There is no buyers premium of any kind. No extra 8%-10%-15% or even 20% like the live auctions of collector cars typically charge. In summary, don't let my low starting point of this "TRUE AUCTION with NO-RESERVE" confuse your bidding on the true value of this historic car. Good luck and thanks for all the great comments!!!!!!! On Sep-19-10 at 21:50:19 PDT, seller added the following information: The auction of this RARE CAR ends TONIGHT. There will be a new owner TONIGHT. Bid to WIN. This is it. Thanks again for all the kind emails from the USA and Overseas and Museums. I wish every one Good Luck. At times EBAY can be slow to process all the last minute bids. The worst feeling in the world is not being able to get your bid in at the last minute because of a slow server or because you bid to low and you get that terrible message "You have Been Out Bid" without enough time to enter another bid and you loose out to someone else. So, in other words, get your bid in early. I don't know how fast the oversea bids work with eBay. Good Luck to everyone!!!!!!!!!!! James aka: fej25