By Marcal Eilenstein
Sometimes I want to ask a car owner exactly what he was thinking, but then I remember it’s my own fault for being a Craigslist trawler. Anyway, today’s Craigslist find is brought to you by the 80’s: now with 100% real malaise!
I’m a fan of the El Camino. I drove one in college for a while, and I really liked it. Like a mullet, it was all business in the front, and party in the back, and I didn’t care. Knowing you have the only car like it on the entire campus is kinda cool, and I miss that thing. It would do 75mph in 3rd gear, and that car would just about burn gas faster than you could pour it out. Still, it hauled everything I needed, could pull a trailer, and had an acre of legroom.
I’m also a fan of Cadillac. We had to Coupe de Villes in the driveway, and my grandparents drove Cadillacs for years. They’re big, comfortable cars – I get it. Which brings us to this creation: part El Dorado, part El Camino, part Oldsmobile.
Details from the ad:
1980 Cadillac(custom built) FWD El Camino, Olds 350, V-8, auto, 4 wheel disk brake, former California Showcar, house of color white pearl, Blue leather interior, 5 spoke mags, dummy side pipes and spot lights, bed cover, no text, no E-Mails, don’t need help to sell, $16,900, sell or trade for Corvette, Hot rod, 49-52 Chev 2dr Fastback, 67-8 Chev Impala SS, Pontiac trans Am, Late Model midsize SUV,
It’s a real malaise special, with bits of every car GM made in the early 80’s. The blue leather interior is an especially nice touch. Can you smell the old cigarette butts?
The kicker for me is that price – $17,000 for half an El Camino and half an El Dorado. I’m not sure I could pay half that for a whole of either one. I also wonder what use a front-wheel drive El Camino would be, especially when the front end looks like a rhinestone cowboy. This looks like the kind of car a large man called Chuck would drive (Identity Thief? Anybody?).
As always, the last word goes to you. What say you?
[Source: Springfield Craigslist ]
Ross Ballot 
Kamil Kaluski
FWD? $17K? Well, you lost me with either of those.
I have to wonder if it was ever a funeral home flower car. That’s the case with about 2/3 of Cadillac “pick ups” (excluding the Escalade Avalanches).
Flower cars weren’t built on Eldorado platforms. By 1980 the flower car had fallen out of favor with the funeral home crowd. Fleetwood/Deville chassis were the starting point for flower cars.
Not always.
http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11926&d=1334340647
http://www.professionalcarsociety.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11995&d=1334778064
this is a great execution until you get to the crappy knockoff Cragars with the wrong offset, the fake side pipe exhaust, and the asking price. wtf
I like the hella positive camber from the rear springs having way too much preload now, too. icing on the crackpipe cake.
“icing on the crackpipe cake” – you can’t get prose like that just anywhere, folks.
It’s what keeps them coming back for me.
It looks like it’s bent in the middle.
TWSS
(Sorry. I couldn’t stop myself.)
Also TWSS.
Wow, that’s terrible. It looks like a giant put it over his knee and bent it.
Pro tip: If you’re going to do fake sidepipes, you also need to tuck the real exhaust pipes up behind the rear bumper. Otherwise, you’re not fooling anyone.
Ok, new idea for a kit cobra build: Quad exhaust. Two on the sides and two out the back. Bonus points for doubled tips on the rear pipes.
(But yeah: point stands, they should have skipped the fake side pipes.)
This thing is too ridiculous to be taken seriously, and yet not ridiculous enough to be serious.
The drooping bed is a huge miss. So are the fake side pipes and wheel covers. The El Camino portion of this love child deserved a better fate.
I’m surprised the ad shows nothing other then four external shots. It’s not a great idea or execution. Together with the price tag, none of it works.
Different things always seem like better options once you’re done with your own project. In this case a Monte Camino.
The Eldorado was a decent looking car to start with, that Monte was ugly from day one but the Monte conversion looks much better. I’d even say the pickup bed improves the looks of the Monte.
For 17K, you could buy a nice ’80 Eldorado and a nice ’80 El Camino. Or many other things that don’t suck anywhere near as much as this steaming pile.
I once saw a similar vintage Eldo that had been ‘minoized, but with tandem rear axles and a couple more feet of truck bed. I don’t think I would spend five figures on it, either, but I’d choose it over this one.
Cocaine made people do some strange things in the 80’s.
Strap a couple of rear facing seats in the back and make a Bratilac.