This idea was born simply because I wanted a way to haul my ‘53 Sunbeam motorcycle.  Chevy El Caminos and Ford Rancheros do not have a long enough bed to carry a full size cruiser like a Harley or my Sunbeam.  Since I loved the Caddys, I began taking some measurements and doing some sketches.  It turned out that a ‘58 Cad Sedan DeVille had the right stuff.  So I found this blue one in Texas—and was it solid!  I’m always asked why I didn’t start with a ‘58 flower car.  But the truth is they are very ugly, they have a horrible roof line, they have four doors and  their wheelbase is, if I remember right, 156 inches (yikes!).  So once the car from Texas arrived I began visualizing it in 3D.  After a good while eyeballing the project and building it in my minds eye, I began cutting the roof and the rear trunk section out of the car. A new Coupe front windshield frame (lower dog leg pillars) and glass were installed to give the old four door a lower profile (a sedan windshield is about 2’’ taller but miraculously the same upper outline and profile shape as a coupe!). The result is it almost looks chopped. Taking the idea from the El Camino I left  the rear floor and trunk pan  in place. However instead of a fold down tailgate a rear swing out door was fabricated to be sure it

would not interfere with the loading and unloading of the motorcycle.  But now I wanted a really cool and easy way to ramp the bike up in and back out of the bed.  So I built a hidden ramp assembly under the rear floor of the bed.  It is a very complicated set up with cam followers and tracks, limit switches, solenoids, and relays. Yet I’m proud to say that with over 100 runs it has performed flawlessly. It is a automated one button operation to deploy the ramps down on the ground via a linear actuator.  The rear half of the bed floor is hinged and opens up via hydraulic cylinders for storage underneath.  This is where the Air Ride pump, tank, and hydraulic pump is also located (in the modified spare tire well). This allows for the look of a stock bed but with the ease of loading and unloading the bike with no “ loose traveling ramps”.  Other features include a power rear bed window, Custom  wheel treatments, a tri-power Cad motor, and of course PW, PS, PB, A/C, and all the other options you’d expect on a Cadillac!  Including power rear quarter windows (hand fabricated with cut down OEM frames). Not even the El Camino had that!  And by widening the rear OEM wheel wells to 49 1/2” I can even haul my sheet metal.

Keep an eye out on this page for the future full tilt custom interior and custom made exterior side moldings in the works for this truck! This is going to be one super 21^st century ’55 hauler