not all of us are. but this 57-59 years of caddy are high dollar on there stuff. sharp looking car if you can afford to do one. but for some reason the aftermarket reproductions stuff is vary high on them. you can buy the V the crest and the insert but you will get around 600 in them aftermarket. used is just not easy to find at all in any condition. add the hood fins replated and the lip molding your into trim on the hood around 900 bucks. you do some careful shopping around and your looking at saving around 100 maybe.
e-bay you search diligently you may find a buy. but most of what the are calling daily driver stuff is pitted worse then what you have when you get to see it in hand.
the Caddy Daddy, McVaveys, Frisk, Honest John's, rubber the right way, USA parts and about 6 others out there. are all willing to help. good trusted people that have some used stuff, but mostly aftermarket and good advice. but on this set of cars there is nothing that is cheap.
I though the prices I was quoted on the 64 were outrages but they are half what this 58 is . a lot of them will be the same as any car. we are looking at around 600 for rubber products. that's about the same as any car. as is the glass. the paint products are rising at 25% every 6 months but it no more then any other car. it just the trim you get hung up on. 300 to 450 in the headlight doors 1200 for the rear bumper 600 in the front and around 120 each for all the rest. if we had not gone to the cut and splice repair on the quarter molding we would not have any. I have not been able to find one door sill even damaged to repair or replace the ones we need. they are Eureka only. as is the one missing B pillar molding between the doors. all in the joy of rebuilding one of these.
if you were into a late 60 or 70s car your cost for this kind of stuff would be about 1/4. the fact is I have brought every one of my other cars complete for less money then the trim on this 58. then at that I still have about 30 pieces of stainless to buff here before we put it back to gather.
I though it was bad when I got over 2 grand in trim on the 53 pontiac.
that was just the bumpers on this 58. so we are all up against a wall on one of these. thats just the way it is.
Art had invest in a lot of it all ready and it all came up missing. that last picture I posted of it was before it went in to the shop. it went in as a complete drivable car . came out what you have with a different engine in it as they blew the one in it up starting it moving it in and out. you have the car on the right coast now a lot of people that you might be able to move it to. I think your at the time right now that you know what your up against. resources and needs have to match. do you invest this kind of money in to this car. or pass the project on and pick up one of the ready to go cars in your area. we all have made these kind of choices a time or two, no horse on anyone.
me I'm spending some one elses money on this 58 here. I would not have the resources to do this car on my own. the man that owns it is just to stubborn to give up on it. so I'm willing to dig for the best buys we can get and repair a lot of stuff most would pass on. working on this Eureka is about the only time I'll ever get to work on a hand built car. I'm loving every minute of it.