1940 Cadillac Lasalle - $22,000 (york, NC)

[Crusty Trucker]

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/d/york-1940-cadillac-lasalle/7661995907.html#

 

$22,000 or best offer or trade. like new elderly owned,garage kept,straight shift on column, flat head, runs and drives, CALL 803-487-7405

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Wells]

You know, the older I get, when I see a car like this, I wonder why I spent so many years a wrenchin' and a fixin' old heaps instead of just grabbing a good one like this coupe and driving it, and driving it, and driving it.

 

 

[deac]

Now that's a great deal!  I doesn't appear that it would need any big repairs.  I am not sure but the top of the dash and the molding pieces that surround the windows are correct, probably not.  They were most likely wood grained or painted brown.  The black wall tires look okay but the car looks bland so I would contemplate a set of wide whites; Afterall it is a Cadillac!  Truth be known I am partial towards pre war GM coupes and mid 30's Ford coupes!

Edited October 1 by deac (see edit history)

[kingrudy]

1940 was the advent of the "Torpedo" body style that was shared by many of the GM cars that came from Fisher Body. Look at the Cadillac, LaSalle, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac of this year and if you stand back and view the profiles of these cars. Several of the parts (sheet metal) are interchangeable. Ask me how I know. This is a beautiful car, but I am a little biased. 

[suchan]

2 hours ago, deac said:

Now that's a great deal!  I doesn't appear that it would need any big repairs.  I am not sure but the top of the dash and the molding pieces that surround the windows are correct, probably not.  They were most likely wood grained or painted brown.  The black wall tires look okay but the car looks bland so I would contemplate a set of wide whites; Afterall it is a Cadillac!  Truth be known I am partial towards pre war GM coupes and mid 30's Ford coupes!

The light-colored dash and window garnishes look as though they should be grained, or at least a darker color, but it's probably original. I've seen factory photos that look the same. My '37's dash and garnishes are painted as well, but it's got a far more interesting dash (to my eye), and the paint color doesn't contrast with the upholstery fabric so much. I usually like blackwalls, but they look like truck tires on this car.

Nice car, and fair asking price.

[kingrudy]

1 hour ago, suchan said:

The light-colored dash and window garnishes look as though they should be grained, or at least a darker color, but it's probably original. I've seen factory photos that look the same. My '37's dash and garnishes are painted as well, but it's got a far more interesting dash (to my eye), and the paint color doesn't contrast with the upholstery fabric so much. I usually like blackwalls, but they look like truck tires on this car.

Nice car, and fair asking price.

My Buick Super which shares the '''Torpedo" body style of this LaSalle had a painted dash when I first bought it. When I removed the radio speaker I was surprised to see a part of the dash that had not seen the light of day since 1940. The appearance of this part of the dash was a wood  grain that was an ugly green color. This was achieved by a transfer method that came in either the green faux wood grain, or brown. To do the wood grain was not in the budget so I chose a dark grey color for all of the window garnish and the dash. I know that this is not correct, but I can live with it. 

[TexRiv_63]

Very nice, always loved this style. When I was a teenager a guy down the street from me had one of these, same color, but conservatively hot rodded with a later CAD OHV V-8 and 4 speed hydramatic, dual exhaust and wider chrome wheels. Sounded great and it was FAST!

[deac]

22 hours ago, kingrudy said:

My Buick Super which shares the '''Torpedo" body style of this LaSalle had a painted dash when I first bought it. When I removed the radio speaker I was surprised to see a part of the dash that had not seen the light of day since 1940. The appearance of this part of the dash was a wood  grain that was an ugly green color. This was achieved by a transfer method that came in either the green faux wood grain, or brown. To do the wood grain was not in the budget so I chose a dark grey color for all of the window garnish and the dash. I know that this is not correct, but I can live with it. 

Well I must say this is interesting.  My 40 Super coupe has tan-brown Bedford cloth seat upholstery that I love (thanks Doug Seybold). It has a baby barf brown painted dashboard and a light gray window surround molds.  I cannot figure out why the window molding are painted in a color that is not seen on any other part of the car!  I can't say it's ugly but I do wonder what the thinking was behind that color.  I was telling a friend today that I am going to paint those moldings in some shade of brown or perhaps wood grain them using Grain It Technology's kit.  I have seen the results on many Buicks and it looks real nice!!

Edited October 2 by deac (see edit history)

[kingrudy]

17 hours ago, deac said:

Well I must say this is interesting.  My 40 Super coupe has tan-brown Bedford cloth seat upholstery that I love (thanks Doug Seybold). It has a baby barf brown painted dashboard and l gray window surround molds.  I cannot figure out why the window molding are painted in a color that is not seen on any other part of the car!  I can't say it's ugly but I do wonder what the thinking was behind that color.  I was telling a friend today that I am going to paint those moldings in some shade of brown or perhaps wood grain them using Grain It Technology's kit.  I have seen the results on many Buicks and it looks real nice!!

I was thinking of doing a transfer process somewhat similar to how this was originally done. With the computer age that we live in, it is not uncommon to see an entire car wrapped. Someone must have a company out there where you could take off all of the window garnishes photo graph all of the detail points and feed that into a computer and have them printed out. I'll bet there is a print shop that does this. 

Did more home work on this process and it is on my list. Nice video of this process shown here: 

 

Edited October 2 by kingrudy (see edit history)

[Gearheadengineer]

9 minutes ago, kingrudy said:

I was thinking of doing a transfer process somewhat similar to how this was originally. With the computer age that we live in it is not uncommon to see an entire car wrapped. Someone must have a company out there where you could take off all of the window garnishes photo graph all of the detail points and feed that into a computer and have them printed out. I'll bet there is a print shop that does this. 

Check out hydro dipping. That should be able to do this. Basically the paint/image floats and the part is pulled through that layer which then forms to the part. 

[58L-Y8]

This 1940 LaSalle is the Series 40-50, Fisher Body No. 40-5027 which is the B-Body series carried over from 1939 shared broadly across the P-O-B-L nameplates.   The new-for-1940 Torpedo C-Body was given to Pontiac Torpedo Eight Series 29, (1940-'41, the only two years Pontiac was allowed to have the C-Body), Oldsmobile L-Series Custom Cruiser 90, Buick Super Series 50 and Roadmaster Series 70, LaSalle Series 52 Special and Cadillac Series 62.  The 1940 Torpedo C-Bodies, drawing inspiration from the 60 Special, were the sensation of the industry.   Little known is the C-Body was also extended to create the 1940 Series 72, 138" wb which became the 1941-'49 Series 75 bodies.