‘Attention to detail’, ‘points win prizes’… these are just a couple of the aphorisms which could apply to Steve Sullivan’s approach to restoring the 1958 Cadillac Sedan DeVille pictured on these pages. As we sit in a pub having lunch, we flick through the pictures he’s meticulously taken to record every stage of the car’s resurrection into what he was ultimately aiming for: a brand-new Cadillac, just as it would have appeared when it rolled off the production line or into the showroom in 1958. In fact, not even that, better than any new Cadillac of the time. “You’re trying to create something better, rather than something they couldn’t or didn’t have time to make.” He explains: “I think the guys that designed this car would have wanted it to be like this.” Controversial? Maybe, but I’d prefer ‘refreshing’. Our hobby, as we know, is dominated by an orthodoxy that believes even evidence of cost-cutting and poor quality should be replicated in restorations to make them authentic. I’m thinking of things like overspray on award-winning Mopars “because that’s how they did it in the factory”…
I explain that it’s doubtful we’ll be able to use all of the 100+ images he’s provided me with in the feature and he responds that he actually has more than 3000. Quite.
