This is a 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that has been converted into an El Camino-style ute, or pickup, it’s also been given a more modern (and more powerful) 5.7 liter LT1 V8, as well as a 1990 Fleetwood Brougham front end.
It’s probably safe to say that this is the only vehicle built to these specifications in the world, it would prove hugely popular at essentially any Cars & Coffee event, as a promotional vehicle, or simply as an eccentric daily driver.
Fast Fact: A Cadillac Coupe DeVille Pickup Conversion
- This is a heavily customized 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that has been transformed into an El Camino-style pickup. The car has a 1990 Fleetwood Brougham front clip, custom rear bodywork, and a layout clearly intended to stand out at shows while remaining usable as an everyday driver.
- The Coupe DeVille nameplate began in 1949 as a pillarless hardtop within Cadillac’s Series 62 range, helping define postwar American luxury cars. Early examples paired large-displacement OHV V8 engines with automatic transmissions, always prioritizing smoothness, isolation, and upscale styling over any sort of handling or driver involvement.
- Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Coupe DeVille evolved into a definitive personal-luxury coupe, marked by increasing size, comfort, and powerful V8 engine options. Even after major downsizing in 1977, the formula remained rear-wheel drive with automatic gearboxes and a focus on relaxed, torque-rich cruising.
- This custom car uses a 5.7 liter LT1 V8 producing roughly 300 bhp, paired with a 4L60E automatic and limited-slip rear differential. The fiberglass pickup conversion was executed by Caribou Motor Corporation, and the finished vehicle retains its key luxury features, making it daily drivable if the new owner wishes.
History Speedrun: The Cadillac Coupe DeVille
When Cadillac put the Coupe de Ville badge into regular production in the 1949 model year, it wasn’t launching a separate model line so much as a new concept of what a post-WWII American luxury coupe could be. The Series 62 Coupe de Ville was a pillarless hardtop two-door intended to deliver convertible-style openness without the compromises of a folding fabric roof, and it arrived alongside a new-generation overhead-valve Cadillac V8 engines that set the tone for the brand’s postwar direction.
This is a 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that has been converted into an El Camino-style ute, or pickup. It’s also been given a more modern (and more powerful) 5.7 liter LT1 V8, as well as a 1990 Fleetwood Brougham front end.
From 1949 through to 1958, the Coupe de Ville was primarily a Series 62 body style and trim level. Early cars paired that 331 cubic inch V8 with either a 3-speed manual or, more commonly, Cadillac’s Hydra-Matic automatic, and the formula quickly proved that luxury buyers wanted the cleaner hardtop profile and higher-trim interior treatment.
Through the 1950s the Coupe de Ville followed Cadillac’s rapid annual evolution, with bigger bodies, more standard power equipment, and steady displacement growth in Cadillac’s OHV V8 family, while remaining fundamentally a large, rear wheel-drive, V8-and-automatic boulevard cruiser.
A key turning point came in 1959, when Cadillac created De Ville as its own model series positioned above the Series 62, and the Coupe de Ville became the two-door hardtop within that De Ville family rather than merely a Series 62 variant.
During the 1960s, the Coupe de Ville tracked Cadillac’s move toward cleaner, less complex, and more formal styling cues as well as a more systematized model hierarchy. De Ville typically offered multiple body styles (mostly coupes and sedans), with the Coupe de Ville occupying the place of the aspirational personal-luxury hardtop.
Power remained V8-only, and automatic transmissions were standard fitment, this is the era when Cadillac’s big cube V8s and high-isolation chassis tuning became the brand’s calling card.
The 1970s Coupe de Ville is often remembered as the last of Cadillac’s truly massive two-doors. De Ville remained a full-size rear-drive platform with V8 power, and the coupe’s long doors and expansive roofline emphasized the “personal luxury” brief – with comfort first, effortless torque second, and road feel a (far) distant third.
The bodywork was carried out by the Caribou Motor Corporation of San Francisco, California. They are said to have used a fiberglass roof, cab, tailgate, and bed sides to transform the rear end, and as noted above a Fleetwood Brougham front fascia and bumpers were also added.
For 1977, Cadillac downsized its full-size cars significantly, and the Coupe de Ville followed suit. The concept did not change, two-doors, V8 power, automatic gearboxes, and rear-wheel drive – but the execution did, with less bulk, tighter exterior dimensions, and a more fuel efficient footprint while aiming to keep the same luxury cues.
The most mechanically significant reinvention arrived in the mid-1980s, when De Ville transitioned to front-wheel drive in Cadillac’s C-body configuration. From that point, the Coupe de Ville became a front-drive, transverse-powertrain luxury coupe – still Cadillac in concept, but fundamentally different in layout and feel from the long-hood rear-drive cars that had defined the nameplate since its inception.
This front-drive era carried the Coupe de Ville through its final model years, with Cadillac continuing to market De Ville as a comfort-and-feature-forward range while the coupe body style slowly lost favor in the broader luxury market.
By 1993, Cadillac discontinued the Coupe de Ville, ending the run of Cadillac’s last full-size six-passenger two-door. The Coupe de Ville’s history began as one of the earliest mass-produced pillarless hardtops in America, it matured into the definitive Cadillac personal-luxury coupe, and finished as a front-drive flagship two-door – a final model evolution now seen as a mistake by many.
The 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille Pickup Conversion Shown Here
The car you see here is a unique 1984 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that’s been given a series of major modifications, turning it into a ute, an El Camino-style pickup, with the front end fascia from a 1990 Fleetwood Brougham and a significantly updated drivetrain.
Under the hood you’ll now find a 5.7 liter LT1 V8 which produces somewhere in the region of 300 bhp depending on which specific variant it is. This engine is mated to a 4L60E 4-speed automatic transmission which sends power to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential.
The bodywork was carried out by the Caribou Motor Corporation of San Francisco, California. They are said to have used a fiberglass roof, cab, tailgate, and bed sides to transform the rear end, and as noted above a Fleetwood Brougham front fascia and bumpers were also added.
Inside you’ll find power-adjustable front seats, power windows, and automatic climate control, with black leather upholstery and wood veneers on the dashboard and door panels.
Inside you’ll find power-adjustable front seats, power windows, and automatic climate control, with black leather upholstery and wood veneers on the dashboard and door panels.
The car is now being offered for sale out of Houston, Texas with a clean Texas title. If you’d like to read more about it or place a bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer + General Motors
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
