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Shayne Kelly's '53 Experience

Shayne Kelly, Surrey B.C

Shayne sent us this letter to share his past experience with a 1953 Cadillac Convertible. Thank you, Shayne.  Shayne is with one of the founders of the  British Columbia Cadillac Club.  coolcadillac@hotmail.com
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I don't know if I told you the whole story. I used to live in Grand Forks BC from about '78 to '80. A little tiny town in the Kootney's. There was a old abandoned house (1910's) on the out skirts of town. Way out in the back was a White '53 Convertible with a continental kit. It was a basket case but I had to have it. The top was gone, glass was all busted and of course the interior was shot. I do remember sitting in it though. It had a blue interior. The front bumper and grill was gone.

When ever I had a chance I always drove by the old house and checked on it. Then I moved to Kamloops (about 400 miles away I think). One weekend I just happened to be going through Grand Forks and low and behold there was people in a travel trailer at the old house. Of coarse I went and talked to them and we immediately struck a deal for $500.

I then went back to Kamloops and borrowed my Boss's Ramcharger and a car trailer from the Vintage Car Club in Kamloops. I think it was early December when myself and my brother went down to get it. We managed to get the 4X4 back into the field where it was and then get it winched up onto the trailer.

Of course I had no place to put it and no money to restore it. Was a really silly idea to get it. I ended up storing it in the back lot of one of my customers. Then in 1983 the economy went bad and the place that had it stored went bankrupt and I had no other place to keep it so I had to let it go.

After leaving Grand Forks we got up into the mountain area and the truck went around a corner fine but the trailer didn't. I guess the trailer had hit a patch of ice and jack knifed and pulled us off the highway at about 35 mph (wasn't a sharp corner). Luckily there was a small ditch on the side of the high that kept us from going to far too far off into the trees. Luckily the truck was a 4X4 and we hauled ourselves out of the snow and back onto the road.

Luckily we were not injured but the Ramcharger was. I had put the Caddy backwards on the trailer and when the trailer swung around the rear bumper of the Cadillac connected with the taillight on the Ramcharger and pushed the rear quarter panel of the Ramcharger a couple of inches closer to the front of the truck :-( and twisted the bumper on the back of the Ramcharger. No damage to the Cadillac. I must have been a good employee because my boss never really said anything when I told him about his truck. But I had taken it straight to a body shop to be repaired.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. But it was the wee hours of the morning that I got home to the mobile home park where I lived. So I backed the trailer with the Caddy still on it into my drive way. Of course at first light the manager of the trailer park was banging on my door to tell me I couldn't park the "hunk of junk" in my driveway - even if it was still on the trailer. So luckily I lived next to the public road and across from my place there was an area large enough to park the trailer on the side of the road and be safe from getting hit. It sat there for three more days till I found a sympathetic customer that let me store it out back of his business.