Nickies, I'm a bit surprised you like this Cadillac. It's certainly gorgeous and that sunroof or "sun-shine top"Â Â is a great touch!
However, being the fastidious collector that you are (I'm the same way; I want to see as much in-scale accuracy as possible! ) surely, you've noticed a few "oddities."
The absence of vertical rocker hash marks, the tall rear roof section, that "1/32 scale"Â hood ornament, all those "thick"Â trunk details & door handles, the missing rear bumper hash marks, and so on, are all unfortunate oversights.Â
Again, it's a very nice replica and no model is perfect but...... 🙄 😯 🤔Â
More Cadillac research. I have checked my definitive Cadillac book, 80 Years of Cadillac LaSalle by Walter McCall, on and in the 1941 section there is a single photo of a Cadillac Sixty Special Town Car built in very limited quantities by Derham for Cadillac. The photoed car shows an open driver's area and a padded leather rear top. The entire top on this car definitely appears higher than the standard Sixty Special sedan top and the rear window appears more vertical than the standard sedan.. No mention if this car was made in a fully enclosed version but it is certainly possible on those bespoke cars at customer request. Only about a half dozen of these special order cars were made which were the last of these Cadillac Fleetwood custom creations. The mystery continues.
Ummm, this being a case of something both photographic and /or histortical, I would be rather careful about making any absolute final negative judgements.
The Cadillac looks great and may perhaps well be something historical /accurate. Our apparent present knowledge seems to come from currently revealed on-line and photographic sources ......... which, of course, as we know, are NEVER wrong or equivocal. Â
The photoed car shows an open driver's area and a padded leather rear top. The entire top on this car definitely appears higher than the standard Sixty Special sedan top and the rear window appears more vertical than the standard sedan.
Correct John, as I noted in my second post; I'm aware of those cars but Nickies's model is not one of those. Perhaps GLM once intended to release a "hi-top-padded roof version?" 🤔 🤨 🤔Â
- My first post pointed out all that over-sized GLM detail which simply can't be denied. No one can look me in the eyes, with a straight face, and claim that hood ornament (..also, the 1:1 hoodrelease ) is in 1/43.
- My second post was in response to Renato's claim that perhaps different (longer & taller ) body tooling was used on 1941 Cadillac 60 S (Fleetwoods ) based on engine size...6 vs. 8. The fact is that all 1941 GM-Fleetwoods shared the same body tooling, wheelbase and engine (a flathead V8 ).Â
Again, for the record, I think this 1/43 GLM Cadillac is a great looking model. My initial post/point was that I was surprised Nickies (knowing he can be as fastidious as I can be! ) was willing to overlook all the inaccuracies.Â
Ummm, this being a case of something both photographic and /or histortical, I would be rather careful about making any absolute final negative judgements.
The Cadillac looks great and may perhaps well be something historical /accurate. Our apparent present knowledge seems to come from currently revealed on-line and photographic sources ......... which, of course, as we know, are NEVER wrong or equivocal. Â
There have been a few Custom bodied 1941 Cadillac 60S done by Fleetwood. Here is the information from the authoritative book on the matter.
Fleetwood, The Company And The Coach Craft, James J. Shild, The Auto Review, 2001, P. 436 - 437.
@nickies Right! Also noted in my 2nd post when I wrote:
"I've never seen or read about two different body stampings for 1941 Cadillac Series 60 Specials (Fleetwoods ) other than a couple of "one offs" by Fleetwood and/or a specialty builder."
The photoed car shows an open driver's area and a padded leather rear top. The entire top on this car definitely appears higher than the standard Sixty Special sedan top and the rear window appears more vertical than the standard sedan.
Correct John, as I noted in my second post; I'm aware of those cars but Nickies's model is not one of those. Perhaps GLM once intended to release a "hi-top-padded roof version?" 🤔 🤨 🤔Â
- My first post pointed out all that over-sized GLM detail which simply can't be denied. No one can look me in the eyes, with a straight face, and claim that hood ornament (..also, the 1:1 hoodrelease ) is in 1/43.
- My second post was in response to Renato's claim that perhaps different (longer & taller ) body tooling was used on 1941 Cadillac 60 S (Fleetwoods ) based on engine size...6 vs. 8. The fact is that all 1941 GM-Fleetwoods shared the same body tooling, wheelbase and engine (a flathead V8 ).Â
Again, for the record, I think this 1/43 GLM Cadillac is a great looking model. My initial post/point was that I was surprised Nickies (knowing he can be as fastidious as I can be! ) was willing to overlook all the inaccuracies.Â
I wanted to add a 1941 60S but I never looked closely if it was really part of the same family as the Coupe, Convertible Sedan and Convertible Coupe I already have. This is the reason it was the one to add until you mentioned these inaccuracies because I am very picky and I would have never bought it.
I never opted to buy any of the GIM 1941 Cadillacs because they never seemed right to me. Is it possible the GLM 60S has any link to the GIM Cadillacs? Maybe it could explain some of the oversized bits or either this can be a very early GLM production model that is not related at all to the others.
@john-sharisky I also thought about that. These panels were thick and I am not sure Cadillac was ready to compromise with headroom space. This could be the answer for a tall roof with this option.
Just a guess: the rear roof was extended to accept the sliding roof panel?
There is also the fact that to make the sunroof, they would have had to do more than take a jigsaw to it. Â They would have needed to have a new die for the roof section anyway, so making accommodation for stowage makes sense.
@charles-rockett we will never know but here are the production figures for the 1941 60S from the same source I posted above.
 What means STT for 185 of them , there is no information about what they are. Maybe this means Standard Tall Top. This is just speculation but the retractable top had to slide somewhere with bulky cables and hardware.
As I've noted, other than the opening for the sunroof, which could easily be stamped out with die insert-a separate die is not necessary-the sheet metal is the same. Here are 1:1s with & without a sunroof vs. GLM
It does seem we're looking at 5 passenger sedans. Â The Town Car I imagine is the Sedanca De Ville mentioned above and pictured below with a different, opera window 'Special'. It's also tempting - though without evidence - to guess that the Imp. would be Imperial Sedans - whatever they may be - but certainly different as they wouldn't have a separate designation otherwise. And there are your STTs which I am guessing would stand in for three separate words as it does not include lower case letters as in Imp. . I haven't a clue! But experience tells me these factory designations often use their own internal terminology so we would need to find a Fleetwood specialist. Â We should also remember Bohman & Schwartz were producing Cadillac specials such as the 1940 62 Special pictured alongside Frank Lloyd Wright's Zephyr / Continental, which I add only to suggest that body specials were still not uncommon in the U.S.A. at this time, though I don't know who produced this latter.
@nickies Last night, I spent a while looking at these pictures and comparing with 1:1s. Â I drove myself mad looking at all the details. Of the two different models noted, yours I felt had more protrudent headlamps and also the front fender slopes to a lower level at the door area. Eventually I deleted my post as I did not want to make an already bad situation worse. However I just googled 1941 Cadillac 60 Special Imperial Sedan and look what came up....
And there are your STTs which I am guessing would stand in for three separate words
Please see my post (a few posts up ) showing three 1941 Cadillac Fleetwoods: One w/sunroof, one without/sunroof, and GLM's.Â
Also, Cadillac actually had sunroof options before 1941 (very rare to see one today ). Off the top-of-my-head, years ago, I thought I read that "STT" was an acronym for Sunshine Turet Top but I'm not 100% sure. 🙄Â
 
