The Big Car

My Texas Cattlelac

Well that's ol' Leonard on the left.  He's the lucky man that received my 900 dollars for the big F'n Car.  It's a '72 Cadillac Calais and we saw it on the side of the road in Bryan, TX, on June 11th (2001), hungover and full of Mexican food.  Speakin' of Mexicans, I did talk him down on the price just like a good trip to Acuna!  (That's Leonard, Bubba, Dub, me, and Skinner.)

There she is, her first time home.  I did try to drive her all the way, but I only put 50 on the odometer out of a 200 mile trip.  We died.  Bubba and I had to go back with a trailer and get her outside of Caldwell.  Oh yeah, when we got there she was gone!  I had to bail her out of jail.  My, what a  trouble maker.

I told ol' Leonard what I planned to do but he didn't believe it.  Yep, we cut the top off!  It gets better.  (Left photo: That's Bubba drivin'.  Cool!)

Her first set of horns.  They didn't last long, no thanks to Ragsdale.  She's a beauty  isn't she?  Elvis loves the Caddy.  This picture was taken the day I let Boland drive us to San Marcos, before the open container law, of course.  Jason did good, it was me driving two blocks down to Cheatham Street that did the damage.

I pulled into the parking lot on that inebriated Monday night... I didn't see the curb... we heard a loud scraping noise... and there behind us lay a muffler and 10 feet of tailpipe.  I let Boland take over the driving after that.  We left the muffler and that is why I now have the coolest exhaust system ever put on a Caddy... Ever.  Thank God for America!

We had many summer parties at the Icehouse that always seemed to end up around the big car.  Bubba or I would stand on the enormous hood and preach Americana to the fine folks who would listen.  Mel Polk is the large man in the back seat,  he ended up sleeping there that night.  He also owns the bar.  Dub and Les are in the front.  That's Skinner, Big Eric & Kirby listening to the wisdom brought forth by the big car.  This is just before I stripped the inside & started its transformation.

Here I am welding my new seats I designed.  Coming right along.

Workedy...work...work.

Its transformation into a boat.  Texas land yacht.  Billy Applegate & I sanded & bondo'd the whole car.  We framed out the inside with bench seats and found a Captain's chair from the Canyon Lake sheriff's boat for the driver's seat.  Our good friend, David Guinn, painted it like a Texas flag for us.  That's me, Ken Jenkins (the other River Road Icehouse bar owner) & David.  He also painted George Strait's bus!  Isn't that cool.

There goes the red! Go Dave!

Here she is before the vinyl.

Here she is after the tedious work put forth by me, Billy, and the pretty miss Suzan.  That is our first attempt at vinyl, check out that steering wheel I hand stitched. Suzan recovered the chair and did an absolutely wonderful job if I do say so myself.  It was her first time.

This is now The Official Car of Texas Music!

^{by DM}