I’m sure most of us have experienced something amazing, something that could only happen after a sequence of events takes place. Here a story of something incredible that happened to me last August.

I purchased my ’59 Biarritz in July ’03 from my friend Ron in PA. Although the car was red, Ron said he believed the original color was white because there was some evidence of white paint in the convertible top well. This was confusing because the color on the body tag was code 50 (red). Ron went on to say that he thought the previous owner painted the car red and had a new body tag made with the matching paint code. It was extremely disappointing to find out that the car was missing the original body tag. I ordered the original build sheet from Cadillac Historical Services and it confirmed the car was originally white.

I decided that I would try to find out if the original tag still existed. Ron said he bought the car from a guy in NY and gave me his name. I called a few times before I finally reached him. He claimed he had sent the original tag to the guy who reproduced the new one and he did not receive it back. At first, he was reluctant to tell me who this person was that reproduced the tag, but eventually he told me. When I called the guy, he said he had never received the original body tag. It seemed likely that the guy in NY had sold the tag. At this point, I felt that I hit a dead end. I now had little hope that I would ever find the original.

Fast forward to 2009:

One of the better Cruise Night gatherings during the summer is at Fuddruckers on Rt. 22 in Bridgewater. They draw quite a crowd every Tuesday night and you are always guaranteed to see a few RRR members. I try to attend every week and usually meet Jay Raskin along the way, sometimes Ray Koziol joins us, and we caravan over together. It was a beautiful Tuesday night in August so I decided to take my ‘59 Biarritz, which I don’t usually do.

Soon after we arrived, my cell phone rang, and it was a fellow that I purchase ’59 parts from. He said he was on Rt. 22 and asked if I was at Fudd’s. I told him I was, so he decided to stop by. He lives about 45 minutes away and had never been to the Fudd’s Cruise before but remembered me talking about it. He walked over to my Biarritz, took a walk around and then glanced at the body tag. He did a double take and turned to me and said, “I think there’s a Biarritz for sale on eBay with the same body number”. I asked how he could remember the body number of a car on eBay. He said “I could be wrong, but I remember looking at the number”.

When I returned home, I searched for the car on eBay but couldn’t find the listing. The auction had already ended. So, I searched under completed listings and found the ad, the very last picture showed the body tag. I couldn’t believe that I was actually looking at the original body tag for my car. I studied the rest of the pictures and noticed the car was missing an option that was standard on Eldo’s so, it appeared to be a 62 series made to look like an Eldo. There was a phone number in the ad so I called the guy and asked how my body tag could end up on his car. He offered no explanation and abruptly said “the car is sold”. When I told him that I would call the State Police, he became a little more cooperative. He said if I could prove the body tag belonged to my car, he would send it to me. So, I made copies of the build sheet with my VIN number on it, a copy of the original Owners Protection Policy booklet with the VIN on it, and I also took a picture of the VIN stamped on the frame. I sent him all of the information and I received my original body tag within a week. So, this unlikely sequence of events brought the body tag back to where it belonged!