Photo: Hard up garage | YouTube
Snoop Dog has been spending these past few days in Paris, France, watching the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, someone in the UK is hard at work, trying to finish the restoration of a Cadillac Deville Convertible that the hip hop star reportedly used in 2007 at the MTC Music Awards and on a world tour. Will he win the race against time?
Sam, the owner of Hard Up Garage, found the 1966 Cadillac Deville Convertible abandoned, rotting away in a field where it had spent ages, being slowly disintegrated by the elements. If it weren’t for its background, it would have probably been on its way to the crusher by now.
But then, Sam came to the rescue and is now planning to restore the Cadillac and show it to Snoop Dogg himself in Paris. The Olympic Games have already started, so there is really not much time left. However, the video was filmed in mid-July, long before the Opening Ceremony, and ends before the car is good to go.
This Caddy was on the stage carrying Snoop Dogg at the 2007 MTV Music Awards before going on tour with him. He sat on the backrests of the rear seats, surrounded by beautiful ladies, with the music blasting around.
For the MTV Music Awards, the organizers originally offered him a Mercedes-Benz. He hated the idea from the very beginning and said he would not be caught anywhere near it, but in other words, some that can’t possibly be written here.
So, MTV had to come up with something more appropriate for the hip-hop star. He agreed the moment they proposed the 1996 Cadillac Deville Convertible. Before the show, the car underwent a makeover in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It had to look fit for a hip-hop show. And it eventually did.
It was 2007 when Snoop Dogg also signed on the armrest. Some photos from that period show the autograph, but it either faded away over the years, or someone, definitely not a Snoop Dogg fan, must have erased it at some point. Every time he went to London, he reportedly used the exact same car.
Now, that exact same car should go to Paris. But will Sam make it on time? Now, the deadline seems impossible to meet. It is Tuesday, July 16, for them, and they want to have this car up on the ferry and on its way to Paris by Friday.
The team removed the interior, which, if you remember well, seemed covered in dust and yogurt. The leather on the seats started to turn green as if the car had spent years in some swamp. The mess made the detailing expert throw up the moment he saw it.
But they had other setbacks to battle, too. At some point, someone told them that there was no way in the world that was the car that Snoop Dogg used. However, a little while later, the same person changed his mind and told them he had shown a video of the Caddy to the artist and he instantly remembered the car.
Now, Sam and his team are also working on the body, in an attempt to make it look presentable. But there is still a long way to go because they are cutting off the rusty body parts and replacing them with steel, painting them black, and clicking them back together onto the Caddy. It sounds like very long nights are coming for Sam and his friend, Jacob Saunders, from Lived 9 Lives Customs.
The car will spend the following days in the body shop. Experts work on it around the clock to have it ready in time. Sam bought a new roof from the US, which hasn’t arrived yet. He also bought some body parts. And as always when one is in a hurry, new issues come up on top of the already existing issues. “We don’t have problems, we only have solutions,” Sam is trying to find the necessary motivation.
The convertible doesn’t even start, and hydraulics don’t work. When those problems are eliminated, the car will bounce like it did on the stage back in 2007. While they are trying to fix it, the Cadillac unexpectedly catches fire. So, Sam is on his way to an electrician, with only four hours left to the departure of the ferry to France.
The experts work through the night to have the Caddy ready in time. Whether they made it or not, we’ll get to find out in the next episode. For the moment, the 1966 Deville Convertible looks amazing. Unfortunately, it’s not all about the looks. Sam wants to have the car bouncing like it did in 2007 at the MTV Music Awards and on its way to Paris in just a couple of hours. Paris is waiting!
