Ever heard that old saying, “necessity is the mother of invention”? While invention doesn’t have much to do with Roger Jetter’s 1955 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, one could say that it was definitely born out of necessity…his brother already had a refurbished ’54 Caddy and his best pal traded for a ’56 Caddy driver. That brings us to the thing about ‘necessity’–he was going to miss out on the summer’s rod running fun in a Cadillac, something needed to be done.

Roger had been working on a 1948 Cadillac Sedanet fastback but the finish was years away. As luck would have it, a failed ’55 Cadillac project fell into his lap–perfect. After cash exchanged hands, he trailered home the body, complete with a massive ’70 Cadillac 500ci engine, T-400 tranny sitting between the fenders, and almost two cars worth of extra parts. After shuttling the ’48 to the storage shed the ‘55 Cadillac build started in earnest. Roger figured no more than a year or so to get the car street-worthy. As is the case with a lot of individual’s builds, Roger’s ideas for the Cadillac kept growing–to the extent that five and a half years later the car rolled out of his garage under its own power, finished.

While in Roger’s back yard garage, he (and his brother) raised the body from the frame and a ’78 Pontiac Trans Am sub-frame, with disc brakes, sway bar and power steering was grafted to the stock Caddy frame–the fit was perfect. Determining the stock rear end was in good shape, he painted the whole thing urethane black and set it aside to dry. The Caddy’s floor-pans were solid since this was a ColoRODo car, so the underside of the body, topside of the floor, and roof was sprayed with Lizardskin insulation. Once that was finished, the body was positioned back on the frame and the recently rebuilt engine/tranny set on stock GM mounts.

The fun part of the build then started. It was on to modifying the body while not straying far from the gorgeous Cadillac lines, “improve on them” was Roger’s requirement. He succeeded. The body was nosed and decked and a peak welded to the center of the hood and trunk. Up top, two scoops were added to the roof to lend that late-fifties look. The door handles were removed and the stock faux body scoops on the quarters were redesigned and opened–three chromed spears highlight that mod. A section of four-door trim was shortened and added to give the illusion that it disappears into the scoop.

Around front, the Dagmars were modified by narrowing the lower ‘arms’ 2 1/2-inches and tipping them toward the headlights. Fifty-six pieces of flat 1/8-inch aluminum was laser cut to match the contour of the lower bumper, assembled, and polished. Harley-Davidson park lights are hidden behind the grille’s corners.

Around back, Roger felt the rear bumper was ugly, especially with those rusted out exhausts, so modification was paramount. A combination of ’48 Cadillac side pieces, a ’55 Cadillac center section, and a ’59 Cadillac license box, pieced together perfectly made it look like it belonged.  The 74” long fender skirts were hand-built using a round rod base and rolled sheet metal. Diamondback whitewall radials and Olds hubcaps are rolling stock and ’50s iconic lakes pipes add the final touch. Ogden Chrome was called on to do all the chrome work and Mile High Polishing handled the stainless trim.

With the body ‘classed’ up, the interior had to speak ‘Cadillac class’ too. A ’56 Cadillac dash was put in, a ’66 Buick tilt wheel added for those long highway cruises and a CD player was hidden in the dash. Ed Banes Interiors was then given the job of  “classing up ” the interior. Pearl White Naugahyde was chosen for the stock power front seat, rear seat, door panels, and headliner. Amethyst Swirled fabric was rolled and pleated as inserts after “Cadillac” was embroidered on the seat tops.  Plum colored carpet complements the PPG BC/CC Lollipop Lavendar paint on the body while the roof was sprayed 1955 Ford Regency Purple. Yes, it’s two-toned and subtle, and it works.

When the Cad finally rolled out of the garage, its main purpose was rod running all across the US. Two years into proving itself a highway car, it’s won a trunkful of awards but the most rewarding was recipient of Goodguys’ nation-wide “Homebuilt Heaven” award.

As if to prove to himself he builds great highway cars, Roger (and his brother Dan, owner of the ’54 Cadillac and of course, rebuilt by both men) decided to take a long rod running trip. They set out for the ‘Western Canada Power Cruise’ from their home in Aurora, ColoRODo, and traveled with 73 Canadian cruisers from Regina, Saskatchewan west, across Canada on Trans-Canada Highway One to Puyallup, Washington, for the Goodguys Northwest Nats event. You can read about that trip here.

After Puyallup, the two men toured Mount St. Helens, the Oregon coast, and then headed back east to Yellowstone for their 43rd Annual Rod Run. The whole trip lasted two weeks and three days, covered 4,552 miles and neither Cadillac experienced car trouble at all, proving that a nice street car can be ‘borne out of necessity’ to perform and eat up road miles.

Roger Jetter’s Bio

A car guy since high school, Roger Jetter has built some very nice cars over the years. Not one to want to work on cars as his career, he embarked on a graphic art career right out of high school and worked for several large advertising agencies in the Denver, Colorado area before opening his own boutique shop. He eventually got into magazine publishing and worked for Primedia both as an advertising manager and later as an editor. While an editor at Primedia, he liked writing and decided to learn to write fiction and went back to school at age 55. He’s now published six books and is working on a seventh.

His first two books, Bangin’ Gears & Bustin’ Heads and Fast Cars, 4-speeds and Fist-Fights were memoirs of sorts–getting into and out of trouble with his three-year old ’57 Chevy.  Throughout the years of rod running he’s met interesting people in the car hobby and asked them to tell their “youthful” stories for his third book, Recollections, Regrets & Random Acts. The next two books, Accidents & Incidents and Faded Thunder, are in the same vein as the first two.

That first high school ’57 Chevy started him on the road to building and owning many vehicles one of which is a very radical 1957 Chevy Bel Air hardtop–a 60s kustom survivor known as “Hint of Mint.” That car was a national ISCA show winner and was shown in the Midwest quite extensively from 1964-1969. At one time in his life, Roger owned over thirty ‘57s, all at the same time. He just finished a ’60 Chevy two-door station wagon and has rolled the ’48 Cadillac Sedanet back into the garage to be built, it’ll be a kustom as well.

Roger enjoys summertime rod running in his ’55 Cadillac all across the United States, usually logging around 12,000 miles.

Be sure to check out Rod Authority’s exclusive gallery of Roger’s gorgeous ’55 below!