Inside President Dwight Eisenhower's 1955 Cadillac Limo: "Parts Bin Special"

Now, normally when you're in a museum, you can't touch stuff. You can't go in the car, nor should you. But when you're with the guy who owns the thing, we get to see stuff that nobody ever gets to see. >> Now, here, I'd say something that I think really special about this car, but they took this and opened it up. Now, they opened this up so the president could stand up when he was in a crowd and waved to the people. >> There was a handle in front of it so whoever was standing up out of it could hang on to that while the car was moving. They want the people to see them and love them. So they, you know, they're out there waving and they're showing. >> Hessen Eisenhard got a little tricky with this. They cut the roof off when they added that sunroof on there and they replaced the back section of the roof and back window. They put a rear window in it from a series 62 coupe Deville to get rid of the thick pillar in the back to give a better view of the president, his wife, occupants inside. That's the only reason they did that. So they played a little Frankenstein with the Cadillac parts bin on this one. >> This car also was done in Hezen Eisenhart. Most everything that I got right here, a lot of them it seems like they were done at Hessen Eisenheart because they were the customizers to modernize to the president or the administration's wishes. >> Hston Eisenhard's best known for building the Lincoln Continental JFK was riding in in Dallas [clears throat] in 1963. I think that's where most people have heard this name from. And Wayne has a handful of presidential cars in here that were built by Hess and Eisenhart. >> This thing is very different than the other ones we've looked at. I just It looks like it's been used a lot more, too. Do you know what the story of how this car after it left the government ended up here? >> Well, I bought this just through a private auction here, but the channels of it is I'm not 100% sure. It traveled through a lot of hands, but there was also that on my paperwork says it was overseas for a while. But this car shows a lot of wear. >> After the Eisenhowers left the White House, the car was sold to an American general who I guess had it until 1988 when he sold it to somebody in France who was a car collector. That guy sold it in 2006. Wayne bought it from whoever that guy was. I don't know exactly what year that was. I forgot to ask him. seemed like a safer option than a convertible as they would later find out. >> This ain't gotten bulletproof glass or nothing. You know, it wasn't until President Kennedy got assassinated the car have to get fully armored. No longer could it be a convertible. Had to be bulletproof glass. All the doors were armored. Up till that point, many of the presidents were in regular cars. >> Close and open. Maybe that's for the uh center partition. There's some lights in here. 62,000. I think it's funny when people say original miles. Like, yes, they are 62,000 unoriginal miles. What would that even mean? This is very interesting. An air. Looks like an air inlet thing right there. I wonder what that's all about. What do these do? So, you got this little air inlet right there with this tube. >> Yeah. >> What is that for? >> Well, come on in. >> Okay. Now, there again, the president has to have the adjustment of his own. This didn't have the air conditioner in the trunk or nothing, but to bring cold air in. If you look over behind you on the other side there, do you see that clear duck? You might have to move over so you can see it. >> That comes through that vent. It goes up through the roof and it can come out of those and the president can adjust them to whatever their desired is for just simply air, fresh air here. here and it comes through these plastic ducts. >> That is interesting. >> I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah, >> cuz this this car is newer than that one, the Lincoln up there, but it does not have air conditioning. >> Yeah, I know. >> Why is that? >> Well, that can't be answered. Maybe it's because of this, you know. >> Yeah, >> I don't know. >> The seat The seat is also not near as comfortable as the Lincoln. >> And neither is the seats. Yeah, I'm I'm thinking the Lincoln's >> The Lincoln was boss. >> Yeah, that's a that's a top-notch car. >> That's this one here. Not so much. >> But [snorts] I bought this car. Again, it's a presidential car. And anytime I can find a presidential car and figure out a way to afford to get it, I sure like to have it here at Historic Attractions. >> Was this car used by other presidents besides Eisenhower? >> Uh, no. Not that I know of. I think this was mainly Eisenhower and and his wife used it. Maybe >> interesting. >> Oh, I think these are grab handles just to get out of the car. >> Yeah, just help you get up. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you got a roof switch right here. >> What's that one on? >> Roof and three other ones. >> There you go. Roof. And then uh maybe that adjusted the air on the side vents. Hey, that's pretty cool though. How these side vents from the outside blows the air up through here, through here, through there, through there. That's the way they got fresh air in here. >> Was there a blower fan in there or did it just reliable? >> There was a blower fan in the trunk when I looked in there. There was one on that side and one on this side. >> We had no idea at the time that unit in the trunk is actually an air conditioner and it is a factory item. It was not put there by Hess and Eisenhart. That's just how these things work. According to the internet, it was an extra $630 option to have this air conditioner in the trunk. And those clear plastic ducts were factory, too, which is really, really strange. I've never seen this before. Got a really thick floor. Wa. When you close that, does this thing >> Okay, that was kind of cool, wasn't it? >> Yeah. >> Okay, look. >> That's pretty neat. [laughter] Okay. So, this car's got some some quirks like that that weren't >> Yeah. >> initially visible. Okay. >> I do got to say one thing that brings this car out special. Watch this. >> Today's video sponsor is Moo Car. This thing is a very advanced diagnostic tool that actually has AI capability to help you diagnose your car real time, how to fix it, what's wrong. Obviously, you can read all your codes through it. The interface is very comprehensive. It comes with its own OBD reader right here. And it actually attaches magnetically to the back of the tablet, which I think is really cool. The tablet connects to Wi-Fi. It can even go through and scan every module individually. This is like professional level software. Your average code reader is not going to do this. This mirror does not work. It stopped working a while ago. Mirror motor short to ground. That's why a regular code reader will not tell you this stuff. Look at that. It knows exactly what's going on. So, there you go. If I wanted to fix it, I would do that. But, I'm not going to fix it right now. So, that's okay. But, we know how. Thanks to Mukar. >> Get yours. The link in the description. You'll be glad you have one. When you got a problem that you can't find, >> there's President Eisenhower standing by the car. What's behind in the background? >> That's the White House. >> The White House. That makes it pretty neat when you see the car standing right in front of the White House. I >> think at one time this was the most heavily guarded vehicle on the face of the earth and now it's sitting in your building >> sitting here and historic attractions and that gives me the I don't know how to put it. Willies good feeling happy, you know, because uh this is the only one. There ain't no more. But I guess you would have been a little kid watching the news or seeing like him on a newspaper or something sitting in this car playing with little armymen or whatever kind of toys you had. You'd never would have thought that someday I'm going to own that thing. >> Well, I I didn't exactly think that someday I was going to have it. I didn't even have a clue I would until uh this museum start becoming reality. And then things just started coming in into place and uh rapidly too I must say more rapidly than I could come up with funds sometimes. And I passed up a lot of things I wanted to have because you know there's nothing worse than just buying something and you figured out how to come up with the funds and somebody calls you says I got this for sale >> and you really like to have it. >> Are there any other notable president cars that you passed up on or weren't able to get your hands on? >> Yeah. like what what comes to mind? >> Well, the 53 Chrysler that uh Eisenhower also used. >> Does the hood open on this one? We'll see what's in there. >> Um, if I can get educated. >> I just noticed something cool. The tail pipes come out of the bumper. >> That's pretty neat. By god, I got in her. >> I noticed the tail pipes come out of the bumper. >> Oh, yeah. >> In the back. >> That was a bad design though because it rusts out the bumper and everything else around it. >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. That wasn't good design. >> I don't know enough about Cadillacs to know what series or displacement of engine this is, but I would >> Well, I'm hoping you ain't expecting me to answer that because I don't neither. I wonder if it's uh stock or if they upfitted it with a a bigger engine from a different model, but I would imagine this was the best model that they could have gotten at the time >> to start with. >> Yeah. >> What is that thing? Is that It's like a mason jar. >> Except for washer fluid. >> Yeah. It kind of looks like windshield washer. >> It's just a jar. >> Anybody out there knows what it is, put a comment out. Do these Hessen Eisenhart cars have tags from them on them anywhere? Like a build plaque or a little um identification? >> Well, I got a lot of sheet paperwork on this. What? That hood's heavy. >> What is that? They got like a little like a little track to stabilize the wiper. I don't know what that's all about. So, like a little >> Yeah, I see that. It must control it. It just follows that. I never seen one of them. >> Just to be extra fancy, I guess. I don't know what that could be used for. >> Hey, Mitch. Uh, I'm getting educated here today, too. I must say >> that's what this is all about. There's so much stuff in here that it's easy to just look at something and move on because your squirrel brain wants to just go go. But >> yeah, >> that's like like coming here today and just picking one thing and just looking at all the little things about it makes it into a completely different experience. >> Well, it is an experience because like I say, they got a lot of little tidbits. I uh I never studied uh understand myself what the heck they are. >> I don't think I was filming when you had the trunk open the first time. Does this thing still have the jack in it and stuff? >> You want to see in there? >> Yeah. This one's got a key. >> Ah, there we go. There's those fan motors. >> Okay. >> And it looks like I got a box of spare parts. >> Yeah, it's now old in [snorts] here. Very period correct. I >> wonder if they ever had to use that jack. >> Maybe they probably never used it. Look at that. There's a knob back here that turns the air on and off on the package tray. >> Oh, mercy. >> Why would they put that there? >> I don't know. But that's just about as inconvenient as can be to reach back there. >> Yeah, that's not that's not in an easy to reach place whatsoever. >> Off on. Well, that's that's just about as not very good thinking ahead. >> That's quite bizarre. Maybe that was uh added after the fact and they didn't want to cut up the door plate or had to get it done quickly or >> I would have thought if they could have did something they could have did it up there in the up in the controls area up here. >> Yeah, that's very very strange. Maybe that was done after. >> You got one on that side too over there, Mitch? >> No. Like I wonder if the the life after the United States government had it, maybe the wiring in the roof went out or something. So they just put something else back there to make it work again without diagnosing it or fixing a switch or something cuz that just that that doesn't seem very presidential. >> That don't seem real kosher to me at all. >> But they didn't the president have to do it. >> Something to note on Eisenhower's 55 Cadillac here. We were talking about these air inlets and how they pump up through these things into a manifold that blows out in the vents in the roof. There is another similar older Cadillac over here that has those vents, but it doesn't have the clear tubes. Same with this one. It's got vents back here or inlets. No tubes. But the other one looked like it was a similar year range. I think it was Howard Hughes car. So, let's go take a look at that one and see where they go. See, [snorts] same inlets, no tubes. Mystery solved. The Howard Hughes car does not have the tubes. And like Eisenhower's car in the factory configuration, the duct work would have been hidden inside that larger rear pillar. But because Hess and Eisenhower took that out to put the coupe Deville rear glass in there with the smaller pillar for the better visibility, they had to use the plastic tubes that corresponded to that model. That solves the mystery. I wish I could have sat down and researched this when I was there. I just didn't do it. It's easier to dig into these kinds of things when you're not on your phone. And that air conditioning was not standard equipment. like it cost $620, which doesn't seem like a whole lot now, but when you factor in inflation, that was 20% of the cost of the whole car. So, to make the math easy, if you were buying a $100,000 car to add air conditioning to it, it would cost $20,000. That's how much this rear-mounted AC option was proportionally back then to these people. And the system was controlled by that goofy little knob back there. That's actually a factory piece. I can't believe it. But you know, then again, this was 1955. Having air conditioning in anything was a big deal, especially a car. I don't think anybody was inconvenience to reach back there and turn it on. They're just happy to have it. But still, why couldn't they put that somewhere else? It looks like it may have had a different badge on it at one point, too, or some like did it have a script that said Cadillac instead of this thing? >> I found two little things on the floor up front, little chrome moldings, and I think they go up there. >> Oh, that would make sense. Well, like I say, see, there's a lot of people, they don't have museum, but they got private collections, and there's a lot of special cars like this throughout the United States and around the world that are in their own collections, and nobody ever gets to see them. What do I got? I'm sharing it with the all the people that want to see presidential museums. >> What's this place called and where is it so people know? Well, it's Historic Attractions and we're at 13825 Metric Drive, Rosco, Illinois. We're kind of a suburb of Rockford and we're like about an hour from Chicago, an hour from Milwaukee, an hour from Madison, and 2 hours from Deuke. We're kind of like in a little central sub. So, people can come here very easily within a 2-hour drive. >> What car in here you want to talk about next? This is President Ronald Reagan's 1983 armored Cadillac limousine, and we're gonna show you all inside of it today. I know you guys know what it smells like in here right now. You know exactly what it smells like in here right now. Just take for a second to see how awesome this is that Wayne Lensing, the owner of and of this amazing museum, has just left me in here to look at these cars and open the doors and sit in them and pop the hood and talk about whatever I feel like you guys want to see. So, I just open the door and climb in this thing. The same car that Ronald Reagan used to ride around in.