Many a Cadillac fan has wished for an El Camino-style pickup version of their favorite luxury cruiser, and a few builders managed to make their dreams come true. Photos courtesy of Barrett-Jackson.  

What if Cadillac made a pickup truck?  Hold on, many of you are saying. Cadillac did indeed produce a pickup—the Suburban-based Escalade EXT four-door of 2002-2013. No, we mean a more traditional sedan-based pickup. You know, like an El Camino but in Cadillac form, with full Cadillac Style. (Not to be confused with Cadillac flower cars, which share the general proportions of a pickup but with a stainless steel platform in lieu of an actual pickup bed.) While the factory never saw sufficient demand for a Caddy pickup, a number of specialty shops stepped in to satisfy the limited but enthusiastic demand.

We wouldn’t dream of even trying to list all the commercial and private builders who performed Cadillac pickup conversions, but one of the more popular examples was the one we feature here: the Mirage, produced in 1975-76 by Traditional Coachworks of Chatsworth, California. Legendary California customizer Gene Winfield was reportedly associated with the company at some point, which boasted Evel Knievel among its first customers. One noteworthy feature of the Mirage that distinguishes it from most other Caddy pickup conversions is the pair of opera or quarter windows in the greenhouse, which serve to lengthen the cab section of the body and stretch out the lines. Among the extra-cost options was a golf-club compartment in the right-rear quarter panel, recalling the similar feature in coachbuilt cars of the Classic era.

The high-quality Mirage conversion wasn’t cheap. Reportedly, it more than doubled the $8,800 list price of the production Coupe DeVille on which it was based. Production data is a bit sketchy, but it’s said that approximately 200 to 220 units were built, and it seems that a useful number of them still exist today. We’ve seen well-restored examples changing hands at the Barrett-Jackson auctions and elsewhere in the $40,000 range. While that’s hardly cheap, it’s in the realm of affordable, and have you priced a new Cadillac lately? Meanwhile, here’s a notion. As the original ad below illustrates, Traditional Coachworks filled another void in the Cadillac lineup with a nicely-proportioned four-door station wagon version. How about that.