Slide 1

Think it’s taking you forever to finish your project? It took Murray Pfaff 23 years and four makeovers before he could declare his 1956 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, FireMaker, truly finished. High school senior Murray found the de Ville in 1986. The car was parked in a barn in 1971; many of the 100,000 miles on the odometer came from vacations to Mexico, Alaska and Florida. Murray’s first attempt to buy the big Caddy was quashed by his dad, who didn’t want some old relic cluttering up the Pfaff driveway. But patience paid off; five years and 600 bucks later, Murray held the title to the de Ville.

Slide 2

Believe it or not, most of the major body modifications were done 18 years ago, which goes to show you that customizing done right is timeless. The laundry list of mods includes the Carson top in black Haartz cloth, extended side intakes with modified trim, filled side skirts, shaved handles, emblems, trim, and antenna, a one piece rear bumper with 1948 Ford taillights molded into the ends, custom stainless windshield trim, and twin frenched radio antennas. This photo shows the Pfaff-designed 18” Billet Specialties rims on Goodyear Eagle F1s.

Slide 3

The Glasurit Ultra-Violet Purple/Ice Pearl flames and scallops over Dark Silver really pop in the late-evening light, don't they? Murray designed and laid out the paint scheme, which was expertly sprayed by Charlie Vickerie. There are over 300 louvers punched into that hood, and the Cadillac Goddess ornament has been relocated and recessed. Yep, those are BFGoodrich Silvertown wide whites on 15” U.S. Wheel Supremes. Murray swaps these on when he’s in “traditional” mode.

Slide 4

The interior received the lion’s share of attention during the de Ville’s latest go-round. The factory dash was heavily modified to accept the speedometer cluster from a ‘60 Cadillac; a fabricated insert has a hidden door to house the Alpine Digital Media Receiver head unit. The center console is out of a 2006 Impala, modified to fit the hand fabbed Classic Instruments gauge cluster and control unit for the Air Ride Technologies Shockwave air springs. A 1960 Caddy steering wheel sits atop an Ididit tilt steering column, and a chromed plated Beelzebub is perched on the handle of a B&M Quicksilver shifter. PJ’s Trim Shop slathered the cabin in a herd’s worth of black leather, which contrasts nicely with the purple and gray dash, door, and seat inserts.

Slide 5

You’re looking at 500 cubic inches of Cadillac’s finest. Back in the early 1990s, Murray pirated the engine, a Turbo 400 automatic, and the 12-bolt rear axle from a 1976 de Ville and plopped them in FireMaker. The 500 was bigger than the car’s original 365 cube engine, requiring sheetmetal surgery that included a firewall recess made from a wheelbarrow and all-new inner panels. The rebuilt long block is fortified with an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, an 850 cfm Holley Street Avenger carburetor, and MSD ignition bits. The early Caddy valve covers are from Offenhauser, machined to fit the 500’s cylinder heads. That funky air cleaner is a modified shampoo drain off of an old barbershop chair. No, we’re not sure why either, but it’s cool.

Slide 6

Here’s the real reason the ’56 exists: flames. Ginormous 20-foot long flames, to be exact.  Murray began experimenting with flamethrower systems in the ‘90s. He started with the traditional popper-style deal that uses spark plugs as igniters, but a jones for big flames led to more sophisticated systems that inject fuel into the exhaust tips. The current fire-thrower setup uses twin spark plugs in each exhaust tip, plus a two-stage fuel injection system that is the key to those 20 foot streams of flame. Here you see Murray demonstrating FireMaker’s abilities at the 2008 Hunnert Car Pileup show in Illinois.