Among Celebrity Cars, a Custom Cadillac Stands Out

Vern Moeller built this custom Cadillac woody station wagon out of several different classic cars, including a 1947 Cadillac hearse.

LAS VEGAS – At the second annual Barrett-Jackson collector car auction here in the Mandalay Bay resort and casino, you could bid on Jay Leno’s motorcycle, on a racecar that played a role in the Elvis Presley movie “Viva La Vegas,” on cars owned by the actors Bruce Willis and Don Johnson, on replicas of the Batmobile and Barney Fife’s Mayberry sheriff’s car or on a Lee Iacocca 45th anniversary edition Ford Mustang.

Or, like me, you could have been drawn not by celebrity but by the stunning proportion and coach-built detail of a 1947 Cadillac that quite literally was brought back from the dead.

Vern Moeller grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where as a teenager he rebuilt junkyard vehicles. “I knew how to cut things apart and weld them back together,” said Mr. Moeller, who retired three years ago after more than three decades selling industrial water treatment equipment in the Texas Panhandle and bordering states.

A few years ago, Mr. Moeller and a buddy turned a Ford Model A into a boat-tail speedster. The friend had a decrepit, 1947 Cadillac hearse he was either going to hot-rod or sell (someone had offered him $600). But Mr. Moeller had another idea, so the friend gave him the car, which Mr. Moeller turned into a stunning woody station wagon.