Recently, we participated in a community Haunted Forest during a fund-raising event for our Robotics club. On the night of our dress rehearsal, this hearse came rolling in to be parked in the graveyard. Unfortunately, because it was dark I couldn’t get any pictures or even see it very well.
The organizer wanted to show a movie to entertain the people waiting in line for the drive-in, so he sent out a call for a “classic car” that would serve as a projection booth. When I offered up my 1972 Travelall, the organizer said something like, “Huh…I’m not picturing it.” I explained that my IH was sort of like a Suburban, only way cooler. I told him to let me know and we left it at that. Over the next few nights I didn’t see the hearse at all, but last Saturday night, when we opened before dark for the less-scary family walk, I spotted it parked near the queue line.
From a distance, I’d pegged it as a ’76 model; however, it isn’t uncommon for professional cars to be re-bodied to look newer than they actually are, so I wasn’t sure it was a Centennial Edition. After I got a look, though, I was certain it was a 1976.
Walking around to the front confirmed that.
I also found these interesting badges on the front fender.
Naturally, it’s a little worse for wear from sitting outside in our wet climate.
It also didn’t escape a little customizing, with some blue dots in the taillights. I believe they’re from a Colonnade wagon.
Happy Halloween to all.
The question of how much does one of these monsters weigh led me to this car’s website, whose name is Rose, http://www.hauntedhearsenw.com/ where it’s keeper states that it is one of 50 Centenial editions and only one of 10 with the extension table.
Now THAT is a big car. I may be the only guy here who actually drove one of these. I have written before that I worked 2 or 3 summers at a funeral home when I was in college. The funeral coaches that were in regular service were 77s and 78s when I started, and every year they would trade the two oldest on two new ones. For a couple of years, I heard people talk about “Old 83” that was parked in a little garage a couple of blocks away. The number was from the car’s license plate.
Old 83 was a big 76 Cad (I think it was a Miller-Meteor, but I am not sure) that the place had kept as sort of a backup, but which never really got used. One evening, I was told to walk down the street and bring it back because they had sold it and someone was coming to pick it up.
It damned near didn’t start. Those big 472 or 500 cid V8s would get all carboned up from all of the low-speed running, and you needed a really good battery to turn them over. It started and I eased it out of a very tight old garage and down the two blocks to the parking lot. It was really huge. I am sorry I didn’t get to drive it more, I liked it better than the newer ones. Maybe just because it was different. Even though it was only 2 or 3 years old, is seemed absolutely ancient compared with the 1977 and up Cadillacs I was used to driving.
Add me to the list. I drove a 1969 Miller-Meteor 42″ combination (personal use) for ten years from 1985 to 1995. I’ll have to submit a post or two on it sometime as there are lots of good stories to tell! It was a really fun vehicle to drive (except in the big city – no place to park).
There’s a nice-looking 1975 Oldsmobile hearse (the Olds versions used to be converted by Cotner-Bevington in Blytheville, AR) for sale on Portland CL right now:
http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/cto/3363230763.html
Out of curiosity, just what did a big 69 Cad hearse weigh? I am betting 6500 lbs?
You are right in the neighborhood. I seem to recall around 6350 when I weighed it one time at a roadside weigh station (unattended, out near the Vernita bridge over the Columbia River in eastern WA).
After graduation from college, I blew out a tire on the way home with the thing filled to the gills (long story there, I’ll put it in the future post). I went across the scales at my local scrapyard just for kicks & grins and I was at 8200 gross (with me in it)! No wonder my passenger-car tires were failing! I didn’t fully appreciate the fact that this vehicle required LT tires until later in life.
I always thought a hearse would make an excellent wedding car. A guy I used to know had a Buick hearse, about a 72. Most women would not think a bridal hearse is funny, but I always thought at least the groom should ride in one.
There used to be a company in Indianapolis that rented out an old hearse with a gigantic fiberglass chicken mounted on top. Later versions of the car affixed the chicken to a limo. I have not seen a chicken hearse in a long time, but the things were pretty popular for big parties.
Add me to the list…..although I drove one for pleasure and not pain….er work. My first professional car was a 69 Cadillac Hess&Eisenhardt ambulance. IIRC it had a wheelbase of 150″, yes it was longgggggg! To whom ever was asking what the weight is, my meat wagon was a tad over 7,000Ib and that was with a high roof and full glass sides. I’m guessing a medium roof hearse would be a little less than that. Bought that in 81 to haul my motorcycles around in. Someday I’ll write about all of the trouble I used to get in with it. My second professional was an 82 LeSabre Superior hearse. Built on a stretched wagon chassis. IIRC the wheelbase was around 129″. Just a tad shorter than a Suburban. It had the normal wagon rear doors instead of stretched doors like most hearses used. In retrospect I’d say it was a cheap base model for lack of a better description. You know a low mileage hearse is cheaper than a average mile wagon. I used it to haul around the race cars for a long time until the coachwork started to go to hell. I hot rodded this Buick by swapping out the low-po Olds 307 with a Buick 455 out of a 70 Duece&aQuarter I had parted out. Backed by a THM200-4R OD trans and a 3.73 rear axle from an old funeral limo I had found in the boneyard. I used to loan it out to my dad on 10/31 as he had a split level house built on a hill and corner lot with both an upper and lower driveway and garage. The kids would have to navigate a torture maze built on the lower drive until they reached the hearse which was parked in the garage with the rear hatch open. The garage was decorated like a dungeon. Some of those poor kids just about pee’d their pants by the time they got to grab some candy. His house was always the highlight of the neighborhood. Oh did I say he used to build neon lights and signs so you can imagine the special F/X this had on his ruse. I’m going to try and find some pics of this to post. This was a good 15 years ago as my father has since retired and sold that house and stopped bending neon. Recently I was looking for a new set of wheels. I stumbled upon a 96 Fleetwood built by S&S IIRC. It was immaculate with about 90K on the clock. And only $4900.00! I’m still kicking myself for passing it up.
How much does it weigh?
Alot. Really alot. Imagine if a regular DeVille was skirting with nearly 5000lbs, these were even bigger, with a huge custom body and a longer factory supplied long wheel base chassis.
The Colonade tailights are part of the package, unlike today, where they carve up a complete sedan to make a hearse, the old commercial chassis was shipped naked from the factory with all the extra parts in a crate strapped to the chassis.
It was fascinating to see the bits & pieces of factory GM parts that the coachbuilders used (basically, as much as they could, due to their low production numbers that made specialty parts very expensive) – everything from interior & exterior door handles, taillights (of course), bumper ends (on my 1969, the middle section of the rear bumper was custom but the end caps were stock GM) and oh yes, the rear fender skirts too!
The interiors are very plain too when compared to a standard Cadillac, crank windows, base spartan door panels with GM truck harware, plain bench seat, some of these even have a radio delete plate, in a Cadillac. After the 1977 downsized Cadillacs they started using regular Cadillac sedan door panels in hearses, but before that, they are more like a truck than a Cadillac.
That’s probably a good choice – going for the cheaper appointments.
The only paying customer…ain’t gonna be in a position to complain…
It is interesting to see the variation in hearses. The other week I passed a funeral in progress at a cemetery where the hearse was a Mercedes-Benz Vito van with fully-glazed sides, I hadn’t seen one like that before. It looked similar to this:
http://ipocars.com/imgs/a/f/n/r/v/mercedes_benz__vito_112_cdi_hearse__hearse_climate_2002_3_lgw.jpg
Your robotics club is FRC (FIRST Robotics Championship), right?
Yes the club I mentor that took part in this competes in FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Though I also mentor a FLL (FIRST Lego League) Team and work for FIRST as the Senior Mentor for Washington State supporting teams in all programs including JrFLL and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge)
How well do the FLL & FRC teams you mentor perform at the qualifying competition, state competition, and possibly world competitions?
Well the FLL teams just started this season so that is yet to be seen. In the case of the FRC team we made it to world championships in 2 out of the 4 years I’ve been associated with the team and made it to the quarter finals in our division both years. The other seasons we made it to either the quarter or semi-finals at all of the regional events we attended.
Is this the first year you’ve mentored any teams other than FRC or not?
Yes this is the first year of mentoring other than FRC teams.
Although only 12 at the time, I can still vividly recall JFK’s casket being loaded into a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville Navy ambulance at Andrews AFB after Air Force One’s return from Dallas on that fateful day. Jackie Kennedy and RFK also rode along. I sometimes wondered what happened to that historic Pontiac and about a year ago heard that it was offerred for sale through Barrett-Jackson. Recall that there was some controversy over whether it was indeed THAT vehicle and Barrett-Jackson eventually backed away from any such claim.
The one advertised for sale was a well-constructed fake (most likely it was the same one used in one or more movies). The original was destroyed in the 1980s by orders of the family and there is photographic evidence to prove this.
I owned and drove many hearses when I owned funeral homes. It’s quite an experience to drive one of these big cars (and to make an emergency stop in one).
I also owned a 1973 Pontiac Granville hearse with an extension table and a “sport” steering wheel, a 1972 short-body Oldsmobile, and many, many other cars through the years, including a 1988 Cadillac FWD hearse that I used as a back-up car until 2010.
My favorite to own (style-wise) was a 1977 Cadillac that looked like the hearse used in the movie “All That Jazz”. It was the only really good-looking hearse I ever saw manufactured, as it had art-deco landau bars and the styling was crisp and sharp and it looked good from every angle, unlike today’s hearses.
These cars drive like a boat, and cost as much as a boat to operate. I can’t imagine why anyone would want one as a daily driver, but I sold all of my former hearses to members of the public.
Got any pics of the Pontiac? What type of sport steering wheel? (I’m a ’73 Pontiac addict).
From what I recall the hearse from “All that Jazz” was a 71-72 Pontiac.
The comments on LT tires being a necessity reminds me of a neighbor who was trying to sell a 63 Cadillac sedan a few years back. When he got it running and put tires on it, it ended up with 4 Pep Boys Scrambler LT tires on it. I didn’t even seriously look at the car because it had a nice habit of leaving large quantities of transmission fluid in his driveway. He also had an inflated opinion of it’s value.
5,000 pounds of road-hugging weight.
Bought my 69 Ambulance from the local VFD. And it to came with LT tires..snow tires on top of that. With all the torque that 472 put out it would smoke the tires with no effort. Well Paul has the “I smoked a Z/28 in a drag race” story with his M-B, I can truely say “I smoked a Z/28 in a drag race” too. Back in 82 when the new 165HP Z/28 hit the showrooms I was on my way home when the GM at my dealership pulled up next to me at a red light in our very first CFI Z/28. It of course was an Auto. Anyway on the green he goosed it and got a car length on me before I figured out he wanted to race. So I hit the Go pedal and put down a single long black stripe all the way into second before I started pulling on him. By than he was 4 maybe 5 lengths out front. I passed him doing close to 80MPH after about an eight of a mile I figure. Must have been my 2.90 gears out back. Good thing front disc brakes were standard by 1969.(comment from the 67 ElDo DS thread)
Factoid: Cadillac considered the Commercial Chassis to be a truck. Sometimes when reading production figures you might see the term Cadillac Truck.
Ha ha ha! Excellent story! I used to do the same thing in my 1969 – I broke the LH side pillow block (non-safety-type, the ones that GM got sued over) engine mount (exhaust manifold catching the frame saved me) while racing a 1980s Mopar FWD car (can’t remember who won).
Driving around on a college campus, I would often break the RR tire loose at an intersection, and it was always amusing to watch the confused looks on people’s faces as they tried to figure out which car did it!