That stretched Olds yesterday was just sad; but finding this really perked me up. Wow; never seen anything quite like this before. Sure, plenty of Chevy sedans were stretched in their day, but a fastback Fleetline? Sign me up.
Vintage Ad: 1950 Chevrolet Fleetline Fastback Limo-Airport Bus – Now That’s More Like It
– Posted on March 22, 2021
Looks cool! The only problem I see is with the engine. Not much power even in the standard Chevy let alone carrying the extra weight of six additional passengers. I’ve never seen one on the road.
I would imagine the performance was best described as “leisurely” or “dignified.”
With gearing all things were possible. Except using it as a combination car. It’ll be fine at funeral speeds as long as there’s a low enough rear end so the driver doesn’t need to excessively slip the clutch, but hopefully there’s a Caddy around for ambulance runs.
They used the same basic truck engine, at 302 ci, and about 160 hp, in the huge GM Futureliner rigs. It was hooked up to a Hydromatic transmission. At 12 tons, 0-60 was only a dream.
Not much power? Plenty, for even much bigger loads.
Yes, Chevy OHV Sixes usually had more HP than same year Ford Flathead V8’s…
Realize Chevy OHV Sixes usually had more HP than same year Ford Flathead V8’s…
Back before automakers realized dead people wanted their Last Ride to be in a Cadillac or Lincoln…
Most of the early 8-door limousines like this one, were typically used, not for picking up people at their homes & taking them to the airport, but to take airplane passengers from the terminal gate [at ground level], to the actual airplane, where they climbed the portable stairway to the airplane’s entry door. This was usually the case for larger commercial airports like those in the New York City area.
These older 8-door [or 6-door] vehicles basically spent most of their lives running back and forth between a terminal, and airplanes that were often located too far away for the passengers to walk.
Note that this limo does not have the big “tub” on the roof, commonly found on later [late ’50s and newer] 8-door cars, notably built by the industry leader Armbruster-Stageway of Ft Smith, Arkansas.
As commercial air flight became popular, and the larger airport terminals created specific airplane gates with short walks from the gate to the plane [and later by using enclosed ramps], the role of the 8 door limos changed to a vehicle tasked with picking up passengers at either a fixed location like a train station, or at passengers homes, depositing passengers at the airport entrance.
Unlike the previous “terminal to plane” use, where the luggage was already loaded onto the plane, this new task required a large place to put luggage for up to 12 passengers. A regular station wagon didn’t have the room.
Armbruster-Stageway had been spending a large amount of labor finishing the roofs of the cars they stretched. In searching for a way to provide luggage space, they found if they created luggage storage on the roof, and covered the storage space with canvas, they had the needed luggage space. In addition, because the roof area no longer required so much labor to make it look pretty, the company saved money.
The few early 8-door Stageway cars I’ve had, all used long wooden 2″ X 10″ beams down each side, and in the center were wooden rub rails to keep the luggage off the steel body. The rub rails also allowed rain water to run underneath the luggage and out the back. My cars no longer had the canvas covering, but the attaching points were there.
When I found my 1948 Stageway 8-door back in the late 1970s, those 2 top 2X10 rails were terribly rotted, so I simply removed them. I quickly discovered that they were a necessary body support on each side. Once I installed new 2X10 beams, I could actually open the middle doors. Sadly this car had been allowed to sit for too long, and the unfinished roof seam’s old sealer had cracked and allowed water to gain entry into the inner body, where all the basic body extensions were made of white ash, and also rotten. It was when one of the doors fell off that I finally took the car to the scrapyard, as no one wanted it back then.
I’ve attached a photo of a new 1940 Packard 8-door limo [probably stretched by Henney Body Co.] posed in front of a new airplane [DC-3?]
Wow, this is a bit of Indiana vehicle history that is completely new to me. There is a nice writeup on the company at coachbuilt.com, and says that it survived into the 1970s after taking over Flxible’s professional vehicle business in the mid 60s.
Early on they specialized in Chevrolet and Pontiac professional cars, which were less expensive. That Fleetline makes for a fetching limo. (sorry 🙂 )
Good one! Even if you beat me to posting it.
🙂
The Flxible bus only had 150HP from a Buick straight eight I believe – and that was a 37ft bus and how many passengers? Four or five speed manual. Can’t remember which.
How ’bout that torque-tube and driveshaft rework?
Hoping the conversion also included an Olds or Cadillac V8 engine and 4 speed Hydramatic automatic transmission.
A standard Chevy 6 cylinder/Powerglide powertrain could barely move a normal Chevy; must less a heavier, stretched model loaded down with passengers and their luggage.
Let’s just hope there’s no hills on the way to and from the airport.
Although the 92- and 105-hp Chevy sixes moved heavy duty trucks of that era with the right gearing. Just not particularly quickly.
Chevy OHV Sixes usually had more HP than same year Ford Flathead V8’s…
Checking the production numbers, the fastback Fleetline four door sedans were about half as popular as the notchback Styleline. What to do with excess stocks of Fleetline stampings? Cut a favorable deal with commercial car builders to take the slower-selling cars for conversion to stageline and airport buses. that would drain off some of the excess, peddle the rest to government motor pools, other commercial users…cheap.
In can see the Chevy working to move just people around, but it would not work as an airport car. Their is not enough luggage room. The airport cars I remember as a kid were Checker wagons, with 4 doors on each side.
Roof rack, yet to be added.
There was at least one Dodge Coronet limo built as well, I think a 1950 or 1951 model. It had glass panels in the roof for great views.
The Knightstown newspaper seems to mention the firm’s softball team more than business doings—-apparently 35-40 employees. This is early 1951, and I find it charming:
I noticed that too when looking into this firm. Given their softball team’s success, I bet skills on the diamond were a requirement to work there!
Looks like Mr. Perry, National Body’s owner, was a native of Knightstown who had worked at body shops there when he was younger, and then elsewhere in Indiana later on. He returned to his hometown to start this company in the mid-1940s to start this company.
Here’s a feature of some of National Body’s products from 1948… the occasion was that several of these cars were being shown at a Chevrolet Accessories exhibit in Chicago:
The Kopper Kettle is still in business and is known for family style fried chicken dinners. It dates back to the mid 1920s. It is a definite throwback.
Forgot the old postcard.
“After dinner the rest of the evening was spent playing euchre with each couple present receiving an award.”
That is charming, does anyone play Euchre anymore? I had always thought it was an upper mid-west game.
It is still fairly popular in Central Indiana.
Not as long, but this one’s an ongoing project.
A structural roof rack, perhaps ? In compression; chassis frame in tension. Bingo—almost as good as a space frame ?
Love the car, however it’s structured and powered . . .!
Back in the 1970s a former roommate had, in his oddball collection, a 1953 Pontiac sedan delivery that had about a 50″ stretch to the wheelbase and a 6″ taller roofline, Inside this 5 door [2 doors per side and the rear door] all the surfaces were stainless steel, and there were no side windows on the rear side doors or quarters, but the rear door had the regular sedan delivery window. The blanked rear quarters also had a large cast aluminum wreath in the middle of the panels. While it wasn’t marked as to who built it, we think it was a “National Servette” service car, and we figured the car was originally used for “first removals” and as a flower car to carry items to/from the cemetery. Below is a photo of a factory photo of a Servette car.
My roommate and I spent several years trying to purchase a nearby 1953 Pontiac National hearse, this was one of the very few extra long versions with the 2 part rear door windows. The car sat next to an older house in poor condition, but the owner would not even consider an offer, it wasn’t for sale. The last time I checked on the car, it was gone, the lawn and house cleaned up, and a “for sale” sign planted out front. I called around to local junkyards, but none had seen it.
Here’s an example of what it looked like when new [from the internet]:
whoops, the photo didn’t go thru, let’s try again