Attention: If any reader (especially younger ones or those like me) has the fear towards skulls or skeletons, it’s recommended not to read this post on your own or skip all the photos with assistance, as the graphics can be frightening or disturbing. I still have the vivid memory of the fear towards those skeletons and it:
1) Prevents me from playing Nepal track in NFS2 SE as there are four skulls with red eyes in its menu ( skulls were replaced in this example )
2) I skipped my biology homework in the sections where human skeletons were present, and I stapled those pages together thus the teacher quite frustrated for that,
3) I aborted the learning of drawing as I couldn’t handle the stress of staring at the skulls right in front of me.
If the fear towards skulls is not present for those keep reading, feel free to see the photos attached.
Hearse cruise started at Gaylord, Michigan on May 23rd, 2015 this year. On 22nd, the hearses were shown in Gaylord downtown with registration and blessing. On Saturday, the cruise went from Gaylord to Traverse City, with stops at Mancelona and Kalkaska. As I only arrived late in Gaylord on Friday night with an oversleep on lazy Saturday, I missed the beginning of the show. It didn’t take me great effort to catch the big cruisers with vinyl roofs on the other hand, and I eventually saw them in downtown Kalkaska with few spotting on the early departure of several older models on the way. ( a mid ’60s Cadillac hearse on main street in Gaylord for example, and two more in Mancelona )
A hearse/ambulance from Pontiac, Mi catches some attention, and it looks quite distinctive among more formal looking hearses, and I saw it earlier on the side of US-24 in Waterford, Mi where many car nuts show up ( a Peugeot 505 SW showed up there several months ago, and a 505 sedan popped up last Friday.)
It’s one of the best kept hearses in this cruise. Many hearses used in rust belt have corrosion here and there and funeral houses tried their best to make them look presentable, and usually by the time it’s sold off, the rust would be far in its way.
Seat belts can provide the most fundamental and important protection to the drivers and passengers alike with no exception. 
This Buick Roadmaster wears a front clip from sedan other than station wagons, which is slightly uncommon. 
And the trailer is made from a Buick Electra. I do remember seeing an Electra in the similar shade last year in Gaylord, I wonder if that one was cut into this? This 50% Buick is pulled by a 100% Buick.
Summer time in northern Michigan is enjoyable to anyone sitting on the chair enjoying the sunshine. 
Cadillac hood ornament is temporarily replaced by a skull.
I recognize this person(?) sitting on the chair. Unlike possibly his/her younger sibling taking a ride on the front row in the Roadmaster this year, he/she remains sitting by a C-Body Cadillac.
A very nice dress up with little flags and white wall tires and it has a nice mist green. 
The following three photos were taken last year in downtown Gaylord.
As I recall, it’s a new unit built by a coachbuilder with the intention of providing a classic looking with the necessary reliability of newer vehicles in a hearse. 
Pet doggy stayed between presumably barking at the people walking by, and someone was enjoying his Coke on chair next to a C-Body Cadillac.
A distant participant in Fleetwood.
Not really bothered what my last ride will be. To be remembered is enough.
I never understood why so many are bothered by dead people. It’s the live ones that you have to worry about.
I agree. What can the deceased do? They’re dead! What’s there to be afraid of?
Jason ;
No , they cannot really hurt you but in truth , they begin to smell pretty bad in short order , even at The Morgue .
I wish I didn’t know these things but that’s life .
-Nate
This looks like fun , very whimsical .
I’ll try to find a pic of the 1980 Cadillac S & S Victoria Hearse I saved from the junk yard and post it up , not all nice like these , it’s a working shop truck now .
-Nate
Give me the Professional Car Society over the
Goths“hearse clubs” any day. The PCS treats these cars with the same dignity and respect as those they once carried. No caskets, no skeletons, no flames or bored out Chevy big blocks.Normally I think restomods are cool as can be. “Pro Cars” are one area where I personally draw the line. These were rare to begin with and built with a lot of hand assembly. IMHO skulls and flames on a vintage S&S or Miller Meteor is like dropping a crate 350 and a Vintage Air system in a Dusenberg.
Yeah, I know. I misspelled Duesenberg!
I’ve kind of got mixed feelings on this. I’m not a big fan of the skull and flames look, either. On the other hand, the number of people who are interested in collecting hearses is pretty small – between the whole stigma of carrying dead people and the fact that they aren’t the most fun to drive – so I suspect a lot of these wouldn’t have been saved if not for the goths. I’d rather see them customized than crushed.
That’s my view on donks. Not my thing, but they have saved a lot of ’60s-’80s Detroit big iron from the crusher.
I have a totally different view on these. Combination of their coachbuilt nature and what they did in their service lives.
Anthony ~ ” the fact that they aren’t the most fun to drive ”
?? Have you never driven a hearse ?? I have plenty beginning in 1967 when we cut the roof off the rear 3/4 of a 1949 Cadillac Fisher Bodied Hearse to make a single horse carrier , retaining the rear suicide doors meant easy loading , you’d hold the halter in one hand and a bunch of hay in t’other and walk backwards , the horse would follow you right on in .
It was a nice riding , smooth & quiet running V-8 Flathead V8 , I think ’49 was close to the last year of Flathead V8’s in Caddies .
My 1980 Cadillac S & S Victoria Hearse is a terrific driver , it’s been to Death valley and lots of Road Rallies with my Vintage Sports Car Buddies too .
-Nate
1949 was the first year for Cadillac’s over head valve V8. I don’t know what they might have been doing with the commercial chassis though.
Thanx ~
I wasn’t sure when they switched to OHV but I do remember it being a FlatHead .
Back them in Rural New England it was just one more old $25 klunker no one wanted so it would up on a poor farm .
Sadly in the Fall of 1969 it refused to start one cold morning , no one wanted to do any tune up ( $15 in parts MAX back then) so it got towed off to that lower , always muddy field every Farm had to be left to rot with an amazing collection of oldies .
-Nate
Now this is what I call “going in style’
I think the displays are what makes the show. My brother and I found an old Caddy Hearse in a salvage yard back in 1982, he tried to buy it but the guy was under pressure from the DEQ to remove the vehicles. Made a bulk deal with a recycling company and it was ultimately crushed.
That’s a Limo not a hearse . looks to be a Fisher body with the jump seats and prolly an electric glass divider too .
In the early 1960’s I used to ride to School in one quite similar to this , it was just an old beat up third string transportation car back then .
Then I moved to New Hampshire and we used an old Hearse to transport the little kids to School every day .
Those were interesting times, the 1960’s .
Our current 1980 Cadillac hearse’s TH400 tranny pissed a bunch of ATF on the floor and I think my Brother will be asking me to fix the leak then sell it off , shouldn’t be expensive , has new tires and everything but the AC works , it was fine until we installed a new R4 compressor , it seized up on a hot day a week later =8-^ .
-Nate
Not sure what about the photo gives you the idea that this was a limo. This was in fact, a hearse. It had solid rear decking “with rollers” and a small jump seat. It was built by Superior. If the rear deck has rollers, then it was built to haul caskets. It was a Hearse.
O.K. , It looks like it has a trunk on my monitor .
So many times I hear ‘ I found a great old Hearse ! ‘ when I go to look at it it’s a Limo or worse , plain jane Sedan .
Sorry you couldn’t save it .
-Nate
The only problem with dying is you stay dead. there’s no coming back if you decide you don’t like it.
I thought about buying a 1996 Lincoln hearse a couple years ago. I didn’t need a whole lot of work but the boss (wife) said no way.
Large ex-American hearses are rather popular here in New Zealand with funeral parlours, hot rodders and low-riders. Some come in ex-Japan too – occasionally with spectacularly-carved buddhist temple rear ends.
The PCS is having their 2015 Show in Houston, Texas on June 13th. Check it out if you want to see unmolested Professional Cars in a dignified context.