(first posted 10/31/2015) It’s become a Halloween tradition to have a hearse for your ghoulish CC viewing pleasure, and I killed myself trying to find an appropriate one. Will this do?
I’m hardly the one to have the final word on the subject, but it seems to me that Lincolns were decidedly less common in this role than Cadillacs. Is there an explanation for that, other than the residual magic of the Cadillac brand on the older generations? If I can’t have a Cadillac, let me at least ride to my grave in one. And these Lincolns are so boxy, they literally look like a gaudy coffin on wheels. No thanks; I’d rather walk.
I’ll bet my soul that this is a Superior hearse, given their fondness for oversize landau bars. Deadly. The continuation of the shiny band over the extended roof is a nice touch, if you’re into reviewing hearses.
That bar looks like a malignant growth. And it reminds me a bit of the Grim Reaper’s scythe, but I suspect that’s not the intention.
Hearses are always driven by such clean and neat drivers, and hence have well-kept driver’s compartments; that is, until their new and inevitably youthful and insolent owners get a hold of them. I’m guessing this one changed ownership very recently.
I’m fond of the rollers in these rigs. This would be perfect for loading 2x10s, refrigerators, and sheets of plywood. In fact, an old hearse would make a rather perfect rig for a handyman or a DIY landlord like me. Plenty of room for the tools and whatever materials I might need to haul.
The more I think about it, this would make the perfect rig for landlording. It’s a bit intimidating, and with my two hell hounds on board, I doubt I’d ever have trouble getting tenants to pay rent on time. Just need to get a PA system under the hood up front that blasts RENT IS DUE! as I slowly drive by the various houses, with the dogs hanging out the window. Maybe I could finally learn to love these boxy Lincolns.
Nice clean example. I I’ve always wanted a hearse. My mother wouldn’t let me get one, and now my wife won’t. I always thought these could be converted into great camper vehicles.
Back around 1960 or so, when I was still a wee lad, my great-uncle Bill, in addition to his Packard daily driver, had a ’48 Buick hearse that he used to haul the family belongings up to their summer vacation cabin in northern Ontario. I remember the blue velvet carpeting in the back and playing around with the casket rollers. I’d (cue dramatic organ music) kill just for photos of those cars today, much less the vehicles themselves.
Oh, and here’s a hearse for which I do have a pic. Frankly, I wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing, ha ha ha.
I believe this is an S & S conversion from a Fleetwood chassis like my 1980 S & S Victoria .
Sadly , the TH400 tranny sprung a leak so it didn’t make it’s usual Haunted House showing , this year the house was in The Pacific Palisades .
-Nate
The Chevy truck wheels on that one are truly terrible. The coach lamp that looks like a little 3d lantern, on the other hand, I quite like.
A Lincoln hearse of this vintage has got to be a rarity.
With any luck, I have next year covered. One night a few weeks ago while moving our crap into the new house, I heard the intoxicating sounds of a old V8. Cutting through the darkness were four round headlights which provided just enough illumination to see the Cadillac crest resting on the black paint just above the grille. As it started its ascent up the hill, it was a hearse of about 1970 vintage. It’s parked at the end of the cul-de-sac and size wise is giving the new Suburban parked next to it some stiff competition.
Since it’s Halloween….my mother-in-law once asked a funeral director if he’s ever had a slow time and wished for an uptick in business. He didn’t know how to respond.
Theres one around here thats had the ute treatment but still retains that ugly bar over the roof its on the cohort if anyone wants to look.
These were never very common, but I do recall seeing one from time to time. These should have looked great as funeral coaches, but there was something awkward about them. (Truthfully, there was always something awkward about the 80-89 Lincoln sedans, too.) Looking at the picture that GGH06 shared, it seems like these Lincolns made do with the stock height for the greenhouse, where the Cadillacs got really tall side windows. Maybe that is a lot of the problem.
Hearses are such problematic old cars. Custom bodied, hand-built and rare. But also too long for most garages and they seldom pass the wife-test.
The really tall windows are called commercial glass. Not all Cadillac hearses had this type of glass.
Here’s a Caddy with standard glass:
http://s53.photobucket.com/user/ssawall/media/Limo/hearse/Hearseright.jpg.html
They look much better with the standard glass. This looks like an ’89 or ’90 model.
I read once that Henry Ford II was taken to his final resting place in a Cadillac as there was no Lincoln hearse available. You’d think if anyone had one of these it’d be the funeral home in Dearborn but I guess not…
Interesting. In Europe, particularly the north-western extremity of it, Chevy Caprices were hearses of choice. I guess, that people seeing a Capris wagon, be it a boxy 80ies one or the jellybeenish 90ies one, would instantly think of a hearse passing by, as they were hardly sold as private cars. They are getting rarer though, being replaced by custom-built Euro-alternatives, mostly Volvo’s and Mercs.
Coachbuilders like Huiskamp and Boonacker (both companies still exist) mostly used American cars to build hearses. What else to use in the post-war decades ?
Since we’re talking Lincoln here, below a 1948 Lincoln hearse built by Boonacker from Haarlem.
(photo courtesy of Tap Rouwvervoer)
More classic hearses: http://www.tap-rouwvervoer.nl/fotoarchief/
The firm Tap is not longer in buisines it stops on December 2017. On the site Dave’s classic limousine;s are more pictures from cars from Tap build by Boonacker
In all the years (1950-1993) Boonacker build arounr 70 till 80 cars incl Funeral cars
Later by Remetz around the 20 Mercedes 6 door cars
Remetz hase stop in June 2018
The only hearse builder is Huiskamp Winterswijk (have a site)
Theo Tap / Job Tap
Side view.
That looks royal. And it’s huge! Boonacker still seems to be in existence, no hearses though: http://www.boonacker.eu/. Their English is awfull though, but the Russian and Arab nouveau riche placing their orders probably won’t even notice. Not sure what the advantages of such a tiny-series coach-builder are over a larger, non-Dutch one. Hard to believe that such a small scale is worth the hazzle and cost involved in designing a stretchie.
Remember that once our country was littered with independent coachbuilders. Often working locally.
Hearses, limousines, ambulances, truck cabs, truck bodies, buses, all sorts of one-off conversions, etc.
In the late fifties we still had at least 15 busbuilders, to give you an impression.
Not familiar with coach builders (too young for that I guess) but I do remember the rumbling Den Oudsten coaches rolling around cities and the adjacent countryside. The Dutch king’s care is said to be a Dutch stretch conversion too. A Boonacker or something else?
RemetzCar (also from the Netherlands) built the King’s Audi.
A old hearse like this would be the perfect vehicle for triathlons too – get 2-3 bikes and kayaks into one no problem, and initimidate/ unsettle your competitors as well as a bonus! Comfortable to drive home in after the event too, and at a pinch could sleep in it as well. An old 60’s-70’s Cadillac hearse or similar painted up and suitably accessorised – me and a couple of friends, competing as the Team Undead 🙂
Riding in a hearse will be the last thing i do.
I wonder if one of the reasons why Cadillacs are much more plentiful as heases than any other car is/was they had a limousine model “on the books” far longer than their competitors? (No pun intended.)
When Cadillac went (temporarily) to FWD, it seemed like Lincoln was finally poised to overtake them…at least in the funeral car business. Too bad it just didn’t happen.
For many years, Cadillac offered what was called a “commercial chassis” designed specifically for conversion to ambulances or hearses. The commercial chassis was substantially longer than the limousine chassis.
The rent collection vehicle sounds like a great idea!
Whiteaker’s own Lefty bought this Lincoln a year or so ago. Anyone who spends any time at Sam Bond’s knows who he is. (Long curly gray hair, tats, leather, hook for a right arm.)
My band wants to borrow his rig for gig pictures.
Hell, we have a gig tonight at Cornucopia. I’ll look him up!
Neat that they got it registered as a “pickup truck” based on the plates.
I’d rather drive this with a fresh stiff riding in back than anything that Lincoln is building now.
I would say this surprises me, but I would imagine there have been hearses from all forms of luxury makes at one point. If I recall correctly, didn’t Buick used to build and sell hearses for the Canadian market at some point? Someone can easily confirm if I’m right, or dispute me if I’m wrong.
Although there is one advantage I can see to driving a Hearse, nobody will mess with you in traffic. I imagine people would be pretty scared, knowing you can haul them to the morgue if they’re in a pretty bad accident.
Eureka built Buicks and Oldsmobiles in the 80s, Superior built some Buicks in that era too. Superior also built Pontiacs in the 60s. Cotner-Bevington built Oldsmobiles from the late 50s till the mid 70s…that Olds 455 made for a strong-running car.
If you go back far enough, there were Studebaker coaches, and everything else imaginable. Henney coaches on Packard structures were probably the creme de la creme until they went belly-up in the early 50s.
I attended this very sad occasion a couple of weeks ago http://www.times.co.nz/news/farewell-my-sunshine.html The hearse was highly appropriate and a welcome distraction
I believe a big part of the popularity of Cadillac hearses was that they offered a commercial chassis, which was essentially based on the series 75 factory limo. This commercial chassis lasted until 1984, then using a 144″ wheelbase and the 368 Cadillac V8. In 1985, the new downsized Fleetwood introduced a long wheelbase FWD commercial chassis. Funeral homes didn’t take well to the new FWD chassis so builders continued to use RWD Cadillac Broughams using the cut and stretch method like the limos of that era. I believe the FWD commercial Chassis lasted until 1992. I know that the 1993-96 Cadillacs did offer some sort of commercial chassis, sans the long wheelbase and it came with heavy duty components such as a 14 bolt rear axle. Lincoln on the other hand didn’t really seem to cater to this market, although they did capture the limo market.
I have a family friend who used to be in a band in the 60’s and 70’s. He bought a 1958 Cadillac hearse to use as a band car to carry all the equipment and said it worked well for that purpose. He always said he wanted to redirect a funeral through a drive-through with that car, but never actual did.
And Paul, I believe you are correct. That looks like a Superior Renaissance coach.
Cadillac has also always had vertical tail lights which made the swing out door of a hearse or ambulance very easy to place between them. If they ventured into horizontal tail lights it was always on non commercial models. It is said that in 1961, when they varied from this formula, the complaints from the conversion companies pushed them to go vertical for 1962. It’s tough to believe, but if anyone could change course that fast in those years, it would have been GM.
Not to mention Lincolns were unibodies until 1980, which the “Big 3” at the time (Superior, S&S and Miller-Meteor) had never really messed with. (unless you count the Secret Service Lincolns built by S&S parent Hess & Eisenhardt)
No, the 1970-79 Lincoln Continentals were body on frame.
I stand corrected. Damn that Negra Modelo! 🙂
No more commercial glass Cadillacs either…apparently GM won’t certify a coachbuilder who modifies the windshield pillars because of all the airbags in newer cars. The taller commercial glass and reduced tumblehome really help the proportions of a coach, especially from the front 3/4 view, because the standard glass curves in too much, so the sides of the car have to flare out toward the back and it looks awful.
80s Lincolns were SO boxy, adding a box on the back just accentuated the effect. The company I work for uses a couple of late model Cadillac coaches, but the little Chrysler Town & Country conversions get a lot of work too…vinyl top, landau bars, stainless steel floor insert with rollers, and voila, you have a workable mini-coach.
Pretty cool! Sort of like the ultimate send-off for soccer moms everywhere.
I’m pretty sure the new Cadillac coaches on the commercial/coachbuilder chassis still use 8-lug wheels and upgraded undercarriage & cooling parts. GM actually puts a lot of effort into what amounts to a really small market. I don’t know nearly as much about what Ford does with vehicles destined to become hearses or limousines.
Don’t know about the MKT, but I do know the livery/conversion packages Ford had for the later Town Cars had a lot of P71 bits in them.
It’s a little surprising to me just how much of a stranglehold Cadillac had on this market until recently. I don’t think I’ve seen an XTS hearse (yet) but the late 90’s until recent Deville/DTS still seemed to be the basis of choice for hearses as opposed to the Town Car. On the flip side of the coin, Town Car stretch limos have always been a dime a dozen, where one rarely sees Cadillac stretch limousines post 1996. Cadillac sedan, anyway–there are quite a number of streched Escalades rolling around though.
I have seen several XTS coaches, and I am NOT a fan. The proportions are even worse than the Lincoln MKT-based ones. Add wavy fiberglass doors and bodysides, flimsy construction, and the whole thing reeks of cost-cutting. The doors don’t sound or feel quite right when closed against the striker, I can’t imagine how they will feel after 100k miles and a couple of thousand funerals.
It makes me wonder why the hearse chassis wasn’t switched years ago to the Escalade EXT. Give it the same treatment as a minivan hearse and you have a well-proportioned, rugged (enough to push a snowplow in the funeral home lot, being a 4wd half-ton pickup chassis) coach.
Really, I’ve thought since the first secondgen I ever saw was black that the Escalade looks like a hearse anyway.
The use of a hearse for landlording sounds great-get a ’48 Lincoln hearse painted Darth Vader Black, put some speakers on it playing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor with a couple of Rotties and you’d have those renters paying up in no time.
To be fair, between being transported in a hearse and walking, no matter what the hearse is I’m picking walking every time.
If you have to walk to your own burial, shouldn’t you use an Aztek instead? They were experienced with that.
The landau bars help to visually break up the C pillar from Hell.
Lefty still has this Lincoln. I see it regularly.
My younger brother had a Ford flavoured funeral Ford emblazoned on the box a Ford hearse led to the cemetary by one of his mates in my brothers project car finally running and driving while they buried him his mate did figure 8 burouts in the best bogan blak (matt black) 351 XE Fairmont to send him off properly, he was killed in his FPV XR8 Falcon so it was a Ford event all round.
So much fear of the hearse .
I rather liked my 1980 Cadillac S & S Victoria hearse, it was smooth and comfy, the AC worked great and it made a good shop truck and camping vehicle .
Too darn big and thirsty too so I gave it away , I remember old mostly Caddy hearses on the farm in the 1960’s, wish I could have saved the ’49 .
-Nate
My sister went on a date with a guy who drove a hearse. He had the back filled with flowers. He asked her to get in the back and lay real still. She ran like hell and called me to come pick her up. That seriously happened and is not a joke.
Taken in Oct. 2017 in a small Texas town – still in service.
I’m sure someone here will know why some are silver ? .
My S & S was silver when new, during it’s life as a movie car it was re sprayed black .
-Nate
When cars came in hundreds of colors, silver as well as black was considered to be an elegant, tasteful, expensive, dignified, and upscale color on prestigious cars such as Cadillac and Lincoln.
Today’s cars are mostly silver. My thinking for this, is that today’s cars have no chrome on them, and silver (being a sort of chrome), gives the car a more expensive look. Just imagine any luxury car of today, like a Lexus, in a color of the past, like a turquoise or rose color for example. The car would look awful and rather cheap – with all color and no chrome. Silver sort of hides the lack of chrome.
Thanx Bill ;
German cars of which I am foolishly fond, tend to have silver as a common color dating back to the 1950’s, I hate it .
Give me a bewildering palette of pastels please .
-Nate
Belongs in the driveway of the character Claire in Six Feet Under. Right next to her Cadillac hearse.