When skimming through the Cohort this morning, this black hearse caught my eye. Ford’s Jet Tube taillights never fail to attract attention, but the overall look of this converted wagon, spotted Down Under by marlin_eightyseven, is somewhat off. I wouldn’t want a loved one transported to their final resting place in this thing; instead of looking somber like a proper hearse, it looks a bit happy.
The primary culprit is the extra lights at the back of those fins which look too festive for a funeral; for anyone familiar with the infamous smiling hearse driver in the 1976 film Burnt Offerings, the effect is quite similar.
The lack of a C-pillar also imparts a slightly distorted look to a shape already wearing bizarre growths on its flanks. I don’t think this car really wanted to wear fins. Oddly enough, in searching for a bit more info on the ’59 Ford, I found an old CC in which Paul expresses a somewhat similar sentiment about its proportions. Always nice to know you’re in good company.
Not that this Ford doesn’t make a great statement today–it’s a perfect piece of macabre kitsch. There’s something about black colored cars of the era with their chrome, fins and uprightness which is already imposing. The overall effect, combined with the playful use of a hearse as a daily driver, is pleasingly irreverent and for its role, the unintentional cheekiness of this car’s styling works very well. Judging by the look of the appropriately red interior, it gets many chances to show itself off to today’s traffic, where drivers are likely to give it a few extra inches of space. Don’t get too close or you’ll be next.
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1959 Mercury Monterey: A Little More Chrome Please?
Curbside Classic: 1960 Ford Starliner – Haste Makes Waste
Curbside Classic: 1959 Edsel “Eco-Boost”
CC Outtake: 1959 Mercury Monterey Two-Door Hardtop – Mercury Retrograde
I like it and if we’re in service still and I was planning a funeral I would book it!
Interesting comments about the lack of proportions of this ford in that linked article. Don’t think agree. Also,as I recall, the sedan of this model Ford won a European design award….for good proportions!
I love ’59 Fords, but this one’s proportions are definitely off. It’s the 4-door-to-2-door conversion. If it didn’t have those insanely long quarter windows and instead had flat body colored panels it would probably work.
1st: This is exciting to see american stuff as aussie version with right hand drive. 2nd: a friend of mine from our north-american car owners community had a 1980 Caprice Wagon Hearse. Unconverted yet, without any extra features like no power windows, no A/C…with low low miles, small 2 bbl carb and mint condition. Later he decided to convert it for daily use so he took out the funeral related features, had put in rear seat row which he got sourced from another parted out Caprice Wagon… Soon after he sold it for reasonable price…
The funeral director in my home town used a 57 Ford 2 door wagon for deliveries to the cemetary, I saw the car long after he’d retired at a garage getting a WOF it had 5,700 miles on it that was in 81, talk about lightly used,
There was a 59 wagon at a wrecking yard I part timed at it was a tow car big V8 auto but with no rear gate or lights from the write off shunt that determined its doom, I cant remember whether it had the orange Aussie mandated indicator lights making it OZ assembled or if it was a regular Canadian Ford assembled here.
Based on the white steering wheel I’d say Canadian. From the mid ’50s through the mid ’60s, all Canadian-built Fords, Mercurys and Edsels had white steering wheels regardless of trim level or color. It was most likely modified by an Australian coachbuilder.
I’m sure that magazine is titled “Health & Beauty,” but, given the circumstances, I can’t help but read it as “Death & Beauty.” Some young goth half in love with easeful death, perhaps.
The car doesn’t strike me as happy so much as it does a bit silly. It seems too exuberant with its 50’s styling to be doing such a solemn job. With a paint job you could pass it off as a two door station wagon.
What other choices would one have had in ’59? I give you This:
THAT’S Fifties exuberance 😀 !!!
*sigh*
-SO- beautiful .
-Nate
My first and worse car was a 1959 Ford. No matter what form it takes it still reminds me what a pos that Ford was.
59 Ford fan here.I like the underdog cars(Edsel,Ford Mk4 Zodiac,70 Dodge Superbee/Coronet).I follow 2 crap football teams(Blackpool & West Ham),my pets even an underdog (French Bulldog)
My eldest niece,a Goth would love this car.I’d have no problems in it being my last ride
I’m a life-long Cleveland Browns/Indians/Cavaliers fan… 50 years without a championship in this town… and yet I still love ’em. Edsels too 😀 .
This could also be a ’60 or ’61 Australian Fairlane. It was a recycled ’59 Ford from the U.S. but built in Canada as an incomplete knockdown. Final assembly was in Australia.
How, why and where did this car get built without a “C” pillar?
Is/was it a Ranchero or an Australian ute with a wagon roof grafted on?
The length of the doors looks like what Ford Australia used to do with Falcon utes – shorter doors on their cars than on contemporary American Rancheros.
I like it but I’d rather have a real American two door ’59 Ranch Wagon with proper length doors.
Wow, this is strange. You can see the breaks in the bright trim where the rear doors were. Welded and filled doors? Plus one really long piece of quarter glass. Seems like a lot of expense when Ford already made a 2 door wagon. Fascinating.
But the two-door wagon wasn’t available in this country. It was an easy job for the remaining coachbuilders to take a four-door wagon, weld and fill the door, install a long piece of glass and re-structure the load area for the new purpose.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/NA/Ford/1959_Ford/1959_Ford_Brochure_1/1959-Ford-10
Take a look at the attached link. It shows a two-door Ranch Wagon (and Custom) available for 1959 but admittedly the pillars are different than they are on this example..
BTW, really neat find!
I’m not a huge Ford fan, but this is a nice example of a survivor. Where is this? Judging by the license plate, it says Australia. Whereabouts? 🙂
Western Australia (by the plates), parked outside Fremantle Tech. (by the sign). All Aussies know Freo.
Amazing to hear so many comments on the long side glass and lack of pillars. Here in Australia hearses are commonly built with extra-long side glass. All the better for viewing the coffin and floral arrangements. Consider the old horse-drawn hearses with big windows on the side – this is the same style carried over to today.
Looks strange to American eyes given that most of our hearses are extended-length vehicles with four doors and blank side panels to hide the coffin from view. (Which invariably are decorated with giant landau bars, for reasons I cannot comprehend.)
If someone has flower arrangements they want to display “en route” there are flower cars for that purpose though they’re not common anymore.
I bet that hearse makes for an excellent 2-door wagon.
There’s an idea. buy a hearse, remove most of the vinyl roof off, put some glass on the sides and presto! Insta-awesome wagon
You’d think the body flex would break the rear quarter glass upon hitting the first pothole.
I doubt that it was built to be a hearse. Not tall enough for a coffin. More likely some clever customizer decided to make a Ranch Waaaaaaaaaaagon.
Or, since ranches are called Stations in Australia, it would just be a Station Waaaaaaaaaaaagon.
Funny. I am wondering if it is not a hearse, could it be a flower car like some funereal homes have used?
It looks like it was modified from a FOUR-door wagon at that!
The “Tank” Fairlanes, as they’re affectionately called, only came as four door sedans and four door wagons here. GM didn’t sell big wagons here, and the Chrysler Royal wagon looked even more inappropriate for a hearse. . Easy job to weld the back door shut and install a long piece of flat glass.
Most hearses here are built this way, although nowadays they have an opening half-door where the rear door would be to carry equipment used at the funeral.
There used to be two of these wagons dumped in a paddock just west of Lithgow near the Bathurst turn off.
VERY nice ! .
I like the lines and overall general look to it .
I was thinking more like a Coroner’s Carry Car but you said Aussies like Hearses like this so who knows ? .
You needn’t be a nitwit Goth to like the clean all business lines of a Hearse .
-Nate
Coroners used panel vans even having special extended bodies built Ive seen one of the two 65 HD Holden LB vans built for the purpose
Our local hearse was a 1966 Pontiac station wagon in dark maroon. I think it retained the four door configuration. Looked great, a lot of gravity and a bit gothic, which is how you want it.
I don’t think I can add anything to what Old Pete has said, the 1959 Ford was built here until replace by the 1963 model. It would be entirely practical for a funeral director to buy a hearse based on a locally-built model rather than imported Cadillacs etc that were very thin on the ground.
When I was growing up there were a pair of black 1965 or 66 Galaxie wagons running around town that I did wonder if hearse duty was in their past. They were 4-door wagons, and I don’t believe that was the case. The local funeral director had a GM B-body wagon hearse or two, that didn’t look any longer than standard – if it will take an 8′ sheet of ply a coffin will fit after all.
My aunt and uncle had a 59 Ranch Wagon, it was black, too. Some friends of my parents had a black 59 Mercury wagon. I’m sure the Mercury was a 4 door and think my uncle’s Ford was a 2 door. The Mercury was way too flashy for funeral duty while a Ranch Wagon was too devoid of chrome for funeral duty.
Too bad Australia didn’t get the 60 Ford wagon. My folks had a Belmont Blue 60 Country Sedan. The 60 Ford was so wide (read, imposing) that until laws were updated, it was illegal to drive a 60 in many states due to width restrictions. The garage in our nearly new house was barely wide enough for that 60 Ford while it’s “predecessor”, a 58 Chevy Brookwood fit with room to spare.
Many years back I looked a a rarity that was advertised in the local paper’s classifieds, a ’58 Edsel Ambulwagon. These were specially outfitted (by Superior IIRC) Villager wagons that were equipped with a fibreglass hinged rear door. This one was an extremely low mileage car at the time (IIRC around 17K) but had very rusty fenders. It was a dour solid black, and had been used by a local funeral home.
A Deadsel!
Here is a 1939 Mercury hearse from Geelong, showing an earlier example of the ‘typical’ hearse. It was built by a Geelong-based coachbuilder on a car from the Geelong Ford factory, and is still in use in Geelong today by special arrangement.
Learned something new on CC once again. Never realized Australia had these until 63. I remember the 59 Galaxie 2 door we had when I was just a toddler, but we didn’t have it for long. The doors are too short on this hearse, but it still looks nice with the long side glass and curved back window. The backup lamps were normally in the tailfins, the red lenses look a little strange. Cool find.