Old Hearses / HAMB Friendly or not?

Traditional, maybe not as a rod, but they had other uses. In the early 60's, my great grandfather had a couple Hearses, 51 and 53 Caddies, he used to haul horse feed from San Jose to Bay Meadows, and some Moonshine I just discovered. My Great Uncle used one to haul his surfboard to Santa Cruz, and also for the Family Camping trips. , One was painted white, the other was purple.

 

A personal fav!!!


Note: It is a '72 with '59 wingies...

 

everyone gets all freaky about a hearse. no one ever took there last breath in one, a hearse shows up when all the drama is done. now on the other hand nobody seems creeped out by a ambulance where people regulary suffer and pass away. your last ride in a hearse is a dignified and quiet ride. hearses get a bad rap. my father inlaw is a undertaker, and he is always wondering when I will get one. my nieces and nephews want me took get a short bus. guys at work think I need a tractor. father inlaw wants me to get a hearse. but it has to be black and a caddy. looks like I need to inherit some cash

 

The thing is: Ramblers were never used for traditional hot rods. I was there in the 50s and I was paying attention to the hotrods. I remember the guys who bought Ramblers. Dull Stodgy old men

 

I think that Sadd, Teague, and Bentley used a hearse as a push truck for their roadster when they drag raced it, with a fuel Chev...

 

My dad's CC used a 38 Buick Hearse for a push car back in the day. It would hold a lot of tools and the rollers were handy for loading and unloading gear. It was very ornate and had the full on custom curtains etc in the side viewing windows. I wish he would have kept it.

 

Whether you 're into them now or not, eventually most all of us will get into one.

 

I hear they are very roomy, but most who've ridden aren't talking. Parking is a bit tough though...

 

Good or bad....its the last vehicle we ride in!

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I love old hearses. I wouldn't mind building this..awesome coachwork on these old hearses.

 

Yeah, that was kind of my point.

 

+1. Covered more than once here.

Your own narrow viewpoint solely. There were several camper conversion companies that based products on commercial chassis vehicles once retired, for starters. Caddy Campers is arguably the most well known. HAMB's own renowned photographer Tom Davison used a '51 back in the '60s.



Countless other rodders used them as tow vehicles as well, like this '41 in CT.



Even more people have used them as daily drivers. Don't recall book offhand that came out in mid-'90s but there was a picture of Von Dutch himself seated in the back of his custom hearse "domicile". Would that not have been considered traditional? Heck here's a period St. Petersburg flower car repurposed.



Truth is, it comes down to where one looks or what aspects of hobby one pays attention to. There have been some very nice kustoms based off hearses, ambulances, and combinations that are not morbid nor tacky.

Poor humor attempt or ill informed. Take your pick.

 

Didn't Big Daddy travel in a hearse? Just stay away from the morbid side of death.

 

I've always wondered what it would look like if you took a 50's/60's Caddy Hearse and chop the top back down to stock height or maybe an inch under stock and make it look like a factory stock Caddy wagon.

Doc

 

This '72 Caddy is in my back yard. We were going to pull the 472 and scrap the rest, but nobody has had time to do that. We should just sell the whole thing if anybody is interested.

The 22 second video is worth the entertainment even if you're not in the market for big cubes or a dead sled.

 

Not a Hearse--but I once had a 1964 Caddy Ambulance. I was on my way to work one day at about 5am and got pulled over by the po-pos. They thought I was using it to steal BICYCLES!