A Henney Story

By Louis C. Farah

With Special thanks to Thomas A. McPherson.

The Henney Motor Company started life as a carriage and buggy builder in the late 1800’s. As the automobile began to take shape in the early part of the 20th Century, the company operated as the John W. Henney Company. Their first venture into the motorized funeral car began in 1916. Building on an assembled chassis with a six-cylinder Continental engine, Henney was located in Freeport, Illinois.

By the early 1920s, the Henney name was among America’s best known in the funeral car trade. In the decade that followed, the company produced limousine and sedan passenger cars to custom order, as well as a production run of 50 sport phaetons in the early 20s that were designed by Herman Earl. He later worked for Des Moines Casket Company, and finally ended up in Piqua, Ohio with the Meteor Motor Car Company where he worked for almost 25 years up to his retirement. The Henney passenger cars were, like the Henney hearses, powered by six-cylinder Continental or eight-cylinder Lycoming engines.

The funeral coaches built by Henney in 1926 coaches included stylish cycle fenders and shortened running boards with integral step plates beneath each door. Options included a choice of a single side-entrance attendant’s door or an extra-wide double side door that allowed easy access for a gurney or casket. More expensive coaches featured landau-bars, spot-lights and stylish Gordon spare tire covers and offered customers the choice of a Meritas-covered body or an all metal-skin body sprayed with Dupont’s new DUCO lacquer. The 1926 catalog displayed Henney’s popular 7-passenger landau sedan-ambulance as well as their new Light Six line which was designed to compete with the Mort and other low-priced coaches.

The name of the business was changed to the Henney Motor Company in 1927 and shortly thereafter John W. Henney Jr. sold his interest in the firm roughly a year before the stock market crash in 1929. During his absence, the Henney Motor Co. produced 100 taxicabs on stretched Model A Ford chassis as well as their normal professional car line. They also supplied 3-piece ash roof rails to Ford, who used the sub-assemblies on the 1929 Model A Fordor body framework.

From the late twenties until the adoption of the Packard chassis in 1937, Henney frequently mixed-n-matched chassis and engines from different manufacturers. Chassis used in varying amounts during this period included Stephens (one assembled in their factory using a Continental motor); Velie/Buick/Auburn (using Lycoming motors); Pierce Arrow/Reo (a special car marketed by National Casket); Pontiac economy model and the Oldsmobile Progress Model. In addition, they occasionally built a hearse or an ambulance on a chassis specified and/or supplied by the customer. This could have been a Cadillac, LaSalle, Rolls Royce, Lincoln, Cord and others.

In 1927, Henney introduced the NU-3-Way coach, a funeral car equipped with a three-way casket table patented by Los Angeles inventor, William H. Heise. Very similar to Eureka’s, the Heise table could be loaded from either side or from the rear. A bronze Heise tag can be found on the table framework of Henney’s 3-way coaches.

Mr. Henney was repelled by the way hearses had to be backed up to the curb for loading, which he thought was very undignified. The 3-way idea was developed by Heise, but Ed Richter perfected it. The 3-way feature added about $100.00 to the price of the car but Henney did very well with it. Henney was soon selling more than half the 3-ways in the industry, and they sold side-servicing equipment, including the mound, track and carrier to some of their competitors.

The Henney Deluxe line continued mostly unchanged as did their lower-priced Light-Six models which were easily distinguishable by their old-fashioned artillery wheels. Henney coaches were offered with either a leather-back landau roof or a plain painted metal roof treatment. As always, plain, frosted, leaded or combination frosted/leaded windows were available on all of their coaches.

In 1928 Henney was awarded a government contract to supply 23 ambulances to the United States Veterans Bureau (now the Veterans Administration) for use at their medical facilities. In the same year, the NU-3-Way funeral coach featured prominently in their print advertising. This side-loading coach featured a Heise casket table that extended out 36″ from either side of the vehicle and allowed easy loading and unloading of the casket. Previous side-loading coaches had small rollers inlaid into the floor that allowed bearers to slide the casket around. The Heise 3-way table allowed the casket to be firmly attached to the vehicle eliminating all chance of a mishap that could occur during inclement weather or on hilly streets. You could also load it from the rear if the coach was equipped with a back door.

The 1929 Henney line featured a re-designed chassis with swept front fenders plus a longer and lower body with incredibly wide front and rear doors specially designed to take full advantage of their Heise 3-way tables. Henney claimed that the wide pillar-less door opening could support over 1500 lbs. at its center. Heavy wrought-iron bracing placed within the strong ash-framing made it possible.

During that year, Henney launched what amounted to a smear campaign against Eureka, Sayers & Scovill, Meteor and Silver-Knightstown falsely accusing them of marketing side-servicing coaches built with bootleg casket tables. Ads that appeared in the nations funeral and mortuary magazines falsely stated that Henney was the exclusive licensee of the patented Heise casket table. In 1930 Eureka, Meteor and Sayers & Scovill filed suit against Henney and eventually won an injunction against them. In a year when they could ill afford it, Henney’s victims’ business suffered, while Henney’s prospered.

As a direct result of their attack on Eureka, Henney won a contract to supply REO-chassised coaches to the National Casket Company who had just canceled their contract with Kissel because Eureka supplied Kissel with their funeral coach bodies.

Having survived the stock market crash of 1929 with his cash reserves intact, John W. Henney Jr. easily regained control of the company in 1930 and soon conceived a high-priced luxury car similar to the L-29 of his good friend, Errett Lobban Cord. The magnificent convertible sedan that resulted was powered by a Lycoming straight-eight engine and set on Henney’s 137 wheelbase chassis. Only four examples were built and all were sold to Henney’s friends and large customers. 1930 and 1931 Henneys rode on a purpose-built chassis that closely resembled that of the auto industry’s style leader, Cadillac. Their ambulances were advertised as being completely equipped, and their NU-3-Way side-loading coaches were racking up sales at the expense of their competition. In addition to the frosted/leaded/beveled or plain rear quarter-window options, new interior window treatments were avail-able as well and included wicker window inserts, mini-blinds or airline-style draperies.

Henney offered the industry’s first electric-powered casket table in 1932 which was designed by William H. Heise, the designer of the original 3-way table. A centrally located motor was placed under the casket frame in a specially designed hump or “mound” that could be operated from either side of the vehicle using switches imbedded in the compartment walls. The “electric” option was available on select Henney and National-REO NU-3-Way coaches.

The company introduced beaver-tail styling to their coach bodies in 1933. By 1934 they had abandoned assembly of their own chassis and were building on Cadillac, Lincoln, Oldsmobile, Packard and Pierce-Arrow chassis. Less expensive models were built primarily on Oldsmobile chassis during the mid-1930s and were designated as Henney Progress coaches. Heise’s electric 3-way casket table was marketed as the “Elecdraulic” and was standard equipment on a few high-priced NU-3-Way coaches. The Henny Arrowline was introduced in 1934 and was built exclusively on Pierce-Arrow chassis. Unfortunately, Pierce-Arrow went bankrupt during the 1937-1938 model year, so Henney looked to Packard to furnish chassis for their high-priced coaches. By the end of 1935 Henney introduced the popular Henney 800 series that was built on a Packard 120A chassis.

The Funeral Auto Company of Louisville, Kentucky purchased eight identical Arrowline funeral coaches during 1936. Funeral Auto Co. were just one of the many funeral livery services across the country that rented out hearses and limousines to metropolitan funeral directors who either couldn’t afford to own one, or didn’t have the room to park these huge coaches at their place of business. As it is today, hearses are an extra-cost item in most funeral services and can be rented as needed by smaller funeral homes. In large cities like New York City, the cost of parking a large coach can quickly exceed its cost, so funeral and limousine livery services remain popular to this day. Henney also built a handful of 1935 and 1936 coaches on stretched Auburn chassis. Henny Arrowlines were built from 1934 to 1937.

By 1936 both Packard and General Motors were offering extended-wheelbase commercial chassis to the professional car industry. The Packard chassis was based on their successful 120 Series while General Motor’s were offered by their Buick, Cadillac, LaSalle and Oldsmobile divisions. Consequently all Henney coaches were built on purpose-built Oldsmobile and Packard commercial chassis from 1936 onward. 1937 was the final year for Henney Progress Oldsmobile coaches as Henney made a permanent switch to the Packard chassis in 1938 and would remain with them until their demise in 1954.

At the 1937 National Funeral Director’s Convention, Henney introduced a stream-lined flower car as well as a self-leveling suspension system that they called the Leveldraulic. The flower car was built on a Packard chassis, featured a collapsible convertible top and could be used as a first call car or to transport altars, chairs and other necessities to the home of the deceased or to the grave site. The complex Leveldraulic system used a number of electric motors and hydraulic pumps and actuators to assist in leveling the coach while the casket was being loaded or unloaded on hills and uneven road-ways. The manually operated system could also be used to level an uneven load and was available on both Henney funeral coaches and ambulances.

“Weather-Conditioner” air conditioning appeared on Henney ambulances for the first time in late 1938. Developed by their new partner Packard, the mechanical system included a huge evaporator, called a ‘cooling coil,’ which took up most of the equipment cabinet that separated the driver from the rear compartment. This cumbersome AC system lacked a compressor clutch and could only be controlled with the blower speed switch. The horsepower-sapping pump was on whenever the engine was running and the only way to turn it off was to remove the drive belt to the compressor. Packard started installing the system in on production Packards in 1939 advertising that purchasers would “Forget the heat this summer in the only air-conditioned car in the world”.

Late in 1939, Henney proclaimed that the current years production of 1200 vehicles was the largest number of funeral cars and ambulances ever produced by one company in a single year. To celebrate their record, a commemorative booklet titled “The Story of the 1200th Henney-Packard Produced during 1939″ was distributed to the firm’s distributors and employees. Another entitled “Program Of Progress” followed in 1940.

In that same year the company offered a Formal Limousine model. This limousine-style hearse featured art-deco metal shields featuring the owner’s name mounted on all three rear compartment doors. When equipped with Henney’s Leveldraulic suspension and Elecdraulic NU-3-Way casket table, this coach was the most technologically advanced hearse available this year. Long wheel-base airport limousines were in great demand during the late 1930s and Henney built a number of 8-door (4-doors per side) using extended-wheelbase Packard chassis.

They also introduced a Landaulet funeral coach this year that was its answer to the landau-style coaches offered by their competition. The Landaulet was a dedicated side-servicing coach and was available in town car or enclosed drive versions. Henney styling had evolved slowly but surely during the late 1930s and the Landaulet hearse featured a rather dramatic roofline complemented by its shortened side windows built exclusively for the Landaulet. It’s padded Bur-bank-covered top and large landau bar gave it the appearance of an expensive four-door convertible sedan. In Landau-let town cars, the divider panel was hinged in the middle, allowing the casket easy access to rear compartment when the driver’s seat was slid forward. Most other 1939 Henney coaches featured a more conventional rear roofline with an integral rear door.

Introduced in 1939, a very unusual “Super Formal” coach featured a slightly heart-shaped window that was used in place of the standard Henney side compartment glass. A picture exists that shows a 1939 Henney Super Formal Town Car Hearse on a Packard Super Eight chassis with a Manning nameplate on the front doors. The 1940 catalog shows a regular (non-town car) Super Formal Coach although no pictures of the vehicle exist and it may never have been built.

Henney flower cars were mildly redesigned in 1940 and were available painted, or with a Burbank-covered faux-convertible roof. Access to the casket compartment was through small side doors located behind the driver’s door or through the tailgate which had built-in casket rollers that matched those on the compartment floor. The height of the stainless steel flower deck was hydraulically adjustable so that different-sized floral tributes could be accommodated and a tonneau cover was included to cover the bed when not in use. Henney also manufactured a small number of sedan-ambulances using standard Packard limousines with a removable B-pillar that could accept a gurney through the passenger-side doors as well as a few multi-door airport limousines built using stretched sedan chassis. New this year was Henney’s graveside jukebox, the “Singing Chapel On Wheels”. A compact record player/amplifier installed under the right-side instrument panel, it included two remote speakers located under the hood and could provide music during the graveside ceremony.

Packard introduced their new stream-lined Clipper during the spring of 1941 just as Cadillac introduced their new redesigned Series 60 and 62 models. However the Clipper had to wait until the after the war before placed in service underneath Henney coaches. All pre-war 1940s Packard-Henney coaches were built using the older Series 120, 160 and 180 chassis although some Clipper-influenced styling made its way onto the older chassis by 1942. Henney was the largest professional car builder in the country yet only managed to produce 300 vehicles before the firm turned to war production work early in the year.
Civil Defense vehicles were in short supply at the start of the war and Henney filled the void with a number of attractive vehicles purpose-built for domestic service. Henney deserves credit for being the first professional-car manufacturer to produce a modern modular-styled ambulance body. Built on a Packard chassis, the extra-wide box-back ambulance included room for four patients and was painted with an art-deco paint scheme that integrated beautifully with the cross-shaped windows. Later versions included black-out trim and just like today’s retired modular ambulances, the boxy Civil Defense Henneys were popular as used work-trucks during the late Forties and early Fifties.

John W. Henney, owner of the Henney Motor Company, son and namesake of the firms founder, died in Freeport, Illinois on November 26, 1946 and the family sold the firm to C. Russell Feldmann, a millionaire businessman whose original claim to fame was 1927′s Transitone radio, one of the first units designed for mobile use exclusively for installation in an automobile. The Transitone was not only bulky, but costly ($150) and initial sales were well below expectations. However, by 1930 the radio’s bulk had been greatly reduced and sales had increased to the point where the radio giant Philco became interested in Feldmann’s Automobile Radio Corporation, purchasing it in December of 1930.

Feldmann gave Henney immediate access to large amounts of capital that was previously unavailable, strengthening their already healthy position in the industry as well as their relationship with Packard. The firm’s acquisition coincided with an agreement to manufacture Packard’s new 7-passenger limousine and 8-door 15-passenger airport limousines which were both in great demand immediately after the war. Production finally exceeded demand in mid-1947 and Henney re-tooled in preparation for production of their brand-new 1948 coaches that were unveiled at the 1947 National Funeral Director’s Convention. Contrary to popular belief, Henney only built Packard limousines for the 1946-47 model year. 1948-50 Packard limousines were built by Briggs as Henney was too busy building hearses and ambulances to do any extra contract work, even for Packard, an important business partner.

The 1946-47 Henney-Packard seven-passenger sedans were also sold as combination cars, built for use as either a conventional limousine, or a side-loading invalid car or sedan ambulance. The right front seat is removable and the passenger side B-pillar is designed to either stay on the car or come away with the door, enabling a wheeled cot to enter from the right side.

Henney’s all-new 1948 coaches were powered by a 160 horsepower straight-8 engine built on Packard’s new 158″ wheelbase commercial chassis. Packard’s 22nd series “inverted bathtub” styling was controversial and Henney’s prices were expensive, yet they produced close to 2,000 coaches in 1948 and were once again the largest professional car manufacturer in the world. In order to provide adequate interior headroom and maneuverability for the casket and gurney using the new Clipper bodies, Henney was forced to section the body in order to raise it by a couple of inches. A consequent extra row of teeth was also added to the bottom of the new egg crate grill, a similar system to that used by Flxible to match their coaches with the Buick chassis.

Funeral coaches were available with either NU-3-Way side-servicing or dedicated rear-loading versions. Ambulances, hearses and combination coaches were all available in either straight limousine styles or with a textured landau roof over the blanked-in rear quarter windows. Combination coaches were only available as rear-loaders, but could be changed from a funeral coach to an ambulance by simply snapping in the ambulance badge on the inside of the rear quarter windows, unfolding the attendant’s jump seat, and placing a removable Federal beacon on the roof. All of the pre-war options remained including air-conditioning, leveldraulic suspension, elecdraulic 3-way casket tables. and the “Singing Chapel On Wheels”. Ambulances could be ordered with an illuminated rooftop “ambulance” sign, pod-shaped warning lights and a choice of sirens.

Henney’s flower car was clearly the most beautiful of its brand-new 1948 professional cars. Standard equipment included a stainless-lined casket compartment as well as an all stainless flower deck topside. As with most other flower cars, a body-colored folded faux-cabriolet top was built onto the rear of the flower deck. A conservative-looking service car was also offered that used the limousine-style body with all the windows blanked-in.

In 1950, Henney was awarded a special contract to build a fleet of nine custom-built, long-wheelbase Lincoln Cosmopolitans for the Truman White House. The contract stipulated that the coaches be armored by Henney’s competitor, the Hess & Eisenhardt Company of Rossmoyne, Ohio, as they were the only armoring firm “approved” by the federal government.

Entering government service with the convertible that became the “bubbletop,” these armored Lincolns were primarily used during the Truman and Eisenhower years, and at least one survives. It is on display in the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Mr. Truman’s home town, Independence, Missouri.

A great influence on the postwar Henney designs was their designer, Richard Arbib. In the late 1930′s, Arbib began his career working with Harley Earl as a consultant to GM Styling. After a stint in WWII, his penchant and talent for car design brought Arbib to the Henney Auto-mobile Company. His creativity reached new levels with the beautiful 1951 Packard Caribbean and the beautiful 1951-1954 Henney-Packards professional cars. Henney converted a 1951 Packard 250 convertible into the Pan American show car for Packard to display at the 1952 New York Auto Show. It was an instant hit and eventually saw production as the Packard Caribbean from 1953-1954.

After an absence of four years, Packard reentered the long-wheelbase limousine business in 1953, offering a 149-inch wheelbase Eight-Passenger Sedan and a Corporate Limousine whose bodies were built by Henney. Only 150 were built in 1953, including 100 eight passenger sedans and 50 limousines. Even fewer were built for 1954, (65 sedans and 35 limos) and the limousine ended production that year.

Henney built a prototype Packard “Super Station Wagon” in 1953-54. Built using a long-wheelbase Packard professional car chassis and a Henney ambulance body, it included four center opening side doors, Henney’s distinctive curved rear quarter windows plus a fourth side window inserted into the C-pillar exclusive to the Super Station Wagons.

In 1953 and 1954 Henney offered a budget-priced short-wheelbase companion to their long wheelbase professional cars called the “Junior”. In order to keep down it’s price, the Junior’s chassis, unlike that of the Senior, was from the budget Packard series and the interior trim was made from cheaper materials. Henney was well into the production of the Junior before it realized that they were losing money on every Junior built and instituted a huge price increase that effectively killed the model. Total production of the appropriately-named Henney Junior’s totaled 500, 380 in 1953 and only 120 in 1954. A substantial number of the 1953 coaches were sold to the US Government at a loss, a fact that helped contribute to Henney’s already-poor financial picture.

The Junior was awkward-looking at best. A window between the side door and the rear quarter window would have helped the car’s looks immensely. An-other factor that hurt the car was its rear compartment length, which looked good measured at the floor, but translated into a less than ideal length at the beltline because of the angle of the rear of the body and the amount of floor length that ran under the top of the front seatback.

Stiff competition from emerging budget coach producers in Indiana and Tennessee doomed the project, and Packard’s cancellation of their long-wheelbase chassis for the 1955 model year doomed the full-sized coaches as well. Although in the early years Henney’s exclusive association with Packard took the company to impressive heights well above it’s competition, it was the same association that doomed the company in the end. With the end of the Packard commercial chassis came the end of Henney as a funeral car builder.

If not for one particular person, the Henney story may not have ever been so thoroughly detailed and recorded. Noted author and historian Thomas A. McPherson amassed an incredible amount of material on the Henney company including their history, and most importantly, hundreds of crisp, clear factory photo-graphs of Henney vehicles. He recently published a hard-bound book entitled, The Henney Motor Company, The Complete History. It is the definitive history of not only Henney, but Packard-based professional cars. Mr. McPherson’s extensive personal knowledge and photos were the basis of this article, and his book is available through a variety of sources including Amazon, eBay, professionalcar.org and most automotive book outlets. It is a must for every professional car enthusiasts, along with McPherson’s complete histories on Eureka, Flxible, Superior and Miller-Meteor. Each book contains the complete history of each company including production numbers, model descriptions, and hundreds of factory photographs.

Professional Car Collector Magazine and Professionalcar.org wishes to express our gratitude and thanks to Thomas A. McPherson for his contributions, both to this article and the professional car hobby in general. Without his knowledge, expertise and resources, very little would be known and documented in regards to the many manufacturers of professional cars.

Reprinted with permission from the July 2010 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine. The official publication of Professional Cars International. PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

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Its Showtime!

By Louis C. Farah

The smell of freshly cut grass, the bright sunshine and the roar of a throaty engine signals the start of yet another season of classic and vintage car shows across the country. And nowhere is that experience more prevalent than right here in sunny Southern California.

Blessed with incredible weather all year long, our state is home to literally hundreds of car clubs. We have the luxury of gathering together most every weekend to celebrate vintage cars. Perhaps an even better advantage for West Coast enthusiasts is the fact that cars last a lot longer in our dry climate, which translates into a wider variety of classic cars from virtually every automotive genre.

One can join a number of clubs that celebrate cars produced by General Motors, Ford, Mopar and a variety of makes and models. However, we as professional car enthusiasts are not committed to any one manufacturer. We celebrate a particular style of vehicle:

The professional car.

The vintage hearse, limousine, flower car and ambulance is what we concentrate on. There were literally dozens of professional car manufacturers throughout the past 90 years, each with their own particular style and features. Just like vintage Chevys and Fords, when these cars were first introduced, they were nothing more than an average everyday transportation or utility vehicles. As in the case with vintage and classic cars, they really didn’t become “collector cars” until many years after their initial introduction to the general public.

Perhaps the most commonly used phase is “who knew these would become classics?” And that’s true. Certainly nobody realized in the early 1970’s that cars from the 1950’s and 1960’s would become big money collectibles. By the 1980’s, 1957 Chevy Bel Air’s were reaching $30,000 in value. Today, they are fetching prices that are twice that much and more, depending on rarity. As time goes on, we are now seeing prices rise in the professional car market.

Which leads us to the classic and collectible hobby of today.

One thing that all car clubs have in common is the pastime of the traditional car show. Here in California, many of these shows concentrate on drawing the largest number of participants as possible. By opening the doors to any classic and/or collectible car, the average car clubs sees perhaps 200 to 300 cars on display on any given weekend. Even such specialty clubs that feature Ford or GM products exclusively see a sizable turnout due to the high number of classic car enthusiasts in the state.

As everyone knows, the ultimate classic car experience is displaying your car at a show. That’s where all of your hard work and hard-earned dollars pay-off. It’s a rite of passage that completes the process. You buy the car, spend endless weekends and every spare moment of your free time lovingly restoring the car, with the ultimate reward of parking that little jewel among the hundreds of others cars to be admired and photographs by collectors and enthusiasts.

I have found that the greatest advantage of being a classic car enthusiast is the fact that parts and services are relatively inexpensive here in Southern California. I recently purchased a highly collectible 1977 Superior Cadillac Transport ambulance with low miles, which was also an ambulance that I drove personally back when it was new. (Obviously sentimental value played a big part of this purchase). The car was in relatively good condition. However, a number of small rust holes developed near the edges of the hood. I simply went to Cadillac King (a local salvage yard in the San Fernando Valley) and purchased a replacement hood in excellent condition for $200. Easy fix. I’ve had great luck with paint shops, mechanics, local auto parts stores and other related services in the past, which is a great motivator to even more restoration efforts.

LET’S HIT THE SHOWFIELD!

You’ve been anticipating the big day for weeks now. In just a few short days you will be joining hundreds of other people sitting under the shade trees of a local park or sharing the asphalt at a hotel with your pride and joy. People are going to be looking and inspecting your car. Is it ready to be shown? With a little preparation, that professional car just may be the hit of the show.

You could take your car to a professional detail shop and spends hundreds of dollars to make the car stand-out, but what fun would that be? Half the fun is getting there, right? Somehow it seems much more satisfying when you do the job yourself and enjoy the fruits of your labor. With that being said, here’s a short primer on how to get ready for the car show.

Be prepared to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 at your local auto parts store like Peps Boys and Trak Auto. You want to buy a good high-foaming car wash solution; a quality wax, chrome cleaner; tire/interior dressing, glass cleaner and a can of carpet and fabric cleaner. I would also visit your local hardware store and buy a couple of small-sized paint brushes. You are planning on “showing” your car, so make sure that it’s “shows” well.

Start by washing the entire car, literally inside and out. Open the hood and apply some commercial engine cleaner everywhere. Let it sit for a few minutes, then hose it off. Start the car and let it idle for a few minutes to dry all parts of the engine and electrical system. Spray a little Armor-All on the plastic parts, hoses, belts and other non-metallic surfaces. Use a clean, dry cloth to completely wipe the engine compartment to remove any excess Armor-All and dirt. Make sure that the engine compartment sparkles. There’s nothing worse than a killer appearing exterior, then you or somebody else opens the hood and sees a dirty engine compartment.

Next, concentrate on the exterior. Use that foamy car wash on the body; tires (including whitewalls); wheels; front and rear wheel wells and all visible areas underneath the car that can be seen. And scrub hard! Get rid if all of the dried-up and spattered bugs, road grime, tar, bird droppings and other foreign matter off of the paint. If it’s been a while since the vehicle has been waxed, use some polishing compound to buff out and even the paint throughout the body of the car, then apply a complete coat of good quality carnauba wax. Using a soft towel, remove all of the wax residue and bring-out the shine. Q-Tips are great for removing wax from those small areas that a cloth towel can’t reach.

If your car has a vinyl top, apply a good quality protectant. If the color has faded, there are a number of spray paints on the market that are designed for leather and vinyl that will make your roof look brand new. These are also carried by local auto part stores, and I’ve had great success with these products.

Don’t forget to use a good tire dressing as well. Scrub those whitewalls as well as the rest of the tire. You want the tires to shine and look consistent across the entire surface of the tire.

There has been a number of debates regarding the use of Armor-All and other products like it. Many believe in the long run, these preparations actually damage tires and other surfaces. I’ve been using these products for over 20 years and have never had a problem. Moderation is the key to using any product on your car. I wouldn’t suggest the use of anything on a daily basis, but occasional use should not present a problem.

Your next task is to tackle the chrome. Remember, that’s where the most shine of your car comes from. Dupont makes a great chrome cleaner product that removes pitting while bringing out the dazzling highlights of chrome wheels, bumpers and trim. It will take some elbow grease and time, but it is well worth it. Use a scouring pad or even steel wool for those hard-to-remove spots.

Now for the hardest part, which really is more time-consuming that difficult: The interior. A simple vacuuming of the carpet just won’t do. You’ve completely detailed the rest of car, so why scrimp on the interior?

Vacuum the entire vehicle: Front, rear, between the seats, under the seats and common areas. Apply a quality carpet cleaner. Let the cleaner dry completely, and vacuum again. Invest a few more dollars and buy a can of spot remover.

Are your seats fabric, or leather? Clean them! However, if your seats are fabric, don’t overdo it on the cleaner. Wet fabric takes a long time to dry, and you might get moisture streaks or marks. Unless it is extremely warm outside with relatively low humidity, it’s probably best to apply a light coat of cleaner, allow it to dry and vacuum the residue.

In regards to vacuums, there are a number of shop vacuums that are very strong, can be used for wet and/or dry applications and are relatively inexpensive. A good shop vacuum can usually be purchased for less than $40. You can use it for dry vacuuming, and just in case you overdo it on the fabric and carpet cleaners, it will suck up quite a bit of moisture.

Now it’s time to dress the interior. It doesn’t matter if it’s Armor-All or other preparation. Apply an even coat of your favorite product to the dash; door panels (after you’ve removed all of those scuff marks); kick panels; center console; steering wheels and any other surface. It’s also a good idea to apply an even spray across the entire dashboard including into the air conditioning vents. Take a clean cloth and wipe down all of the surfaces of the dash to bring out the shine and remove any excess product. That’s where the Q-Tips and paint brushes come in handy.

You can use the Q-Tips and small paint brushes to clean the A/C ducts where a lot of dirt and dust accumulate. Wipe the louvers of the A/C ducts with a small brush, use the Q-Tips to swab the opening of the vent areas and make sure to turn on the air conditioning with the fan on the “high” setting to blow any excess back through the vents.

Can you guess what parts of the interior are usually forgotten 99% of the time when one details a car? The headliner and sun visors! When is the last time you cleaned those areas? Chances are, you never have. Depending on the material, clean those as well. I’ve owned a variety of classic cars, and most people don’t realize that sun visors fade, regardless of whether they are vinyl or fabric. There are spray paint products that can renew the color, so make sure you don’t forget these areas.

Mcguires makes a spray product called “Final Inspection” that is outstanding. It can be applied once you arrive at the show field, and used to clean and shine your car. It is specially designed for painted surfaces and chrome. Most everyone loves to buff their cars to a luxurious sheen while admirers walk by and comment on how great the car looks. You spray it on, wipe it off and your car glows in the sunlight.

So far we have discussed the cosmetic side of showing your car. Not enough can be said about the importance of the mechanical side. You want to make sure that your vehicle runs well, and most important, doesn’t drip fluids. Nothing is worse than having a fantastic looking car displayed with coolant, oil or transmission fluid spewing from underneath the car.

Half of the fun of owning a classic car is getting ready for the show. The other half is being on the show field and showing your car. There’s a certain pride when people comment on how nice your car looks, and knowing you were the one that made it look that way.

The same is true in a competitive setting. Although originality of the vehicle and condition play a major part in scoring, the most important aspect is how well your car “shows”. A car that is dazzling in appearance can detract attention away from a number of deficiencies, not to mention the influence of dozens of spectators can have on the judges. If a large number of people are continually ogling and complimenting your car, that could sway a judge or two. A car that looks great, regardless of where it places in competition can still be a favorite among the attendees of the show. I would rather have the car that everybody liked and admired than get a trophy any day if the week.

An investment of approximately $40 will pay big dividends in the long run. It doesn’t matter whether you are taking your car to a show for display purposes or vying for an award at a major competitive event. Making your car look the best that it can be is a major part of “pride of ownership”. With the number of inexpensive and easy-to-use products on the market today, there’s no need to pay big bucks to have your car professionally detailed and prepared for the big show when you can do it yourself. Properly prepare your car for the coming classic car show season and do it the right way.

Reprinted with permission from the May 2010 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine. The official publication of Professional Cars International. PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

Discuss this article in our Forums HERE.

Movie and Television Ambulances

By Louis C. Farah

The magic of Hollywood is something that I am very familiar with. I grew-up in the Los Angeles community of Toluca Lake, just a stone’s throw away from Universal, Warner Brothers and Walt Disney Studios and saw my fair share of television shows and movies filmed throughout my neighborhood.

Television shows were the most heavily filmed productions in and around the area and featured such well-know series as the “Rockford Files”, “Ironsides”, “Happy Days” and “Ozzie and Harriet”. Most of the stars of these shows actually lived in Toluca Lake, which made the productions easy to shoot with little travel and set-up time. But perhaps the most extensively filmed shows in my neighborhood were the Jack Webb productions of “Dragnet”, “Adam-12” and “Emergency!”

All three shows were filmed by Universal City Studios, located in the hills above the heart of Toluca Lake. In close proximity to the studios and nestled in a quiet area with little traffic, it was the perfect place to film a television series that used a lot of street scenes and homes as a backdrop.
Most scenes from Adam-12 were filmed on either Riverside Drive or Moorpark Street. The same held true for Emergency! Most stock footage of Reed and Malloy racing to a police emergency or Gage and Desoto responding to their rescues involved Cahuenga Blvd. and the small residential streets of my neighborhood. The studios did not venture far when filming their shows because the locations were convenient and saved a great deal of money.

With much smaller budgets than today’s television shows, the studios did not maintain of fleet of picture cars for their productions. Although Adam-12 had the 1968 Plymouth as their patrol car and Emergency! had the Dodge D-300 pick-up as Squad 51, the rest of the background vehicles usually came from independent contractors. In the case of the ambulances, local ambulance companies and even the city of Los Angeles rented their vehicles.

Perhaps the most famous ambulances of the 1970’s were owned by Snyder Ambulance Service in Van Nuys. Harry Snyder was the person that rented his 1968 Miller-Meteor Cadillac ambulance which starred as the first ambulance used on Emergency! That was followed by the 1969 Chevy Suburban ambulance used on the show. Although newer modular ambulances would eventually make their way into later episodes, it was these ambulances from Snyder that were most well-known.

But Snyder wasn’t the only company in Los Angeles that was renting ambulances to the studios. Both Schaefer and Good-hew had been renting their ambulances as far back as the 1950’s to a variety of film projects. Eventually the later part of the 1960’s saw the City of Los Angeles and Professional Ambulance of Glendale getting involved as well.

Adam-12 had featured a 1966 white-over-red Chevy panel ambulance built by Stoner Industries. Although many believed that this was an actual LAFD ambulance, it was not. It was owned by Professional Ambulance Service of Glendale, and is still owned Randy Brooks, son of Rand Brooks, the founder of Professional. However, there were a number of the early episodes of Adam-12 that did feature actual in-service ambulances from the ambulance division of Central Receiving Hospital and the Los Angeles City Fire Department in the San Fernando Valley.

A recent search of the web revealed a plethora of ambulances that were used in various Hollywood productions through the years. As major player in the rental industry, Schaefer Ambulance Service provided rigs from a variety of their stations located throughout the greater Los Angeles basin. Schaefer rigs could be seen in a number of television shows and movies. Goodhew ambulances also dominated movies and television shows including the original version of “Gone In 60 Seconds” and the interior of their 1973 Miller-Meteor Cadillac ambulance was used for the love scene between Harvey Keitel and Rachel Welch in the movie classic “Mother, Jugs and Speed”.

For the casual television viewer, the ambulances seen on television and movies were nothing special. For those of us that lived in the greater Los Angeles area, we had a double treat. Not only were the ambulances of the various companies in town featured on the television, but the locations were just as well known as the ambulance companies that provided the vehicles. Great memories for a pro car collector.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, I had the pleasure of renting my fleet of ambulances and hearse to productions as well. Located just a few minutes from Warner Brothers, Disney and NBC Studios, many of my vehicles can still be seen in reruns of those vintage movies and television shows. A perusal of www.hulu.com will reveal a treasure chest of vintage television shows featuring including “Emergency!” and “Adam-12”. Seeing vintage ambulances in action is just a computer click away. Ambulances that were owned by Schaefer, Professional, Goodhew, Snyder and the City of Los Angeles are featured in dozens of episodes. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.

Although most of those vintage ambulances are long-gone, but their imagines and memories live-on through the modern miracle of your desktop or laptop computer. With just a few minutes of search time, you too can discover vintage television shows and movies that depict classic ambulances of all types from the 1930’s through the end of the 1970’s. Now you have a whole new resource for professional car history and photographs!

Reprinted with permission from the March 2010 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine. The official publication of Professional Cars International. PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

Discuss this article in our Forums HERE.

Keys to a successful Road Trip.

By Dean Newman, Professionalcar.org

So you have made the big decision and decided that you want to drive your coach to a show out of town.  Good for you!  You are answering the call of the open road.  You are feeding your vintage vehicle wanderlust.  Easy enough.  You just need to pack your bags, load up and head out, right?

Not so fast sparky…

You are driving a vintage coach.  Not one of those modern, new fangled, electronic everything, comfort barges.  You have to do a little bit of planning and work to make sure you are ready.  You have to prepare and make sure you are equipped and ready for the journey.   But dont worry, most of the process is common sense.  A good bit of it is really easy, and almost all of it is going to be fun.

Unlike modern cars, our vintage coaches need a little extra TLC before a long trip.  You should either check yourself, or have a trusted mechanic take a look at all of the basics in advance of your trip.  DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.  This should be done about 2 months BEFORE your trip is scheduled.  Here is the basic checklist of things that *I* inspect before every trip.

• Tires.  Make sure they are in good condition and properly inflated.
• Top up all of the fluids, including washer fluid if your car is so equipped.
• Double check your radiator to make sure its filled properly and contains the proper mix of water and coolant for your area.
• Make sure your wiper blades are decent and your wipers are working.
• Check all your belts and hoses.  Make sure they are not dry or starting to crack or craze.  Also make sure all the hose clamps are tight and the belts are adjusted properly.
• Check for leaks and drips under the car.  (Most old cars drip something, so a small drip isn’t always a huge issue.  You want to make sure the puddle isn’t larger than usual though as that may indicate a problem.)

If you haven’t taken your coach on any road trips recently, its also a good idea to have your mechanic check over the major mechanical parts of the car as well.

• Bushings and suspension parts to make sure they are still in good condition.
• Shocks and springs to make sure they are still working properly.
• Tune up the engine if it hasn’t been tuned in a while.  (Or at least have it checked to make sure its still where it needs to be.)  A coach may run fine for short in town trips, but not be tuned properly for long jaunts on the highway.
• While I’m under the car checking suspension parts, I always take a quick look along the length of the car.  I’m looking to make sure all the bolts look tight and making sure that there isn’t anything that’s come loose and is dangling where its not supposed to.  You can also check your exhaust and mufflers to make sure they are decent and not rusted.  (A hole in a muffler can be REALLY Annoying on a long highway trip.)

Ok.  So now we have an OK from the mechanic or we have checked the car over ourselves and we know that the coach is ready for a road trip.  So we are good right?  Not quite.  Patience Grasshopper.  There are a few more things to do before we are really ready to leave.  The next few things are easy and fun though.  And these should only take about an hour to do.

First we are going to make up a “Travel Kit” for the car with some basic supplies. (These are what I carry, your needs may be different.  Tailor this kit to YOUR coach.  And all of this fits into a small plastic tote box with a snap on lid.  My box with everything is the same size as a carry on suitcase.  And it fits easily in the back of the coach.)

• Fire Extinguisher (Make sure its somewhere you can get to it EASILY and QUICKLY)
• Fuses to match all the fuse values used in the car
• Extra wire, wire connectors, and some sort of crimping tool
• An extra relay to match any relays you may have in the car
• An extra fuse holder.  (In case I need to replace one already in the car)
• Spare belts or hoses that are unusual or hard to find
• Spare parts that are unusual and hard to find for your coach
• Some bailing wire
• Duct tape and Zip ties
• Gloves.  (I carry both nitrile disposable gloves and heavier mechanics gloves)
• A couple of plastic garbage bags.  (can be used for lots of things including holding dirty parts to keep your interior clean, Of you can lay one on the ground to get under the car to check something
• A pair of plastic safety glasses.  (Just in case.)
• One quart of oil
• One quart of Transmission fluid
• One bottle of power steering fluid (If needed for your coach.)
• A flashlight with GOOD Batteries and a spare set of batteries
• A gallon jug of drinking water.  (Which can be used in the radiator if needed.)
• Rags or shop towels or paper towels
• Spare hose clamps in assorted sizes
• Traffic cones/safety triangle/flares/some sort of warning lights
• 2 cans of “Fix a Flat“  (If I had a spare tire in the car, I’d scale back to 1 can of this.)
• Auto First Aid Kit
• If you have custom wheels and you carry a regular spare tire, make sure your lug nuts will work on BOTH the custom wheels and the spare.  Some custom wheels have special lug nuts that wont work with a spare.  If that’s the case, bring spare lugnuts for your spare.

I also carry a basic toolbox so I can actually use the stuff listed above if I need to.

• Pliers:  needle nose and standard
• Crecent wrench
• Vise grips
• Wire strippers/crimpers
• Hammer
• Screwdrivers:  Phillips and standard. (Depending on your car, you may only need one type)
• Medium sized prybar.  (Better than a screwdriver when you need to “adjust” something.  And it fits under the seat and I never even see it.)
• I found a small “automotive” socket set in a plastic molded case and I toss that down in the bottom of one of the compartments in the back of the ambulance when I travel.

I have a couple of optional things that I take with me depending on the trip.

• Tire iron.  (It never hurts to check your lug nuts before EVERY trip.  And at the midpoint of your trip, just in case.)
• Small rolling floor jack.  If I’m taking a long, multi day drive, I take a jack in case I need to get under the car.  Sometimes the extra height provided by the jack makes all the difference in the world.
• Two way radios.  If you are traveling in a group with other cars, its handy to have some of the inexpensive FRS radios for car to car communications.  They are short range license-free radios, and on the road its sometimes easier to push one button and call on the radio when you need to alert the other cars in your group.
• Portable GPS Navigation unit.  This will allow you to map your route, check your speed via satellite, track travel time, and navigate in unfamiliar areas.  Some units will also have the ability to locate gas and food and other points of interest, which can be handy in a city you are not familiar with.  If you are going to use a GPS, make sure you either have enough batteries for the trip, or an appropriate power cord that will work in your coach.

So now we know the coach is ready.  We have parts and supplies and tools.  So we can leave now, right?

Sort of.  Now we get out and drive.  We take a couple of shorter weekend shakedown cruises out of town to see how she rides on the highway and make sure everything is good.  Load up your travel kit and your toolbox and make sure you have a cell phone and some sort of roadside service plan, just in case.  (I use AAA Plus and have had NO problems with them.  I’ve been told that some plans try to classify our coaches as “commercial vehicles” and they claim that they do not cover commercial vehicles.  As long as your coach is registered to you as a collector vehicle, you should be covered as its no longer commercially used.  Be sure to check with your provider to make sure.  And make sure you are clear that the car is privately owned and a collector vehicle.)

I usually try to start with a short drive of 30-45 minutes.  Backroads are Ok for this one, and if you can get a friend to tag along in a regular car, they can watch your coach from behind and make sure everything looks good, make sure the car is tracking right, and you can even check your speedo against the other car to see how accurate it is .  The first trip is really just going out and back to get everything up to temperature and make sure the coach feels Ok.  If all goes well the first time out, on the second trip I will try to go somewhere that’s an Hour to an hour and a half away from home. (One way) And this trip needs to be on the same type of roads as your big trip is going to be.  Usually this means Actual 65-75mph highway time.  I’ll leave mid-morning and stop for lunch somewhere out of town.  Have a quiet lunch, let the car sit during lunch and then jump back in and head for home before its totally cooled down.  We want to see how the car is going to react to running when its already warmed up.  Pretty much anywhere you can get to is good as long as you get some real road time in.  You want to be on the road for 2-3 hours to make sure that everything is working fine under real loads.   Here you are seeing how the car feels at speed and how it does over time and distance.  You want to keep an eye on temperatures and oil pressure and the vitals of the car.   If its fine for an hour and then starts to overheat, that indicates a problem you need to look into before your big trip.   Be aware of how the car sounds and feels.  It should be obvious when the car feels “right”.   This is also a good chance to figure out what kind of mileage you get on the highway.   Figuring out approximate highway mileage lets you plan your gas and food stops on your big trip so you dont end up miles from anywhere on fumes.   This also lets you get used to how the coach handles on the freeway and lets you figure out what speeds the car is most comfortable at.  Some coaches will do 75 on the freeway with no problems.  Others run better at 65 or 70 and just dont “feel” right at certain speeds.  Part of this trip is figuring out the sweet spot for your particular coach.   These cars all drive differently then our “regular” cars.  And you need to get a feel for them so you know when things are going well, or just aren’t quite right.  You want to develop that feel on your shakedown trips so when you are on the road, you can stop when you notice something feels odd, before it becomes a huge issue.

NOW you should be ready to go.  You have the parts you may need.  You have the tools to fix whatever you may come across.  You have checked out the coach mechanically, and you’ve put in some road miles so you KNOW that it runs fine and is capable of the trip.  Now you should be ready to go.  And if you have put in the time ahead of your trip, it should be pretty smooth and uneventful.   Most of the road trips that I’ve taken end up completely uneventful.  Occasionally I run into a glitch here and there, but so far, almost everything has been able to be fixed on the side of the road or at a rest stop.  And nothing so far has prevented me from arriving at my destination.

I’ve also discovered that I look forward to the drive almost as much as the trip.  The people I meet and the enjoyment of driving my coach is every bit as cool as the actual destination.

So get out there, do your homework, and drive those coaches!  The more you drive them, the better they usually run, and the less time you have to spend preparing for future trips.  If you keep your coach maintained and drive it regularly, then its much easier to get it ready for a road trip when you want to go the next time.  Sitting unused is harder on vintage coaches than taking them out and enjoying them.  So get out there and enjoy!

Comment on this article in our forums HERE.

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Reproduction or modification is prohibited without written permission.

Customized Professional Cars

By Louis C. Farah

While the classic car world will always have those pristine factory stock and original cars as the foundation of the hobby, there is a completely different segment of collectible vehicle hobby that is just as strong as ever. In fact, it is this segment that receives just as much attention at car shows and events as vintage classics get at auctions across the country.

Customized vehicles.

Custom cars have been a mainstay of enthusiasts since the early 1950’s. Race tracks across the country featuring customized Ford and Chevrolet’s in various configurations. Customizers such as George Barris were “frenching” tail-lights, modifying engines and adding bumpers, grills and other body pieces from a variety of cars to produce some pretty stunning vehicles.

As a teenager in the 1960’s, just about all of my friends in high school were modifying their cars. It didn’t take much. The standard coupe with a V-8 engine would get a four barrel carburetor, a dual exhaust system with a pair of glass pack mufflers and a set of shiny Cragar mag wheels to produce your very own hot rod. By the late 1960’s, an 8-track tape player blaring-out the latest Jimi Hendrix rocker would firmly place you on the map with the babes.

Weekend nights would finds me and my friends cruising down the world famous strip known as Van Nuys Blvd., the epitome of the California car culture. Whether to see, or be seen, the San Fernando Valley thoroughfare was the place where you could rev your engine, lay a little rubber on the pavement and show off your pride and joy.

Not much as changed since those pubescent years of my high school days. My love of cars still stands as a priority in my life, and more so when it comes to professional cars. Just like the cars of yesterday, the customization that is being done to vintage hearses today very elaborate, highly detailed and just plain amazing. Even more compelling is the fact that customized hearses have found their way onto such television shows as “Pimp My Ride” and “Monster Garage”.

The purest professional car enthusiast would probably find themselves aghast over any modification of a hearse. To many funeral directors, modifying a hearse would border on blasphemy. However, most do not realize that the vast number of hearses that are customized were basket cases on their way to the crusher. Many a vintage hearse that was too far gone to be restored served as the platform of the many customized cars that we see today. Rather than lose that car forever to scrap metal, someone saved that car and reincarnated it to be back on the street and shown in all of it’s glory.

As with any modification of a car, it can be mild or a full-blown chop job that barely resembles the car’s former life. In the cast of a mild restoration, changes can be as subtle as a different paint job, lowering of the vehicle, chrome wheels or changes to the interior. The appearance of the car still shows as a hearse, albeit a non-stock looking hearse that perhaps would not be utilized for an actual funeral service.

The other end of the spectrum would be an all-out customization of a hearse. Chopping the body, a wild paint scheme and detailed interior changes takes a vehicle to a new level. The possibilities are endless, which allows a vehicle owner to exercise their freedom of self-expression. As in the case of any classic car, the owner is certainly free to do whatever they want to their car without being harassed or belittled. Although this doesn’t appear to be a problem in the conventional classic car world, it certainly is a reality in certain circles of the professional car arena.

Much has been written on website message boards, chapter newsletters and national publications regarding the disdain for anyone that would even consider modifying a hearse from it’s factory original state. Yet a number of those that find hearse modification distasteful fail to realize that the vast majority of customized hearses were, in fact, headed to the junk-yard and eventually the crusher to be turned into scrap. With vintage parts as rare as hens teeth, what does one do with a car that can’t be restored to factory original condition? They turn the car into something else.

The unusualness of a hearse is what makes the body so inviting to modify. Just about everyone has seen a classic muscle car modified in some way, shape or form. Few have seen a hearse customized in the same fashion. Perhaps the most well-known modified cars having to do with funerals are the cars used on the television series “The Munsters”.  Grandpa’s “Dragula” and Herman’s “Munster Koach” are perhaps the most famous modified funeral cars of them all. The Dragula is based on an actual casket that has been placed on a high-performance Ford chassis and a full-blown V-8 developing 400 horse-power. The car was featured on numerous episodes of the show with Al Lewis (playing the character of Grandpa on the show) behind the wheel. The Munster Koach was also the brainchild of George Barris, who at the time was know as the “customizer to the stars”. Both vehicles are currently on display at Barris Kustom City, located on Riverside Drive in North Hollywood.

Shown below is another Barris creation called the “Kargoyle”, which has been seen at many of our shows. Built using a 1967 Miller-Meteor Cadillac hearse, the car is a magnificent example of a total customization effort complete with a chopped and lowered body, side pipes, custom paint, drag strip motor, mag wheels and a fully detailed interior complete with casket. Bret Barris premiered this car at our World’s Longest Hearse Procession in 2005 and continues to display this fascinating vehicle at our shows and events.

The word “customize” means a lot of different things to different people. To some, a simple set of chrome wheels gives a completely different look to a vehicle. I attended a professional car show about ten years ago and remember seeing an absolutely beautiful and original Cadillac hearse that was on display during a Concour d’ Elegance show where the cars were being judged. The owner couldn’t afford the factory white-walled tires that came with the car, so he had a set of new white lettered tires in stalled. The chief judge of the show knocked so many points off of the car that it didn’t come close to winning a trophy, even though it was the best car in it’s class. The chief judge decided that the car was “modified”, and therefore had lost it’s historical significance. Yet I saw another hearse that had major changes in it’s interior where the owner had turned the car into a combination car from a hearse. It was definitely more modified than the disqualified hearse, yet it won a trophy! Go figure.

A number of people have asked me about display rules at PCI shows and what is allowed. PCI has no rules nor restrictions regarding the display vehicles. All cars are welcome, regardless of condition, style or modifications. What good is a professional car show if you can’t bring your professional car? I have found that most people that attend our events are eager to learn as much about these cars as possible. They shop around for parts, seek advice on restoration and realize that there aren’t a lot of people out there that own and/or know a lot about these unique vehicles. With resources as rare as they are, we should be serving as stewards for folks that are new to the hobby or are searching for much needed advice or services.

Modified professional cars are some of the most recognizable and valuable cars in the world today. Perhaps the most recognized professional cars are the Ghostbusters cars, otherwise known as Ecto-1 and Ecto-1a. Built on a 1959 Miller-Meteor Cadillac ambulance chassis, both of these cars were recently completely restored for Sony Picture by PCI member Ray Claridge, owner of Cinema Vehicle Services. Their shops in North Hollywood contain a complete vehicle restoration facility on the premises that can literally take a car down to the frame and rebuild it from the ground-up.

Are these cars modified or customized? Absolutely. Yet they still retain the looks that say “ambulance”. Regardless of how much equipment is attached to the roof and the plethora of warning lights flashing as it barrels down the street, it still has the heart of am ambulance beating inside.

There is also a segment of professional car enthusiasts that believe that any modification to a hearse is ghoulish. To me, I don’t believe that this is necessarily due to the fact that the modifications are what made the car ghoulish. The primary reason is the fact that a hearse is used as the base vehicle. It’s tough to argue that nearly everyone out there knows a hearse is designed and used to transport a dead body. The very sight of a hearse brings up the notion of death. While in normal use in the funeral industry, a hearse should be dignified and understated. After it comes out of service and lands in the hands of a car enthusiast, all bets are off. The new owner is free to do whatever they want to do.

As I stated earlier, most of the customized hearses that I have seen in the past were cars rescued from the crusher.  There was little chance that these cars would be restored back to their factory original condition. Whether rust had eaten away most of the car, or it had been picked clean for parts, the cost to restore the vehicle would have far-exceeded it’s value. Although these vehicles were not fit to be restored, they have been reincarnated into their new lives in pretty spectacular fashions. Perhaps one of my favorites is a customized hearse owned by Zach Helm, who lives in Colorado. His car was a rust bucket headed for the junkyard when he rescued it for a few bucks. Using a little ingenuity and a lot of labor, he converted the car into an armor-plated gothic assault vehicle, complete with a set of functional flame throwers coming out of the roof. Talk about an attention getter!

Although the vast majority of professional cars are stock and original, the modified segment of the hobby continues to grow. That’s a good thing. When one considers the fact that there isn’t a lot of vintage professional cars left on the road these days, preservation of any classic ambulance or hearse is of utmost importance. Buying a professional car of any type can only be expected of someone that actually appreciates these vehicles. There just aren’t that many people that actively participate in our hobby, and each time a professional car is junked or scraped, another nail goes into the proverbial coffin.

Rather than discourage people that do not share our ideas on preservation and restoration, let’s take the time to realize that they are saving that car from a certain death. Modified cars can be restored back to their original condition, but only when the time comes where the price of restoration does not exceed the ultimate value of the car. Today’s cast-off just might be tomorrow’s treasure. I would rather see a classic professional car preserved and displayed at our events than watch it crushed into little bitty pieces!

Reprinted with permission from the February 2010 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine.  The official publication of Professional Cars International.  PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

Discuss this article in our Forums HERE.

Custom Built One At A Time

By Louis C. Farah.

It’s amazing how many people look at a vintage professional car and assume that they were factory-built cars that came off of an assembly line somewhere in Detroit. It’s easy to understand why people would believe that considering the master craftsmanship that went into the construction of each car that rolled out of the doors of such well-known manufacturers as Miller, Meteor, Flxible, Superior and Eureka. That expertise and innovation becomes even more evident when we look at the smaller builders such as National, Cotner/Bevington and Seibert.

However, if one were to visit the hearse builders of today (there are no manufacturers of ambulances on a passenger car chassis in America anymore) they would definitely see an assembly line operation where standardized bodies are mated with a stripped-down Cadillac or Lincoln chassis to make a funeral car. A lot has changed in the past 30 years with the demise of the passenger car-based ambulance.

Gone are the days of custom-built bodies that made professional cars appear as if they were standard automotive bodies that were altered by the manufacturers. What most people don’t realize is the fact that those that designed and constructed these cars intentionally built these vehicles to resemble ordinary factory- build cars that the public bought themselves. The same flowing lines as those cars appearing in the showrooms of Cadillac dealers were no accident. Rather than produce a car with a strange and bulky looking style that left no doubt that this was nothing more than a ‘butcher job” on a luxury car, master craftsmen made professional cars a thing of beauty and dignity. Gone were the days of the horse and buggy. By the 1930’s, professional cars were stately and offered a high degree of integrity and prestige to the funeral director or ambulance operator.

The bodies were custom-built based on the customer’s exacting standards and specific order. These were not cookie-cutter vehicles by any means. Interior appointments, emergency lighting, sirens, casket table specifications, curtains, window treatments and virtually every part of the car was custom built from scratch depending on what the customer ordered. When one looks in the gallery at the gorgeous examples of the cars that were built by the the coachbuilders of the past, it’s easy to see why people thought these cars were built in a Cadillac factory instead of the independent professional car builders of the time. The flowing lines of the car were perfectly matched to the custom bodies that were built. Using the same chrome trim, fender styles, tail lights and other parts provided the perfect blend of design and practicality.

Unfortunately, professional cars built today (primarily hearses) are cookie cutter vehicles that no longer emulate custom- build bodies that match traditional passenger car styling of a particular year or vehicle make. For the past 30 years, manufactured bodies that have been used on a variety of chassis such as Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet are the same with little or no variance in style. The art of master craftsmen has been lost, especially with the consolidation of Eureka, Miller-Meteor, S&S and Superior under the banner of Accubuilt.

Although the professional cars of today are certainly more quality built and technologically advanced from their predecessors, the progression of design and construction has resulted in a loss of style and uniqueness that perhaps may be lost forever. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference between most professional cars, especially in determining what year a particular car is. The price of progress appears to have been the loss of uniqueness.

As far as vintage cars club are concerned, it is our responsibility as those that have chosen the field of professional cars to do our best to acquire these unique vehicles and protect their historical value. Although we certainly accept any and all professional cars in PCI, the many would agree that the most collectible cars are those from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. Believe it or not, in a mechanical sense, these are perhaps the easiest to restore and maintain. Most of the parts can be found at such auto parts outlets as Pep Boys, Trak Auto, Auto Zone and NAPA stores. If you’re looking for fuel pumps, carburetors, wiper blades, water pumps, spark plugs and other bolt-on parts, most can be purchased for under $40.

However, beware of simply buying a part for your particular year and make of vehicle. Professional cars were not built nor assembled by the chassis distributor. Cadillac did not build these cars: Miller- Meteor, Superior, Cotner/Bevington and S&S built them. There are vast differences in the suspension, braking and drive train components as compared to the everyday cars that were delivered from Detroit. That’s another reason for the camaraderie among professional car enthusiasts: Getting accurate restoration information from someone that knows your car and has been there before.

The only daunting task regarding these older cars is body work. Body parts for vehicles from the 1960’s and 1970’s are still readily available on the West Coast and Southwest areas of the country due to the low instance of rust. However, the older the car, and the closer to the East Coast that one travels, the less likely you will be able to find a rust-free fender, chrome piece or other external body part.

Master craftsmen may have built these cars, but it is now up to us to restore and maintain these special vehicles. That’s just as important in the professional car hobby as owning the car!

Reprinted with permission from the July 2009 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine.  The official publication of Professional Cars International.  PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

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The classic car hobby seems to be divided into two very distinct groups of people. And while this is a fairly sweeping generalization. Take a look around at the next car show and see for yourself.

We have Trailer people and the Non-Trailer people.

You can tell just by looking at the vehicles there. Trailer people have cars that are beyond perfect. The 20 miles a year sorts of cars whose only real use is a micro trip from the garage to a local show and back. And never in bad weather. The non-trailer people have cars that are not quite perfect. Still very nice looking vehicles, but not quite possessing the better than new perfection of the pampered vehicles. I’m a Non-trailer kind of person and my coach was restored to be a driver, but I do understand where the trailer folks are coming from. Some collector vehicles really are too valuable to drive. That being said, I’m not sure that any of our vintage coaches fall into that category. We aren’t talking about Million Dollar Hemi Cuda’s or Multi-Million dollar Duesenbergs. I firmly believe that when you get a vehicle that becomes that valuable, it’s no longer really a vehicle. It’s more a piece of art, or an investment. But it’s really not a car anymore as you just can’t really drive and enjoy it as it was designed to be. That being said, we drive old ambulances and hearses and limousines. These were working vehicles when they were new. They were used when they were needed. These vehicles saw rain and horrible roads, and long drives and in some cases a good deal of abuse. And while most were well cared for because they needed to be reliable and dependable, they were not really pampered showpieces when they were new.

Anyone that has restored one of these old coaches can tell you that the fit and finish on these coaches was not always the best. The paintwork was reflective of the era in which it was built, and was usually far from perfect. And at their very core, these vehicles were just transportation. Specialized transportation to be sure, but at their core they are all just working vehicles. And before folks get upset with that, please know that I say that with a great deal of love for these cars. These coaches were built to do a very specific task. Move the injured or deceased or the wealthy. (In the case of Limousines.) These vehicles were built to do a job. They often made a statement about the owner in the process, but they were built for their utility.

Fast forward to the present day. We have collectors that love and admire these vehicles, and sometimes I wonder if, as a hobby, we are not assigning too much importance to the perceived value of these vehicles. We look at low production numbers as a sign of high value, when in fact, those two items are not always directly linked. Low production numbers do not always make a vehicle valuable. It’s the “eBay effect”. if you browse eBay, you will notice that a large number of listings use the word “RARE” in the title or the description. People think that if an item is “rare” then it will bring top dollar, so almost everything is listed as being rare these days. We have somehow been led to believe that Rare=Valuable, and that is just not always the case. Sometimes rare just means that not a lot were made. The lack of perfection that our cars were built with is a tailor made excuse to get out there and drive them and enjoy them. They were not perfect when they were new, so are we really preserving them if we are restoring them to better than new and not actually driving them? How can we say that we really appreciate these cars if all we do is display them in a static setting?

I drive my collector cars. ALL of them. I don’t even own a trailer capable of holding any of my coaches. So if I want to enjoy them and share them, I have to drive them. If I want to do an event outside my home city, I drive my coach there. Shortly after finishing the new paint job on my 1960 Ambulance, we loaded all of our stuff in the back and drove 650 miles to Denver Colorado for a show. Was it a perfect trip? Absolutely not. Less than 60 miles from home, the A/C in the ambulance stopped working. So what did we do? We rolled the windows down and kept going. This trip happened in the middle of the summer and we started in Arizona. The temperature was over 100 degrees when we left. And with the windows down at 75mph on the freeway, it wasn’t as bad as everyone thought it would be. That was an interesting trip to say the least. We encountered bad road surfaces, blowing dust, torrential rain, horrible drivers, and some pretty frightening roads in general. And we also met some of the friendliest and nicest people along the way. We realized that getting there was MORE than half of the fun. Gas stops always provided an opportunity to talk to someone about the car, and what it was and what it represented and why we collected them. To see the smiles and the wonderment as we passed folks on the freeway was just amazing. It’s an experience that I think a lot of folks in our hobby are missing out on by tucking their coaches away in trailers and hiding them on the trip there.

Of course it comes at a price. You have to learn how to fix little things that go wrong out on the road. You may have to take some parts and tools with you when you travel. You may have to suffer without your leather seats and A/C and your cup-holders and your satellite radios for a few days. You have to stop worrying about everything on the car being flawless because roads are dirty places. You can’t worry about some bug splatters on the car, or some small rock chips, or even weather. You have to be ready to be an ambassador for the hobby because you will be attracting a huge amount of attention. And you have to be willing to talk to people, because you will get questions. (And you will get the same sorts of questions at every gas stop.) But in return, I can almost guarantee that you will meet amazing people along the way. You will get a new appreciation for these vehicles and their capabilities. And most of the time, you will have a hard time wiping the smile off of your face when you arrive. These things are actually fun to drive. And isn’t that why we collect them to begin with? Isn’t the enjoyment and the fun the whole reason we collect these coaches?

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