Superior Hearse Project: 1960 Cadillac Series 68
Superior Coach Co. has been in business for more than 100 years, building hearses, ambulances, and limousines. Most of them were based on then-current model Cadillacs, like this 1960 Series 68 (Fleetwood). We’re told it’s just 1 of 128 assembled that year and the seller used it as a daily driver until a few years ago. Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this potential Halloween prop is available here on eBay where $5,200 is the highest bid so far.
You can find out more about Superior Coaches of today on their website. Chances are this Cadillac was shipped to Superior for conversion as a chassis with a front-end clip and interior. The known history of this hearse dates to 1998 when the seller bought it in Seneca, Kansas where it had been used by a local funeral home. Still in running order, it was driven to Atlanta, Georgia where the seller kept it for four years before moving the whole shebang to Albuquerque. It made the 1,400-mile trip loaded with everything the seller owned, and he/she still kept driving it regularly afterward.
Though this former “last mile” people mover isn’t running at the moment, a conversion from generator to alternator was done a few years ago along with switching from a gas tank to a fuel cell. Because of its exposure to Midwestern winters, the floorboards are said to be shot, though some earlier patches were applied. The interior is also a lost cause, so even if you intend to use it for amusement purposes, some work will be needed.
If you were to buy this former hearse, what would you do with it? The logical assumption is to turn it into a haunted house prop for Halloween or take people on ghost tours in some of our oldest cities (like St. Augustin, Florida). If you can get it going again, you’d be working with a 390 cubic inch Cadillac V8 paired with a GM 4-speed Hydra-Matic transmission. Be sure to bring a really big trailer as this thing is 22 feet long and heavy!
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Comments
I’ve never understood the attraction of owning and especially restoring a hearse. I guess I can’t get past the morbid idea of it.
Sorry but this Hearse is far from SUPERIOR, largely due to the interior. Almost DOA! 😲 Still it could become resurrected with MUCH TLC. Perhaps like a 93 Cadillac Hearse I recently saw (lettered on sides), We Put The Fun In Funerals!
Too bad it missed being featured on Halloween by one day.
Steve R
Superior is still alive and producing hearses and limos here in my hometown of Lima, Ohio. The history of the company dates back to 1876 but coach building started in 1909. Their history includes a long stretch when the company was the world producer of school buses as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Coach_Company
https://sscoachcompany.com/
Just wait til Angel gets a load of this
one! And yeah, it could be used alongside the ’65 hearse that showed up right before Halloween. I’m doing
research now to try and get a grant to
start my cadaver transport business.
I’ve seen where they give out grants to disabled folks like me to start their
own business and better themselves
in the process. I’ve already found out
the 4-hour funeral director’s course
that you take in Tallahassee, and the cost isn’t really all that much. The real cost would be finding a decent
running coach to begin with. Better
figure in a surety bond and insurance
too, and you have one tidy sum of cash to come up with. That’s where
the grant comes in. Oops, almost forgot that ’69 Fleetwood limo we saw a few days ago. That would make a really nice family car when
done up right. Sad to say it, the first
coach would have to be a late model
unit so that you could start making
money as soon as you could in order
to grow the business. All said and done, you’re gonna have a lot of cash
and time invested in a business that
isn’t that scary after all. If you want a
recession/depression proof job, this would certainly be it. Get past the
stereotypes, and go for it. OMG! Look at the time! I gotta hit the sack
and he ready for work at 6;00 AM.
Night Angel 💋 Night all!
My brother worked at a funeral home when I was a teenager and we did go on a couple of “removals” together at the back door of hospitals in a black Cadillac hearse (I stayed in the vehicle). That was in the 1970s. Nowadays, it appears that primarily unmarked panel vans, usually generic white (sometimes with landau irons on the aft sides in a subtle nod to tradition) are used for a low profile appearance. You may want to survey the potential users of your proposed service to see how receptive they are to utilizing it. They may prefer a stealthier service than that provided by a classic hearse (it’s possible some people might be upset seeing a hearse parked in front of grandma’s house to remove the body). I haven’t seen a hearse used in this role for many decades. When one of my good friends died, they backed a blacked- out Suburban into his driveway late at night for removal. Same with my late mother in law- an unmarked panel van at midnight at the back door of her assisted living facility. No other residents saw anything. She was there, and now she was gone- no trace (see you at the funeral). There was no show involved- low profile, quiet and dignified. I would hate to see you spend money on a hearse not accompanied by a business plan showing potential clients, expenses, projected income, taxes, insurance, licenses, etc. Businesses can have a lot of “hidden” overhead. Otherwise, you may just wind up with a hearse parked in your driveway. Good luck-I wish you great success.
You could call that business Last Responders.
Maybe in a city with multiple small morticians, there might be a case for them to subcontract out the initial removal and transport to a common provider, so they wouldn’t have to maintain their own separate vehicles for that, only maintaining their own, nicer hearses and limos for final transport to the funeral service and grave site.
ecto + 1
Thanks John, I appreciate it. Been
thinking of one of those Dodge Caravans for awhile now. For a time, it would make more sense than a hearse until you were able to get a decent coach that wouldn’t break the
bank. That’s a good way to low buck
yourself into business. Once you’re
established and growing, a classic
hearse would do a lot to boost your
bottom line as you could also do funerals if a funeral home should by
chance overbook. There’s a lot to sort out and it will take time to do, but
not that much I hope.
It boggles my mind how someone could let a once magnificent coach deteriorate to this! These 3 way coaches were the cream of the crop when new and in #3 condition today bring well into five figures. In #1 pristine shape command close to $100k! This would exceed that value to restore and quite simply not worth the effort. I owned a 63 S & S Victoria 3 way that was still very nice when I sold it in 1987 for $6k. There’s nicer ones out there, keep looking.
I was thinking of Mark Worman’s Frankenhearse when I first saw, but his is a ’68 Caddy.
I always found ti weird that he featured a GM product at the very start of his show that is all about muscle Mopars.
Once I was test driving a Hearse for sale. I had my late girl friends 2 sons (15 and 16) laying in the back. I stopped in front of a Chinese restuarant that just opened 3 days ago and we sat there a few minutes discussing the car. The Chinese owner came out waving a 5 dollar bill exclaiming, here 5 dollar, you move car, no sit here. It was funny.
I would buy that for sure if it were closer. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty.
@John Eder
When I was a teen I worked at the local hospital in the E.R. (now called the E.D., emergency department. One of my duties was to take the deceased down to the morgue and put them in the fridge.
One time I was asked to go to the morgue and let a funeral director in to pick up a body. Not knowing he let himself in by the back door, I put the key in the front door to unlock it and suddenly the door swung open! Well there wasn’t supposed to be anyone alive in there and it scared the 💩 out of me. I screamed, threw myself back against the wall and collapsed on the floor. And this fool was laughing at me.
Now, 50 years later I guess it was funny.
@Kenneth
Gotta figure out a way to get me that grant information. I’d like to look into that too.
John brought up a lot of points of a business plan and the white van (I’ve seen those used a lot) but I’ve also seen quite a few using black Cadillac Escalade ESV’s.
Being a nightowl picking up bodies at midnight, one a.m. is perfect.
@Rick W
Come on, give the old girl a chance. Go to the junkyard, get a bench seat from an old Cadillac and swap it out. Half your interior is done. I love the suicide doors on the three ways. Suicide, not the best term to use on a hearse.
Good morning Angel! I was wondering when we’d hear from you.
The sites I went to while doing research for my ex BIL’s company were: WWW. USA.gov, grants.gov, or SBA.gov. I found these sites through
Mathew Lesko’s book on government
programs. When I was the point man
for Pryco, I often used that book to
reach out and look for any and all
government programs might be useful to the company. I didn’t find much then, but I did help a lot of folks
in Winter Haven Florida find the services they needed after hurricane
Charlie roared through n 2004. Made a lot of friends helping those folks get
their roofs covered by the Army Corps
Of Engineers, who were there to assist in that effort. I used to take my
Roladex and some 3X5 cards with me
to the Taco Bell I worked at back then. And when lunch came, I’d eat,
set up my roladex, and help those poor folks that really needed it. I had
numbers for government programs
along with any other numbers for state agencies such as the Department Of Insurance and many others. The store’s management team allowed me to do this as a way
to recover from the storm. I”d say I
was able to help 15-20 people a day
on the days I worked there as a Dining
Room Manager. As for this poor hearse, you’re gonna need a bench seat from a Coupe DeVille to make things right here as the seat backs fold down to give you access to the spare tire and tire tools. And I’ll bet
you never went back to that job again
did you?
Hey Kenneth,
I stayed at that job for awhile. But I definitely learned a few about death and the what mortician go through.
It’s not all pretty natural causes and perfect bodies.
One time I opened a fridge door to find where the tag goes that fell off. I opened 3 doors, empty. The 4th door I opened and a head was staring at me. The body was next to it.
Another time a funeral director dropped off a body I guess for an autopsy. It was in a body bag. He opened the bag. The body was burned to a crisp from a house fire. I 🤮! And the smell. OMG, that’s when I knew I could never be a funeral director.
I have friends back in I iny hometown that
still run their father’s business. And the oldest boy, Bill, would tell me in very graphic detail what he had seen
and what he had to do to carry out his
mission and do the job he was paid to
do. And like you, he saw and did things while on the job that would make the average person puke. Sometimes, he’d stop by my neighbor’s house, kick back, and have
a few drinks with us. And as the liquor loosened his tongue, the stories would begin to flow. And there some nights he’d get really hammered while talking about that stuff. Bill was no dummy, if he knew
he was really hammered, he wouldn’t
drive home. He’d stay at my neighbor’s place and sleep it off. And yeah, he might come by in a ’77 or’78
Ford LTD hearse to visit and I’m sure
it creeped out my neighbor’s when they saw that car too. Well, one Bill came by to visit and he was already T
totally Effed up when got to my neighbor’s place just down the hill from mine. About 9:00 that night,
I got a call from my neighbor asking me to help
him pick Bill up and pour him onto the
the couch. After that, I walked home
and went to bed for a nap before I
started my job delivering over 2,000
weekly shoppers in 3 very large trailer
parks including the one I lived in. After I got done, I was heading home
when Ai walked by my neighbor’s place. The hearse was still there so I
check the doors were locked and they
were. I looked through the side glass
and saw that he was hauling a body.
Neer saw him much after that night
and to this day, I can still recall how drunk he really was. Been 40, years
ago now since it happened, but I heard he got serious help for his drinking problem. Guess it was all the things he saw that made him hit the sauce. One thing’s for sure, you’ve gotta be a strong person to do a job like that. Guess that’s,why the pay you the big bucks.
Many morticians become alcoholics or strong pill poppers. It’s a tough job. I could probably do it now, but not when I was 20.
One last story of when I worked at the hospital…..
I was delivering a body to the morgue and a autopsy was being performed on a black man. Only, he wasn’t a black man, he was Caucasian who spent three days decomposing out in the middle of a field.
The end.
Angel, feeling ready for a ride in a HEARSE on this day of infamy. You’re so hot, If Uncle Vito takes me out of my misery 🔫, will you please light my fire 🔥 and see that my cremains are carried to my grave in my Town Car! Remember Herman Munster worked for Goodburry, Coldman and Graves! Ah, just more useless trivia!
Yeah Angel, I can see where the funeral business can be a tough one.
Most of it is due to the stigma that
goes along with it. These poor folks
are often thought of as creepy or morbid. These folks are the unsung
heroes of our country for without them, we’d have a serious health crisis in this country. To me, death is
a natural part of life. So, in my opinion, folks shouldn’t be afraid of it.
If I were afraid of it, I wouldn’t be wanting to open a business such as this.