Unusual 1942 Cadillac Hearse With 454 Power!
Now here’s a car built by someone with a sense of humor. Listed here on eBay in Saint Peters, Missouri is this 1942 Cadillac hearse. It sits on a 1978 Chevrolet one-ton frame and features a 454-cubic-inch V-8 and automatic transmission, with both power steering and power brakes. The reserve hasn’t yet been met.
It’s a runner, but though the description above makes it sound like a restomod, it’s really more of a “rustomod.” The car was built with a decidedly quirky perspective. The surface rust is patina, of course—a lot of people like it. The doors are paneled with old road signs as well as license plates, and the chain steering wheel (mounted on what appears to be the truck’s original column) was apparently salvaged when the Super Fly movie car went to the junkyard. Seen a bare-foot gas pedal anywhere else recently? The Kansas plate reads, “ITSOVER.”
Just about everything is there, though aged and with ample wear. The decal on the one-piece right-hinged rear door reads, “Paint and chrome won’t get you home.” No, but this colorful affront to decency probably will. And you will sit on what looks like leather front seats out of a colonnade car. The original gauges look pretty cloudy, but a shiny new set of auxiliaries is mounted below the dash.
The vintage Cadillac body sits a bit uneasily on the truck frame, but it’s mounted high enough to give stream-fording ability. The truck’s wheels and tires appear to have been used. This vehicle would be fine to actually serve as a hearse, provided someone wanted a less-than-conventional send-off.
Let’s look at the history of the hearse. In 1908, the General Vehicle Company of New York built an electric hearse. That same year, Chicago had a motor funeral for one Wilfrid A. Pruyn, a Chicago cab driver. The vehicle was from the Coey Auto Livery company, and it combined part of a horse-drawn hearse with a motor bus chassis.
In 1909, an internal-combustion engine was commissioned at a cost of $6,000 ($185,000 today). That same year, Crane & Breed of Cincinnati began building “auto hearses” to order, using a 30-horsepower engine with chain drive and a three-speed transmission. In the 1920s, funeral directors realized they could host more events daily with motor hearses, and so the switch became complete. Hearses began to get ornate, with hand-carved wooden panels and Art Deco touches, in the 1930s.
The vendor says this 1942 hearse was “one of the last before war production started.” That might mean it was actually built in 1941 before Pearl Harbor, but titled as a 1942. Cadillac chassis have always been repurposed for hearse use, but for the most part the company farmed out the work. It’s unclear who built this one, though the Meteor Motor Car Company built Cadillac-based hearses in 1941/2. There were never many of them.
According to Walt McCall’s Cadillac book, 425 Series 75 commercial chassis on a 163-inch wheelbase were built for 1942. And according to another reference, only 1,527 Series 75 Cadillacs in all body styles (including limousines, sedans, and commercial chassis) were produced in 1942 before the shutdown. Then they built tanks!
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Comments
To bad they cobbled it up putting it on a truck frame. The front tires sticking out look stupid. It looks like the dozens of cars ruined in my area by people who put Nova clips under them and then realized the track was to wide and no wheel on the market would fix it. Saw many frames replaced by stock ones and many cars scrapped that shouldn’t have been. Measure ten times before you cut anything.
I agree with you Gary but,I kinda like it put some duel wheels on rear would help offset the front.
Always thought this hearse stuff was creepy. People who have known loss in their life certainly do not see the appeal here. I am all for having fun in the hobby, but couldn’t you spend your time and energy in a different way? Respect is important.
No disrespect meant Grant. It may not be your thing, but there’s a whole world of classic service vehicles that people collect and restore.
I agree Jesse…..unfortunately they,ve bastardized it. Of course there are people who collect whatever you call this.
Mountainwoodie,
My father’s funeral took place on a foul snowy and icy day, and due to the slightly hilly cemetery, required a big Case backhoe and chain to tow the hearse up the hill into position, before doing the same for the limousine and a few other cars carrying elderly people who couldn’t possibly walk up the slippery hill.
I could imagine a creative funeral home buying this. They could keep the 4X4 chassis, but restore the original look to the hearse, adding casket rollers to the back area. The result would be a reliable 4 wheel drive vintage hearse for areas of North America that routinely must deal with inclement winter weather, because tradition says you don’t reschedule a funeral due to snow.
Every day I get closer to not being here and I agree.
The seats look more late model than Colonnade , few had leather and the armrest/cupholder looks like something from the 2000s.
While I usually hate patina, this is one I would leave as a black repaint would
really give it the hearse look again. If I were to own this , the wheels would have to go, as well as the chain steering wheel .I’d have to have that grille re chromed . I’d also get rid of the dopey rat rod door panel signs ; that deal has really been played out and I’d venture to say nobody even did that in the time period rat rodders are trying to emulate – Get a decent front seat and have door panels made to match and head out to the swap meets !
This would be a funnnn project. Everything looks like it would take very little cash and lots of elbow grease to have a real head turner. Having done some custom vans in the past… the possibilities are endless here. Love it!!
Still for sale 2-12-23
any where near 15000.00$
Based on what I was able to see in the feebay photos, this car was equipped when new not as a hearse, but an ambulance, as it has a linoleum floor, no casket rollers, 4 light and siren switches on the dash directly above the steering column, and ambulance cot clamps on the interior right side panel.
As it appears to have been black since new, It’s possible that the vehicle was also intended to double as a hearse. This was a common situation in small towns where the local funeral home also had an ambulance service. There may be a special recessed bracket in the front center of the roof where the ambulance light mounts when used for emergencies.
Would have been nice to see a photo of the original body company’s data plate with the body style number listed.
In the subtitle the seller says body by Metro.
Now everyone who has taken a look at this ebay listing can cross off “I have never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch” as this one does have one. So does that mean you can take it with you??????
It took me some searching, but I was finally able to identify the coachbuilder of this combination car: It’s Meteor. In checking info on the Funeral vehicle database archives, I found the following statement:
“Meteor introduced a new driver’s door first seen on 1939 S&S carved-panel coaches that featured an unusual A-shaped window frame. Meteor then mounted a miniature coach lamp within the triangular panel that was now part of the body. Although the new arched door looked great on their service cars, flower cars and carved Gothic hearses, it looked hideous when combined with the vertical B & C pillars found on their limousine-style coaches and ambulances. The rear door window frames as well as the B-pillars and C-pillars were still vertically oriented and clashed with the sharply sloping outline of the front door’s arched window-frame.”
I have to agree that when used on the limousine style windows as seen on this car, that triangular panel, even with the coach lamp simply looks wrong.
On resuming vehicle building in 1946, that panel was gone, even though it was still the basic pre-war body.
In looking at other Cadillac body styles, I believe that front door is actually a Cadillac coupe door, with the addition of a triangular section to create a squared upper rear corner.
I would weld the Back Door and Driverside rear Door and turn it into a Low Rider Limousine get an original Bench Seat up front Air Ride to the Floor You are right about the One Ton chassi Maybe Front Clip it and new rear end … wish I had the room for it …
This is a rat rod, and actually better looking than some I have seen. Though in all honesty I find none of them attractive and don’t understand the desire to build or own one.
Probably a 454 and tranny out of a motor home.Not the same permormance you think of when 454 cu is mentioned.