Here at Barn Finds, we like to feature a wide variety of makes and models, so there’s always something fresh for everybody to enjoy on any given day. Although we’ve already posted a couple of other Oldsmobile 98s within the last 24 hours, this one’s quite different than the previous two, and for $2,500, I thought we’d better go ahead and get this one up before it’s gone. Perhaps the seller should have considered listing this one a couple of weeks sooner, as it would have made quite a spooky impression on Halloween. However, there’s always next year, and maybe that’ll give the buyer enough time to get this hearse looking good enough to take trick-or-treating in October of 2026. This 1979 Olds Ninety-Eight coffin-carrier is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and can be found here on Facebook Marketplace. Sam61, thanks for your scary tip here!
We’d also like to thank reader MarkyByTheC for pointing out that the door jamb tag indicates that Miller-Meteor performed the conversion here. Unfortunately, most silver paint from the period didn’t hold up very well, and the finish here is no exception, especially on the passenger side. While there is plenty of patina and fading outside, I’m not spotting an excessive amount of obvious rust holes, so hopefully, much of the sheet metal itself may still be fairly solid.
The front section of the interior could use a good cleaning, as the seats are somewhat dirty, and unfortunately, the carpet is probably beyond saving. However, the more important rear area still appears to be in pretty nice shape, at least from the perspective we get to view. It’s too bad that the owner says he’s hanging onto the casket, so you’ll have to visit your favorite funeral home and buy another one. A better idea might be asking the seller to reconsider, and maybe see if he’ll change his mind and include the existing coffin.
The hearse is said to run, drive, and stop, with the 350 engine sputtering a bit and making some valvetrain noise. There’s no photo supplied from under the hood, but a few newer parts are said to have been installed, including a water pump, radiator, master cylinder, and brake lines. Since this one will probably be used sparingly and not provide very much long-distance travel, I’d probably do the bare minimum mechanically here, such as just rebuilding the carburetor and hoping for the best regarding the valve issue. Is this 1979 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight a specialty vehicle you’d be interested in adding to your collection?
This one’s a bit of an oddball as hearses go, being converted from a Ninety-Eight sedan it would’ve been downmarket from something fully coachbuilt on an extended-wheelbase professional car chassis (which Oldsmobile offered in the ’60s and earlier in the ’70s, not sure if they still did by ’79) but upscale of a station wagon conversion in a way that nobody outside the funeral business really noticed or cared about.
Some people would be dying (sorry) to own a hearse like this, but I’m not one of them. It already looks half dead (again, sorry). Besides, the fact it comes with a coffin scares me. What if there’s someone inside?
Qualifies for the carpool lane.
Sorry folks, the moose (ad) should have told you, he’s keeping the coffin.
I had a hearse. 1972 Cadillac, with a 472. Circa 1991-1993, last year of college, first 2 years of law school). Learned a lot working on that car but had a lot of fun memories. You will always have a good time with a hearse.
I’ve told this story before, but my favorite was over the course of 24 hours. my band (we were a jazz band, think David Sanborn), and we had a gig in Ann Arbor at the art fair. We played great, we were on the radio, we went over great, it was a beautiful day, and we had an evening gig in Cleveland at a yacht club.
As we load up to go to Cleveland, the exhaust falls down. So we go to a sorority house, and borrow a bunch of wire hangers, and we string up the exhaust.
So all the way to Cleveland, the keyboard player (who drove the car to the gig, because I had to work in the Morning) is saying “We’re gonna die, this thing will never make it, I almost died driving it this morning, this is insane….”
After about 2 hours of this, We arrive at the yacht club in Cleveland. It’s their annual summer bash, and it was sponsored by BMW. The parking lot was cleared, because that was the main area of the party. So imagine a sunny day, beautiful yachts in in the harbor, new BMWs were ringing the parking lot on display, and all of the beautiful people in their summer party attire, milling around.
And here we come in a primer grey, nasty old 1971 Cadillac hearse, into the middle of all of this splendor.
Glasses drop, the initial look of fright on these people’s faces. What an entrance!
The keyboard player looks at me and says “Jon, forget everything I said – this was an EXCELLENT idea!!”
And, as a post-script, the people there loved the car, loved the band, they couldn’t have been any nicer and cooler folks, they took us on the boats, it was great. Cleveland Rocks indeed…
Great story, thanks!
Many, Many More stories:
1. Taking my granny to the doctor’s office for a checkup (“Park it in the back, it’s not good for business, but I’ll tell them that you’ll move it up front if they if they don’t take me right away…”)
2. Working at the Courthouse, and everyone coming in saying “What the hell is up with that hearse in the parking lot?” and explaining that it was mine…
3. Moving my sister from Chicago and fixing the suicide door with a stack of Quarters and duct tape;
4. Learning that the only reason that I had intermittent electricity was that the ground strap had rusted in half, but both ends were touching the exhaust pipe;
5. Determining that it got 12 MPG going downhill with a tailwind and idling, or going uphill fully loaded at 80 mph into a hurricane;
6. Arguing with the police that it wasn’t a hearse but a Cadillac station wagon, because local ordinance prohibited parking commercial vehicles in the driveway (probably shouldn’t have left it on jackstands for a few days while I replaced the starter…);
7. Selling the car to a guy that does drywall; he insisted that we include the rollers for the caskets (it actually was really clever);
8. Seeing the car a few years after I sold it, but due to sheer coincidence, I had several thousand dollars in my pocket, but the car was going the other way, and by the time that I could turn around to chase the guy down and buy it back, I lost him…
How does a cars doors and bottom half of rear quarter have surface rust like this ?
Right and left left tail lamp lenses different? Did the back door swing too wide and break the right one?
Mike, the pic of the doorjam vincard says Miller-Meteor was the manufacturer
Wow, at that price I’m almost ready to jump and buy a one way plane ticket and have the seller just meet me at the airport then attempt to drive it the 2000+/- miles home. The question then becomes what would I do with it once I get it here.