Call me superstitious but I usually eschew covering a hearse – bad mojo in my book. I made an exception in the case of this 1954 Pontiac as I’m thinking to the future and what this vehicle can be, not what it once was. That said, it’s a project and is going to need a lot of work. Located in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, this one-time conveyance to the after-life is available, here on Facebook Marketplace for $3,000. Thanks to William T. for this tip!
My guess is that this Poncho started out as a mostly completed Chieftan station wagon before being sent to the Meteor Motor Company of Piqua, Ohio for professional car conversion into a hearse. Meteor, which got its start in 1915, initially manufactured its own chassis and bodies but by the ’30s migrated to GM’s professional car chassis which featured multiple wheelbase lengths. By the early ’40s, Cadillac became Meteor’s exclusive supplier. This Pontiac hearse was likely produced for Meteor by Economy Coach of Memphis, Tennessee who worked as a sub-contractor for Meteor and offered more budget-conscious professional cars. Once Pontiac discontinued its sedan delivery model in 1953, Economy/Meteor was forced to switch to Chieftain station wagons and that in turn drove up the cost of budget-focused professional vehicles. In 1956 Meteor merged with competitor A.J. Miller and the combined company became known as Miller-Meteor. The Miller-Meteor name was bought and sold a few more times and continued to adorn funeral vehicles until the early 2000s. The S&S Coach Company of Lima, Ohio is the closest existing professional car manufacturer that can trace any relationship back to Meteor or Miller-Meteor.
The seller of this Pontiac tells us, “No title, rough but definitely restorable, straight 8 *tight* skirts and moldings in the back,…” So, there are some unattached parts in the rear and the unphotographed 122 HP, 268 CI, straight-eight cylinder engine sounds as if it may be seized (*tight*). The standard three-speed manual transmission is in place as opposed to the optional Hydramatic automatic.
There is a lot of obvious surface rust and some of it looks like it’s more serious and has moved on to the perforation stage. Beyond that, this car appears to be fairly sound and complete but I’d definitely want to see the underside. The fact that the trim is either all still in place or included in the sale is encouraging, Even the grille, in spite of the rust and tarnish, looks straight and unkissed. I wonder if that Pontiac illuminated Indian head hood ornament still works.
The interior has fared the worst. The driver’s side foot well is badly rusted through, the upholstery and door panels are pretty well destroyed and it looks as if someone has been prying on the instrument panel. As for the departed compartment, it looks like it too has departed – no worries there as in my plan I’d gut all of it.
OK, so it’s what to do with it time. I’d go with a Pontiac V8, something like a 455 CI and a 4L80-E automatic transmission. Bucket seats and a center console up front and opposite-facing bench seats in the rear. My goal would be to steer it toward a slammed sedan delivery vibe and wash the hearse personality away completely. Effort and expense? Yeah, a bunch of both, maybe too much for what’s here. Dream on, right?
Dreaming on. After all that work what do you do with it?
Bury it with the dead 💀
Sorry its in bad shape so leave it be 😉
Its sold. That hood Ornament was probably worth $1000 or more but this would have been a fun rig to get back on the road and just enjoy having it at the car shows
I had a hearse my last year in college and through most of grad school. It was a 1973 caddy with a 472, primer grey.
My grandmother thought it was hilarious, and once, I took her to the doctor’s office it. She made me part it in the back, because “it’s bad for a doctor’s business to have a hearse out front.”
She was awesome. She went inside, and told the receptionist that she has to go next, otherwise she’s going to have me park it up front.
They are remarkably practical cars…
Ah, someone besides me. Three of us Freshmen went together and bought an old ’48 Cadillac hearse, grey over black, that turned out to be the best party wagon ever. Big couch across the back, casket in the middle with ice chest in one end and the booze in the other. After football games parties, spring breaks, and any other excuse we had for a party. Was certainly practical for us! Great story Jonathan.
We had a doctor that had a Cadillac hearse and would make house calls in it.
Sounds like my kind of doctor. With that delightfully twisted sense of humor, you’d have to be pretty sure of yourself.
Hearse body is the rarest configuration of all, priceless if restored STOCK.
If the motor’s toast, slide in a trusty
350/turbo 400 with all the modern
conveniences and call it a day. Next,
address the rust issues you have, redo the interior, cover the body in a
tasteful of dark blue or grey, and then
get ready to make $70K a year doing
cadaver transport. You’ll recoup your
investment within say 5 years or so.
Provided you can find good honest
repairmen in your area to whip the body and interior into shape. If you
swap the drivetrain yourself, you could drive it to those shops and let
them do the rest. Cool car, haven’t
seen one of these, but I have seen a
few conversions by National Coach
and Henry too.
In my city hearses have their own culture, like camaro or mustang people. There are hearse clubs, hearse parades, and hearse car shows. There were at least two houses that I remember that had 3-4 old hearses in the driveway at any time…
Just gotta replace the wreath with a porthole for the full meteor statement…
Had a 1960 hearse during college. Took it to festivals with friends piled in the back. Still had the rollers, velour seats, and sliding glass window to separate front and back.
Bought it for $200. Sold it for $200
As a Younger Adult I actually had a 54 Pontiac Hearse, was baby blue a straight eight and a three on the tree, had a whole in the block to dump oil in but ran great, ended up parking it at Easy Eds Junk yard in Atlantic Iowa, think I paid 100 bucks for it and gave it away
This is not a hearse but rather a first call car.
This is the vehicle that showed up to remove the body from the house to take it to the mortuary.
While the hearse just moved the box, this car did the heavy lifting.
Also, you are not going to find a rarer car than this. very few were made compared to the funeral coach.
Miguel,
You beat me to the comment! Yes, this IS a funeral home service car, and it’s exceedingly rare, perhaps the only ’54 Meteor service car remaining. The easiest way to spot a Meteor service car is the lack of rear side doors, and of course no side windows from the B post back. Hopefully that missing belt line stainless steel strip is in the car, as it’s different compared to the hearse or ambulance, as those pieces are shorter due to the door gaps at each end of the strips. [I know because I had a ’53 Meteor service car 40 years ago.]
Service cars were used by funeral homes for many jobs, including picking up the deceased at the home or hospital, visiting the casket supplier when a special unit was needed right away, but probably the number one use was delivering and removing all the equipment needed for a gave-side service, including the floral displays, folding chairs, fake green grass carpeting, casket lowering device, and in bad weather even the canvas canopy over the open grave.
Today many of these items are generally supplied by the cemetery, but in the 1950s many burials were in small church yards, so funeral homes had their own grave site equipment.
Here’s a photo of what the original Economy Coach service car looked like for 1951.
1972
Dad told me to look for my first car and he’d loan me the money.
Mom and dad gave me my first car ride from the hospital to home when I was 4 days old in their ‘49 Pontiac Star Chief.
I cried all day three years later when Dad traded it in for a ‘56 Buick Special.
That Pontiac was like my first car so….
I found a ‘52 Pontiac Meteor hearse for sale down the road and was excited about it because it looked like my long gone ‘49 Pontiac with a party zone in back and Air Conditioning that worked!
Dad drove me down there to take a look.
He went silent while there, on the way home and in the driveway.
Finally I asked him what he thought.
He turned slowly toward me and slowly said: “I’d have to be dead and in the back of that thing if it were in this driveway’.
Two days later he found me a like new ‘67 Fairlane GTA in black/black for $1200.
Dad’s first car was a black ‘29 Model A Roadster DeLuxe so he was looking at similar but more modern cars….
I’ve been thankful to this day that Dad had more sense than me but today I’d love to own both.
This one would cost a small fortune to restore but a modern drivetrain and chassis would make a really cool Cars and Coffee statement.
Thank you to the commenters for filling in the history on these. The wreath really threw me off. I thought it was a 70’s porthole or somthing nasty. It would be a ton of money and cash, but definitely neat when done. I would also go with some lighter color.( I like Maroon). If it had the straight 8, that would cool but the exhaust manifolds are getting very hard to find from what I’ve seen and they crack. I like the 3 on the tree since my first car had it.-57 Chevy…
What to make out of this one is the question.
Since its so rare, maybe it’s worth $100k. It’s all about money..
TomP,
It’s often “all about demand”, not money.
Sometimes an item is rare because few people wanted it back in the day, and therefore it was rare in it’s day.
And today, that same item, because few people want it, is still rare and not valuable.
Additionally, sometimes an item was rare because of it’s original price, so high that few could afford it.
And today those expensive items are still in demand by those few with upper incomes, so they remain financially out of reach for most people.
But of course there are always exceptions.
Bill, hopefully somebody from the PCS will pick this up and add it to the family.
1982 or 83 I bought a 1968 Caddy Hearse directly from the funeral home -$50!! It wasn’t perfect, but I was 17 & it was mine! Someone had already put captains chairs up front & the rollers were long gone as well, they had put carpeting down in their place. I used it for big get together, parking it out front of wherever we were. Also used to go park it outside the fence of a local cemetery & open it up with red lights on inside. I lost reverse at some point doing a stupid reverse to drive drop while floored. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I still had it! 472, HUGE 4 Bbl. carb. 425 hp if I recall. Yes, the car was huge – most people didn’t know that it was fiberglass inboard of the “fins”, so it really wasn’t all that heavy. Cadillac Commercial Chassis with a “truck” rear axle. Suicide side doors, so pretty much 7-8′ when opened all the way up.
Awesome car
In 1968, after having had my 1st car for awhile, a 1930 Ford Model A, at the young and newly driver licensed age of 16, that I bought and loved a 1948 Cadillac field ambulance! At the same time, my brother got a ’54 packard hearse! And, we loved cruisin’ and showin’ off those cars to people who’d never seen nuthin’ like em! Wish I at least had pictures of them now.
thnx for the lill history. Love the coach builders. A fav is the Centurion and followed when changing hands, the moves around, economy surrounding them, products, employment numbers & such. All fun research, interesting relation to major manufacturer of the male (& model of course). All the companies, but the ones makin the van/pick up interest me as that was such an odd product.(The 1st 1 also made the 4dor Bronk).
https://www.thedrive.com/news/29638/pony-up-and-buy-this-totally-90s-ford-bronco-centurion-with-only-41000-original-miles