There is something morbidly alluring about a hearse. I’ve never owned one myself, but admittedly I’ve been tempted in the past. They can be a cheap, but strange way into classic Cadillac ownership. This particular coffin hauler was built by Miller Meteor and has been “upgraded” with a bumping stereo and neon lights. Apparently, the car was put together for a radio station by Phoenix Gold who traded the work for airtime. The station would use it for events in October and would park it in front of a haunted house they sponsored. That’s when the seller first saw the car and feel in love with it. This is the same guy who sold Hot Rod magazine the car they used to build the Thundertaker! As odd as this all may seem, there are at least a couple of very interested parties as evidenced by the comments in the Q&A section in the eBay listing here.
Here’s a shot of rear compartment all lite up! It does look like something that would fit right in at a Halloween party. I’m not sure what you would do with the rest of the year, but as the seller mentions, this could be a good buy for the right business. If you don’t have a commercial interest, perhaps you should get one so people don’t think you’re too weird. Either way, this does look like a nice one to take that final ride in. There are worse ways to spend your money and you can’t take it with you anyway, so why not?
Hey cool, it’s up.
The hearse I sold went to a private owner, who had Fuller build it into the Thundertaker, which is a hell of a car. Could write a bunch on that particular car.
This one is in *much* nicer shape than the car Thundertaker was built out of. It runs and drives nice, for instance. :)
For anyone wondering about a barn find connection, that’s basically where I picked it up. It had been parked for a couple of years under a car cover in the back of a huge warehouse the radio station owned. It needed a new alternator, and brake master cylinder, which I put on it and did some other small things to get it back on the road, and it’s been a great car since.
It spends part of the year stored in my own dry barn with my 69 Galaxie 500 wagon and UltraVan, under a car cover, and when the weather starts to warm up it gets taken out, washed, looked over, and put back into service cruising around town.
It may seem an odd vehicle, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun, and people really enjoy seeing it wherever it goes. It sure makes a hell of a shop stereo when it’s resting!
Thanks for lookin’ folks, and happy motorin’!
I read that a hearse is supposed to be one of the safest cars on the road because drivers won’t ride your bumper or play other road games with you.
That and cop cars. Drove a mad max art car for a while with stuff bolted all over it and people would see it in their mirror and think it had a light bar on the roof, and would give it a very wide berth.
The cops on the other hand had no idea what to make of that car. Man that thing was fun.
You wanna bet one of my friends was just about knocked off the road in his 73 Superior Cadillac… the guy in the other vehicle was flipping him off as he tried to run him off the road…
A blower sticking out of the hood and a few ghoulish graphics would make for a cool Halloween car show cruiser. I love it !!!
6-71 in the hood, massive flame thrower tail pipe, Alice Cooper mural, call it Blow Me
That’s actually what one of the guys that looked at it had in mind. He wanted to put a limo seat in the back (I recommend against that part, that slide out table is apparently the best one ever designed for professional cars. At the very least sell it to some other hearse owner.) He I guess already had some monster blown bigblock, Chevy I believe, that he was looking for a home for. That massive hood would look pretty awesome with a polished butterfly-intake drag scoop jutting out of it.
I bet this car would look outstanding in a full matte black vinyl wrap. Everything blacked out, trim, smoked lights, black tinted windows, with a big blower and scoop sticking out of the hood. Lower it on some airbags. It would be a very sinister looking car to have pull up beside you at some lonesome late night stop light. They actually make some pretty trick performance stuff for the 472 and 500 now days.
As a side note, I accidentally mis-clicked report on your comment. Sorry bout that. They really should have a little confirmation ‘do you really want to report this y/n’ safeguard on that.
It would make a Great Estate for a larger family
Im not into the Hearse thing, However locally there is a Hearse car club and they overall seem to have a really good sense of humor. Some play it straight and keep them relatively stock, some ham it up and have some fun with it including JackAss style stunts where coffins fall out the back and other pranks. They do cruises and shows.
However most of these weigh a ton, and get terrible gas mileage so kinda puts a damper on driving them much.
I drove a 91 Fleetwood Brougham for a few years and had a blast. First year parked it in front of my house and had a big Halloween party, years following I rented to local bars where they’d park it out front and my party’s tab would be covered……Driving in the carpool lane was cool, never got stopped. The best thing was going to Home Depot and picking up lumber, that’s 12′ of space back there. And YES I did sleep in the back on a few road trips, but be careful, there usually aren’t any door handles on the inside (guess you don’t need them)…..
I’ve camped in the back of the hearse before out at the auto swapmeet. It is remarkably quiet back there. The race track is right by a freeway and you can’t hear it at all. Of course, that could be a bunch of sound deadener to keep the stereo quiet. Either way, slept like the dead. :)
One thing a potential buyer would be wise to consider, is how heavy these really are. Tires should be truck types, as passenger car tires don’t have the load capacity. And your local garage will say that their lift groans when it attempts to put the hearse in the air.
In the wayback, a roommate had a retired hearse/ambulance that he loaned to me in exchange for my installing a new exhaust manifold gasket. It was fun, but then gas was less than $0.50 per gallon.
Probably too late to point this out, but as to storage of the car. It can sit in covered storage where I’ve had it parked the last few years for 30 days if paid in full at auction close. Any longer and there will be a storage fee to be worked out if that comes up.
I’d post this to ebay but apparently you can’t update questions or info on the auction page within 12 hours of auction close. That’s a bit annoying, but understandable why they do that.
Anyhow, happy bidding!
Years ago I worked in a couple local funeral homes. It takes a lot of driving experience with a hearse to NOT have an accident. They all are notoriously rear end heavy. When driving straight down a road you cannot made a sudden turn, left or right, or the rear end will come around on you very fast. I have seen two hearses totaled by drivers not being aware of a hearse’s strange roadability. They also take a lot longer to stop than a standard car. And……NO, you can drive in a car pool lane just because you have a passenger in the back !!
The car sold for $6k to a buyer in Ohio who is very happy to get it and claims it will remain mostly as it is other than changing the door panels.
Thanks a bunch BarnFinds, the traffic spike when the ad on here went up was pretty outstanding and the car would have sold if the first buyer hadn’t flaked. Technically, it did sell, and in large part I think the exposure from here was the cause.
Good job guys!