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I think what you have is built by the Collins Coach co
Collins got into the funeral car business in late 1982. Its first ads featured artwork of a short wheelbase Cadillac sedan conversion, and I've heard that it built one such car and showed it at a funeral directors' convention, where it didn't go over well. Not long after that, it introduced a pair of Cadillac hearses on extended chassis, with the stretch being done either at the B or C pillar, and the tail extended. The timing was right for those cars, because dealers who took on Collins as a secondary line were able to sell a lot of those cars in the next few years.
The two legendary 1983-1984 Miller-Meteor three-door Eldorado hearses were the brainchild of Spencerville, Ohio's Jack Hardesty, the owner of a small funeral home supply company called the Barron Corp. Hardesty was also Lima, Ohio's first sports and imported car dealer and went on to found the Lima Coach Co, a hearse conversion company that specialized in Dodge Caravans.
When Miller-Meteor went out of business in 1979, Barron Corp. purchased the trade name of the once-famous coachbuilder. He also owned the local Ziebart franchise, and most of the work on the second Eldorado was done in the large Ziebart shop. Bud Bayliff assisted Hardesty in building and engineering the first 1983 Eldorado prototype which was constructed at Bayliff's Lima, Ohio body shop.
In late 1984 Hardesty sold the rights to the Miller-Meteor trade name along with the tooling for the Eldorado coaches - which also happened to fit Cadillac's new 1985 front-wheel-drive DeVilles - and the second 1984 Eldorado prototype to Collins Industries of Hutchinson, Kansas. Hardesty's front drive tooling was the basis for the 1985 Collins-built Miller-Meteor-Cadillac front drive coaches which were produced in Hutchinson through 1992.
Like Eagle in Amelia, Collins kept working at it and developing, and eventually introduced an all new side servicing hearse in the late '80's. In 1992, it was purchased by the parent company of Eureka in Norwalk, Ohio, and production was moved to Norwalk. By that time, the hearse division had been spun off from the rest of Collins for some time.
google collins hearse and look for pics i found a few that the rear looks about the same
Collins got into the funeral car business in late 1982. Its first ads featured artwork of a short wheelbase Cadillac sedan conversion, and I've heard that it built one such car and showed it at a funeral directors' convention, where it didn't go over well. Not long after that, it introduced a pair of Cadillac hearses on extended chassis, with the stretch being done either at the B or C pillar, and the tail extended. The timing was right for those cars, because dealers who took on Collins as a secondary line were able to sell a lot of those cars in the next few years.
The two legendary 1983-1984 Miller-Meteor three-door Eldorado hearses were the brainchild of Spencerville, Ohio's Jack Hardesty, the owner of a small funeral home supply company called the Barron Corp. Hardesty was also Lima, Ohio's first sports and imported car dealer and went on to found the Lima Coach Co, a hearse conversion company that specialized in Dodge Caravans.
When Miller-Meteor went out of business in 1979, Barron Corp. purchased the trade name of the once-famous coachbuilder. He also owned the local Ziebart franchise, and most of the work on the second Eldorado was done in the large Ziebart shop. Bud Bayliff assisted Hardesty in building and engineering the first 1983 Eldorado prototype which was constructed at Bayliff's Lima, Ohio body shop.
In late 1984 Hardesty sold the rights to the Miller-Meteor trade name along with the tooling for the Eldorado coaches - which also happened to fit Cadillac's new 1985 front-wheel-drive DeVilles - and the second 1984 Eldorado prototype to Collins Industries of Hutchinson, Kansas. Hardesty's front drive tooling was the basis for the 1985 Collins-built Miller-Meteor-Cadillac front drive coaches which were produced in Hutchinson through 1992.
Like Eagle in Amelia, Collins kept working at it and developing, and eventually introduced an all new side servicing hearse in the late '80's. In 1992, it was purchased by the parent company of Eureka in Norwalk, Ohio, and production was moved to Norwalk. By that time, the hearse division had been spun off from the rest of Collins for some time.
google collins hearse and look for pics i found a few that the rear looks about the same
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