Hi all, new member, new ride. How valuable is this?

[photozz]

Hi there! First time hearse owner. I just bought a beautiful 91 caddy hearse. It's blue inside and out, has the 4.9 liter and with only 47,000 miles. It runs great and so far the only repairs I have had to do are new hood lifts and a radio. I added a nice pioneer, but I made sure I did absolutely no cutting of the dash or the harness. A factory original could be put back in easily.

This Hearse apparently has something of a legacy. It was originally purchased and put in service at Forest Lawn in CA for about 10 years before somehow making it's way to Milwaukee where I purchased it. The dealer was able to give me the original registration. No idea who may have been
in it.

Nothing else is really wrong beyond re-gluing some lose weather stripping. The interior is nearly pristine and the exterior only has a few nicks. Not bad for 21 years old.

My question, Considering its age, history and condition, what would be a fair market price for something like this? I'm only interested as I'm considering carefully adding a rear seat (saving all the deck parts and such, no cutting), but I would hate to risk messing something up if this was a seriously valuable car.



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[travlinman]

Prices seem to be all over the place. First off, I'm sure opinions will vary on what seriously valuable means. My guess average would be about $2500 tops. Adding a back seat may help or hurt Ya, depending on what the next buyer would want. It's been done many times, for different reasons. Would be tricky installing a rear seat with no drilling. The market is full of 91s, I personally wouldn't want any holes in any of My cars, but that's up to You.

[60Crown]

Welcome to the NHAA.

As Ray stated, values vary. Generally speaking, late '70s to early '90s are among the most abundant and least desirable. (Of course there are exceptions to any rule, this year range included: downsized ambulance, 3-way, Eureka Town Car, etc.) Condition is everything and you do have a Cadillac, which helps slightly. Many have had a difficult time selling in the $1500-2k range, so I have a tendency to agree with Ray on value.

Forest Lawn's fleet is navy.

[hotroddwayne]

Being it's a front-wheel-drive it has no real value to 99% of us who collect hearses. I have a few friends who bought one as a secondary hearse, mainly for fuel economy or to have a daily driver and keep their classic coaches for weekend cruising & shows.
Who built it? Looks like Miller-Meteor landau bars... but appears to have a Superior Soverign emblem on the sail panel, or maybe even the Eureka emblem they started using in the late 1980's. Look for a coachbuilder tag under the hood if you're unsure, you'll need to determine who built it.
As for removing the casket floor without damaging anything, good luck with that. It's a coachbuilt car and was never intended to be taken back apart. Everything is hand built with templates and the floor is particle board with a formica skin, screwed/bolted down in about a million places on a box steel frame welded to the floor. Remove the underfloor access panels to see the structure that supports the floor to get a feel of how it's built. Most of us (myself included) will discourage you from "converting" it to a passenger car, it's a hearse not a family car and we like to keep them with the floor intact. I'm with Travelnman and pass up hearses with the casket floor removed/modified.
All our coaches have a rich history and were VERY expensive to buy new. Hearses are kept in pristine condition & garaged when in service because they represent the funeral home's business & must appear nice for funerals... however once they get a little age to them and it becomes apparent to customers it's an older model, they're used as a removal coach and later sold off for peanuts. After that it's a crap shoot once they fall into private ownership. Some get preserved, but most fall into neglect and the elements take their toll quickly. Ray is right on the money, it's a $2000 - $3000 coach if in excellent condition. Have fun with it for what it is and enjoy it for what it is. If I were you i'd leave the floor intact and have fun with it.
Our best advice to you: guard your glass WITH YOUR LIFE!!! That is commercial glass and coachbuilder specific, and a couple pieces of glass can run you more than you probably paid for the hearse... literally. You haven't lived until you've had to find a windshield or door glass for that car!

[photozz]

Good advice, and thank you so much for the responses. It is a Superior and all the glass is perfect I did poke around the deck a bit and I agree that there is going to be some cutting to get the deck out.

I think I'll ultimately go with the conversion for a few reasons:

I paid just over 2k for it, so it's not a huge investment in the long run.
From all your comments it's apparent that it is a very common model and not something that will accrue much in value.
The conversion may make it less valuable to a hearse enthusiast, but it may make it more valuable to someone looking for an unusual daily driver.
I tend to keep my cars for a long time, so resale is not a primary concern. I will drive them easily over 150k as long as they hold up.
This is going to be my daily driver (switching off with a 78 Mustang) and I have kids. I anticipate taking some trips, and the extra seating will be much appreciated
I'm a fairly decent multi-disciplined fabricator and I think I could do a nice enough job to make it look right without tearing everything up.

My main concern was that I didn't want to start modifying things if the Forest Lawn history and original condition added any real value. I'm the kind of guy who dies a little inside when I see them destroy rare cars just for a movie.

Thanks!

[ukdoa]

Hi Mate, got to agree with Hot Rod wayne... getting the deck out is a major task, I've managed to put two flip down seats in mine, and leave the deck in, so I can still take the family out, and get in my wooden coffin (with built in TV..) and my American style split-lid casket, if I wish, so I get the best of both worlds ( if you're interested, have a look at my website there is a video of it, and how it looks www.creepy-cruiser.co.uk ). My seats came from a Daimler DS from a local breakers yard and I retro-fitted them.... maybe something to consider, though everybody has other ideas.. I'm not a fan of Limo-style conversions, unless they are converted correctly, because they were never intended to to carry more than one one person and a casket in the back, so again, major alterations to the suspension geometry need to be carried out, and heavy duty tyres (sorry UK spelling ...tires..!) need to be fitted.


Make sure you insure your coach as a classic, with FULL windshield insurance, mine had a crack in when it arrived and cost me £1,700.00 (roughly $2,700.00) to import from the States. and two years to find one, beware.... drive it like you stole it, and enjoy. Good luck & keep us posted, from a warm and sunny (now there's a change...!) UK.

[sgath92]

If you're using it as general transportation you probably won't be able to insure it as a classsic. I don't know of an insurance company that sells classic policies that is ok with using the car as your only car, or to go to work every day, etc. Now some of these companies will tolerate it if you drive a car insured as a classic to work on a nice sunny day, but my understanding is if you end up in an accident in rush hour on your way to work in the middle of a blizzard you're going to have some explaining to do.

We have some cars insured through Grundy and I forget if they wanted each driver to have one car insured as a normal driver, or if they wanted us to have one car insured normally for each car insured through them as a classic. Either way with three classic cars & three drivers in one household that would have meant no less than six cars at any given time.

[Beast Lee]

Welcome, and just enjoy your ride, do what you want with it... It's a fun car to take to the dragstrip as well, got mine to run an 18 sec. 1/4 mile with a solid copper casket in the back...

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