I'm driving through town today and I see this car that looks like a ElCamino and the closer I get it still looks like an ElCamino but it turns out to be a Cadillac. This is the only picture I could get before my camera took a crap on me.
Looks like a flower car. Coach builders built them for funeral homes. Remember in the movie "Blues Brothers", Cab Callaway drove a '55 Caddy flower car.
Some of the coach builders made them, they were called flower cars. You can see some in the Godfather movies.
It's also possible it's a flowercar. can't tell from the angle. A lot of the coachbuilders for Funeral coaches built Flowercars that would take the flowers to the funeral in the procession. The Caddy "El Camino's" (I can't remember the proper name-used to) later on weren't until the 70's. Which were also conversions but "professional" conversions. LOL. So I think it's a flowercar or possibly a homemade conversion. Hope this helps. (oops-after I posted this, I realized the answer came while I was writing. Ah well.)
Here's one more pic. The flower car makes sense now, I do remember seeing those in the Godfather movies now. It's pretty cool though, I've never seen one before.
Judging by the P1800 along side I'd say it was a home grown shortened 4 dr. Most of the flower cars had fancy chrome rails.
The guy who owns Sugarhill in Fresno owns one. He had some info on it I think. I'll touch base with him and see what he says. I remember he said his came with a camper on it. Rod
The Volvo has been there for quite awhile, both cars are at a local mechanics shop. The Caddy just showed up today. I'm wondering if it doesn't belong to the guy who owns the funeal home that's in the background of the pic. I'll have to ask him next time I see him since he's also my neighbor.
I think that's someone's attempt at making a CadCamino and not a professionally manufactured flower car. I used to work in the "Death Industry" and had a mess of trade magazines for the hearse and flower car community. They were much better finished than that one, and usually had a wide chrome or stainless surround around the lip of the whole rear "bed" (and the bed was not as deep or as big as an Elcamino's bed would be). Flower cars were a regional thing. They might have used them in one state and not the next, or even may have used them in one big city in one state and not in another big city in the same state. Some people from out of state who came to funerals in the Boston area in the 60's (when flower cars were still widely used, their use started to fade by the mid 70s) had never seen a flower car before.
That does not look like a flower car. As mentioned most were more garrish and they almost always had the raised roof like the hearse. And all the ones I have see were also on the longer commercial chassis. It is still cool and I would love to have it for a shop truck.
The more I look at the back "window" on that thing, the more it reminds me of the windshield that was on a 64 Chevy I had. Can anyone ID what windshield and windshield trim that is?
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