Six Pines Ranch & Farm Tours: Six Pines Ghostbusters' Car

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Six Pines Ghostbusters' Car

Ghostbusters For Hire: novelty photos!


James and Dan outside the BT Studios.

Remember the time when...

Families all have histories behind them. Why can't cars?

Our 1959 Collectors Dream Coach Cadillac S&S Ambulance / Hearse Combo by Sayers & Scovill was custom built for Owens-Brumley Funeral Home in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was built by the HESS & EISENHARDT Co., Rossmoyne, Ohio. This company also built specialty cars for presidents and heads of states. We have the "Limousine Style". This is the style that the Professional Vehicle Collectors want.

Image from Classic Car Projects.
Image from Classic Car Projects.

We have spoken with the 3rd generation of the original owners of our coach.

In those days funeral homes in Texas were required to provide ambulance service, emergency as well as transfer service from home to hospital and vice versa. There were rollers for a casket, as well as fasteners on the side to hold a wheeled cot securely. The windows allowed more light for the patient and helped them to feel less claustrophobic.

The Owens-Brumley Funeral Home staff and fleet, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1959.
(Our future Ghostbusters car is second from the right).

This car was originally purchased October 16, 1959 for $13,550. Quite a price back in those days. It was traded in when the miles were somewhere between 28 and 33,000. It was likely traded in back in 1964 or 1965. This car was purchased by a funeral home in New Mexico, Las Cruces. This was the company which purchased all of Owens-Brumley funeral cars as they had been maintained impeccably. I am still trying to locate them.

It was purchased by a fellow from Los Lunas, New Mexico. From 1983 to 2003 it sat waiting for us to find it for it to be restored. The miles on the odometer read 64,000. So another 31,000 miles had been put on it since 1964. That is only 1,600 miles a year! Motor has been completely rebuilt and runs like a charm.

Image from Classic Car Projects.
Image from Classic Car Projects.

The History on the Color of our Coach

In the late 1950's and early 1960's Funeral Homes tried glamour colors to keep with the time. So many painted their Hearses and Limousines Pink, Mint Green, Baby Blue and many other pastels.

The original color of our coach was Aqua Baby Blue.

Sayers & Scovill History

S&S was founded in 1876 by William Sayers and A.R. Scovill as the Sayers & Scovill Coach Company.

The funeral coach business was thriving at the turn of the last century and sharp competition helped create the superlative standards of craftsmanship and design excellence which have remained an S&S tradition to this day.

By 1906 the internal combustion engine was revolutionizing the funeral-carriage trade. Unsurpassed quality and engineering ingenuity enabled S&S to be the only firm to accomplish the motor-car changeover and still maintain its place in the industry and the marketplace.

Succeeding years saw the design of the professional car assume various appearances from ornate, lavishly carved panels to town car and limousine concepts. Always, the S&S name denoted leadership in quality, innovation and styling refinements.

Image from Classic Car Projects.
Image from Classic Car Projects.

Today, S&S is still recognized as the standard of excellence in the design and manufacture of funeral coaches and limousines. The vehicles are built in Lima, Ohio, under the Accubuilt Inc. corporate title.

Since 1876, Sayers & Scoville coaches have integrated unparalleled comfort, peerless structural integrity and an uncompromising commitment to safety.

We found our "gem" in November 2003 in Missouri and brought it home on a car dolly driven by our 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Yes, all 6,000 lbs of it was towed. To fill up with gas we had to unhook the car. It was quite a trip home. Several, several heads were turned our way.

Our coach is built on a Factory Cadillac Commercial Chassis, which were made until 1984 by Cadillac. After 1984 frames for Hearses and limousines were stretched by the Coach Builder.

The Restoration Project Begins...

From Missouri to Manitoba
The motor was loaded with a squirrel's nest.

The caddy looks rough inside...
Sanding the rough edges.

Ready to prime.
The caddy is primed.

Clean up.
Finding the long lost parts needed is heaven to a car restorer.

James pulling the dents.
Out of the garage and the first test drive on the road... Awesome!

Road warrior!

Introducing the fully restored 1959 Cadillac S&S Ambulance/Hearse Combo

Six Pines Ghostbuster's Cadillac

Watch for us on the road... Especially during October when we are on the search for paranormal activity!

Finished (and registered as "ECTO 1", of course)!
Mr. George Barris looking over restoration photos of James Thevenot's Ghostbuster car.
Mr. Barris, creator of famous cars such as the Batmobile, The Munster's Koach, The General Lee, KITT, and the DeLorean from "Back to the Future", informs James that he is quite lucky to have even located a car to be able to restore to the "ECTO-1".
These are very rare cars.
Mr. Barris congratulating James Thevenot while holding an autographed photo of James Thevenot's Ghostbuster car.

Feedback

Our car generates a lot of excitement, and it shows with some of the comments we've received...

I am speechless, you made a Masterpiece!!!! That Hearse didn't look that good in 1959 I'm trying to remain Professional, but the excitement is over whelming.
- Charles Owens (cousin to the family who originally owned the car), Owens Funeral Home, West Virginia, USA
Hi there, before I start I'd just like to say that your Ghostbusters Cadillac is 'stunning' and that you are very lucky to own such a vehicle.
I own a 1981 Back to the Future Delorean and a 1983 GMC A-Team van. I include a photo of the Delorean, the van is being refurbished as we speak.
- Chris Reynolds, United Kingdom