96 Yep a flower car, flower cars seem to be a east coast thing very few on the left coast . Can also be used as a hearse. Typically a low production amount . Number I have for this one is either 6 or 12 made in 96, Trying to pin down exact#s. Here is a 56 on E bay.
Interesting. I guess I never looked that closely at a flower car. I always thought they had more of a truck style bed for the flowers and the body rode in a regular hearse.
96 There were two types of long wheelbase coupe style flower cars... Eastern and Western, or Chicago style, as Chicago was where the Western style flower cars were most popular. Chicago style cars had a large open well, with no deck, but often had a canvas device like a tarpaulin which could be suspended at different levels in the well. They also had the usual rear loading door or tailgate, and it wasn't uncommon for them to have a pair of casket rollers mounted in the door sill. If there was any hardware on the floor of the well, it was usually skid strips, with no rollers. A Chicago style flower car could be used as an open top casket car if desired, as the boot could be raised, and usually had to be raised before opening the rear loading door, and this provided access to load a casket into that compartment.
Wow! Dan, Flower cars really dropped off of the map in the 1980s when a lot of folks stopped either having huge funerals or stopped sending loads of flowers. These cars also could be used as a hearse for the casket. The earlier flower cars were more open without the dedicated inside casket area. This is a very nice and versatile vehicle. Also, the back can be slanted to hold the flowers so it makes a nice display as you drive to the cemetary. My father's funeral home never had a flower car except as a trade-in to resell. We just stuck the flowers into the hearse alongside the casket. A really nice car with an interesting color. Thanks for saving it and sharing with us!
