Canadian Eureka Facts and Opinions

I should also mention that Mason City is only about 2 hours south-west of Rochester, MN, if any of you are interested in taking a day trip down there to check some of these cars out while at the PCS meet this year. They have a crazy number of '80s and early '90s coaches in inventory, and all have been stored inside for many years.
 
I have a 85 Buick RWD Eureka and it has bondo falling out of the tops of the rear quarters. I talked to Charlie Butler years ago about it and he said I was wasting my money to repair it. He said when the cars were newer and he would get them in on trade he would spend good money to fix them only to have them recrack while they were sitting on the lot waiting to be sold. Also, another local firm had a black 85 Oldsmobile and it had the same problem. They bonded the fiberglass top to a steel bottom and I don't think there is much you can do!
 
hmmm thats strange because I have NO bondo at all on my 87 Cadillac fwd. I have had it up in the air and looked, I even took out the side interior of the back out and looked nothing ...no cracks nothing paint in good shape ...maybe its a RWD problem ?
 
No putty (that I know of) or cracks in my Eureka Pontiac RWD either. Ive had the inside panels off too, and it has no cracking from the inside of the fiberglass either.
 
The roof and rear quarters panels are made of fiberglass and they were joined up under the vinyl top so if there was any putty it would be under the vinyl top. like I said my 87 is good

Anyways in my mind the 80's Eureka's were a well buit and good looking Professional Car

some people love them ( like Me ) and some people hate them
but in the end no matter who the Coachbuilder was

WE ALL LOVE PROFESSIONAL CARS ! thats why we are here
 
Mike Boyer said:
hmmm thats strange because I have NO bondo at all on my 87 Cadillac fwd. I have had it up in the air and looked, I even took out the side interior of the back out and looked nothing ...no cracks nothing paint in good shape ...maybe its a RWD problem ?
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Mike, if your car is a 87 then it has a fiberglass cap and quarter panels. Thats why you do not have the problem. My 85 Eureka has steel quarters bonded to a fiberglass top. That is why they crack! I'm not sure when they went to the "all fiberglass" top and quarters but from what I've seen maybe late 85 or 86? This solved the problem. Like I said, our local Eureka dealer told me this was a big problem back in the day and I'm sure it hasn't improved as these cars age. They made a very nice looking car but the earlier ones didn't hold up very well.
 
Not meaning to start any controversy, but the quarters on mine are steel and rusty steel at that on my 84. Is anyone tossing the RWD and FWD cars in the same barrel? Maybe because the FWD was such a different approach to pro-cars, the quality was better?
 
Mike Boyer said:
is there any way of getting them to post some picture of what they have on here ?
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I would doubt it as they don't even try to market them locally as drivers. They told me that they had sent around 15 coaches to the shredder down the street(all at once) several years ago. All of these coaches had money put into them years ago when they first took them in on trade.
 
Peter Jennings said:
Not meaning to start any controversy, but the quarters on mine are steel and rusty steel at that on my 84. Is anyone tossing the RWD and FWD cars in the same barrel? Maybe because the FWD was such a different approach to pro-cars, the quality was better?
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My Pontiac is all fiberglass. The 82 Eureka cad I used to have was steel bonded to the glass top and never had any trouble with cracks there either. And it was pretty rough on the lower doors when I got rid of it.
 
I believe that the change-over to the one-piece cap that included A-pillars and rear quarter panels was made as a runnning production change in early 1985.The prototype FWD cars had steel quarter panels but few or none of the production cars featured steel quarters. The stamped steel quarter panels were completely abandoned for the most part sometime in 1985 on RWD cars and after the initial prototypes on the FWD cars. Early on, the company had problems with stress cracks at the head of the A-pillar on the half-roof d' Elegance models and the incorporation of A-pillar caps into the roof structure eliminated this problem. Unlike competitive brands, every Eureka was completely Ziebart rust-proofed (you gotta remember the era in which these cars were built - rust was a big problem - especially for professional cars.) - even the ones that had composite quarters. Not only did this supposedly inhibit rust in the doors and rockers, it added an additoinal layer of sound-deadening to the vehicles. Unlike competitive cars, you'll see very few rusty Eurekas. The company worked tirelessly to eliminate problem areas and correct any items discovered that caused problems. Thery were also covered by the finest and longest warranty in the industry.
 
Mike Boyer said:
is there any way of getting them to post some picture of what they have on here ?
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Most likely not. Ive tried quite a few times, (and so has my girlfriends Dad, which worked there along with other family), to get them to post them on a site. I even offered to wash the years of dust off of them, photo them so they could put them on a site. They had no interest at all in doing it. There is not really no advertising for the place, many locals don't even know the hearses are there, or for sale. I have bought a couple coaches from them, and you can get a good deal sometimes on the newer stuff that just comes in, but many of the 80s cars have sat for many years, most at least 10 that I know of, so plan on them needing mechanical and brake work. I know they even had some Collins coaches in there, unless they scrapped them when they junked some out a few years ago.
As mentioned, its best to call their salesman that Chuck listed in a previous post and tell him what you are looking for.
 
You guys have to keep in mind also, the stress cracks is not just happen on Eurekas. Ive seen stress cracks on about every coachbuilder since the demise of the commercial chassis in 1984. Ive even seen them in coaches just a few years old.
Ryan, yours does look bad. I don't think Ive ever seen one like that. It may have been poor prep of some kind for the repaint, or this car was drove hard in its life, or wrecked.
 
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Ryan. don't get mad, but my 84 looks this bad too, hense my decision to make a zombie hunter car out of it. Damage was way beyond my skill level and wallet!
 
not as bad as all that. but the problem is if you can't do it your self finding some one that will. most shops just won't touch one for about 10,000 reasons.
the bad part is were the water has gotten in and the rust has started. it will creep between the filler and the steel and you end up replacing the whole mess. the stress cracks can be plowed out and refill with little effort. as long as the filler is solid on either side all you need to do is cut down the length of the crack and refill the trough you just made.
 
Peter Jennings said:
Ryan. don't get mad, but my 84 looks this bad too, hense my decision to make a zombie hunter car out of it. Damage was way beyond my skill level and wallet!
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Our 85 is really bad as well. The car was purchased used in 1991 and the quarters had already been fixed atleast once.
I remember going with Carl Woerner to pickup a coach back in the mid-90's in northern Ohio. A very sharp dark blue 82 Buick Eureka with the half painted top. By the time we got back to Cincinnati with it the coach had a huge crack down the right rear quarter panel under the vinyl roof. I remember Carl saying "well thats a Eureka for you". It was a shame, that was such a good looking coach. It was shortly after that when Charlie Butler shared his horror stories with us about spending thousands of dollars only to have them re-crack just sitting waiting to be sold.
 
The more I hear the more Im wondering if I got lucky on the two I have had! I do know when I took my Pontiac to Flint, Tom was pretty impressed on how well it looked...maybe there is something to that comment.
I know my 85 Superior FWD was cracked on top of the quarters where the roof was joined. I had it fixed, the body shop said it would do it again in about 6 months. Almost to the day it was cracking again. I then took it to a shop that specializes in fixing and restoring hearses and building ambulances, had them fix it, and 10 years later, close to 100,000 miles, and hasent cracked yet.
 
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