Station wagon ambulances

poe

my curiosity got me and i called mrs. juanell bill, wife of r.s. bill jr. president and founder of the Volunteer Mercy Corps here in houston. she stated that it was in the parking lot and not in the building and that they (and my fathers company) were on the scene as they didn't know how many were dead. she said she would look tomorow at the pic and let me know. she is 80 now and still as sharp as ever. ill see...
 
Rick Franklin said:
Now youse guyz have really done it! All i gotta do now is find a 60's era Station wagon & buy period correct emergency lighting and a siren and Im set.
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Well for starters, Rick, that '59 Ford wagon pictured above would be nice. They were very popular here in West Texas. Ellis Funeral Home here replaced their '54 Ford wagon with a '59 Ford. Ellis' units were always plain-Jane. The Ford had a single red 17 beacon on top and an S8B Siro-Drift siren under hood. River- Welch F.H. in Big Spring also ran a '59 Ford wagon. It had a single 174 beacon on top and a C4B siren underhood. But Chapel of the Roses in Odessa had the nicest of the '59 Fords. It had a roof-mounted Q flanked by four red DoRay lollipops and a red 17 behind the Q. But Thomas F. H. here in Midland put everyone to shame in 1959 when they replaced their '56 Ford sedan-delivery ambulance with a new chocolate brown '60 Ford sedan-delivery ambulance. They equipped it with a roof-mounted Q flanked by twin red 17s and a pair of 6" red Unity lights that were cowl-mounted. This was the first ambulance in this part of West Texas to sport twin beacons. Mason Funeral Home in Post, TX, also had an ambulance with twin beacons. This one Steve Loftin would love: a 1959 Plymouth wagon with standard shift and overdrive. It had a roof-mounted Q flanked by twin red 17s. When James Mason exited the ambulance business in 1973 I tried my best to talk him out of the Plymouth, but he wouldn't budge. Sadly a few years later when James passed away, the funeral home was taken over by his cousin Dee Justice, who stripped the Plymouth and gave the beacons and Q to the Post F.D. and gave the Plymouth to one of their employees.

It would be nice to see a front shot of that '59 Ford above. Kyle: Do you recognize that car?
 
Kyle Martin said:
my curiosity got me and i called mrs. juanell bill, wife of r.s. bill jr. president and founder of the Volunteer Mercy Corps here in houston. she stated that it was in the parking lot and not in the building and that they (and my fathers company) were on the scene as they didn't know how many were dead. she said she would look tomorow at the pic and let me know. she is 80 now and still as sharp as ever. ill see...
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Now that's a name I haven't seen in a very long time, Kyle: Ransom Bill, Jr. I had forgotten that he was founder of the Mercy Corps.
 
Question for the people in the know: Are these station wagon based ambulances considered professional cars per our definition and if someone were to make a replica of a station wagon ambulance now, would it be allowed to be entered in our International Meet?
 
a home made wagon would fit into the conversion class. there is no distinction between factory conversions as say the Studebaker's or ACC were no major body modification were made or something that a home town crew put together.
 
Steve Lichtman said:
'63 ACC Buick, Eastport VFD, Annapolis, MD

(from Facebook)
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Nice rig, Steve. Unusual to see the stock luggage rack on an Amblewaon, though.

Maples Funeral Home in Kermit, TX, had a pretty baby blue '63 Buick Electra wagon that was their ambulance for many years, until Oscar Maples died in 1973. It had a very old 66G siren roof-mounted, and it was flanked by four red Federal FS3 single-faced lights and a red 17 behind the siren.
 
Skip,
Probably an Invicta wagon, as I believe that the Invicta wagon was still the "top of the line" station wagon in '63. I know that Buick wasn't doing an Electra wagon in '60.
 
That's possible, Kurt. But I always thought it was an Electra. I almost ended up with it. Oscar Maples and I were good friends for many years, and I got a letter from him one time that stated that if anything happened to him: retirement or death, whichever came first, I'd get the Buick.

When I found about about his death in '73, I sent his wife a note of condolence and let her know that I'd come over to Kermit when I got home on Christmas break....just a few weeks away at the time. She was well aware of Oscar's wishes, since she was the one who typed his letters.

But when I got to Kermit, the car was gone. She said that she knew that I was supposed to get the car, but she simply needed the money. Our first out rig at the time was a '65 Olds VistaCruiser, so that Buick would've made an excellent second-out unit.
 
Rick Franklin said:
Question for the people in the know: Are these station wagon based ambulances considered professional cars per our definition and if someone were to make a replica of a station wagon ambulance now, would it be allowed to be entered in our International Meet?
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We do have a conversion class which would include station wagon ambulances like this.

That said, it would be my sincere hope that nobody would "make a replica". We should be in the business of preserving the actual historic professional cars, rather than "making" new ones.

I have two that fit this category. There are several others out there, with documented histories.
 
Steve Lichtman said:
We do have a conversion class which would include station wagon ambulances like this.

That said, it would be my sincere hope that nobody would "make a replica". We should be in the business of preserving the actual historic professional cars, rather than "making" new ones.

I have two that fit this category. There are several others out there, with documented histories.
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How would making a replica of one of these be any different than Jon Van der Mark's "replica" of a Military ambulance that he created from the combo that he had (67 Pontiac)? And how would you know that a station wagon ambulance presented at a show was the real thing as opposed to being a re-creation unless the owner told you?
 
That's a very interesting conversation... Should we consider another category of "clones" cars just like our fellow cop car lovers have? On their side they take a standard sedan and re-build, paint, set lights'em like a real police car.... Including recently modified station wagon-Suburban-Econoline-etc-- ambulances, home-made hearses like the lincoln I saw on facebook, modified combos as ambulances like John Van der Mark's Pontiac. Just asking.
 
Just to be clear, Im not trying to start a war here. Im merely asking questions to clarify in my mind what is acceptable and what is not.
 
if you wanted to do the documentation and build a clone period correct it would be acceptable. in the conversion category. vary few of these type have survived as most had the equipment pulled and then went back to wagons. most were stop gap conversions to cover the period from when the need was there till the service was up and running and could buy better equipment. but if a man could acquire a few pictures you could clone one.
 
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