Whelp, he time has come to re-home my beloved 1973 Cadillac hearse. Moving to a smaller place and sadly for me I have to leave the Caddy with a new owner.
Great news though, hat owner could be you!
Here's the rundown on the car, t's a lot of text but the short version is it's a big cruiser with trivial cosmetic flaws and an awesome, rofessionally installed, tereo system.
This is a 1973 Cadillac Hearse. The body is by Miller Meteor and is all steel with a steel top.
It has been adult owned it's entire life.
All of the glass is in great shape with NO CRACKS, ncluding the windshield.
The Caddy has 96,473 miles on it which is on the high side for a hearse, ut on the low side for a car built in 1973.
The body is in nice shape and has NO structural rust. The frame and suspension, pring mounts, prings, tc are solid and still wears most of it's factory black paint, he underside of the body, ockers, teel roof, ater channels, ottoms of the doors, nbsp;etc are all solid. This was, believe, California car in it's previous life.
It has no rust holes that I've been able to find in 9 years of ownership with one small exception, hich is the lower vertical surface of the passenger side rear door.
I believe moisture at some point got behind the sound deadener tar mat the factory glued to the inside of the door and it made for some small bubbles that are now showing through the paint. This is not rust in the pinch welds, urves, r seams, t's a very odd place to have had it happen and to me, ooks like it's an easy fix. The other doors do not have this issue.
It has only recently started to show, nd unless you're looking for it it's not something you'd notice.
The bottom most seam of the doors have surface rust and some pitting, ut it's not rotted through and you have to literally crawl under the car to see them.
The floorpan is solid as it was when new.
The paint washes up nice, ut is by no means show quality and has some dings and chips here and there, amely on the back door. Please see the NOTE at the end of this write up about the back door.
Originally the car was Zodiac Blue (2328), 1971 Cadillac color and came from the factory with a crinkle painted steel top. It's worn many different paint schemes in it's life, ome of them pretty outlandish, nd now is gloss black on the top and body.
The engine is a 472 cu in V8 and is in every way factory stock. It has Factory AC that needs recharged (I never did it as Oregon never gets warm enough to need it). The heater core was bypassed when I got it, 'd guess it needs replaced.
It starts easy even after being in storage for a while. You'll want a large capacity battery for this big engine. There is an exhaust leak at the manifold gasket on one side. Only one of the cylinders, nd it quiets down after everything warms up. A correct set of replacement exhaust gaskets for both sides is included. It's not the manifold itself, ust the gasket.
It's not terribly cold blooded and runs smooth when it warms up. After 9 years it's probably time to give the carb a tune up but runs okay as is.
If it sits for a few months it may smoke a puff at startup but it clears right up and burns clean after a moment and won't happen again unless it's in storage for a long time.
The alternator, xhaust, ccessories and all are factory stock. The engine is not a giant grease ball like some old cars.
Automatic Transmission shifts and works fine as far as I can tell. I've never had issues with it.
Wheels are aftermarket aluminum Modern brand, ith Grand Am Radial GT P235/70R15 tires. Tires have full tread, o flat spots (never parked long enough to develop them) and look nice. I drive on them and they ride nice, ut they're about 10 years old at this point.
Now, bout THE STEREO.
The fun part about this car is that it was built in the early to mid 2000's for a local Clear Channel radio station, 100, nd was used at their October events and a massive haunted house they sponsored every year called Screamland.
I saw it when it was in service with them and thought it was just way too cool and bought it from the radio station when they decided to stop doing the haunt.
I was told by the station manager that when the car was built, hey traded air time for Phoenix Gold products (which used to be a Portland, regon company) for the equipment and install that went into the car, nd the level of quality from the install shows.
All of the wires, onnectors, peakers, mps, uses, tc are all Phoenix Gold brand.
There are 4 Tantrum 400.4 amps in a custom built enclosure that lights up green when the stereo is on, nd is housed behind a water jet cut acrylic Phoenix Gold script cover. A voltage display shows what the current battery voltage is, nd a bass adjust knob is hidden by one of the pillars for turning the boom up or down.
Custom speaker enclosures sit on top of the wheel well's in the rear and in two small cabinets by the back doors. There are 4 midrange, tweeters, nd 6 massive 12" subs built into the car. It sounds nice and clear and is quite the experience for a car stereo since it's one large sub box.
The stereo is not all boom, ike I said, t sounds like a large stereo that is set up well by design. I have not adjusted, weaked, r modified anything since I got it so it's as it was built.
The stereo head unit is an Alpine CDA-7893. It works okay, ut I think at this point it could stand to be replaced. The CD player portion has started to go twitchy sometimes and will drop one channel of the stereo.
I fully believe this issue is in that head unit since it's the one that was put in the car when it was built for the station. Also, modern unit with bluetooth is cheap and a direct swap.
The entire system has a plug in power source mounted behind the drivers seat. You plug it into an extension cord and it will fully power the stereo with the car parked and the engine off. It will also keep the batteries topped off. It's actually a really nice unit, ouldn't mind having one for my RV but it's part of the car, o goes with it. :)
I have no idea what they did for sound deadening, ut the car does not rattle or buzz when the stereo is in use. Like I said, t's a well done install and pre-dates the more modern trends of sticking video screens and overly flashy stuff all over the place. I love how stock the car looks on the outside other than the custom wheels. With the curtains drawn it almost looks like it could be in service.
The interior of the car has custom steel door panels that are cut to show the name of the haunted house Dr. Saitos Screamland and Phoenix Gold. I do not have the original door panels as they did not come with the car.
This is a table car with a table that slides a few feet out the rear of the vehicle to ease loading and unloading.
There are custom little PG bats dotted around the interior. The speaker grills for the subs are all metal and cut to resemble spider webs with the PG logo in the middle. It's pretty trick stuff. The front bench seat is in great shape, ecovered in red and black fuzzy fabric that matches the other red and black used in the interior. Headliner is in great shape. A couple spots on the door trim welting need glued back together. One of the sun visors didn't come with the car, ut I do have one in a small box of misc spare parts that goes with it so the other one could be made.
The dash is factory stock other than the stereo head unit, nd even has a factory accessory clock. There's one sun crack that could likely be repaired, therwise the dash pad is in good shape.
NOTE about the back door:The rear door, aint and window trim has some minor damage, ut at least has an amusing story to go with it.
The station manager told me Jay Leno had mentioned it in one of his amusing news clippings, ut I was never able to find proof of that.
At any rate, hat happened is that while the car was parked at the radio station one evening a cracked out tweaker decided he was going to loot a bunch of their mobile DJ vans. He stole stereos, roke windows, iled up speaker gear and then realized he couldn't haul all his new found riches with his spindly little arms so came upon the brilliant idea of stealing the hearse to truck it home (real subtle get away vehicle, al).
Well, ot being the brightest guy he first tried to pry the rear window out . This bent the aluminum and stainless trim a bit on one side, ut did not damage the glass itself. He tried to jimmy the door itself open, ut that wasn't happening. Finally the 4 watt bulb in his head dimly lit up and he popped the door lock tumbler and opened the door.
He then crawled over the casket in the back, o the front seat, here he got as far as popping the chrome thumb ring off the ignition (it's in the glovebox) before falling asleep in the drivers seat.
When the station crew came in the next morning, hey thought someone had put one of the haunted house dummies in it and didn't pay it much mind till someone noticed the dummy was breathing and screamed like a school girl and ran off to call the cops, ho stood there tapping on the window to wake up the passed out thief so they could arrest him.
No clue how he scratched the roof by the landau bars, ut the scratches are sanded a bit and touched up with primer now to prevent surface rust.
A body shop would have no problem fixing the trim and dings. I never did because answering questions about the back door were always too fun to pass up. :)
It was the easiest news story that station ever had to cover, ince it was in their parking lot. Local news stations did amusing interviews with the station staff but annoyingly I can't find those videos online any more. They were pretty funny.
I can however find the video for when the car was used in an award winning short film titled 'Take the Body and Run'.
That can be seenhere.

The real solid wood casket seen in the short film, nd one of a kind screaming dummy inside it, an go with the car if the buyer wants. I'd honestly rather keep it, ut it can be included. It's in pretty nice shape, as a window in the top to see the dummy, ut is otherwise un-modified.
So, he TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) is that this is a big V8 cruiser of a Cadillac, he paint could use some attention here and there, t hasn't got any noteworthy rust (particularly if you're in the rust belt or east coast!) and it runs, rives and stops well, ll while you're rockin' out to your favorite jams.
It'd be great to drive as is, r modify to your tastes since you're starting with a mechanically stock vehicle. Dump it on air bags with some wild low stance? Lift it on 22s? Supercharge it and go on Power Tour? Up to you!
With the new Ghostbusters movie coming out this should be a pretty popular car for advertising your business, aunted house, r using it as the best Uber ever.
Heck, he car could be a business write off depending on what you use it for.
The last hearse I sold was the 1960 Superior that was built into the Thundertaker SEMA and Hotrod magazine show car, o the sky is the limit on what these unique cars can be used for!
But seriously, ead the rest. There's a funny story in there. :)
Thanks for lookin' and happy bidding!PS: the fender skirts are with the car, just forgot to put them on before pictures!