Beautiful 1950 Ambulance

[Guest norb]

We had our monthly A&W Cruise today and about 350 cars showed up. This is Buick Club member Scott Walker,s 1950 Ambulance,which is well equipped in & out with everything needed. He promises to drive it to Batavia this summer.He may arrive with siren & red lights on and me in the back.

[Guest imported_Thriller]

Very nice...I'd like to have a professional car some day...I remember looking at an ambulance on eBay once. Some day I might even get one of my cars into the sort of shape this one appears to be in.

[JohnD1956]

We have a local cruise-out once a month here in Albany NY, which has a magnificient draw, up to 1,500 cars at the peak one time and mostly over a 1,000 each show. One of the regulars drives a CHIPS patrol car from the era of the show , what, maybe a 77 or so ? Anyway, about two years ago, he decided to leave via the back entrance and give everyone a thrill by running the lights and siren going past the front lot . However the local constables did not take too kindly to that and yanked him right over outside the front gate , promptly writing a citation for impersonating a police officer.

Damn NY cops have no sense of humor.

JD

[B.Goode]

What a beauty ! It looks more like a hearse than a ambulance, is it a hearse ? There's a script above the roadmaster script on the front fender. Is that Flxible ?

There where 4 different Roadmaster chassis made in 1950 (modelnumbers 710, 711, 713 and 720)does anybody know the difference between these, and which one is this one ?

[Guest ZondaC12]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Damn NY cops have no sense of humor.

JD </div></div>

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. especially around here in guilderland, a lot of them are like friggin nazis. man i could go on for hours about things like that which make me hate this town/area/state. when im older im living OUT THERE. as in the middle of the country, or if theres places in the middle of nowhere thats sort of near here, so i can be sort of near family and stuff. but i want to be able to have some cars laying around on my driveway or next to my house and not have to have everything look so nice and perfect like it must be here in suburbia, and i want to be able to make as much noise and ruckus as i want if i want to and not have neighbors getting PO'ed and calling the police. yeah! lets call the police. someones bothering you, dont go get off the sofa and go over and ask them nicely to stop, call the POLICE, thats the way to do it!!! -end rant-

[Centurion]

The Flxible Buicks of this era were beautiful cars -- nicely proportioned and built with excellent quality.

I suspect that this car is technically a "combination", which means that it could have been converted back and forth from hearse to ambulance configuration. My understanding is that many funeral homes, particularly in rural communities, once provided the local ambulance service, so it was helpful to have cars that could function in both roles. The straight ambulances were likely to have emergency lighting faired into the roof panels.

Flxible began offering a very unique feature for its combination coaches at about the time this Flxible Premiere was built. Taking advantage of Buick's easily removeable hood design, Flxible would provide both a standard Buick hood (as shown in Norb's photo) for funeral use and a second hood -- often in a contrasting paint color -- with "ambulance" scripts and emergency lighting integrated into the hood for ambulance duty.

[Guest my3buicks]

now Brian, that hood information was just to kewl ! ! ! !

[B.Goode]

So this flxible :

might also be a "combination", my guess would be that one of the 4 chassis's available, would be standard length and another would be a extended chassis, right ? But where there 4 different lenght available in 1950 ?

[Centurion]

B.Goode, Buick offered stripped Roadmaster chassis to other coachbuilders as well as to Flxible. Flxible's chassis records indicate that the Buick chassis number for the 1950 Series 70 Roadmaster chassis destined for Flxible Premiere production was "713".

From what I've been able to determine, the wheelbase for the '50 Flxible Premiere was 165-3/4 inches. A total of 366 1950 Flxibles were built on Roadmaster (Premiere) and Super (Sterling) chassis.

By the way, Keith, those special hoods for the combination coaches could also be ordered with sirens installed, as well as with the emergency lighting.

[Guest sintid58]

In the small town I grew up in we had a combination ambulance/hearse until 1973 when the local volunteer ambulance squad was started. I remember that last dual purpose car well. It was a 1969 Pontiac and it had a black vinyl looking roof that was removable. I never saw it in action but I was told that when it was parked and not in use for a hearse the fiberglass roof was detached from the car and a small hoist in the garage lifted it off the car. Then the large red revolving light was placed in the middle of the roof and plugged into a socket in the roof. It was very clean looking with the top off and there were no visible electrical wires on the roof. I don't know the maker of the conversion but I think the car is still around.