Buick Flxibles

[61lastride]

Looking for other Flxible owners to talk to. What have I gotten myself into?

[Dave@Moon]

There is a strong following among Buick professional cars. You'll get in contact with them faster if you post this thread on the Buick Club of America part of this forum. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[CarlLaFong]

There is a strong following among Buick professional cars.

A professional car is a funeral coach (hearse), a flower car, an ambulance or other such vehicle build on a auto chassis. A Flxible is a bus. Many had straight 8 Buicks mounted transversly in the rear. Maybe there's a bus/motor coach group out there somewhere. I see one occasionally, here in SoCal, at some of the shows, beautifully converted into a motorhome

[Pete Phillips]

Not all Flxibles are buses. I've seen two or three Flxible Buick hearses/ambulances from the early 1950s. A friend of mine in the Dallas area has recently restored his 1950 Buick Flxible hearse/ambulance combination. It has a 1950 Buick Roadmaster body and engine, and is not a bus at all. If you want to email him and compare notes, I'll gladly pass on his name and email, and I'm sure he would love to talk about it. He is a long-time BCA member.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

Sherman, Texas

pphillips922@earthlink.net

[Steve Moskowitz]

The AACA Library & Research Center houses the Bus Museum literature collection among its own holdings. Research is available to you through this website.

[CarlLaFong]

Not all Flxibles are buses. I've seen two or three Flxible Buick hearses/ambulances from the early 1950s.

I learned something today. Now I know everything ;-) I guess the screename should have been a DEAD givaway.....groan!!! I used to be an embalmer and kinda thought I knew a little about old funeral cars. I recall seeing an old Buick hearse, about a 47/48 parked near my old house. The body and the hood had been, for lack of a better term, "desectioned". They had been sliced in two on the horizontal plane and a 6 to 8 inch filler added all the way around to make the whole vehicle "taller". I tried to buy it but could never find the owner. Then one day it was gone.

[R Walling]

As usual, Google comes to the rescue once again.

The Flxible Company, (1913-1995), was a motorcycle sidecar, funeral car, ambulance, intercity coach and transit bus manufacturing company based in the United States which went out of business in 1995.

[CarlLaFong]

The Flxi sidecars were really cool. The wheel was connected to the bike with a tie rod and the whole rig leaned over in corners. John Cameron an old "Booze Fighter" from the Hollister days had one on his JD Harley that he rode several times from SoCal to Sturgis when he was in his 70s. Tough old bird.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

61lastride...First, "Welcome to the AACA Forum"

As Steve mentioned, and, I echo, the AACA Library & Research Center could be your best resource.

Give it a "try" for factual research.

Click on "Library" on the Home Page, or...

717-534-2082 kmiller@aacalibrary.org

Copies of any available literature is available.

Regards,

Peter J... <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[flxible]

Glad to see your post. I purchased a 50 Buick/Flxible ambulance about 2 years ago. The ambulance is quite rough having seen too many decades of Delran NJ winters. Engine and 3-speed trans are good but last summer something let go in the driveline, probably one of the rear U-joints, so it's no longer mobile.

Not sure when I will get to this project with other distractions: '50 Buick Riveria (52K miles), '55 Ford F350 dually dump, '48 Ferguson TE20 tractor, '86 BMW 635CSi and '94 Ford F150 5.8 4X4.

It would be nice to get a better sense of how many of these vehicles are still around via some sort of list of Flxible ambulance and hearse owners for that era

Best, Tony, aka barlowtc50

[Restorer32]

Steve Lichtman is an active member of the Professional Car Society and has a Buick Flxible Ambulance. He's also a walking encyclopedia of ambulance history. {private message me for his contact info if you'd like). My Dad had a '48 Flxible bus converted to a motor home. I loved the styling and was fascinated by those 30' or so long shift levers. Motor was mounted front to back though, not transversly.

[Guest De Soto Frank]

There is an Amoco gas station in Shavertown, PA that about 15 years ago had a '34 Buick 90 sitting towards the back of the property. All that was left amounted to a "cowl & chassis" - the remainder of the body was long-gone.

There was an aluminum tag on the firewall from the Flxible Co., and the gas station owner said that it had originally been a "flower car".

I was considering it for a pick-up truck project, but it was really too far gone for my situation at the time ( no garage, no money ).

They got rid of their old vehicles about five years ago... I often wonder what became of that Buick hulk... <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

[OldsDoug]

I have a recollection of seeing a Buick Flxible hearse or flower car that I'm sure was a 1961. Can't remember if it was at a car show or what... for that matter it may have been just a picture in the Crestline Buick book. Now you guys have me wondering, will have to check in with my friend who has the book! Aha, I found it, it's called Seventy Years of Buick, by George H. Dammann.

Doug in MD

[Guest DaveCorbin]

Dear 61lastride:

There is a great reference book about Flxble, published about 5 years ago. Writer was Robert Ebert and published by Antique Power, Inc. It has an ISBN number of 0-9660751-2-9.

If you post the numbers and information on the car on the Buick part of the website, there are folks there who can help.

Regards, Dave Corbin