It is a Bayliff. Nothing new here. They have been discussed before. A couple hundred were built on 1980's Cadillac DeVille and Riviera bodies. And convertibles were made.

I don't understand why when asking people to guess what year your car is, they guess 1955, and this upsets you. To be honest, there is not much visual difference between 1955 and 1956 Packards. More hooded headlights, busier grille, more square trunk, and extended chrome strip on the side. That is not much to differentiate between them for someone not into Packards. I have even seen books on automobiles that have 1956's captioned as 1955's and vice versa.

Can you tell the difference between a '75 and '76 Cadillac Coupe Deville? '72 and '73 Imperial? '77 and '78 Town Car? '69 and '70 New Yorker? '71 and '72 Nova? If it is not a car that you are passionate about, you will not know all the minor changes for similar years for everything.

For those just guessing 1955, I would say that most would guess it is not late 1950's because there are no big fins, and not early 1950's because there are no separate rear fenders (like Chevy) or it is not a bathtub style. So 1955 puts it squarely in the middle.

I was there. In fact the Bayliff in the pic is my friend's.

We actually cut out one afternoon to see the Packard Museum in Warren. I can't believe that was not part of the meet considering Henney Packards are professional cars.

Been to the museum before, and it is small, but I got a new 1954 Caribbean T-shirt.

"I own one of these and get many compliments when I drive it.
On the ownership of the Packard name, The Packard Club claims to own it, the guy in Arizona who was going to build a new Packard claimed he owned it, not I see someone says Bayliff owns it.

In my opinion it is in the public domain by now so nobody owns it an everybody can use it. Nobody has sued anybody and won but there has been a lot of noise. Time will tell."



Bayliff purchased the name and sold it to Gullickson years later with the condition that Bayliff can use it whenever he wants to build a new "creation". The Packard name is not in the public domain. Gullickson paid big bucks to purchase it.

I have spoken with Bud Bayliff on a couple of occassions.

It is a Bayliff, not a Dreisbach and Sons. That was the dealership that distributed them. Not the builder. It is built from a 1980 Sedan DeVille, not a Seville.

And yes, not only did Bayliff have the right to use the name, they purchased and owned the Packard name.

I've also wondered why people continue list cars for sale with ridiculous prices and no pictures. They must have to pay to keep advertising them for sale. You would think that eventually it might dawn on them that no one is going to pay that after they keep listing it for 2 years. Maybe a few are appeasing the wife type things, but they can't all be. (by the way, I'd rather get rid of the wife)

By the way, all of those Packards are great deals compared to this. Looks nice, but worth about $6,000 - $7,000 tops.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-1979-Lincoln-Continental-Town-Coupe-2-door-/250719212126?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3a6007925e

That is actually more common than you would think. In small towns, the undertaker usually ran the town's ambulance service as well as providing the usual undertakers duties. Hearses and ambulances were quite expensive, and a little funeral home could not afford to buy one of each. So combination coaches were offered. Simple medical equipment could be installed and removed, ambulance lights installed and removed, and panels on the side could be changed from ambulance crosses to hearse padded vinyl and landau bars. I guess you could just pull over and change side panels and directions if things didn't go too well for the patient.

My friend collects hearses. I didn't give them too much thought before I met him. But I still would never have wanted to have my final ride in an Escalade or Dodge Caravan. Now that I have viewed a bunch of his books and attended several hearse club meets to see the old carved sides, and elaborate postwar landau styles, it is even more disgusting to think that eventually all funeral homes will be using truck or minivan based vehicles for hearses. I guess it is one more indication of how people and society simply lack the class of decades ago. I guess it is only surprising in that they have managed to hold onto the traditional luxury car based ones this long, considering how the rest of the auto industry abandoned traditional luxury cars ages ago.

I do have to add that Lincoln does not go back to the early days of hearse building. From the 1930's only Cadillac and Packard offered commercial chassis for building hearses and ambulances. (That is why a Packard hearse, not Lincoln was used for Henry Ford as previously discussed on this forum) Packard never produced as many chassis as Cadillac, and 1954 was the last year Henney built Packard hearses and ambulances. After that, Cadillac basically had the entire market. While you would see the oddball Chrysler, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and even an Edsel, it was far more efficient to build from the Cadillac commercial chassis than buying a whole car and then cutting it up, modifying it, and paying for the whole car when most of it from the front seat back would not be used. In 1985, Cadillac discontinued its commercial chassis. So then there was no advantage to buying a Cadillac for conversion because you had to buy the complete car from Lincoln or Cadillac and then convert it. That is when you started seeing Lincoln hearses.

Looks like there is no way to delete items from your search results. So then you must look through tons of aftermarket and other crap that has nothing to do with what you are looking for. Not worth searching through all junk.

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Ok, Lincoln offered no commercial chassis postwar. And with the last one being offered in 1937, 10 years old by the time Henry Ford died, and in extremely low numbers, it is no surprise a Lincoln hearse could not be located.

I have seen a 1958 Edsel ambulance and a 1962 Chrysler New Yorker hearse. That does not mean they were readily available. Or that you could locate one on short notice even when new, much less when 10 years old.