'79 Ford Granada Hearse


"A co-worker of mine bought a 77 Cadillac hearse and that got the wheels turning in my head. I had had a couple of opportunities to buy a hearse in the past, but the timing was never right, either I didn't have the money or the room. So when Frank got his, I decided it was time. I had to get something really Off the map and I knew that European hearses were Way different than stuff over here and being an E-bay addict, it was only a matter of time until I found one on E-bay UK. With the Import laws I was limited to something pre-1981. Several Sweet, Amazing deals came up on low mileage cars for fire sale prices, but everything was newer than 1981 and having already Imported a car previously from England, I knew the 30 years old or older rule was strict. Finally my car came up. I lost out in the bidding but the car never did meet the reserve so I just e-mailed the guy and said...What WILL you take for it? To be honest I paid Way too much for it based on how much the newer hearses were going for, but it was old enough and cool enough, I didn't care I had to have it. Mechanically it was alright, having the 2.8 Ford V-6 in it that ran sweet with a C3 automatic trans but on the way home from a trip to a British car show in Canada the driveline self destructed and I had to have on custom made, which luckily wasn't quite as expensive as having to have the car hauled home on a flat bed truck from where it broke down at 5pm on a Sunday. The paint was also just horrible and I couldn't leave that alone, I had to go crazy, so that's why I went with Yellow figuring that was about as far from Hearse black as you could get. Today I'm going to be painting my casket John Deere green with yellow handles, so that will be back in there probably about the time you read this. Even though I already have probably twice as much money invested in the this car than it's worth with the shipping and all, I'm not at all sorry I did it and I've hooked up with the local Rain City Hearse Club, so I know I'm not the only hearse guy around."
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