WANTED:Irish hearse/coachbuilders info.

Great idea for a thread Junkyard,i have more than a passing interest in this stuff too,the classic hearse register http://www.hearseclub.co.uk/ list these as irish coachbuilders.
Irish Funeral Vehicles
C A B Motors
William Denby & Sons
Fahy Bros Coachbuilders
Wilton of Belfast
Pierce Ltd
Mangans of Edenderry
McKinley Ltd
Fearghas Quinn
Byrne Coachbuilders
Duffy Coachbodies
Charles Hurst Ltd
Callows of Dublin
J Kenny Coachmakers
Griffith Roberts Ltd

Anyone else have info on this?

As already posted in another thread,wonder who built this one!


http://cgi.ebay.ie/Classic-Austin-18-Hearse_W0QQitemZ120378851355QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item120378851355
And remember the 30s Dodge in irish vintage a few months back,think it was in Galway.

Lads I must admit, I didn't know there was a scene for hearses (until recently). Must keep an eye on the thread, it's interesting me for some reason lol!

I'm sure all of ye know the lad out the Tipperary road with excessive amounts of old hearses parked in his drive.

Coachbuilding has a long history which probably came to a peak with the hand built automobiles of the early 20th century. Many early cars were little more than horseless carriages right into the 1920’s, The scope for coachbuilt vehicles was enormous. However, with the advent of mass production of cars coachbuilding took a back seat, relegated to specialist vehicles, buses and commercial vehicle bodies.
However, one area of the automobile sector where coachbuilding survived and has seen a renaissance of sorts is in the development of limousines and hearses. Formerly the preserve of names such as Rolls Royce, Bentley and Daimler, with vehicles bodied by Mulliner and Park Ward amongst others, increased demand for limousines and hearses to serve the British Isles funeral profession has seen the market grow to the point where it can accommodate both these established brands and new imported ones.

Manufacturers now active here include Coleman Milne, Wilcox, MacNeillie, Startin and Coway to name but a few, with Fearghas Quinn in Co. Antrim across the Irish Sea and Duffy in Eire proper south of the border. However, hearse and limousine building is not exclusively a UK craft, and given the finite size of some home markets it comes as no surprise to find many continental coachbuilders actively selling across national boundaries. So alongside Binz GmbH, we now have companies such as Pollman Karosserie, Rappold Karosserie and Welsch in Germany, Blaugaum in Spain, and Pilato in Italy.

All of these firms produce European style limousines and sometimes hearses too. However, the ostentatiousness of the New World cannot be ignored, and the UK market today is flooded with American limousines from companies such as the Eagle Coach Company and Krystal to name but two.

Of the ‘old-school’ UK coachbuilders, Coleman Milne was founded in 1953 by Roderick Milne and his partner, John Coleman. Initially the Company built horseboxes but quickly moved into the development of limousines and funeral hearses. Today, after several changes of ownership, including bus builders Plaxton, the company is now under the holding of Woodall Nicholson Limited. Woodall Nicholson itself being one of the original inter-war coachbuilders, and one of the key manufacturers of the Daimler DS420 hearse.

Links to an earlier era also underpin Wilcox, is another of the current suppliers of hearses and limousines. Wilcox supplies vehicles manufactured by another illustrious name in coachbuilding, Eagle Specialist Vehicles, not to be confused with the American manufacturer Eagle Coach Company.

To make things more confusing, the Wilcox name is also borne by Wilcox Coachbuilders, manufacturers of horseboxes and livestock trailers – though the two are completely separate companies. Wilcox offers a range of Daimler, Vauxhall & Jaguar hearses and limousines.

Tracing the history of some of these business can be fascinating. Take the Birmingham firm of Thomas Startin Ltd. It was a long-standing Austin (and Rover) dealer, but the company also had a commercial coachbuilding arm. Originally established in 1840, its coachbuilding output was by the 1970s concentrated on hearses. Their main business consisting then of producing a couple of designs based on the Daimler DS420, although they had previously converted a small number of Austin FL2s. In the late 1980s Startins turned their attention to the Rover 800, producing matching limousine and hearse conversions at their new premises in the Witton area of Birmingham.

But by the end of the 1990s Startins' coachbuilding division had been bought by S MacNeillie & Son, specialists in the armour protection market. MacNeillie transferred production of the 800 based vehicles to their own premises at Walsall in the West Midlands. MacNeillie in turn has been in the coachbuilding business for over 85 years and the company covers a whole range of products from police conversions to minibuses.

But as safety and emissions legislation, concerns over product liability and customer expectations work towards making the automobile ever-more sophisticated, is there room for the traditional coachbuilder’s art any more? For the answer, we have perhaps to look at what is going on at one of the newer brands on the UK market, Binz UK Ltd.

BINZ & Co. Coachworks in Lorch/Germany was founded by Michael Binz in 1936. Today BINZ is synonymous for first class innovative special purpose vehicles - from rescue vehicles to stretched limousines. Companies like Daimler AG, Volkswagen and others rely on the BINZ’ know-how and closely cooperate with the company.

BINZ engineers transform good automobiles into even better ones. By extending, enlarging and creating new designs or installing special purpose equipment they create extended limousines which are unparalleled the world over. Due to intelligently organized production processes which are documented in detail, expertly taken care of and stringently controlled, BINZ not only holds DIN EN ISO 9001 certification, but also the most prestigious VDA 6.1; a quality standard used by some large main stream motor vehicle manufacturers, and especially in this case :- Mercedes-Benz (Daimler AG).

By maintaining a widespread sales network it is possible to deliver BINZ ‘Made in Germany’ quality products directly to their customers on all five continents. Limousine services, car rentals or government representatives can be sure to find what they are looking for with Binz.

Three essentials determine the BINZ view of the future: First of all, permanent improvement of product quality and safety parameters of rescue vehicles and stretch limousines. Secondly, striving for continuity and positive development of the business, and last but not least, to keep on building special purpose automobiles with top-level technology.

In the British Isles, Binz products are marketed by Binz UK, previously distributors of a long line of Volvo authorised and fully Type Approved Volvo limousines and hearses. Though starting out with the same working practices and design methods that were then commonplace in the coachbuilding industry in the late 1970s, the company progressively embraced newer technologies in both design and manufacture, in order to guarantee the engineering integrity of each new generation of vehicles.

Although a new company Nilsson S.E with different ownership & management has lead to the re-appearance of the Volvo S80 based funeral vehicles - the product currently available to the funeral market has no Volvo produced heavy duty chassis or direct product support and is not connected with Nilsson UK (Peter Smith & family) who continue to support the original official products which were sold into the UK funeral market over a 20 year period.
http://www.binzuk.com/coachbuilding_heritage.htm

peltor wrote: »

No but a family of undertakers by trade !!

Any pics/info/regs of previous machinery?
These versions of the MK1 Granada seem to have been quite popular back in the day,i must scan a few pics in of one or two iv seen before.I like the way the original Granada rear end was worked into the design.



This is a MK2 Granada converted by Woodhall Nicholson,the work that went into the building of this one was amazing,virtually everything from the base of the screen pillars was newly built from what i was guessing was ash,or a similar hard wood,aluminium roof and side panelling.See how the doors were raised too and new glass installed.It had seating for four.
The only thing that looked anyway cheap was the fact they used MK2 Escort rear light lenses,it didnt cut it:p.It also had a type of hydraulic rear suspension that could be operated from the back door.
How much did these things cost when new over and above the cost of buying the donor car....

Were any DS420s converted by irish coachbuilders,though were they all factory built maybe??

Did any undertaker in Ireland own a hearse like this? American built Cadillac?



Thought you might be interested to know that there was a unique Rover P5B hearse in a commercial yard in Sligo. Its the only known Rover P5B hearse ever built. Another very unusual hearse I spotted a few years ago was a Ford Cortina Mk111 hearse.

I know where there is a hearse based on a MK5 Cortina P100,its an 84,built by a crowd called Canterbury.Must try and get pics.

A guy I know has a series 1 XJ6 hearse!

It was sold at one of the classic car auctions in Freshford years ago.

Kevin_Herron wrote: »

A guy I know has a series 1 XJ6 hearse!

It was sold at one of the classic car auctions in Freshford years ago.

Any pics kevin,that sounds interesting(well,to me and junky anyway:p)

I'd love an old hearse... i'd use it to get to work, just to freak out my colleagues :-)

G Luxel wrote: »

There is or was a collector of hearses in Tipperary town and his collection was featured in Practical Classics about ten years ago.

Yes,he always has a big selection of limos and hearses at his yard anytime iv driven past.

Last week, at a scrapyard gate entrance in Co Waterford was a 92 Rover 800 hearse with Woodall Nicholson bodywork.

Wonder was it being scrapped,seems quite new still?

Even more unusual, about 10 years ago, was an Austin A60 Cambridge hearse with chains in the interior......

How do you mean?
http://www.atozofbangerracing.co.uk/Austin/A60Hearse/index.html

In West Cork, there is an early Opel Rekord hearse lying in a garage which appears not to be have been used for a few years. The interior is full of junk

There was one of these raced in a demolition derby in rosegreen about 16 years back,the very same version as this(except it was a hearse)

An unusual one..

Mk3 escort...???:eek:

And a modified one(59 chevy impala)

And the Austin Princess..

I like the way the rear lights have been recycled..

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.leichenwagen.de/bilder/Princess763.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hearse.de/pics8.htm&usg=__mB1zcCRo8dLKfxzN9gRg_eRhvjA=&h=342&w=443&sz=56&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=-vUMqAKyGZPsfM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dirish%2Bhearse%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1T4FUJC_en-GBIE287IE287%26sa%3DN
And more info on others here..
http://www.hearse.de/pics.htm

Mk2 Granada 2005

Mk2 Granada 2005

Mk2 Granada 2004

MK2 Granada 2004

Mk1 Granada 2003


Daimler DS420 1999


MK2 Granada minster,see the longer rear doors.

MK1 Granada 2004

For anyone who is interested...which i doubt...:p



The minster was Coleman milnes shortest limousine,it had longer rear doors/wheelbase(10" stretch i think)and a diversion/bulkhead.
You would hardly spot it,but it must have been a nice bit of work for them to build first day as the entire car had to be cut.


Grosvenor,based on the coupe

Then there was this version,also Grosvenor or Dorchester,depending on spec,with the Grosvenor being the most expensive.
The names carried over to the MK2 range

Some more....
Built by Trasco

Merc SEC

Built by ABC

And the 6 door

W123 by GFG

and another type

Treser Largo(audi200)

---

Citroen DS

Saab


Polski fiat 125P

Volvo 245 transfer

Volvo 960 Royale(15"stretch)

Volvo 960

Volvo 264 Te

And one for corktina..a Taunus:D