74 Olds Ambulance
- Thread starter Mndlm
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pdk9
Member
Sorry to be the one to say it, but I think that is fuggggly...it looks like the ghost busters met the pink ladies (Grease).
I do like seeing Q's and dual siren speakers on an ambo but that must've been a headache having that all that vibration on the roof
I do like seeing Q's and dual siren speakers on an ambo but that must've been a headache having that all that vibration on the roof
Steve0625
Member
A Miller-Meteor 54" Life Liner! That was the top of the line back then, at least until the Criterions came out. It's unusual to see one on an Oldsmobile. IIRC, the Life Liners were almost always Cadillacs, probably because of their pro car chassis. The Q and speakers on the forward roof was a very common sight. I remember dropping the headliner on our '71 and discovering that the roof was massively reinforced in that whole frontal area.
The pink doesn't trip my trigger, but I suspect that it is that color for a good reason. The cream colored roof is unusual, too. Generally, they came from M-M in a bright white, regardless of the body color. In the late 1940's and 1950's, many ambulances were a slightly darker shade of cream, actually more of a light tan. Our '48 Cadi was like that but all one color.
The pink doesn't trip my trigger, but I suspect that it is that color for a good reason. The cream colored roof is unusual, too. Generally, they came from M-M in a bright white, regardless of the body color. In the late 1940's and 1950's, many ambulances were a slightly darker shade of cream, actually more of a light tan. Our '48 Cadi was like that but all one color.
Steve0625 said:
Pretty sure M-M never built anything on a Olds. This is just a 54" Cotner Bevington. The color is because it was probably owned by an black owned firm.
M-M did Cadillacs(along with Superior & S&S in the 70s)
CB did Olds
Superior did Caddys and Pontiacs
:fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl: :fangirl:
Which is not to say I wouldn't want to own it. Nice car and paint can be fixed. "an black owned"?? ...Maybe she was painted pink for cancer awareness?
Which is not to say I wouldn't want to own it. Nice car and paint can be fixed. "an black owned"?? ...Maybe she was painted pink for cancer awareness?
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dmathieu
Lifetime VIP Donor
Steve0625
Member
You may be right. But, since C-B and M-M were both owned by Wayne Corporation at that time, it would stand to reason that they'd both use a common design and common parts and materials for their coach building. Thanks for the correction. I've never paid much attention to C-B because all the coaches I ever worked in were M-M's or Superiors.Squad-6 said:
It is my understanding from another site that the colors on the car are in honorarium to a company that the coach's owner used to work for. He thought fondly of the owners and painted his rig the original company colors. Any reference to those colors based on a person's race is ignorance at best and pure racist at it's worse.
pdk9 said:
It would be especially loud if the speakers are CP100s and they're hooked up to a PA200. The PA200 was Federal's first 200 watt electronic siren, and it was introduced in 1974. It might not hurt the ears as much as a Q going at full speed, but it's still pretty damned loud.
I have a trio from a very old 12V school bus in red however no hi/low filament, just two wire. Same size as single per side headlamps with fluted (warning) lens . If I'm not mistaken these pictured on this Olds are par 46 size...about 6" diameter. I think mine are about 7+" diameter. Had all four but one died. The ambers were already gone.dmathieu said:
Ruehle's was an ambulance service on the East side of MI in Macomb County. They sold off the ambulance to MedStar around 20 years ago. MedStar has a similar vintage ambulance in their company colors. Ruehle's now runs wreckers in the same red/yellow paint scheme as seen in the original post.
Ruehle's Wrecker:
Another Ruehle Ambulance:
Here is MedStar's 1976 ambulance:
Ruehle's Wrecker:
Another Ruehle Ambulance:
Here is MedStar's 1976 ambulance:
Phillyrube
Member
Mndlm said:
Back in the late 60s-early 70's the Horsham Fire Co. outside philadelphia used to run Caddy ambulances, painted Coral of some sort. Q2s on the roof.
LRGJr72
Member
OTFD122 said:Ruehle's was an ambulance service on the East side of MI in Macomb County. They sold off the ambulance to MedStar around 20 years ago. MedStar has a similar vintage ambulance in their company colors. Ruehle's now runs wreckers in the same red/yellow paint scheme as seen in the original post.
Another Ruehle Ambulance:
Whatever happened to "Suburban Ambulance Service?" I remember seeing them my entire childhood in southeastern Oakland County (Ferndale, Royal Oak, Troy). They were always white van-style ambulances with dark-blue and gold graphics. It seems like they just disappeared at least 20 years ago.
LRGJr72 said:
Suburban and Fleet Ambulance merged and became Star EMS - Owned by the same owner(s) of Suburban and still based out of Pontiac. Ambulances are white with burgundy and gold stripes - very sharp! I don't have any pics off hand
Mndlm said:
Wow! Haven't seen this old girl on the road since the new paint job. This 1974 48" Cotner/Bevington Olds belongs to Dan Jackson in MI. I bought the car in 2002 from Steve Loftin in McLoud, OK. Steve is a firetruck salesman and worked for a number of years for a firetruck/ambulance manufacturing facility just west of Oklahoma City. It had belonged to a funeral home in a small town not too far from there. The funeral home gave it to the local VFD, and the VFD traded it in on a new ambulance and Steve bought it as quick as his company got it. It was originally solid white and had a blue Federal 184 on top. Dan replaced it with a red 174 beacon. He also had a C6B siren between the speakers for a time but has since added the Federal Q. I understand that this sweet ol' girl is up for sale. Anyone interested can contact me and I'll give you Dan's contact info.
pdk9 said:
A lot of people have commented on that unusual salmon color. Dan Jackson, the current owner, had it painted this color following a grand-up restoration. These were the colors of the ambulance co. in MI that he's been with for many years. Their sign, too, onthe side.
Squad-6 said:
You are right...it is a C/B Olds, but the 48" not the 54. The 54 is just slightly higher and has extra tunnel lights on the hightop that would be visible above the speakers and the Q.
Torpedo said:
Now, now, now, Dennis. Be nice. That car used to be mine. Check my other post here. The pink color came from the ambulance co. where Dan Jackson, the current owner,works.
Steve0625 said:
Some of the commonalities would be present to a degree with this '74 model. This was just after Divco-Wayne took over Cotner/Bevington. Cotner/Bevington, which was originally Comet Coach, built almost exclusively on Oldsmobiles; but there were a very few Pontiacs and Chevies, too. The one common denominator between C/B and M-M was one of the last Oldsmobiles built. It was a '75 model and was a "ringer" for M-M-s big-rig Cadillac that was windowless in the back. This was their attempt to compete against the then-recently-introduced modular rigs.
JazzDad said:
Nope! If you see my original post, this belonged to a small town in OK. It has had a total of five owners: the original funeral home, the VFD, Steve Loftin in McCloud,OK , myself and the current owner, Dan Jackson. I would still have it, but following multiple bypass surgery in '04, finances dictated otherwise and to Dan's advantage.
Torpedo said:
Nope...they're CP25s. Originally had a Director. I think it's been replaced with something else.
Steve0625
Member
Ah, the Criterion! That deserves its own thread.Skip Goulet said:
And that is a very interesting tid bit of pro car history. Anybody got any pics of that rig?
Steve0625 said:
A would really like to see a windowless CB. Would really like to own a windowless M-M Volly or "Landau Style" as some call it
Steve0625
Member
I've seen this car in person at the Ferndale Emergency Vehicle Show the Friday of last year's Dream Cruise weekend. I'll have to check my external drive for the pic to post. I'm not fond of the color, but it's a great looking restore.Mndlm said:
I didn't know this. I believe Suburban's parent, Paramed, may have done a stint doing business as AMR. All the Suburban rigs seemed to disappear from the street, with AMR running around. Then, one day, I noticed I didn't see AMR any more. Star does not seem to run SE Oakland County like Suburban or AMR used to. I see Star more northerly; even then, I don't see them in the quantities I used to see Suburban. Alliance Mobile Medical, out of Troy, seems to be the common private provider, with Superior out of Warren being big in non-emergency transport in the area.OTFD122 said:
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Sorry Skip you got your model's reversed this is a 54 the 48 had the 3 lights up there, also it's a 184H on the roof
Wailer said:
You're right. The beacon is a 184. When I bought the car it had a blue dome. He replaced the 184 with a 174 wig-wag beacon,but it looks like he's back to the 184 again, this time with the red dome.
spoda81 said:
You're right about that. I've had both versions, this one and a '67 hightop Olds that came from Lyons, Ill. It had the three tunnel lights inbetween the two larger ones. Interesting thing was it came with a big green tunnel light over the driver's side which I had to replace with a red sealed beam, since green wasn't legal in Texas then.
Squad-6 said:
This was the C/B equivalent of M-M's big Criterion ambulance. The Criterion was introduced c.1974 to compete with the big modulars. Only a couple of these big Oldsmobiles were built before Wayne discontinued the entire C/B line in 1975.
pdk9 said:
Actually, there's not that much noise in the cab since there's a lot of room between the headliner and the roof. Even with the Q it's not that bad.
jph2 said:I've seen this car in person at the Ferndale Emergency Vehicle Show the Friday of last year's Dream Cruise weekend. I'll have to check my external drive for the pic to post. I'm not fond of the color, but it's a great looking restore.
View attachment 57578
I didn't know this. I believe Suburban's parent, Paramed, may have done a stint doing business as AMR. All the Suburban rigs seemed to disappear from the street, with AMR running around. Then, one day, I noticed I didn't see AMR any more. Star does not seem to run SE Oakland County like Suburban or AMR used to. I see Star more northerly; even then, I don't see them in the quantities I used to see Suburban. Alliance Mobile Medical, out of Troy, seems to be the common private provider, with Superior out of Warren being big in non-emergency transport in the area.
This picture is how the car looked just after Dan did the ground-up restoration. He added the C6 siren shown here once the restoration was complete. When he got the car from me it only had the twin speakers over the cab, and the 184 on top was blue.
Steve0625 said:
Back when the Criterions were still on the road and in demand I had a chance to buy a '75 Criterion from an ambulance sales in Arkansas for $500. The car was in decent shape but the guy considered it a "white elephant" and just wanted to get rid of it. By the time I came up with the $$$ the car was gone. Someone got a good deal.
Skip Goulet said:
Kind alike back up until 2000 you could still find Pro-Car ambos without too much effort & not pay an arm and a leg. Now If you find one for sale its guaranteed to be a rotten basket case but you still better be ready to pay a fair chunk of change for it.