53 is home

nice day here is western SD temps running about 73 and clear skies after the rain so off we went to Wy to pick up the 53 still guessing Pontiac. got there loaded up and got home with out a incident. it was a nice trip. but now the fun starts.

Ed. Wow, no snow. Thats gonna be one beautiful car when you get done with it. Keep us updated on the progress. Glad you got her home.

Josh

Ed, Congrats on a great save. Gotta say, thse are some of the most outstanding pics you have ever posted. They are intense. And I see that you had a welcoming committee from the "Monarch of the Planes"

Awsome distance photo , great car, looks like it has a chop top compared to the tow vehicle.

53

Not only a great car John, but thanks for the great pic's !!

one more uncropped at a different angle. we are right on the edge of the Jasper burn. it was around 80,000 acres in 05 I'm guessing. sitting at about 6000 ft el looking south into Wy. just ready to drop onto Hells canyon. this is about 45 miles from home. Jewel cave national park is just around the corner.
I did get a name of the person that that the man I got the car from got the car from. so we can track a little bit but still a mystery car to me. the back window is close to Economy the tops of the doors say Barnett as does the back cabinet in it. but with out a picture of the inside from the rear door of a 53 Barnett I can't confirm that. the exposed hinges were put on this one from the get go. all the others I see are hidden. the heater in the center says Barnett but it's shaped different then on the others and all the rest have the Barnett name in the center to. I can't see were there was any script on the fenders or the door. time and the sander will tell on them. so until then I can rule out national as the tag is not there nor any holes for it. but the facts are still out on the rest. the back glass has 5 stripes in the cross all the pictures of the Economy show 4 starting even with the top of the cross. but then all I have seen is the co flier for 53. not a picture. does anyone have a real picture of the back glass in a economy? does anyone have any pictures of the inside of a economy? any of these would really help to Id this one. the tunnel lights are set in Lead. this does not rule out a body man thinking they looked cool the way they turned out but they are different than anything else I have seen. one good thing is I did get the pull shades for the back glass with it. but a black interior in a ambulance with a black body says to me ordered new buy a funeral home. then some one else painted it the Ivory. the hanging stretcher says they had a need for the ambulance. no one else has see a set of them in this type of car.

Great pictures Ed...thanks for sharing them. Also really glad that you were able to get the car.

I've placed some interior shots of my '53 Barnette on the Pontiac Thread.

The rear door of my Barnette opens to the left while yuors opens to the right. The hinges on mine are exposed as well. Here's a shot of the rear with the door closed (from 2004) when I found the car. Hope this helps in the quest for identifying the maker. Let me know if you find a source for the tail lights. They are stock for a '53 Pontiac wagon but extremely hard to find in reasonable shape.

Bill

Nice car Ed! That will be a real show winner once you put the old Ed Renstrom Touch to it! Best of luck!

Your car may not say much, but the window design says it's likely an Economy.

Here's a picture of a '55 Memphian. Of course, Economy became Memphis Coach in 1955, but kept much of the same design, including windows.

I'm still totally amazed you towed that Pontiac with a Honda Ridgeline. My dad has a Ridgeline IDENTICAL to yours (same color & all)... and if his heart wasn't so bad i'd borrow it for the weekend then send him one of your pictures so he'd think I towed an ambulance with it. They have a 5000-lb towing capacity but WOW look at that hulk behind it! Does it handle a load like that decent? Cool pix and a neat find... part of the fun with that one is figuring out WHO built it

you had better read the book on the Ridge line a little closer. it's rated at 15000 GVW. the biggest problem I have is keeping the speed down. the glass does jump out Economy at you till you compare them. thanks for this picture of one all I could find before was the 53 flier. so lets compare the window treatment with a 53 economy and the 55 memphis. they look the same. put them agents this one and it is different. there are 5 bares on this one and they are cut off at a angle like you could lay a tape line. the economy window has 4 starting at the arm on the cross and they are staggered. the ends don't line up. I think some one did these to look like that. add that to the the rounded tops on the doors and I'm leaning really hard to a Barnett or Barnette as the spelled it in 53

I becomes very clear with these comparison pics that that is not the standard factory Economy window logo. Good catch on the squared off tapering of the Economy vs. the tape line straight tapering of yours. New mystery - why? Didn't you say that this appeared to have an all dark body and interior at one time? May it was a combo coverted over to straight medical use and the windows etched in at that time. Possible. Like mine and so many others there will be so many things we'll never know.

Wow! What a nice car Ed. I have no doubt it will be a sweet ride when you get it finished.

I thought it was black when we first looked at it. finally I was able to take a pictures of the tag under the hood. and the paint code is 5300. the DuPont book show that as being black. so black inside and out but a light floor in back. the curtains were black also. not the color one would think of for a ambulance. but if it was ordered by a funeral home they may have wanted it to match there fleet.

The color markings on the tag were not made by GM, but by the body builder. Had they been made by GM, then they would be raised numbers like the rest of the tag. This might have left the GM plant in primer, and not totally built, knowing it was going to be a conversion vehicle.

John ED Renstrom said:

you had better read the book on the Ridge line a little closer. it's rated at 15000 GVW

Click to expand...

I read the book closer... and work for Honda:

Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 6,050 lbs. GVWR
Front Gross Axle Weight Rating 3,105 lbs. front GAWR
Rear Gross Axle Weight Rating 3,252 lbs. rear GAWR
Max Trailer Weight 5,000 lbs. towing capacity
Maximum GCWR 10,085 lbs. (maximum gross combined weight rating) truck & trailer total weight combined

These specs hold true for all Ridgeline models 2006 - present. Good to see them handle a load safely beyond the rated limit, they are built tough!

you got to figure in there 50% safty factor. rancher figures rule in Sd. but you right on the factory numbers. run across the scale the Honda sits with a full tank two people and the dog right at 55, the trailer is just under 2. the car just over 5. so we streached it a 1/2 ton or so. did not take the equalizer hitch and you can see we are a little down in the rear. went some 100 miles from 3000 ft up to 6000 ft back to 3000 ft speeds high as 60 mph. never got lower then 3 gear pulling and not over 5000 RPM, on time, one hill mainained 50. mph burned up some 12 gl of gas going over and back. yes one tough truck wish you had build it. this one was made north of the border. I'll tow with it any time. just don't try to back up hill with a load. reverse is to high a gear. here were are in midland tx last year with it.