62 Flxible Premier Limousine-Style

Had a gentleman contact me on this looking for info on it. I thought it sounded familiar I knew a little history on it (was owned by Paul Nix at one time) but thank,s to Tom McPherson the blanks where filled in .


This car, a Premier Limousine-Style end-loading funeral coach (FB62-62). The Flxible body number (18198) tells us that this car was sold by Flxi's California distributor - C. V. Whithorne of Tarzana to the Miller and Skelton Funeral Home in Sacramento, California with delivery taking place on January 19, 1962. The engine number for this car is recorded as being 4I-1018819. For your information, the base MSRP on this car would have been $8,785 and in 1962 Flxible sold, built and delivered a total of 74 Premier long wheelbase professional cars. Of these 74 units, only 16 were straight end-loading funeral coaches and of these 10 were constructed with landaulet styling. So, the car to which your contact is referring is 1 of only 5 Premier limousine-style end-loading straight funeral cars built in 1962. I'm given to understand that Miller & Skelton is no longer in business - but, I may be wrong about this.

Nice license plate...that's one I don't think I've seen before.

one of 6 built in this configuration. to me is still tently one of 74 with only 5 others build with this configuration. so whats the breakdown in ambulances and combos. any way you call it it's a limited production car from one of the bigger names but smaller players at that time.

That is correct, Miller & Skelton Funeral Directors used to be located in downtown Sacramento in a beautiful red brick mansion. That location was closed in the 1980's when funeral conglomerate Loewen Group purchased it and merged with A.J. Nicoletti Funeral Home and N.G. Culjis Funeral Home. The current firm name: Nicoletti, Culjis and Herberger Funeral Home, is owned by SCI and conducts business out of the Nicoletti building. Beautiful car! The old Miller & Skelton building is still standing btw, the last time I drove by it was being used by a software company.

My neighbor worked for Miller & Skelton in the mid to late 60's and says he somewhat remembers that 62 Flxible ....

Current photo of Miller & Skelton FH

I saw that very car at Paul's Pro-Car lot in 1991. Not sure that you can tell what color it is or not, however the car was a very light pink and if memory serves me correctly, the interior was done in white and pink. I believe the paint was original and the story Paul told me was that the F.H. used it for women's services. He had a lot full of very interesting and unique Pro-Cars. It was just as if I was attending a National Meet but with all original vehicles.

Production Numbers Broken Down By Model

Ed, in response to your request, Tom went back and checked through the Flxible records again to produce a breakdown. He provided the information seen herein. So, listed below are the producton numbers for the 1962 Flxible-Buick Premier Series listed by model number and broken down by service configuration/body style:

FB61-62 - Combination Cars - Limousine-style : 36
FB61L-62 - Combination Cars - Landaulet-style : 7
FB62-62 - End-Loading Hearse - Limousine-style : 6
FB62L-62 - End-Loading Hearse - Landaulet-style : 10
FB63-62 - Ambulance - all Limousine-style : 15

This accounts for all of the 74 long-wheelbase Premier Series professional cars sold, constrructed and delivered in 1962 by Flxible.

Production Numbers Broken Down By Model

Ed, in response to your request, Tom went back and checked through the Flxible records again to produce a breakdown. He provided the information seen herein. So, listed below are the producton numbers for the 1962 Flxible-Buick Premier Series listed by model number and broken down by service configuration/body style:

FB61-62 - Combination Cars - Limousine-style : 36
FB61L-62 - Combination Cars - Landaulet-style : 7
FB62-62 - End-Loading Hearse - Limousine-style : 6
FB62L-62 - End-Loading Hearse - Landaulet-style : 10
FB63-62 - Ambulance - all Limousine-style : 15

This accounts for all of the 74 long-wheelbase Premier Series professional cars sold, constructed and delivered in 1962 by Flxible.

Astute observers will note something not just right on this car as posted in the photos above. All Flxible Premier and Flxette professional cars were fitted with Electra front sheet metal, moldings and dashboards. The car as seen here sports LeSabre front fenders - with three ventiports while all Electra (and Flxible models) featured the four fender-mounted ventiports. At some point, this car has had the front fenders or the entire front clip replaced and LeSabre front fenders were used in place of the proper Electra ones. Just an observation.

yes on the numbers to me it's still one of 74 with only 5 others in this configuration. flexible still built 74 cars of this chassis type that year. 6 in this configuration or layout. so in my mind it's one of 74 with only 5 others built just like it. but no matter how you put it it a low production car. to say it's one of 6 sounds like they only built 6 cars totale that year.

I noticed they were only three hole fenders on it. not sharp enough to tell the electra grill from lesabre without looking them up.

62

Keith Snyder said:

Astute observers will note something not just right on this car as posted in the photos above. All Flxible Premier and Flxette professional cars were fitted with Electra front sheet metal, moldings and dashboards. The car as seen here sports LeSabre front fenders - with three ventiports while all Electra (and Flxible models) featured the four fender-mounted ventiports. At some point, this car has had the front fenders or the entire front clip replaced and LeSabre front fenders were used in place of the proper Electra ones. Just an observation.

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A before pic.

one of the reason for taking the pictures of the data plate on these cars is to keep them straight. one is assuming all the pictures seen are the same car but the only one you know for sure is the the one the data plate was recorded off from. with only 6 of the them it's not likely another was paint the light pink . standard GM color to by the way. they put the port holes on in a number of fashions but by these year it was pretty much a screw on decoration. one could have got lost and the other side removed to make it even.

According to Tom McPherson, in addition to the 74 long-wheelbase Premiers built and delivered by Flxible in 1962, there were an additional 76 orginal-wheelbase Flxettes sold built and delivered during that year. Broken down by model and service confinguarion/body style these were:

FB610-62 - Limousine-style combination car = 68
FB610L-62 - Landau-style combiantion car = 1
FB630-62 - Limousine -style ambulance = 3
FB620-62 - Limousine-style funeral coach = 2
FB620L-62 - Landau-style funeral coach = 2

In addition to the 74 Premiers and the 76 Flxettes, the company built two nine-passenger, four-door limousines for the Buick Motor Division of General Motors. One of these limousines is known to have survived and is currently owned by PCS member Dan Scully. So..there you go. Flxible delivered 150 professional cars and two limousines in 1962.

There is an almost identical 1962 Buick Flxible Limousine on the East Cost. I know who the owner is, however, I will not publish his name to respect his privacy. I know that Dan has been in contact with him to compare notes on the two cars.

John ED Renstrom said:

one of the reason for taking the pictures of the data plate on these cars is to keep them straight. one is assuming all the pictures seen are the same car but the only one you know for sure is the the one the data plate was recorded off from. with only 6 of the them it's not likely another was paint the light pink . standard GM color to by the way. they put the port holes on in a number of fashions but by these year it was pretty much a screw on decoration. one could have got lost and the other side removed to make it even.

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Actually, you have to get clear back to 1957 to find pink(Mountain Laurel) as a standard GM color in any of the GM lines. Cadillac did continue to make that color available to Mary Kay, but it was never a standard GM offering after 1957.

62

one of the reason for taking the pictures of the data plate on these cars is to keep them straight. one is assuming all the pictures seen are the same car but the only one you know for sure is the the one the data plate was recorded off from. with only 6 of the them it's not likely another was paint the light pink . standard GM color to by the way. they put the port holes on in a number of fashions but by these year it was pretty much a screw on decoration. one could have got lost and the other side removed to make it even.

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The pic in front of the house is at Paul Nix,s. The car was in storage not far from his house. Long story short the coach was a lien sale from the lot and ended up north.

Paul...can you get the Flxible serial plate numbers off the east coast Premier that would enable Tom to give us this car's history as well?

Kurt Arends said:

Actually, you have to get clear back to 1957 to find pink(Mountain Laurel) as a standard GM color in any of the GM lines. Cadillac did continue to make that color available to Mary Kay, but it was never a standard GM offering after 1957.

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While you're probably entirely correct Kurt, but, it doesn't make any difference if this was a then-current GM color or not. Flxible, like most professional car manufacturers would paint a vehicle any color desired by the customer. While the standard color palette contained any of the then current GM colors, others hues were available - including past model colors or special shades such as Chicago Grey or, later, Omaha Orange. Often, special or past model colors were available for a slight extra charge. One has to remember that, at one time, all coachbuilders charged extra to paint a car white, ivory or cream. As far as that shade of pink is concerned, I distinctly remember seeing some cars rolling down Cadillac's Clark Avenue assembly line in the 70's and 80s that were painted in what was referred to at the time as "Mary Kay Pink". In additon, for a good many years Rose Hills Mortuary and Cemetery in Whittier, California (a competitor of Forest Lawn), operated a fleet of what they called "Rose Pink" funeral coaches, limousines and lead cars. In fact, Tom McPherson has some photos he took there that show some of these - they are 1979 Superior-Cadillac three-way landaulets in what he always referred to as "Nipple Pink". He later sold Rose Hills a fleet of Eureka hearses and limousines but, to his disappointment, they changed their vehicle colors from pink to white. The Eurekas that were built for Rose Hills all had the Rose Hills "rose logo" etched into their back door windows on the hearses and into the rear side door vent windows on the six-door limousines. So..Tom never got to build the pink cars that he was so hoping for.

sorry I was not clear. in my mind a standard gm color is one gm used not necessarily that year. the only color a pro car could not come in was one newer than it. half the time the only thing newer is the name. just bring out the old color and fluff up the name to make it new.