When are you going to see another of these?

What an interesting looking ambulance. I wonder of there's any pictures out there what the patient compartment looked like?
 
Why the hot rod i will never understand. Got to people never want to drive it. As i recall 348 try power was offered in the impala in 58. Be nice to get a look at it. Got to be a national and if my brain is working right a Minute man
 
Steve, could not agree more. The really sad part is that the soul who did this had no idea of the historic value this vehicle holds, to an all be it a small section of the automotive community. You would love to know if the rare interior parts were saved. Unlikely.
As I said, where will you see another.
 
So recreation the rear compartment would be the task. The hard part would finding any pictures of one so that you could. The problem is the up front cost. But the truth is to get the body up to that condition would be around that much for the average person. It looks to me like they started with a gutted car. The attempt to recreate a ambulance rear was the results of some one not familiar with the industry construction methods. Be quite a task to put the divider and cabinet back togather. The rest is not any different then any other rebuild. Finding a 4 barrel intake and painted valve covers with what you would have to swap might not be all that hard.
 
The first thing is to figure out what the engine presently was. The second thing would be the transmission is not original to the car. Cast iron powerglides is not difficult to find, but finding someone who knows how to work on it is. They require specialized tools to repair them. I see a box on the floor, but no compressor, so all I can guess is that it is a swamp cooler. It is a project that I could undertake, but not with the starting price of the vehicle itself. I can clearly see it costing $15 or $20,000 to make up cabinetry and everything else that it is going to take to bring it back to what it originally was. Too much work and expense because when you are done, you probably still have a $30,000 car if you are lucky. I doubt that most ambulances of that vintage will bring the kind of money that it takes to restore them.
 
So true. Spoke with the owner today. He stated it had a 348 in it. It was a Denver General hospital ambulance got in a bad wreck on the interstate. He bought it out of the junk yard years later. Did the work we see, put disk brakes on and the power booster. Put a different PS steering sector on it kept the origional pump off the generator. Added The wire wheels and just lost interest in doing any more.been sitting for some time now. Has pictures of the car when he first got it. Doesn't remember how much of the rear interier he still has. Talked about the side rails that they put on it when they extended the frame? I would have thought that National would have used the CC but this one started life as a Belair . It defently has more questions then answers. But don't think it could ever be more then a hot rod Ambulance. The 58 I did for Virgil had a jetaway 3 speed in it. We were able to get it overhauled up in rapid.
 
In his ad he said it has a 408 in it. 348 looks the same on the outside as a 409 engine. If it came with a 348 then it would have had a turboglide transmission in the car. It wasn't a great transmission, but it would be correct. Too many items to correct for that amount of money.
 
I am glad that ED got "the rest of the story" directly from the owner. I sounds like the car should have been in the junkyard long ago. I don't see anything that couldn't be corrected, there is an awful lot to start with in a restoration. Keep the hood closed and put stock wheels back on it and half the work is done.
 
Exceedingly creative at wasting money thinking that he will get a big payday in the end. Don't see it ever happening.
 
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