Junky
Well Known Member
Yes, this is the same ambulance that was originally owned by Lloyd Ray. I hadn't seen that article before, however, after reading it, I realized that it is full of misinformation about this particular car. I purchased the car from the estate of Lloyd & Karen Ray, and after purchasing it, I spoke to both the previous owner, who was the man that Lloyd purchased it from, and also the funeral director that sold to car to the second owner. When the car was sold from the funeral home, it had no markings on it to indicate that it was either a hearse or a ambulance. In fact, it was never used as either, even though it was converted when new to serve as an ambulance. The funeral director referred to it as the "wife's grocery getter". Lloyd added the spotlights, CD emblems, under hood siren, roof lights, etc. I knew Lloyd prior to his death, and we were friends. Some of this I learned from speaking to him, and a lot of information was found by finding pictures of the car before Lloyd made the changes.I am in the process of reversing many of the things that Lloyd had done, such as removing the door mounted spotlights, that are not period correct, to removing the roof lights, which were not place in the proper location. The changes that I am making are based on finding a 1962 Oldsmobile ambulance that was built about the same time as my car. This Olds was badly rusted, and had a lot of its parts picked clean prior to my finding it. I finished it off, by purchasing the remaining ambulance specific parts for use on my car. When a ambulance service/funeral home purchased a car, they had lots of choices of what equipment that they wanted to have installed by the body builder. In the case of this car, it was a bare bones, very few options, so it wouldn't stand out as being different, but would meet the requirements of being a tax deduction as a 100% ambulance. Back in the days when these cars were in service, it wasn't unusual for a car to have its emergency equipment changed and / or upgraded by the ambulance service, or its next owner.
Below is a picture of car that I am using as the "model" reference for the changes that I am in the process of completing. Even though this is a Pontiac, it essentially is the same car as my Chevrolet, however, it was ordered with the optional roof lights, spotlight, and fender mounted siren. My car will not have a fender mounted siren, since I have chosen to mount it on the roof. The other picture is a 1962 Pontiac with the siren mounted on the roof, with side mounted tunnel lights.
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Life in General, Jeff.
We're always, Lurching around. 
