1968 Cadillac Miller Meteor Ambulance
From the "you never what's coming through the door here at Classic Auto Mall" section, a 1968 Miller Meteor Ambulance sporting 60,703 title verified actual miles. Built on a Caddy chassis, this well constructed vehicle presents in excellent condition, in its original garb as a service provider all its life, now collector item and showpiece. Let's just say you'd be the only person on your block to have one! 911... What's your emergency?
Exterior
In true 1968 Caddy Style a long chassis supports straight rust free, well minded gapped steel, and a reinforced roof. The bottom of the car is Bright Red and the top is clean hospital like white. Its stacked headlights lead the way and are flanking a central chromed egg crate grille. The wide bumper below on the bottom frames the grille and wraps around the front quarters. As we see the front it's pretty much standard Cadillac design, however this is where it all ends. From the hood rear to the back of the car it's all business, mainly dedicated to pre 1978 federal mandate rules that ambulances use truck chassis and box backs for patients and EMS crew to sufficiently work on a patient "en route". Bubble gum machine Beacon Ray lighting in triplicate is on the roof, red searchlight spotlighting is mounted to the door fronts, and a large rear hinged door allows easy access to the bed of this emergency vehicle. On the way back we are back to standard Cadillac vertical pointed tail lighting and a large shiny bumper below. We can see a reinforced step up on the mid bumper. A swing of the back door is also reinforced rollers for easy access of the gurney and patient to slide inside. Fender skirts and more rocker trimmings and a midsection trim spear are seen as accenting. All glass is clear and all is definitely period correct. All units in the vicinity...go to rescue mode.
Interior
A swing of the front doors and we can see more Caddy class and style in the form of Oxblood faux leather/vinyl in stitched square panels with some tiger maple wood appliqu© accenting. Shiny cranks and actuators are in and on the drivers side the wing window crank has gone missing. Turning our attention to the seats, we note a full split back bench with moire oxblood faux leather with square stitched panels. Some white piping delineates the edges and inserts from the bolsters. Chromed metal edges are in the ends of the seats and hide the hinges which give access to the spare tire in back of the front bench. The dash in black is our pure GM with instruments, although there are a plethora of aircraft style control toggles for lights, sirens, and etc which are all in and working order. The car is equipped with heat and AC however the AC currently blows warm. In the center mounted below the dash is a Federal PA system, as well as a CB radio in addition to the regular radio mounted above in the dash. Side doors allow access to the patient area where we have a full array of custom stainless steel tambour cabinets to use plenty of medicine and bandages etc. An oxygen system is installed in the middle of the cabinets, and the floor is a nice wood parquet style. The gurney is located in the driver's side and is on a parquet step up stage. Another area to the gurney's right has a single chair for each of the 2 EMS employees and a foot step area to the gurney. These chairs also run the oxblood vinyl with the faux leather look and have a special embossed winged fleur-de-lis in their centers. The white vinyl ceiling has nice tight seams and an IV hanger mounted within its confines. A swing of the hinged rear door shows more parquet flooring and some hinged seamless storage.. This car has "Vanishades' which are blinds that hide and rise from the sills, eliminating any unsightly cords etc just pull them up and you have privacy. Nicely preserved and in great condition overall for the interior, with all correct medical gear added in right down to the dial telephone in the back cabinet. 1 Adam 12, Ambulance 1-10 all units...
Drivetrain
Under the hood in a totally restored engine bay sits a 472ci V8 cable of producing 375hp. It has a 4-barrel carburetor and a TH400 3-speed automatic transmission with a 2.94 rear axle. All clean and like new wiring abounds under this hood.
Undercarriage
Some patina, and light surface rust are noted throughout the underside. It is all unremarkable and solid, as well as structurally sound. Independent coil springs for the front and leaf springs are on back with power disc brakes upfront and power drum brakes in back. All heavy duty and able to support the extra structural steel on this car mainly on the expanded roofline. CLEAR!! and gimme 20 units of ringers lactate via IV, and lemme hear the vitals again..STAT!
Drive-Ability
I love stuff like this with all the buttons, bells, and sirens to play with. It makes my interesting job even more fun! This car ran great, had snappy emergency like acceleration, smooth steering, and bias free panic stopping. The fuel gauge is off, (it reads 1/4 tank when it's actually empty), the AC is warm and the PA system is non functional so no shouting to get out of my way.. Unit 1-4 move to your left so I can rush to the ER!!
A nice example from one of the premier Ambulance and Hearse builders pre truck federal mandate chassis ambiance era. A Caddy chassis, plenty of medical stuff for patient triage and all correct for the exterior. And no one else will have one.
