I bet this Pontiac does not bring the money they expect it to.
Posted on 01/05/2011 7:29:43 AM PST by re_tail20
A rare piece of Americana goes on sale this month, when one of the vehicles that carried the body of President John F. Kennedy after his assassination hits the block at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction, which begins on January 17.
The 1963 Pontiac Bonneville ambulance was used to collect the president’s flag-draped coffin from Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland upon its return from Dallas. Kennedy’s wife, Jackie, and his brother Robert accompanied the president’s body as it was transported to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sitting fine because it doesn’t have a casket in it yet (see it being unloaded).
I bet this Pontiac does not bring the money they expect it to.
Jackie was in that ambulance with her husband. So were the Secret Service agents
Last month - on the History Channel - there was a rather interesting show about Secret Service agents who were working night and day with the first family before, during and after the assassination.
They - to this day - still teared up as they personally related the events as they happened.
I got a lump in my throat just watching them tell their stories.
The way I understand it, the coffin they hastily procured in Dallas was extremely heavy. A White House staffer told them to “go out and get the best they could buy”. They got the most ornate one they could find which had a lot of brass and metal on it.
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See post 24 re: the TV show I was watching.
One of the secret service agents who was there related that that casket was very heavy. And remember - it had to go up and down the stairs to Air Force One. It took 8 agents to handle it.
Further complicating the transport was the handles on that casket. They had to break them off as the extra width of the handles and the casket made it too wide to go through the door of AF1.
Whew! What a mess. And based on the Pontiac sitting that low - I don’t doubt that the casket alone weighed 1000 lbs or more.
Depends. Is the photo shown from the 60s or today? If it's today, even an unused vehicle will sag on its springs, especially after almost 5 decades. Another likelihood is that the shocks are shot, as the rubber in the shocks would certainly have degraded without use over this amount of time.
One would think the heavier-duty shocks and springs for the modified vehicle wouldn't be sagging that much, though.
Who knows. I do know some station wagons from that era seem to have more sag in them than the sedans they were based on, even in the original brochures.
After reading other posts here, and looking at photos of this and other Bonneville ambulances of the era, I’d say the casket tweaked things and it never returned to original ride-height.
Andrews to Bethesda
The original casket was damaged by the Secret Service while it was being unloaded at Andrews AFB. The replacement mahogany casket was considerably heavier (1,300 pounds) than the original one.
That’s over 200 pounds for each of the normally six pallbearers to carry, so the the casket team had to be increased to eight bearers plus the OIC of the team, Lt. Bird assisted as well. It was quite a load according to a member of that casket team, Doug Mayfield.
I love mid-60’s Pontiacs. I’ve owned two of them (so far).
Bet me: They had Secret Service with that body every minute.
Use it to drive Sirhan Sirhan into to lake at Chappaquiddick and you can put an end to the entire Kennedy legacy.
http://jalopnik.com/5739333/president-kennedys-ambulance-is-a-fake?skyline=true&s=i
I bid 25 cents.
I know I over bid it, but I wanted to make it look good. I change my bid to 15 cents.
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