The 1928 Essex Hearse and more dead rides putting the FUN in funeral.

I saw this hearse rod at a Good Guys show in Costa Mesa, CA back in May of 2010. My first viewing was early on in the day shown in the above photo as it drove past....I nearly chased it down.
A couple photos below you can see I got pretty close...or it nearly ran me over...either way, I got the shot.

Well here it is on the current issue of RebelRodz magazine, April 2011 #23

There's some good background on the owner/builder and a tech sheet. And then there's the model, Malice and some up close photos of her many tattoos. I'd say the hearse is under exposed and she is over exposed, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Here's some photos a taken later in the day when I came across the car parked on display.

I'll admit I did not notice the RIP in the grill on the above shot. Good ol' fill flash.

Since these photos, the owner, Willy Martinez of Orange County, has added a new interior and some nice web pinstriping. You can see some on the mag cover photo on the grill around the "Essex Super Six" emblem (below). Within the issue Malice is also photographed giving a smooch to the horned one......the grill/radiator cap that is.

That's a racing Hemi there amigos.

That's it on this very cool hearse. In the same issue of Rebel Rodz there's some great Mooneyes X-Mas and Bo Huff Benefit event photos as well as some really cool rod art and plenty of ladies.

I had seen this hearse along the highway heading up to a car show in Globe, AZ just a month prior.

It seemed to me it had potential and given those scallops maybe once burned some rubber in the crematorium parking lot. 

"Complete and solid"

This is not likely to grace the cover of a magazine...unless some how Willy Martinez gets/got his hands on it.

Keeping with the hearse theme, here's a hearse that was at last year's Chandler Car Show.

 A 70's Cadillac hearse with it's hood up, maybe it had a dead battery and was awaiting a jump?  

Yes, those are real and functional beer taps! Now that's the spirit! This casket is basically a dead-kegger.

Here's the website:  www.kaosfuneralcars.com

Unfortunately it was Unhappy hour (as most hearse bars go) and they weren't serving. 

Then in October--just prior to Halloween weekend I came across their haunted cook out.

The "Cremator" had not been fired up yet but I had to leave.  I'm sure it was a job well done, if not outright charred.

The (Dead) End