William Pfeiffer Auto & Carriage Works of Omaha, Nebraska was famous for
their standardized high-quality low-budget funeral vehicles mounted on chassis of the customer's choosing. Their
bodies were known to have built on 4-cylinder Ford Model Ts and 6-cylinder Buick and Dodge Brothers chassis during
the Teens and early Twenties.
Many local carriage makers and truck body constructors furnished bodies for Ford's amazing Models T, and for a
number of years the Model T was undoubtedly the most popular professional car chassis in the world. During the late
Teens and early Twenties Ford sold over 50,000 chassis annually to thousands of domestic coachbuilders.
During 1915 Model T ambulance production (listed separately from chassis production) exceeded 20,000 units, with
most of the production sent to Europe prior to the US's involvement in WWI. This statistic alone makes the Model T
the world's most famous professional car chassis, ever.
Throughout the 1920s Pfeiffer continued to offer its budget-conscious mid-west customers the latest body styles
mounted on low-priced chassis such as Chevrolet as evidenced by an attractive landau funeral coach which was
advertised in 1927.
Pfeiffer converted a number of Plymouth sedans into hearses for local
funeral homes in the mid-to-late 1930s. A 1936 Pfeiffer-Plymouth Hearse and
a 1939 Pfeiffer-Plymouth Roadking Hearse still exist among the membership of the Plymouth 4&6 Owner's
Club.
1890 Omaha directory - Pfeiffer Wm, mfr of carriages, buggies, spring and truck wagons, 2505 Leavenworth and 807
s 28th.
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