Our Craftsmanship
Nu Classic Coaches are built to order by a talented team of craftsmen and artists led by Richard Neal, a fourth-generation funeral director. Nu creates custom retro-look hearses and livery-ready Princess Formal Sedans that never go out of style like a common contemporary coach. “Because Nu Coaches and Formal Sedans are timeless by design, people go nuts when our cars roll up and they attract a sea of cameras wherever they’re used. Do people photograph your current hearse?”
The timeless exterior of every Nu Classic Coach is underpinned by equally enduring engineering, beginning with a ladder-type box section steel chassis built in-house around heavy-duty General Motors truck components and a 430 HP, fully GM-warranted Chevrolet LS3 fuel-injected V-8. This power plant is teamed with a commercial capacity 4L65E automatic transmission Standard rear air ride suspension gives the funeral director customizable ride height and comfort.
The body’s corrosion-resistant composite panels are bonded to a race car-style safety cage with aircraft-grade adhesive, while trim components are high quality stainless steel. Whether the customer chooses a Grand Vista funeral coach fitting arch-shaped floor-to-ceiling glass or a Grand O’Vale, cleverly named for its seven-foot-long “Grand Oval” viewing windows, the tall, square profiles of both cars allow their 46-inch-wide loading doors to open 180 degrees for easy access to the casket table and the church truck storage area above the rear bumper. The classic coachwork proportioning also creates space in the lower starboard flank for a four-foot-square, 1,000-pound capacity slide-out storage drawer, and minimizes transmission tunnel intrusion in the driver’s compartment The driver’s compartment also features optional 6-way power seating, a precision CNC-cut mahogany finished dashboard and an Art Deco “banjo” spoke tilt steering wheel.
NU has made previous optional equipment standard on current models, including: rear backup camera, body color matched wheels, large glass back door, dual flag masts, wig-wag lights and hardwood casket area with accents. As evidence of his attention to detail, Neal “had to actually engineer the beads on the casket compartment’s curtain tassels so they wouldn’t tap against the window glass while you’re driving”, along with how the woodwork’s genuine gold leaf accents appearing to “float in the clearcoat”. “First, we put down a thick layer of clearcoat, sand it rough, apply gold leaf and pour more clearcoat on top like Karo syrup. In 24 hours, it flattens out to a perfect finish.”
Nu also offers a Grand Vista Protégé hearse trailer that fits self-contained electric brakes so it can be safely hitched to any vintage car, street rod, tractor or trike-type motorcycle owned by the deceased or the funeral director. It can also be optionally fitted with LED video screens and external, boat-grade speakers for playing music at the burial. Neal notes, adding a trailer purchased in conjunction with a Formal Sedan is “a great option for a livery service or a funeral home that also does VIP limo business.” Whichever Nu creation ultimately captures the customer’s fancy, Neal is intent on speeding their fulfillment, explaining that “we’re always looking for better, faster ways to produce our vehicles while maintaining the handcrafted quality we’re known for.” Nu continues to make strides to the assembly process with the goal of producing one car a week.
New financing options are now available with competitive terms and easy transactions. With Mr. Neal’s continued guidance providing a refreshed approach to coach building, Nu Classic Coach continues to be the finest source for a highly stylized and custom funeral vehicle in the industry.
