Custom Built One At A Time

Custom Built One At A Time

By Louis C. Farah.

It’s amazing how many people look at a vintage professional car and assume that they were factory-built cars that came off of an assembly line somewhere in Detroit. It’s easy to understand why people would believe that considering the master craftsmanship that went into the construction of each car that rolled out of the doors of such well-known manufacturers as Miller, Meteor, Flxible, Superior and Eureka. That expertise and innovation becomes even more evident when we look at the smaller builders such as National, Cotner/Bevington and Seibert.

However, if one were to visit the hearse builders of today (there are no manufacturers of ambulances on a passenger car chassis in America anymore) they would definitely see an assembly line operation where standardized bodies are mated with a stripped-down Cadillac or Lincoln chassis to make a funeral car. A lot has changed in the past 30 years with the demise of the passenger car-based ambulance.

Gone are the days of custom-built bodies that made professional cars appear as if they were standard automotive bodies that were altered by the manufacturers. What most people don’t realize is the fact that those that designed and constructed these cars intentionally built these vehicles to resemble ordinary factory- build cars that the public bought themselves. The same flowing lines as those cars appearing in the showrooms of Cadillac dealers were no accident. Rather than produce a car with a strange and bulky looking style that left no doubt that this was nothing more than a ‘butcher job” on a luxury car, master craftsmen made professional cars a thing of beauty and dignity. Gone were the days of the horse and buggy. By the 1930’s, professional cars were stately and offered a high degree of integrity and prestige to the funeral director or ambulance operator.

The bodies were custom-built based on the customer’s exacting standards and specific order. These were not cookie-cutter vehicles by any means. Interior appointments, emergency lighting, sirens, casket table specifications, curtains, window treatments and virtually every part of the car was custom built from scratch depending on what the customer ordered. When one looks in the gallery at the gorgeous examples of the cars that were built by the the coachbuilders of the past, it’s easy to see why people thought these cars were built in a Cadillac factory instead of the independent professional car builders of the time. The flowing lines of the car were perfectly matched to the custom bodies that were built. Using the same chrome trim, fender styles, tail lights and other parts provided the perfect blend of design and practicality.

Unfortunately, professional cars built today (primarily hearses) are cookie cutter vehicles that no longer emulate custom- build bodies that match traditional passenger car styling of a particular year or vehicle make. For the past 30 years, manufactured bodies that have been used on a variety of chassis such as Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet are the same with little or no variance in style. The art of master craftsmen has been lost, especially with the consolidation of Eureka, Miller-Meteor, S&S and Superior under the banner of Accubuilt.

Although the professional cars of today are certainly more quality built and technologically advanced from their predecessors, the progression of design and construction has resulted in a loss of style and uniqueness that perhaps may be lost forever. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference between most professional cars, especially in determining what year a particular car is. The price of progress appears to have been the loss of uniqueness.

As far as vintage cars club are concerned, it is our responsibility as those that have chosen the field of professional cars to do our best to acquire these unique vehicles and protect their historical value. Although we certainly accept any and all professional cars in PCI, the many would agree that the most collectible cars are those from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. Believe it or not, in a mechanical sense, these are perhaps the easiest to restore and maintain. Most of the parts can be found at such auto parts outlets as Pep Boys, Trak Auto, Auto Zone and NAPA stores. If you’re looking for fuel pumps, carburetors, wiper blades, water pumps, spark plugs and other bolt-on parts, most can be purchased for under $40.

However, beware of simply buying a part for your particular year and make of vehicle. Professional cars were not built nor assembled by the chassis distributor. Cadillac did not build these cars: Miller- Meteor, Superior, Cotner/Bevington and S&S built them. There are vast differences in the suspension, braking and drive train components as compared to the everyday cars that were delivered from Detroit. That’s another reason for the camaraderie among professional car enthusiasts: Getting accurate restoration information from someone that knows your car and has been there before.

The only daunting task regarding these older cars is body work. Body parts for vehicles from the 1960’s and 1970’s are still readily available on the West Coast and Southwest areas of the country due to the low instance of rust. However, the older the car, and the closer to the East Coast that one travels, the less likely you will be able to find a rust-free fender, chrome piece or other external body part.

Master craftsmen may have built these cars, but it is now up to us to restore and maintain these special vehicles. That’s just as important in the professional car hobby as owning the car!

Reprinted with permission from the July 2009 Issue of the “Professional Car Collector” magazine.  The official publication of Professional Cars International.  PCI Club Information can be found HERE.

Discuss this article in our Forums HERE.

NYFD Ambulance

Inside an LAFD Ambulance

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“The Ambulance” trailer

Federal 77GB Doubletone

Federal Q2a Siren

The Ugly Duckling, Part 1.

The Ugly Duckling.  A restoration adventure.

By Dean Newman

It all started in September of 2004.  I was browsing eBay and looking through the vehicles listed for sale.   I wasn’t actually looking for anything new, I just enjoy surfing the listings.  I had a small fleet of ‘59 Cadillac’s in the garage already in varying states of restoration and I really had no specific need for another coach.  I figured I was doing fairly well, I had gone through a hearse search and a limo search, and even managed to breeze through a ‘59 Cadillac search without finding anything that I couldn’t live without.  I figured I’d finish up my searching with an ambulance search and then move on to other projects.  That last search started me on a journey that I’m still enjoying.  And it all started with a teeny little photo.  Tucked down at the very end of the search page on eBay motors there was a listing for an ambulance.  It was listed only as a “1960 Chevrolet Station Wagon.”  And the listing had just gone up as it had 10 days left to go.  From the tiny photo that was next to the listing, it was tough to tell what the car really looked like, so I clicked into the listing.  The description in the listing had the car listed as a “Chevy Ambulance, NOT impala or Bel Air.”  The top of the description stated that the car would make a great “old school custom car, hot rod, or rat rod”  It went on to list the basics of the car, which at a first glance looked promising.  51,000 miles, 350 motor, new tires, stretcher included, owner’s manual included, currently licensed and registered.  And best of all it was listed as a great road car.  The seller claimed that it had been driven several hundred miles and it was “Great at 70+” and assured everyone that it had been serviced and could be driven home.  And the little notation that I found most interesting was they mentioned it was built by “Cotner-Bevington” of Blytheville, Ark.

The seller also listed some of the “minor” issues that the car had that would need to be attended to as well:

• Radio didn’t work.
• brakes pulsed when you used them
• “some” rust in the drivers floor pan
• Cracked windshield
• Cracked right rear door glass
• Carb had a flat spot off idle
• Transmission dripped when left sitting.

All in all none of those issues were that major in my opinion, so I scrolled down to get a better look at this car.  My first thought was that based on the photos in the listing, the car was pretty homely looking.    Now the photos were not the greatest, and they weren’t very big.  But the car didn’t look too horrible.  The body looked fairly straight, if not a little ungainly.  The roof line was definitely modified, and the transition where the coach work met the factory body work was interesting to say the least.  From the front ¾ view the car was not too bad looking if you squinted a little.  From the rear ¾ view the roof and the rear door was huge and just didn’t seem proportioned correctly.  The whole car just didn’t seem to flow together well.  It looked very much like a Frankenstein sort of vehicle.  You could see that it was not a backyard project, it did have professional coachwork.  But it was also apparently that it was not really a regular production coach built car.  It just didn’t have the polish and the lines of the major coaches of the era.  The paint it was wearing didn’t help show it off much either, it was an oxidized and faded fire engine red with an equally crusty refrigerator white roof.  The color split down the side of the car was horrible and didn’t work well on the car; it was jarring and threw your eye off, making the car look top heavy and not balanced well.  It also had about 6 different shades of primer on it, and someone had painted big white iron crosses on the doors and then apparently sanded them partly off again.  It seemed as if someone was already working on turning it into a rat rod of sorts.  Overall the effect was a bit on the ugly side.  I remember calling my wife in to show her a “homely” looking ambulance.  My comment at the time was that I wanted to show her the photos as I figured the odds of finding another ambulance that was this homely looking were fairly slim.  Having had a good laugh about the car, I closed my browser and went on with my day.

And I just could not get that car out of my head.  It haunted me.

Over the next several days I found myself going back to the auction listing and staring at the photos.  By day 5 of the auction, I had it on my watch list and was keeping tabs on the bidding.  By day 7 I had decided that I wanted to bring her home.  I told my wife at dinner that night that I was going to bid on the Chevy Ambulance on eBay.  She asked if it was the ugly one I’d shown her earlier in the week.  I told her it was.  To her credit, she did not laugh.  She did not look at me like I was insane.  And she did not run out of the room in a panic.  She told me that if I wanted it, then bid on it.  She also pointed out that if it was in fact a Cotner-Bevingtion, it would probably be a pretty rare car.  And she mentioned that being a Chevy might make it easier to get parts for. By the end of dinner, we were in agreement that I was going to win that car and bring it home.

I watched that auction like a hawk.  I jumped into the bidding and kept it low to not give away my plan.  And I planned on waiting until the last minute to submit my final bid.  And then real life interfered.  I was called into work to cover a shift that would pull me away from the computer when the auction ended.  By this point, I wanted the car so badly I could taste it.  I just had to hope that things worked out for me.  I entered a fairly aggressive bid right before I left for work and headed out for one exceptionally long and stressful day at work.  Returning home, the first stop was to check the computer.  And there is was.  “Sorry, you were outbid”.  Another bidder had won it for $100 more than my max bid.  I was crushed.  In a last ditch “hail mary” play, I sent a note to the winner congratulating them on the win, and letting them know that if they ever wanted to sell it in the future, to please keep me in mind.  I mentioned that I was an ambulance collection, and I had been hoping to restore the car if I had won it.  I congratulated them again on the win, and sent the note off into the wilds.  I figured it was over.  I tried to put it out of my mind.  I tried to let it go.

Several weeks passed, and I figured that the car was long gone, and it was just not meant to be.  And then out of the blue, I received a response from the winner.  I stared at that mail in my box, afraid to open it for fear the winner would be gloating or worse telling me about cutting it up and turning it into a hot rod or a rat rod.  When I finally mustered the nerve to actually read the mail, I was stunned.  The mail was short and polite and it was an offer to sell me the car if I was still interested in it.  I crafted my response as carefully as I could so as not to appear too eager.  I was concerned that if the winner figured out how much I wanted the car, the price would go way up.  Amazingly it did not.  His asking price was exceptionally fair, and when he offered to deliver the car to me, the asking price ended up being almost exactly what it would have cost me if I had won the car to begin with.

I overnighted him the deposit, and started counting the days until it was scheduled to arrive.

Delivery day was the 1^st of October, and he arrived with the car shortly after dark.  It looked pretty decent on the trailer.  It was a little rough in spots, but the body looked to be solid and straight for the most part.  So we unloaded her and rolled her into the garage for the night.  The following morning I was able to get a really good look at what I had just added to the collection.

• The body was pretty solid and straight. No major damage or rust issues there which was a plus.
• There were small dings and dents here and there, but nothing really serious in terms of body damage.
• The rust in the floor pans was slightly more than “some”. It looked like we’d need to replace both front floor pans and the driver’s side rear floor pan, but those were available so no major issue there. On the bright side, there was enough of an opening in the floor to be able to drop and anchor through for supplemental braking power.
• The windshield and the side windows glass were indeed broken. But those pieces are available as well. No major issue there.
• The brakes did more than pulse. They chattered and bucked, and did a bunch of other unnerving things. They also leaked. What they did not do is stop the car properly.
• The transmission was a little less pristine than suggested as well. Aside from the “small leak” it also had a major clunk, and some grinding when the car was moving. And after a quick spin around the block, I was doubtful that it would do 70 easily on the freeway.
• The flat spot in the carb was present off idle. There was also a flat spot in the carb when the car was revving as well. On the bright side, it was a consistent issue, and I was fairly confident we could fix that easily.

Even with the additional issues that I noticed the first day, I still felt that I got a pretty nice coach.  It was just going to take a little more work than I had initially planned.  So instead of having a “driver” that I could play with, I’d just do a little work on it, and then drive it for a while.  As these projects tend to do, it ended up growing beyond the initial plans.   We have gone through and rebuilt, replaced, or updated almost every piece of the car.  Along the way we have learned a lot about how coachbuilt cars were actually built in the early ’60s.  We have found some cool artifacts from the cars history, and we have had a ton of fun doing it.  From new floor pans, to paint to what seemed like miles of wiring; it’s been a learning process every step of the way.  A process that I’d like to share in words and pictures over the next few issues.  Since we purchased this coach, it’s been to Denver, Colorado.  Los Angeles, California.  And we have driven it around and through most of Arizona.  It’s a fantastic road car.   It’s a great way to start a conversation about professional cars, and it’s a ton of fun to drive.  We built the car to be a driver, and we’ve learned a ton along the way.  We have also made a pile of friends on the highways and rest stops of the west coast.  Nothing attracts new friends like an old ambulance.  It’s something I recommend to everyone.  If you aren’t driving them, you are missing half of the fun!

In the next installment of our restoration journey, I’ll delve into welding for dummies, what not to do with POR 15 rust inhibitor, and how to wire a car up without setting yourself on fire or melting anything.

History: Vintage Medical Devices

Did Those Old Medical Devices Really Work?
by
Louis Farah

Many years ago I attended a Los Angeles County paramedic update class. These are a part of my yearly continuing education that introduces new medical procedures for field use and/or any changes to county protocols.
Sitting with a bunch of old salts like myself that have been playing the paramedic game since the 1970’s, we marveled at the number of changes we’ve seen in medical care throughout the years.

At one time my paramedic unit carried five different pain medications, each used for something different; Demerol for muscle pain, Morphine for chest pain, Valium and Phenobarbital for seizures and Talwin for fractures.
We carried five different IV solutions and a variety of drugs used for drips. Paramedic units in Los Angeles County were stocked with virtually everything found in an emergency room because our paramedic program was still considered a “pilot program” that allowed emergency room physicians the latitude to order any medical procedure they felt was necessary to save a patient’s life.

The Wedworth-Townsend Act opened the door for paramedic programs throughout California. Unfortunately there were no standardized protocols for treatment. Each county had the ability to design and develop their own programs, and as a result, paramedic field treatment was as varied as the number of counties with paramedics.

However, one aspect of paramedic care was constant: The equipment we used.

Long before the advent of paramedics, ambulance services were using virtually the same emergency equipment made by a handful of manufacturers.

Early Resuscitators

Perhaps the most advanced piece of equipment in the early days of EMS was the use and delivery of supplemental oxygen via the resuscitator. Vintage equipment such as the old Emerson units used large and heavy tanks to power a device that forced air into the lungs of a patient. The standard procedure for anyone having breathing difficulties was the practice of putting a mask on their face with a tight seal to inflate the lungs.
Unfortunately, few of these people survived because the underlying cause of the medical emergency wasn’t alleviated by simply forcing oxygen into the lungs. However, for drowning victims and those overcome by smoke, the benefits far outweighed the negatives, so these units found a home on ambulances across the nation.

These resuscitators definitely had their limitations: They were big, heavy and bulky; It took two strong men to transport the unit from the ambulance to the patient; and they “cycled”.

Cycling was a design built into the system. To prevent damage to the lungs from over-inflation, once the resuscitator reached 40 pounds per-square-inch in pressure, the unit stopped pumping oxygen.
For those that suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 40 pounds of pressure wasn’t enough to fill the lungs with air. As a result, for those patients with any type of obstructive lung disease, the Emerson resuscitator did more harm than good.

By the 1950’s, the theory of rescue breathing was making huge advancements. Although CPR had yet to be applied in a field setting, the medical community was starting to embrace the practice by numerous methods of rescue breathing including the use of the old arm-lift method, and eventually mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing.

With the evolution of the manual resuscitator, one of the most famous and well-known pieces of oxygen equipment came into vogue:
The green-cased E&J “Lifeport” oxygen resuscitator.

The good old E&J became the standard of the industry. Both the Los Angeles City and County Fire Departments used it as standard equipment on all of their apparatus, as did most other fire departments across the country. It too operated much like the Emerson unit, but it was much smaller and utilized lightweight “D” sized oxygen cylinders.

Both the Emerson and E&J resuscitators depended on the patient’s ability to breath in the oxygen in order to be beneficial. With the limitation of the cycling feature, those needing rescue breathing benefited little from the devices.

Perhaps the greatest advancement in the delivery of oxygen was the demand valve. At the press of a button, high-flow oxygen could be forced into the lungs without the worry of the device cycling, and thus, discontinuing the flow of oxygen into the lungs.

For rescue breathing on the go, the formidable ambu-bag was introduced in the 1960’s to ventilate a patient in distress. With the advent of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, two rescuers could perform chest compressions and provide adequate oxygenation to a person with reasonable success.
The ambu-bag is used today as the primary mode of delivering rescue breathing to a patient outside of the hospital emergency room. The most widely used in-house device remains the ventilator, which can deliver a variety of oxygen concentrations and ventilation pressures and settings. The 1980’s saw the discontinuance of the demand valve resuscitator because of concerns associated with possible over-inflation of the lungs. Without a “pop-off” valve to prevent inflation pressure of above 40 pounds per-square-inch, the medical community seems to be more at ease with the ambu-bag that has that capability.

Even with the advancements of airway control with such devices as the endotracheal tube, the ambu-bag has undergone design changes to improve the delivery of oxygen into the lungs. Today’s ambu-bags have long connecting reservoir tubes to ensure 100% oxygen concentrations in the bag prior to deflation; New snap-on filters have color indicators to confirm the exchange of inhaled oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide.

Although the old Emerson and E&J resuscitators are a huge part of EMS history and are standard props in our professional vehicles, their usefulness in today’s modern world of medicine has fallen by the wayside. However, before the advancement of emergency medical care, they were the standard of the industry.

Suction Devices

Just as important as delivering oxygen to a patient’s lungs was the establishment of a clear airway to facilitate the delivery of the oxygen to a patient’s lungs.

Perhaps the earliest device for clearing an airway was the simple bulb syringe. In fact, the bulb syringe is used today to clear the airway of an infant during delivery and a larger syringe can be used to clear fluids from the mouth and throat from most adults. However, when a larger volume of debris needs to be removed, the mighty Rico suction unit has become standard equipment in nearly all ambulances operating in this country.

The Rico suction unit gained popularity in the 1960’s because of the pressure generated by the suction unit and the large canister used to collect the secretions provided a much improved way of clearing a patient’s airway in an emergency. Whether the obstruction was blood or vomit, the Rico unit had the power and the capacity to handle the job.

There have been two units used in the field. The first was powered by manual suction created from the engine manifold of the ambulance being used. A hose was connected to the intake manifold and routed to the suction unit itself. Using the suction power of the engine, debris could be suctioned up into the catch canister. The power of the suction depended on the amount of suction generated by the ambulance’s intake manifold, which varied from ambulance to ambulance.

However, the cost of the suction unit was relatively cheap because early models did not have an independent motor that powered the unit. The mechanics were simple: Hook one end of the suction hose to the ambulance’s engine, hook the other end of the hose to the suction unit, and you were in business.

The modern Rico suction unit did away with the use of the engine’s manifold as the main source of suction in favor of a new unit that featured it’s own suction motor. The pressure generated by the motor was more consistent and could be regulated to meet the needs of individual patient requirements. Today, a suction unit is standard equipment in every ambulance manufactured in America.

As time went on, other companies entered the market with lighter and more compact devices. The Laedal Company produced a fine line of portable suction units that were powered by rechargeable batteries. Soon they became a standard as well. With the vast acceptance of the Laedal units, Rico soon concentrated their efforts on vehicle-based suction units while Laedal took over the portable market.

Entering the Modern Age of Paramedics

Basic life support devices such as oxygen tanks, resuscitators, ambu-bags and suction units have changed little prior to 1969. Yes, some improvements were made to make them more efficient. But the most significant evolution in the field of emergency medical services was the development of the paramedic.

No longer would citizens have to depend on a fast ride at break-neck speed to the nearest hospital to receive comprehensive emergency medical care. That advanced level of medical care would be brought to the scene of an emergency and the same high tech equipment used in the hospital would be used as well.

Perhaps the two most important tools were the portable heart monitor/defibrillator developed by the Datascope Corporation and the portable radio designed by Biocom.

Together, these two pieces of equipment brought those who had died back to life, or prevented one from dying.

Those experiencing cardiac arrest outside of an emergency room were doomed to a virtual death sentence. Without quick defibrillation, they would pass from “clinical death” to “biological death” with no possible chance for survival.

The use of the Datascope heart monitor/defibrillator, coupled with the proper cardiac drugs and the delivery of a counter-shock in a timely manner could convert a fatal heart rhythm into a normal heartbeat and save countless lives.

The use of the heart monitor/defibrillator with the patient’s electrocardiogram being transmitted to the hospital via the Biocom radio put a paramedic in direct contact with an emergency room physician. The physician could see the heart rhythm the paramedic was seeing in the field, and timely treatment was initiated to prevent a potentially-fatal heart rhythms from occurring.

The impact was immediate.

Prior to the introduction of paramedics, nearly 90% of all cardiac cases never made it to the hospital alive. A heart attack outside of a hospital meant certain death. Today, over 90% of all heart related patients not only make it to the hospital alive, but they survive and go on to live productive lives.

Most cardiac monitor/defibrillators today are standard tools in treating a variety of cardiac emergencies. Developments during the last thirty years include the use of twelve leads to view the entire heart from front to back, and heart pacing capabilities for those patients in acute heart failure. Some units, such as the Life Pack 12, even record voice conversation at the scene of the emergency for documentation at a later time.

Perhaps the most important piece of equipment was (and still is) the radio used by the paramedic base station hospital that receives the assessment and report from the paramedics and relays back medical treatment to the paramedics in the field.

The base station radio not only receives voice transmissions from paramedic crews, but receives the patient’s EKG rhythm as well. Advanced life support treatment is much more sophisticated than ever before and current protocols require much more documentation of medical conditions before and after treating the patient.

At the time of their use, these medical devices were considered state-of-the-art and were widely used. Just as the ambulance has improved in performance, style and convenience, medical devices have steadily improved to meet the new protocols of emergency medical care in a pre-hospital setting.

For those of us that have been involved in the field of emergency medical services since the 1970’s, the changes have been astonishing. We are doing medical procedures and using equipment that is even more advanced than ever before.

As to the question of did these devices actually work?

Yes, indeed they did!

Louis Farah is a professional car collector and historian as well as being an active Paramedic in the Los Angeles area.

Federal Electronic Sirens

Federal’s ‘Director’ and ‘Interceptor’ Electronic Sirens

By: Leslie Erlich

So you found a 1970 Superior/Cadillac 54′ high headroom ambulance that is rusting away and you want to restore it to the way it was when it was new.   The beacon and siren are long gone but you have a idea of what type of warning equipment it had when it was first put into service.   Beacons are fairly easy to find – either a Federal 17 series or 184 series will do.  But what about the siren?  Should you go mechanical or electronic?  According to the 1970 Superior catalogue, there were three mechanical siren options: A Federal Q, a Federal C6, or a B&M Super Chief.   As far as electronic sirens go, only the siren speakers are illustrated in the catalogue: a Federal CP25, CJ24, SA24, and CJ184 speaker/light. But if the speakers were Federal, chances are the siren would have been a Federal Director or Interceptor.

If you choose to go with an electronic siren, the Director and Interceptor models are by far the most recognizable among the old Federal electronics, particularly the ‘brown face’ Director and the ‘blue face’ Interceptor.  The brown face and blue face versions were in production for about twenty years, and on the surface they look pretty much the same regardless of when they were made.   To the uneducated observer, a siren is a siren is a siren.  But I will argue that surface appearance alone is not a valid indicator of period correctness.  The Director and Interceptor sirens underwent several design changes throughout the course of production, and in my research I have found that the sound of the siren is the best indicator of period correctness.

PA5 and PA10

The very first Director and Interceptor sirens were the PA5 and PA10, and they only vaguely resembled their brown and blue faced cousins.  The Director was intended to be the ‘economy’ model while the Interceptor would be the ‘deluxe’ model.   The most significant features about both sirens are that the Director has a wired-in microphone and screw terminals for power/speaker/radio connection, while the Interceptor has an optional detachable microphone and multi-pin plug connectors for the radio, speakers, and power supply.   The PA5 (Director) and PA10 (Interceptor) had black control panels and grey plastic knobs, and they were both capable of producing the standard wail and yelp tones that are still featured on electronic sirens today.  But the one thing that really set the PA5 and PA10 apart from later Federal electronic sirens is that these models were designed to simulate the sound of a mechanical siren.  I’ve heard a PA5, and the ‘wail’ tone sounds much like a Q2b mechanical siren.   The PA5 and PA10 were in production from about 1960 to 1962, and either one in working condition would be a rare find.

PA5 sound sample: pa5

PA15 and PA20

The brown face / blue face era began with the PA15 and PA20 around 1962.  What sets these sirens apart from later versions of the Director and Interceptor is that both models have wail, yelp, and ‘alert’ tones.  The ‘alert’ tone is just a steady tone that plays at constant pitch – it doesn’t rise or fall.   Federal abandoned the simulated mechanical tone in favor of a more rounded synthesizer-like tone when the PA15 and PA20 were introduced. The sound of these sirens is much deeper and lower-pitched than what we are accustomed to hearing nowadays.  I’ve never heard a PA15 or PA20 in use on a ‘real life’ emergency vehicle, but I have heard the PA15/PA20 sounds on many TV shows and movies that were produced from the late 1960s right on up to the early 1980s.   For example, the siren sounds that were dubbed in for Squad 51 of Emergency and the patrol car on Adam-12 were a recording of a PA15 or PA20 running in ‘manual’ mode.  Or the dual siren tones of the police cars on Hawaii Five-O were overdubs of  PA15 / PA20 wails and yelps.  Over the course of production the PA15 and PA20 underwent several minor internal design changes, but the circuit board layout remained roughly the same until the end of production.  Letters at the end of the serial numbers indicated revisions to the circuitry, such a F1, E1, F1A, E1A, F1B, E1B, etc.  PA15 serial numbers began with ‘F’ and PA20 serial numbers began with ‘E’. Production of the PA15 and PA20 ended in 1966.

PA15 / PA20 sound sample: pa15pa20

Early PA15A and PA20A

The PA15 and PA20 were replaced by the PA15A and PA20A in 1967.  The PA15A has wail and yelp tones only while the PA20A has wail, yelp, and hi-lo tones.  The hi-lo tone is an electronic simulation of the hi-lo horn sirens that were used on European ambulances.  With the change in the control panel layout came a complete change in the design of the siren oscillator circuits. The early PA15A and PA20A models also had deep low-pitched tones, but the wail and yelp tones rose and fell a little differently than those of the PA15 and PA20.   The wail tone rose more slowly, and the yelp had a distinctive throaty ‘wah-yu wah-yu wah-yu’ sound, almost like a human voice.   PA15A serial numbers began with the number ‘1′, while the PA20A serial numbers began with the number ‘2′. The first number was followed by a letter – A, B, C, or D, and the letter indicated that there were changes to the circuitry.  I’ve never seen an A series unit, so I’m assuming that it was either a prototype or demonstrator that never made it to full scale production.  There are service manuals for the B, C, and D series however.  The early PA15A and PA20A sirens were in production from 1967 to about 1970, although there seems to be a lot more 1D and 2D series units around than the earlier versions.

Early PA15 / PA20A sound sample: early15a20a

PA15A series 1E and PA20A series 2E

The Director and Interceptor siren oscillator circuits would undergo one last major change in the early 1970s. These units have the letter ‘E’ in their serial numbers. The circuit boards in the E series units are completely different from the earlier PA15A and PA20A units. The new models, PA15A series 1E and PA20A series 2E, would have high-pitched wail and yelp tones much like the electronic sirens we hear nowadays. Sometimes I have to listen closely to tell the difference between a Federal PA15A 1E or PA20A 2E and a Carson/SVP SA450! One possible reason for going to the higher pitched sounds was that more compact speakers were coming into use, and smaller speakers reproduce higher frequency sounds better than low frequency sounds.  Federal’s TS100 speaker, the same speaker that is used in the TwinSonic light bar, is one such example.    I first heard the high-pitched E series PA15A/PA20A sounds around 1973, although someone told me that the circuit was introduced in 1970.   In any case, the PA15A series 1E and PA20A series 2E were in production throughout most of the 1970s and ended in the early 1980s. The 1E and 2E use 2N2925 transistors in the siren oscillator circuit, and the 2N2925 circuit was also used in the PA150, PA200, and PA1000 sirens. Besides the high-pitched wails and yelps, the other thing that makes the 2N2925 circuit unique is that goofy ‘in-between tones’ can be heard simply by turning the selector knob between wail and yelp or yelp and hi-lo.  The E series are by far the most common version of the Director and Interceptor, but remember that they are 1970s models and were in production when many ambulance companies were switching to van-based units.

PA15A 1E / PA20A 2E sound sample: highpitch

Chassis covers

In terms of outward appearance, the chassis cover is the most distinguishable feature when comparing the PA15 / PA20, early PA15A / PA20A, and PA15A 1E / PA20A 2E.  The PA15 and PA20 have a short chassis cover, the early PA15A and PA20A have a long chassis cover with small ‘grille’ at the back, and the PA15A 1E and PA20A 2E typically have rows of holes on the back half of the chassis cover for ventilation.  The latter two chassis covers are interchangeable, so a cover is not a reliable indicator of period correctness.  I have a PA20A 2D with a 2E chassis cover, and on the surface it does look like a 1970s PA20A.

Circuits

The circuit board is the most important part of the siren.  This is where the wails and yelps com from, and the sounds of the sirens changed along with the circuitry.  I have the three basic variations of the blue face Interceptor siren: a PA20, an early PA20A, and a PA20A series 2E.  The circuit boards of all three sirens are entirely different, and they sound different too! The PA20 circuit board is brown, the early PA20A circuit board is a cream colour with a set of wires running over top, and the PA20A 2E board has all wires running underneath.

Identification labels

The serial number is stamped into a metal plate on the bottom of the PA15 and PA20, while the PA15A and PA20A have a silver-grey label on the bottom.  There are at least nine different versions of the PA15 and PA20 and five different versions of the PA15A and PA20A.   So for example if you have a PA20A with the serial number E1C, then you need to get a PA20 series E1C owner’s manual with the component location and schematic diagrams.  Or if you have a PA15A series 1B, you need a PA15A 1B manual.  A 1E manual won’t help because the board layout and components of a 1E are entirely different compared to the 1B.

So, returning to that 1970 Superior 54” high-top ambulance restoration – which siren to install?  Either a PA15A series 1D or a PA20A series 2D.   A 1B or 1C or a 2B or 2C would also be period correct.  All of these variations have the deep low-pitched slow rising wail and yelp tones.   Even a PA15 or PA20 would work, although they are much older sirens.   And if you can’t find any of the above, a mechanical siren will do.

Leslie Ehrlich

Leslie Ehrlich is a self proclaimed  ‘armchair pro-car ambulance enthusiast and a siren fanatic’.  We would like to thank him for sharing his extensive knowledge of the history of electronic sirens and warning equipment.

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