Coachbult.com - American Custom Coachworks



ACC - American Custom Coachworks - American Limousine Sales - 1953-present - Hollywood, California

American Custom Coachworks (ACC), Hollywood, California 1953-2003

In the late seventies this company was the largest custom coach builder in the USA. While they built a number of stretched limousines and utility vehicles, mostly for oil-rich Arabs, the bulk of their business was in converting steel-topped coupes to convertibles. They worked exclusively for Ford, Cadillac and Lincoln-Mercury dealers. It took about six weeks to make the conversion; this required removal of the top section as well as some restructuring, including reinforcing the windshield and door pillar posts. Production in 1978 was estimated at 2000 units. Today they manufacture Cadillac and Lincoln limousines and sell directly to Corporations, Casinos, Hotels, Companies, Limousine Services, Private Individuals, Heads of State, Royal Families, Movie Studios, Celebrities, and Transportation Companies.

American Custom Coachworks

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American Custom Coachworks now American Limousine Sales (no longer a manufacturer)
QVM Established: 1993
QVM Terminated: 2003
P.O. Box 1220
9100 Wilshire Blvd.
East Tower #333
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
Online: www.american-customcoach.com

had a manufacturing arm in Van Buren, Arkansas that closed in 2003 called American Limousine Mfg., Inc. - Established: 1993 - Terminated: 2003
2804 Industrial Park Rd.
Van Buren, AR 72956

American Limousine Sales is the oldest, (50 Years), family owned Limousine Manufacturing and Distributing company in the USA... Name recognition, stability, continuity, quality, service, price... We deliver where others only try... We can offer you manufacturing, sales, finance and leasing.

Our product is internationally acclaimed... We manufacture and sell directly to Corporations, Casinos, Hotels, Companies, Limousine Services, Private Individuals, Heads of State, Royal Families, Movie Studios, Celebrities, and Transportation Companies.

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Jay Meyer grew up in his father's automotive business. In the 1950s, Meyer worked on sports cars and other conversions, including limousines. With production facilities in both California and Florida, the family regularly accommodated custom preferences, be it for a television or full bar. Indeed, Meyer's American Custom Coach (ACC), the oldest family-owned company in the business, has always been there for anyone looking for that something extra. In the 1960s, Meyer took on an exclusive franchise for the rejuvenated Stutz, the first of which he sold to Elvis Presley. ACC capitalized on its conversion abilities to produce a line of Cadillac DeVille station wagons and pickup trucks. Meyer explains that these cars were the equivalent to the modem SUV and had a market of a substantial 80 to 100 cars a year,

The first car ACC cut and stretched was a Series 75 Cadillac, The simple reason was "for more space," Meyer says. American Custom Coach grew with the business and such notable players as Gerald Peters’ London Towne Livery and half of Hollywood, it would seem, including singer Whitney Houston who rode in one of Meyer's limousines in the movie, "The Body Guard." Meyer recalls that Peters "drove all the celebrities, He was a delight to do business with." A Peters trademark was to provide champagne in his cars, for which Meyer developed a special table. American Custom Coach worked closely with the early stretch limousine operators, especially those in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, such as London Town Livery, Starlight, and Music Express in Los Angeles and the Bell Brothers in Las Vegas, to whom Meyer sold their first limousines in 1963.

Meyer has presided over one of the biggest changes in the business, the transition from the private to the commercial limousine. "In the past, the stars bought them, a star-a-car," he says, "Now they rent them." Meyer can also be credited with pushing warranty and quality standards on the industry in the 1980s, To distinguish itselffrom the turbulent marketplace, ACC offered in 1988 an astounding five-year warranty on its cars. Meyer proudly notes that his daughter Lisa represents the family's third generation in the company. Such is the family's dedication to the limousine that when it was time for Lisa to learn to drive, her father took her to an empty parking lot and put her at the wheel of a 60-inch stretched Cadillac limousine.

For more information please read:

The Professional Car (Quarterly Journal of the Professional car Society)

Gregg D. Merksamer - Professional Cars: Ambulances, Funeral Cars and Flower Cars

Thomas A. McPherson - American Funeral Cars & Ambulances Since 1900

Carriage Museum of America - Horse-Drawn Funeral Vehicles: 19th Century Funerals

Carriage Museum of America - Horse Drawn - Military, Civilian, Veterinary - Ambulances

Gunter-Michael Koch - Bestattungswagen im Wandel der Zeit

Walt McCall & Tom McPherson - Classic American Ambulances 1900-1979: Photo Archive

Walt McCall & Tom McPherson - Classic American Funeral Vehicles 1900-1980 Photo Archive

Walter M. P. McCall - The American Ambulance 1900-2002

Walter M.P. McCall - American Funeral Vehicles 1883-2003

Michael L. Bromley & Tom Mazza - Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine