1929 Buick Funeral Coach.

I was doing my other passion, which is World War II research, when I spotted this old Buick funeral coach. It was being used to carry the body of Hans William Lansdorff who was the captain of the "pocket" battleship Graf Spee, in the opening months of the war. Even the British sailors paid their respects at that time, since this was at the very beginning of the war and the intense hatred towards Germans had not yet happened. Hitler would make that happen in a very short time. Since I have always studied World War II history, I find it very interesting that Lansdorff's sailing orders proceeded the, so called, Polish incursion by 10 days. It's as though Hitler could see into the future and knew the Pole's were going to invade Germany before it actually happened.  

Notice the original 1929 bumper changed sometime after 1939. These are some of the German sailors that Lansdorff saved from certain death at the beginning of World War II.

The stylized cross has been cut down from the original 1929 cross (shown below).

Compare the height of the original cross with the current one shown above. Also of note is the open drivers compartment, in 1939, and the now covered one.

This enclosed drivers compartment was not part of the original design (shown above) from 1939.

The original bumpers are gone now. I could not identify the replacements. 

The rear fender looks to be from a 1935 Chevrolet Master Deluxe. The original 29 Buick fender is visible during the Lansdorff  funeral procession.

There were many different companies doing conversions back in 1929, so I do not know which did this particular example. I'm thinking all the conversions like this one, (link here for unique coaches) from Uruguay, may have actually been converted in Montevideo.

This shows that the steel wheels used were actually an option that year.

This would be my best guess for the main chassis used in the Lansdorff  funeral coach.

Video link; Lansdorff funeral.  Wiki link.  Life Magazine. Life Magazine.