Halloween Hearse

This Instructable provides the drawings and some tips for building a large Victorian hearse prop for Halloween. I encourage you to modify and embellish to your heart's content--if you search for images of the real thing, you will see that there was essentially no limit to how ornate and macabre these things were. Pile on the dollar store skulls and robed figures! I believe they were usually finished with a solid glossy black lacquer; I added gold highlights to make the details more visible in a nighttime display.

We scaled it to work with a 5-foot skeleton driver, corpse, and casket, and used the larger version of Home Depot's horse skeleton to "pull" it. The pdf in Step 1 contains an interactive 3D image of the project model. I am an amateur prop-maker and woodworker, so there are no specialized skills required to build this, although it does take some time. It will be easier if you have a few power tools, including a drill, circular or table saw, staple gun, and nailer, but you could probably also do it with only hand tools. A framing square is indispensable; don't assume that the Coroplast or anything else you buy is already cut to square!

I think this same layout could easily be adapted for a circus wagon / lion cage--if I do that in the future, I'll add the pics.

Storage space is always a problem, so this is designed to be disassembled into lightweight and (mostly) flat panels for storage. You will be amazed how light the panels are, if you stick to lightweight (plastic or wood) ornaments! It does not roll; I used a recycled 6 foot banquet table as a base for stability. I owe major props (pun intended!) to my dad and to my partners, George and Pam, for help creating the drawings and specifications, solving construction problems, and humoring me in my Halloween madness.

NOTE: We also built the casket inside, but that's not included in this tutorial.

Ok, let's roll.

Download and print the Bill of Materials for this project. Total quantities of each main material needed are summarized here.

Note: I'm providing a few links to show you the products I used or something similar, in case you are not familiar with them, not because I endorse these sources or benefit if you purchase them. Make sure you buy the right sizes and quantities for your project.

Main components:

1. 1 - 6' long by 30" wide by 30" tall table (for platform; you could also probably use sawhorses and plywood)
2. 1 - 4' x 8' sheet of 1/2" plywood (for the Base)
3. 3 - 4' x 8" Coroplast sheets (for panel skins)
4. 27 - 1" x 2" x 8' boards (for framing and harness "traces")
5. 1/8" acrylic sheets (for windows; I bought used poster frames from the thrift store)
6. ~4 - 3" pool noodles and about 10 pieces of pipe insulation for 1/2" pipe (for the columns)
7. 2 - fancy plastic oval frames (for front and back windows; I got cheap ones from the the thrift store)
8. 1 - seat for the driver (I used a semi-circular shelf from the thrift store, but you could make your own out of insulation foam sheets, plywood, a small bench, etc.)
9. 4 - 36" wagon wheels (I purchased ones like these, but you could also make them with foam insulation circles and dowels)
10. ~10 feet of 1" (or sized to fit the hub of your wheels) PVC pipe for axles and axle supports
11. 4 - PVC caps for the ends of the wheel axles
12. 2 - PVC T-fittings to support axles

Fasteners:

1. 20 - 4" x 1/4" Bolts and matching threaded T-nuts (for assembly)
2. Construction adhesive, such as Liquid Nails
3. Contact cement (for assembling the pool noodle columns)
4. Waterproof wood glue
5. duct tape
6. Brad nails (18 gauge) or screws in a variety of sizes, up to 2"
7. Staples (suggested size 3/8" wide by 1/2" long)
8. Heavy duty Velcro strips (for assembly)

To decorate:

1. Black gloss spray paint (I used this wide angle spray, which saved a lot of time)
2. Gold paint (to brush on highlights)
3. Flex Seal spray (optional, makes the foam noodles and pipe insulation smoother for painting)
4. Finials, frames, lamps, candleholders, and scrollwork as desired (check thrift stores, dollar stores, and hardware stores for a variety of possible embellishments, such as plastic wall decor and frames; plastic skulls, mini skeletons, etc.; fence post caps, carved wood pieces, and curtain rod finials--just keep weight in mind)
5. LED string or strip lights (to light the interior)
6. Fabric for drapes (I used old curtain valences overdyed black, but you could also drape with creepy cloth, plastic tablecloth, or anything else that strikes your fancy)
7. Black ribbon, old belts, or pleather strips for the horse's harness (I used some thrift store belts for the harness and ribbons for the reins)

From my goofy sketch to the finished project...

Before you dive into the detailed drawings, you may find it helpful to play with interactive 3d model in the pdf file below. Download and open the file using Adobe. (If it doesn't seem to be opening, select "Trust this file one time" and click on the white space, and it should open in a moment.) You can use your mouse to rotate and zoom the model, and if you have Adobe Pro, you can also use the controls to turn the panels on and off, take measurements, etc. This will help you visualize the project before you start.

When you are ready to build, you will refer to the Bill of Materials and the drawings of each part of the hearse (attached as pdfs to each step) to see what to cut and how it fits together.

Here's an overview of the design:

1. The hearse is constructed mostly from separate, lightweight panels so that it can easily be disassembled for storage.
2. The bottom panel (Base) is cut from plywood, with a tongue that extends out for the driver's seat and an angled Footrest.
3. The Base rests on a 6' banquet table, with the tongue and driver's seat extending 2+' out to the front. Wheels and axles are assembled and supported under the hearse but are not connected.
4. Each of the other panels (Top, Front, Back, and Sides) consists of a frame made of doubled up 1" x 2" wood with Coroplast corrugated plastic sheets stapled to the outside of the frame. Openings in the panels are covered with thin acrylic sheets duct-taped to the inside of the panel to make the windows.
5. The windows are trimmed out with foam pipe insulation (sides) and oval plastic frames (front and back).
6. The panels bolt together to assemble the hearse, and then three-quarter columns made from foam go onto the corners with Velcro to hide the seams.
7. Outdoor light sconces or flameless candle lanterns can be added to the sides of the Driver's Seat Box for the carriage lamps. You can either wire these to a cord with a plug or use battery-operated lights in them.
8. We drilled a 2" hole in the plywood base and the supporting table to run an extension cord to the lights inside the hearse. Battery-operated lights are probably not a good option because it will be difficult to get to a battery pack inside the chamber once the hearse is assembled.

NOTES that apply to all the following directions:

1. Join wood pieces using a combination of either construction adhesive (e.g., Liquid Nails) or waterproof wood glue (e.g., TiteBond II) and brad nails.
2. Use doubled up 1" x 2"s to make lapped joints, as shown in the drawings, because this is a sturdier joint than you can make easily with 2" x 2" lumber.
3. Coroplast is easy to cut with a sharp utility knife, but make sure you are cutting on cardboard, plywood or another surface that you don't mind scratching.
4. Attach the Coroplast sheets to the wood frames using construction adhesive and staples.

Download and print the drawings for the Base, Base Assembly, and Footrest below.

Following the drawing for the Base, measure, mark, and cut out the plywood for the hearse base / tongue extension.

Refer to the Bill of Materials list for the Base. Measure, mark, and cut the 1" x 2"s for the Base frame. Glue and nail the 1" x 2" strips to make a rectangle on the base, with the narrow side against the plywood and set 1.5" inside the edges of the plywood compartment floor, as shown in the Base Assembly drawing. (You will drill through the panels and into this frame for your assembly bolts later.)

Following the drawing for the Footrest, measure, mark and cut out the footrest from a leftover piece of the 1/2" plywood. Make a 45 degree angled cut along one long side when cutting. Glue and nail the section for the driver's footrest to the front of the tongue, so that it comes up at about a 45 degree angle. Cut an 18" long piece of 1"x 2" and lay it on top of the joint, and glue and nail it to both the Footrest and Base plywood from both sides, to strengthen the joint. (Note: this last piece is not shown in the drawings or Bill of Materials, because I added it when my footrest joint began to fail. A more elegant finish might be to cut several 135 degree obtuse triangles out of plywood and use them as braces.)

Download and print the drawings for the Driver's Seat Box below.

Following the drawings for the Driver's Seat Box Side, Front, Top, and Slope, measure, mark, and cut out the Coroplast pieces for the two sides, front, top, and slope of the box.

Refer to the Bill of Materials list for the Driver's Seat Box. Measure, mark, and cut the lengths of 1" x 2"s for Driver's Seat Box. Assemble them with waterproof wood glue and nails as shown in the Drivers Seat Box Assembly drawing. Note: check the desired height of any lights you plan to mount and position the cross pieces on the sides to support them.

Glue and staple the top, front, sides, and slope Coroplast pieces onto the frame to cover the Driver's Seat Box. Be sure to glue the edge of the slope piece to the top edge of the sides to keep it in place.

Glue and nail from the underside of the plywood into the seat box uprights to attach the driver's seat box to the base. It will sit on the tongue, just ahead of where the tongue meets the compartment rectangle. The Coroplast on the sides should come extend to cover the edge of the plywood (see photos above). Staple the Coroplast to the edge of the plywood.

The driver's seat will be on top of this box. I made my seat by attaching an upside-down semicircular shelf with a fancy plastic decoration around it (again, thanks to my helpful neighborhood thrift store). You could make a simple bench and back from insulation foam or plywood. I also added some trim around the front to cover the seams; that is totally optional.

Paint the base, seat box, and seat black.

You can now mount any additional decorations and lights, or wait until you have completed and fitted the other panels. You can paint the driver's bench black at this point or attach trims first and paint all together. I added plastic scroll work from tacky wall candleholders and real exterior light sconces (we lighted with battery lights, but you could easily wire these instead). I painted the trims separately for ease of spraying, and used a dry brush with gold paint to bring out the highlights on all the decor pieces.

Download and print out the drawings for the Front, Front Assembly, Side, Side Assembly, Back Assembly, and Top Assembly below. (Note: full dimensions for the Back and Top are on the Assembly drawings, so there is no separate drawing for the Coroplast for these two panels.)

Following the dimensions in the drawings for the Side, Front, Back Assembly and Top Assembly, measure, mark, and cut out the Coroplast for the skin of each panel. (Be sure to cut out two Sides.)

Cut window openings in the Coroplast for the Sides as shown in the drawing. NOTE: For the front and back, if you are using fancy oval frames for the windows, make sure to use your selected picture frames as a guide for cutting out the oval openings on the front and back, leaving enough room for the frame to clear the driver's seat block. The oval openings shown in the drawings are only notional. If you don't have frames for these, you can cut as desired and trim the windows out with pipe insulation in Step 3.

Using the list for each panel in the Bill of Materials, measure, mark and cut the necessary lengths of 1" x 2"s for each panel.

Assemble frames with glue and brad nails, creating lapped joints at the corners, as shown in the Assembly drawings for each panel. Note: using the doubled 1" x 2"s allows you to easily create strong joints without having to shape your board ends. Be sure to follow the drawings so that you are nailing in two directions in each corner and creating a sturdy (and square) frame.

Position the frames on the the Coroplast as shown in the Assembly drawings, securing with Liquid Nails and staples. Staple from the outside, preferably where the dimples from the staples will be covered by decorations. Pay attention to where and how much the Coroplast should extend beyond the frame so that the corners will fit together properly when the panels are assembled.

At this point, I spray-painted the inside (wooden frame side) of each panel black.

VERY IMPORTANT: "dry fit" the panels on the base as shown to make sure they fit properly and make any adjustments needed! Small gaps at the corners are ok, because they will be covered by the foam columns at the end, but you want to be sure everything is good and square.

Drill holes to bolt the side, front, and back panels to the base and the roof. (See the dry-fitted photos for approximate placements. I think we used 6 bolts on each side and 4 on each of the front/back.) I used 4" long 1/4" bolts with T-nuts on the interior. You will need to drill through the overlapping layers of the wood framing to join the panels to each other and the roof, and hammer the T-nut into the innermost piece of wood. Then putting the bolts in with a driver or ratchet from the outside will be easy.

Add the frames to the viewing windows on the side panels. Open the pipe insulation along the pre-cut line and use a utility knife to cut it in half lengthwise. (Spray your pieces with Flex Seal at this point, if using. It will make the foam look smoother, but is not necessary to protect it from the spray paint in the next step.)

Cut and shape pieces of the pipe insulation to fit around the windows, notching at the corners to get a mitered corner. (Tip: you can use a heat gun or hot hairdryer to warm and curve the foam so that it will be easier to glue down on the curves. Glue down using contact cement (follow directions for your product). Follow the same process to add a foam molding along the curved, bottom edge of the side panels.

Make the small columns between the arched windows on the side panels. (Picture of finished hearse to show these, as I did this step out of order.) Split more pipe insulation as above and use contact cement to glue down a vertical piece (as the core of the column) between the windows. Cut and glue down diagonal pieces to make the spiral flutes. Finish with an inside-out (concave core facing out) piece of foam at the top and bottom.

At this point, add any other scrollwork, ornaments, or decor you want, using Liquid Nails or contact cement. (I salvaged these cheesy plastic decor panels off an old dresser that was headed to the dump.)

Make the larger columns for the corners by using contact cement to glue split pipe insulation in spirals around a 3" pool noodle (use a longer length of pool noodle than the finished column will be). Once the glue has set, cut the columns to length, using a serrated knife or hacksaw. Carefully cut them vertically to remove a quarter round section (these will wrap around the corners of the hearse body).

Paint the hearse panels and columns with gloss black spray paint. Paint the oval frames as desired for the front and back and glue onto the window openings with Liquid Nails or E6000 adhesive. (I spray painted them black and then dry-brushed with gold paint to add highlights on the details.)

Note that the pictures show the corner columns glued onto the side panels, but I changed this later. Instead, I added Velcro strips to add them to the assembled hearse body.

Paint your wheels if desired (I used the same black and gold color scheme). Cut your PVC axles to the correct length (this will be the 30"-width of the hearse plus enough to go through the hubs of the wagon wheels with a little clearance.) Paint the axles and caps.

Assemble supports for the axles. For each axle, I used a length of PVC about 24" long with a T fitting at the top large enough to accommodate the axle PVC. I pushed the pipes about 6" into the ground under the hearse, threaded the axles through, and fitted the wheels and caps on to the ends.

Add Velcro attachments for the corner columns. I used the super heavy duty strips (link above), cut in half lengthwise and into 2-3" segments. To position them, leave the hook and loop sides paired and peel the paper from one side. Stick that side to the cut edges of the corner columns. Peel remaining paper and carefully position the column against the corner of the hearse and press to adhere. NOTE: these are really strong! I found the hook and loop connection was actually stronger than the adhesive, and I had to be careful when disassembling to separate the hook and loop not pull both pieces off the hearse. Maybe double-sided tape would have worked just as well.

I made finials for the top of the corner columns out of fence post caps from the hardware store. I cut and glued circles of EVA foam to the bottom of them so that they fit relatively tightly into the band of pipe insulation at the top of my columns and decorated them with curtain rod finials (the real hearses usually had ostrich plumes here, I believe). I painted them black and gold again.

To finish the interior of the hearse, cut the acrylic sheets to cover the window openings and secure them to the inside of the panels with black duct tape. I used the thin acrylic sheet out of cheap frames from the thrift store, so it was fairly easy to cut with a utility knife.

If you are adding curtains, staple them to the top of the interior frame for each panel. Add lights as desired; in the pictures, I had just stapled in purple LED lights around the top and laid more in the bottom. At some point I may switch to a programmable LED tape with connections between the panels.

To add the traces for the horse, I painted two more 8' lengths of 1" x 2" black. I used thrift store belts and straps to make his harness and black ribbons for the reins.

Even though each of the pieces is really light (except the plywood bottom!), this is a lot easier to do with a couple people and a power driver / socket.

Position and level your table (or sawhorse base) first. This gets hard to do later! You may be able to push table legs into the ground, but we found it was more stable to put 2"x 4"s under the table legs to keep them from sinking in too much.

Put the base / seat assembly on the table. Now is the time to add your casket and occupant--it will be harder once you start assembling the panels. You will also want to add lights (if you didn't already add them to each panel) before sealing up the four sides of the hearse.

Bolt the side, front, and back panels to the base. Fit the top in place and bolt.

Position the corner columns to the matching Velcro at each corner and top with finials.

Insert axle supports into the ground about 6". The support for the back wheels goes under the table at the back, and the support for the front axle goes under the driver's seat. Thread the axles through and add wheels and caps on each side.

To add traces for the horse, tie the front end of the black 1" x 2"s to the horse's harness and lay the other ends over the axle supports. (We also used a heat gun to do a little "plastic surgery" on our horse and skelly so their heads would droop a bit.)

Happy haunting, and please let me know if you build your own version or have any questions!