Here’s How Wednesday Addams’ Custom Hearse Came to Be

We kid, we kid. The world-famous custom shop has finally released a video of one of its most recent builds, which just happens to be for the premiere of the Netflix series. You can find it in full at the bottom of the page; it doesn’t offer too many specifics, but it does allow a better look at how the hearse came to be, from idea to the final day, when it was delivered to the Los Angeles premiere, where it sat center-stage.

West Coast Customs actually revealed the hearse two weeks ahead of the premiere of the series. The video shows that, while it was inspired by the iconic character of Wednesday Addams, only the vulture on the hood was directly inspired by the hearse shown in the series. It had to be recreated by using photos of the TV hearse, since that one was on the set, in Romania, so the WCC crew had no access to it.

The team started off with a 1950 Cadillac hearse, which CEO Ryan Friedlinghaus described as “bad juju.” He said it in jest, of course, because a project as high-profile as this can’t ever be bad juju. The team worked on a very tight schedule, which Friedlinghaus assumed it was because they always make things seem too easy in their YouTube videos.

Jokes aside, Netflix gave them only 9 days to turn the Funeral Coach into Wednesday’s fancy car, so that meant cutting some corners. They implied wrapping the whole body instead of painting it, and focusing solely on the aesthetics. The only parts of the vehicle that were painted were those that couldn’t be wrapped, like the chrome parts, which were painted white and black for contrast to the purple wrap.

Since the new show tells the story of an older and more sophisticated Wednesday, West Coast Customs tried to have that reflected in her equally-fictional ride. They decorated it with laser-cut acrylic spiderweb features, bat wing mirrors, and a new dash ornament that came to replace the one that advertised the funeral house, reading – of course – Wednesday.

The interior came out equally lavish. The rear bench was removed and reupholstered with diamond-patterned red leather, with small leather-clad buttons in each. They added matching curtains and carpeting. Since the car is being offered for rent in Los Angeles, it only makes sense for the goal to be to turn it into a comfortable ride.

This is the second custom project West Coast Customs did for Netflix, after the Army of the Dead car, and it’s as gorgeous as it’s macabre. Just like Wednesday herself.