The Munster Koach was the family car that was used in the television series, The Munsters

The Munsters

The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...

. The show's producers contracted George Barris

George Barris (auto customizer)

George Barris is a designer of custom cars.-Early history:George and his brother Sam were born in Chicago in the 1920s. After the deaths of their parents, they moved to Roseville, California as children to live with relatives. Both were good students, interested in drama, music, and design...

to provide the Koach. Barris asked Tom Daniel to design the car, and had it built at Barris Kustoms, First by Tex Smith, but finished by Dick Dean

Dick Dean

Dick Dean , born Richard Dean Sawitskas [Sa-wits-kas], was an American automobile designer and builder of custom cars.-Biography:...

, his shop foreman at the time. The Munster Koach appeared in over twenty episodes throughout the series' two-year run.[{Please see Cars of the Stars by Barris and Scagnetti 1974} Tom Daniel's original drawing of the Munster Koach had it blown with a hood scoop and thin round disc lights. George Barris chose the ten carb set up with the ten air horns and lantern lights. {See also www.tomdaniel.com}

Specifications

Only one Koach was made for the television series and feature film. It was made from 3 Model T bodies and is 18' long. The 133" frame was made by hand, as were the brass radiator and fenders. It has "blood red" interior and Gloss Black Pearl paint. It took 500 hours to hand form the ornate rolled steel scrollworks. The front end had a dropped axle, split radius rods and T springs.
AMT produced a plastic model kit of the car during the series run. It has been reissued several times since. Johnny Lightning has also produced a 1/64th scale die-cast model of the car.
The Munster Koach was used in Munsters Go Home but different wheels were used.
An unauthorized reproduction Koach was built on speculation and presented to George Barris. But Barris declined to buy it. Tubbs Johnson, Barris's paint man, purchased the unauthorized Koach and later sold it to Jay Orhbach. Barris auctioned off the original Munster Koach in 1982 with oversized gas lights and wrong tires and wheels. In 1984, George Barris wanted a Munster Koach for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. He had Dick Dean build this (second authorized) Munster Koach. Dick Dean's son, Keith Dean, helped with this build. This Koach still survives (c. 2011).
{See:Cars of the Stars by Barris and Scagnetti 1974}
Extra points of interest: Fred Gwynne

Fred Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...

 never sat in the seat to drive the Munster Koach. Instead he sat on the floor where the ermin furs rugs placed. There five walnut blocks between the spokes of the mag wheels in rear. The rear slicks were Firestone eleven inch pie crust slicks. The Astro mag wheels were painted blood red just on the out side of five spokes mags. There was no skull radiator cap on the Munster Koach in the 60s. Only later did the Munster Koach get a skull cap. Both cars have been restored, but the original has not.

Engine

The engine was a 289c.i.

Cubic inch

The cubic inch is a unit of measurement for volume in the Imperial units and United States customary units systems. It is the volume of a cube with each of its 3 sides being one inch long....

 Ford Cobra. It was built with Jahns high compression pistons, 10 chrome plated Stromberg carburetor

Carburetor

A carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....

s, an Isky cam

Cam

A cam is a rotating or sliding piece in a mechanical linkage used especially in transforming rotary motion into linear motion or vice-versa. It is often a part of a rotating wheel or shaft that strikes a lever at one or more points on its circular path...

, and had a set of Bobby Barr racing headers

Exhaust manifold

In automotive engineering, an exhaust manifold collects the exhaust gases from multiple cylinders into one pipe. The word manifold comes from the Old English word manigfeald and refers to the folding together of multiple inputs and outputs.In contrast, an inlet manifold is the part of an engine...

. It has a four speed manual transmission

Manual transmission

A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...

.