Andy Hotton Associates (A. H. A.)

With a history extending from the late 1940's, most of today's limousine operators were not yet born when Andy Hotton (1916-2004) opened up shop in the Detroit Area in 1947. His first products were not limousines, however.

After attending the Ford Trade School, Hotton worked his way through the ranks of the huge automaker, and was directly involved in the planning of the massive Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant. His promising career was cut short when he was drafted during 1942.

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With a history extending from the late 1940's, most of today's limousine operators were not yet born when Andy Hotton (1916-2004) opened up shop in the Detroit Area in 1947. His first products were not limousines, however.

After attending the Ford Trade School, Hotton worked his way through the ranks of the huge automaker, and was directly involved in the planning of the massive Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant. His promising career was cut short when he was drafted during 1942.

 After the war, a chronic illness kept him from returning to Ford, but with the assistance of Don Sullivan, one of the architects of Ford Flathead V-8, he started a new firm that produced aftermarket performance parts for flathead-equipped Ford vehicles. Early products included performance cylinder heads, manifolds, and a dual exhaust kit. His first products were marketed under the Hotton-Sullivan name.

Hotton formed a new firm called Dearborn Steel Tubing to build the dual exhausts for Ford, who offered them to customers as one of the first iterations of the “Police Package”. Hotton’s new firm soon developed a number of steering and suspension upgrades that dramatically improved the handling of the Police Optioned Fords.

During the late 1950s DST (Dearborn Steel Tubing), became involved in a number of special vehicle projects for Ford and eventually started building many of their prototypes. Ford's 1961 Custom Car Caravan was a produced by DST The prototype sheet metal for the first fastback Mustang, a 1962 "Town Car" Limousine on a Continental chassis for the White House and the futuristic Fords that appeared at the 1964 World's Fair were all special projects of the Hotton operation.

Since the early 1960s DST has been in charge of Ford’s auto show exhibits and show cars. Although they’re now called DST Industries and headquartered in Romulus, Michigan, the firm that Andy Hotton started over 55 years ago still transports all of Fords show cars, as well as providing the fixtures, backdrops and turntables they’re displayed on.

But the project that really got Hotton started in the limousine business was the design and fabrication of a series of 85 1965-66 Ford LTD and Mercury Park Lane stretches that were sold through authorized Ford and Mercury dealers in the mid 1960's. It's unknown as to how many limos were LTDs and how many were Park Lanes, although a couple of the Fords are known to exist.

The limos were made by Hollowell Engineering and Dearborn Steel Tubing - both divisions of Andy Hotton Associates. Lincolns were soon added and by 1969, AHA was one of three authorized builders of stretched Lincoln Continentals in North America. Hotton's Lincoln limousines were targeted at chauffer-driven executives and funeral directors who desired something other than a Cadillac. The 36" stretch Lincolns offered by Lehman-Peterson/Moloney catered more to the Celebrity crowd while Hess & Eisenhardt dealt almost exclusively in armored coaches for dignitaries and heads of state.

Subject ID: 109365

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