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History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Tucker Fan 48, Nov 26, 2010.

  1. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    There were a few Tuckers that were in that general area in the 50s. Can you pin down the timeframe a little better? Early, middle, late 50s? How many years it might have sat there?

    Is she sure on the blue color? light, medium, or dark blue?

    I'm sure I can figure it out with a little more information.
     
  2. Chrisbcritter
    Joined: Sep 11, 2011
    Posts: 1,970

    Chrisbcritter
    Member

    Mid '50s; maybe 3 years. I'll see her again tomorrow and ask; I'll ask her twin too when I see her. She did say it looked like it never moved from the same spot.
     
  3. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    The Tucker Club shut the site down. Members of the Club started to demand a full accounting of donations and cash. Rather than answer the questions the Officers of the Club voted to shut down the website.

    A new group lead by several Tucker owners has started its own website.
    www.tuckermuseum.org

    It works very much like the old Tucker Club site except if you demand a full accounting you'll probably get one.

    Many of the posters on the old Tucker Club site have joined the new site. It only takes a minute and everyone is welcome.
     
  4. Chrisbcritter
    Joined: Sep 11, 2011
    Posts: 1,970

    Chrisbcritter
    Member

    Did any Tucker owners or club members get one of the Illinois manufacturer's license plates that sold at the Lee Hartung auction (around $4k each!) last November?

    Lee also once told me he had an unstamped Tucker body tag, but I didn't see it listed at the auction.
     
  5. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Yes, several Tucker owners did buy sets of plates. I think the blank body tag was in the showcase with several other Tucker items. I think it went for 11,000 if I remember correctly.
     
  6. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Check out the cover story about the Nascar Tucker in the March issue of Hemmings Classic Cars.

    [​IMG]
     

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  7. Spike!
    Joined: Nov 22, 2001
    Posts: 2,733

    Spike!
    Member

    Saw that car yesterday at the museum! I was a bit upset when they didn't let me ride in it..hahaha

    Spike
     
  8. cheveey57
    Joined: Mar 11, 2010
    Posts: 676

    cheveey57
    Member

    Just got my issue and was reading it today, what a story.
     
  9. Spike!
    Joined: Nov 22, 2001
    Posts: 2,733

    Spike!
    Member

    There was a waltz Blue(?) one at a museum in Lancaster County called the Gast Museum. I remember seeing it there, and then the museum closed. This was around 96 when I saw it...then in 2007, on our way to Bonneville, we stopped at the Speedway museum in Lincoln Nebraska. I recognized the car instantly. sure enough, it was the same car I saw in PA.

    I like Tuckers.

    Spike
     
  10. FC49
    Joined: Oct 11, 2009
    Posts: 324

    FC49
    Member

    In that same issue is a great interview with Alex Tremulis.

    Frank C.
     
  11. bajones238
    Joined: Jan 3, 2012
    Posts: 226

    bajones238
    Member
    from SC

    Not a '48, but . . . this is a '49 in a private collection in Tucker, Georgia. Photos taken October 2011.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  12. FC49
    Joined: Oct 11, 2009
    Posts: 324

    FC49
    Member


    If you drill down on some of the links, you'll eventually come to the letter I wrote a few years ago relating my own experiences with the Tucker Club. I had no idea it was posted on their site until last week when a friend found it.

    Frank C.
     
  13. FC49
    Joined: Oct 11, 2009
    Posts: 324

    FC49
    Member

    How is that a 1949? It looks like the 1948s. Wasn't the '49 the Body 1057 that was used as the basis for the Tucker ragtop that has stirred up so much emotion in Tuckerland? (And, that's a good thing, BTW)

    Also, the March 2012 Hemmings Classic Car has a great article on the NASCAR Tucker, which I'm sure had lots of input from TuckerFan48, whoever he is. I really enjoyed the piece, especially the pics from the Rochester NY fairgrounds. Thanks for your work, TF48.

    Frank C.
     
  14. gyronaut
    Joined: Dec 16, 2010
    Posts: 197

    gyronaut
    Member

    The more I look at this photo, the more I think it was taken at the Tucker plant during one of the last sales meeting held there. If so, then I would think that the Miller race car would be one of the ones in Preston Tucker's collection that he stored at the plant. That's Alex and Chrissie Tremulis.

    Whatever happened to Tucker's personal car collection? Was it auctioned off with the rest of the Tucker assets? Anyone have any idea???

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Frank,

    They were all 1948s but some were titled as 1949 and I think even one or two as 1950s. Tucker #1034 was sold at the Plant Auction in October of 1950. Some states used the body number to register them while others used motor numbers. That is why Tucker #1017 was registered as #1016. It has motor #1016. Tucker did not try to match car, body, and motor numbers. There were prototypes built one at a time.

    Glad to hear you enjoyed the NASCAR Tucker article. There are lots of great stories about many of the cars. It would be fun to see Tucker #1004 returned to its Nascar paint scheme.
     
  16. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    I don't know if Preston had a very large collection of cars. There was nothing sold at the Plant auction that was his. He did own two Tuckers. #1029 and #1031. He sold #1029 in 1955 and Vera Tucker sold #1031 in 1962. In talking with people in Ypsilanti I did not get the idea that Preston had a lot of money at the end. The Tucker Special was still racing in 1950. I believe it had been renamed Chicago Special or something like that. It was no longer owned by Tucker.
     
  17. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Poof gone

    Maybe now we can go back to some constructive discussions
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2012
  18. Kustom Komet
    Joined: Jun 26, 2007
    Posts: 640

    Kustom Komet
    Member

    Here's my opinion. The thread was better without all the bickering. I'm a regular type HAMB member here. I know that the convertible isn't a factory produced car, and I think that by now, the whole world does too. But is IS nice, looks very proportionate and correct, and I don't think that anyone here would kick it out of his collection. Deriding it as a CONvertible or a pile of parts is petty and borderline spiteful, it's an interesting variation on an interesting car. As for whether I need to read more about it here, I don't mind that. It was made from parts of other Tuckers, and listing what came from where and when is part of the subject.

    -KK
     
  19. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Here is a photo from about a year ago of Tucker #1046.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    Kustom Komet you make an excellent point. I apologize if I came across that way. I think that comes from past history with this particular poster the obcession that the car is somehow a factory convertible. Unfortunately there are a few in "the whole world" that still try to pawn it off as real. As a historian that usually gets me torked.

    There have been several listings over the years of where each part came from. Those lists are usually attacked by this poster with off the wall accusations and statements.

    As I mention before, there are hundreds of sites on the interent that discussed the convertible. There are even some on the HAMB. I'm just suggesting our friend move his posting over to one of those where I'm sure he'll get a much better audience.

    As Rodney King said "can't we all get along?"
     
  21. bajones238
    Joined: Jan 3, 2012
    Posts: 226

    bajones238
    Member
    from SC

    You are correct, I didn't look at my own picture closely enough (the display sign says 1948), and I relied on the '49 tag. Sorry for the confusion.
     
  22. FC49
    Joined: Oct 11, 2009
    Posts: 324

    FC49
    Member

    It wasn't until I got hooked on this thread that I knew a '49 model, with significant differences from the '48, even existed. And I've been a student of Tuckerabilia since I was 7. Not a historian, mind you, but a consumer of the historian's work.

    As for the ragtop, my feeling is, who cares? If the Tucker had gone into production, it wouldn't have been long before either the factory would have done a drop-top or a conversion house would have done them, the same way that '53 Studebaker Starlight convertibles, Volvo P1800 roadsters and several others have been created by small shops over the years. Maybe Studie and Volvo historians don't look kindly on them, but they exist and are interesting artifacts in their own right.

    IMO, it only becomes a problem when someone attempts to create a false history of a cut car, which is tantamount to "cloning" a Tempest coupe into a GTO and not revealing its bogus provenance. And from what I can tell, no one now pretends the Tucker ragtop is anything other than a very well-made tribute car.

    So it's all good.

    Frank C.
     
  23. gyronaut
    Joined: Dec 16, 2010
    Posts: 197

    gyronaut
    Member

    So if the body of #57 was separated from its frame and firewall in 1957, then whatever became of the discarded body with the modified rear window?

    Did the person who witnessed the cutting also see what happened to the body after it was removed?

    And exactly what condition was the body in when it was removed from the frame?

    Did the decision to make it into a convertible happen in 1957? Or was that decision made before or after the separation?

    It's just that #57 happens to be one of the most important Tuckers along with the Tin Goose, and these questions about its history never did get put to rest on the other site. I know it was 55 years ago, but a first-hand eyewitness account of the events goes a long way over hearsay...

    :confused:
     
  24. Tucker Fan 48
    Joined: Oct 21, 2010
    Posts: 650

    Tucker Fan 48
    Member
    from Maui

    These are all good questions. Let me try to answer them.

    Body #1057 sat in a farm field from October 1950 until 1957. It was just a steel body with no paint or primer. After seven years of Illinois weather there was not much left.

    The reason the body was cut off was to make the car into to a "cutaway" display for the Fabulous Tucker show. They wanted to show what the inner workings of the car looked like. Since there was not much left of the body cutting it away really didn't take much thought. After all, who knew in 1957 that a Tucker would be worth 2.9 million someday? The old rusty scrap metal was simply tossed out. There was never any thought of making it into a convertible. It was simply a prop for a show.

    Once the body was cut away they discovered one problem. The frame without the body was not strong enough and the frame sagged in the middle. Putting an engine in it was out of the question. To solve the problem they reinforced the frame. This solved the sagging in the frame.

    The car was stored with the rest of the Fabulous Tucker cars under the Michigan State Fairgrounds Grandstand. One by one the cars were sold off and in 1967 the "cutaway" frame and firewall were sold.

    Fast forward 40+ years and a story starts to take hold about a mystery car. Soon the "out the back door" story is born. It begins to take a life of its own. Documents start to show up that are a bit fuzzy but are said to somehow prove the car is real.

    What wasn't counted upon was Life Magazine releasing photos from 1950 clearly showing Body #1057 exactly where Alex Tremulis said it was left when the plant closed. The "story" about the car starts to unravel. Then an expert comes forward with a signed statement saying he saw the car under the Michigan State Fairgrounds Grandstand in 1966. The story unravels more because how could the car be in Michigan in 1966 when it was said to be in a garage at 61st and Halstad in Chicago at that time?
    Soon afterward more people come forward that saw the car and know its complete history. A letter is uncovered dated 1954 from the man that bought the bodies at the Plant auction. In the letter he talks of having one body that has a large back window unlike any other body. At that point the story falls apart completely.

    What I find interesting about the entire thing is that a story was made up to make the car more valuable. Once the story was told the only way to retract it would be to admit it was not true. What is funny is they had one of the most valuable bodies all along and never knew it. By the time the truth was finally uncovered the car was completed as a convertible. Maybe if the story had not been told many years earlier the real origin would have been uncovered sooner.

    The car could still be restored. Many rare cars have been restored using much less to work with. There are several photos that show the big back window. With the capabilities we have today someone could figure out the exact size and location of the window. I would not be surprised if drawings even exist. I suspect one day someone will restore it. Maybe not soon but someday.

    I'll post a photo of Body #1054 showing what it looked like after years outdoors. I suspect #1057 looked a lot like it. Also I'll post the Life Magazine photo that shows #1057 at the plant. If you look closely in front of the car you'll see the floor is stained. That is from the clay when the Tin Goose was designed.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     

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  25. mgtstumpy
    Joined: Jul 20, 2006
    Posts: 9,214

    mgtstumpy
    Member

    Fascinating reading
     
  26. gyronaut
    Joined: Dec 16, 2010
    Posts: 197

    gyronaut
    Member

    The irony of it would even impress the master storyteller himself, Rod Serling, and rank right up there with the best in the 'Zone...

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2012
  27. cmyhtrod
    Joined: Nov 29, 2008
    Posts: 360

    cmyhtrod
    Member
    from ct

    There is an article in the current issue of Hemmings Collector Car about the Tucker that raced in NASCAR
     
  28. Still_Crazy
    Joined: Sep 30, 2011
    Posts: 350

    Still_Crazy
    Member
    from . .

    Top sale of the auction. What has vaulted Tucker to fame after being an also ran for so many years?
     
  29. Dakota
    Joined: Jan 21, 2004
    Posts: 1,535

    Dakota
    Member
    from Beulah, ND

    Im sorry but it may hve real tucker parts on it, but the truth is they never made one and this is a phantom car. to think that it would be worth MOre than an Original is absolutely insane.

    Im not saying its worthless, it is a very nice car, and has some history, even though the builders tried to lie about it.

    But it comes down to the fact that its a modified original.

    You compare it to a Ferrari Daytona convert and a real spyder, How about comparing it to a Modifed non numbers matching ZL1 Camaro? how does that affect the value....

    it will never be worth what an original is.
     

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