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Motion Pictures WHERE DID YOU GO, GREASED LIGHTNING?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Craig59, May 24, 2021.

  1. Craig59
    Joined: Mar 24, 2012
    Posts: 28

    Craig59
    Member
    from Fort Worth

    I agree that the information is nebulous at best. Actually though, their website states the following:
    E2ED02AA-2299-4CA0-9496-CBEA8CDCB20B.jpeg
    And TMZ (and who doesn’t believe TMZ? LOL!) said:
    DB892C9C-194D-44F6-91B2-EE602CDD0DDC.jpeg
    As the Glee episode was produced in 2012, the car couldn’t have been, “missing for decades” although it certainly could have been loaned by Volo to Fox for the Glee production. Along those same lines, while Grease was distributed by Paramount, Used Cars was distributed by Columbia and yet we know two of the cars appeared in both movies. How that sort of thing is arranged in Hollywood is anyone’s guess.

    Actually, we probably don’t want to know!
     
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  2. Budget36
    Joined: Nov 29, 2014
    Posts: 13,174

    Budget36
    Member

    Just to clarify, you’re speaking of Grease, right? If so I agree. But as a teenager with a GF that loved the movie and it ran at one of the local drive ins, I was happy to take her as often as she wanted to see it:)
     
  3. Curt Six
    Joined: Sep 19, 2002
    Posts: 992

    Curt Six
    Member

    Just to be totally clear, I'm not at all saying that the Volo Auto Museum is misleading people. I just read that description on their website as maybe being a little "purposefully ambiguous" since it doesn't actually state that the car was used in the movie. Details like the fact that the fins on the Volo car are steel seem a little odd for a movie car anyway (fabricating matching fins—albeit ugly ones—from steel and grafting them in place seems like an awful lot of labor when building them out of fiberglass would have taken a fraction of the time). Anyway, we all know how stories about "historic" cars are like a game of telephone. Just ask all the guys that know guys that know where the Mysterion is.
     
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  4. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    :D
     
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  5. I kept a Rob Base and J EZ Rock cassette in my car for the same reasons
     
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  6. Glee was a TV show about high school music class or something like that and the Grease tribute was one of the episodes in 2012
    Screenshot_20210526-161553_Chrome.jpg
     
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  7. ramblin dan
    Joined: Apr 16, 2018
    Posts: 3,609

    ramblin dan

  8. Wow....what a thread !
     
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  9. Hot Rods Ta Hell
    Joined: Apr 20, 2008
    Posts: 4,670

    Hot Rods Ta Hell
    Member

    Wow great write up!

    quote;"I can’t tell if the Mercury is the ’49 or the ’50. The way you can tell the difference in
    Grease is the ’50 has a straight top wind-wing while the ’49’s is curved. "

    The Merc pictured in Used Cars (w/ your 48) looks to be the 49 (the one in the foreground of the pic with the 50) as the 49 has a heavier lower flame lick at the leading edge of the front fender. Also, the yellow is much heavier leading away from the headlight on the 49 and travels aft beyond the parking light housing whereas the 50 is light on yellow and doesn't travel back so far.
    I'm hoping the 50 survives, either as a roofless/toneau'd coupe or was reunited with a coupe roof somewhere along the way.

    Sometime shortly after the movie release, I saw the red GL-3 on tour at the San Diego World of Wheels car show in San Diego. It was my first glimpse of a movie car up close and I could tell it wasn't perfect. I definitely remember the finish to the welds on the vertical grille bars could have used a lot more finish sanding/polishing before they sent it out for chrome. A "10 footer" for sure.
     
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  10. mickeyc
    Joined: Jul 8, 2008
    Posts: 1,363

    mickeyc
    Member

    I read an article that also included photos of the convertible from the movie
    Some one had removed all movie mods and restored / hot rodded the
    thing in a more normal fashion. It looked really good. I dont remember
    where I saw the article. It was some time ago.
     
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  11. Rice n Beans Garage
    Joined: Dec 17, 2006
    Posts: 1,658

    Rice n Beans Garage
    Member

    Fat Jacks son Johnny Rotten rebuilt it into a hot rod with the Robinson Stance..
     
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  12. alchemy
    Joined: Sep 27, 2002
    Posts: 20,407

    alchemy
    Member

    Johnny Rotten is a HAMBer. I don't remember his handle though.
     
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  13. Deuces
    Joined: Nov 3, 2009
    Posts: 23,753

    Deuces

    Rotten Johnny maybe????....;)
     
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  14. Craig59
    Joined: Mar 24, 2012
    Posts: 28

    Craig59
    Member
    from Fort Worth

    An article as you describe is posted by its author on page 1. The Rodders Journal #65.
     
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  15. Craig59
    Joined: Mar 24, 2012
    Posts: 28

    Craig59
    Member
    from Fort Worth

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  16. ramblin dan
    Joined: Apr 16, 2018
    Posts: 3,609

    ramblin dan

  17. mickeyc
    Joined: Jul 8, 2008
    Posts: 1,363

    mickeyc
    Member

    I was referring to the white one with the big fins.
     
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  18. Gearhead Graphics
    Joined: Oct 4, 2008
    Posts: 3,890

    Gearhead Graphics
    Member
    from Denver Co

    Pretty rad that your car survived in those 2 films. Used cars being the much cooler of the 2. Really be neat to find out the real whereabouts of it and the others. Amazing yours had that one funky rim to give it away in the first place. Hoping it got saved and lived out its life shaking off the shame of being in Grease to start with!
     
  19. Craig59
    Joined: Mar 24, 2012
    Posts: 28

    Craig59
    Member
    from Fort Worth

    It was the red Greased Lightning (the one I dubbed GL-3) that had the big fins.
     
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  20. 1pickup
    Joined: Feb 20, 2011
    Posts: 1,437

    1pickup
    Member

    I see a few differences in these two GL3s. The Volo & the Movie car. The grille is rounded on the bottom of the movie car, square on the Volo. Headlights are completely different. The hood on the Volo car appears to have a peak down the center, but I don't see that on the Movie car. The panel connecting the front fenders (under the front of the plexiglass hood) appears to be longer (runs closer to the cockpit) on the Volo. Plus, Volo stated it had metal fins & the article stated it had fiberglas fins that were easily ground off. So, either the Volo car was built as a "world of wheels" type show car to promote the movie, or it was just a tribute car. Or, was specifically built for the Glee TV series. But, that doesn't jive with the "hidden from public for years" B.S.
    Also, if the "real" GL3 was returned to street rod status as stated in the article, they would have had to un-chop the windshield. If someone could ask if that did happen, it would help determine if the yellow one really was the GL3.
     
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  21. Read the article posted.
     
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  22. JROTTEN
    Joined: Jul 4, 2010
    Posts: 87

    JROTTEN
    Member

    Ok, here's the real deal on the so called GL-3 Greased Lightning red and silver convertable from the movie "Grease". I was probably 17 or 18 when a customer of my pop "Fat Jack Robinson" told him about a '46 Ford convertable from the movie "Grease" was for sale. My pop asked me about the car and if we should buy it. I told him no, that it was a hacked up piece of shit, and it wasn't worth it being so hacked up. This was about '84-'85. I don't think they wanted very much for it at the time. Enter Dick Rundell, he and my pop were good friends as well as long time members of the Early Times car club. Dick purchased the car and brought it home. The plexiglass hood was missing, it had a flat head in it with aluminum heads and I think a two carb manifold. He collected up the missing top, front windows and vent windows for the doors, as all that stuff was missing. Ironically, the quartes windows they just cranked down in the quarters, and cut the winder handle shafts off flush, and upholstered over the sides as they did the dash. There was no door latch hardware, the front seat was made out of water pipe,and it had cable and a turn buckle behind the seat to hold the doors shut, hence having to climb over the doors to get in. Dick sold the flat head out of the car for about what he paid for the car. He then gave the car to his son Jaime, who then started to restore the body to make a car out of it. The rear fins were made out of foam, and then fiber glassed on. The rear fenders were then unbolted, and the fin just pulled off and thrown away. They had shaved all the moldings off of the car by countersinking the holes, putting flat head screws in the holes and bondoing over them. The windshield was even worse, when you chop one of those cars, after you remove the amount of height, you have to cut the corners top and bottom and spread the top, and pull in the bottom. On this one, they just split the header at the top to widen it, then they just tack welded some trash in to hold it, and bondoed away. Typical Hollywood movie shit. After being stripped, we found out that it originally was a '46, and the body shell was actually in very good condition except where it was "Hollywoodized". Eventually he made a deal with my pop to do one of our 4-bar chassis, and he painted our house, latter, I un-chopped it, shaved the hood, welded the fenders, and finished it up.
     
  23. gene-koning
    Joined: Oct 28, 2016
    Posts: 4,041

    gene-koning
    Member

    The tale of the two GL3 cars is interesting. Maybe what the real story is becomes a matter of how many parts of a "restored" car and how many parts of a "hot Rod" are required to call a car an original?
    Story one tells of a car bought off a studio lot with a bunch of other left over movie props. It states they discarded the hacked up front sheet metal. A very plausible story.

    Story two tells of a car collector that is in search of a missing custom movie car, he locates it and takes to a body shop where someone there involved with was one of the original building of that movie car. No where does it state how much of the missing car still existed. Maybe the collector found the original front sheet metal with the original glass hood and drive train, there may have even been the original GL2 body included. It is not without reason that after the collector found those parts he also found one of the original car builders. He took a collection of parts to the shop and said "Rebuild me this car for me" but he died before it was finished. A body shop may well have built the fins from steel and had them welded on the body before the collector had died.
    Fast forward to Volvo museum looking for the said car, and tips lead to this car with the original (possibly with the restored front end, glass hood, and original drivetrain) and the welded on fins. The body shop says "Yep, that's the original car." Part of it may have been, and it would have been titled as a 46-47 coupe, odds are pretty good the studio never put the original title in their name.
    After the restoration, the Glee Club thing happened, and Volvo lent (or rented) the restored car for that production, which gave them documentation of the Glee Club movie car.

    That would be the tale of two cars that well may have been originally one. Who much of the original car would still have to remain for the car to be called original? Gene
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2021
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  24. SNS FAB
    Joined: Sep 29, 2011
    Posts: 48

    SNS FAB
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    About three years ago I was at the Petersen Museum and took a tour of the Vault. They had a red, big fin version sitting down there that the tour guide said was from the movie.
     
  25. JROTTEN
    Joined: Jul 4, 2010
    Posts: 87

    JROTTEN
    Member

    The one in the Volo Museum is a FAKE. The front sheet metal and rear fender/fins were thrown away, period. If you look at the photo from the Rodder's Journal article, that's the was it was when Dick picked it up from, the movie studio, in fact, I provided the photos to the Rodder's Journal on behalf of Dick Rundell, because there was a clone built by I believe Dick Dean that people were trying to pass off as the original car, and he didn't want some one to get burned by this. Also, the one in the museum states that it is built out of a coupe, and is NOT a convertable like the one I redid. So, to all of the arm chair quarterbacks out there, this is what really happened to so called GS-3. In fact, the guy Jamie sold it to, sold it to an Early Times member, and bought it back from the family shortly after his death, changed the front suspension, painted it tan, upholstered it, put steel wheels on it, and sold it about two years ago.
     
  26. Craig59
    Joined: Mar 24, 2012
    Posts: 28

    Craig59
    Member
    from Fort Worth

    Very cool story and thank you for setting the record straight on “GL-3.”
     
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  27. I remember being a little kid thinking that car was hideous long before I knew anything about cars. Hard to believe someone was let off their leash to put that together.
     
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