Impressions of the Nethercutt Collection.

Wow, I[ve been meaning to go, and have been draggin my ass about it. No more, I'll be there in the next week...

 

Somebody really needs to clean up that place. I mean they can send me one or two when they sweep up. Sheesh!

 

There's a fellow on the MTFCA site who's reproducing these:

 

If you go on the guided tour, they don't allow jeans and t-shirts. A real classy place!

 

i think they relaxed that policy some....
they let us walk the tour...

 

And let Chuck in too....

 

Incredible stuff. The view of the collonade w/ those cars parked in the hall is out of this world.
What really gets at me is all the items behind glass though. All the spot lights, emblems, carbs.....there must be a forune in rare parts.
Sure if i get to LA this place is a must see.

 

3 of us from Indy just went last week, we all had on tee shirts and jeans and were treated very well

 

Been asked about the fellow who makes the "windmill" mascot above- here's the thread I found it on (look most of the way down for Bob Scherzer):

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/179374/184365.html

 

Don't know if they still do it, but when I was there about 20 years ago, they would once a year load all the employees of the cosmetics factory in the cars and drive somewhere for a company picnic - ALMOST made you want to work there!

Rich

 

Very nice cars!
If it's open to the public and free, why did you need passes?
Oh I got it -- for the tour...

 

I've none of it for years and drive but 1/2 a mile from it everyday and never been. But I do agree, that is one great collection there.

 

i got to get my ass to that place...WTF have i been waiting for?

 

Years ago, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn had a multi-day auction sale of items "excess" to their collection. It took place in a tent on the grounds in the heat of summer.

Mr and Mrs. Nethercutt had reserved seats in the front-row center, and were attended to by their black chauffer-butler.
They were dressed to the max, and had lunch served to them in their seats by the butler !

Of course they were active bidders and bought items large and small for their collection. It was enlightening to see how the upper-crust lives and satisfy's their collecting urges.

Some extremely rare items were released to the public in this sale due to some uninformed vetting of the objects declared surplus to the Ford collection.

Oh yea, of course Speedy Bill was there too !

 

A friend spent about a month out there doing the cane work on this car and one or two others. Than isn't applied with a striping brush. The panels and body sections are laid flat and a cake decorator like custom made tool oozes out the paint on a predrawn grid. I meet Mr. Nethercutt at Hershey one year and sold him some parts for three of his cars. He was a really nice guy, I hope to see his collection some time when I'm out there. He had a lot of class, glad he made arrangements to keep the collection intact for all of us to enjoy.

 

I believe that Mr. Nethercut established a foundation to make the Museum free forever. The cosmetic company exists to fund the museum.
He made sure his employees are still happy: They get a lunch prepared by trained chef. It smelled great when exiting the building next to the cosmetic building!

They try to limit the number of spectators so that the tours don't have people tripping over each other. We called the same morning that we wanted to tour and were still able to get a couple of spots.
It is a really classy place and very quiet because people are in awe of the collection.

 

the tour guide took us by the lunch room (which did smell amazing) and was sure to tell us that indeed the meals are prepared by a french chef, and cost the employees 25 cents per day....

funny (serious) moment of the day... standing in the music room, some poor fellow forgot to turn the ringer off on his cell. it rang. she stopped the presentation to ask him to shut it off, and waited until he did....

 

We visited in 2003; had planned to spend a couple hours there. Instead , spent 6 hours there and felt rushed at that. Met jack Nethercutt at Amelia Island in 2009. He's a great guy; used to run a nightclub in Las Vegas.
The Grand Salon (the one with the marble columns) was used as the set for where Bob Varsha introduced the episodes of the Behind the Headlights series on the old Speedvision channel.
The museum is technically in Sylmar, Ca. Wear comfortable shoes.
Gary