The Great Tucker Tour - 30 Tuckers in 3 weeks - For Real!

Bellm's Cars and Music of Yesterday. He owned #1045 for many years. It is now owned by a couple of great guys from Australia who are spreading the Tucker word there.

It looked a little different back then. Seems like someone thought this was a good color for Tuckers as three of them ended up with a color close to it.

 

Certainly a long Tuckerless stretch from Montana to Hartland WI. To pass the time away I stopped at the former home of a Tucker, The Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo SD. The Owner, Dave Geisler is a great guy and likes to personally greet everyone that comes. There are 43 buildings full of cars. He'll even point out the spot where the Tucker sat for many years. I was able to breathe in the smell of fresh Tucker still in the air and I hit the road to Hartland. The first thousand miles is now behind us and there's only 7,000 miles to go. Look out Tuckers, here I come!

 

Well then you missed one, There is a Tucker here in Missoula, Mt.

 

I think you missed another one in S.E. So.Dak.

 

If you're going to Hershey, you need to drive 90 minutes south to Alexandria, VA to see David Cammack's Tucker collection. Not only does he have THREE cars (1001, 1022, and 1026), he has the most amazing collection of Tucker engineering and prototype hardware. Our club had a tour last spring. Here are a few photos:

Prototype engines and transmissions:



Prototype chassis 002, with the original 589 cu in flat six, direct torque converter drive (one on each end of the crank), and hydraulically actuated valves (no cam):



Cars 1026 (copper) with first automatic trans, 1022 (silver), and 1001 (red):

 

I wonder if anyone knows where the body tooling went? To build 50 cars you would at least need prototype tooling so....does anyone know where all that tooling went?

 

You're taking a car that, by all written accounts is a wonderful driving car, yet extremely rare and valuable and driving it all over the country?

You're my hero!

Post when you're going to be passing anywhere near the NY City area, seeing a Tucker on the highway is something I don't want to miss.

 

Will you be seeing the last Tucker #1051 that Rob Ida, in New Jersey, receintly completed a cosmetic restoration?

 

Yes, Jesse Tallent was my father. He actually worked for the distributor who also owned the Dallas dealership.
Mr Burns had been after my father for years to buy the car but he would not sell. He had the car in storage in Texas after we moved to Virginia. The owner of the b uilding where it was stored sold the building so my father had three options, 1.) find new storage for the car, 2.) bring it to Virginia or 3.) sell it to Burns. So he ended up selling it to Burns. I understand he had the car for ages, putting it in a parade on occasion.

As I understand it it then sold at auction to the man who owns Dominos Pizza. He kept for several years and sold it at an auction somewhere out West where a guy from Strasburg, PA bought it and put it in his museum. I saw the car there and spoke with the then owner. The car was then put up for auction again. This time at Hershey, PA where Bill Smith of Speedway Motors bought the car.

 

Cool concept... look forward to updates.

 

The only Okie with enough money to own a Tucker, or 2, is 3wLarry and it's too new for his taste............

 

That is pretty cool. I did some work on i think #47 and a little on the convertible car for the dude that owned it, befor the shop that restored it now that owns it. I use to have a handfull of parts for them hoods, hood ornament, and grill's. I sold most of it i still just have one grill.

 

I am quite surprised, there has been no mention of the movie. It is a FANTASTIC car guys movie as well as a story of the American Automotive Industry and History, and.................. well the rest ,you'll just have to rent the flick. You will thank me for the suggestion. It's great!! TR

 

I don't see you going to Atlanta. There was a green one in the Stone Mountain museum about 20 years ago, owned by a movie actors from the old days.

 

i was at the reno swap meet years ago and there was a pale yellow tucker that was driven there ,it had a dent in the door and a hubcap missing. i spoke with a vendor there and i said is the owner crazy, he said i dont know but i followed him here at 85 mph. (this was probably about ten years ago.)

 

Guess you are unaware of the great quantities of oil and natural gas we have here in Oklahoma, and the several hundred millionaires and at least ten billionaires that call Oklahoma home. We HAVE moved on from "The Grapes of Wrath", you know!

 

Looking forward to lots of pictures of the Tuckers. Sounds like a cool trip to go on.

 

Todays stop was Hartford WI home of the Wisconsin Automotive Museum. It's located at 147 N Rural St in Hartford. Dale was kind enough to show me around their great Museum. The Kissel Automobile was made in Hartford from 1906 to 1931.

The Museum is also the home of Tucker #1048. #1048 was the only Tucker with a Borg Warner transmission. It was probably another of the many things they were trying out at the Tucker plant. The car is still its original green color although it has been restored. It still has several of the factory markings inside the door jams.

Tucker #1048 has had a few additions such as the wire wheels, windshield visor, and the sign on the back. They were added by a former owner that passed away and his friend now has the car and left the items on as a tribute to him. Each car is a prototype anyway and it gives it something different from the others.

It's on to Chicago and where it all came together!

 

I'll be watching this one !

 

Was the BW trans anything like the Y-1 transaxle? Did it use the preselect mechanism?

Frank C.

 

So are you stopping at the plant? I have a customer in one of the buildings down there.

 

Just saw one yesterday in the exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.
Which I highly recommend. Tickets are a bit spendy for the amount of cars there, but then again I'm on a "beer budget" ___Paul

 

Did you stop in Roscoe IL to see their basket case Tucker?

 

Started the day with a visit to the Tucker Plant. If you've never been there it hard to describe how big this place was. It is cut in two now with the center section removed for a parking lot. Even still it houses a huge shopping mall, a movie theater, the Tootsie Roll factory, and several other companies. That is just the main building. When it was together it seems like you could have fit Delaware inside it.

Drove by the house at 107 S Park in Hinsdale while I was out that way. Got a chance to see several Tuckers today including #1012 and #1047.

Thanks to Dr. Kesling for stopping by and letting me check out the car. Tucker #1012 is located in LaPorte IN not far from Chicago. It's worth the time to drop in and check out the Museum.

Tucker #1047 is at the Gilmore Museum in Hickory Corners MI. They have a few items of memorabilia on display. It's in barn #6 if you don't want to hunt through the other buildings.

Here are a few photos.

 

Nothing in Roscoe anymore. It was all sold a couple years ago. It is in the LA area now being built into a complete car with a ROOF! It will be at the Tucker convention next week. I'll grab some photos.

The car at the Portland Art Museum was the first car on the tour back when it was still in Tacoma. Tucker #1007. It will be on loan in Portland for a few weeks. Check it out if you live near there. You can also take a quick drive down to McMinnville and check out the Spruce Goose airplane.

 

I dig this thread,thanks for the history and the pictures.

 

Lighten up there Patrick. I guess you are unaware of 3wLarry , and his prankster personality, on this site. The note I made, followed by a smiley face, was a light hearted joke towards him. I'm well aware of the vast amounts of money in Oklahoma, especially oil related. I'm 65 years old, and believe it or not, know a lot of things about our wonderful United States.......
By the way "Great Tucker Tour"...excellent thread.

 

The next stop was the Motor City. There were many Tucker related things to see. Tucker #1016 is not on display to the general public at the Henry Ford right now.



Tucker #1015 is undergoing restoration and should be finished within a month. The car is going to look wonderful. I was very impressed with the work that has been done on it to make it historically correct.



Not much left of the Michigan State Fairgrounds where Nick Jenin used to store his collection of 10 Tuckers. The last Michigan Fair was a couple years ago and the fairgrounds are in rough shape. No left over Tucker parts were here either.



Of course a visit to to area had to include a visit to the original Tucker, Preston, who is buried in Flat Rock MI.







A short drive out to Ypsilani and the Tucker home was the next stop. The barn behind the Tucker house burned down some years back. The house is still there.



Just a couple blocks away is Jack Miller's Hudson Museum. They have a replicar from the movie there. They also have the best display of Tucker memorabilia anywhere in the area. It's all well displayed and easy to get to. The car looks very much like a Tucker and you can get close to it. You'll want to visit with Jack and he'll tell you a lot about the Tucker family. If you come to the Detroit area you don't want to miss going to this Museum.





Hopefully no one will find the need to take the next photo as a political statement or start bashing one political party or the other. We already get enough of that elsewhere but I found this to be very amusing. It guess it's OK if he has a business on the side. Everyone should have a hobby. This is a real station in Detroit.




As we head out of Detroit into Canada we'll mention the RM restoration facility outside Windsor Ontario. They are doing the restoration on Tucker #1046. It was converted to a front engine car in the late 50s. RM has returned it to its original rear engine and are nearing the completion of this beautiful car.



We're off across Canada and will be back in the US shortly to see more Tuckers.