Customs Curious-How Many Kookie Clones Are There & Where?

Mary here, Norm Grabowski's niece. Just curious and wanting to know how many clones there are out there of the original Kookie Car...I was reading the posts about what happened to Uncle Norm's Fad T-Bucket, now in Ohio, and know how much that car meant to everyone and changed so many lives. So what do you know and where are they? This should be fun. By the way, that's me sitting in the original Kookie Car back in the late 50's.

 

Mary, I really have no answer to your question but if you would start telling some memories and stories about your Uncle Norm everybody might start jumping in. From everything I've read about your Uncle he was a remarkable man !

 

"
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

 

I don't know............but that has to be the coolest picture ever.

 

His car inspired me to get into rodding!!

 

I was allowed to stay up an watch 77 Sunset Strip, in hopes the episode would show the iconic rod. I was infatuated with it. Great car, by a great man.

Would love to hear some uncle Norm stories Mary, thanks for visiting the HAMB!

 

Mary,
I doubt that there would be any way to ever even make a guess as to how many copies of that car were ever made or even exist today. That car made a lot of difference in the lives of a lot of people in our age group. The TV show not so much.

 

Don Lowe built the one that made the Show scene a few years back. It was displayed with a full to scale Revell paint bottle and glue tube. The display with the car in it looked just like the Model Car box lid. It was Killer! Don told me he did a lot of research prior to taking on the project. He's a grate guy and may be able to point you to some of the other replicas. He's in Millwaukie Oregon.
The Wizzard

 

Ron Kregoski clone...
http://www.normsnews.com/whereautorama09.html

Do your own clone...http://collectorcarpricetracker.com/auctions/detail/181020723757/

Gary DeFer clone...http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/build/09kookiekarkopy/

Von Franco clone...http://www.streetrodderweb.com/features/0703sr_t_bucket_history/photo_01.html

 

Mary, imagine a fat 66 year old man on his knees begging to hear some Uncle Norm stories !!! Crap , now how am I going to get up? Damn arthritis !!!

 

Have you seen this one? Uncle Norm and his car in action, in a Peter Gunn episode called Sisters of the Friendless, 1958.

He appears about 20 seconds into the show. A little later he is seen in a cafe called Rock a Billy's. Try the Chili Dogs lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U03RhIRO1eo

 

There have been a few "spot on" clones done, such as the one Von Franco did, plus a couple of others, but there have been so many that tried to catch the essence of the car that it would be impossible to ever know about all of those. All of us hate what happened to the original, and we can only hope that someday the current owner decides to sell it to someone who will pull off all the goofiness now on the car and restore it to it's former glory. That car does not deserve it's current life.

Mary, you could do hot rodders everywhere who felt Norm was a member of their family a huge favor if you would post up every picture you have of him. Not only from the early days but also from more recent times. Believe me, we would never be bored by them.

Don

 

His car inspired thousands of us who are now in our 60's to get into rodding.

Plus it is the granddaddy of all of the T Buckets although there were a few around it was the one that caused so many guys to build one in the 60's and later.

Although there are probably several fairly close copies there is only the one "exact" clone that I have ever known about in the past 50 something years.

 

Eppster....okay. Back when Uncle Norm was in High School, he was attending Verdugo Hill High School in Tujunga, CA, (years later I went there too) after hours one day he decided to take his Dad's car to the track and play. He had a blast going round and round. Totally tore it up! Next day at school guess who got called into the Principals office? "Grabowski"!!! He didn't get away with it...How do you think they figured out it was him? He was just always such a shy kind of guy, NOT!!

 

Wow! That u-tube clip is great! Norm really beat on that T. I also forgot how great the theme song sounded.

 

I helped build Franco the "Lightnin Bug" and as far as I know it is the only clone of the black car?

 

Jack Dooney of Mesa Ariz built one many years ago..featured in Rod Action ,July 1985

 

Norm was always like the grandpa i never had! So full of piss n vinigar n allways there for a laugh! Deeply missed n kick myself when i told him i didnt have enuff for one of his shift knobs! DAMN IT LOL!

 

Mary as you can see my roadster isn't a clone but very highly influenced by Norm's roadster. I met and talked to your uncle a few times and bought a gearshift knob from him. What a talent, personality and genuine good guy. So sorry he is gone but glad I got to spend some time with him.
Gary

 

I bet the hot rod world would have been a lot different if so many of us were not indoctrinated into hot rodding by being glued to 77 Sunset Strip every Friday night. If the car Norm created hadn't been such an impressive sight, I wonder if the whole T bucket thing would have ever happened or been as wildly popular as it was and is ? A lot of companies owe their existence to we customers wanting our own version of that car.

I realize Ivo and others also came out with their own versions, but Norms was the first one to have that distinctive upright stance, as far as I know.

Don

 

The Von Franco clone has been on display at Sacramento Vintage Ford for quite a few years,....and in Oct, 2012, there was a very close copy at the NSRA Golden West Nationals, in Sacramento. I had to really look close, to see the finite differences between that one, and the Von Franco car.

4TTRUK

 

Love the sound of the Cadillac 8.

 

My wife and I met Norm at his home near Lead Hill on Bull Shoals Lake in early November of 2002. He electrolitically etched his signature on a polished stainless rad shell band - said that he'd never signatured that way before. This was done in his carving shop only a few feet away from his dusty Henway. Later we drove down to Harrison, treated us to lunch and met his friend Dale Steeves. It was a wonderful visit. Our next encounter with Norm was at the Devil's Run at Devil's Lake, ND in June of 2003. Our car (as seen in my avatar) was not done yet. It was completed July, 2004.
I have titled this car as "Northern Kookie - the Grabowski Influence". It is not a clone, with over 50 subtle and not-so-subtle differences. Major differences include the finned Buick drums, the Lynn quick-change rear end, the '56 Olds engine w/4speed Hydro, Edelbrock stuff on the engine, hand-built pickup bed and tailgate, dash panel, windshield posts, etc..
I have not yet developed the skill of posting pictures on the HAMB. However, I would invite you to go to my son's site under the name "Hoser" for more pics.
I'm glad to see you putting out this request.

 

BTW, how many (out there) have a Jack Dooney aka JAX tee shirt showing Norm's T-Bucket jumping out of a TV screen? I did not wear mine until I could actually drive mine.
Steel Rebel: I like how yours is evolving. Met you at Back-to-the-Fifties several years ago.

 

Yes I remember our meeting In Minn. When I saw you drive in I chased you down to have a look. As you said yours is not a klon but a great lookalike. Wonderful workmanship and finish. A few years ago I got a call from a friend of yours Ron in Conn. and sold him a 4 pot manifold for his klone. Since then he and I have become good friends. His car should be finished soon if the weather back there doesn't blow him away and he quits starting new projects. Posting the pictures of your rod I took that day. Wish I had taken more.

Gary

 

Mary, just glad you are on this site, almost all of us regulars admired Norm, even if we never met him...I remember seeing the roadster (yes, I just call it "the roadster") at a show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium -- maybe '58 or '59?? ...that was as close as I got to Norm, but all of us who read the stories about it, watched 77 Sunset strip or Peter Gunn (yes, I saw that episode when it first aired on a black-and-white TV!!) He left behind such a legacy, so thanks for keeping his memory going.....(oh, yes, clones...I seem to remember that the one build by Von Franco might have had the original 4-carb manifold from the original, that was a perfect reproduction of the roadster)

 

Now this is a Hot Rod. The only thing that could have made it better is if it was Norm kicked back there instead of Edd Burns. This was the best version of it.
The Wizzard

 

I heard there was a guy on the West Coast building one for the last 20 years. Just don't know who he is...

 

Nice....thank you for sharing. Yes, without Uncle Norm in the world there would have been so much missing in so many areas of life. It's amazing how one person, one soul can have such an impact on the world. God love him...wonder what he stirring up now? LOL

 

norm is more than likely making chariots for god. so talented and missed