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

I did have a conversation last year at LARS with an older gentleman (70++ maybe) and his son who said they had been collecting parts for 20 or 30 years for a clone. Didn't get their names or email address. I did give them mine but haven't heard from them. Said he was good friends with Norm from the old days. Maybe if he or his son read this they will check in.

 

Von Franko klones

 

Notice the trailer balls next to the grille....car has balls. ha ha

 

IMO, the better of the two he did.

 

Seeing that "T" on TV was almost a religious experience;it was so kool it hurt!Made me love hotrods then and still do over 40 years later.Met Norm in England,it was like we had known each other for years,funny guy

 

I met him at the Oakland Roadster Show in about 88 or 89. he was there with a clone and selling posters of the magizine shot. He said that the clone had the original intake manifold, My son was about one year old and I got a photo of him with the car. In 95 my son and I were on the America Cruize in Lincoln and he was there with another car. He rembered us and signed my son's event tee shirt. He had a great personality and he will be missed becaused he can not be cloned.

 

And they're blue with flames!

 

Thank you for the wonderful stories...Uncle Norm certainly cut a path in life and you are so right Bill..."he can not be cloned" LOL
I grew up with Uncle Norm pretty much as my Dad. He would take me to elementary school and pick me up in his Six Pack Corvair powered motorcycle, with me in the sidecar! And whenever he would go to the chrome shop, I was his shadow...to the machine shop, I was his shadow.
I just loved being around him as he was sooo funny and always made me smile and laugh. He played with us. He was the greatest gorilla and scary. When we lived on Wornom Ave he would hide in the living room in the dark and when my brother, Norm and I would walk through Uncle Norm would quickly turn on a flash light pointed to his face and scare the hell out of us...
I also remember Kay Trapp, Curt Hamilton, Grizzly Adams (with an owl on his shoulder) and many others coming to the house and having fun with Uncle Norm.
And the tremendous amount of fun we had at the Happy Valley Egg Ranch where Uncle Norm restored it and the Picks-Ups Limited Club claimed it as their clubhouse. I loved going on the poker runs and the car shows. The memories continue and are so joyous to share with others. TY all for loving and supporting my/your Uncle Norm

 

Norm inspired my father to get into rodding after seeing his car on TV, im influenced by my father hence the reason im into rods as well. Im sure the rodding world has alot to thank Norm for, if it had not been for that beautiful little T a lot less of us would not be enjoying the sport of hot rodding.

 

Mary, I imagine Norm grew up in California, what was his motivation to move to Arkansas ?

Don

 

I've posted this picture on here before,but hey,I met a legend

 

The skull Norm carved for me at the turn of the century (2000) and how it looks on the car. I was blown away when I unpacked it. He had been selling them for a few years then and the ones I saw were kool but pretty plain carvings. All wood with no metal teeth or eyeballs. All I asked for when I talked to him and ordered it was "light colored wood and blood" but like all artists he always had to top himself.

 

Grant Pendergraff (Oregon) is another nicely done "Kookie Kar". Phenomenal car show display: scaled-up Revel box, artist brush and a jar of Testors paint. It was in one of the car mags a few years ago.

I asked Norm what it was like to be a Hollywood actor. He got serious in his answer. "You are never just an actor. Someone is always better than you and they don't mind letting you know. I just had enough of the one-upmanship." Then he said,"I prayed to God to get me outa here. I decided to move here to Arkansas --- I found real people here. And most of my friends are car type people --- lost track of whats going on in Hollywood and don't really wanna know".

My wife and I were somewhat sceptical meeting a Hollywood celib. The instant we met, we discovered a down-to-earth easy-going guy, with a sign on an old wooden board pointing the direction to his place, "El Polacko".

 

Don's......You mentioned "Not liking what happened to the original", What was "done to it" ? I never did hear anything about it, other than about 20 years ago, "it was seen in a garage in Michigan".

Thanks....... 4TTRUK

 

I was lucky enough to do all the metalwork and fabrication on Grant Pendergraft`s car when I worked for Donn Lowe. I built the body from two, made the exhaust connect to the bedrail pipes,windshield frame from scratch, etc, etc. Donn and I were very particular to scale and reference that clone as closely as we could. There were a couple of differences, though.Lonnie Gilbertson assembled the car and finished itup, and the awesome display was made by Gary Crisp. I was lucky enough to get a signed pic with Ed Byrnes in the car at the Portland Roadster Show. One of the builds I have been the proudest of , I would say....

 

I think the guy who bought it was named Rosen, if I remember correctly, and he was some sort of car promoter, I believe. Anyway, he did things like painting it a different color, putting two slicks on each side of the car eek reupholstered it with square headrests sticking way up, and I think it had dual blowers on it too, and maybe square headlights. It was unrecognizable from it's original form.

I could be off of some of those modifications as it has been a long time since I saw the last pictures of it, but it was hideous. I am sure someone on here will have pictures and correct me if I was wrong.

The guy is also an ass about it and won't let anyone even see the car. He is a little strange, to say the least. The only hope is that he is getting older so maybe it will get back into someone's hands who returns it to the car we all knew and loved.

Don

 

Thanks, MS. Ain't she a beaut !!!!!!!!

Don

 

What the heck kinda pipes are those???????

 

Ehh, Yeah...

Gorgeous...

 

I took this pic of my friend Tim with Norm here in Denver at the Creme De La Chrome show in Nov '09. He was so cool!

There was a clone there, I believe this is Ron Kregoski's that was built by Reno Rod & Custom in Oklahoma City. Nice job! Norm even said it was so close he couldn't tell the difference from the original.

 

I'm not much for ragging on anyone's ride, but the term FUBAR kinda comes to mind when seeing those pix. That's Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition, for those uninitiated.

 

If your talking about my roadsters pipes remember I didn't build a klone. I never wanted a klone. When somebody looks at my roadster they say that's Gary's roadster either "eek" or nice ride. Usually the latter. But thanks for the input.

Gary

 

Norm seemed like a hell of a guy, its a damn shame I'll never get to meet him..

 

Nope i bet he was talkin about those nasty ones on norms ol car that go strait up! Between the pipes n double slicks n double blowers it was just over the top in a yuck kinda way!

 

As for Chad's question re: pipes.
Instead of fabricating an under-the-car exhaust collector system as Norm had his, I built a three-into-one system at the engine. Got the idea from Jack Dooney's roadster, but did mine block hugger style. This then flows into "bottle" mufflers and then into the "stacks" on each side of the pickup bed. The chromed side pipes (fabbed from 90* elbows and straight tubing, way too many hours involved) are non functional. What befuddles many car guys is a V8 having only 6 pipes! 47 years ago with that 324 Olds in my first T bucket, I ran functional side pipes - howbeit with baffles - but that did not take long for that ( the noise) to get old. I like to enjoy driving what I build without having to feel nauseous after an hour drive.

 

Ah, ok, thanks for correcting my mistake on that one. I knew I heard the name Rosen from some car. Seeing Norms car like that is really sad.

Don

 

That's the over the top feature car they used to attract customers to their car shows. Sorta Mad Magazine on steroids ! I guess it worked for, "Look at that wild car, please take me and friends to the car show Dad !!!" types.

 

Just dug out my R&C mag. featuring the Von Franco Feb. '89 and Pendergraft June 2000 featured Klones. Both good reading. You can probably find them on ebay.

I for one like the Franco car better. Although I might be a bit jaded. I met him in '88 when he returned to his rod at a show in Pleasington Ca. and caught me laying under it checking out the steering (mine would be finished the next season.) He just laughed and asked me if I wanted to sit in it. After that we became friends. He later at another rod run gave me a ride in it. A real thrill because he really drove the shit out of it. His version unlike most of the others wasn't over built. Although nice '50s quality probably not up to later show cars. Norms car although shown at Oakland more than once never won the big trophy. Norm's and Franco's cars were built primarily to be street rods and both were driven a lot so couldn't really compete with the show only built rods.

Gary

 

What was the steering box that Von Franco used on the clone. I don't think it was a '41 Ford like Norm had one time.