The green one and the blue one are both glass, both built by the same guy, Rob Ida www.robidaconcepts.com, he is a friend of mine, young guy, with so much talent and brains between him and his Dad, its just sick. He has a Jimmy Smith rendering of a Tucker kustom with skirts, white walls and hammered down, its on his site someplace, and he sells shirts with the artwork on them, my wife printed the shirts for him. Go look, the rendering is so killer looking...as Jimmy would say, it makes my pants fit funny...
I have a January 1969 Rod & Custom in which Michael Lamm does a drivetest of a '48 Tucker. Imagine, 38 years ago, R & C was putting a Tucker through the paces! Good article. I bought the magazine on the newstand when I was 12 years old, and have had it ever since.
A friend of mine's parents bought a building here in town and bought a tucker dealership. After everything fell through they ended up turning it into a diner, and in 70's redid it and started manufactring bass boats. He claimed to have the Tucker stuff packed away somewhere, but passed away 5 or 6 years ago. I always wanted to ask my buddy Troy if he could find any of it, but he was killed in a plane crash last year. The building is still there, but is now a car audio place.
I'm sure you have all seen the Tucker in Hot Rod. Very cool and it sounds like he will be building a few more. Which brought to my rememberance that some guy on FTE swore there was one in a junkyard somewhere in south Texas. Are there any of the originals unaccounted for? I got to meet and get to know Alex Tremulis--he lived in Ventura,Ca. for years.I was lucky enough to get to talk to him about his time with Tucker---he had some wild stories! He went to work for Studebaker after the Tucker disaster---they used his front end design (with some changes).He also design all kinds of car/motorcycle/vehicle items in later years---like a 3-wheels car made from a motorcycle chassis in the rear--a few are still running around here. A couple of years ago we where at the N.S.R.A. Western Nationals in Bakersfield and a man pulls up in a Tucker!! He asks if he can park with us as the fairgrounds were packing up. In the next couple of days ,he tells me the story of the car:it was one of the "unfinished" cars off the assembly line--I think he said a Cadillac dealer back east modified it with a Caddy motor in front--auto trans and a Caddy rear axle--I looked it over and he was right.He drove me all over the fairgrounds---the looks we got!!!Does anybody know of this guy---I don't have a pic--one I can find,but I'll keep looking.
Interesting story I grew up with for all the Tucker lovers. My father lived about two blocks from the Tucker showroom they opened up here in downtown Kansas City off 14th. He used to go down there almost everyday because my grandfather was going to open one of their dealerships. He remembers the promoter drove one around like a madman, it had a plaque on the back that said "You have just been passed by a Tucker". But here is where the story gets interesting, my dad's favorite thing to do was to make the salesmen drop water on the "convertible", and watch the top automatically go up.. He'd make him do every time he went... Crazy huh?..
Maybe the custom one someone here was refering to is one of the glasscars made for the movie? there is a norwegian guy who owns one and is gonna make an custom out of it.. http://www.superfleyeproduction.com/coupedevils/members/s/index.php
The Ida family live, and have a garage near me. The story was, they were going to build 51 Tuckers, just like in 48, but you had to get them turn-key. Finished, with Northstar engines. The cost of them kinda limited how many were actually sold. I was surprised to see another one in Hot Rod, I guess the Ida's still have a few bodies left. You can't just buy the body, unfortunately.
When at Goodguys show in Indy I take these photos of a NEW glass Tucker. Caddy powered. TwoChops p.S.------some of the Tuckers in the movie were reworked Studebakers.
The Tucker Club can account for all but one of the original 51 completed cars, body 1042. It was last seen in Memphis long ago when a cop found it abandoned along a river bank, and towed it home to his own driveway! Some time after that he went into the hosptial, and when he returned it was gone. The thought is that some scrap metal merchant scooped it up. A few parts from the transmission (it was one of a couple with the Tuckermatic) still survive. There were also 6 rough unused body shells sitting in a field in Illinois. They were pretty rough. Two were recovered by a collector during the '70's, bodies 1055 and 1057. Someone had combined one shell with NOS panels, fiberglass repo panels, and stock drivetrain stuff into a nearly complete car. The other had it's roof chopped up into a convertible Tucker project, but it was never completed. They are around somewhere now. Steve
Here's a couple that were at an auction in Alburn In.. The red one was a prototype that has the rear doors hinged in front unlike the production models that has rear suicide doors --also change in parking light. TwoChops
IDA Automotive in New Jersey is the company that made the Fiberglass Tuckers. I believe that they still make them but I may be wrong. http://www.robidaconcepts.com/
There was a yellow Tucker owned by a crabby old junkyard owner here in Minnesota. I remember seeing it back in the 80's once and awhile at shows. Not sure where it went. Same guy also had a bunch of shark nose Grahams and alot of other classics in a crappy pole shed in the middle of his junkyard. He would never let anyone in the yard. His prices were super high, and if you wanted something, he would go take it off, bring it to the counter, and tell you the price. You had no idea what you were getting until it got laid on the counter. He would be pissed when people told him to shove it when he laid some rusty, over priced piece of crap on the counter. Anyway, he went on long vacations a couple times. Once in the early 80's, and once again in the late 90's. His kid opened up the doors, and let people in to buy stuff. These were the only times in like 25+ years people were allowed into the yard. After the 1st time, the old man was pissed and had the crusher come in and crush almost all the Ford and Chevy stuff, as he thought that wasn't as valuable. After the second time, he sold the yard, and scrapped almost all that was left. I was able to get in both times, and he scrapped ALOT of great stuff. Since the topic was Tuckers, i guess this has rambled O/T long enough. One last thing is, I now live 2 blocks from where the unfenced(for the most part) yard WAS. Go this I have strong morals because if it was still there...
I remember seein a Tucker in one of the "little books" from the mid fifties in a readers rides kinda spread that had been really hacked up into a 2 seater roadster if I remember correctly. All I remember thinkin when I saw it was why??? Steve
Them tuckers are just lying around all over the place! This is an oddbal picture I have in my collection that was taken in 1953 in So. Cal
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