Motion Pictures For "American Graffitti" Fans

Yeah, I know , but even at that, buying a 58 Chevy that had some customizing for $325, even back then, was cheaper than anything I could have found. Makes you want to hang around the studio back lots when they dump unwanted prop cars.

Don

 

True. I love this story, its like "Cinderella" for car guys. What I REALLY like about it, when he bought, he didn't know bugger all about AG, he just liked the car...

 

A friend i work with was with him when he seen the 58 impala ad in newspaper. Called and got the address and when they were there the seller offered the coupe for $1,500. When they asked to see it were told show me the money first. They said they would be back but never did. I never get tired of hearing the story over and over for years.

 

Im gonna spit out the names of the friends who were with him that day in case mike or his friends are on the hamb. Jim and Russ Giggy and mike bergman. I also grew up in the neighborhood where mike lived in vallejo. When he would leave the garage opened i would just stare at that 58 for hours.

 

If any one of us had known then what we know now, we'd all be on easy street and it wouldn't even have to be a movie star car. If I could only go back in time things would be different for sure.

 

That's some funny shit right there...

 

I got that info from Pat Ganahls book, and it also made that claim in the original article in Street Rodder, right after the movie came out, so it is second hand information. If you know something that contradicts that, spill.

 

Looking at it another way..... None of the cars in the movie were
anything really special... even the movie itself wasn't really special... but...
It was a monumental jump-start to rekindle the early roots many of us came from.
It hits a nerve in all of us. Tat is the real essence of "Grafiti"
Most every car-guy that ever lived went cruising on Main street USA on
Friday and Saturday night, looking for girls, buying some booze, looking for
some "action" in more ways than one! Simplicity that is all but lost today.
That's why many of us do what we do. That's why we drive old jalopies
and hang out on cruise nite. There is no other real logic to it.
I can always get in my car and feel like the '40's, '50's, or "60's.
If I get my wife to go it's even better. Maybe I need to find another
'54 Dodge Royal Red Ram Hemi! Maybe I could get some "action!!!!"

 

Well said Tony. Those cars were what we could afford and build ourselves. The movie was sort of a "validation" for all of us who stuck with do-it-yourself hot rods when factory muscle cars started taking over the streets.
I agree with Falcon George, good to see a car guy get a win-fall if it really does sell for that much.
Man, think of what you could build with a pay day like that.

 

I went back and re-read the chapter in Ganahls book. According to the article, when he bought the car, he was still in high-school, the 348 was burning oil, and he had no money to rebuild it, so he put a good running 283 in the car, and carefully packed the 348 away. When he bought the car, the tri-power was in the trunk, and the car had a 4bbl on it.

 

Don't forget the little blue pills!

 

I don't need no stinkin' pills!

 

That's why we all hang out here also.

 

LOL my lady still gives me wood too, do they make pills other then oxy that will help my back keep up with the action?