History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

TuckerFan48: The Tin Goose, would it have been #1001? What is the history on it?

 

The Tin Goose is not Tucker #1001. It has no number as it was a hand built prototype. #1001 was the first car built off the temporary production line in Chicago. Even though the 50 cars built could all be considered prototypes they used stamped body panels where the Tin Goose was all formed by hand and used a lot of lead. It was also said that the two sides of the car were slightly different as it was hand built. I don't know if that is still true as it underwent a major restoration after it was allowed to deteriorate badly at one point.

Really not a lot of history on it as it was used to show what the car would look like but was really never meant to be driven much. Sort of like the fantasy cars we see that big auto makers show at the Auto Shows every year.

 

Back around 1972 or so, we went to Hershey PA on vacation and I saw a Tucker on display at Zimmerman's Automobile-o-rama museum. Somewhere at my mom's house there's a picture of me standing next to it. Thought it was the coolest car in the museum at the time - but then most 11 year old car freaks would!

Which Tucker was that one? I seem to recall it being greenish blue but I could be wrong. Wonder whatever happened to Zimmerman's for that matter!

 

The Tucker at Zimmerman's was #1049. It now resides in England just outside London.

Hopefully you are going to Mom's house for the holidays and can get a copy of your photo to share with us!

I believe Zimmerman's closed in the mid-70s. He retired in 1978 and passed away in April of 1991. I know I've read about a lot of his former cars in varoius collections. Maybe someone can tell us if they were all auctioned off or if he sold them one at a time.

 

Thanks to Burn Out Bob for all his help on on the Tucker tip in Sharon PA.

There was a Tucker in the Farrell/Sharon area from around 1950 to 1952 or 53. It was first owned by Guy W. Gully, 270 Shenango Blvd, Farrell, PA , President of Sol J. Gully Bank, 823 W. Broadway Avenue (now 823 Pennsylvania Hwy 718) in Farrell.

The Cord transmission in the Tucker was replaced by Paul Arvil's Keystone Garage and Machine Shop, 1013 Spearman Ave, Farrell, PA. 16121. Paul Arvil is believed to still be living, the Keystone Garage is still in existence and operation in the same location, just a couple blocks from Mr. Gully's bank (which has been closed for decades and is now a food bank). Avril said he did work on Mr. Gully's Tucker and that Mr. Gully told him that he was an investor in the Tucker company and was acquainted with Preston Tucker.

Another interesting side note is The Gully Bank was robbed by John Dillinger. Albert C. Meiss Sr. a young mechanic in Farrell, had a service station off Idaho Street at Spearman Avenue, and Dillinger visited one day. Meiss’ daughter said her father didn’t recognize Dillinger at the time. Dillinger said he was having trouble and needed the car running good and wanted it to run fast, So Meiss tuned it up for him. Shortly afterward the bank was robbed. The service station off Idaho Street at Spearman Avenue is the same location that became Paul Arvil’s Keystone Garage.

On Tuesday, Sept. 12, 1933, there was a daring daylight holdup at the S.J. Gully Bank, 823 W. Broadway Avenue (now 823 Pennsylvania Hwy 718) in Farrell. Seven armed bandits using sawed-off shotguns, robbed the bank of $6,000, according to initial reports. They held three girl clerks and Sol J. Gully at gunpoint as they rifled through the bank for cash. They missed $40,000 in a cash box beneath the tellers counter. They kidnapped 21-year-old watchmaker Karl Wild of Sharon, who had recently come to the country from Germany and worked at Gullys adjacent jewelry store. The bandits sped away in a blue Plymouth and a Ford sedan. They went from Broadway to north Budd Street in Sharon and out of the state toward Youngstown. Wild was abducted because he was thought to be Sols son Guy Gully.

After Gully had the car it went to a car lot at 1896 N. Water Ave.,Sharon, PA. The owners name was William H. "Bill" Brei. He had a car lot and a wrecking yard behind it. Since that time they put a road right along his property (PA 846) that goes to Sharpsville PA. and the address is now 1896 N. River Road. Mr Brei passed away in December 2006.

I'm still searching for more information on what car this was. If anyone has any more information to add to this story please post them.

 

Does anyone have a link to a restoration? I'd love to see a good pic of the suspension and the rubber springs.

 

Like everything Tucker it's not always that easy. The cars have several versions of suspension systems. The first 8 cars had a 128" wheelbase. The remainer had 130" wheelbase. The frames were changed for the last 25 cars and they are about 3" narrower.

Some Tuckers have been modified over the years as well. Are you restoring a particular car? There is quite a bit of information online about the Torsilastic suspension used by Tucker.

 

tucker fan 48,
maybe you can tell me if this story is b.s. or true. there was rumored to be a tucker in a small town called sedan, ks back in the 70's. i had heard of this car for quite a few yrs, but now hear nothing of it. sedan in in the s.e. corner of kansas , just wanted to know the truth if you know it.
thanks
goatboy

 

There was one in Frankfort IN in the collection of a Funeral Home when I was a kid, but I never saw it. I see on the site it is #1025.

 

I don't know of one in Sedan KS and one of the founders of the Tucker Club lived about 60 miles from there in Wellington KS. He had and owned several Tuckers that were at his shop there for many years. The first Tucker conventions were held in that area as well so spotting a Tucker in SE Kansas would have been very possible.

 

Back when I toured the HF museum with the Tucker Club, the car was in a different spot than today's display, and good pics were possible. We (the club) were allowed to manhandle the car, sit in it, peer into the engine bay, trunk, all over. I'll be digging out my slides and sending scans to you soon. Back then, (1980s) there was a '57 Testa Rossa parked near the Tucker, and it was unwashed from its last race.

FC

 

Bill Goodwin had a wonderful collection of cars and it still exists. His family still runs the business and they still own a Tucker. At one they Bill owned Tucker #1009 and #1038. Today the family still owns #1025 which still starts up with the turn of the key. They drove it to Lexington KY for a show back in July of this year.

 

This is a Tucker picture, the man, not the car. Not sure of the date, but had to be no earlier than 1936.

 

I'd be very interested if you have a shot of the odometer with the mileage on it. Also if your pictures were prior to 1986 when the car was repainted and what color it was when you saw it. We look forward to your photos.

 

I'm pretty sure the HF (ex-Detroit News) Tucker was black when we saw it. The experts in our group determined it had the Cord gearbox, not the Y-1. Couldn't prove it by me.

Frank C.

 

Who was the guy in Calif who retrofitted coil-over suspension on Tucker cars with bad torsilastic? Is that still the normal fix, or has someone figured out how to rebuild the original rubber components?

Frank C.

 

There is (was?) a company in Los Angeles that had built fiberglass replicas of the Tucker sometime in the late '90s or the early 2000s. I'm thinking this was the same people that built the fiberglass panels for the replicars in the Tucker movie...THAT is what you likely saw, IMO. The Tucker Club website has pics of every known car, and none have been bastardized as you have described. I had read where that company actually took a Tucker apart to resonably replicate every body part, then reassembled the original car as stock.

To TuckerFan 48, you have provided SO much really cool and amazing information to the HAMB about one of my all-time favorite cars. If what I've mentioned above is not correct, please correct me! I had no idea that there was so much variation amongst the 50 cars! I had figured that Preston Tucker was having so much trouble with the SEC, investors, and the like, that he wouldn't have time to figure little details about the cars like that.

I agree with you 100% about that "factory" ragtop...

 

Superfleye is the expert on the replicars since he owns one. There were a couple names involved with them. Tom Sparks and Mike ??. They built the replicars. I know I have the company name somewhere. Tucker #1014 was used as a pattern to make many of the panels. It is owned by Coppola.

Rob Ida built a version of the Tucker that might be what is mentioned above. Google Rob Ida Tucker and you'll find it.

As far as the cars being different you have to remember that Tucker really did want to produce a car. Although he was fighting the SEC and others he had a huge plant and 2,000 workers trying to get ready to mass produce a car. Since there was no assembly line they had to build all of that while trying to refine the car. They were getting really close.

Each car built was put on the road. When it wasn't being shown it was being driven on everyday roads. Preston wanted them driven hard to expose any problems. As they were found, they'd fix them and the next car would have the improvement. As the early cars came back, the changes would be made on them if possible.

The company was very close to finalizing an automatic transmission with very few parts. It would have blown away every other design but they ran out of time. This is why so many cars had no transmissions at the end. I believe within a couple weeks they would have been fitted with the new units but they were never built except for a couple that tested well.

They also had an air cooled version of the motor ready to put into testing. Now it all goes down as what might have been.

 

I have checked out this post at least 10 times and each time I learn more and am surprised at how much info is out there on only 50 cars. I am glad that you guys are doing this to preserve the Tuckers and their information.

 

I wish I owned one! I'm just a fan, I remember reading about the prototype before the movie came out, and I thought it was an amazing car. I was really intrigued by the lack of conventional transmission and valvetrain. After the movie, I became a big fan of the car. I entertain dreams of building a model in 1/8th scale, but that's just a dream for now. But I do enjoy collecting technical details!

Have you seen the Franklin Mint diecast model? Do you think it's acurate? Does it replicate the later versions?

 

I have a franklin Tucker that I can post pics of if needed. just ask.

 

Here's a few Tucker items I dug out while looking for my slides. I'll post them individually, at full res, so you can make good copies. The first one is an original dealer order form for accessories. This was part of Tucker's plan to raise capital while he was trying desperately to get the assy line going, all while the Feds were breathing down his neck with their bogus fraud investigation.

http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l424/fjcpictures/TuckerOrder.jpg

 

There's lots of good Tucker models available. The Franklin is one of the best. Brooklin made a decent one, and for 1/18 the cheap Yat Ming Road Legends is pretty good, and the Kyosho even better. 1/43 cars are also out there, and all of them are well done. Easy to find on-line thru die-cast dealers, too.

Frank C.

 

Here's that accessory form again in case link was dead.

Frank C.

 

This is a magazine cover of a Tucker. The article inside is not about the car, but the man inside who had a reputation as a car nut and was always driving to work in one cool ride or another.

Frank C.

 

This is the back cover of the April '48 Tucker Topics dealer magazine. I grew up in the Syracuse, NY area, and the Tucker debacle was local legend due to the protracted bankruptcy of Tucker, which ruined Aircooled Motors and their airplane engine business. Franklin engines were considered the best lightplane motors, superior to Continental or Lycoming, bit no plane company would spec them because of their shaky situation. The case was finally settled in the 1970s, and the entire assets of Aircooled sold for a few thousand to a Polish industrialist. The building is still there in Liverpool, and is home to various businesses.

Frank C.

 

This is a flyer from Universal Tucker in San Rafael, CA. Note they also sell the Play-Boy, a 2 seater made in Buffalo, NY that featured a retractable hardtop. That's a story in itself. Google it up and check it out.

Frank C.

 

Here's a newspaper ad for Universal Tucker in San Rafael. They obviously had no cars to sell (and never would) so they sought repair work to keep money coming in. Any HAMBers in the San Rafael area know if the building is still there?

FC

 

You aren't thinking of Rob Ida are you?
http://www.robidaconcepts.com/lower48.html

 

News clipping describing the Tucker troubles. The Feds went after him balls-out trying to prove his whole operation was a scam to sell stock and grab the money for himself. There's plenty of evidence the gov't's whole case was politically motivated and pushed by Michigan who saw Tucker as a threat to established car makers. Too bad Tucker didn't live to see GM go bankrupt.

Frank C.