History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

The maroon car is the Tin Goose. It was the hand built prototype and the only car with the rear door handles at the back.

The other 50 cars all used suicide doors BUT a few cars used different handles. Each of the 50 cars were prototypes as well, although they used stamped bodies, and the company tried several ideas for improving each one including door handles.

 

They were both for sale when I took the photo .
TC

 

Those homes that the Tucker above is pictured, is definitely in Europe. The window blinds are called "rolladens" in Germany, and you do not see these in the US at all; and I'd bet not in Canada, either. Judging from the style, I'm thinking the Low Countries, maybe Germany, but definitely not the US.

 

That would have been in the late 1990s then.

 

Id bet they’ve been used here in hurricane county

 

This is as bright and corrected as I can get it. Anything more, and the details disappear. The exif data says "1996-98 AccuSoft Inc.", which was most likely the software it was scanned with. No other information. The car is positively has two-tone paint, and the front license plate has been blacked out. I don't think it was done digitally, because it matches the grain of the pic perfectly. So someone blanked it out for the picture? Maybe for a newspaper or magazine article? It's U.S. sized too.

The girl leaning at the fender seems to be wearing Chuck Taylor shoes, and the guy at the door seems to be wearing 50's style sun glasses. So my guess is that it's some time in the mid or late 50's. The car has fat whitewalls, and the heavily domed hubcaps that the later ones seemed to have.

 

X2 -
I've seen those narrow double doors on many buildings in Germany while I was there for a car meet. First place that came to mind when I saw the photo as well.

 

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Yes around that time at a Kruse Austion in Auburn Indiana.
TC

 

When looking at the photo, even before reading the next post. I thought, wow that car looks to be in northern Europe! That arcitechture and the kind of window blinds was common in those countries. I also showed it for my wife, hiding the "Luxemburg" note, and she said that it looked like Belgium or maybe France. Could it have been American tourists bringing their car on a trip to Europe? That was quite common in the 50's.
Maybe a question on an European arcitechtural forum could give an answer?

 

Here's a few pics I scanned from my stereo slides. Not the best quality, tho. I'm disappointed in the scanner. When viewed or projected, these slides are very sharp. The colors are typical Ektachrome, and can be photoshop corrected. I'm not posting the pairs. I can e-mail the pairs to whoever wants them. Then you can print them and view in 3D with a viewer, or "free-view" using the cross-eye technique, which not everyone can do.

Engine in the Henry Ford ex-Detroit News car.




Front Seat of the same car. Very wide seats could fit four abreast. Front and rear cushions were interchangeable to even up the wear over the years. This is one of the plainer looking cars. Some had very colorful seat material, designed by Audrey Moore.


Driver's eye view. I'm not sure who in the club had all the suck with the Henry Ford staff, but they let us crawl all over, in, and under the car. Tucker used Lincoln steering wheels. The horn rings had the top half cut off for a more modern look.



There was no dashboard, so no glovebox. These door-mounted cubbies were handy enough. The door-buttons and window cranks were Lincoln parts. Most parts on the Tuckers were unique, but they did make do with pieces from other makes to save tooling money and time.


This is my 1984 self checking out the driver's seat. Don't try this on your next visit the museum.



View with doors open. The back seat is quite roomy, typical for cars of the day.


Tucker's grave in Ypsilanti. A bas-relief image of the Goose, labeled "Inventor of the Tucker car" adorns the bronze marker. Truthfully, being there was kind of a goose-bumpy thing for us.


Driver's open-door shot of the Tin Goose.

 

You're just teasing me with this photo. I've been trying to get the mileage off the odometer of this car for years.

 

Try asking the staff.
http://www.thehenryford.org/research/contact.aspx

I can't imagine they'd take much time to run over to the car and look at the odo.

I'll try phoning them tomorrow and ask if it's possible for them to get that info.

Frank C.

 

Thanks. I haven't had much luck with them and the way the car is now displayed it's pretty hard to get close to it. If you can get to the right person it should be easy.

 

There's one sitting in the front window of Zip Auto in Missoula, MT... Any info on it?
I'll drive by again tomorrow and snap a photo if it is still there.

 

Frank, that is exactly the story I saw. Shame about them both passing on. I'll bet Bev had countless stories to tell about him and that Tucker!

 

That is Tucker #1011. It belongs to the owner of Zip Auto, Rick Nash. I'm sure everyone would love to see how it looks. He has been restoring it since 1987. If you've got time and if they'll let you take some close up shots it would be even better. A photo of the data plate would be great but they's need to open the front luggage compartment. It's on the left side as you look at the car just below the passenger window.

It should say:
Style # 481-19
Body # 1015
Paint # 400
Trim # (900, 920, or 940)
Body # 1011

It'll look like this one


Also great to know would be the serial number of the motor. It's located on the top of the engine next to where the distributor goes into the block near the rear of the motor.

It should say:
33515 however it may say just 15 or 1015 since it is a very early motor. It might be hard to see but sometimes you can lean in and snap a picture pretty easy. See if they have an extra motor too. Many owners have one and I'd love to account for all of them. That way we can keep people from getting scammed.

It'll look like this one

 

Nice job Mr Mojo

 

This pic is from my 1984 Tucker adventure weekend. I'm 99% sure that Bev is the guy in front row middle with blue/white cap.

 

RE: The Luxemburg1952sm photo mystery. I put the question to some friends who travel a lot, and here's their replies, for what they're worth:

That's really odd, Frank. It looks European!

NO idea. Not anything unique about the buildings. In the 1940's the buildings all looked like this. Looks east coast to me but it could be anywhere from Boston to Philadelphia.

Looks like Italy!

Well, at least it looks like one of them got to a foreign location.
It sure does not look like USA.
Will take another look tomorrow and with M, but sure looks foreign.
Could be Mexico, so maybe not overseas, but foreign.


Looks like Yurrup to me.

It looks like a street in a Latin American country - the rolly-shutter
doors and proximity of the doorways with the street would suggest
it. I ran across a Tucker while working in Brazil, for example.


If I get any more replies, I'll post them.

Frank C.

 

As unique as the buildings are they could be in a lot of different places. There are certainly buildings like this in Europe but New Orleans is loaded with the same old style buildings. When I drove through Boston on Google Earth I see much of the same in some areas. Of course you won't see anything like it in the midwest or mountain states.

It is one of the later cars, Numbers #1026 to #1049. I'll eliminate Dick Burdick's car, #1050, as it wasn't finished in the 50s.

I can eliminate #1027, #1029, #1030, #1031, #1034, #1043, #1047 & #1048 so that leaves 16 possibilities however many of those would be very slim.

 

"I ran across a Tucker while working in Brazil, for example."

When and where?

 

I'll ask.

FC

 

Before you rule out Luxembourg, look at some of the pics on this site, especially the street views and old bldgs.
http://www.yukiba.com/18545-luxembourg-europe-photo.html

I'm just sayin'.

Frank C.

 

Thanks to a great tip from Nat we now know that the NASCAR Tucker was owned by Pittsburgh Auto Dealer Joe Nagel Jr. whose dealership was located for many years at 12 Charles St, Mt Oliver, Pittsburgh. The driver was Joe Merola.

 

Here's the reply from my inquiry:

I have a slide picture of a Tucker taken in a small automotive museum in Cacapava, Brazil. I used to go there often when I worked for Kodak in nearby Jao Jose dos Campos, Brazil .A while back, OLD CARS WEEKLY had an item about that same car, and a followup item saying that the museum had been disbanded and the cars, including the Tucker, sold.
I would send a copy, but I think I erased the picture from my computer. I believe it was #39 of 51 built.
Perhaps one can find a reference to it on Google "Museu do Automovel, Roberto E. Lee"

 

First the car is Tucker #1035. Second, he worked at one time for Kodak and he erased the picture? History down the drain again. It would have been great to see a photo of the car back then. Here it is now.

 

Hang on, here's an update he just sent me:

It was 1981-82. The Tucker was gray, but not a pristine car. There had been some minor modifications done around the front. It was tucked back in a corner.
I still have a letter that the (then) President of the Tucker Club sent to me when I had written him that I had seen the car. If I can find the slide, I will make a digital copy and send it to you. Stay tuned.

 

Any idea of the color scheme of the Tucker race car? I have a couple spare Yat Ming 1/18 models and it'd be fun to dress one as the Merola car.

FC

 

The Tucker's pre-selector four-speed trans required a short lesson on how to drive it. I had a ride in one back in '84, and figured the operation by watching the driver. With the clutch pedal pushed down, the little thumb-lever on the column mounted shifter was put in "1", then the clutch pedal let up to get moving, then the shifter was moved to "2." When the clutch was depressed and let out again, the servos, solenoids, etc, shifted the trans into second, and the steps repeated for third and fourth gears. Downshifts were the same way, move the lever, work the clutch. The transaxles were from junked late-30s Cords until Tucker built their own stronger unit they called "Y-1" the "Y" stands for Ypsilanti. Of course the Tuckermatic would have replaced all that Rube Goldberg stuff. But that died with the company.

Frank C.

 

These photos from Brazil seems to be from 2004 http://www.carrosantigos2004.blogger.com.br/2004_10_01_archive.html
Judging from the missing photos on the wall, the other photo of #1035 seems to be newer. That the museum is closed and looted by theives...

What this video as well, the Tucker was there: http://www.vnews.com.br/video.php?id=224

I hope that the cars will be saved...