American Graffiti 55 has a new owner!! Real car

Walt Bailey " owner of the TLB Camera car 55" has announced that a friend of his has purchased the American Graffiti 55 " also used in Two lane blacktop" from wayne newsom . Here is a link to walts tlb page
http://twolaneblacktop.yuku.com/topic/1717/American-Graffiti-55-Chevy-Sold

Directly From Walt

 

Im glad to hear that! Do we get a build thread on the corrections???


-LUKEY-

 

I always wondered why someone would screw up a piece of history, it's great the new owner is going to unrestore it properly.

 

yes it is great . I was pretty excited to hear that it is going to get DE-bastardized.

 

that's good news!

 

I always liked it better than the '32.

 

Id be interested to hear if Ruth ever had it for sale in the Sacramento bee newspaper.
I remember seeing the ad when I was a kid with no $$$$$

 

The guy who "customized" it should be ashamed of himself.

Even if he has more money than brains he did not deserve to own this car.

Having it returned to it's proper form will be awesome.

 

Best news I've heard all year.

 

That's great! Two Lane Blacktop was on tv just the other day.

 

The new owner stopped by Sachse Rod Shop with it on his way home. My buddy called to let me know. We ran up there as fast as possible before he left. It was so cool to see it...even with the jacked up mods the previous owner had done to it. He fired it up to load onto the trailer after a few minutes of tweaking the carbs. Sounded rough and had a small oil leak. It died, so we pushed it into the trailer. Funny...one minute I'm sitting on the couch reading the latest Hot Rod and the next, I'm pushing the most famous 55 Chevy on a trailer. Thanks Dwight!

 

Can someone post a picture of how it looks today ?

 

I see "Barris Kustoms" painted on the side of the fender. What did HE have to do with it?

 

Nothing to do with he real ag 55 . barris built that clone and tried to claim it as the real ag 55 and said he built the car for the movie yadda yadda yadda . Richard Ruth " the real builder of the cars " said uhm , no its not . barris had that listed in a sale bill for some of his cars . Walt just posted that picture on his thread showing it as one that the new owner almost bought thinking it was the real one until Ruth himself said that it isnt the car he built.

 

George has something to do with everything deemed cool. Just ask him.

 

That one was a fake according to that post

 

That's cool. Supposedly Milners 32 Coupe is here in San Francisco.

 

I'd love to see it in its current state. Congrats to the new "caretaker" of the TLB car.

 

Im pretty sure its the way it is in the first pictures posted. Red / black leather int , murial in the trunk and on and on . The new owner is redoing all the changes that have been made to it .

 

10.90/ 127 mph in the early '70s for a full sized car, that was just FLAT haulin' ass!

 

A friend of mine came in my shop today and said a friend of ours here in town bought it . Thats kind of wierd because the silver 57 2 dr hartop out of Graffiti is about 20 miles from here, out in the middle of west Texas.....

 

Well...the Kookie Kar has been spotted all over the place, and there are rumors that people are CLONING famous cars!
The A.G. Coupe was seen at a Billetproof, in 3 different parking spaces at once!

Methinks there can be...more than one...

 

Someone actually bought that fake Barris clone at an auction at the Petersen museum in '06, I was there. It's obviously a fake, the rear wheel wells are not even close to the ones from the real movie car.

 

It'll be great to see the car restored to it's previous config.

I read that Barris caved on his 55 being the real deal just prior to the auction of the poorly done clone. Why would Barris have to make such outrageous claims to an educated car enthusiast public when you can be sure the hoax will be easily revealed? Can't he rest on his past achievements and fame?
I digress, Newsome and Barris should be tarred and feathered.

 

Great news!

 

Saw this from J today (one they guys I subscribe to on youtube)
Vid of it getting loaded

'55 Chevy from the movie Two-Lane Blacktop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWVg5_LWwQ

enjoy

 

What's in it for a motor currently? Still a BB?

 

I was just getting ready to ask the same question. Is it still the same movie powertrain or did he bastardize that too?


Thanks for all the good info Mac.

Scot

 

Cars in Texas now? Please tell me he is bringing it to LSR. Love to see it going down Congress Ave!

 

I think this the HAMB version of awesome news!