Since the unfortunate passing of our good friend Bill Papke, his shop and cars have been in limbo. All of his cars were recently sold, except one. "Hells Chariot" from the movies Grease. I was fortunate and lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and the car was loaded up and delivered to my garage just today. It is in mid restoration, but close. I will post pictures of the progress, and bring it back to it's movie glory, but with a much better fit and finish. RIP Bill, we miss you!
Between THIS getting restored to it's original glory, and the 55 Chevy from American Grafitti as well, in my opinion all is well in the world. (don't forget the flame throwers) If you've been living under a rock for the last 35 years or so, here is the Grease race scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsYC-hVEpQM
Very cool, I had wondered if that car survived. I don't remember the Merc having a name in the movie ?
We have a laser cutter and a full machine shop. We will duplicate the "razors" on the hubcaps for sure!
Never sat through the whole movie.........but that fugly car is at the peterson now. But I do like the merc.
I always thought the Merc on American Graffiti was ugly with the cheesey lookin hubcaps and a mile high stance. This Merc was better lookin in my opinion. All it needed was Wide White Walls. I wonder how many people were inspired to build a Merc after seeing this movie. Congrats on the find. Were any clones ever built.
From what we found out, they built two for the movie. One was a convertible, the other a coupe with the roof cut off. In some shots in the movie, it has wing windows, and not in other shots. I heard they destroyed the convertible after the movie, and the coupe was taken back to the studio and painted black primer, and was a backround car in the movie "used cars" then it sat for years and years in a storage shed in L.A.
was it really nessasary to post the rest of this? the one thing i would NOT do is the razors ..just me
Can't wait to see the car when it's finished....Shall I add you to the HAMB Merc Club? Better say yes!!! haha I gave Bill a bunch of pic's of the car,so he could copy the flames etc. Did you get them with the car?
Of course add me! Did not get any of the pictures. They may be in a file somewhere. Don't know if we will ever find them. Do you have any copies??????
Of course you can add me, I would be honored! Never did find any pictures of the flames. They may be in a file cabinet. Don't know if we will ever find them. Do you have any copies???
Hi Bob, thanks so much for getting back to me, and I appreciate anything you can do. Bill put the 350/350 in the Merc, and added power steering. Since that is what he did, I will leave that in there. Still might put a flatie back in it tho. The outside will be EXACTLY as it was in the movie. We will be fabricating the wheel covers, paint the little white scorpion on the top part of the door, and put the Firestone sticker back on the wing window. Have the front bumber that is dented from when it ran into the back of the '47 in the final race scene. Pretty excited to get started on it. Can't tell you again how grateful I am you might be able to help. We are going to try to go thru Bills desk this week and see if we can find anything, so far nothing. We were at his house Friday, and found nothing there either. Thanks again!!!
Are you speaking of the Merc? I am confused. If the convertible was destroyed, what is this car? The coupe? Anyone know what became of the white Ford? I liked that one alot also
They couldn't find two convertibles, so they cut the top off a coupe. That is the one that survived. They both looked the same, one had a sticker on the wing window, one didn't.
Awsome i really like it when some one brings one of these movie cars back to there former glory! And remember the whole place is a no parking zone craterface! LOL!
Well that is a pretty sweet car to own. I can understand wanting better fit and finish than a movie prop, I rpobably wouldn't go the full late custom perfect fit and finish on it though. Let it have some character. I will keep an eye on the build, I like that car and it is pretty slick that you can rebuild the original as opposed to building a tribute/clone. Hey quick question do you know what was used for an engine in it, does it still have the original movie engine?
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