American Graffiti 55 has a new owner!! Real car

I believe the 57 frame was different because it wasn’t overlapped but butt welded on the seam.

 

This is the frame I chopped off the '57. The 2 piece versions aren't very pretty.

Hard to see but the same area on the '55 frame looks a lot like it.

 

I think the TLB is closer to when I became more aware. I got my license in 73, probably says it all.

 

I think the #3 stunt car likely wasn't finished to the same standards as the other two, simply for the fact it was intended to be wrecked anyway. Universal had already bought and paid for the 3 cars to be built for TLB and it'd sat on the backlot for 2 years before it was bought back for AG.


I'm no expert, but Rick Ruth said the stunt car had a 454 and a TH400 and that certainly looks like a TH400 oil pan to me. Also, the car does indeed have dual exhausts. Another thing to note is the inside of the trunk lid. According to Rick, when the 3 cars were delivered they were painted powder blue. Sure enough, when the trunk pops open it seems to be powder blue with dark grey primer fogged around the edge. This car likely never had the fibreglass parts that the other two had.

One thing the stunt car did apparently share with the others was the Olds 9.3 diff, which you can see pretty clearly here. You can also see that it is a two-door sedan and it does seem to have a roll cage in it.

If you look in the bottom right hand corner here you'll see the turnbuckles and cable setup installed to brake each rear wheel individually, originally intended to be used in the rollover scene in TLB. It also appears to have some pretty hefty reinforcement.

And here's the "burn car", the junkyard hardtop that infamously had hockey stick handles screwed in to simulate the B-pillars of the sedan. It's pretty obvious it's an entirely different car. Rear bumper extensions, a single exhaust, badly hacked rear quarters.