how do i track down cars from "american graffiti"?...

Yeah . . . and from a Buick powered roadster guy too . . . I thought you were one of us....

 

Really???

That's like watching a ****o for the storyline...

 

Sooo, over the years I've come to think maybe he really did have a car used in the movie...but maybe not the primary car. Maybe a totally different deuce from Milner's...like maybe a background car? [/quote]

Sounds like a good friend to have had.

The Milner Coupe's whereabouts after the film til now are pretty well do***ented. But there were a boatload of cool cars in American Graffiti. maybe he did have one of the background cars.

Cool karma if true. Your friend still around?

 

I Used To Own The 55 Studebaker That Carol Was Riding In. I Bought It From The Nephew Of Henry Travers, The Transportation Captain For The Movie. I Belive It Was The Late 70's. It Was My Everyday Car. I Think I Paid $150 For It. That Was All That Stuff Was Worth Back Then. Somewhere I Have A Photo Of It. I Will Post It If I Find It! The Last I Heard Anything About It, It Was Being Used For Some Pro Street P.o.s.!!!

 

As far as I know, he is. I moved away from there about 25 years ago and have lost touch with him. He had two buddies that he hung out with, one being my cousin. My cousin p***ed away a couple of years ago. But, I think that I would have heard then if this guy had p***ed away, too. He was not in very good health, though.

 

Talking about the Ertl AG cars, there are several cars in the Ertl AG series that I don't recall seeing in the background (like a flamed '57 Chevy convertible with a Corvette grill). Were they all in the background, or did Ertl just make those up out of thin air? Also, did Ertl do Hock's '40? I've never seen that one.

 

I want to know where the '36 Ford 5 window coupe is now. Now if you're saying to yourself "What '36 5 window coupe?" then you haven't seen the movie nearly enough...

 

Now some real trivia: Not really a special car, just one of the background cars in the movie, an all stock 57 Chev, parked beside the police car that lost its rear axle. That -57 Chev was sold to Sweden in the -70's. Its a nice car and still around...

 

I always wondered about that 40,googleing it i only found a couple of pictures. Not crazy about the headlights but is a very cool 40 anymore pictures of it?

 

Kind of off subject but, when I was a kid I used to write speed parts manufacturers for their info. I thought this might be the four carb setup on the coupe.

I also read somewhere that, after the movie, Lucas put all the cars up for sale and was asking $1500 for the coupe...and it took forever to find a buyer. Arguably the most famous deuce coupe in existence went for peanuts. Ain't it always like that! ****.

 

I had heard that the roll over 55 was not a post car, but a hard top that they bought from a salvage yard for something like 50 bucks! because that was all that they could find in a crunch to get the movie done on time and that the post was made of wood and then painted black to match the car. If you watch the roll over secne carefully you can see that the post don't quite look right.

 

The roll over car was a 2 door post car specially prepared for the stunt. The car that explodes is a different car, that one is the junk yard hardtop (note different rear wheel openings, silver spray painted wheels and some how the decklid has magically closed itself).

 

Ask Zuto...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOUxIB8CjaM
3:32 in

 

Ahhh, so nobody knows where the Merc is right now... interesting. I've seen online somewhere a pic of Brian Setzer in front of the Merc, looks like a pic from the 80's, it's on a Japanese fan site.

 

I know the guy who has the chopped white 57 Ranchero

 

There were pics of the Merc sitting a****st several other cars in some guys storage area supposed to be the father of the kid who shot himself in it .Car was sitting with the windows open and looking very ragged.a few years back I read in one of my magazines that the 58 imoala was being redone by the origional owners daughter in high school shop cl*** and plans were for her to have it ready for her Senior prom.She was not Restoring the car but getting it drivable after being parked for several years .The owner(herdad )is the one that sent in the story in answer to a "where are they now"letter to the magazine .Street rodder did a write up on the STAR cars of the show and in that article they say that the roll over car had a full nascar legal cage in it and that it was bought for peanuts and turned into a Dirt hobby stock race car by the buyer.

 

That's an interesting story on the Merc, I can't find any articles on the web about it. Anyone know if the Merc started out as a done car or was done for the movie?

 

Yeah I do ....it was found in the parking lot of a local race track and bought on site,it was then taken back and given a quickie chop and shave.along with the maroon paint then they cleaned up the inside if ya watch the movie it is about stock height........kinda rough would be a good way to describe it in person after the filming

 

The MERC: in the eightys in the San Fernando Valley, there was a Friday cruise night at Carney's Hamburgers & Hot Dogs and Ventura Blvd. It was a resturant that was made form a railroad car.

 

The MERC: in the eightys in the San Fernando Valley, there was a Friday cruise night at Carney's Hamburgers & Hot Dogs on Ventura Blvd. It was a resturant that was made form a railroad car.

A guy that worked at the studios had just purchased and restored the Merc. He had photos of it in the studio storage yard with if I rememeber correctly 1 or 2 cars stacked on top of it "one was an old Vette late 50's vintage". The roof was caved in and he had photos of him and his son restoring the top back to the original movie chop.

It was painted a similar color to the movie paint job but his restoration had nicely finished body work. He made the grill with the center section of a 70 Camaro front bumper that worked great, it even had a blue & yellow Cal. plate that was personized I can't remember the exact plate but it was something like Graffiti, A Graffiti etc.

I remember it all that summer until he sold it to Brian from the Stray Cats.

 

Anyone have the picture of Setzer standing with the merc?

 

Not sure if this is what you're thinking of....http://www.geocities.com/kippullman/Graffiti_Cars4.html

 

this is off Kip Pullman site.told ya it was "humble"...but still kool!

 

best I could find

 

I don't even remember where I took this.
Larry T

 

Regarding my post # 81 the guy who restored it after he got if from the studios name is Terry Coats.

 

Tred, I have it on good authority the originals are hangin' out with the original General Lee ...

 

Adding this pic, had never come across it before: