Real Barn Find...Old Custom Roadster...HELP...

Me and Mr.Mac went to pickup 3 old Midget race cars he bought yesterday at an estate sale, and found this old custom in the back barn. The caretaker of the property said it was supposedly driven by Mickey Rooney in a movie.

Anyone recognize it? It has 3 Cadillac taillights and a Stutz inline 8 cylinder. It's all metal with lead. I wonder if the wire wheels are Stutz? The deceased owner had several Stutz ch***is and even a sprint car with a Stutz 8 with twin Stromberg 97's.

 

i don't know about the third light but the side profile is pretty sweet...

 

Did it have big wood blocks taped to the pedals ???

No info,... but pretty durn cool there bud !

 

Nice find Larry!

 

here's a pic of fatboy and one of the midgets...the midget is the one on the right...

 

That third brake light is too much!

 

The only movie that Mickey made that comes to mind might be The Big Wheel because it also featured midget race cars like you mentioned finding. It was made in 48-49, which might fit the look of the custom.

It looks like someone is or was restoring it, are you able to buy it? If so, I think it is really cool in a weird sort of way, but cool nonetheless.I think there is some history and some real money sitting there.

Don

 

That's definitely a '48/'49 Caddy rear bumper on it...and the rear quarters look Caddy, and maybe even a hood turned backward to form the trunk deck,...I'd suspect the taillights are those years too. Too bad you didn't get a frontal shot...

Really kool look to it...it'd look good on you Lar...

R-

 

I wanted it, but it might be spoken for...we'll see. I'm going to try to get the sprint car with the Stutz engine...I don't know why, it's just cool looking.

 

The only other movie that comes to mind is "Drive a Crooked Road" 1954/Mickey Rooney plays a race car driver that gets involved with bank robbers. I can't seem to find any movie stills of it.

 

Larry...The '39 Tudor the bad guys picked up for Mickey to 'soup up' in the movie...
When Mickey is installing the engine, notice the arrangement of all the accessories.
I believe the 'prop' used was a then available Edelbrock 'Custom' engine.
Vic Senior would have provided it for use in the movie...

 

Larry, I found pics on the web site , Antique Automobile Club but can't get them to post here. It's listed as a 1932 Stutz Convertible Custom with the DV-32 engine and has been parked since 1964. Same Caddy tail lights , engine appears to be the same as you posted and body looks to be a perfect match. Hope it helps and if ya can score it, God Bless ya!!

 

thanks rich...looked for it, but can't find it.

 

Larry, try "forums.aaca.org"

 

http://forums.aaca.org/f169/what-stutz-please-help-284805.html

 

This is the only picture I can find of Mickey Rooney driving a Roadster,.. But he was only 27 years old in this picture,... maybe it was later in his career......

 

BINGO!! we have a winner!!

 

alright...got it...

 

Not the Topper movie car ...
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?48172-Car-in-the-movie-quot-TOPPER-quot

 

Ive seen this car before some where... Hold on its coming to me..... Nope lost it

 

Here are the pictures from the AACA site:

http://forums.aaca.org/f169/what-stutz-please-help-284805.html









The post on the AACA site said it was one of two cars made for the movie Topper staring Cary Grant, but according to another site the car in the movie was a different car. The movie car looked close but a different car:

http://hollywoodmoviecostumesandpro...3/1936-buick-chrysler-car-driven-by-cary.html



I was typing this while the previous posts were being posted.

 

She's ugly from front to back! Very different for sure...I think you could get a milk crate for the seat Larry and make her a driver....You'd look good and you could stick all your buddies with the BANJO'S in the back!

 

It was originally built by a Urologist that dabbled in toy design,... He later became popular for his Batman Squirt Gun,........ But not successful.

​

 

I have seen every mickey rooney movie made (as far as I know) and would remember a car like this for sure if it was in one of his movies. I think the care taker may be a bit confused, As it seems that everytime someone finds old midget racers, the mickey rooney movie (The big wheel) is brought up, And usually according to the seller, they were all in it....LOL. Not trying to sound neg, but I hear this story all the time. Just to be sure I will show the pics of the car to my grandfather, If anyone would know, It would be him, As he is a huge mickey rooney fan, And prolly owns every movie he was ever in, including the christmas cartoons,...LOL

 

Everything about that toy is so wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i've seen that car in old 50's magazines,,,

 

Larry,
Not trying to change your post topic, But will you post pics of the rest of the midget score???......

 

This was built during the post war era when soldiers returning from overseas wanted sportscars like they saw over there. Quite a few cool ones were built, like Durso's Dream (I think that is his name) a cut down Buick made into a sports car. It seemed that every issue of Popular Mechanics had an article on how to build a sportscar out of some mundane old Ford, I think they even gave a Golden Hammer award for pictures submitted by readers.

The one you found still has some historical significance, even if it wasn't chosen for the movie. Someone put a whole lot of work into it and it would sure be nice to see it restored.

Don

 

Ted took pics of the midgets, I'll have him post 'em.

 

thats a totally different kind of web site!