History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

Tried to buy this photo on ebay, but I lost the auction...anyway check out the great sign in the background

Do you know where this was taken Tucker Fan?

 

Pappy’s Motor Sales, 19750 Livernois Ave, Detroit, MI., taken in 1952

 

Awesome!! I guess you knew

 

I still keep hoping someone will remember a Tucker in Tulsa County Oklahoma during the summer of 1950. How many Tuckers could have been there? Surely someone saw it. Maybe on a car lot? I'd love to solve this one!

 

Many people don't realize by mid-1948, Tucker franchises had been sold in over 30 countries outside the U.S. including one in Iran.

 

Then there is this photo. Maybe someone can identify the place where this photo of a Tucker was taken in the summer of 1953. It is in Southern California, most likely somewhere in or near the Los Angeles area. The word "concourse" is on the building behind the car and the word "custom" is on the sign behind the building at the upper left.

The car was supposedly traded in on a new sports car at a foreign car dealership. Does anyone recognize the dealership or location of the photo?

 

This is a repost from a couple months back that I was hoping maybe someone in the Seattle WA area can help with. I looking for information on the owner of this Tucker in 1951.



I believe this same Tucker may also have been on a car lot at 9420 16th Ave SW in Seattle in late 1950 or early 1951. The lot was owned by Maxwell C. Borgeson (b. 8/10/1916, d. 6/10/1996) begining in the late 40s. He and his wife, Peggy L. Borgeson, lived at 1223 SW 124th. in Seattle. She owned Peggy's Dress Shop across the street from the car lot at 9439 16th Ave. SW.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Borgeson began selling VWs in the early 50s and the lot became known as Avalon Auto Sales. I think Borgeson kept Avalon in operation into the 80s. The building is still there.

I'm hoping someone may remember seeing the car there or know if someone bought it or if Borgeson held on to it for a while. The car later turned up near the tri-cities area on a lot in August of 1952 near the Hanford site. (that probably explains why this Tucker glows in the dark...just kidding)

 

The motorcycle on which Preston Tucker is sitting on that photo is definitely a 1936 OHV model, which was later nicknamed the Knucklehead. 1936 was the first year of this model. Usually, 1936 Knuckleheads have painted rims, but this is obviously a bike which has been made on special order at the Juneau avenue factory in Milwaukee, as it has chrome plated rims and also an all white paint job. Frames and forks used to be white on standard models with sheet metal in two tone colors. But this definitely looks like a factory paint job, as even all correct decals are placed exactly where they should be, on the gas tanks, the tool box and the forward portion of the oil tank, just above the kickstarter. A fun fact is that 1936 also saw the birth of another brand in Los Angeles : Crocker was a small brand of motorcycles, which were to motorcycles what Tuckers were to cars. A superior and more modern design and technology. Eventually, the brand collapsed after 1942, among other things,due to the fact that Harley-Davidson and Indian were threatening wheel manufacturers like Kelsey Hayes and carburetor manufacturer Linkert from Indianapolis, to stop ordering from them, unless they stopped to sell their parts to Crocker. Same fate as Tucker, but on two wheels...

 

Does anyone know a Harley historian? It sounds like this bike would be somewhat rare and not many like it would have been built. Seems like the type of thing that might be in someones collection. I doubt it belonged to Preston Tucker and was probably there as a display bike that day but I always like to know "where is it now?"

 

Harley-Davidson Museum®
400 W Canal St
Milwaukee, WI 53201 USA
<abbr title="1-877-436-8738">1-877-HD MUSEUM</abbr>

 

Sorry, I wanted to say that Harley frames and forks used to be black and not white...

 

You'd have to ask Herbert Wagner, email him on my behalf at :
(email removed now, for privacy reasons...)

He's the most reliable American historian when it comes to the 1930's and early 1940's era of Harley-Davidson history. Forget about ANY Harley officials or museum and archives employees. They only do some research when it comes to publish some authorized and licenced H-D books...

 

I'll go ahead and do that. You might want to edit his e-mail address off your post so he doesn't get too much spam

 

I've been following this thread since the start it's time to jump in. I don't remember the exact year but i think it was about 1976-1978. A friend of mine was telling me about a car he had been trying to buy for years but the owner would not sell. He told me all about this car and the others this guy had. At the time the name Tucker didn't mean much to me I was more interested in his 32 fords and my 34 coupe. I lived in Milwaukee at this time and these cars were not in a nice part of town. He calls me one day and says he made a deal on the Tucker he's got it come see it. So I went to the garage he rented to put it in to see what a Tucker was. He told me the Tucker story and showed me every inch of the car. The car was painted 56 Ford Pink. I sat in the front and rear seats. At the time I had no idea how valuable this car was. I wish I would have taken pictures. I havn't seen him since about 1980 when I moved. I don't want to give his name but I heard a few years back he got another one. Do you know what Tucker this was? Thats my Tucker story! Jim

 

Is this the car you are thinking of?

 

Re: Vintage shots from days gone by!
some pictures taken in march 1952 in north hollywood ca... my dad is the 'hood ornament' in the first photo.... car was offered by 'mad man' muntz on his used car lot for $1995. I was way too young to ask my dad to buy it...
Attached Thumbnails

 

mrspeedyt, can you reattach the pictures as attached thumbnails rather than attached images please? the attached images will not enlarge at all. attached thumbnails will. see the post above yours for the difference. Those look like really interesting pictures but details are hard to see when the pictures are that small.

Even better - post them as pictures within your post using the tags.

 

These photos are already posted back on post #565 of this thread.

 

This may not be what you're looking for or already have. www.laubly/1948tucker.htm
Have a good one.

 

Tucker Fan I don't remember the car as 2tone but that is the pink it was. Thats about the shape it was in. I remember it sat real low. He said all the suspension needed to be rebuilt. That could be the car. Was that picture taken in Milwaukee? Jim

 

It was taken in Milwaukee.

 

Tucker Fan that has to be the car. Do you know where that car is now? Jim

 

http://www.dragers.com/photos.php?sku=tucker-10&start_num=-1

 

That is Tucker #1010. Stored in a garage for over 50 years until the owner passed away in 2008. His widow hired people to sell it for her. They told her the best they could get for it was around $375,000 according to family members so she took their advice and sold it. The buyers promptly took it to auction where they doubled their money and sold it for $800,000 a couple months later.

 

Is it known if the person selling it for her, had a percentage of the auction winnings? Sounds really fishy to me.

 

Sounds to me like somebody intentionally ripped off an old lady that did not know any better. No better than a thief IMO if that is the situation.

 

But what's the auction house's commission on the sale? Sure, they made a bundle over and above what they paid the family (if that story is true) but so what? It could have gone the other way. The family likely made more profit on it than the auction sellers did. And the family isn't looking at a $million restoration bill. I'd call it a win-win.

Frank C.

 

The way I read TF48's explanation was that the widow sold it to the people who told her it was only worth 375,000. Then those people had the auction house sell it off for them for the 800,000. Basically making them some free money and cheating (IMO) the widow out of about $350,000.

To me, that deal has a bad smell to it. At least the widow traded a car for $375,000. The middleman traded his integrity for about the same amount of cash. Even if the auction house were to take a 20% commission, the widow would have still been left with almost double what she was given.

Like you said, this all depends on if the story is true and if we have all of the facts.

 

The Auction company, Gooding, not only received the buyers premium but disclosed that they were a part owner of the car. I've been told who the other "buyers" were but have no confirmed knowledge of who these "buyers" were other than Gooding did confirm he was a part owner. Hope that clears up any confusion.

 

I'm also curious to know what happened to the pink and white one, what number was that car, and has it been restored? I sure hope so, that two tone job is horrendous looking.