History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

Nice looking motor. There are a few others on the private market right now and the price seems to be in the 50K to 60K range. There were more than 98 motors made. I owned #335101 myself and there is a #335113. Best guess is that about 125 were made. They were delivered to Tucker exactly like the photos of this motor show.

It'll be interesting to see if it sells quickly or not. Most of the Tucker projects going on right now already have motors. The market has been soft for motors for a year or so. Most of the owners that wanted one have one now. With a few Tuckers being sold some new interest might come up.

 

I don't know who you talked to, but the rules in Oklahoma are really quite simple. If you want to run a YOM tag (plate) on your car, you check with the Oklahoma Tax Commission by phone, mail, or in person and simply ask if a specific combination is available for use. You then them the year of the tag and the colors (must be original colors), and they tell you "yes" or "no" if they are available for what is known in OKlahoma as a "Vintage Tag"; i.e a YOM registration. If the number is in current use, they will tell you so, but they will NOT tell you who has the tag! To research the history of a number is something you can not do, as in "Who had this plate in 1950?"...ain't gonna happen. You also can NOT do a title search of a vehicle unless you are either the CURRENT registered owner of the vehicle, a member of law enforcement, a judge, a lawyer, an insurance company, or a legally designated representative of the current owner. That's it, period. The events of 9/11, as well as a couple of high-profile celebrity murders in the late '90s in California, helped to drastically reduce the flow and availability of vehicle information available to John Q. Public in the vast majority of states. The "challenge" you speak of involves acquiring restricted information illegally. I doubt seriously you are going to find someone to "step up" to that challenge.

Good luck. I'm sure someone, somewhere could be bought, because no one with a brain would take that risk in the first place.

 

That's exactly what I said. "not likely to happen but not impossible". At the same time how much restricted imformation comes out all over the country everyday. Maybe wikileaks will help me out. Who knows. Again, not likely to happen but not impossible.

You did mention doing a title search. If I were the current registered owner would they give me the information? Would the car need to be registered in Oklahoma currently to do this? The reason I ask is that I can narrow this down to one of several cars. I know the owners of almost every Tucker. Could each current owner ask for a search or will they run into the same issue?

 

i go past a lustron home every day. looks like a bunch of washing machine doors, but still no rust.

 

About 10 years ago or so, Super Rod Magazine ran an article about a guy that was going to repop 50 fiberglass bodies to sell... preferably as complete cars.

Anyone know what ever happened to that?

About the same time, Dad got me a book from the Tucker club about "General information and data relating to the service and maintenance of the Tucker. Also some general information provided for the enjoyment of knowing more about the car." It's pretty kick ass, with real actual photographs of several Tuckers including 1002.

JK

 

Street Rodder had an article in their January 2001 issue and Car & Driver had an article in their July 2001 issue about the Ida Tuckers. Rob Ida built a few fiberglass Tuckers but there wasn't a large market at that time. There will probably be more demand after the recent and upcoming sales.



The booklet you refer to was put together by a couple old time Tucker mechanics. They really knew their stuff. Unfortunately a lot of the information is now outdated and many of the parts resources mentioned are now out of business. Still it gives you a starting point if you are actually restoring or maintaining a Tucker.

 

Thanks for the updated information! Is the car above a repop, I thought the one in Super Rodder was blue?
At the time the article came out, I thought it would be pretty cool to get a 'body' and power it with either a Lycoming/Continental or a Corvair six. But, at that time anyway, Mr. Ida was looking to sell complete cars. Maybe I could grab one of the Tucker "movie cars" from the Ypsi Auto Heritage Museum built on the LTD chassis.

JK

 

They can definiitely run a search of the Oklahoma database! I'm assuming you know who the current owner of that particular Tucker is, so that person(s) can indeed do an Oklahoma title search and come up with all of the available Oklahoma information on that car. Oklahoma computerized most of its existing records several years ago, but from my understanding, the older records still exist on microfiche. A bit more time to access them, but it can certainly be done. The car does not need to be currently registered here to access the info. The inquiree needs to simply provide proof that they are the current owner of the car...and provide the State their research fee, of course, which I believe is ten bucks.

Hope this helps!

 

Talk about timing...

One of my suggested pages on Facebook came up as Rob Ida Concepts- if you are on Facebook the page is definately worth a look!

JK

 

Tucker #1034 was sold today at Amelia Island for $1,320,000. Certainly a lot less than expected and less than half of what Tucker #1043 sold for just a few weeks ago.

#1034 is a beautiful car and someone got a bargain.

 

Probably been posted already somewhere in here but there are a shitload of cool pics on their facebook page....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Ida-Concepts/112266852142140

 

Hello Paul,
This is Ron Rector Jr. you step cousin. I remember going to those car shows with you and Ray. That car was awesome. We should catch up its been 23yrs.

 

Tucker Fan,

I live on the Southside of Chicago, a couple miles down Cicero from where I think the Tucker plant was. Do you know an exact address or have period photos of the exterior? Most of that area is built up now and houses shopping malls and big box retailers. Would like to know if anything from the building still exists.

Thanks
-Tim

 

Being a collector of Tucker models and ephemera, I spotted one I hadn't seen before, a Hot Wheels "Boulevard" series 1/43 Tucker. Model has a 2008 copyright date, so it's been around, but this is new to me.

Frank C.

 

Ford City Shopping Center sits on the property. Stu

 

A good portion of the plant and other buildings still exist. The Ford City Mall tore down the center section of the plant for parking but the rest of the Mall is in the Tucker Plant. The Tootsie Roll factory and the box company on the north are also part of the original plant. It was that big. The admin building in the front was torn down. The Sheridan Hotel sits where it was. You can still see the test cells on the north end of the building where the the aircraft engines were tested during wwii. The roof has collapsed in this area. There have been a few additions to the building but mainly it is still intact. If you are in the mall you're in the plant. Many out buildings still remain if you drive around to the rear. The powerhouse is still there. The plant property went all the way to Pulaski and where the National Archives sits. It is hard to imagine how big the main building was until you see it. There was enough space for a shopping mall, two factories, a parking lot, and that was just the main building.

Surprising to see the building has held up well over the years even with the center torn out. It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for it.

 

Not sure if I still have it but I remember looking at an old Hemmings or cars and parts magazine I had saved. In it was a for sale ad for a Tucker. If I remeber correctly the asking price was $10,000.00. I believe it was a 1977 issue.

 

posted in another thread by swi66

 

Great photo. Probably taken in the Detroit area or midwest in the late 80s or early 90s. The guy in the photo is thought to be Robert E. Bourke.

Howard Mook, who owned the Studebaker, is a legend. He was a designer at Ford and retired in 1997. While still in college, he designed vehicles for several 1960s TV shows including The Monkeymobile and the Green Hornet car. He did a lot of work on Mustangs and is quoted in several articles about the Mustang II. He has one heck of a car collection that includes a 1949 Cadillac, a 1907 Stoddard-Dayton Model K Runabout, a 1954 Ford of France Monte Carlo, two Marmon race cars and a 1903 Michigan.

 

the tucker hotwheel first came out in the classics series in 08 it was in 4 spectraflame colors red,blue, green ,orange

 

A few from 1984's Tucker Meet. 28 years ago!?! Alex Tremulis, Audrey Moore Hodges, etc...

 

Nice photos. The maroon car is the Tin Goose. The Tucker prototype that was built by hand. You'll notice it did not have the suiside doors that all other Tuckers have.

The blue Tucker is #1013. Both cars are now in the Swigert Museum.

Tucker #1012 and #1047 were also present at the 1984 convention

 

are there anny tuckers in europe???

 

Tucker #1049 is located in Old Oxted, Surrey, England.

 

I love these Tuckers........Everytime im on Balboa Island I have my eyes peeled for the Tucker I saw driving on the street.Its great to see them in person at a show but when I saw this beauty driving on the street ,I will never forget it.

 

You are in a good area for Tucker watching. Right now there are 10 Tuckers within 50 miles of that area. Of course three or four never see the street but the others do get out as you've seen.

 

10 ??? Wow I had no idea.I was told that the guy who was driving the one I saw owned 2 or three but im not sure if I believe that.It was really special seeing that car not only driving but parked as if were just a regular car.....well it was built to drive

 

He owns 4 Tuckers. They are in a private collection but he does drive them. They are all very well taken care of. Probably 4 of the best Tuckers you'll find.

 

This is the first blank serial number plate that I have seen. I would think that there was a stack of them waiting to go on the cars when production stopped. but did someone save the stack or just a few?

 

There are a few of these floating around. I'd guess there were not a lot of them and certainly over the years many probably got tossed out. There are a lot of reproduction ones out there. I think you can even buy them online.