I've read that Gable was a car guy. He drove around Hollywood in his early days in the hot rod T and worked in a gas station part time before landing good movie jobs. Some say they saw him with greasy hands working on the car.
Bob Estes roadster was full fendered and ran a turtle deck, but I do think the car in the movie is his. A judge conficated Bobs car after some street racing and sold it to "keep the menace off the streets". The money from the sale went to Estes, but he said it was a fraction of what he had in it. All the changes on the film T could have easliy been made after it was sold off. He ran 107 mph at Muroc in about 1930. Gabbys car, his second car...first T lost in the '33 Long Beach earthquake, very well could have been fashioned after the film car. He never mentioned the film to me but that doesn't mean*****. This is it in '33, he sold the roadster for 8 bucks to finance his Chevy touring.
The story goes that it was Carol Lombard that commisioned the roadster to be built for Gable. Who knows if that's true? They didn't hook up until 1936, Estes cleaned Gable's clock twice for 10 bucks in 1933 and that's when his car was measured and photographed to build Gables car.
It very well could be Estes car. I can't believe it was taken and sold. He was a bit of prolific racer in that period I believe. ....shame he didn't have a friend of his buy his roadster back for him . Wonder where it ended up? It looks like they did quite a bit of mods....including chrome plating the hood (as seen in some of the stills). Would they have gone to that much trouble? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Depends on what the art director wanted. So I just re-read the Bob Estes stuff. None of the dates match up. He still owned the car when the movie was made. It's not the Gable clone because that came in '33 so maybe it's Bobs and it was leased to the studios for the shoot? It sure looks like his with the spare cover and wire wheels. Estes had a hand pump on the drivers door and didn't run all the horns but that could have been done for the film too. The 2 shots of his car are full fendered and you really cant see if there's hair pins or not but who knows? Gabby told me the streets were full of Gows in '31-4 so maybe the film car nis just another great little T from that era? When the police finally cornered Estes (for street racing and running from the cops) he was hit in the head and knocked unconscious and taken to jail. He had just closed up the station where he worked and had all the cash in the car from that days sales. The police insisted he robbed the station even though when they got him he was still wearing his gas station uniform. I think they were REALLY pissed that he continually out ran them.
I didn't realize just how cool that era must have been! Seems like the big expensive cars got all the press while the lightweight little T's owned the street. Really drives home just how much influence Henrys T had in CREATING this hobby. This tread alone proves that we're ignoring a huge amount of incredible history by concentrating on late 40's and 50's builds...awesome as they are! It's like the war split the timeline and anything previous was lost as the "new" era swept over everything. Not surprising when you think about it, but I know one thing. Pre-war Gow Jobs are just as cool as ANYTHING made since!!!
Humm... Hollywood... hopped up cars... T-buckets... street racing... perhaps it was built by Norm Grabowski's grandfather! LOL. Gary
That's for sure. Hairpins, headlight mounts, etc. I wonder if it was entirely home built or perhaps some of the work/parts were farmed out to an LA area race shop such as Miller. In that are you'd have to have the know how or know someone who did. Badass car for sure. You can sure see the Gows were inspired by the open wheel and sprints of the time. I bet the bulb horns, spotlight and perhaps the chromed hood were added by the movie for glitz.
I'm pretty sure those are Frontenac hairpins. These are photos of my friend's 1920 T speedster with real 1920 Frontenac hairpin radius rods.
if you can find the movie on Gable and Lambard he is driving his Model A he brought from Ohio full tilt flat head eight !
And no slouches as far as speed either. One thing I'll always remember my grandfather telling me when I was about 10 years old, and he first realized that I had an interest in old hot rods, and I was talking about Model As and '32s and such. He said, "You know...those hopped up Model Ts would really go too...you'd be surprised!"
Yep. The speedster I posted above has a T engine with a Rajo head, a big cam, and a pressurized crank case. It is no slouch at all, and sounds incredible. Street driven....HARD.
during that period of time there were a number of custom coach builders. a well known one was W.E. Miller, a Los Angeles Native, that during his 1/2 century career designed 1,000 different vehicles, products and advertisements. designed cars for Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, etc.
Metal man can you check to see if those hairpins started life as T wishbones? They were sold by Fronty, Morton & Brett and other speed equipment makers in the 1920's. They all used the same illustrations in their catalogs, often wonder who really made the parts. Bob
In the movie he shifts gears with a shifter. I'm not a T guy but I know they normally don't have one. What trans would have been used?
Could be a Warford, Chicago, Muncie or another Aux. Overdrive gearbox of the period. I have one in my T.... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
They may also have built there own. I have seen a few sets "home made" on a few speedster, gowjob and race car chassis in the past. Split 'bones on a car like this in that period was uncommon....but not unheard of. I based mine of a period dirt track car......that used Model T ball caps to tie them to the frame :O .....I improved the design a bit Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The car is running hairpins to mount the axle to the frame. Leads me to think the drivetrain has been switched to something other than T and thus the factory mounting for the original wishbone ball is gone. Also would explain him needing to work the shifter from neutral to first to take off. I'm****uming that wouldn't be needed with an aux trans or Ruxtall (sp)? With the original T trans he would simply release the handbrake, adjust the hand throttle and stomp the left pedal. (I think! LoL)
My all time favorite Gow, Bob Cressey's car. Note how the back of the bucket is cut down, hence the term "cut downs", it looks like the film car's been cut down a little too. Cressey was in the Throttlers of Hollywood..
I feel like its not necessarily a bad thing to drop everything I am doing and commit to building a little T gow-job. I'm really happy I opened this thread today.
Here's the Frontenac Catalog for you , featuring Frontenac radius rods for racing. Don't you wish we could go back and order this stuff? Rich... http://www.nwvs.org/Technical/Frontenac1923Catalog.pdf
You are correct, it certainly could be a Ruckstell...with perhaps 3:1 gearing? Would give you the best speed advantage without using a Warford or Chicago.... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Who says t buckets are all glass cars this thing is way cool what happened to your mothers Car would love to see it today
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