Tucker pictures in the Life Image Search Archive

[SuperFleye]

Found a couple of really neat Tucker pictures in the Life Image Search Archive hosted by Google:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life

The archive is definitively worth digging around in. If you find some other cool Tucker photos, feel free to add the to this thread.

[MD]

Excellent pics! Great find - Thanks for posting!

M

[john]

Superfleye,
Hey, really cool picture.
Just goes to show that history changes sometimes and a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words, huh?

Seems that the bodies, in fact, were assembled on the chassis going down the assemebly line.
We were aware of this but did not want to post this fact, thanks for doing it.

Still waiting on a call or correspondence from the Club authorities?
John

[SuperFleye]

After some technical problems, the Life search is up again, and here are some more photos. Hope you all enjoy them.

[SuperFleye]

September 09. 1950

[plancor 792]

Thanks for the photos. Dd you notice any difference in the body in one of the photos. Could this have been the body Alex was working on when the plant closed?
Richard

[plancor 792]

That body shows up in three of those photos. Also note the mecanics working on the engine on one of the cars that there is a Y-1 transmission sitting behind them. Very easy to tell a Y-1 from a Cord unit as those four round solenoids are on the Y-1. The Cord uses two square boxes to cover those solenoids.
Richard

[plancor 792]

One last post. In the second photo we see several rear suspension units with one complete unit, that is trailing arm and brake drum. Note that brake drum. It is of the type that was used on the first 25 Tucker's. It is groved while the later vehicles, that is 26 on had smooth brake drums.
Richard

[plancor 792]

Well, I will add a bit more. I note all of the equipment there. Tucker claimed that they had to go through all of these pieces of machinery to determine what they could use and what they didn't want. That took weeks of inventorying and selecting equipment. From the looks of things they had a really big job on their hands. These photos were made in 1950 and it is possible that this area had equipment stored that Tucker could not use.
Richard

[TuckerCar]

Wow, good eye, Richard. That's a pretty big rear window there...

[Larry Clark]

Richard- your suggestion, resulting from your keen observation, seems quite possible. If so, how exciting. The larger back window in the pictured body looks like an engineering challenge given the level of glass technology in 1948 (the Tucker '48 was already difficult to build given the inability to form the front hood area in one stamping (and the challenge of painting the deep crevices). It would be great to get confirmation from Phil Egan.

Dave Cammack has mounted on a wall in his collection an annotated artist's schematic of the experimental assembly line. It was a really neat set up and did result in the cars we know and treasure. However, this "assembly line" was not capable of mass producing the Tucker '48 in the promised volumes of cars. How close was the company to the real mass production assembly line? I do not know. Given the evidence of the extensive engineering documents in Dave Cammack's collection, they were getting closer when the company began its rather sudden downward spiral in the summer of 1948.

Larry

[Tuckerfan1053]

I showed these pics, along with the photo of Tremulis examing what appears to be a model of a future Tucker design, and a sketch of the Talisman, to a friend who responded with something I'd not noticed before. He pointed out that the rear deck/window design looked an awful lot like that of the early 60s Vettes: http://image.corvettefever.com/f/ba64st ... ette-3.jpg

I'd noticed some similarities to the early 70s Buick Rivieras: http://swaidy.com/images/been%20sold/Picture%20036.jpg

Anybody know if the folks working for Tucker had a hand in those two GM designs?

[SuperFleye]

Richard, at first I didn't notice the bigger rear window... was this a known fact before these pictures were found? Is there any other modifications that you can see on the body?

I noticed that computers with small screens don't show the entire picture, so below are smaller versions of all the pictures, and also a couple of new ones i discovered. I have also added the captions from the LIFE site.



1949 - The new Tucker car slowly rolling next to a company representative out of the factory.





1949 - Mechanic installing the rear engine into a new Tucker car while business men watch.


1949 - The new Tucker car speeding by a group of businessmen inside the factory.



1949 - The machines that produce the parts for the new Tucker car inside the factory.


1949 - The new Tucker car inside the factory, rolling down the production line.


1949 - Parts for the new Tucker car on the floor with a company representative holding company stock.



Tucker Automobile Company accounting records sitting in luggage compartment of handmade model cars.


Preston Tucker (L) taking accounting records from luggage compartment of one of his handmade model cars.

Tucker Auto Plant September 9, 1950:

[Tuckeroo]

That's amazing! Well, there it is. Pictures of a (partial) body with a wrap-around cut for the rear window. I think GM's Bill Mitchell could have been a secret admirer of the Tucker. The 1963-1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe (retroactively dubbed "C2") had a tapered fastback roof with doors curving into it, ditto the generation of Buick Riviera that was introduced in 1971 (though with conventional doors).

[Ace Barker]

Does that body still exist?

Ace...