Archive - Work in Progress

[John Dore]

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[john]

Ahhh, Mr John Dore

What a good question and their is an answer.

Just to clear the air;
I and some associates are what is refered to as ""others"" in the articles being presented on #57.
We are the ones that received our deposit back and mutually voided our purchase contract to walk away from #57 !!!!!
Did wish to clarify this with the Club.

We do truly appreciate all of the assistance the members of the club provided for our
in-depth research of #57.
We are truly sorry that we raised a few tempers while doing our research, it was our only avenue to gain necasary information to combine with our several hundred hours of other side research.
We have been approached by a few national sources regarding an article about our research and findings, we are sure that it will be divulged in the future.
Posting here would take many many pages, we will keep all informed at the Club "before" anything hits.
John

[John Dore]

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[john]

John,
There is no possible way to brief the story.

All it would do is create questions that would require all other parts of the story to go with it.
Do hope that we answered your question.
John

[Tucker Fan 48]

It is interesting following the discussions both here and many places on the internet about the "convertible". After spending several hours reading verious postings it soon becomes apparent that there was no "convertible" started at the Tucker plant. In an interview with Old Cars Weekly, Allen Reinert himself said when he acquired the car it was basically a frame with a cowl tack-welded in place, two front doors and two rear quarter panels. “It had no motor, no transmission, no steering, no tires or wheels. No nothing. After I found the car I started scrounging parts.” Reinert said he began networking in Chicago, Milwaukee and elsewhere and eventually purchased a big stash of parts from an Illinois collector. He said the parts had once been part of an October 1950 auction. “I bought everything he had, and with that, I was able to get the car as far as a I did. But I still couldn’t afford the $50, $60, $70 dollars an hour (at a restoration shop) when it came down to it (completing the car). I’ve had it for over 25 years, and I stopped working on it a good 7-8 years ago. I’m 68 years old, I’ve got diabetes, and I just decided that I can’t work on it anymore.”

I also found postings that Alex Tremulis had been working on a prototype for a wraparound rear window car and that they had cut the roof off of a body that he believed was # 57 to begin working on the project shortly before the plant closed.

Once you begin to put all these bits of information together the puzzle starts to come together. Just making a personal guess here after a lot of reading is that the "convertible" is the remains of the wraparound rear window car started by Alex Tremulis. With no roof, someone, years ago, came up with an idea to make it a convertible. Over the 35 years between the close of the Tucker plant and it's purchase by Mr. Reinert the cars background was lost. What is known is that when Mr. Reinert purchased the vehicle it was far from being a complete car. Mr. Reinert himself says it was two doors, two quarter panels, a frame, and a cowl that was tack-welded in place. Hardly a "convertible" prototype.

While it is exciting to see the car come together in a "what might have been" form, It seems that Benchmark Classics is misleading people about the true facts behind the car. No where on their site or in their press releases do they mention the condition it was in when Mr. Reinert acquired the car and that most of the parts on the car were parts Mr. Reinert bought from an Illinois collector. They seem to want people to believe the car was somewhat more complete and that it only needed to be "finished" from where the Tucker people left off,when in reality most off the car is made up of parts collected by Mr. Reinert or new parts being fabricated by Benchmark Classics.

The parts collected by Mr. Reinert are real Tucker parts and I personally believe that the pieces of the body and most likely the frame were built at the Tucker plant. Once the car is completed, it'll be made out of 60-70% real Tucker parts. I just don't believe that makes it a real Tucker "convertible" or that a cowl and a couple of body panels make up a "prototype". That's just my opinion of course and maybe there is a collector out there that won't care about the history of the car and be willing to pay several million for it. After all, it'll still look like a Tucker and you won't see any other convertibles around.

[TUCKER]

You shure did your homework. You got an "A+":) I have also heard the same story and seen many photos of the car being put together from a frame and when he got the motor in the original wooden box and lots more. There are also photos of the frame being welded together or being made.

[TuckerCar]

Here's the latest installment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmzdamKcMHw

Interesting that he references Tucker Topics when the Club does not support his claims of the car's legitimacy.

[john]

Tucker,
We are wondering about the pictures displaying the frame of 57 being made or fabricated.

Is this heresay or do the pictures exist?

John Dore and numerous others, Please go to the post herein regarding the "mystery tucker picture".

As the ones that "were" purchasing #57, we posted this picture for our research.
It is the claimed picture by the previous owner of how he purchased #57 in the early 70's.

Problems abound though, as #57 was sold at the Federal auction and #57 was later then spotted at Ezra's as posted herein the forum pages, those facts posted in the forums here are quite substantial but yet create further problems!!!

Taking the above into accord, This really muddies the water further Tucker fan 48 and John Dore, as the story goes that the previous owner stated and benchmark publicly stated that #57 ""was hidden away."""


The picture posted regarding the "special" tucker with the big back window, >>one can gather and assume from previous posts herein that this was #57 Alex was working on.
What happened to this big back window car, let alone the special fenders it was to have?
Quite aggravating and mind baffling,"huh."

Sooooo, how does one explain the above ????????
Please study the two photographs mentioned and then post what problems you see between them!!!!!!!
It appears #57 is surrounded in controversy & heresay, let alone, nothing makes any sense whatsoever!!!!

This is why we have not posted a briefed story, it can not be explained away without the whole entire story being told, many many pages.
We walked away from #57 for numerous serious reasons, the above is a small part of it.
John

[john]

We just posted under" Tucker on ebay referencing this picture.
Please read that post and then compare this picture to the one picture displaying the Tucker with the big back window posted herein.

We do look forward to reading what everyone see's.
John

[TUCKER]

Here are some photos of the frame and next to the photos it read that it was made of 10ga channel instead of 18 and reinforced by "Yeuki Eng" with a tube in the channel. If anyone have better photos I shure will love to see them. Also photo of top being instaled from an old Cadillac mounted over blocks of wood.

[john]

The one Photo looks like one the previous owner of took of #57 that we have, the one with the block of wood.
Can't tell to much about the other 2 photos even though the one does look to be another one that we have from the previous owner of #57, which he took also.
Please correct us if we are wrong, !!

Its was Joseph Lenki Engineering, not unki or whatever was posted.
John

[TuckerCar]

Seems mighty odd that they put the guage cluster in before the top, or the doors, or the rear clip...

[Tucker Fan 48]

I went back and reviewed some of my research and found my copy of The Indomitable Tin Goose by Charles Pearson. On page 99, Alex Tremulis stated that he was working on body # 57 when the plant shut down. He said "We were changing the rear window to a full wrap around and had already starting cutting the openings for the (1949 model year) re-style job." I also read elsewhere about some cutting done on a set of front fenders. This would explain the extensive work done on the fenders by Benckmark. John Tucker Sr. has been quoted in many posts as saying they cut the top off of one of the bodies.

It certainly seems like this is the body that Benchmark Classics now claims to be a "convertible prototype". As I said before, it's great that the body is finally being made into a complete car but trying to mislead people about it being a "convertible prototype" is just wrong. Benchmark is simply assembling a lot of parts that were left over at the close of the plant and trying to pass it off as something the Tucker Automotive had commissioned.

[NailheadRocketman]

I dont know if anyone has seen this video yet or not, if so, then this is just a repost about the convertible

From Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmzdamKcMHw

[TUCKER]

Here is the photo of 1057 again