New LIFE pix from February 1949

[streamliner]

Check out all the new Tucker photos on the LIFE website. There appears to be about two dozen more from the February 3, 1949 dealer meeting at what I presume is the Tucker plant. Interesting details can be found in the backgrounds on each photo. It also includes the complete series on the quick-change engine swap. I think that's the basement "lunchroom" converted into the presentation room in the first pic... Does anyone know for sure? Here's a sample:







I wouldn't be surprised if it was at this meeting that Jim Gaylord visited Alex Tremulis at the plant (overcoats... cold weather...early in the year, probably not in the fall of 1949). During Gaylord's visit, #1027 is in near the exact location as the Tucker in the upper left-hand corner in the third LIFE photo, but it's hard to tell if that is #1027 in the LIFE photo...

[Tuckerfan1053]

Can you post a link to where you found the photos there? I've been poking around on the site and have only found a grand total of two pictures.

[streamliner]

What I've found works best is to save the link below in "Favorites", and then search for your key words. You'll find that it's sometimes hard to get back to the original search page...

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Then search "tucker auto", "tucker car", or "automan"...

[Tuckerfan1053]

Ah, thanks.

I wonder who this fellow is?

[streamliner]

That photo looks like either a self-portrait... or a meeting with one of Otto Kerner's insider "spies".

Larry, There's a photo with 7 bodies on frames lined up on the assembly line in February 1949 (probably Feb. 3, the date of the dealer's meeting). According to your research, it looks like 1035, 1036, and 1037 were completed the week of October 24, 1948, and cars 1045 and 1046 were completed November 11, 1948. Plant operations were suspended on November 23, 1948. Do you know which numbered cars were completed and their dates following the operations suspension? The original 49 cars were all completed just 4 weeks after the following photo was taken:





Is it possible that these are #'s 51 through 58, minus #57 in the styling studio (getting the '49 model redesign)? These don't even look like an attempt is being made to finish them.

Or could the volunteers have completed these 7 cars in 4 weeks?

[Tucker Fan 48]

minus #57 in the styling studio (getting the '49 model redesign)?

Seems to me that 8 year old Al Reinert would have had #57 already tucked away in his parents garage by this time

[Tucker Fan 48]

This appears to be a #400 paint code car. So is it #1008 or #1011? #1018 was already in PA. by the time this was taken.

Tucker records.jpg (45.66 KiB) Viewed 3280 times

[MrOldie]

Here are direct links:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tucke ... rce%3Alife

http://images.google.com/images?q=tucke ... rce%3Alife

Enjoy

[Prototype]

The photo with the 7 body shells is not one I have seen before. It is not in the links of the life images from Google. As you can see, the other 6 bodies in front of the one with the ceiling mounted spot welding guns around it appear to have the finish lead work done and are on their way to paint, with the 7th one still getting some spot welding completed, as can be seen by the unfinished parting line where the roof meets the rear quarter. This would have been filled with lead and filed smooth. This techniqued was used into the early to late 1970's by almost all OEM's. I can't say for sure, but these photos could very well have been taken before or after a shift, owing to the lack of people in the shots. These photos are very fascinating to see. I find it hard to believe that with the vast undertaking that Tucker was trying to accomplish, that there are not more photos documenting the endeavor. He did have both clay models destroyed while still in the development stage for unknown reasons, much to the bewilderment of many involved. Hopefully someone will stumble upon a stash of photos in their attic or something and we will be treated to yet more rare photos of this iconic man and machine...Until then, we can only look in awe and wonder what could have been, had he succeded!!

[streamliner]

Prototype on Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:06 pm

I can't say for sure, but these photos could very well have been taken before or after a shift, owing to the lack of people in the shots.

November 23, 1948: Plant operations were suspended.

November 26, 1948: 300 employees were released. Plant Closed.

January 7, 1949: Plant ordered shutdown and salaries stopped.

February 1949: These photos were taken (probably) at the dealers meeting on February 3, 1949.

February 18, 1949: Preston Tucker offers to resign.

March 3, 1949: Preston Tucker stripped of all authority.

At the time of these photos, there were no shifts, no lunch whistle, no end-of-shift traffic jams... only the few remaining volunteers working on their own time. I would think that these bodies were most likely sitting in this spot for several weeks, at least since the earlier shutdown(s). I would also have to think that the volunteers were more concentrated on finishing the other cars (#'s 38 through 50(?)), before welding up new bodies. But I don't know for sure...

That's why the meeting looks more like a wake than a sales meeting. Even Preston Tucker, the eternal optimist, couldn't conjure up a smile. It's a sad group of photos that captured the spirit of the meeting and the very last of the end-of-the-line for Tucker, both the Corporation and the Man.

[Prototype]

Streamliner- Thanks for the info. This board would not be what it is, if it weren't for fine gentleman like yourself to set things straight with facts, not speculation! Again Thank You! Like I stated before, I was not sure when the photos were taken, but they are still pretty awesome, nonetheless. It can and has been argued about how serious he actually was about ramping up for full scale production or if he was trying to pull off an incredible fraud. All of us here know that he was not a fraud, but very serious about taking on the competition and being very successful if given the chance. He tried very hard, but we all know what happened, so there is no reason to rehash the whole story here. But, like I have said before, for someone who was a supposed fraud, he was very much setting up the massive facility to carry out his dream of building the best car ever made at that time(It still is). I say that because to convert a building like the Cicero Ave. plant that once made Wright Cyclone engines and related parts, to a functioning and producing automobile plant was quite a feat in itself. It was no small untertaking to inventory, test and set up the machine tools he would be able to utilize and the ones he could not. I would venture to guess Tucker would have had no problem producing in excess of 1200 cars per day if everything had fallen into place like he planned. With the shear size of the facility, the sky was the limit as to what could be done in such an enormous building just full of equipment that they would have found new uses for everyday. According to Philip Egan, designing and fabricating small and/or generic parts was discouraged while building the first 50 pilot cars, but I'm sure as things progressed, more and more parts would have indeed been built in-house as cost cutting and profit margins warranted. Unlike now with OEM's outsourcing parts to keep production costs down, companies back then, like Ford and GM, prefered to build their own parts in-house. For example Ford's River rouge plant was totally self sufficient with only raw materials coming in and completed cars ready for sale going out. With an Assembly plant like the Chicago facility at Tucker's disposal, who knows what he would have become..........

[streamliner]

Take a look at the final photo of the car being driven away following the engine swap:



There appears this woman at the front of the car:



She bears a strong resemblance to Audrey Moore Hodges, the interior designer of the Tucker. Here she is at Studebaker in 1947:



I would presume that attendees at the meeting would have signed in upon arrival. Does anyone have a copy of that registry?

[Tucker Fan 48]

Looking at this picture, is that bodies #1051, #1052, #1053, #1054, #1055, #1056, and then after a big space in the line #1058?
We know from the inventory list of 3/3/49 that at the time this picture was taken (just a couples weeks prior) that the first 50 cars
were all nearly complete. Since the plant operations were suspended, the plant was closed, and ordered to be shutdown prior to this
picture, it seems that this picture would represent the only other bodies known to exist.

Where is body #1057?

Why is there a space in the line where #1057 would be?

Life6.jpg (108.92 KiB) Viewed 3013 times

[Tucker Fan 48]

November 23, 1948: Plant operations were suspended.

November 26, 1948: 300 employees were released. Plant Closed.

January 7, 1949: Plant ordered shutdown and salaries stopped.

Does anyone else find it interesting that plant operations were suspended, then the plant was closed,
and then the plant was ordered to be shutdown? How many different ways did they need to say it was
closed? Didn't the employees take the hint? I've read stories that workers came in and finished cars on
their own time. How does that happen?

February 18, 1949: Preston Tucker offers to resign.

March 3, 1949: Preston Tucker stripped of all authority.

At the time of the trial. Preston brought cars to the courthouse but supposedly the government had
seized the plant and the assets. How was everyone getting into the plant? Didn't anyone ever change
the locks?????

[streamliner]

I'm strongly leaning towards the opinion that as of February 3, 1949, all 58 bodies and frames are accounted for, thanks to the LIFE photographers.

You've got the first 50 cars in various stages of assembly being worked on by the volunteers. These cars are all accounted for. You've got the above photos of what is most likely bodies/frames 51 through 58 (minus #57), and then you've got the photos of #57 as accurately described by Alex Tremulis, still sitting in the styling department. I think it would be highly unlikely that Tremulis was working on cutting the big rear window and modifying the front fenders on one of these 7 cars after this photo was taken... So, for a body/frame to be removed from the plant after this photo was taken, it would have had to have been one of these 7 that you are looking at. As far as I know, these 7 were all auctioned off in the 1950 company auction.

Am I correct?

Anyone have any information as to the whereabouts of #'s 51 through 58 at the auction???

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?