BY PAT GANAHL  STREET RODDER/MAY 1976

For the first time, here’s the inside story on the four cars that made the movie.

Central casting got this one exactly right.  The four leading roles for the film American Graffiti  couldn’t have been typecast more precisely.  Any fenderless chopped ’32 five-window, a black ’55 Chevy with radiused rear wheel wells, a white ’58 Impala on a big rake, and a maroon ’51 Merc with a slit-window chopped top.  Sure, just about everything else in the film – even the actors – were period-perfect, but street rodders agree that the cars were the stars.  That’s why they go back again, and again, trying to catch another glimpse or spot another detail on one of their favorite performers.

It’s taken us several months to track them down, but we finally found each of the Graffiti cars.  And we got them to hold still in broad daylight to show what’s underneath their “makeup.”  For the hundreds who have written us asking for more details on these cars, consider it a command performance.

The story behind the mean Five-Five (or should I say, five-five’s) is by far the most interesting, but I’ll get to that in a moment.  The yellow chopped deuce is the No. 1 machine which has turned more people on to street rodding in the last few years than any other car we can think of.  The exact history of the car is nebulous, but Graffiti producer Gary Kurts picked it from a lineup of six or seven coupes he located before filming.  They paid $1300 for the ’32, and he chose it primarily because it already had a chopped top.  The car was full-fendered when they got it, and had a Chevy engine and the black tuck and roll upholstery.  The car, however, wasn’t in the greatest shape.

Henry Travers, a resident of Sonoma, California, (near Petaluma, where the movie was filmed), is a supplier of specialty cars for the “traffic” department of Universal Studios.  He was in charge of preparing the cars for “Graffiti” and oversaw the rebuilding of most of them.  The ’32 was taken to Johnny Franklin’s shop in Santa Rosa, where the entire front end was rebuilt and chrome plated and a special set of headers was built.  The fenders were removed (the rears bobbed), the grille sectioned, and then the car was stripped and repainted with several coats of Canary Yellow lacquer.  Mechanically, the only changes were the addition of T-10 four speed and a Man-A-Fre four two-barrel intake.  The 283 is all stock inside and the drive train terminates in a ’55 Chevy rear end mounted to the stock spring.  The car was built to look good in filming, and anything that wouldn’t show was left as-is.  After the film was made, but before it was released, the coupe was advertised for sale at $1500 and there were no takers.  Now the yellow Duece is one of the most sought-after rods in the country, but it is sitting forlornly in the shed at Universal Studios, awaiting a final decision from “higher ups” for release to be sold.

The white ’58 Chevy Impala was also located by Kurtz in the Los Angeles area.  As a matter of fact, he saw it driving down the street, stopped the owner, and asked if he could purchase it for the film.  The thing that attracted Gary was its complete tuck and roll interior.  “You might see the film several times and never notice that the car has tuck and roll in it, “ said Gary afterwards, “But it had to have tuck and roll.”

Henry Travers sent the Impala down to Close and Orlandi’s body shop in San Rafael, where it got a quick appliance white paint job and some red “fogged” accents around body lines.  Six ’59 Caddy bullets taillight lenses were glued onto the stock lights, and a set of chrome wheels were added.  During filming, the ’58 was powered by a stock 348 and a tree speed standard trans.

As soon as the shooting for the movie was completed, all the cars were advertised for sale in a local (Northern California) newspaper.  Other than the ’58 Edsel (driven by Cindy Williams), the only car that sold was the Impala.  The price?  A cool two hundred bucks!  Remember, the film had not been released yet – nobody knew whether it would be a success or not – and the cars were built only with film- making in mind (and during filming they all got sort of beat-up).  The lucky guy who bought the ’58 is Mike Famalette of Vallejo, California.  He is currently serving in the Marine Corps, but he bought the car (his first).  A few months after he got it American Graffiti came to town and Mike and some buddies really shook up the crowd by cruising the theater a few times just as the show let out.  Imagine!

Mike and his brother Jose have done quite a bit of work on the car since they got it.  The 348 was sick and the trans improperly installed, so they will later be re-installed along with an original tri-power set-up.  Mike intends to completely cherry out the car, keeping its appearance identical to that in the movie, and perhaps put it on the show circuit.  And don’t ask – he has no intention to sell it.

The ’51 Mercury can be seen daily on the tours at Universal Studios at Universal City.  Don’t expect too much, though, for this car is strictly a movie prop.  Henry Travers found it in the spectators’ lot at a stock car track near Sonoma in completely original form – right down to the wheelcovers and whitewalls.  After purchase it, too, was delivered to Close and Orlandi’s where it was immediately transformed into a custom.  The top chop actually isn’t bad for a “quickie.”  Other custom touches included shaving the hood, trunk, and doors, frenching the headlights, and creating a one-bar grille – all within a couple weeks.  The engine and drive train were left stock, and the last I heard the car was not running.

That cowboys’s ’55 Chevy is a different case, however; and both the car and the story of its construction took the longest to track down.  The actual ’55 that was used in most of the “Graffiti” filming sat in Henry Travers’ yard for over a year after the movie was released.  A few months ago, however, it was purchased by Sam Crawford of Dixon, California, and that’s where I finally got some photos of it.  At the time of this writing Sam had the car up for sale, however, and I would imagine it sold quickly.

I had seen the car in the film Two Lane Blacktop, so I had some idea what was under that glass tilt front end.  Having already seen the other movie cars, however, I didn’t really expect what I found.  The car wasn’t in the greatest shape, admittedly.  It had seen plenty of use in two motion pictures.  But it was immediately apparent that this car had been professionally built by someone who knew drag cars and who took pride in his work.

Let’s go back to the beginning.  About five years ago Gary Kurtz, co-producer of American Graffiti, was getting ready to film a movie about a piar of So. Cal. Street racers who take off on an “Easy Rider” type trip across the country in their hot ’55 Chevy.  Obviously, he needed a car for the role and he was put in touch with Richard Ruth who operated Competition Engineering in Sunland, California, at the time.  Richard was running a similar ’56 Chevy on the street then, so he took Gary up to Van Nuys Boulevard a couple nights to show him what street racing was really like.  Gary was obviously impressed.  He ordered three ’55 Chevies.

You might not be familiar with Richard Ruth’s name, but if you follow drag racing you undoubtedly know Ed Sigmon’s and “Frantic Fred”Badberg’s beautiful A Street Roadsters.  These cars both came out of Competition Engineering.

Richard never built a car for the movies, however.  He didn’t realize that the effect is more important than the fact.  The studio had told him to build a pair of cars just like his own…so he did.  They were by no means “props.”  Richard told me later that if he had known what was going to happen to the cars during filming he probably wouldn’t have built then so well.

The studio wanted two identical cars because they were going to be travelling across the country and wanted a ready “back-up” in case one broke down.  The third car was built for a crash scene that was originally written into the script, but which was never used in the “Blacktop” film.

Each of the three cars was outfitted with a 454 open-chamber head (L-88) Chevy ratmotor, supplied to Ruth by the studio.  The cars themselves all started out as stockers, but Richard extensively rebuilt each.

The two “lead” cars were fitted with hand-made square-tube front frame rails, along with a tube-axle suspended on Koni coil-over shocks.  The Ruth-built axle mounts Chevy spindles with Airheart disc brakes.  You will also notice in the photos that the firewall has been carefully reworked and smoothed, with a large indentation for the tunnel-ram dual Holley manifold that sat on the engine for the “Blacktop” film.  Other than the carburetion and Richard’s hand-built headers, the engines were basically stock (but with all the hot ‘Vette goodies).  A Schiefer clutch connects to a Muncie M-22 four speed with Hurst shifter, and then to a Pontiac rear end with a posi center section, Henry’s axles, and Airheart disc brakes.  Richard also added a hefty crossmember at the rear with ladder bars to handle the torque; up front he used four-bar radius rods.  You’re beginning to see that this car and its twin were built for business!

Ruth also performed the body changes, including neatly radiused rear wheel wells, tilt fiberglass hood, ‘glass trunk lid, and working fiberglass doors with sliding plexiglass windows.  Inside was a competition roll bar and a pair of light bucket seats.  He finished the cars off with a powder blue (like stock) lacquer paint and American flat-spoke mags.  If you saw “Blacktop,” however, you know the movie people painted the cars grey primer (‘cause hot rods are supposed to be grey primer).

The stunt car was reworked to look just like the other two on the outside, but remained much more stock underneath.  A ratmotor was installed for needed power, and a special Pontiac rear was set up with “steering” brakes for trick maneuvers.  The biggest change was a complete NASCAR roll cage inside, so that the stunt man could live through roll-overs.

“Blacktop” was a low-budget film that made its money but received little acclaim.  When Gary Kurtz needed a hot ’55 Chevy for his next film, American Graffiti, however, he didn’t have to look far.  According to Ruth, the two lead cars really got trashed during the Blacktop filming, and he conjectures that parts from the two were used to make the one good car for Graffiti.  The stunt car came in very handy for the crash scene at the end of the film.

Since ratmotors weren’t around in ’62 the hood was kept shut during filming.  The tunnel ram was swapped for a single 780 Holley on a ‘Vette manifold, and a scoop was molded into the hood.  The mag wheels and wide tires were replaced by chrome wheels, and a stock bench seat went inside with a tarp over rear.  Finally, a bumper was bolted back on the front, and the cars were treated to $29.95 type black enamel paint jobs.  The tube-axle car was used for the majority of the filming, while the stunt car was used for the roll-over drag race scene.  The one that went up in smoke, however, was a junker from a wrecking yard.  Henry mentioned that the rolled car (with the roll cage) is now competing on the dirt track as a stocker, while its 454 went into a 4-wheel-drive hillclimber.

There you have it – the real story behind the American Graffiti star performers.  As you can see, what appears on the screen is usually make-believe.  By the way, if any of you are still making bets as to which car really would have won that drag race… Richard Ruth told me that just before he turned the ‘55’s over to the studio he took one up to Van Nuys Blvd., “Just to see what the reaction would be.”  He says he earned $150 with it that night, and later timed it at the strip at 10.90 and 127 mph.  Not much question which was the faster car; but then there’s also no question that the little Deuce coupe was the real star of American Graffiti.

WITH SOME HOME-MADE TOOLS AND A LITTLE PATIENCE YOU CAN REPAIR THIS PRECIOUS METAL

BY FRANK ODDO – STREET RODDER/MAY 1976

Thanks to an English metallurgist by the name of Brearley, who in 1916 patented a cutlery steel containing 0.70% carbon and 16% chromium, the automotive world gained a metal that for all practical purposes is forever.

It’s true.  Stainless steel alloys resist attack from atmospheric corrosion, organic solutions, hot or cold acids and scaling at elevated temperatures.  That’s why so many pieces of exterior body trim were stamped from the external metal back in the days when automobile manufacturing was a craft and not a copout.  Alas ,the classics are a thing of the past, and now that costs are prohibitive, painted plastics have taken the place of the beautiful rustless alloys.

Unfortunately thought, even stainless will accumulate a lot of dimples and dents during 30 to 50 years of exposure to road hazards.  But hold on, here’s some good news.  Stainless automotive trim can be worked cold like mild steel…even with the simplest of hand tools as Phil King demonstrated for us a few weeks back.

So don’t so spending big bucks for a new pair of headlights rims or side trim.  At least not until you’ve tried your hand at repairing those items you already have.

1.       Picking and dinging hammers are useful for bumping out small dents and imperfections.  But maybe you won’t be doing very much – so make your own out of a broken screwdriver blade and a pair of Vise Grips.  Both a blunt and a sharp point is desirable.  Any smooth chunk of metal, aluminum or harder, will serve as a general  purpose dolly.

2.       The trick to this kind of metal work is to always know where your high and low spots are.  And for that you will need a “guide coat.”  Just spray a little primer inside and out.

3.        …and lightly sand it off with 320 wet – or –dry paper.

4.       Once the exact parameters of the dents are located you can proceed to “pick” them out.  Work from the inside out.

5.       Use the blunt end until you bring the dents down to several smaller ones, then pick in the specific spots.  Hit the dent right on the high spot with no more force than the weight of the tool affords.

6.       Don’t spend too much time on a dent without shooting another guide coat.  It makes it easier to see what you are getting accomplished.  Thin stainless “works” easily, but it is more prone to cracking if you pound it too much.  (And it doesn’t take heat well.)

7.       Sears, and most hardware stores, carry inexpensive buffing wheels  and polishing compounds.  White rouge works nicely on stainless steel and brings it to a bright luster.  Do not apply too much rouge to wheel…

8.       …nor too much pressure on the piece.  If you do, when the wheel  gets hot, the rouge will stick to it and make a gummy mess.

9.       But hey, with a little patience (which is easy when you enjoy what you are doing ), you can often bring back a piece of stainless trim you might have thought was a lost cause.