Lee 1 and its new owner

[ChgrSteve67]

If this has been posted already....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5_30wv5h0s

[Bob]

Cool.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

x2

[Chris G.]

After watching that, I don't think Bubba had any clue what truly happened to Lee1. 

[tan top]

 

[68X426]

I chuckled when the interviewer went to exit the Lee and out of habit reached for the door handle. Then realized "oh yeah, I gots to climb out the window".

[69 OUR/TEA]

I thought the car was alot nicer than it is,the body/paint look decent and I know they restored it to pre-jump condition,is it just me,cause that car looks cruddy?

[CharcoalCharger]

This is kinda old news.  I follow golf and am a fan of Bubba, so I heard about it back in Jan. when he bought the car.  I didn't think he really bought Lee 1 because as 69 OUR/TEA posted, I thought the car was restored to pristine condition.  Bubba said it needed some work when he bought it, but he was still going to take it to the Waste Management Tourn in Phoenix (which he did).  I wonder why it was put up on the market.  Either way, it is cool that someone like Bubba got it.  Bubba also had the car with him when he was on Feherty.  It would be cool if he would show up at Carlisle with it.  I'd like to see the car again and meet him. 

[Cooter]

  I wonder why it was put up on the market. 

The car is a roach and was cobbled from another car. The REAL "Lee 1" was cut up into pieces and sold off by that guy from Indiana. If this is old news, then the back stroy is REALLY old news. MANY threads have gone crazy because of this car and the controversy surrounding it.

[ChgrSteve67]

I just thought the interview between the two was entertaining.

Like this one with CE and some Ford engineers that are not exactly car enthusiasts or NASCAR fans.

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

[DC_1]

Its cool that Bubba bought the car and the interview was pretty good, but to be honest that cat looked pretty disappointing. Since it was wrecked and needed so much work they should have restored it to show car condition not pre-jump stunt car condition IMO......A stunt car only needs to look good from 50 feet on camera. Since this car needed so much work, replacement metal and parts i would have prefered it to have been brought up to the level of what the car portrayed and not what it actually was. Again just my  

[moparstuart]

its a re-body 

[Back N Black]

Wow! i think Bubba paid $108,000 too much.

[jaak]

I thought the car was alot nicer than it is,the body/paint look decent and I know they restored it to pre-jump condition,is it just me,cause that car looks cruddy?

I think that was the intent of the restore (...or rebody), not to "restore" it to showcar or showroom condition, but to make it look like it did in '78, a 10 year old car with a crappy orange acrylic enamel paint job. Its an interesting car to talk about, but I agree with other posts, essentially this is "Lee1's VIN-Firewall-Windsheild", not Lee1.

I think this selling on Barrett Jackson shows that folks do there homework and read stuff like this on the net. I really think the seller and BJ thought this car was gonna bring a lot more than it did, but bidders were aware of what happened when this car was restored..errr...rebodied. The original roof, roll cage (and other stuff I'm sure) was sold off to collectors for a profit, and some parts were put on Travis Bell's own GL clone.

Jason

[Indygenerallee]

He got the shaft..... 

[Mike DC]

 
There are hundreds of GL replicas and the vast majority of them are way nicer than the prop-cars ever were. 

What makes the TV prop cars interesting is seeing the battle scars.  Or at least seeing how it looked on-camera, and the differences between that versus how a replica gets built today.

[69 OUR/TEA]

I thought they pulled/straightened the frame,replaced some sheetmetal,etc, and that it "is" the same car from the first jump,AKA, Lee #1???

[Cooter]

I thought they pulled/straightened the frame,replaced some sheetmetal,etc, and that it "is" the same car from the first jump,AKA, Lee #1???

Um, .......Nope...Total Rebody...

[404NOTFOUND]

That's a lot of money for a firewall and a cracked windshield. If he sits on top of the door with his hands on the roof to pose for a picture, he still is not touching Lee 1.

[Cooter]

Everybody has a different idea on what's a "Rebody" and what's "Saving the original" car. From the DVD....

Don't know bout you guys, but this looks like the entire roof was cut off at some point. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck......
Pics from CGLFC.com with respect to OP.

NO Roll cage in car (Lee 1?)


Welding in NEW!? Roll cage ..

[Indygenerallee]

Trav(ass) Bell took the original roll cage out, cut the original roof off and scavenged the rest of the parts (cluster, etc.) before selling it, It's a total rebody! But it looks like Bubba has cash and he really wanted it, so be it.

[Cooter]

Exactly, Bubba is content believeing it is Lee 1 so he has the cash, the rest don't matter IMO.

[Troy]

Looks like less work than what a lot of guys here are doing. No matter, the general public doesn't know and probably doesn't care. It's really only important to a select few. No matter how you spin it, the "bones" of the car are original so, technically, it's the only one that can be claimed to be Lee #1. That's more than a lot of other famous cars can say (the number of fakes in museums can be staggering). It does look pretty crappy (and I've seen it in person) - but the idea was to make it look like it did on the show (for all of 1.5 episodes or something).

Troy

[Mike DC]

  
That pic above is misleading.  That was probably taken when the original roof skin was being removed (for selling off).  



The front subframe/clip of the new car is original.  

It's been my understanding that the rear 2/3rds of the unibody are all one huge piece of a donor unibody.  Cut at the A-pillars.  The donor car contributed a much larger single piece of intact unibody than LEE#1 did.  

[Troy]

Agree, but the same could be said for a lot of cars. I think the argument is that it didn't have to be that way. But again, no one cares. I bet there may be 50-100 people in the whole world who are really bent out of shape about it. It's still more Lee #1 than any other car. In the end, the opinion of the person with the most cash is all that matters (and I was told as much by the guy who paid to have it resurrected).

Troy

[Aero426]

Like George Washington's axe,  the head has been changed twice and the handle three times.   But it's still George Washington's axe.

[aussiemuscle]

Agree, but the same could be said for a lot of cars. I think the argument is that it didn't have to be that way. But again, no one cares. I bet there may be 50-100 people in the whole world who are really bent out of shape about it. It's still more Lee #1 than any other car. In the end, the opinion of the person with the most cash is all that matters (and I was told as much by the guy who paid to have it resurrected).

Troy

plus given how much of lee#1 was left when they rediscovered it, it's probably as much as could have been saved anyway. 

[TUFCAT]

Does anybody think Bubba Watson cares what a unibody is?  

[bill440rt]

Does anybody think Bubba Watson cares what a unibody is?  

From the video it looks like he's just happy because it's orange & plays Dixie. 

[Mike DC]

  
There are lots of vintage old things that a lot of people might like to see and only 50-100 people would really care if it was swapped with a clone.  That doesn't make it okay.


LEE#1 doesn't have a tainted name because it took so much parts-swapping to recreate it.  It has a tainted name because it could have been wearing 3x as much of the original parts, but instead that stuff was hacked off & sold.  

It's one thing to restore/recreate what remains of a HemiCuda.  It's another thing to sell off the HemiCuda in pieces and then put the VIN onto 70% of another single car.

[DC_1]

Lets face it, for some it is less about history and heritage and more about profit.  

[Dino]

 
There are lots of vintage old things that a lot of people might like to see and only 50-100 people would really care if it was swapped with a clone.  That doesn't make it okay.


LEE#1 doesn't have a tainted name because it took so much parts-swapping to recreate it.  It has a tainted name because it could have been wearing 3x as much of the original parts, but instead that stuff was hacked off & sold.  

It's one thing to restore/recreate what remains of a HemiCuda.  It's another thing to sell off the HemiCuda in pieces and then put the VIN onto 70% of another single car.

I totally agree.  If all that was left of the car was the front clip then nobody would be making such noise about it.  The fact that there was more that could have been saved but was instead sold off for profit is what makes this a crime. 

[Tilar]

 
LEE#1 doesn't have a tainted name because it took so much parts-swapping to recreate it.  It has a tainted name because it could have been wearing 3x as much of the original parts, but instead that stuff was hacked off & sold.  

[moparstuart]

Does anybody think Bubba Watson cares what a unibody is?  

he thinks its the original number matching 383 motor in it   

[DC_1]

he thinks its the original number matching 383 motor in it    

Well duh!.....that's because it is. 3- 8 -3 matches the number! .......

Seriously though, I have mixed feelings about the car. I am happy that Bubba, who seems like a decent guy, bought something many could only dream of getting a chance to drive - let alone own! I mean I'm not a GL fan but it would be very cool to be able to lay claim to owning the actual General Lee (or at least more of it than any other car can claim to be). On the other hand since so much original to the car from the show is not there, and the only people who would enjoy seeing it in the movie car state would be the Mopar / GL purist, IMO it may as well have been restored to show car condition. From what has been reported, the car is a carved up Charger wearing the Lee1 VIN tag, firwall and glass. Therefore, I think that it would be more appealing to those causal automotive enthusiast and movie buffs who are going to see the car in person, if the car were in prestine condition and respresented what it portrayed in the show. Not what it actually was - a cheap slapped together stunt car. Its like the Fast and Furious Charger, when I saw the vid of it rolling off the trailer and them popping the hood with the fake blower to reveal the 350 Chevy motor, the magic is lost for me  

[TUFCAT]

I remember watching hair-plugged sunglassed tool Steve Davis stop the bidding at least three times to make additional comments about the car and how everyone was "missing a great opportunity"...(Barrett-Jackson speak for "everyone is stupid for not bidding"). 

The car also had its own "featured segment" that ran many times during each day's broadcast. I'm sure they thought it would bring big money.

I guess too many bidders knew the back story. I have to be honest, I'm not sure of what's original and what's not because I never followed "Lee 1" myself.   

[Mike DC]

Therefore, I think that it would be more appealing to those causal automotive enthusiast and movie buffs who are going to see the car in person, if the car were in prestine condition and respresented what it portrayed in the show. Not what it actually was - a cheap slapped together stunt car. Its like the Fast and Furious Charger, when I saw the vid of it rolling off the trailer and them popping the hood with the fake blower to reveal the 350 Chevy motor, the magic is lost for me

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"  I guess.


Take two Hemi cars.  One is an auto-tranny survivor with original everything and faded green paint.  The other is a gorgeous over-restored red 4spd car, but it's a clone that is only moderately accurate.

If you're not really into old musclecars, the latter red clone will be what you want to see.  But for the guys that really know Hemi cars, and have already seen dozens of over-restored bright colored clones in their lifetimes .  .  .
   

[kokxville]

Therefore, I think that it would be more appealing to those causal automotive enthusiast and movie buffs who are going to see the car in person, if the car were in prestine condition and respresented what it portrayed in the show. Not what it actually was - a cheap slapped together stunt car. Its like the Fast and Furious Charger, when I saw the vid of it rolling off the trailer and them popping the hood with the fake blower to reveal the 350 Chevy motor, the magic is lost for me

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"  I guess.


Take two Hemi cars.  One is an auto-tranny survivor with original everything and faded green paint.  The other is a gorgeous over-restored red 4spd car, but it's a clone that is only moderately accurate.

If you're not really into old musclecars, the latter red clone will be what you want to see.  But for the guys that really know Hemi cars, and have already seen dozens of over-restored bright colored clones in their lifetimes .  .  .
   

Now that's well said.

[BY RSCO]

I guess the thing that kills it for me is not only the fact that many of the original parts could have been saved, GL or not, we are talking about original charger sheet metal.. the other thing is that through the entire LEE 1 build video Travis kept repeating himself "the original, all others are just replicas, clones or imitations" etc, etc, when he was simply cloning the original as well. He was just lucky enough to find the original, unfortunately, he just did not have the true "car guy" respect for preserving what he could both in the LEE 1 sense, as well as the original Mopar sense. I agree also that the restoration should have been done much better, the care deserved more than what it got. I realize that the General was not a pristine show car, but.... I am about mid-way through my GL restoration, (well, my bodyman is) - and we have taken great pains to make this car as nice as possible. One of the many things that has given the GL tribute cars a bad rap is the level of care (lack of) that goes into the restorations of many of them, not all, as there are a couple of fine examples of top notch ones here as we all know. I want mine to be as nice as possible. If I ever get tired of the uniform, it comes off with new paint and I will still have a nicely done piece of American Musclecar history. Rant over....

[TUFCAT]

I still don't know the real story.