What I’ve read on the NAGLFC board

[CNH 320]

I was just on the NAGLFC board, until I've read this. Decided to post it here and on the CGLFC board.

This is what Mr. Cummins had to say.. I must say it shocked me a bit..

Hello All

I was talking with Wayne Wooten recently and he informed me he has recently sold the No 1 close up GL ,he didn't say where or who purchased it .

Later

K.C

http://garys.suddenlaunch.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&num=1138443114

[Mike DC]

Geez. 
I wonder if this is true?

I didn't think Wayne would ever sell it, but then again you never know what money & forces were acting upon the sale.  He's been a very good figure in the Dodge Charger hobby for a long time and he's turned down big money offers on that car in the past. 


If this actually IS true, I just hope to God the new owner doesn't decide he wants the car restored or something . . .

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[Charger_Fan]

Maybe he wants enough money in his wallet to be a contender at next year's B-J auction.

[TruckDriver]

Maybe he wants enough money in his wallet to be a contender at next year's B-J auction.

That GL would probably bring good money there.

[6pkrunner]

Maybe he wants enough money in his wallet to be a contender at next year's B-J auction.

We've all heard of double comma people and a few triple comma people exist, but to be a contender in the BJ auctions, you really ned to be in the quad comma crowd.

[PocketThunder]

Does someone have a picture of this No. 1?

[JimShine]

It is the old 1st unit closeup car, not the first Lee (just incase anyone was confused).

Pics courtesy of Miked. More can be found here http://zeus.lunarpages.com/~jimshi2/miked/

[Mike DC]

Thanks for doing the pics, Jim.

This car was the primary 1st-unit car from the old TV series.  That means it's basically the "Hero car" from the TV series from about season #3 until the series ended with season 7.  They had two first-unit cars, one 1968 and one 1969.  The other car (the '68) is still in the hands of WB and was used in the new movie for the 528 Hemi engine shots.  Wayne Wooten's car is the 1969 one.

These two 1st-unit cars got more total screen time than probably every other GL put together.  They were used up close by Schneider & Wopat to jump into, do hood slides, & go screaming off in.  And they were used for virtually all the inteiror & shiny engine bay shots in that period.  Wayne's car is one of the few cars that actually got retained for years & updated with the changes in the GLs over time.  If you want "THE" General Lee from the Cali episodes of the old TV series, this car is about as close as it gets.

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Remember the episode in season #6 where they flashback to when the Dukes first built the "General Lee" out of a wrecked black Charger?  Okay, now remember when they first got the GL finished, and it rolls it out of Cooter's garage in all its glory & they hit the Dixie horn? 

Well, this is THAT specific General Lee.

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[Ghoste]

That almost sounds like an auction ad right there Mike.   

[hemihead]

i'm not a DOH fan but for that being THE close-up car, that interior sux.

[Mike DC]

Yeah, I've got a bit of a crush on this particular car.

And yeah, the car is rough.  Not stunt-car rough, but somewhat rougher than most people want their GL replica to be.  The car was already close to being replaced at the time the series ended, and it decayed some more in the next several years before Wayne Wooten got it.

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The car was built to look better than average for "Dukes" but it was still basically built with the same prop-car mentality as the other cars.  (Fit & finish don't show as much on camera, don't make the chrome & paint too shiny or it'll reflect the camera lights, and it doesn't matter how long anything lasts as long as it looks good for a few months.)  This was just a "5-footer" prop car instead of a "20-footer" prop car. 

It sat outside for several years after the series ended just like all the rest of them.  Rats had eaten away most of the headliner so Wayne gave up and tore it out.  He's also touched up a few small areas on the body to keep the rust at bay, but nothing major.  (95% of the paint is still legit, including all the GL graphics and the mis-matched orange shade on the doors.)

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But rough or not, the history is there.  It's virtually unaltered from the day the series stopped shooting in 1985.  The tires, the hoses, the battery, the plug wires . . . all of it.  (I mean,just look at the driver-side remote mirror:  It's been taken off  & re-mounted several inches forward so that John Schnieder wouldn't bump is boots on it when he climbed through the window in a hurry.  Even the other surviving real General Lees don't have little tricks like that.)

.

[JimShine]

It is an important car for sure. I would love to go over every nook and cranny of that thing.

[Charger Aficionado]

  I wonder if they moved the Mirror foward only on these Close-up cars? 

  Interesting vehicle...  Weathered a bit yes, but very interesting...

[Charger_Fan]

Interesting for sure. I'm gonna have to watch a few episodes again & check out the mirror thing.

So since it's been sold, do you know what the price tag was?

[Dave22443]

Question:  What is that round thing under the trunk lock?  Is that a quick release button to open the trunk?  (I always assumed they just left the trunk key in the lock)

[Mike DC]

I wonder if they moved the Mirror foward only on these Close-up cars?

  Yes.  They weren't doing this to any of the cars except the closeup cars, and then only partway through the series.  (If you see any other cars with moved mirrors, it's because the door was swapped from a 1st-unit car.)

So since it's been sold, do you know what the price tag was?

Sorry, I don't know a thing about the sale.

Question:  What is that round thing under the trunk lock?  Is that a quick release button to open the trunk?  (I always assumed they just left the trunk key in the lock)

Yep.  It's an electric trunk release that they added for the TV show.  Another thing you don't see on any of the other surviving stunt-car GLs from the series.

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[Ghoste]

Electric trunk release?  After this many years since the show there are still things for me to learn about those car.  I thought they just slapped orange paint and stickers on them all and tried to ruin them in jumps.