The restoration of the Tucker will be wrapping up soon (and I can cut back to only working 60 hours a week instead of the 80 I’m doing now) and givne that there’s almost no detailed technical info on Tuckers (and I have copies of 99% what there is) I intend to make damn sure that I record every scrap of information possible. One of the things that I intend to do is get oral histories from everyone who’s worked on restoring the car. Given that I’m not getting a lot of sleep at the moment, I need suggestions on the kinds of questions I should ask the folks when I interview them. One of the folks who’s been helping us with the work is the son of the man who owned the Tucker dealership in Nashville (and who rode in the car when it was new), so we’re practically going to be covering every aspect of the car’s life (no, I will not be able to interview Lucas [which is a good thing, since I’d probably beat the shit out of him for allowing the car to get so bad]).
Who’s your audience? Diehard Tuckerfans? General audiences? Someone who’ve never heard of Tuckers or gets them confused with Edsels?
Is the focus of your interview informative, persuasive, entertainment or a combination of all three? if a combination, what --? Mostly entertaining, for ethusiasts? Mostly technical, for classic car restorers and engineers? Mostly chronological recounting of your challenges and obstacles, as you describe the process of restoring the car?
Do your background, first. No simple-ass questions like, “Where were you born?” More substantive questions like, “Why did you gamble on a Tucker dealership in the era or Chrystler, Ford and GM?” “What happened when you liquidated the dealership?”
Delve into the technical aspects of the car more or less separately from anectdotal material.
Hope that helps.
Yeah, that helps. I’m not really concerned about the audience. I just want to nail down everything I possibly can about the car, etc. If you read the link in my sig, you’ll see a condensed version of nearly everything that’s known about Tuckers. If anyone has much more on it than that (and what’s in the listed sources), they’re not talking about it (the bastards).