I have often wondered if instead of using the real thing, the studios use, like fiberglass bodies on chassis’?
Thanks
Quasi
Especially when they crash 'em or blow 'em up.
If I ever had any doubt that I was gay, I can now lay it to rest.
My first thought on reading the title of this thread was “Sunset Boulevard!”
I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille…
cue grotesque smile and wild eyes
jayjay
Quasi: There are people, both companies and individuals, who rent out “show cars”.
Dropzone: Sometimes, cars to be crashed or blown up are supplied by the same companies mentioned above. Sometimes, they’re rigged by the FX department.
jayjay: What the hell are you talking about?
Heh. Don’t know if you can spoil a 52-year-old movie, but…
In Sunset Boulevard, the aging movie star Norma Desmond receives a telephone call from her old studio. Thinking that they’re calling because they want her to come back to acting, she instructs her chauffeur to drive her and William Holden to the back lot in her vintage automobile to graciously bestow her presence upon the Powers That Were.
When they arrive, Norma descends upon the soundstage in all her grandeur and holds court, while her chauffeur waits by the car. The chauffeur finds out that it’s not Ms. Desmond they wish to hire, but her car! This precipitates Norma’s final spiral into madness and the infamous “I’m ready for my closeup…” line.
And why that matters to my gayness is that Sunset Boulevard is part of the camp culture, along with anything Judy Garland and Mommy Dearest.
From what I’ve read, for more readily available cars, say back to the 1950s, is is cheapest to buy up a few clunkers and get them in good enough condition so they can drive them off a cliff in the climatic scene.
However, for rarer cars they sometimes borrow original cars or have replicas made up. The movie Tucker is about Preston Tucker, whose automobile company only made about 50 cars. According to articles I’ve read, because Tuckers are so rare, for some scenes they used cars made available through a Tucker owners group, but they also built three more body shells for the movie, in particular for the shot where a Tucker flips over at a test track.
Hemmings Motor News a publication targeted towards the classic and collector car community once had a letter to the editor where one writer at least, strongly un-recommended allowing the studios to use your classic in movies. There are firms in Hollywood with thousands of cars for use in movies, but for location shoots, sometimes it is necessary to find “local talent” as it were.
This poor fellow was told that they wouldn’t harm his beloved wheels. Unfortunately for him, they trashed his car and it sported a wonderful new color. Yep, they painted it. Oops.
It depends. If it’s a location shoot and the cars are only being used for scenery, then they’ll often ask local car clubs to supply the vehicles. In a case around here, the cars were parked or just driving in the background of the scene, and they were driven by their owners.
Or otherwise get trashed, like this '59 Impala in Mad Max.
I read once (no cite) that Dukes of Hazzard cleaned out the west coast’s supply of '69 Chargers (especially beater '69 Chargers, as if there were any other kind) by destroying three per week with jumping and the sliding. Those paint jobs were so fresh I’m surprised Daisy’s butt wasn’t orange after sitting on the hood. (I checked)
Often or not the majority of blow up/crash up cars are shells of the former car with all the good stuff removed and minimal working parts (car buffs love catching glimpses of pinwheeling classics that lose their hood and suddenly sport a small block that would be laughed at…if at all! I caught sight of a 57 Chevy popping the hood after slamming into a pole to suddenly find its engine had disappeared!)
Stunt cars for things like jumping are specially built to accomidate bigger springs and suspension so that it does not go to pieces after a jump. They tend to look like weighter cousins of the original car hence why there is typically a cut away shot right before and immediatly after the stunt (First so you dont see the major mechanical revisions and the second so you dont see a tire fall off or the engine catch fire)
And yes, there is good reason to not let film crews near your classics. Often or not you will find your car sliced, diced, wrong color, missing parts, a different color, or even worse after they are done. Think of it this way…film crews are the equivalent professional to the college frat…and you just handed the keys to your baby to them for a weekend of filming! Better hope they use the footage cause thats the last time you are gonna see it in that shape again
My cringe factor moment: Seeing them trash 3 '50 merc leadsleds that I would sell my left nut for in the movie Cobra
Watch carefully when you see old cars in movies that are set in present day, and you’ll notice that almost invariably no matter how beat up they make the car look, the glass will be showroom new with nary a pit or smudge to be seen. I find this continuity error in more movies than I can count.
I now return you to what y’all were talking about. 
We sold our beautifully restored 1965 Saab 95 “to the movies.”
It was driven by Charlie Sheen in The Arrival. They trashed it, painted it camouflage, and blew it up. Boo Hoo. It was such a pretty car when we owned it! (But the $$ was good!)
I’ve seen many sides of this.
Pat Proft spoke at Univ of MD (GO TERPS!!!) many years ago and, at a Q&A session, told the audience that they only had about 20 police cars for filming (more were used for the one chase scene). They had full time auto body people banging out and repainting cars all night to film the next day. In fact, sometimes an incomplete car was filmed. You might see the driver’s side of the car intact while the passenger side was beat up or missing!
My father had a '48 Ford converible and belonged to a car club. He was forever getting calls from movie producers about his car. When they found out it was not an original color, they said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Yes, street scenes are filled with “club cars”.
I met a gentleman who owns 3(!!) of the remaining 46 Tuckers. Two of his cars were used in the filming of the movie Tucker. One was the one Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) drove backwards and then drove around the plant before leading police on a high speed chase. He told me that, of the 50 Tuckers in that scene, most were life size photos glued to plywood! Yes, fake cars are used in scenes.
(His car was damaged in trailoring and the production company paid to have it repaired and repainted. He also said, he’d never do it agian.)
As an aside, 51 Tucker 48s were produced; 1 “demo car” (the one with shown at the press conference) and 50 production cars. If you do a search, the Tucker club has a nice website that details each car - who owns it, what happened to it, etc.
If you watch a car being trashed on a cheap show, you will often notice that they don’t even have seats or glass and especially hubcaps are often missing.
Still I’ find it hard to allow someone to trash a nice car - even in the name of art
So, how do you feel about this
Bleh…if your idea of a ‘nice car’ is a YUGO, I believe you need to be beaten with the battery cable from any model Caddy from the 50’s until good taste suffeciently enters the bloodstream
This is completely off the subject, but being a bit of a prankster at my hospital, I entered your nick (Bitties, Tigole) on our ER’s patient board.
One of the nurses saw it and since she didn’t see the patient in the room, asked the other nurses, “Which one of y’all has Tigole Bitties?”
I very rapidly left for my office. Your name made my night! Thanks!
Quasi:D