| Page 2 |
| The yellow chopped deuce coupe in American Graffiti is probably one of the most famous cars in motion picture history. Graffiti Producer, Gary Kurtz paid $1300 for the �32 and chose it mainly because it already had a chopped top. Transportation-Supervisor, Henry Travers was in charge of "preparing" the cars for Graffiti and oversaw the rebuilding of most of them. |
| Travers put the car on a trailer and towed it to Bob Hamilton's shop in Ignacio to modify the car. George Lucas wanted a highboy with bobbed fenders to emphasize the fender laws that car owners had to contend with back in the day. In addition, the car was outfitted with motercycle front fenders, aluminum headlight stanchions, chrome plating for the dropped I-beam solid axle, and the front grill and shell were sectioned a few inches. The car was then taken to Orlandi's body shop in San Rafael where it was stripped and repainted with several coats of Canary Yellow lacquer. The original interior was red and white so the tuck and roll Naugahyde was dyed black. |
| This car was built to look good on camera, so anything that wasn't visible to the eye was left untouched. |
| After filming was completed, but before Graffiti was released, the coupe was advertised for sale at $1500 and nobody bought it! Can you imagine!? Universal Studios hung on to the car until More American Graffiti was completed. It was then sold to Steve Fitch of Witchita, KA. It had been sitting out behind a barn exposed to the elements when Fitch sold the cherry coupe to it's current owner, Rick Figari. |
| A resident of San Francisco, Figari also owns a bar there. He is a big Graffiti fan who often tours with the car and is completely commited to preserving the coupe as it was on film. The little deuce coupe couldn't be in better hands! |
| Johnny Franklin's Mufflers in Santa Rosa added a Man-A-Fre intake manifold topped with four Rochester 2-G two-barrel carbs. Generic valve covers were added to the 1966, 327 with fuelie heads along with Sprint racecar style exhaust pipes |
| Milner's Coupe |
| A T-10 four speed was added with the drive train ending in a '57 Chevy rear-end mounted to the stock spring. |
| Lead Cameraman, Haskel Wexler (w/blue hat), George Lucas (red jacket), and Transportation Supervisor, Henry Travers (striped pants) @ Mels drive-in preparing for a scene. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
| The coupe parked in front of the old Welles Fargo Bldg In Petaluma, CA May 20th, 2006 |
 |
 |