Grabowski's "77 Sunset Tee" found

[Greg Myers]

https://www.customcarchronicle.com/cc-builders/jim-skonzakes-customizer/jim-street-collection-uncovered/

Not the same car from the show. They restyled it a little.

Ol Normie must be spinning' in his grave.

[Ramfins59]

Man, that is some ugly "restyling".

[Psychographic]

Bosozuko street rod or Barris?

[Snake45]

The Kettenkrad sitting next to it is more interesting.

[Impalow]

Eh.. it was a different time...

I read somewhere online... that all of the "showcar" parts were add-ons, and Jim saved all of the take off parts...   i don't see any permanent/structural damage from the over the top pieces stuck on it...   grab some headlights, intake,headers, non-dual rear tires.. and remove those wonk seats and its back here-ish.

Its amazing that both of these cars have surfaced after so long... and still looking pretty decent and complete...

 

[Jon Haigwood]

Glad to see it survived (sorta) Too bad they had destroy the original look. It's like putting the Hope diamond in a plastic setting, "just ain't right"

[High octane]

That's a shame to see the T like it is, as I've watched 77 Sunset Strip when I was a kid and really liked Kookie's (Norm's) ride. I do have the Danbury Mint die-cast of the Kookie's car in my collection, as that's one sweet lookin' eye catchin' ride.

[Greg Myers]

Saw it this way at a show in Tucson back in the sixties.

The promoter was standing there and i ask him what kind of engine was in it.

He looked it over for a sec. Then looked at the valve cover and proclaimed . It was an Offenhauser.

[crazyjim]

The original is wayyyyyyy better.

[Bill J]

There are not too many hot rods that I really liked over the years but the one I liked the most was the Kookie Kar from 77 Sunset Strip. Norm Grabowski created a masterpiece of hot rodding art. I always thought that his car was in the Peterson Museum or someplace where sacred automotive art was being cared for. To see what was done to that truly classic car is beyond sad. I hope someone can restore that great hot rod to it's former and timeless glory. I hope I can forget what someone did to it after Norm passed away. Really a blatant mistreatment of a real classic rod. 

[Richard Bartrop]

Yeah, that's not pretty, but certainly not unusual.  Here's what the L'il Coffin ended up as

[Impalow]

10 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

Yeah, that's not pretty, but certainly not unusual.  Here's what the L'il Coffin ended up as

Yikes...   no coming back from that.....  i still say the kookie car is easily reversed to its previous glory... although i would have a hard time sanding off a true Watson paint job... but that's just me.

[Richard Bartrop]

2 minutes ago, Impalow said:

Yikes...   no coming back from that.....  i still say the kookie car is easily reversed to its previous glory... although i would have a hard time sanding off a true Watson paint job... but that's just me.

And yet Starbird did manage to reverse it to the version we're most familiar.  As for the Kookie car, the paint's probably the least offensive thing about those mods.

[Mark]

The ugly version made a bunch of money for that guy...he bought a (then) outdated car, probably for cheap, gorped it up with bolt-on stuff, and got paid for displaying it for a few years.  He probably held on to it so that nobody would change it back while he was still around...

[Jon Haigwood]

It is a real shame . Arguably Norms T is  noted to be the  start of the T Bucket era.  When I looked at the picture of the Lil coffin I think I threw up a little in my mouth, yuck

Edited March 15, 2018 by Jon Haigwood

[Howard Cohen]

5 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

Yeah, that's not pretty, but certainly not unusual.  Here's what the L'il Coffin ended up as

Back when this happened, late 60s-early 70s, the L'il Coffin was passe, not wanted on the show circuit. However, Montgomery-Ward wanted a show car, contacted Darryl and this is what they paid for, unique with their name on it. Yes, Darryl did remake the L'il Coffin but from a fresh start. This was rebuilt into something else. 

[oldnslow]

Just goes to show , just because you can , doesn't mean you should . A sad state for an iconic car .

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, Jon Haigwood said:

 When I looked at the picture of the Lil coffin I think I threw up a little in my mouth, yuck

Me too. Of course, I always had pretty much that reaction to the original, too. It just never appealed to me at all. 

[Draggon]

Pretty old news, but the Monkey Ward was turned into something called the Fabulous Phaeton and then it was in a fire. Sad. 

 

[Richard Bartrop]

That version wasn't actually too bad.

[Daddyfink]

Strip it, clean it and replace the non original period type parts. Voila! It's back! 

It would not be the first time a classic has been stripped to nothing and brought back. 

[Richard Bartrop]

From the HAMB.  The Grabowski rod with the Watson paint, and without the later geegaws.  This version doesn't actually look too bad.

[bobthehobbyguy]

I remember reading in Rod and Custom when they found the T. At that time the owner was not interested in selling or restoring. So a clone was built of Norms T.

[Greg Myers]

[89AKurt]

On March 15, 2018 at 8:20 AM, Snake45 said:

The Kettenkrad sitting next to it is more interesting.

I'm with you on that!