TheSamba.com :: View topic - Museum warehouse find in PA (original Herbie movie car)

Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:23 am

splitjunkie wrote: Lots of movie and TV cars get recycled and used in other productions. Many end up being junked just as any other car. It's great when they survive and are rescued.
Ayup. Tho' never junked, the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car appeared in a number of movies before George Barris turned it into The Batmobile for television.

Quote: I personally like your Herbie the best because it is probably one of the least molested ones out there. If you had straightened everything out and replaced all of the destroyed parts and made it look mint, it would just be another beetle, part of which had been an original Herbie movie car.
Indeed, well said.

Sat Mar 02, 2013 1:32 pm

Why am I not surprized that with a little loving the engine fired right up!! 8)
Nice car and great story! I'm sure it will continue to attract more stories!!
The deep wheels you've replaced are my all time faves on bugs!
And--wouldn't those offset shims be hilarious for a practical joke LOL :lol:

Sat Mar 02, 2013 3:19 pm

disneyherbie wrote:

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Irish Coffee Herbie/Drunken Herbie ;) Beep Beep!

Tom

Sat Mar 02, 2013 3:23 pm

disneyherbie wrote: Correct. The damage the car incurred from that final cliff stunt is likely why they cast the car as the "junker" in the sequel. They used another wrecked door for the sequel. Reason I know is because the paint around the pass. side door screws is all burned and bubbled-likely from heating the screws up with a torch to get them out. After the junker scene was filmed, Disney replaced the door with a better door (which lucky for me still had an original "53" decal still on it) and sold the car.

Also of interest, the yellow and green latex paint were used on other VWs in Disney movies of that era. In The Boatniks, there's the same yellow on a couple VWs in the intro scene (also recycled Herbies) and the green appears in Now You See Him, Now You Don't with a very young Kurt Russell.

As for the drivers side door, it's original to the car. I used a solvent called Goof Off to remove the green latex paint, and lo and behold, look what was underneath it! As with the rest of the car, most of the original L87 Herbie paint was found to be intact and polished up nicely. The paint underneath that is the original Horizon Blue from the factory. For continuty's sake, the guys who built the car notched the door so it would accept a later push button door handle.

Yeah, a Super Hurrray for "Goof Off" great stuff, helped me get the
Rust-Oleum paint off of Blauchen's front fenders......

Tom

Sat Mar 02, 2013 3:42 pm

It's truly a miracle in a can, and it never even occured to me that the original white paint from the movie was even salvageable. When I first got the car, the latex paint was beyond faded. And at some point, someone had spray bombed the drivers side rear quarter panel with primer. After wet sanding away as much as I could, I still wasn't pleased with the results. On a whim I tried some Goof Off I had sitting on a shelf. It took the primer and latex off as easily as making a pass with a soaked paper towel. This was the epiphany I needed, and ended up doing the entire car this way. That stuff was so amazing it even left the original "darker" touch up paint the crews likely used on the fly as they were filming. I topped everything off with a nice polish and wax, and its ready for another 50 years now!

Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:02 pm

Wonderful story, car background, and preservation!

Now that you have Herbie's paint and interior "presentable", will you consider mounting the wobble wheel adapters when you trailer the car to a car show, just to drive onto the show field at walking speed and see the crowd's reactions?

Have you ever considered visiting some of the roads/locations used for the filming of the original Love Bug movie, especially now that you have that still image where it is going over the road edge? That's where he gets stuck in the tree, right?

In some of the bonus material in the DVD set there are images of the 'location schedule lists". Carefully reading them, I've been to the following locations used in the El Dorado race:
-Starting line (Paramount Ranch State Park, just north of Malibu CA); the pavement was actually part of the straightaway from the old Paramount Ranch automobile race track in the mid 1950's

The rest I've been to are in the Angeles National Forest north of Burbank and Tujunga, CA:
-Little Tujunga Canyon Rd, north of San Fernando, CA heading southbound (Herbie passes many race cars on downhill twisty curves)
-Angeles Forest Highway (Cty N3) heading north, on the beautiful concrete arch bridge over the Big Tujunga Creek
-Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Rd (turns off the road above); start of race where other racers make room for Herbie (who's blasting down the center of the road) by pulling aside left and right
-Intersection of Big Tujunga Canyon Rd and Angeles Forest Hwy (Cty N3)- is where Thorndyke and Havishaw stop the Apollo, then get out to switch arrows on the highway sign for Virginia City (IIRC) and everyone else ends up going through the mine. This intersection is only a few miles south of the concrete bridge I mentioned above.

With some careful orientation of the road curves and the mountain in the background, you may very well find the exact spot where #10 left the road! Too bad you could not contact Mr. Dean Jones directly so he could hopefully remember all of the spots where the race filming took place. Though I do remember "some" website which does list many of the locations (Chinese Camp, Thorndyke's log over the road, Herbie skipping over the pond, etc).

The highly accomplished stunt driver (and stunt coordinator for the movie) Carey Loftin is briefly seen driving Herbie when he bumps into the log which Thorndyke and Havishaw roll across the road in the El Dorado race.

Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:58 pm

Rome,

Yes! The majority of the filming locales have been discovered. I did do a club run to many of these spots in California a couple years ago, and it was a blast. Paramount Ranch is a really cool spot. So many of the filming spots look identical 50 years later- especially Angeles Crest. I'd love to trailer the car out to California one day, but being on the opposite coast, it would be quite the haul. I've got a picture of the exact spot the car went off the cliff. I'll find and post it below...

I did get confirmation that Carey Loftin drove my car on multiple occasions.

Found the pic of the "fatal" cliff. It's amazing how little the geography has changed. The landscape outline is identical. This is at Little Tujunga.

Sun Mar 03, 2013 7:26 am

Quote: Found the pic of the "fatal" cliff.

That's great to experience the filming locations first hand, especially when you have an "inside" interest! If you drove those roads in the Angeles Forest during the week like I did, there's almost no traffic.

Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:30 pm

I hope to see the car very soon..

Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:16 am

Excellent job, I'm here in central PA and have passed that museum many times on the way to Lake Raystown...at first I was jealous and thinking man, I wish I had the "in" on that Herbie...
BUT you have done great justice to the history of Herbie 10, props to you sir!

Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:36 pm

I watched an hour of the first Herbie movie last night and I was impressed by how good it was.

I enjoyed watching the car and recognizing the engine sounds and other little details. But there was a serious note in Dean Jones' character and the psychological issues he had to sort through. I also greatly enjoyed how straight Buddy Hackett played his own character, dispensing his hippie philosophy in such an earnest but lovable way.

Can't wait to see the rest tonight.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 1:09 pm

Tory, you know I don't post on the Samba threads very often, but I had to chime in. The car looks fantastic. When you first told me about your plan to revitalize the car, I was skeptical. Part of me believed the car was a time capsule that should have been left exactly as it was discovered. But let's face it: in the conditon it was in, the car was really just a beat up old Bug. Very few people would have known or cared what it was or why it was special. If you had taken it to a car show as you found it, most people would barely have given it a second glance.

I gradually warmed up to your idea of reviving the condition of the car more or less as it looked when filming of The Love Bug wrapped in 1968. You didn't restore the car, exactly. You just preserved it. You kept most of what made the car unique while returning it to a condition that made it easier for fans to recognize it for what it was. That takes talent, man!

You deserve major kudos, brother. It's obvious the car ended up in the best possible hands. Congrats!

Wed Mar 06, 2013 2:57 pm

Thanks gang! I'm really humbled by the kind words you've all expressed here. I must admit, I didn't know how most would respond to my "vision" and course of action with this car. After reading the comments throughout this thread, I'm reassured that the right decision was made in simply preserving this car and not over-doing it. It truly is a time capsule, and it's my hope I'll be able to share the car with some of you in person one of these days!

79SuperVert,

I'm glad you are enjoying the movie so far. For me, personally, I think that's part of why the first movie is the best and has held up well over the years. It's really not much of a kids movie at all. It deals with real life issues-not taking people or things for granted, suicide, pride, etc. Not to mention the amazing cars in the heyday of California road racing. All of the best tracks! Paramount, Riverside, Willow Springs, Laguna Seca, etc. A truly enjoyable movie for any gear head regardless. Let me know whatcha think of the ending...

Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:01 pm

And for those members across the pond following this thread, looks like you'll have a rare opportunity to get your pic taken with the original Porsche powered car from The Love Bug (also pictured a few pages back in the black and white pics...) Here's the scoop.

http://www.volksworld.com/blog/happy-birthday-herbie/

Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:16 pm

disneyherbie wrote: Let me know whatcha think of the ending...

Lots of fun. Great stunts. I may be an old fart but I appreciate real stunts more than the CGI ones. They take much more thought, originality and effort to pull off. Plus, you usually only get one chance to do it right.

I was surprised and pleased to see Andy Granatelli (STP commercials) as the race marshall and Gary Owens (Laugh-In) as one of the race announcers. And the demolition derby racing during the opening credits was so exciting I didn't even see the credits.

The Irish Coffee scene was just too funny.

Great fun all around.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:35 pm

79SuperVert wrote: I appreciate real stunts more than the CGI ones. They take much more thought, originality and effort to pull off. Plus, you usually only get one chance to do it right.

Agreed with you there. that one of the reasons why I wasn't too fond of the newest one.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:16 pm

awsome find! glad you're preserving the car instead if a full blown resto.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 11:01 pm

Completely agree with you guys, and my special effects friends would definitely appreciate your opinions on the effects. It's amazing the amount of work that went into the stunts that were done in movies those days. Everything was practical and mechanical, and I agree, so much cooler. CGI is impressive, but overdone a lot of times. I give those old school effects guys a lot of credit!

If any of you get time, definitely check out the behind the scenes features included on The Love Bug bonus DVD disc. It's got some great insight into what it took to make the movie. I'm hopeful the movie will be released on bluray in the coming year.

Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:43 pm

I wonder if there is anyone on here that took part in the "Love Bug Day" at Disney Land back in '69. My kids like watching the film of that day that's on the bonus DVD. I remember seeing pictures of 'Lil Squirt' (the winning enty in the contest) in the Ed Radlauer kids book; wonder if that car survived, or the new car that was won.

Great work on the car! Nice to see it's back out in the sunshine, not lock away in a warehouse for no one to appreciate. Just proves again how tough the bug is.

Fri Mar 08, 2013 10:45 pm

I've wondered the same thing myself. Especially a car like Lil' Squirt. You would think a car THAT unique is still lurking somewhere.