Summary

One of the greatest movie cars ever found, after 69 years in storage. The original Joad family car used in John Steinbeck's movie, 'Grapes of Wrath.'

Details

Discovered after 69 years of dry storage in California, this, the original 1926 Hudson Super Six chosen to be transformed into the Joad Family vehicle that stared in John Steinbeck's classic depression story, 'Grapes of Wrath,' and is considered to be one of the most famous movie car stars ever to have been found so far. The movie directed by John Ford and staring Henry Fonda tells the story of the Joad Family driving to California in their 14 year old, highly modified Hudson Super Six with all of the family possessions to find a better life. At productions end, the Hudson's original sedan body was reunited with the chassis and placed in storage awaiting restoration. Found in December of 2008, Gary Wales took on the daunting task of restoring this very famous movie car. The termites had reduced the original Biddle & Smart alloy coach body into a shell of its former self, the alloy metal of the body was still in pristine condition as well as the chassis. It was decided to abandon the original movie configuration, truck body added after the original car was cut behind the front door and removed, as it was cost prohibitive and just not practical to return it as used in the movie. It was sympathetically restored to a period racecar using as many of the original components as possible, even to the extent that the complete front end of the car to the doors was retained and all four original door skins were reused in making the new doors including all hinges, locks and hardware. Less than 8000 original miles on this 84 year old automobile.