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Through sheer happenstance, for the last several months I have had a connection with a British (UK) movie producer, director, actor for a "B" movie to shot with action scenes in Las Vegas and "Death Valley."

The initial deal I had with him was to copy (actually clone) in the USA one of the two 1978 Trans Am Firebirds he was using in the UK for sound stage movie shots there.

Later, when the actor David Carradine died (or was killed) who was the co-star in this movie, the USA schedule changed from June to August. Because of this delay, an additional car was added for me to clone, to wit, a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic cloned into a "Blues Brothers" cop car.

What has this got to do with Packards, you are now asking yourself? Well, because of my "now close association" with the UK movie director, I finagled one or more background shots of my 55 Pat and Paul's 56 Exec into the movie and also got the director connected with a local Harley-Davidson motorcycle club for some "biker scenes."

The biker and Packard movie shots occured today. I thought it might be fun to share this with you guys.

There are few digipix in the this post and I will add some more as the discussion hopefully goes along.

In 01_lineup.jpg is (right to left) Paul's 1956 Executive, my friend Maggie's 1987 L6 BMW (many thanks to her for "gofer" duties), my 1955 Patrician, 1989 Caprice clone "Blues Brothers" cop car and 1977 clone Trans Am.

In 02_ArriveAtTheShortBranch is the rear view of (left to right) of Paul's 1956 Exec, Maggie's 1987 L6 and my 1955 Patrician, all in front of the "Short Branch Saloon", a local hangout of bikers of all descriptions in Crystal, NV. Where, BTW, prostitution is legal and only about 1/4 miles to the East from that local.

Reply or otherwise, I will not post more pix!

Craig

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Craig,

After taking over 500 pic's today I shouldn't encourage you to post more, but I can't help myself, so keep 'em comin'!

There were over 40 bikes (almost exclusively H-D hogs) there when Paul, I and the movie crew arrived. As usual, the Packards got the most attention, although the movie clones got some. Everyone was dazzled by Paul's 56 Executive. My Pat got it's fair share of attention, particularly from the ladies (and I use the term loosely, as a couple of them had about as many teeth as boobs).

Between the movie crew and bikers, it was not your usual car show crowd.

More pix to follow.

Craig

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Pix of the general scene.

Most of the Bikers are from "The Gents" Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Club based in both Las Vegas and Nye County (Pahrump) NV. The movie director made a charitable contribution to the club for their participation. Most of the Bikers are either Viet Nam Vets and/or professional people, so they conducted themselves in an exemplary fashion.

They were filmed roaring up and down the more-or-less deserted road between the Short Branch Saloon and the Brothel down the road.

The odd scoop on the Trans Am clone is supposed to be a "blower", but actually just has a squirrel cage fan in it. It is also pretty stupid looking. Hopefully, CGI can make it more realistic.

The Biker Babe in the yellow top flashed the movie camera during one pass.

The 07_BikersLinedUp.jpg shows the tail end of the Bikers by pair ready for a roaring pass. The actual line was 3 times as long. Most of the passes were done with each line crisscrossing the other right in front of the camera. Fortunately there were no crashes or even dents in this maneuver. It was very impressive to watch.

More pix to come.

Craig

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Here are some pix of the cast and crew.

There are eight movie people altogether: 3 actors (one of whom is the director) and 5 crew. Four of the eight are women with one of them being the actress.

The "camera man" is a young woman. She is cute, has a fun personality and is physically buff. The camera is a new technology 3-D one. This will be the first movie in the UK filmed with this tech. There also be a 2-D version of the film released.

Both actors were strapped backwards on the back of a Harley for most of the shots. The guy in the "Blues Brothers" getup is also the director.

I do not have any pix of the Packards during the movie because I was driving. But some of my friends may have some they can send me, so I'll post those when I get them.

Craig

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A few comments on the reliability of the various vehicles is probably in order. This will eventually relate to the Packards, so bear with me. You can skip this post if you are not interested in "road trip" stories.

This post will be about the clone Trans Am (1977 model):

1) The Firebird quit on us just South of Pahrump on the way to deliver it to the movie folks. This was due to a clogged fuel filter in the QJet. We drove the escort vehicle (Maggie's L6 BMW) back to Pahrump to buy another filter. The fuel delivery problem seemingly was solved. I had changed this filter about one year before, but it goes to show that older cars can have crud in the fuel tank and lines, despite being a "daily driver."

2) Again the Firebird quit on us just 100 yards short of the summit at Mountain Springs(elevation 5500ft compared to Pahrump 2900ft) due to vapor lock. Also, the oil was so hot that the lifters were clattering. Ambient temperature was about 110F. The clone cop car (Chevy Caprice) and the L6 were OK. We left the Firebird at the local fire station near the summit and proceeded on to Las Vegas to deliver the clone Cop Car to the movie folks.

3) On the return trip from Vegas to Pahrump, we stopped and checked out the clone Trans Am. It had cooled down by then so it started right up, but still had valve train noise. We pulled the valve covers to make sure that it was indeed lifter clatter and not something broken in the upper valve train. Everything looked OK, so we continued on and drove it back to Pahrump. Within about one minute the lifters pumped up again and the engine was operating quietly. We stopped in Pahrump and had the oil changed to 4qts of 40W Castrol GTX with 2 pints of STP and a new filter. The engine was running quietly now with good oil pressure.

4) The next day was another vehicle delivery trip from Pahrump to Las Vegas (82 miles one way) for just the Firebird. This time it made it over the summit, although it stumbled a couple of times, but it did not quit. It also stumbled a few times on more or less flat road which was not a good sign. Ambient temperature was probably 108F. Delivery to the movie folks was successful in early afternoon. I described to the director the fact that the Firebird still had some kind of vapor lock problem and that I could take it over to my friend Paul's who lives in Las Vegas so we could further check it out, but he declined the offer. That turned out to be a big mistake.

5) That night, the movie folks drove the clone Trans Am and clone Cop Car down to the Las Vegas strip. Just before the intersection of the Strip and Sahara Ave, the Firebird vapor locked again. This was not a convenient thing. About 200 drunken revelers descended upon the Firebird which was being driven by the actress dressed in a "Cat Woman" suit. Several male bystanders tried to get into the Firebird with her. She was rescued by the male members of the movie crew and made it back to their rental van to change into something less conspicuous. A few hours later after cooling off, the Firebird restarted and could be driven back to their rental house. Unfortunately, two of the movie crew vehicles got lost on the way back, one arriving at 0630 and the other at 0830. I got an email about this at 1030.

6) My theory about the continued vapor lock problem was that the sock filter on the pickup in the fuel tank was also clogged. So, despite the Firebird having good mechanical and electric fuel pumps, it would be like trying to drink through a straw which was being pinched off on the drinking end. Of course the condition would be exacerbated by the extremely high ambient temperatures (record high for the day). Upon finding out about this, I drove over to their rental house at Las Vegas. With the help of one of the movie crew, I dropped the tank and removed the pickup. The sock filter was full of crap and ripped. Apparently, the part that was still attached to the pickup was being sucked into the pickup, partly clogging the inlet. A trip to a local auto parts store got the requisite parts and the tank was reinstalled. I used an external filter and again replaced the QJet filter.

No further problems of any kind were experienced with the Firebird.

Before selling this Firebird to the movie, I had used it as more or less a daily driver for 3 years. It had been reliable as a rock. It just goes to show that Murphy is alive and well, particularly on the hottest day of the year.

Before posting about the problems with the Chevy Caprice clone cop car and *whatever* happened with the Packards, I'll stop at this point to give you guys a chance to comment, if you want.

Craig

Interesting stories, but I'm trying to figure out what the heck this movie is supposed to be about.

Quote:

<p>This movie is called "Eldorado" and is supposedly a sequel to <i>Blues Brothers 2000</i> which was a sequel to the original <i>The Blues Brothers</i>. I do not know much more than that.
</p><p>Craig</p>

Continuing the comments on the reliability of the various vehicles involved in the movie shoot, this post will be about the clone Cop Car, a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Apparently the Blues Brothers 2000 sequel featured a 1989 Chevy Caprice as the cop car (the original had a 1973 Dodge Monaco as the cop car). The UK director had two Caprice in England and asked me to find one locally to clone. In two days, I had found one on Craigslist in Las Vegas and had the money electronically transferred to me for purchase.

1) Despite the seller's claims, the Caprice would not go over 35 mph. So, we rented a U-Haul car transport trailer and hauled it to Pahrump. The problem turned out to also be fuel delivery, but not because of vapor lock. Originally a Fuel Injection engine, someone had removed the FI and substituted an E-carb and intake. Since the fuel line pressure on an FI is about 45psi, the inlet line to the carb needed to be regulated down. This was done incorrectly --actually, stupidly-- as a "T" was used with one arm the line from the fuel pump in the tank and the other arm to the return line to the tank. The leg was regulated down to 5psi with a cheap "dead head" type regulator and connected to the carb inlet. Naturally, almost all the fuel was going in a circuit from and back to the tank through the two arms of the "T"! A proper regulator and replumbing solved this problem.

2) As soon as I got the engine running properly, the cooling system overheated -- and it was still in the 90s at that time. I removed the radiator, had it rodded out (about 80% clogged according to the rad shop), reinstalled it with proper coolant and that solved that.

3) The engine was equipped with shorty headers upon which the ignition wires kept landing, burning through and shorting out. Rerouting, replacing, and having proper wire connectors solved that.

4) The only idiot light which worked was the overtemp light. The low oil pressure light send was not even connected. An inexpensive triple gauge set solved that.

All of the above occured before the movie shoot date just to get a sort of reliable driver.

As related above, the Caprice made it from Pahrump to Las Vegas and performed OK for the first night shoot. However...

5) On the trip to Crystal from Las Vegas, the Caprice had to stop twice for blue-gray smoke coming out from underneath. Upon inspection the first time it was apparent that oil was leaking down the back of the engine onto the exhaust pipe. Also, the oil level was low due to the leak, so that caused the second stop in Indian Springs (about 25 mi from Crystal) to purchase extra oil. After several of us looking at it, the consensus is that the gasket at the back of the intake manifold has pushed out and oil is getting out of the lifter valley by that route.

6) Finally, the Caprice is getting really lousy gas mileage, so it was left in Crystal after the shoot because the gas tank was almost empty.

Next...the problems with the two Packards!

Craig

Here were the problems with the Packards.

I had my 55 Pat in storage at a friends place for over a year. I charged up the battery and then checked all the fluids. I drove it about 200 miles (Pahrump. Las Vegas, Crystal, Pahrump) on that day after having not driven it for more than a year.

Paul had trailered his 56 about 10,000 miles all the way to the Hemmings meet on the East Coast and then to the Packard meet in Warren, OH.

Problems with the Packards on this movie shoot were:

NONE! Nada! Zero!

Hahahaha!

And all the bikers loved them. The movie folks loved them.

Craig