Lemay Museum had grand opening in Tacoma, great car collection!

[p51]

The Lemay museum opened in Tacoma today: http://www.lemaymuseum.org/ My wife and I stood in line for about 90 minutes to be among the first to see the collection. The building was massive and the collection really awesome. You name it, they probably had at least one of them if it was a normal production vehicle. I have a soft spot for the Tucker, so I was impressed to see production # 7 there. There were hundreds of cars, but I couldn't get photos of them all. I took a lot of shots, these are the ones I think would be of most interest to people here. My wife wasn't too happy with me when I made pretty vocal comments about the WW2 Jeep they had (I couldn't help it, the thing didn't belong there in that condition, the 'restoration' was downright laughable). It's the one thing I couldn't believe in a bad way...
Outside:

In the main hall:

Various 41-42 cars:

Tucker:

Race car owned by Preston Tucker to promote his new car:

 

[p51]

Some other stuff that I liked:

Check out what showed up, an entire line of old Mercs. There were almost a dozen gull-wings in this line, I couldn't get them all into one shot:

And finally, the worst eyesore of a WW2 Jeep I've ever seen in a museum.

 

[Barbigirl]

I went this past weekend. It is an impressive collection.
My daughter made the acquaintance of the director just before the opening at a costume shop who gave her a business card. I just sent her a note suggesting we start a Living History program at the museum so we'll see what fun comes of that!

 

[rocketeer]

Whats the real problem with the JEEP? The painted stars and the camo seat covers look wrong, other than that to a non 'JEEP' enthusiast like me it looks ok. Has it been over done?
I once went to a military show at an ex USAAF airfield(Bury St Edmunds), we had an airfield tour going around on a hay cart pulled by a tractor around the remains of the perimeter track. We came head on with a Willis JEEP but the owner had just restored it and refused to go around us as it meant going onto some softish mud.
Looked at the Jeep later, had a laugh at the polished brass radiator header and even the shovel was painted like new.
As for the carson your museum visit, some nice examples of every day cars mixed with some classics like the Cadillac(V12-V16?),the Vintage Simplex is a bit WOW and all those Gullwings(definate classics).

 

[p51]

I just sent her a note suggesting we start a Living History program at the museum so we'll see what fan comes of that!

I'd love something like that, but I couldn't hang around that eyesore of a WW2 Jeep in my 40s military duds, I'd have to bring my own 1944 Willys MB...

Whats the real problem with the JEEP?

Oy, where do I start? Markings all wrong (star on the shovel?), wrong color paint, locking hubs, non-military front bumper and tow bar, no windshield or hardware for it, steering column has postwar turn signal controls, wrong fabric for seat cushions, wrong kind of tires, appears the fuel tank well was modified (under the edge from the driver's opening), and that's just from what I could see from this angle.
I noticed a few cars looked odd as well. It appears that the museum had people donate vehicles to them over the years, and I'd bet this Jeep was a hunting rig someone got the best shade of green they could find and went nuts with no regard to historical correctness. I'd bet I saw other vehicles that were equally incorrect but I just didn't know enough about them to see their faults. But really, the military vehicle community is laughing at that Jeep right now.

 

[rocketeer]

I thought the star on the shovel looked out of place. Star of that museum for me would have to be that previously mentioned 1917 Crane Simplex